March 30 10-11:30 Eggstra-ordinary Easter Festival!           

March 31 Easter (no Sunday School)

May 5 Children's Musical (no Sunday School)

May 19 Last day of regular Sunday School

June-July Summer Sunday School

July 15-19 9:00-Noon Vacation Bible School

- Son Canyon River Adventure!

For Spring our preschoolers will work through a unit entitled “New Life”.

This unit begins with Easter week events and other Bible stories.

In our rotation program we are in a unit on prayer. The dates are from February 17 through March 24. Through this unit our students will: 1) write their own prayers in computer, 2) make pretzels (little arms) in kitchen, 3) read a story about prayer and play several games relating to prayer in games, 4) make a prayer shawl/rug in art, 5) watch a movie about forgiveness in the theatre, and explore prayer through music. EVERYONE will learn a lot!

Join us for a morning of fun activities on Saturday, March 30, from 10:00-11:30 A.M. Lots of great crafts snacks and an egg hunt await you! Children, aged 2 through 4^th grade are invited to the festivities. Please sign up on the poster in the Narthex so we can be sure to have enough goodies. A free will offering will be taken to help cover costs.

Pack up your camping gear and come on along to Son Canyon! Our adventure begins Monday morning, July 15, from 9:00-Noon. Through the week we will "visit" many sites, hear different Bible stories, make interesting crafts, learn fun songs, share great snacks, and learn survival skills for life! Who knows who may visit us during the week?!

Any kids aged three (by July 1) through those who will have completed 4^th grade this spring are welcome to join us in this river adventure--bring your friends!

Registration forms will be available at church beginning on March 3 with the deadline being July 1. The cost remains at $20 for one child, $40 for two children or $50 for three or more children in one family. Scholarships are always available.

Lots of help is needed from now until July 15 to make this a week to remember. Please call Deb Soderholm, 828-9515, or sign up on the sheets on the Children's Ministries table. We also need tents and camping gear for props. Anyone have any to spare for the week of the 15^th?

SOoooooo....wear your comfortable "camping" clothes, bring your backpack and sleeping bag and join us for a week of amazing fun at Son Canyon!

                          Sunday School Surveys                     

In November we sent out a survey to all families of children (3 years-6^th grade) to "see" how we are doing. We received seven back. I wanted to take time to share with you the information that was shared on these surveys. I am sure it reflects a wider group of families than those who responded.

Six of the seven agreed strongly with the rotation program (grades 1-6) as being much better than traditional Sunday School, with one being mixed. More important to me, and what I want to address, are the comments included on the survey.

like teaching without full year commitment

like variety of teachers, activities, location

more interactive lessons

kids look forward to each new rotation (unit)

look forward to changing stations each week

like doing different things each week

hands-on approach--creativity of lessons

This can be a drawback to rotation, but the GOOD side is that our children "really know" the story

This is a concern--we are looking into an opportunity in the spring to have all teachers appreciated

Starting with prayer unit, teachers will be asked to hold students (through 4^th grade?). Parents are asked to "get" children immediately after church.

The premise of rotation is to address different learning intelligences. Each station is representative of a learning intelligence. There will be those liked and disliked by an individual child, but all children should feel really comfortable/good in at least one of the stations and OK in others.

I don't know of a way around this. It takes asking in church and a lot of calling. People do say yes, including new people, and that's wonderful!

I checked the units we have done over the last three years and we are about 50/50 in Old and New Testament stories. We have done two back-to-back from the Old Testament over 11-12 weeks, so it may seem a long time.

This is a concern, especially for some children. We have talked about having "shepherds" to stay with a class each week (or every other week) to form the bond and act as a helper to the teacher. I don't know if we have enough people who are willing to make this time commitment, in addition to those who are already teaching.

Though the rotation schedule is different at 10:30, students get the same stations at 9:00 and 10:30. If the rotation unit is 5 weeks, each class will miss one of the stations. If it is 6 weeks, the classes will each get all the stations.

We have discussed this issue at length on Children's Ministries. Our concern with having a plate in the classroom is that children won't remember to bring offering to class and also won't get a connection to why/where the offering is going. We are looking into a project for next year where folders are sent home with children where each month a new project is promoted and the children are to DO something to earn the money to reinforce the idea of stewardship. This idea was done a few years ago and really liked by many families.

We are ALWAYS open to your input--we want our children's program to be the BEST it can be for our children.

PLEASE feel free to offer suggestions--either in writing or talking to a committee member or me.