Need some ideas for preschool age!

[Freedom&Light]

Hi everyone!

I teach 2 preschoolers every Sunday- age 2 and 3. The curriculum isn't great, and we have an hour and a half to fill! I need some ideas of games and activities to do with these kids! There aren't many toys/ games, as we are a small church with a tiny budget.

Any help would be appreciated! Next week we are doing the crossing of the red sea.

Thanks!

 

[KayD]

Hi everyone!

I teach 2 preschoolers every Sunday- age 2 and 3. The curriculum isn't great, and we have an hour and a half to fill! I need some ideas of games and activities to do with these kids! There aren't many toys/ games, as we are a small church with a tiny budget.

Any help would be appreciated! Next week we are doing the crossing of the red sea.

Thanks!

Hi,

It's challenging working with this age isn't it? Way too much energy and they just bounce off the walls. I've actually had to incorporate a lot of ideas for my group, as they run the gammut from toddlers to 14/15(only because the 14/15 are currently in denial and refuse to advance to their appropriate group for the time being) - very difficult stage.

One of the things I've found that toddlers like are hands-on experiences. They are at that age where they want to touch, see, feel, smell - basically to be energized with their senses. I do nature walks with them and show them God's awesome power thru creation. I've also personally purchased books and supplies (when your church is on a budget, sometimes it's difficult to wait around to get the funds in order to get things done). They like coloring and connect the dots games. Surprisingly (and this came as a HUGE shock to me), engaging them in conversation goes a long way in the learning process. One year we enacted the Moses and the serpent Bible excerpt, and I got all the kids involved and playing parts. I drew a serpent on paper and 'Moses' had to hold it up. It kept the kids awake and going for quite a while, and I think that acting out the story actually made the point a bit clearer for them. Since there are two students in your group, this may be a little difficult, but not at all impossible.

If you need more ideas, feel free to pm me!

Blessings!

 

[scrumpyjack]

whats worse than 50 pre-schoolers for 90mins - 2 pre-schoolers for 90 mins. Was trying to rack my brain for activities that could be done with only 2 kids and I didn't come up with much! Arts and crafty things take time so making stuff is obvious for Kids that age, also it would be cool if you got someone who could play guitar - my daughter is 2 and She'll amaze us by singing all these songs She's learnt at Children's church even at the age of 2! Anyway my condolences

 

[tiradas]

How old are the pre-schoolers? Do you need themed ideas? What are lessons and themes that you have coming up? Are you with them by yourself? What type of setting? Sunday School? Children's Church? Nursery?

This age group is my biggest challenge...I call them my problem group...not because the actual kids are, but I have more difficulty writing the curriculum for this group than the others.

When you have them for as long as you do, VARIETY is a key word. They will definitely need many different activities.

Music
I know our preschoolers like the music videos where the kids sing and do motions and such. You could always start with one of them...pick a few songs...do the same ones for many weeks in a row. Also, you can come up with little songs or poems with motions.

Prayer
I would always make sure that prayer is included a couple times at least during the time. Our preschoolers like to pray aloud and will volunteer in our opening.

Story
Preschoolers like stories. You can find good story books with nice pictures written on their level retelling a bible story. Felt boards are nice...they like those, and you can tell the stories with them. Have a charater from the bible story visit and tell the story. or example...story of Ruth. Ruth can visit the classroom and tell the story with props. No men for Moses?? Miriam can tell...or just a lady who was in the Exodus.

Movies
I don't advocate for children to be sat in front of a tv and left. However, their are wonderful videos that tell the story in a wonderful way. We use videos and also discuss afterwards...or even stop during the movie. No movie we use is more than 30 minutes. You could also serve popcorn and a drink to make it a "movie" experience.

Coloring
Always have crayons and paper or coloring pictures specifically for their age.

Art
Our kids like to create art projects. They usually need help with cutting, but they like gluing and creating!! Love stickers!!

Games
The kids love games, too. I guess if I knew more specifically what lessons you will be having, I could provide more specific games. This Sunday the preschoolers bowled. Bought a plastic children's bowling set at KMart (7.99 but this Friday it is 4.99). They needed to answer a question to do with Daniel and the Lion's Den before they could bowl. They loved it! Also, you could play Duck, duck, goose...only change it to ....Lion, lion, Daniel...or Aaron, Aaron, Moses...and so on. During the summer...we had a giant Goliath...water balloons...the kids answered questions and then they could be David and throw a balloon at Goliath. They loved that, too...of course...that is outside.

Play time
For this age and the amount of time you have, I think just having a play time would be important. They are going to want to be up and moving...and having play time will also help in their creativity and social skills.

I could add more, but this should help you a little. Feel free to PM me or post here any lessons you have coming up, and I could send you some more specific ideas.

Blessings to you for your work!

 

[Nessie]

I would say don't get locked into the lesson you prepared. Do it, teach it, use it well. But if the kids want to keep talking about it (on a whole other level than you originally planned) go with it.

We were learning about Hannah a few weeks ago, and I had this whole lesson planned out, so I did what I could, but when we got to the part about Samuel being born, the kids (a 3 and 6 yr old) wanted to read the entire story of Samuel as an adult and learn about him. IT's great to be organized, but if something sparks their interest, go with it. They'll remember that a lot longer.

 

[icbeckyc]

We are a small church and really don't use a cirriculm. Too expensive. I have taught that age and really it is hard to do a lesson with just 2-3 kids and make it last the whole hour. So don't stress about filling the whole hour. I used my kids bible story books for the basis and then made somekind of craft. I don't know if you have heard of Veggietales but they have lots of fun songs that can be used with some stories. You can ususally pick up a cd/tape on clearance with kid songs at a Christian Bookstore. Also felt board stuff is great. Another thing is if you let them color pictures of people and tell them they are characters from the story. Then glue them to a popsicle stick and volia puppets. When ever you say the name of a person they can hold up their puppet. Makes them pay attention to the story. Then at the end let them play and everynow and then ask a question about the story. See if anyone can answer and give them a little sticker if they can. They will do ANYTHING for a sticker. lol

 

[Utah Knight]

the thing that woked best for me when i was working with children (pre-schoolers) and they learn alot by the movie series veggi-tales some other activities i do are
singing
music
i also allowed everyone to have a chance to imput their piece in prayer
also coloring is a good idea
also a few games such as duck duck goose but rather than the normal duck ...duck....duck..them goose i use books of the bible different each week

example
duck= would be mark
and
goose would be luke it has helped them learn the books of the bible alot

also scrapbooking the lessons the learn and once a month ask them all to bring there books and have a show and tell session with there scrap books and the lessons they may have learned

also kids love puppets

 

[Christianbelle]

I have to agree. This age group can be very challenging! I know exactly how you feel. For years I taught the 4 and 5 year olds, but then moved to the 2 and 3 year olds. There were three in my class, but a lot of times two of them (brothers) were not there. With one child it's easy to do the lesson and then you're left with a lot of time on your hands! With the small group, it's easier to do this, but I taught them sign language. I don't know how you set up your classroom, but I did mine in shifts. We'd start off with singing and music and through the course of the morning we'd have story time, our lesson, crafts and them come back to music. It was then I started teaching them to sign "Jesus Loves Me." It was something different.

I also used a lot of Veggie Tales CDs and Kid Sing Praise series. I tried to match up songs that went along with the lesson that morning.

 

[MsMalerie]

I'm going through a simular problem at my church and I had some words to say to you but all these other responses pretty much summed it up and taught me a few things as well. Games are so difficult to create depending on the subject like it can be easy to pull out some building blocks for the tower of babel but how do you teach things like the plauges? or like you said Crossing the red sea?

I get frantic sometimes because of all of this. so few students so much time.

You can do things like have a prize box to reward them in doing something or remembering something, but I don't know with their ages.. We have a Goliath box and a David box. The Goliath has all the big prizes and the David all the little ones, but having something to give them when they have done well is a great thing to have...

The most I can suggest is keep the class moving every so often, you must know by now that toddlers can't keep attention for very long.. bring in musical intruments.. even homade ones for them to bash around and make their own worship song.. I don't know..
See? I'm getting frantic again. haha