100 Best Ideas to Turbocharged your Preschool Ministry (14 page)

Creating a playful, fun environment for preschoolers is a must for any preschool ministry.
Think about this.
An environment speaks to us.
It projects a certain attitude or feeling.
What’s your preschool environment saying?

Does it say:
Fun! Excitement! We love preschoolers! Are you ready to play?
Or does it speak boring, drab words of apathy?
No matter what size budget you’re working with, you can create a preschool ministry environment that projects an attitude of fun and excitement.

Here are a few helpful tips for setting up rooms that attract every preschooler.

• Set up play areas in different parts of the room. Preschoolers feel like big kids when they get to make their own choices, and play areas allow preschoolers to choose the activities they’d like to participate in. Some examples might include a puzzle table, kitchen area, block area, and an art table with paper and crayons.
  
• Set up play areas that correspond with the Bible content for that day. If kids are learning about Joshua and the battle of Jericho, you might want to have them act it out in the block area. Or maybe they’re learning about Creation and how light came into existence when God spoke. Place flashlights in one of the activity centers, and use them to create a memorable experience for kids. Remember that preschoolers learn using all five senses. Don’t be afraid to try new things.
  
• Set up rooms before preschoolers arrive. You might be thinking...
  In a perfect world! My volunteers constantly run late; we’d never be able to pull this off.
  But we’ve found a simple solution to this problem. We’ve recruited volunteers specifically to set up the rooms for us on Sunday mornings. This ensures that all the rooms are ready for play by the time the first preschooler arrives. It’s been one of our greatest ideas.
  

Don’t be caught with a preschool environment that’s saying all the wrong things.
We want our preschoolers coming back for more.
Look with fresh eyes this Sunday, and make the necessary changes to put your preschool ministry on top.
The payoff is worth it.

—Gina

Ever seen the reality show called
18 Kids and Counting
?
It follows the Duggars, a family with 18 children at the time I’m writing this.
When I served at a church in northwest Arkansas, the Duggars lived right next door in a small house.
When I say small...it was small for a family that big.
They’d occasionally visit our church and fill up a whole pew.

That many children in a small space may make for a good reality TV show, but it doesn’t make for a good preschool ministry environment.
When it comes to space and adult-to-child ratios, it’s important to follow set guidelines.
I’ve been blessed to be part of dynamic, growing churches over the years.
When you’re growing so fast you can barely keep your head above water, it’s easy to let ratios slip...but it’s not wise.
“Pack ’em in with a grin” shouldn’t be your motto.
Following ratio guidelines will allow you to sustain the growth.

For leader-to-child ratios, here’s what we follow at our church.

3-year-olds: 1 to 8

4-year-olds: 1 to 8

5-year-olds through kindergarten: 1 to 10

Here’s what happens when you honor your ratios.

• Effective learning takes place. You can move from “crowd control” to interactive, hands-on learning.
  
• Safety is increased. You meet fire code regulations. Leaders can supervise children more closely, which leads to fewer accidents. You can more efficiently follow fire evacuation plans.
  
• Leader retention goes up. Nothing will burn out leaders faster than putting them in rooms where the ratio is out of proportion. They’ll leave frustrated, and even the best leaders will wonder if they can do it again next week. When you honor your ratios, you’re honoring your leaders. You’re making their ministry doable and rewarding.
  
• Parent confidence increases. It puts parents at ease when they see a proper ratio because they know their preschoolers get stressed when they’re put in crowded situations without enough toys, attention, and space for play.
  

So what do you do when you start exceeding your ratios and classroom sizes?
First, you rejoice that God is entrusting you with new families.
Second, you have to make a decision.
You can close rooms once they reach capacity and invite families to take their preschoolers to a parent room, or you can start new classrooms.
I’d not recommend closing rooms for very long.
Proactively work with your senior leadership to come up with answers and make room for growth.
It might mean starting a new service, asking families to switch to a less-attended service, or building more space.

Recently our preschool ministry grew quickly in just a matter of months.
Classrooms exceeded ratios, and I knew something had to be done, so we came up with a plan to open three new preschool rooms.
We enlisted the new team members we needed, and in a matter of weeks we were ready to open the new rooms.
This gave us the space we needed to continue ministering to preschoolers with proper ratios.

The tyranny of the urgent sometimes causes us to push aside ratios and space issues.
Many times we’re just trying to survive by having classrooms open and staffed week by week.
We realize rooms are overcrowded but don’t deal with it.
God doesn’t want us to just survive, though; God wants us to thrive.
He wants preschoolers to be in environments where they receive effective ministry.
Let’s work hard to honor our ratios and create environments where preschoolers can discover all God has for them.

—Dale

Your preschoolers are safe and secure in their rooms when suddenly the fire alarm goes off.
What happens in the next few minutes will either be a catastrophe or a success.
If you’re prepared, it may still be a scary event, but people will know their jobs, follow the steps outlined, and more than likely, save lives.
If you don’t have an evacuation plan in place, begin this process at once.

Evacuating preschool children is a task that requires organization, information, training of staff and teachers, parent awareness, and special supplies.
First of all, you need to give a written plan to your staff, teachers, and parents.

Your plan should provide specific details on the following:

Emergency Alert
—How will everyone become aware of an emergency?
After an alarm sounds, never silence or reset the fire alarm system until the fire department gives permission.

Evacuation Routes
—Post primary and secondary evacuation routes on a wall in every room.
Contact your local fire department if you need help planning these routes.

Evacuation Method
—How will you evacuate the children?
The best method is to line up preschoolers and have them hold on to a rope.
Place one adult at the front and one adult at the back of each rope to ensure safety.
Nonwalkers need evacuation beds.
Always locate preschool rooms on the ground floor.

Post-Evacuation Plan
—Designate an assembly area that’s at least 100 feet from the building.
Every teacher needs to bring an attendance sheet and make sure all the children from the room have arrived at the assembly area.

Once your plan is documented, equip each room with the needed supplies.

It’s important to have a backpack containing emergency supplies so the teacher’s hands will be free.
Label the backpack “Emergency Supplies,” and
hang it directly below a prominently placed emergency procedures sign.
Inside the backpack have a tarp, water bottle, flashlight, rope, latex gloves, bandages, paper towels, and wipes.

Each room needs a large printed list of steps for adults to take in an emergency.
Remember to keep it simple.
In an emergency, calm, clear steps can prevent panic.
Your sign can be as simple as this:

EMERGENCY PROCEDURES

1.
GATHER CHILDREN

2.
BRING ATTENDANCE SHEET

3.
BRING MAP DESIGNATING EMERGENCY ROUTES

4.
BRING BACKPACK

Now you’re ready to conduct practice drills.
Begin with leaders and then practice with everyone, including the preschoolers.
If you have questions or concerns, contact your local fire marshal for advice.
For codes on exit requirements, you can search online for the Life Safety Code published by the National Fire Protection Association, or contact your state’s Department of Human Services for plans on the evacuation of day care centers.

—Barbara

When it comes to designing our preschool environments, we typically focus on making our spaces kid-friendly.
We spend most of our efforts on how to decorate and theme our rooms so they’ll appeal to kids.
We’re diligent about choosing colors kids like and age-appropriate toys.
Yet we often overlook one of the most important audiences for our preschool environment—parents.

Of course, parents want our preschool ministry to appeal to their kids with an attractive, fun space.
They want décor and themes specifically designed for their children.
But for parents to really appreciate all the hard work we put into designing our space, it’s got to appeal to kids while targeting parents.
Here’s how to do just that.

Sweat the small stuff.
After designing and building three different preschool ministry environments at our church, I know the temptation is to finish the décor and theme and think you’re done.
The truth is that’s only the beginning.
You need to give thought to the following...