100 Best Ideas to Turbocharged your Preschool Ministry (16 page)

To move families from the general to the specific, place signs for your preschool ministry at every decision point.
For example, you need general signage at every entry into your building that points families to your preschool ministry.
Once families find your preschool area, their next decision is to find their child’s room.
So you need specific signage pointing families to each of your age-graded rooms.

Signs need to be highly visible.
The second principle I learned is that if you can’t see the sign, it’s useless.
For your signs to be seen, there shouldn’t be any barrier between the placement of your signs and the user’s line of
sight.
This means that in your lobby or preschool hallway your signs need to be above the crowd.

Readability is another important factor in ensuring your signs can be seen.
Use easy-to read fonts for your signs.
Make sure letters are big enough to be seen at a distance.
A common rule of thumb is to use a ratio of 25 feet per inch of text.
This means that a 1-inch font can be read 25 feet away; a 2-inch font can be read 50 feet away, and so on.
Additional considerations include eye-catching colors, the use of contrasts, and simple images to help families see your signs.

Good signage in our preschool ministries will create a positive, user-friendly experience for your visitors.
It’ll lower their anxiety, help them feel self-sufficient, and increase their ability to move throughout your facilities.
So as you design your signs, remember that signs move people and need high visibility.

—Eric

The average room in a preschool ministry will have six to eight children— and more than 200 supply items.
Keeping these items organized, labeled, and easily accessible is a challenge that can’t be taken lightly.
No matter how excellent your curriculum or adult leaders may be, a disorganized environment creates failure and frustration.
Keeping teaching materials, craft supplies, and general supplies well-organized allows leaders to spend their time with the kids instead of searching for needed items.

Use large cabinets.
Have two large cabinets anchored to the wall in each preschool ministry room to contain supplies: one for leaders’ supplies and the other for craft and general supplies.
This keeps supplies off the floor and out of sight until they’re needed—especially important if you’re sharing the space with other ministries.
Then follow these steps to keep the cabinets organized and resupplied.

• Label the shelves to identify what belongs on each one. Clearly mark items in boxes or bins so volunteers don’t have to open them to know what’s inside.
  
• Take photos of the shelves when everything is perfectly organized, and post these photos inside the cabinets. This will eliminate uncertainty about how cabinets should look at the beginning and end of each preschool ministry session.
  
• Post a “reminder” checklist of frequently restocked items, and provide small notepads so volunteers can jot down which supplies are running low and turn in written requests. As a backup to this resupply strategy, find someone who loves to organize, and invite this person to serve one day every other month to give the room a big-picture look for items that need to be replaced. Enlist this person or another willing volunteer to actually make needed purchases.
  

Explain the organization system.
When you have volunteer meetings or orientations, include an explanation of the organization system you’ve created for preschool ministry and the reasoning behind it.
Afterward take the time to stop by the rooms and ask if volunteers have any questions or needs.

Show understanding.
Never criticize anyone for not keeping everything exactly the way you’ve pictured or requested.
If you’ve done everything possible to organize and simplify things for people, you won’t be faced with this situation often, but there’ll still be occasions when a room isn’t left to your desired standards.
Many times people will need to pick up their children, meet their families for worship, or need to leave quickly for some other reason.

Keep it clean.
Enlist a group of volunteers to give the preschool ministry room a deep cleaning every few months.
Even if your church has a cleaning crew, many areas need extra attention.

—Barbara

Anyone who’s ever worked with preschoolers knows they can be a busy bunch.
Preschoolers really enjoy playing in groups with their friends, and they’re constantly moving from one activity to another.

During these years, preschoolers’ free play is becoming much more structured as well.
They can go from group interaction to individual play and back to group interaction at a moment’s notice.
Learning centers in our preschool ministry rooms can transform potentially chaotic situations into organized, fun, and highly intentional learning environments.

At our church we set up three primary learning centers each week to reinforce what kids are learning and foster an environment for intentional learning.
We use these centers during unstructured times such as parent drop-off and pick-up.
We also encourage children to participate in learning centers as they finish planned activities so everyone can work at his or her own pace.
Each of these centers is designed to expand learning in our preschool ministry.

1.
Manipulatives Center
—This center gives preschoolers opportunities to learn to think for themselves, make decisions, and recognize the rights of others.
It includes various building materials, blocks, puzzles, and lacing cards.

Our manipulatives center is built around the two S’s: simplicity and spaciousness.
First of all, we keep it simple, but we provide enough variety so it’s not boring.
Second, we keep it spacious.
This center requires enough open floor space so kids can work alone or in groups.

2.
Home Living Center
—This area is designed for community.
The home living center enhances our kids’ relationships with peers by allowing them to interact and role-play with each other.
The center includes kitchen appliances, play food, dishes, pots, and pans.
Our preschoolers practice cooking and thanking God for the food he has given us.
They can pretend to be various members of a family or practice friendship roles.

3.
Creative Arts Center
—We resource this area either for dramatic play or art projects, depending on each week’s learning focus.
Dress-up clothes encourage children to dress like people in the Bible and act out the events.
Art projects can vary from finger-painting to making objects with modeling clay.

Centers are a great way to reinforce Bible learning.
They encourage active participation because every child is involved in the learning process.
They can be developed around all learning styles.
They also provide preschoolers the freedom to choose what they want to do within the framework of an organized preschool ministry.

Once you implement learning centers, you’ll soon discover that they’re central to creating a fun, organized, and highly intentional environment for preschoolers to discover God’s truth.

—Eric

Did you know the rule of thumb for building a preschool facility recommends a preschool room be 320 square feet minimum, have 35 square feet per child, and include a sink and restroom in each room?
For most of us in preschool ministry, this would be our dream come true.
The majority of preschool facilities in churches fall far below these recommendations, though, so we’re constantly looking for new and creative ways to maximize the space we have.

When planning your space, take into account the social, emotional, and intellectual characteristics of 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds, and design your space around their requirements.
Here’s what preschoolers need in their space.

Attractive rooms
—Preschoolers respond to inviting environments.
Paint the walls with light colors to make the room appear larger; then add pictures or murals to provide extra interest and brighter colors.

Orderly rooms
—Use cabinets and shelves, and add hooks for hanging coats and backpacks.
Keep shelves and cabinets well-organized and clean.

Multiple areas
—Every preschool room should include two different group settings: tables and chairs in one area for crafts and other table activities, and one area with a large rug or individual carpet squares for Bible time.

Consider these additional concepts to make sure you’re maximizing space in the most efficient way.

• Make rooms easily identifiable. For example, you can designate preschool rooms by flying flags near the doorways. If you need to change rooms for any reason, you can easily move flags. Whatever identification system you use, create something recognizable for children and adults. Preschoolers can’t read, so signs need pictures and words.
  
• Place rooms in consecutive order by age. Random layouts can be frustrating for parents and children—don’t make people wander the hallways. After you’ve planned your space in the least confusing manner possible, get feedback from adults who don’t have preschoolers by challenging them to find specific rooms.
  
• Design versatile rooms. You’ll restrict the use of rooms if you design them in a permanent way around particular curricula or ages. You’ll encounter times when some age groups are larger than others, so keep rooms flexible, and invest in age-specific items that are easy to move.
  

—Barbara

I’m writing this on a flight from Atlanta to West Palm Beach.
Two rows in front of me, an 18-month-old screams for his mommy.
The young lady on my left is tossing and turning as she tries to take a nap.
My colleague and I are both trying to work on our laptops.
We keep bumping elbows as we type.
To see the computer screen, I have to sit straight up and strain my neck to see what I’m typing.
My knees are embedded in the seatback in front of me.
Oh great, the gentleman directly in front of me just decided it was a good idea to recline his seat into my lap.
I have a feeling that working isn’t going to work.
I’m cramped, I’m uncomfortable, and nothing seems to fit right.
The seat is too small, the legroom is too narrow, and it just doesn’t fit me.
Like the 18-month-old two rows up, I want to scream.