Help! It's Sukkot and I'm In Charge of the Kids!! 5 Tips to Get You Started

Sukkot is one of my favorite times of the year.  Our community does a family camp and it's a great time of fellowship.  Nothing brings a community together like no make-up, sweatshirts everyday and lack of showers.  But when we get together, we are swimming in children.  There are about 50 children that we adults have to keep an eye on throughout the day.  Mostly, they are playing games, boating or hiking.  But it is nice to have a time for all to come together in the afternoon to do a craft  and devotional with the kids. So, if your community has either one day or several days together during Sukkot, these tips will help keep you organized.

1. Color-Code the kids. This will help keep the kids together as color groups and minimize the group sizes(10 kids per group). I like to mix ages, so if there are older kids in the group, they can assist the younger. Use either colored name tag lanyards or colored rubber bracelets. Have them return them in a coordinating colored basket at the end of your time.

2. Rotate to different stations in one day(5+ hr, 5 stations) or 1 hour and 15 min. per day for 5 days. Each station lasting an hour. Give each station a fun Sukkot name. Ex. Snack time= Manna Station.

3.Have a schedule:     Sing Songs
                                   Devotional Talk and memory verse
                                   Craft 
                                   Snack and activity
                                   Game.
If you do each thing for 15 minutes and then rotate to the next station, you will have done about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Add more stations if you'd like!

4. Ideas, Ideas and more Ideas!!  There really is a wealth of knowledge out there to help you plan.  Making a sukkot out of a refrigerator box.  We did this when my kids were little. Make edible sukkah's.  Graham cracker walls and pretzel rooftop..yummy!!  For your devotional, talk about the Israelites traveling through the dessert and having to pack up their temporary dwellings and move. Have the kids pick up their selves, tables, chairs and "travel" .  Be creative and just be organized. The kids will have a ton of fun.

5. Get volunteers.  Don't do this all yourself.  Look for like minded people who want to invest in the children and genuinely want to help them grow in Yeshua. You will need 5 adults, one per station.  Depending on the number of kids, 2 adults per group and some teens are great!

Happy Sukkot!!

Church Nursery Name Tag System

Our church nursery is starting to grow like crazy and I had to come up with a new and easier security/name tag solution.  I really did not find anything out there, so I am posting what I came up with.
This is a blue clear pocketed calendar from www.Orientaltrading.com for about $15.  The clear pockets allows easy access to the name tags and I can see the names clearly!
You will also need clear plastic id badge sleeves, spiral key rings, and badge Id clips.  I got mine at Walmart.  So much cheaper than Office Max or Office Depot!

 Spiral key ring bracelets.  These will be attached to a id badge sleeve and be used as the security number tags(matches the number for their child) that are given to the parents.  They can easily wear on their wrist, and will have to present it to pick up their child.

 

Badge Id clips.  These will clip to the badge id sleeves for the the name tag that will clip easily onto  a child's shirt(no pins).  And make another name tag/id number badge to clip on the diaper bags.

 

I finished it off by printing off the name of our nursery, church and age and slipped it into where the day of the month would be.  There are hook holes at the top, so I used medium size 3M hooks to adhere to the wall. Each pocket is large enough to hold all three badges of id's: Name tag, security bracelet, and diaper badge.  I had to go every other row so it didn't look crowded, but it fit everyone!

 

Hope this is easy for your nursery workers to help keep your children safe and allow the parents to see how organized the security procedures are so they feel their children are well cared for!

Have a blessed day!!!