Hello Children's Ministry Folk,

The last two weeks were pretty uneventful. Things ran smoothly; even the transfer of choir members from class to practice. We were also thankful all teachers were able to make it in spite of the weather.

Children are still forgetting to take their nametags in the foyer so several children whom I thought were absent were actually in the class when I took attendance. I completely forgot to have one of my children posted in the foyer to remind their peers however, so I'm partially at fault.

The kindergarten class was short a couple of coloring sheets. I know Ed and I had suggested not so many be printed, for all the grades, because it seemed they were not being used. Now, kindergarten is requesting a few more.

Ed and I went through the Visitor Information cards and discarded any that were from 2007 with the exception

of 3...Bauer Evans' family, Jim Donohue's family and Trevor Haynes family. We figured, Lord willing, they would visit again in the future and hopefully we coordinators will remember they already have a number and not give them another.

After children's ministry was over, it was brought to our attention that there were no Encouragment Cards in the Late Preschool folder. Maybe Steve and Krin can replenish that need. Also, for Steve and Krin, Sarah Walker donated a few chunky books for the nursery and I believe I forgot to put them in the nursery bins. They are in a grocery bag in our blue coordinator bin.

I also started numbering new Visitor Information cards at 400 on, hopefully this was a safe place to start.

I think that is it. Hope you are all having a victorious week. With God on our side who can be against us!

-Connie

Sunday December 6th

Busy...but fine. Just a couple of notes for Jocelyn:

• Could we please put the Jones boys on the permanent roster? They are the children of Heather Smith. (Family ID #856) (Richard and Alexander)
• Brendan Loux - 5th grade (Dayspring) Family ID #182, needs tags made
• Liana and Nolan Ploucher (Dayspring) Family ID #817 need tags and also the Mom (Arlene Ploucher) didn't get permanent ID cards.
• Ashleigh Stehr, David Seasholtz, and Tyler Dailey have all moved from Late Pre to Kindergarten. Please adjust this on attendance sheets and tags.

Thanks so much! -- Steve & Krin

Tags

Hello Coordinators!

It seems that there are several times when kids come in and completely bypass the nametags. One thought we had here is to have your kids stand by the table in the foyer and remind their friends to take their nametag. That way it is a reminder to them as well as a great way for the kids to greet and interact.

If you have any other ideas/suggestions regarding this, just let us know!

Thanks!

Visitor Cards

Hello Coordinators!

Regarding the yellow visitor cards, when a permanent ID card is made for the family, the yellow cards can be discarded. This is more just as a reminder because this Sunday we will be sending over permanent cards for all the Dayspring families, so they will no longer need the visitor cards.

Thanks so much!

Coordinators update from Nov. 22

Another busy Sunday :)

Regarding DaySpring attendance sheet. Please add Brendon Loux 5th grade (part of Loux family, somehow his name got missed)
Add Ploucher Family ID #817, all info is on the visitor card.
Add Bruce and Dana Williamson's family ID #909

Come December, will the Day Spring children's stickers be integrated onto the grade level sheets out in the foyer? Just wondering so we can be telling the families where they should be looking for their stickers.

Every week we seem to be getting more and more families coming in late and not coming to get their stickers till everyone is coming down the hall for CM time. It just makes for extra work and especially these past two Sunday's it has been crazy at the table with people still registering children for the first time and add to that Grace member's who are waiting to pick up stickers at that time. The key, get to church on time, remember to get your stickers :)

Regarding the Nursery: they need more Clorox wipes. They are down to one. I was told this past Sunday that Jen Benner will be stepping down after next month as well as Sara Walker. Maybe you know this but wanted to pass it along. Also, there were numerous crying babies all morning. I believe it would be good to clarify with parents what the guidelines are for using the nursery. We heard some comments that parents didn't really want to be "bothered" to come get their child when they were crying and also putting a child back in after the parent was called only to have them start screaming again. Sunday was a rough one in the nursery. Parents need to be more considerate of the nursery workers. Not sure if there are guidelines for when to call a parent but we felt that anytime a parent was called was truly justified.

Please commend ALL the teachers, especially of the younger grades for being diligent in checking parent ID to match with the child. We observed this over and over. There are many unfamiliar faces and they are doing great at making sure the parent and child match!

Have a great Thanksgiving!
Galen and Teresa

Response

Thanks for a very informative look at yesterday. Thank you (and the Reeds) for taking on that challenge and doing it so well!

Believe it or not, the teachers and nursery workers are supposed to be in their classrooms when the children arrive. It's kind of like people being told to be at church before 10:00. It's a great idea, but something happens in the Sunday to Sunday follow-through. We'll keep reminding!

Dean, Gwen, and their children are all taking a hiatus from CM for a time. Dean was replaced by Tanya Pampel. Did she show up to serve? I'm sorry for not having a new schedule in the bin for you. So many changes are taking place right now that I see the schedule as "in process" and forget to send the best I have along. I'll try to do better.

With so many new faces in church yesterday, we felt like we were the visitors. Thanks for handling a unique morning!

Coordinators update from Nov. 15

Lets see..........where to begin...., it wasn't that bad it just feels like we'll need next week to actually feel like we have some kind of handle on the situation :)

Thank you so much to Ed and Connie for helping out with registering everyone. That was so greatly appreciated. Thank you to Jocelyn and whoever else may have been involved in having all the DaySpring Families information filled out on yellow cards and name tags printed and compiled attendance sheet. That helped out tremendously.

Upon registering so many families in a timely manner I think I failed to stress to them to keep their yellow cards for future Sundays. Not sure how many will actually bring it back so I will probably be filling out new ones again. Also, we need more white Grace Kids Visitor Cards and also more CD's to hand out. I have a list of new families that did not get one. I will see that they each get one this coming Sunday.

We did tell all new families that the children are dismissed after worship. Apparently some individuals started heading out right after singing, probably aides, teachers etc, but this started a chain reaction with some of the new families thinking this was when they were to bring the children out. We did have a number of families come down with the children to empty class rooms. It was slightly awkward when they questioned us if the class would have teachers. Hopefully we can communicate better this Sunday that the children are dismissed following announcements. I was thinking on this later that asking teachers to come back as soon as singing is done would be a good spot for them to leave the auditorium. Some teachers do come back early but I would love to see all teachers in their classrooms when the children arrive. It just makes it so much nicer for the children and the parents to be greeted by the teacher. This should also apply to the nursery care givers. We had to pull two young girls to help with little ones who were waiting to be dropped off until the nursery aides arrived.

Regarding the attendance sheets. Would it be possible to print the sheets out up and down the long way making the grid narrower and longer, versus the shorter way and wider. That would allow for so many more names to be added and not use two sheets of paper. I believe the teacher's copies are going to be pretty much unreadable till the end of this month, especially after this past Sunday. I was still trying to figure out attendance and matching the right children up to the right class when parents started coming to pick up children. Hopefully next week I will actually feel like I know where everyone is atleast halfway through class. We had one little boy in EP we had no idea who he was, and he didn't tell us his name. He did have a name tag but apparently had come off at some point. It was not till the very end of the morning and we had finally checked off all the dayspring children that were here except this one lone little boy. Turned out he was the EP child!!!

Could Sherri Stehr have a new ID card made for her family. She has lost her card.

Regarding aides: I did not need him but just wondered if Dean Knepp should be taken off as he is probably needed to help with his own children since they are not going to CM currently. Also, note to myself but I'll pass along, yesterday we had tons of helpers wanting to help, in all the commotion of seeing where help was needed we ended up using two aides that were very vocal about wanting to help, but then we didn't use two individuals who were on the list assigned for yesterday. I feel bad about that and want to apologize to them, they both showed up and were assigned for yesterday but the more vocal eager helpers grabbed our attention. It was just extremely chaotic and decisions were made rather quickly.

Regarding the Christmas Choir children, we assume everyone was where they where supposed to be. We really couldn't even think about that!:)

Thanks for reading.
Galen and Teresa

Myka Aides

Myka will not be in CM for a while. This releases his aides to serve in other ways.

Michaiah and Melissa Reinford have volunteered to be extra help tomorrow, should it be necessary with our extra guests.

Dayspring Kids Ages

Hello Coordinators!

Just to give you a heads up for the kids who are coming from Dayspring this Sunday - below is a breakdown of their ages. We aren't sure what grade they would be in, that will be something we find out when they get here and we get their birthdate; but in the meantime, here is how many we have coming from each age group:

1 year olds = 5 total
2-3 year olds = 11 total
4-5 year olds = 5 total
6-7 year olds = 8 total
8-11 year olds = 7 total

Thank you!

Choir Rehearsals

Hello Coordinators!

As many of you probably know, this Sunday will be the first Sunday for Children's Christmas Choir rehearsals. The children who are a part of this will be leaving their classrooms for rehearsal at 11:45am and remain in the cafeteria until their parents pick them up at 12:30pm. Rehearsals will run from this Sunday, November 15th until December 20th. Due to the rehearsals, there will be on 5th Sunday assembly this month.

Thank you!

Next Sunday (11/15)

With the possibility of many Dayspring families visiting next Sunday, Ed and I would be willing to be additional help at the front table signing kids in, if you think it is necessary.

Dry Erase Markers

Hello Coordinators!

I am wondering if you know whether or not we have any dry erase markers and erasers in our supplies. We were planning on going out and purchasing some, but wanted to make sure we didn't have any in our supplies first.

Thanks!

Re: 10/27/2009

Re: the new registration table location. We are no longer using the blue tablecloth with our new colors and signs. I'm experimenting with a shorter table (6') and underneath the sign that we now hang up front saying (children's registration). Let me know what you think in the weeks ahead.
Re: the cleaning of preschool and nursery toys...given we are in the flu season early this year, I'd like to raise the question of cleaning the toys that are used each week...how can we respond proactively to reduce the amount of germs spread in our classes? I plan to keep a dispenser of antibacterial gel in each classroom starting this Sunday for anyone to use.

Blake

Response to October 25

How about making the teacher sign-in sheet half the size and deleting the CD section? If teachers want CDs, they can go to the table afterwards to get one. From what Jocelyn told me, they only make about five each week because most people listen to sermons online.

Hello,

Just a few things from Sunday...

1) Carissa Seeley needs to be put on the nursery list, she went in for the first time this past week.

2) Laura Sauerman (#155) needs a new orange ID card

3) Scott & Jane Miller need a new orange ID card

4) Cards were made for Jan & Becky Landis last week but they were blue, could they be made again in orange?

5) The table in the foyer was "front and center" with no blue table covering. Is this our new location and appearance or just an oversight with the set-up team.

6) Late preschool commented that there hasn't been a trashcan in their room the last couple of weeks. I looked and the only one I could find was the one under the teacher's desk behind the partitions. Is that one to be out in front of the partitions or should there be another?

7)Late preschool also made us aware that we need updated class lists for tracking the giving out of encouragment cards. Kids have moved out and moved in so the lists are no longer accurate and this would apply to each class.

8) I ran out of time before classes started to go through the preschool toys so I'm hoping to get to church early this week and do that before the service.

9) Teacher sign-in sheet was used again. Ed and I were a little unsure of the CD distribution to teachers that request them. Do we personally deliver them or do the teachers go to the media table and pick them up themselves. I think this is something we all need to be consistant with. Also, what is our responsibility regarding the sign-in paper once we place it on the media table? Are we to retrieve it again after the service or how does it get back to the coordinators table week after week?

10) Lastly, Blake brought to our attention that Pennview has reminded us again to only use Grace supplies and to ask children to refrain from going into classroom desks. (Just making you all aware.)

Alright, I think I'm done. Time to rip the boys away from their legos and get back to school. They're gonna love it :)

-Connie

Wow! What an informative post!

That was one great blog post. Now, for the real thing...

Sunday (10/18) was rather uneventful. Classes were smaller then usual and we didn't even need all the aides. The nursery even had only content babies, imagine that?!

I started over numbering the guest sign-in cards at #600, we'll proceed from there.

Sherri supplied me with the latest and greatest teacher schedule so it was filed and all others were trashed.

The teacher sign-in paper was back and Ed and I feel we should stick with it. I agree the inconsistancy is confusing for the teachers.

Sherri, I didn't see your post about replenishing the pretzels and sorting the preschool toys until Monday. I will work on those requests this Sunday.

Jocelyn, Jan and Becky Landis lost one of their ID cards. Could you please make them another one?

That's all I have.

Connie

October 4 and 11

Last week we had a constant flow of visitors who didn't even know we were celebrating our tenth anniversary. It was a wild morning, at least for the portion we were serving. This week was pretty much dead...and boring. Only one of the visiting families returned.

We need a lot!

1. Replenish the visitor CDs. We have none.
2. Replenish the temporary cards. We have one.
3. Replenish the pretzel supply. We gave our last barrel today.
4. Replenish the encouragement cards. We have I don't know how many. (I thought I should continue my pattern.)
5. Dianne Mesure needs a permanent card for her grandchildren. They are Logan Harmon(12/4/02--1st grade; Kaela Harmon 3/22/05--K...not really, but she wants to be with Elle and because she only attends once a month, I didn't make a big deal out of it; Brenna Harmon 2/22/07--EP).
6. We need updated schedules. (JW, I'll update them and let you print them.)

We had six families who had their children in CM but didn't register them. Please make note if this continues, as we may need to send out a friendly reminder once again.

Now that the teaching schedule is somewhat stable, we have resignations from our aide and nursery line-up. Do you know of any interest out there?

It sounds like the preschool toys need to be redistributed. Can next week's coordinators work on this?

Blake, a couple of notes were left in the fourth grade classroom. The one I brought home says, "Please do not use these markers! Or other consumable supplies. Thank you for respecting my request! DB" This sounds like maybe we have crossed the line in the past. Do we need to send some flowers or something? : )

The teacher sign-in sheet wasn't there. Are we officially dumping this? It's confusing teachers to have the inconsistency.

We replaced coloring sheets today. Since there are so many and we can use them again next year, I really don't want to throw them away. But I don't have space for them here. Would anyone like to take this on as a project...to file and keep the papers ready for the next round? No, Jocelyn wants nothing to do with this "clutter." : )

How's that for a lengthy update?

Adjustments

October 25--Laurie Mart can't teach in LP. Please place Ethan Benner, the adult aide for that morning, with Erika.

Terry Alderfer will teach with Sheri Stehr in October. This is a temporary fill.

Visitor Cards

I don't know what happened to the visitor cards. The last stack I sent over had multiple lines on it. I will make some new ones and send them over on Sunday. I'll also send over copies of the new schedule. Just fyi, the current schedule is usually updated and posted on the GCC children's ministry website.

Thanks everyone!

Response--September 13

I think Charlotte shows up to serve every week, at least she did the Sundays we coordinated. I explained to her that I have her scheduled to help Myka on the Sundays when Dougie is not able to do so. When I have observed her with children, I've see her participating as a child, not as a person helping to lead them. If anyone has observed anything different and thinks she should be put in more regularly, please let me know. Until then, I thought I'd give her a bit more time to mature.

The new schedule should show that Christian or Caleb Knaub will be helping Myka on the first Sundays.

Jocelyn, do you know what happened to the visitor cards?

Coordinators report from Sept. 13

I keep wondering if I will ever feel at ease registering new families on a Sunday morning. We had some visitors coming as friends of members and some returning visiting families a little stressful at times. When members bring along a grandchild, family friend etc. is it proper procedure to just list them under that members name and ID number? The visitors info cards that are left in the box are different then the previous cards we were using. There is only room to write one child's name and birth date info. The other cards we had been using gave numerous lines for an entire family. I had one mom kind of cram her 3 kids names and grades in the space. Not sure if we ran out of the others. Just checking.

Regarding aides: Charlotte Coulson would like to be put on as a full time aide. She showed up to help with Myka but Dougie already was in that spot. Also, the old aide sheet from 3/09 in the file had written in pencil Christian and Caleb Knaub as wanting to be aides. I did not see their name on the new updated sheet. Maybe they were not needed, just wanted to bring it to someones attention.

Would it be possible to have the 6th grade door unlocked when there is no class and use for sleeping babies? We had two on Sunday that could of used that nice, dark,empty room. Just a thought.

Brian Knaub informed us the wipes in his bin were all dried out. Are there others in a supply closet?

On a personal note. Would it be possible to hold our meeting at the church on the 27th? I realize it is not as comfy and relaxing as the Reed's home but we just received notice two weeks ago that Children and Youth are hosting a foster care picnic/fair type of event in Souderton Park from 2-5. We would love to get to some of it and it would be helpful to be meeting in Franconia. Wondering if that would be a possiblity?

I guess that's it for now.
Galen and Teresa

Sunday, September 6th

Hi CM Bloggers!
Sunday went well with it being the "big switch." I just have a couple of notes here. Most of them being changes for the attendance sheets and nametags. Jocelyn, realize that since I am sending this so late, that the nametags are probably already printed out for this week, but maybe we can make the changes for the following week. Here they are:

• Claire Horrocks was on the 5th grade roster, but can be dropped. She is now in youth/parent.
• Melanie Witter got dropped off of labels and the roster, but she should still be on the 6th grade list.
• The Knepps would like to keep Faith in Early Pre-School this year, and Myka will be staying in Late Pre-School.
• Isabelle Alessi is entering 4th grade, but is on the 3rd grade roster.
• Noah Weigner should be on the 4th grade roster, not the 5th grade.

Also, could 2 blank attendance sheets be sent over to the coordinators table on Sunday? We need to add them to two of the sheets, because there is no room to write visitors on. Oh, I guess we would need four. Two for our copies, and two for the classroom copies. I forget which ones they were Teresa, but you'll probably see.

Can we also have an updated Children's Ministry Schedule for our bin, and also an updated Nursery/Aide list? There are only summer schedules in there right now.

The Derstines will be filling in for us this coming Sunday, as we will be on vacation. We will be back on, on the 20th. I think that's all for now!

Krin & Steve

August 23 update

I apologize for just now blogging. But, Sunday was rather uneventful and I can't think of anything I need to tell you all.

Oh, one thing... We handed out more Orange family ID cards but there are still some remaining. We'll continue to work on distributing that pile this Sunday.

Also, Sherri, I plan to take inventory this coming Sunday.

Signing off,

Connie

August 16

We only had two children who didn't want to be in CM yesterday. By the end of the hour, they were both happy there. Other than that, we had a very straightforward and easy morning.

New ID cards were given to many. A stack remains in the file box.

We need a couple of permanent ID cards. Gustavo and Renata Marculo with their children Nicholas (5/26/99), Esther (5/24/00), and Daniel (5/24/00) and Keith and Linda Weigner with their children Ezra (1/12/06) and Noah (7/7/99).

The Alburgers will teach the K class this coming Sunday. The Wybles will take it on October 11.

That's all I have.

1st/2nd Grades

These two classes will be combined for the remainder of the month. Don Matthews will teach tomorrow, the Landises on the 23rd, and the Detweilers on the 30th.

1st/2nd Grade in September

Phew. The Lord provided teachers just in time! We have to make do again with two couples who will cover the class. Doug and Steph Miller will teach September 6 and 20. Brian and Kim Knaub will teach September 13 and 27. The Knaubs may have their two oldest boys join them.

August 9

It was an uneventful morning until the children came. Many in early preschool and nursery protested their imprisonment. It was slightly unnerving! We used Michaiah and Janessa as aides and moved Becky Jones from a quiet class to a loud one.

One child was placed in the wrong class, and I forgot to follow up on finding her. Not good. At least it is an understanding family!

I agree with Teresa that teachers should pass out the Hub cards.

Some parents were looking for the new ID cards, but they were not yet available. They will be ready for pick-up this Sunday.

Comments

We're trying to put comments on blog posts, so that the conversation continues among us rather than between two of us. Unfortunately, they don't pop into our e-mail box when they're written. Please check the Kindergarten post because there are now three to read.

August 30th

Hello Coordinators!

Just to give you a "heads up", on Sunday, August 30th we will be combining the Early Preschool and Nursery classes together in the Teacher's Lounge. We are doing this in order to best serve the Penn View teachers, who will have spent the week prior setting up their classrooms. Also, the Kindergarten class will join the assembly.

Thank you for your flexibility!

Coordinators update from Aug. 2

The last two weeks we did have some teachers looking for a sign in sheet. I just wrote one up on a blank sheet of paper.

Two new families were visiting this past Sunday.

All the aides were at church or had gotten subs. I did need to track down Sandra Arocho, she forgot it was her Sunday.

Bob Seashultz mentioned having to track down his bins that are not placed in his classrooms. Apparently they are being mixed up with other bins. He did try to label them so persons' could read the class name.

The Thompsons are holding Peter back in late preschool at least for August and then they will see. The K class feels to big and intimidating to him.

I had noted regarding adding more lines or a second sheet to the attendance sheets as we run out of room often and it is hard to keep track later in the month.

Regarding the Hub cards. Galen and I did not hand any out the last two weeks. It seems like we are busy when kids are coming to class and afterwards can seem somewhat chaotic to try stop a child to give them a card. We were wondering if it would be more beneficial to hand out cards in the teacher's bin with the instructions of them handing out one per Sunday to one student. A student with good behaviour, brought their Bible, Bible memory etc. We thought for the whole class to see this it might promote more incentive. Just a thought.

We have more and more people forgotting their ID cards. A good reminder would be helpful as this last week was frustrating as Galen was helping a visiting family afterwards and I was trying to find a parent for someone we had numerous people waiting needing temp cards, it seems the same people keep forgetting them.

Also, regarding the 6th grade class. Not sure for this Sunday if they will be in the sermon or in class. Just a heads up for who is on next. We got off schedule so we weren't sure for next Sunday.

That's all for now.
Galen and Teresa

The Kindergarten Class

I've been thinking about our meeting a bit since yesterday. Someone mentioned that the K class is a grade school class. We have actually been treating it as a transitional class. It's not fully preschool; it's not totally grade school. We have a loose schedule for the teachers to follow which incorporates both a lesson and free play because we think it's unrealistic to expect these five-year-old children to be buckled to desks the entire hour. We do not invite the K class to assembly because, when we did, it was too much for most of them.

I just want to put this out there for the sake of clarity. Any thoughts?

Skye Beckley

I was going to add Skye to the aide list and found him already there. I received this response to my confusion today.

Mrs Hughes,

Ywah a while ago I got added as the 4th Sunday, but twice I went up on a 4th Sunday and they told me I wasn't on the schedule, and last week I talked to them and they said they'd work on getting me added. It doesn't really matter to me which one I do, so whichever one needs the most help would be fine. Thanks.

Skye is on the schedule and has been for quite a while. Anyone have any ideas as to what has happened?

Response to July 26

Re: Move-up in preschool classes

The EP class is for children who are ages 2 to 3.5. LP is for kids 3.5 to 5. I made a card for any child who is able to move up this summer. Children move the month of their birthday or half birthday. Any cards you find when you are on duty, PLEASE give to the parents. I had no idea there were some remaining, but that is a detail which can be missed when we have six weeks between our dates. As for Chase, he has not received a card. He technically should not move up until September. The paper that says "Move-up Roster" says "Chase Walker 9/09 (to LP)." The paper with the birthdate paramaters is meant to help us place a new child. Maybe we can look at these things at our meeting because I'm not understanding the confusion.



Re: Class sizes

This has been a tension probably as long as Grace has existed. Ideally, our class sizes would be smaller, but we have trouble staffing the classes we have currently. We just found two couples to teach EP in August, and we still don't have anyone for the 1st/2nd grade class in September. If we split the 1st and 2nd grades, we would need four more couples. That doesn't seem possible.

Re: Skye
I have a spot for him. I'll e-mail him this week.

Coordinators report from July 26

A quiet morning as far as visitors go, no big glitches to speak of from the morning.

A few notes from the mornings happenings.

We are still having some difficulty interpreting this nursery/early pre/late pre school moving up situation. I saw a move up roster in the bin, I saw two cards in the box to be given to parents telling their child they can be moved up. Brandon and Sara Walker moved up their son Chase today from early to late preschool. We looked at the date sheet and neither the Walkers' nor I could quite figure it out. It seems like age wise he should move up, but the dates don't match up for him to move up. Sorry we are having problems with this, but Krin can't figure it out either, so we are not alone.

Skye Beckly showed up today to be an aide but we were well set, as Charolette Coulson also showed up as an extra and we used her as well as the others on the schedule. Skye asked if he could be put on the schedule?
I assured him his name will be added and someone will contact him.

Regarding aides, Bob Seasholtz requested always having a female aide, either with Myka or the extra aide be a female when he and Kevin Benett are teaching together in late preschool. The little girls are apprehensive with the two male teachers if no females are present. I think the policy would be to have a female be an aide with the two male teachers regardless.

We could use more Grace Kids Visitor information cards in the bin.

Regarding our coordinators meeting. Krin and I talked this morning and wondered if we could try and have it a week night to be able to have it sometime in August before the new Fall schedule starts? Also, I thought it might be a good idea to ask the teachers to share any concerns or questions they might have for the coordinators via e-mail that we could address at the meeting.

One concern we have we'd like to discuss at the meeting is the large class sizes. The kindergarten had 19 last week and 17 today and that class will be combined next year with another class (1st and 2nd grd.) It just appears like controlled chaos at times. One teacher told me it's just Bible babysitting! I think we really need to address this. We don't feel adding more aides to the room will solve anything. Just something we wanted to discuss at the meeting, also an idea for the Hub cards but we can wait to discuss that as well.

That's all for now. Till next week.
Galen and Teresa

Class Changes

3rd Grade
Cheryl Coulson will help Anne O'Brien this Sunday.

Kindergarten
August 23--Alburger

Early Preschool Line-up

We finally have teachers for the early preschool class in August.

August 2: Scott and Bev Silver
August 9: Nathan and Ginger Kett
August 16: Nathan and Ginger Kett
August 23: Scott and Bev Silver
August 30: Scott and Bev Silver

There is a possible "if" to this schedule, so Tony and Chris Amaya are in the bullpen if we need them.

7/5 and 7/12 update

My deepest apologies to you all. I totally forgot to blog last week so here is an update for the past two weeks. 

We had several visitors. I handed out four or five Awesome God CDs. There are still several CDs left but none have the welcome letter with them. We need more of those printed out. 

Ed restocked the coloring sheet bins with the sheets Jocelyn provided and got rid of a LOT of old ones. Ed and I are wondering how many teachers actually use these. It seems like a waste of trees :). If anyone wants any scrap paper I've got a pile of old coloring sheets here!!

Sorry, Sherri, but there were still no takers on the Preschool activity box. 

Oh, and where are the Treats By The Tracks coupons to hand out? We couldn't find them anywhere so none have been handed out the last two weeks. However, I like the way we're keeping track of the kids who received them with the complete list of names to check off.

Well, I can't think of anything else to share with you all. It all ran pretty smoothly.

Have fun this Sunday Steve and Krin:).

-Connie 

Teacher Change

Emely Araujo asked to be released from CM, since she is dealing with a lot of fatigue. Kathy Felix will work with Anne O'Brien. Please be watching for her to see if she needs anything this month.

Just an FYI

If you serve on the last Sunday of the month (no, this isn't specifically directed to you, Krin : ), please give the attendance papers to Jocelyn or summarize the results and send them to her or give them to me and I'll do it. There are options galore. The main thing is for Jocelyn to be able to update the attendance records and stickers for the new month. THANK YOU!

June 21

When we arrived to church, we noticed a sticker vandal had written on kids' nametags. It didn't take much super sleuthing to apprehend two parties. (Not too many kids were there early on Sunday.) I talked to them both, and I doubt they will do it again.

The Brodishes were at church on Sunday. It was a bit awkward, since we had removed their names from the system. Dave asked if they wanted us to re-enter them; they said no.

Kelsey Halteman asked to be removed from the aide list. I will be replacing her.

During our two weeks, no one signed in as medical responders.

Only one couple even looked for the teacher sign-in sheet on Sunday. It figures! When we don't have one, they want it. When we do have one, they don't.

That was our noteworthy morning.

June 14 Recap

We had two families visit this past week for the first time. One is from the Sovereign Grace Church in San Diego. Mr. is a pastor there. The other family recently moved from Orlando, FL to Tobyhanna (sp?), PA. They had been at a SGM church and were very excited to know we are only 70 minutes away. The one family told us to be encouraged. All of their children were very happy with CM and asking to return.

We do have a sign asking parents to keep their children out of CM if they are or have recently been sick. I'm assuming everyone knows it's in the box?

I tried something new. After the bulk of registration was complete, I gave Michaiah a list of visitors' names and kids who moved up that morning. She wrote the names on the appropriate attendance sheets in the classroom. Hopefully that helped the teachers.

To prevent move-up confusion in the preschool classes, I gave cards to any children who are eligible to move up this summer. If you ever see any in the little brown box, please distribute them. I'll leave a list of these children there, too, so you know who will be moving when.

If we're short an aide some Sunday, Charlotte Coulson would like to substitute.

I weeded through the books very quickly. The nursery now has only board books.

I think we should probably bring back the teacher sign-in sheet, as Ed said earlier. Teachers were looking for it on Sunday.

Those are my random thoughts for now.

CDs for Teachers

Greetings Coordinators!

Just to give a bit of clarity regarding CDs for teachers since the question has come up...very few people use CD’s any longer. However, if a teacher has requested one, it’s probably best to send a note during the service to the Media table in the Hub and ask that they bring the CD(s) to the hallway registration table (like Dave did) after the service concludes for you to hand out. If no one requested any, then there’s no need to go get any CD’s. We find that 80% or more of the church is downloading the message from the website vs. using CD.
Hope that helps!

Thank you!

Eliana Falconero

I'm assuming Eliana's mom moved her to the Late Preschool class. If so, that's exactly where she needs to be. This is the month she turns 3.5. No one needs to talk with her!

Response to the Derstines, June 7

As Krin mentioned a couple of weeks ago, something mysterious has happened to the preschool bins. Krin and I plan to go to the church to find and reorganize it all and, if necessary, buy or ask for donations. (As per your comment last week, I will buy board books for the nursery if need be. First, I want to see if they are in a missing bin or in another preschool bin.) It's complicated to do this during school unless one of our husbands comes along in the evening and takes everything, including worship team equipment, out of the room first. That's why it hasn't been done already.

As for the move-up problem, we're working on that. I made a list of all of the nursery and preschool children and the months they can move to their next class. I will either make a card to give to the parents or send an e-mail. FYI, children up to K move the month of their birthday. Once they are in K, they are "stuck" until September. We assign children to their classes according to their birthdate, not their grade (unless a child has been held back.)

Thanks for the post and your patience. I'm sorry for these problems and hope we can get them remedied very soon!

Coordinators update from June 7

Two requests were made for permanent blue CM cards. Maria Blackshear would like permanent cards, her daugher is Jayla in Nursery. Also, Talitha Falconero requested to have new blue cards as they have lost both of their cards.

Please highlight Eva Frank's name tag for allergies.

Late Preschool class had no books for their classroom children. Is there a misplaced bin somewhere? We checked in all classrooms and could not locate books for them.

Sydney Herr will move up to Late Preschool in July. Caden and Aaron Landis moved up to late preschool. We aren't sure when but found them in that class. Their names were still on the early preschool sheet. That is why I say found, as we weren't sure where they were!

We are getting many questions regarding this whole business of moving children up and some parents are just doing it on their own. One mother asked, since her child was correct age if she should move her up right away or wait till the beginning of a new month or what. We feel at a loss what to tell them. Is there a set policy for some of these requests. Could a letter be sent out to all parents with children in these particular classes going over proper procedures. Also, that letter could be sent to Nursery parents as well to please keep any child who is knowingly sick out of the nursery. A child was placed in the nursery with a fever. The child had the chills till the end of the service. The mother was aware of the fever, still placing the child in the nursery.

Regarding Sermon CD's. Last week Dave Alderfer brought some over for Galen to hand out to teachers. This week we did not get any. Should we be going to pick them up?

That was our morning!
Galen and Teresa

Cut Off Dates

Greetings Coordinators!

Just for clarity, below is the list of CM cutoff dates. It seems that the feedback from the sheet being used currently is that it is confusing. Hopefully this helps! I will also send over a hard copy this Sunday. Thank you!


Birthday Cut - Off Dates for CM
If the child was born between these date ranges, they attend the class next to the date range
Nursery
9/1/2006
8/31/2007
Early Preschool
3/1/2005
8/31/2006
Late Preschool
9/1/2003
2/28/2005
Kindergarten
9/1/2002
8/31/2003
1st Grade
9/1/2001
8/31/2002
2nd Grade
9/1/2000
8/31/2001
3rd Grade
9/1/1999
8/31/2000
4th/5th Grade
9/1/1997
8/31/1999
6th Grade
9/1/1996
8/31/1997
Youth Ministry
9/1/1991
8/31/1996

1st Grade Change

Christian and Christy have asked to be released from CM. To cover the slot in July, Jan and Becky Landis will be combining 1st and 2nd grades. If you're coordinating in July, please take note of this, so you can direct the children accordingly.

May 31 Coordinators Report

A quiet morning as far as no visitors and most people remembered their CM cards.

Please note to mark Eva Frank down for milk allergy.

Caleb Silver, Nathaniel Seasholtz and Zachary High will be moving up from the Nursery to Early Preschool next week.

Could we ask that the sheet with cutoff dates for Nursery, and preschool classes be simplified. We had 4 adults standing around trying to figure ages, birthdates for moving up. Could we just use ages, example Nursery up to two, Early Pre. two to 3 1/2. something instead of the dates.

Regarding the Nursery. One of the aides requested that we remove all books with paper pages from the box. Children are tearing them and chewing on the pages. Please replace with the age appropriate card board type of books.

Thats all for now.
Galen and Teresa Derstine

Re: May 17th & 24th

Greetings Coordinators!

Please see Blake's response to Krin's post:

First, my thanks for some items you mention…
-Thanks for the initiative to send someone Keith’s way…this is certainly the right move to make and helps to train our teachers who forget or otherwise don’t know how important this is…maybe we mentally double check when we go around to collect the attendance sheets assuming we the teachers from the door of the classroom.
-I’m fine with permitting teachers taking children outside…I’ve seen them use it for an activity or just a fresh way to instruct the kids in a different surrounding when the weather is nice.
-Good question on the security checks…I’m thinking through this one; it would seem like a good proactive idea to schedule a day to meet with our aides this summer and have them complete a form. Thanks for raising the question…
-Who would know Eliana Falconero’s Mom or at least interacted with her? I suggest a conversation at least soon to clarify our process with her before too much time passes if indeed she did move her up prematurely.

Thanks for the posting, Krin!

May 17th & 24th

BLAKE:

• Could we have a couple more Hub cards to hand out to 11 & 12 yr. olds? I saw that the Treats by the Tracks cards that we are handing out, are only for up to age ten.
• Are classes allowed to go outside? For class time? For play time? We let the Lindsey's take their gang out for class time this past week, but said that we would need to check into that more.
• Do we need security checks on all of the youth that we use as aides?

This past week, Keith Detweiler was alone in his class, and we didn't realize it until they came up the hallway for snack. I don't think he realized that he needed someone to be in there with him, so I explained that, and pulled someone in to help him until the end of class.

Sherri H. and I will be taking some time to re-organize the toys bins, which somehow got all messed up. So whoever is on this week, you might get told that they don't have the right toys or don't have any books, and so we've just been trying to get them what they need. I think somehow some things just got mixed up, and the set-up guys have been delivering things to the wrong places. Mostly with the pre-school rooms. (Sherri, sorry I dropped the ball with this. Hopefully we can do it soon.)

Eliana Falconero's mom moved her up this week without saying anything to us up front. I think she thought Eliana was just ready maturity-wise to be moved up? Do we need to address this with her?

We need to number more Visitor Information Cards. I'm not sure who does this. This past week, I just took a guess, and hoped that I didn't give our visitor another family's ID number!

Thats all for now! Thanks - Steve & Krin

May 10, 2009

I bet you thought I forgot to post the coordinators' report this week. I did. But here it is now.

It was another low-key, no visitor morning for us. Most of what I have to report is logistics for JW.

For the coordinators:
I wonder if it would be helpful to have a list of all the children in CM, so we can checkmark who gets an ice cream certificate rather than try to figure out whose name has already been written. (Note: I gave Alex Amaya one this week, only to find it on the floor. I gave it to him again after CM. He said, "No, thank you." Rejected! : )

The Smiths will teach the late preschool class on Memoria Day.

When Blake and I met with the nursery aides, we agreed that the toys should be washed or wiped down at the end of the hour. I will send another e-mail to them, but maybe we can check in to see that this is happening.

For Jocelyn, I have a bunch of birthdates for you.
Joshua Felix 11/21/96
Matthew Willis 10/4/04 (Maribel is his mom.)
Risa Palmer 2/10/06
Caden Palmer 12/15/08 (Parents of the Palmers are William and Kristin.)

No allergies for any of them.

Please make a permanent ID for Bonnie St. Onge. Her granddaughter is Phoenix Kornegay. Birthdate is 8/8/04. I think she was in late preschool this past Sunday. Is that correct?

Tara Seeley needs a new permanent ID.

Sorry for another boring report.

Help No Longer Needed

I try to use exclamation marks in moderation (i.e. one is enough), but today I make an exception. The Derstines have offered to teach on Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Help Needed

We have an unusual situation this Sunday. John and Francette Alessi will not be able to teach, but no one has been able to switch with them either. Would one of you couples like to teach third grade this week OR would you be willing to coordinate so Dave and I can teach? Please let me know soon!

1st Grade Changes

Hi Sherri,
The Lindsay's and us are making a gradual switch of teaching rotations ... so here's what the schedule is going to look like:
May 3, 10 & 17 - we teach
May 24 & 31 - Lindsay's teach
July 5 & 12 - Lindsay's teach
July 19 & 26 - we teach
September - Lindsay's teach
November - we teach
*There is one Sunday in Sept. that doesn't suit the Lindsay's, and since we're always away Thanksgiving Sunday we may also swap those Sundays ... otherwise we'll just both get another 1st grade teacher to make a swap with.

Thanks,
Sarah

May 3rd update

Hello Fellow Coordinators and Coordinatettes (I'm submitting to my husband's humor!),

Today we had one visiting family, Chad and Janette Benner with their twin sons, in 5th grade. I gave them a CD. 

I should have thought to tell Jocelyn this last week but...I think it's time for a permanant family ID number for William and Kristin Palmer. Their number now is 819, they have a daughter, Risa. They've been attending several months now. Also, Maribel Willis could use a permanent ID. Her number now is 764 and she has a son, Matthew. Both Risa and Matthew are in the late preschool class.

There was a miscommunication between the 6th grade teachers today. The 6th graders should've been in class this week, normally they have class the 1st and 3rd Sundays, but they did not. Blake was planning to schedule a teacher for them next week instead. This means they will be in class the 2nd and 3rd Sundays of May. Prior to hearing this from Blake, in my attempt to be organized, I had just taken the 6th grade attendance sheet and crossed off the weeks they are in the service. So, now I've got the attendance sheet messed up if the students are in class next week.  I hope this is making sense. Anyway, I'm making a note for myself to supply the coordinators with a white-out! I could've used it today.

For the month of June, in the late preschool class, Kristie Witter will be teaching with Erika Reed in place of Julie Bell.  

Hub coupons were given to Nathan Perna and Cody Reed today which I forgot to record. Sorry.

Also, for the spring and summer months Blake would like us to hand out Treats By The Tracks coupons instead of Hub coupons to children as they go to class. These coupons are in the file folder with the attendance sheets. 

Pretzels have been restocked but I didn't get animal crackers yet. I plan to purchase them by next Sunday.

One last item, Francette Alessi informed me that they needed to switch two of their May Sundays with another 3rd grade teacher. She was going to work on that and let me know who is filling in for who and-so-forth. 

Okay, I guess that wraps it up for today.  

Signing off for the Reeds,

Connie

    

   

Substitute Coordinator

If one of you is sick (or one needs to stay home with sick kids), Gail Reinford is available to be a substitute coordinator.

Hub Cards

A fun FYI...Abigail realized that getting two Hub cards so close together was unusual. She handed her card to Rebekah on Sunday. Out of her wealth, she shared.

Teacher Sign-In Sheet #2

When we first began with the sign ins, it was for the teachers to order a CD, but it was also because with all the commotion of handing out stickers to everyone and registering new people, it was too crazy to notice whether teachers had arrived. Now it doesn't seem necessary. When we recently coordinated, it was easy to go through the list--at least one of our family had seen each teacher.

Teacher Sign In Sheet

Hi Coordinators,

I noticed a few of you asking about the teacher sign in sheet. As far as I know, we do not require that they do that anymore. I believe the only reason for signing in was to receive a free CD and hardly anyone gets CDs anymore now that messages are on the web.
Hope that helps!

Thank you!

In reponse to Ed and Connie's Blog

The weeks we were last on there has been no sign in sheet. Teachers' had asked us and we weren't sure what to tell them. We failed to investigate further. We should find out what is the procedure we are to be following.

Regarding the Hub cards. There is a sheet in the front of the file box with a running list of the children who have been given Hub cards. I only mention this because we gave Abigail Suarez a card just the other week when we were on. Just wanted you to know about that sheet.

Kindergarten Swap

Brenda Alburger will teach May 3. She is asking Eden to be her aide. You can place Sandra Arocho in that class, too.

On June 7, the Millers will teach.

April 26 update

Sorry, I believe I emailed Blogger Account Information to you all while I was trying to figure out my password. So if you got an email from Blogger Support, just ignore it.

Now, onto Children's Ministry...

Sunday (4/26)  was pretty uneventful. That is a good thing I guess, meaning there were no problems. There were no visitors. The Amayas are back and a couple kids moved up to the next class, but all these changes have been given to Jocelyn so the lists should be updated by next week. Ed informed me that we are low on pretzels and cookies so I will purchase them. Ed handed out Hub coupons to Micah Wales and Abigail Suarez for good walking-to-class behavior :). And, I am sorry to say, Sherri, but no one used the Preschool Activity Box :(. 

The only question I have for everyone is... Are we having teachers sign in or not? I think some of us are and some of us are not. We need to be consistent on this. Personally, Ed thinks we should still have this policy. What are your thoughts on this? Yesterday only one teaching couple signed in, so obviously there is some confusion regarding it.

Auf Wiedersehen Bruders und Schwesters (this is for you, Sherri!)

April 19

We eased back into coordinating this morning. Nothing spectacular happened unless you count the one visitor we registered.

Jocelyn, Aubrey Silver was in the nursery for the first time this morning. You can add her to the list. We need more encouragement cards. I think the Amayas will be coming back. It might be good to put them back into the system.

We offered the Preschool Activity Box to one class, but it was refused. We'll have to come up with a Plan B.

Sorry for the boring report, but that's what we have for you this time.

Easter Sunday

There will be no class for 3rd to 5th graders on Sunday. They will remain in the service.

Coloring Sheets

In response to the last post asking about coloring sheets - that's my fault - originally there wasn't a lesson planned for the 5th Sunday, so that's why I didn't send over sheets and when a lesson was added back in, I never sent over new ones. The sheets for April will be there this Sunday.

Thanks!

Sunday, March 29th

• Had to go in and get 2 out of 3 aides out of the service - they just plain forgot =)
• 2 out of 3 nursery aides did not show, and had never called us. Because of this, I pulled Erika Reed out of the service to be an additional aide for the morning.
• Ethan Benner needs a new blue card (#226)
• Early preschool does not feel that they need the whole printed out sheet of labels for the diaper bags. Kim Swope was saying that only a couple even bring diaper bags, so it just seems like a waste to throw most of that sheet away every week. A suggestion was to just put a blank sheet or two of labels in their red folder that they could just use as they need them. Could we let the other early preschool teachers know of this change?
• Early Preschool thru Kindergarten classes were all looking for their coloring sheets this week. Are there no coloring sheets when we have a 5th Sunday?

Over and out - Krin & Steve

K class

On Easter, Brian Knaub will replace Dave Dailey and Deb Peart. Let's use our adult aide for his partner.

Aides

Based on your feedback, I will continue to have five aides each Sunday, one an adult and one assigned to Myka.

You will see on the second Sundays that Dougie McGrath and Charlotte Coulson are both helping with Myka. Dougie will do the Sundays he is not helping with his family in 2nd grade. Charlotte will help Myka when Dougie can't.

I will find out whether Michael K. wants to be removed from the aide list. He has served for years. Maybe it's time for a break.

Another Aide Question

We have five aides each week, one of them being an adult and one being assigned to Myka Knepp. Is this too many?

Aide question

You said Michael Kemmerer didn't show up "again." Is this an ongoing pattern? Should I be replacing him? Has anybody talked to him about not being available on the fourth Sundays?

Galen and I shared the morning coordinating duties with Krin. This is a combined update.
Dean Knepp requested being put on as a helper the second Sunday of the month. He has been on the third Sunday and wasn't needed last week. He thought he could be used during the second Sunday as there were less number of aides.
We need more "Welcome to Grace" letters that are wrapped around the Awesome God CD's. Also, note change name from Kidwells to the Hughes on letter.
Need name label printed for Sebastian Wyble (Nursery).
Nursery care giver mentioned needing outlet covers in the nursery. They have had two cases of children trying to put something in the outlets. Maybe have these covers kept in the Nursery box to be installed each Sunday.
Cassady family can be removed from attendance list and name lables. They are attending Calvary.
Michael Kemmerer did not show again for aide duty.

Regarding the new Hub cards being given to the children. It would probably be a good idea to keep a list of names so that we each know who is getting them, just so that the same individuals are not getting them every week. Any thoughts on that idea. We gave to Tyler Swope, Haille Herr, Micah Bell and Brianna Clemmer. We observed good hallway conduct and classroom behaviour. Krin gave out a few as kids were going to class for having their Bibles. Two of those were Carson Reinford and Luke Miller.

Galen and Teresa Derstine
Krin Godshall

Team Changes

Hello everyone,

I trust everyone is doing well on this first day of spring,

I wanted to announce a change in our coordinator’s team…I wanted to express my gratitude to Ray and Alane Kidwell for serving on the CM coordinator’s team for the past couple of years. They have really utilized their time and talents to improve our operations and relationship with our parents in the ministry. At their request, they have purposed to position themselves to hear from the Lord on future direction for their family as they wait upon Him for clarity…please join me in praying for them and expressing our gratitude for their service.

Dave and Sherri Hughes have agreed to jump into the coordinator schedule again…Dave would like to see how he can coordinate his worship team schedule with serving on the CM team, so he may request switching some Sunday’s with the rest of you. We still will be attempting to keep 4 couples in the rotation in the meantime.

Let me know if anyone would have any questions or clarifications. Don’t forget to get your free Rita’s Water Ice today…despite it being 40 degrees, its spring!!!

Blake

Changes

I found out yesterday that the 4th/5th grade has done some shuffling. The teaching schedule will now be...

March 15--Meuleners
March 22, 29, April 5, 12--Halteman
April 19, 26--Meuleners

I asked about the Preschool Activity Box yesterday. It is now making its way to the coordinators' table, but teachers are not accessing the toys. I will send a reminder that they are available, but perhaps you can offer them as well when you see the teachers? The nursery might also benefit from them.

Easter Egg Hunt

Greetings Coordinators!

Hope you are all doing well today! This is just more of a "heads up" to let you know that for the Easter Egg Hunt this year we have hired someone to put on a magic show for the kids. If you are interested, you can check out his website at http://prokidsresults.com/.

Have a great weekend!

Jocelyn

Teacher Sign-In

Krin asked if it matters whether the teachers sign in. I think that is something we started when we were handing out stickers to everyone and registering visitors. (Remember those fun days?!) It wasn't possible for us to spot all the teachers as they entered the building. If it's a procedure that is no longer necessary, feel free to discontinue it. Does the paper even make it to the CD table anymore?

Thoughts?

Sunday, March 1, 09

We had a pretty calm day at our post today. Aides showed up except Sandra Arocho. There seemed to be a lot of sickness going around which resulted in less children in classes and we were able to send an aide back to sit in the sermon. Nursery was calm. Thanks to the Reeds, we now have a supply of animal crackers and pretzels in the storage area back rear closet.

Jocelyn, the Randolph's are requesting two new blue id cards as they have misplaced theirs. Also, Matthew O'Brien has bumped up to the 5K class. Oh, one last thing- there is only 1 more Awesome God CD left to give away to visitors.

That's all...everyone have a blessed week...

The Kidwells

Post From Sunday, Feb. 15th

Hey! After about 52 screens of questions that I didn't really understand, here I am! I think. Anyhow, thanks to Alane Kidwell's expertise =) I am now posting from two Sundays ago.

• Connie, we need pretzels and animal crackers. We refilled one of the preschool classes with the last bag - everyone was fine today, just none left in the supply closet.
• Jocelyn, in just trying to keep our attendance lists current, is it true that the Coombs, and Isabell's aren't coming anymore? If so, their children's names could probably be taken off of the list. Also, Micah Bell has been moved up into the Kindergarten class.
• Blake, Sherri, or whoever, is it a problem that all of the teachers do not sign in at the front table on their way in? There is often only 3-4 names on the list, and I just wasn't sure if this was something that really matters or not.
• Lastly, on our Sunday, there was a pee accident in early preschool. One child went, and then another child came over and sat in it. =) Steve had a nice gathering of children around him as he attempted to blot it off of the carpet. One of the precious 3 yr. olds even asked him, "Steve, do you come in when there's pee-pee?" Steve replied with a smile, "Apparently so!" Anyhow, our question was - is there specific cleaning stuff to clean up something like that? He just blotted with paper towels, and then he found Clorox wipes in the supply closet to attempt to disinfect the spot. He then put chairs around the spot so they wouldn't keep walking through it, but he said he thought that the chairs actually drew them to the spot! Anyhow, that's all for that.

Signing off,

Steve & Krin

Sunday, February 22, 2009

We had a relatively quiet Sunday, mostly being needed as "bathroom aides." Even the nursery was quiet with only 5 babies in there. Sarah Herr needed to nurse her baby so Michiah Hughes graciously filled in for Sarah in 1st grade. Hannah Thompson filled in as an aide for her sister, Mary, and all the aides showed up on time. 5K class teachers said Sean Dailey did well. Nothing more to post- just getting this posted took longer than the actual posting... Next time will be a piece of cake...

Encouragement Cards

When you're coordinating, could you please ensure that binders are stocked with encouragement cards and that the sheet for tracking them is current? Are teachers actually using these cards?

March 31st Assembly

As I continue to consider how we might focus our assembly on March 31st, I wonder about working around the theme of “The Significance of the Cross”. As a church, the pastors will be preaching through the topic of penal substitution beginning March 22nd and maybe we can go with a similar theme in our assembly and encourage the kids to participate in some fashion. Maybe there’s a research project for the older kids to do or a 50 word essay for the 6th graders to write from their class on “Why do I need the Cross”. The 1st and 2nd graders could maybe read a poem around the theme or express their creativity with drawings…we could inform the teachers in advance next week who are teaching in March that they will get a break from teaching on the 31st, but we are asking them to lead their class in a project around this theme giving them 5-7 minutes to present.

What do you think?
Blake

New Memory Verses

Greetings Coordinators!

Just to let you all know, there are new memory verses that the kids will be doing in children's ministry (Hebrews 12). The verses will be available for distribution in classes this Sunday (15th).

Thank you!

CM Aides

Way to go Teresa on the blog! I’m even more shameful than Ed because I have Jocelyn blog it for me…

Just to clarify regarding the need for 2 adults in a classroom. This will be the goal for Sherri and I as we look over the pool of available individuals to teach and serve as aides. I plan to consider asking more singles to serve as aides in the future. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to place a youth in a classroom with just one adult for the learning experience it provides for them and the help it gives the adult…this is still far better than having just the adult alone in the classroom. Teresa and Galen did nothing wrong and upholds the spirit of giving our young aspiring teachers to be a chance to get good experience. Over the next year or two, I hope to be adding more adults, potentially single ones, to help accompany the youth as well to even provide more layers of opportunities for training as well as greater security for our children’s ministry. Hope that helps to clarify.
Blake

Sunday

Anne O'Brien will be observing the 3rd grade class on Sunday. This will prepare her to begin teaching in March.

Our First Blog

This is hysterical. It litterally took me about 10 minutes to get to this blog spot. I am so not computer savvy!! But, I made it and hopefully this will work correctly and the right people will receive my blog. I will share a brief summary of our morning coordinating. Mike Hard contacted us Sat. night to tell us he would be alone and this morning Emmanuel Suarez told us he would be teaching alone. We pulled from our aides Michaiah Hughes helped Mike and Josh Clemmer helped Emmanuel. After our meeting today Michaiah probably should not have been in the class as she is not an adult but not sure what we will do about that as the majority of our aides are younger. Also, Josh probably should not have been in with another man but our other aide was Eden and she would of been related to Emmanuel. Things can get pretty complicated trying to comply to all the security measures. We were very appreciative of Mike Hard calling us and giving us a heads up. We knew right away we would need an aide for his class. Other then that the normal morning activities. Galen did spend half the morning looking for 3 children so we do like the idea of just having the number put up and locating children right away. That's all for now. I can now say I have officially blogged.

Teresa and Galen

Awesome God CDs

Greetings Coordinators!

Sovereign Grace is having a sale on their CDs and it may be worthwile to order some Awesome God CDs for when we give them to first time visitors with children. Do any of you know how many we currently have on hand?

Thank you!

1st Grade Switch--Revised

Jan. 18--McGraths

Jan. 22--Herrs

Coordinators' Meeting Reminder

We will be meeting to discuss CM on February 8 in the cafeteria. Pizza is on the menu. If there is anything you would like to discuss, please tell Blake ahead of time.

1st Grade Switch

Jan. 18--McGraths

Feb. 1--Herrs

Preschool Activity Box

On Sunday I will be bringing a plastic tub labeled "Preschool Activity Box." Although it is primarily intended for the kindergarten class during the last half of CM, the other preschool classes may also use it. My thought in keeping the box with the coordinators is, one, it will be accessible to the classes and, two, you can inventory the box at the end of church to ensure everything is still there. (There is a list of contents on the inside of the lid.) If this ends up being a hassle, we can go to Plan B.

K change

January 11: Jan and Becky Landis will be teaching for the Millers.