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These resources are in the beta stage, the final stage before official release.
Start Smart
The Kids Ministry Toolbox
Challenges? You bet. Grab real world help right now!
An online resource with tons of practical WISDOM, things we all wish we knew when we started. This is the all-important first of three steps to achieving the ultimate goal of children's ministry: making lifelong disciples.
Build Your BEST Kids Ministry
To help YOU thrive and flourish in your leadership role, we have put all our lessons learned, tips and ideas in a three-part online magazine called KIDS MINISTRY: WISDOM (KM:W for short).
Starting with the first issue, The KIDS MINISTRY Toolbox, each of the three issues focuses on topics of interest to you. Let's look at the list of articles in the first issue, the Toolbox:
Well, that's great, but there's more!
Kids Ministry: Wisdom - the Nuts and Bolts helps you decide what priorities to set, how to build a strong set of fundamentals and, in a surprisingly interesting article, how to make your paltry Children's Ministry budget get to where it needs to be (yes yes!).
Sunday School: Wisdom - Knocking the Rust Off Your Best Tool aims first at making Sunday a day kids really look forward to. Years ago we turned around the dead Sunday School at our church; these principles really work. Second, we give you the one tip that made recruiting teachers much more successful for us, and we finish up with a terrific set of actions guaranteed to burn out your existing staff...what? Don't miss that one!
The KM:W Toolbox Series - Fun to read, and full of powerful help!
In 25 years of children's ministry we've made all the mistakes and learned many lessons - and sometimes we got things right! Now we are inviting you to learn the wise steps to successful kids ministry without going though all the bumps and potholes.
Grow Your Group
The KIDS PARTY Program
Go Bananas: Your Children's Ministry Growth Action Plan.
KIDS PARTY is an Action Games/Bible Story program that features enough info, ideas, stories and games for 36 ninety-minute KIDS PARTY events for third graders on up. Thoroughly tested and perfected over a period of two decades, the KIDS PARTY program has been unbelievably successful for us. We've learned what works and what doesn't and put together all the good stuff for you in KIDS PARTY. Super fun team games and individual challenges, Bible stories, even team games we call Watchables for the flatscreen on your wall. Kids come, kids stay!
Here's What You'll Download:
I hope plenty of ministries pick up your amazing kids program! I know God will do amazing things with what you have created!
KEALA
Parent of two KP alumni
DAIN and Tom explain KIDS PARTY. Click images to watch.
A Quick Look at the Parts and Pieces
The Leaders Guide, Games and Stunts, 36 Party Planners with Bible Stories, Wall Games 1 and 2, Promotional Posters, KP Clip Art, Biggie Verse Posters, Biggie Verse Watchables, and the incredible KP Watchables. Click image to watch.
What in the World are KP Watchables?
Imagine games on your flatscreen that get your room full of kids rocking with shouts and laughter. Once you try a Watchable, you and your kids will be hooked. Requires a Windows PC or laptop. Click image to watch.
Question
Are you wondering how an event program aimed at one age level can grow your entire children's ministry - and your whole church for that matter? It's simple. Neighborhood parents bring neighborhood kids to Kids Party, and those parents have kids of all ages. If you spend time meeting and getting to know new parents, some will come Sunday and many of those will stick. Thus, new families!
I had a blast at my first KIDS PARTY and made lots of friends. That was also my first time hearing a talk about God.
ADIN
Key youth group staffer
Make Lifelong Disciples!
CLAMbake Sunday School/Discipleship
Christ's Love and Majesty - The CLAM in CLAMbake
Christ's Love is everything He says and does, and His Majesty is who He is: God's Son. This is what we teach the kids. It's a message that draws them to Christ, leading many to make lifelong commitments to the Lord. Graduates now in their thirties are walking with Him, and many are serving in full or part time ministries.
So what's the Secret Sauce?
CLAMbake is a two-year through the Bible course featuring over 400 Sunday School lessons (more than 100 Sundays times four age-levels). It's designed to be REPEATED every two years as kids grow up, leading to a super-solid understanding of who Jesus is and a lifelong commitment to Him. This is why we call CLAMbake a DISCIPLESHIP course as well as Sunday School curriculum. Also, whatever a lesson's Bible story may be, Jesus is the ultimate focus. The four age-levels covered are Preschool, Early, Middle and Upper Elementary.
The Secret Sauce is the repetition every two years. CLAMbake is not a "use once then on to the next thing" curriculum. Kids who grow up through the two-year cycles know the Bible SO WELL! But much more than that, they know and admire Christ. It's really tough to fall away from someone you admire, so a high percentage of our grads still love and serve Him even after college :)
Click image to watch intro video. Runtime: 1:47
The Distinctives:
Requirements:
Internet connection: CLAMbake is made available as a convenient downloadable resource. During our current beta development stage we post five weeks worth at a time, normally every four or five weeks. An Internet connection is of course needed for that but not needed in the classroom. Each month's download folder is large, it can take a few minutes to download.
Printer: Toner-based and relatively high volume, color, able to print to letter-size and 11x17-inch paper. Back-to-back print capabilities highly desirable.
Large paper cutter: Able to trim 11x17-inch paper.
Paper: Letter-size and tabloid-size (tabloid is also known as ledger and 11x17-inch) white paper. Some activities require letter-size darkly colored paper (so kids can't see what's printed on the back) and some require white cardstock (for playing table card games such as Bible Concentration).
Schedule: CLAMbake teaches through the Old Testament in one year, following with the Gospels plus portions of Acts and Revelation in year two. Thus, the first Sunday of CLAMbake must be the first Sunday of your Sunday School year.
Strongly Recommended:
Computer setup: One of the main charms and distinctives of CLAMbake is our series of educational games we call Watchables. They are many, they are fun, they make Sunday School special. For these you need a Windows PC or laptop hooked to a screen large enough for all the kids to view. Watchables are not played by individuals; the whole class and the teacher enjoy these educational games together as one.
Even as a longtime believer who's been to church and learned the lessons as a young boy, I was fascinated: I would go in and I'd learn something new in a simple Sunday School. I loved it. I love the curriculum.
MIKE B
Talking about teaching CLAMbake
The Parts and Pieces:
The first file you want to check is the Print and Prep resource that comes with each week's lessons. It tells you what to print for each age-level, what size paper to use, color or black and white, single-sided or back-to-back, and how many copies to make. We get a lot of praise for this, it makes life MUCH easier for the one doing the work.
Notice the light blue dialog balloons at the top of the green and yellow columns. Those indicate the files that are used in two or more age-levels.
The Print and Prep has a page like this one for each age-level. Every file is shown along with a brief description.
On this particular page you see the cover of the Lesson Plan, the cover of the CLAMazine comic, the Biggie Verse poster, a Welcome to CLAMbake poster, the CLAM Bible/voCLAMulary student page, the so-called CLAMbake College set of activity pages and a large poster for a team game we call CLAMs and Ladders.
PS: Non-printing activities are never listed; those are in the lesson plans.
Every Print and Prep has this Biggie Verse Poster instruction page at the end, showing how to print and put together a typical Biggie Verse poster. In many churches teachers only teach occasionally, not every Sunday, and new teachers come along down the road. To be sure they all know how to assemble posters we always include this.
If any file requires special instructions, they will normally follow after this page.
After checking and printing the Print and Prep resource, you'll want to head to the Lesson Plans.
Here you see the cover page for the Upper Elementary class. It shows the lesson number and title and a quick outline of the class hour. The illustrations on the left show available Watchables and the recommended CLAMazine file. More on those when you scroll down this screen.
At the very bottom is the copyright line featuring the filename of the resource, in this case Upper 1ot Lesson.pdf.
All CLAMbake lessons have pages like these above. The first lists the files needed for the lesson plus any special materials. There is also a column showing fifteen lessons in order, so teachers know where their lesson fits in context. The second page shows the title and purpose of the lesson, along with the Biggie Verse and main Bible reference(s). Page 3 is the lesson plan's main body. It tells which activities to do, along with any needed instructions. In CLAMbake an activity's instructions can appear on this page, in the Print and Prep, on the activity page itself or any combination of the three. Next comes the CLAM Bible page that the teacher reads to the kids. Guided discussion thoughts and questions are shown in gray.
The Upper Elementary lesson plans also feature a final page called Bible Wars. Kids of this age group are old enough to easily read aloud Bible verses found in the course of the Bible Wars game.
Bible Wars achieves two main functions. One, it teaches kids the ever-important ability to look up Bible references. Two, when played at the end of the lesson it can be kept going until class ends.
The Upper Elementary lessons include a separate file called the CLAM Bible. It's for the teacher to hand out to the students. On the back is the voCLAMulary page, a glossary of terms used during the Bible reading. The voCLAMulary page is rarely mentioned in the lesson plans, so it serves as one more optional activity when wanted. The cartoon above is from the weekly CLAMazine. The CLAMazine can be used in class or sent home. It's for Upper Elementary ages.
More Parts and Pieces:
The Preschool (or Pre-K if you pre-fer) lessons are much simpler than what you've seen so far, of course. They do include three things the other lessons don't have. First is the Advent Bible which, when trimmed and taped together, has paper doors to open like a Christmas advent calendar. Behind the doors are illustrations from several Bible stories. The teacher has a separate page from which to read the stories. There's also a puppet skit with each lesson. And each lesson shows kids how to use simple sign language to make short phrases about God, His Son Jesus and the Bible.
Watchables!
Watchables are the coolest thing ever! Computer games and activities that the teacher controls while the kids watch, laugh and learn. The are with more on the way.
There are a ton of Watchables coming, but this one is of special interest. Our CLAMbake OT 50 Biggie Verses Watchable (for want of a better title) has the first fifty weeks of Biggie Verse posters covered. That means no printing, trimming and taping of the regular posters! Plus, the Watchables version features a fun memory game your class can play to better retain the awesome truths found in the Scriptures.
Just before leaving Parts and Pieces, we'll point out that there are always a ton of Bible learning activities each time you download a new set of lessons. You may not need them all, so be sure to check the Print and Prep file before feeding the printer.
I started CLAMbake in first grade and attended until I graduated in the fifth grade. This program got me excited to learn about Christ through the interesting Bible stories and games. My mother and I went back to volunteer. Becoming excited about my relationship with the Lord from a young age helped me walk with Him into my middle and high school years. I went on to staff the middle school youth group.
HELENA
College Student
What's in the Download Folders?
You'll receive the link to a single zip folder for every five weeks of lessons. The link to the latest ZIP folder will be emailed to you once every four to five weeks. In each folder you will find:
The CLAMbake lesson format is terrific for both the teachers and young students. I've used it with my 8-10 year-olds for nearly ten years.
BOB FRENCH
Resort Restaurant Owner, Sunday School Teacher
The first 15 lesson topics
Title, Theme, Main Passage, Memory Verse:
- 1God's BIG PLAN. God has wonderful plans for us. Genesis 1:1. Biggie Verse: Jeremiah 29:11
- 2Creation. Jesus is God. Genesis 1:1. Biggie Verse: John 1:3.
- 3Adam and Eve. Jesus loves us. Genesis 2 and 3. Biggie Verse: 1 John 3:5
- 4Cain and Abel. Jesus is the cure for our sins. Genesis 4:2-12; Matthew 9:1-8. Biggie Verse: Romans 6:23
- 5REVIEW of Lessons 1-4.
- 6Noah. Jesus saves us. Selections from Genesis 6:9—8:17. Biggie Verse: Acts 4:12.
- 7The Tower of Babel. Jesus, name above all names. Genesis 11:1-9. Biggie Verse: Philippians 2:10-11.
- 8Abraham is Called. Jesus chooses us. Genesis 12:1-7. Biggie Verse: John 10:27.
- 9Abraham and Sarah. Jesus can do anything. Genesis 18:1-15; 21:1-7. Biggie Verse: Jeremiah 32:17.
- 10REVIEW of Lessons 6-9.
- 11Abraham and Isaac. Believing our Lord. Genesis 22:1-18. Biggie Verse: James 2:22.
- 12Jacob and Esau. We are to forgive others. Selections from Genesis chapters 27, 32, 33. Biggie Verse: Matthew 6:14.
- 13Joseph the Slave. Jesus sets us free. Genesis 37:1-36. Biggie Verse: Romans 6:17.
- 14Joseph the Prince. We are part of God’s Big Plan. Excerpts from Genesis 39—46. Biggie Verse: Mark 16:15.
- 15REVIEW of Lessons 11-14.
Wow! There you have it! Click to sign up or log in:
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