kidSPACE Preschool

Twenty-five: that is the typical number of preschoolers (ages 2-5) that fill our downstairs each and every Sunday morning during Millersville's kidSPACE. For a church our size, that is a very significant number! The preschool age is such a wonderful time of exploration and discovery. You may have heard it said before that kids of these ages are sponges, and it is so true. They soak in everything you tell them, and in case you haven't noticed, things you don't tell them as well! Which is why what kids are taught, and how they're taught, is so critical. 

Dana and Sami Cook!

In kidSPACE we have three preschool classrooms: age 2, age 3, and ages 4,5. They all follow the same monthly theme but the activities they do are geared specifically towards their developmental abilities. Dana Cook is our preschool coordinator and does an amazing job leading a team of very dedicated preschool teachers and helpers. There are 6 leaders involved with our preschoolers each week, which results in around 24 different adults each month. We are humbled by their commitment to this very important age group. If you have a child in one of these classes, make sure to thank or do something special for your child's teachers this month!

Each Sunday the kids start out doing some introductory activities of the theme/lesson for the day. It's usually a high interest activity that gets them locked into the theme for the morning. To give you an example, this past Sunday kids played animal memory to introduce the theme for the day, which was God made animals. This is typically followed by the bible story for the morning and practice on their monthly bible verse. The morning concludes with hands-on application activities that help to "stick" lessons in the minds of the kids. So this past Sunday kids did activities like listening to animal sounds on a cd and guessing the animal, making animal puppets or fingerprint animals, or moving like animals. Teachers have a list of activities they get to choose from to close out the morning.



The 4,5 year olds wait to play a game.

On the first Sunday of each month parents receive a take home paper called Small Talk that outlines the monthly theme and weekly bible stories. If you are a preschool parent and miss that first Sunday there are extra copies of this paper hanging on the bulletin board in the preschool hallway. Feel free to pick one up! They also contain fun activities you can do at home to reinforce the bible stories and concepts kids learn each month.

         

Decorating Bear Cookies





The 3 year olds go fishing!



 



Ryan joins in the penguin race!