Trading Teaching Tools

Having trouble coming up with class materials for your Sunday morning and Wednesday night kids? Can't afford to buy new? It can be a big problem.

Kent and Robin Kassinger, Pastors at Bernie First Assembly, have a very unique solution they would like to share with us.

---

"Kent is currently a bi-vo pastor who drives a school bus for an area school district," says Robin. "He became acquainted with a counselor at Bernie High School, who is also a children's pastor at an area church, and they got to talking about church, kids, curriculum, etc.  In that conversation he found out that a few churches associated with this counselor's church all go in together and split the cost of a video-based curriculum and rotate it between them. Kent asked how it all worked, who wrote the curriculum, and if other churches could buy in.  She shared with him all the information we needed and let him try an 8-week pack. We then bought into this group for an amount averaging $200 annually, and have full access to a $12-$1400-per-year curriculum.  Our local high school counselor's office houses these curriculum packs for us, and each church may "switch out" their packs every 8 weeks. We are in a small town, so the school district is not opposed.  You may try the library, a larger church with office hours, or maybe a business owner from your church if your school is not an option.

The curriculum that we use on Sunday morning for Children's church is Elevate Kids from Ed Young Jr. and is not Assemblies of God, but is Biblically-sound teaching of solid fundamentals of Christian living. It is high energy, video-based, (which attracts and retains the kids' attention), and is extremely easy for any teacher.  We find it is extremely easy to add in our own teachings about the Holy Spirit. We use High Voltage from Rural Compassion for our Wednesday night kids’ program. They are DVD packs which we project to a wall screen using our BGMC projector (provided our 2nd year at Bernie).

We have had much feedback from our church parents created by the use of this resource for educating our kids. We have had many stories from kids talking to their parents about wanting to tithe on the money they get to playground evangelism, along with many, many questions sparked from the seeds these lessons are planting in the minds of our kids.  It isn't stopping at the dismissal of class, but going into their homes and being talked about all week. That's a resource we have found to be priceless!"

---

Testimonies

---

     The Sunday Morning Children's Church Teacher at Bernie First says, "I currently use the Elevate Kids curriculum for children's church.  This curriculum is broken up into 8-week "chunks", where each 8 weeks is a different theme.  This is great for those who are creative because you can center everything around that theme.  You can also, however, just use the graphics and things that are provided if you're not so creative.
     This curriculum is super easy to use!  It literally has options for those who want to spend extensive amounts of time and for those who have no time at all.  Each lesson has a "watch it/train" DVD which has worship, a bible story, and skit in video form for the kids to watch.  This option requires little to no work.  There is also a "perform it live" DVD in which worship is still done for you, but you tell the bible story and have people act out the characters in the skit (the entire script is provided for you).  On top of the worship, bible, and skit options, there are usually different options for large and small group games or crafts.  This curriculum has transformed children's church at Bernie First. Our kids are fully engaged and actively learning and retaining the material.  They are constantly wanting to know more about Jesus!"

Kent and Robin Kassinger
Bernie First Assembly
Bernie, MO

---

     "I use the High Voltage curriculum for ages kindergarten through 6th grade," says the Wednesday night kids' teacher. I will begin using my fourth lesson plan next week, and I am extremely satisfied with the ease of using their curriculum and how much my class enjoys the lessons. The curriculum comes with 4 DVD's: one with the lesson plans and posters, one with a skit for each lesson that introduces what I will be talking about, one with power point slides that can be used during the lesson as a visual aid, and the fourth one has songs.
    There is very little preparation needed before each week. When I start a new set of lesson plans, I print out all the plans at once and put them into a binder. Then as I complete a lesson, I move it to the back of the binder so I don't forget what week I am on. I am also not able to use all that the curriculum provides for, so I only use what I can. The curriculum provides games to play each week, puppet plays, songs, memory verses and review questions. I use the DVD with the skit to introduce the lesson, then I read through the lesson, and then end with a "wrap it up" video. The great part about this curriculum is that you can choose to use as much or as little as you are able, yet everything still flows smoothly.
     There are fun characters for each different curriculum that the kids come to enjoy and look forward to. One character that my class has come to love and enjoy is Skittles. He seems very silly and not too bright, but he loves God and helps present the lessons in a way the kids relate to and they enjoy his "raps" at the end of each lesson. With my class, I allow them to get up and dance with him at the end of the lesson, and they make sure to remind me to play the wrap it up videos if I ever forget. Overall, I am extremely happy with the High Voltage curriculum, the ease of using it, and how much my class enjoys it."