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This topic about Preschoolers and Kindergartners in Rotation has been compiled and edited from many years of discussion here at Rotation. We have consolidated the best advice and experience here below. You are welcome to add your insights.

If you have QUESTIONS, please post them in the Teacher's Lounge - Need Help, Ask!

For all intents and purposes, some of the advice just about preschoolers applies to Kindergartners, and vice versa.

The General Consensus:

Preschoolers and Kindergartners can do fine in Rotation, with help and adaptations.

But it's not a "must" to have them rotate. And there are several reasons why some churches don't include them.

Your decision to include them will likely be based on several factors, including:

The current state of your preschool program. If it's great, you might not want to disrupt it. Instead, let them stay with the program and teachers they have as you work on launching the Rotation Model for your older kids. Then if you want to add the young kids to your Rotations, you can do so when things are running smoothly.
The need for rooms. Some Rotation churches with limited space need the preschool room to become a workshop.
The amount of help you have. Preschoolers require extra help in the workshops, and if you're having trouble recruiting, some new recruits might not want to work with preschoolers.
How long ago since you started Rotation. Putting them into rotation in your start-up year can complicate things.
How good you are at adapting lessons for preschoolers. Rotation curriculum tends towards the middle elementary age, and for some teachers/churches, they might not have the time or talent to stretch those lessons "down" to the youngest children.

Excerpt of a post from Neil MacQueen

HOW MY CHURCH INCLUDED PRESCHOOLERS IN ROTATION

My church started bringing preschoolers in Rotation. We averaged about 6 to 8 preschoolers (ages 3 - PreK) each Sunday. Frankly, we were short on space and needed their classroom to open up space for a workshop. Interestingly, our preschooler teachers were gung-ho.

We discovered that the little guys LOVE going to the different rooms. They especially like the Computer lab where they were quiet and surprisingly focused for 20 minutes (a long time for that age group). And they loved our Art workshop. The one workshop which had too much open space (drama, and sometimes Games which we held in Fellowship Hall) made them want to wander.

TRUTH BE TOLD:

The preschoolers were IN the rotation of workshops, but didn't and can't do exactly what the older kids do. They simply have different needs and their cognitive abilities can't handle a lot of the stories and verses.

We rotated them but did many things differently for them, including adding a snack time and at times adding extra playtime. That's not a negative -- they loved it.

Indispensable Supplies
We have a cart full of booklets, toys, puppets, crayons, and craft supplies that follows this age group. This group definitely needs a shepherd or two. Playtime and snack time are also very important.

Lessons Adjustments
It's relatively easy for us to "extremely simplify" our workshop lessons for this age group. Age-appropriate vocabulary and concepts aren't a problem too much because all of our shepherds and teachers have had kids. This age group really benefits from the presence of good Bible picture books and a teacher who can tell a good story. Being able to sit on the floor with them is an important "capability."

"About not being in one room anymore."
We haven't noticed kids or parents being anxious about moving to different rooms. Our church isn't that big and that helps.
It has been fun to get to spend time with the little rug rats.
No one has complained that we turned the preschool room into a workshop. Looks better now than it did before!

Teacher's reaction to Preschoolers coming into their workshops...
In a way, I think our teachers view the preschool group coming in one week as a challenging break from a traditional lesson. The little kids are awful cute. And the pressure is "off" for one week to make the lesson work since expectations are lowered. Part of what helps this feeling is the preschool shepherds who come prepared and step right up to help. I don't know whether this is a good or bad thing! Just saying. Some teachers do better with the preschoolers than others. Depends on who you have, and points out the importance of having a great Shepherd.

Be Prepared
When I had the preschoolers in my videotaped-drama workshop I had the video camera turned on and pointing at them as they came into the workshop. They were excited to see themselves on TV, but when I turned off the camera to start class, one little boy started to cry and another was upset. It was almost TOO exciting.

If you're going to bring Preschoolers into Rotation, be prepared and have plenty of help.

Update:

We put our preschoolers in Rotation because of our room situation. In retrospect, if we had space, we could just as easily justify keeping them in their own room.

Excerpt of a post from CreativeCarol

HOW OUR CHURCH INCLUDED PRESCHOOLERS IN ROTATION

I would recommend starting off Rotation without the preschoolers (and maybe without kindergarten) in your Rotation program. You can always add them later. Neil is correct, what it adds is administrative work—mostly in the modification of lessons (because modifying the lessons will be necessary!) and sometimes in the use of materials.

In our 3rd year of doing Rotation, we added our preschool and K's to our 1st through 6th graders. However, we never rotated these age groups; the workshops came to them in their regular classroom. The kids and the adults loved it!

I feel that the benefit of including the younger kids in Rotation lessons is that the entire family can then be talking about the same stories!

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10/30/011:42 AM

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Jan NapaRotation.org Juggernaut! (150+ pts)

We began Rotation in January 2001 and at that time, because of the way we had to split our age groups and rooms available for workshops, we had our preschoolers (3's and 4's) in one (separate) room (always in the same room) and had a couple who took our rotation lessons and adapted them for the preschoolers, including lots of playtime and snack time. It went very well. We had between 4-8 that would come each week.

Beginning in September 2001 we had to shuffle age groups and decided to take our preschoolers with our kindergarteners and have them be one of our rotating age groups. At first, we heard scoffing that it wouldn't work.

The preschoolers/kindergarten class has adapted very well to the full rotation model!

They are attentive, enjoy participating and can learn the Bible verses as well as any 5th or 6th grader.

When the teachers present the material in simple terms and involve the children in some way (by doing craft projects or having them play the characters in the story) the preschoolers and kindergartners do really well.

Special circumstances:
30-35 minutes is the upper limit for some of the children. We use the 15 minutes at the end of class time as playtime—a great release of energy for those who get antsy. After about a 30 minute lesson time, if the workshop they're in isn't big enough for movement, we take them to one of our day school/preschool rooms for playtime. We do large motor skills movement stuff—parachute games, music/dancing, etc. to get the wiggles out.

I also think the combination of pre-k and kindergarteners is wonderful because the younger ones look up to the older ones for clues on how to behave.

I think that overall they are doing much better in the rotation-mix than when we did the preschoolers separate. There is much more of a variety of things (teachers and materials) that they see every week and it piques their interest.

Conclusion ... it works for us!

Jan at First Pres. Napa, CA

10/30/013:08 PM

Carol Linder -- member

Experience from Presbyterian Church in Las Vegas New Mexico

We initiated WoRM in the Fall of 1999 designing our own curriculum. These are the classes we have (we thought that naming the groups would allow us to be a bit flexible in dividing up kids):

Rainbows are ~3 – 5 years old (actual ages are 2 to 6). Number of children = 9 (average attendance 6)
Skywalkers are ~6 – 8 years old. Number of children = 9 (avg attendance 6)
Seekers are ~8 – 10 years old. Number of children = 7 (avg attendance 6)
Pilgrims are ~11-13 years old. Number of children = 5 (avg attendance 3) we added this group this year, these children were previously with the Seekers.

The first year we did not include preschoolers as we felt that they needed the continuity. We added preschoolers in the fall of 2000. At the same time, we initiated a "home room teacher." (Like a "Shepherd"—an adult who rotates with the group.) In our first year, we recruited two teachers per workshop (a church requirement). We found that even for the elementary-age kids that the lack of continuity was a problem—some recruited teachers that had not previously been involved in Sunday School did not know all the kids by name and the children were not especially comfortable. The home room teacher idea works great with all classes. We recruit home room teachers for at least a semester (we tell them, you don't have to plan, only assist the lead workshop teacher). As we rotate rooms each week, the children still have the continuity of at least one familiar face. One thing we find missing in most lesson sets is a basic outline of the story or theme. One member of our design team writes up an introduction to each lesson to hand out to the teachers.

Most of the curriculum we currently use comes from Rotation.org. Sometimes, the design team and teachers find additional resources for a Rotation. Most of the lesson plans need to be modified fairly extensively for our Rainbows group (our preschoolers), especially the video recommendations, Bible used, and games.

Bottom line advice for incorporating preschoolers into WoRM:
1. Encourage parents of younger children to stay and participate (at least initially)
2. Plan for alternate activities if children are not grasping what you think they will get (at Logos last week I tried to get the Kindergartners and 1st grade to play modified kick ball (game used for 2nd - middle school-age kids the week before with great success!), a couple of children could grasp the concept but most were not even interested, we quickly bagged that and pulled out the parachute (a big hit)
3. Go over concepts and story several times during the course of class time

Carol Linder

10/30/019:20 PM

Love to Teach

We had pre-schoolers in our 1st year of Rotation. They had a great time but didn't learn anything! It was difficult for the teachers because the pre-school curriculum was so different from the currirulum for the older children and the teachers always seemed confused aobut who they were teaching on any given Sunday. Now, pre-school and kindergartners are in one traditional class and I write one rotation curriculum for kids who can read. It is much easier for the teachers to adapt to the grade level and the pre-schoolers do much better. One of our Sunday school teachers is a pre-school teacher and she feels that pre-schoolers need to be in a stable environment which includes the same room and the same teacher(s) each week in order to really learn. We have seen an improvement in behavior and learning since we put the pre-schoolers back in a traditional setting.

10/30/0110:49 PM

CindyT -- member

Our church has 3 preschoolers (all age 3) in our rotation program. When we started WoRM last month, we were trying to keep the kids in a separate class, but they preferred to mingle in with the K-1st graders. So during our second rotation, we merged them in. Results have been wonderful. For example, using the Play & Learn Bible CD (by the way, this is one of the best children's software I have ever seen - - the kids and adults loved it!) in the computer workshop, I noticed how the kindergarteners were helping the preschoolers and how each received so much from that interaction. The kids were singing along with the music on the software, they were helping each other with using the mouse - - it worked out extremely well.

Even with the preschool class by itself, the children were learning so
much. Obviously, we had to slim down the lesson plans, add more activities because of the short attention span, etc. But I have always believed that preschoolers should be brought into the Sunday School program - - you would be amazed at how much they learn and retain.

Though there is quite a large age range in this one class, the preschoolers have not distracted the older children at all. For the most part, the Kindergarteners have taken the preschoolers under their wings. The 1st graders have seemed to accept the arrangement - - I haven't heard any complaints yet. I have quite a few parent helpers and 2-3 shepherds for this whole group, and that helps tremendously. Next year, we're likely to have 5-6 preschoolers, so we may decide then to separate them into their own class.

Our church is fairly small (we have 25 - 30 Sunday School students total). This arrangement of Pre-K through 1st grade may not work for larger churches, but for us, it's working fine.

Hope this helps.

Cindy Thorpe
Living Waters Lutheran Church
Flemington, NJ

10/31/011:15 PM

TinaNauman -- member

We have always included preschool beginning at 4 years old in our rotation. In fact our preschool/kindergarten group is the largest group.

We have a preschool at our church and it is how most of our new members are coming to us...through the preschool and through the children. The children are pulling their parents out of bed on Sunday mornings because they have so much fun. Workshop Rotation is ideal for this age group. They love the variety, the repetition - all those strengths that make it work for other age groups is ideal for our youngest students. Our class divisions right now are Preschool/'Kindergarten, 1st-3rd, 4th-6th. We have about 15 students regularly attending each of the upper 2 groups and 17-20 in our PS/K group. Right now during our shepherd time we divide our PS/K group into 2 sections for jounaling, prayers, relationship time but then join them altogether for the workshops. I think we will be dividing our PS/K into 2 groups since it keeps growing! But the workshop leaders have not minded the large group because they believe that they encourage each other to participate fully. But the shepherds are feeling a bit over-whelmed!

There has never been a problem with any of the workshop leaders making the adjustments necessary to provide for the age spread of 4 years old through 6th grade. We sometimes ask for extra hands with our youngest for workshops or journaling that will take a smaller adult/child ratio than some other activities.

For us, it has been extremely succesful and I would encourage others to give it a try.

Tina Nauman
Grandview Ave. United Methodist Church
Dubuque, Iowa

11/10/014:11 PM

SheilaB -- member

We have preschoolers in with our kindergarteners and as all parents think their children are older than they are though the children are supposed to start at age 3 we do have a few older 2's as well. We are lucky to have a wonderful shepherd for this group that is perfect for preschoolers. They love being in rotation and though we do have a toddler class that does rotation like activities each week in the nursery going in the "cool" rooms is what they want. For the most part they are totally immerged in rotation but some things to watch out for if you have them in rotation.

Really prescreen videos for them, much of the old testiment is rather violent and even animated videos can scare children. One very young fellow was afraid the soldiers could see him in the moses rotation. Unfortuneately, he won't go to the class in the nursery because he only goes upstairs because his big sister is in the class, she speaks for him etc. He will be 3 in March, is very well behaved but really thought the water coming out of a sheet covered chair was water coming out of a rock and he went into hysterical tears. Between that and the sound effect of running and whinnying horses as they ran through Red sea sheets I think I have traumatized him for life. His father is one of my teachers this rotation for Advent so we are going to try not to do anything scary for Advent unless he finds angels scary. Another important thing is to have an active game to play when you run out of things to do. For Noah my shepherd quickly made up "Noah May I?" based on "Mother May I" and they had to take different types of animal steps to get to the line. For Exodus they played follow the leader. Now for Advent we will have to come up with a new game. They can play it each week of the rotation at the end. Having the preschoolers in with the kindergarteners give them great role models on how to do it. They also write in journals everyday/ draw in them but it will be a wonderful keepsake of their first year in rotation.

Sheila

11/24/013:48 PM

nora -- member

We began rotation with 1-6 grades in Sept 2000. It has been a great success with children, parents, and teachers. This past summer the preschool through kindergarten teachers asked to become involved in the rotation, but they felt that the children still needed the consistency and security of being in the same classroom with the same teachers. We average about 30 children in this age group and have two classrooms with a team of 4 or 5 teachers per class. We felt that the stories and concpts that we wanted to approach with the younger children were different than those we are using with the older group so we develped an entirely different Goals and Objectives and a four year plan for them. To do two sets of curriculum is certainly a challenge, but we're willing to give it a try!

2/6/022:56 AM

MiSuk -- member

Adapting the Rotation Model to our One Large Room Preschool Space

After being introduced to the WoRM back in July, 2002, my education director and I, the head of the preschool, began thinking of ways to implement WoRM into our preschool curriculum. (The elementary students will implement WoRM next year.)

We decided to try it with the preschool children since what we were doing at the time was not satisfactory due to space limitations and a large preschool and kindergarten student population. We decided to experiment with a modified version of the WoRM to fit our needs.

Our Space Configuration:

We essentially had one large room to create several learning "stations" or "workshops" by using decor and dividers.

The preschool occupies a separate education building which will be torn down in about a year to make room for a brand new education hall attached to the main church. The building we occupy is a one-room rectangular space of about 2700 square feet. To cut down on the noise level, we installed removable wall-dividers to the right side of the room to create a back-to-back space for a "Noah's Ark Story Tent" and a Rainbow Art Center. We placed chairs at the far end to create a worship area. The left side of the space was divided into an open play center and a snack area.

Forming Groups who "Rotate" through each Center/Workshop

We serve a group of about 55 children aged three to six who are divided into rainbow-colored stars, two kindergarten groups, and three preschool groups. Each class contains between 10-12 children:

Red Stars-Kindergarten aged
Orange Stars- Another group of Kindergarteners
Yellow Stars-4 1/2 year-old preschoolers
Green Stars- 4-year-old preschoolers
Blue Stars- 3 year-old preschoolders

Creation of Centers(Workshops):

With the help of parent volunteers, we gave the whole place a colorful make-over. In creating the story tent, we attached a rainbow-colored parachute to the center of the ceiling spreading it out to the sides of the wall and the dividers. Inside the tent, we brought in a comfortable couch with colorful animal print cushions, a few large pillows, thick foam mats to sit on the floor and a TV for viewing videos. All this created a colorful yet cozy area for bible stories, with puppetry and drama sessions to follow.

For the Rainbow Art Center, we condensed some of the children's art murals and collages on the walls. All the art supplies were organized in cubbies and drawers for easy access.

The Animals Two by Two Playcenter was stocked with games, blocks, puzzles, and other free-play toys.

The parents got involved and helped to paint Noah's animals on the surrounding walls. Wow, what a beautiful difference!

Rotation of Groups Between the Centers (aka "workshops")

For now, we spend two weeks on a given story. The kindergarteners and the preschoolers take turns in week 1 and week 2 for art center and story tent. In a clockwise direction a shepherd lead their stars to each center, i.e. (art, snack, play) or (story, snack, play) or (play, art snack), etc. We have one stationary leader in each center and one shepherd with each group of children to lead them to the next activity which lasts about 15 minutes each. The art activity and the story always support each other. The play center is a free play area with related games and puzzles that may support the story when possible. The snack area can get creative with supported food to tie in with the story also.

Results:

With this pared-down and modified version of the WoRM, we seem to have succeeded in meeting the needs of our preschoolers and kindergarteners.

Everyone is pleased with the transformation and the reorganization of our preschool.

The WoRM's approach and its positive effects improved volunteer participation, children's pride in their space and teachers being able involve their students more actively.

For the future, we are planning to expand the two-week rotation to four weeks to include more of puppetry, drama and computers. For now we are keeping it simple to allow for the experimental period and then the transition period when we finally get to move to the new building.

Please feel free to post any comments or suggestions regarding my first experience with the WoRM and the Sunday School education of preschool children. I will be checking this topic periodically and updating my posting. I think The Idea and Lesson Exchange is a great place to share ideas, unload frustrations, and learn from each others successes as well as failures.

Thank you for creating a message board for this very important topic.

Peace be with all of you.

MiSuk

12/9/023:02 AM

PBMember

We were so impressed with Workshop Rotation Model, we wanted all of our children to benefit from this wonderful experience. When we started our Rotations in June 2003, we started with two separate rotations.

• In one rotation, we have our Toddler Class, ages 2 & 3, Kindergarten Class, ages 4 & 5, and our Primary Class, ages 6 – 8.

• In our rotation for the older children, we have our Junior Class, ages 9 – 11, Youth Class, ages 12 – 14, and our Teen Class, ages 15 – 18.

The workshop leaders teach within their own rotations, so the age difference is not so great. It would be a very wide stretch to ask someone to teach a 2 year old one week and the next week to teach an 18 year old.

The main differences between the two rotations are;
• The Toddler, Kindergarten and Primary classes have their own rooms, they do not rotate, the teachers move to each class. We believe this gives the younger children, especially the 2 & 3 year olds a better feeling of security.

• The workshop leaders teach two workshops to each class each week. Our usually workshops are:
Video & Bible Review Games
Bible Review Games & Craft
Science & Cooking
Computer & Cooking

So far, each rotation has lasted 4 weeks, with both rotations teaching the same stories (with age appropriate differences) but that can and possibly will change as needed. This has been a very great success with our whole church.

9/22/037:39 AM

revshannan -- member

We have our Pre-schoolers in rotations, which is our PreK/Kindergarten class. We let parents put the children in when they feel they are ready (and we've had a good experience with parents putting children in when they really are ready!). We double up on our teachers for this, and/or add a high schooler who is responsible. I also float around the rooms a lot and usually end up in this one helping out. These kids do well and the feedback from the parents has been enthusiastic. One of the "perks" at our congregation is that this age group is the Cherub Choir at the church and their practice is for the last ten minutes of class time, which helps with their shorter attention spans. They really get into the rotations and are one of our most enthusiastic and best-in-attendance groups!

11/24/033:24 PM

Love to Teach

We are in our second year of rotation and included preschoolers from the start. We have an "Activity Room" with bright Picasso-like shapes painted on two walls (tables are set up for activities) and a Story Room with padded carpet, a mural with rolling hills on the walls, a tent made of muslin hanging from the ceiling and white christmas lights peeking from in between the tent openings (students usually sit on the floor). The idea is to have one active and one passive room. I write lessons for a 4 week rotation which have a different activity and story lesson for 3 of the 4 weeks, and on the other week students go to the theater (with popcorn)and either the computer room or they have an additional activity to do. It gets a little hard coming up with 3 story lessons, but I am planning on adding a set of costumes for children to dress up in and make one week "dress-up" day. On one week of the activity room I always do a kitchen-type lesson so they can enjoy a snack. We have about 24 regular attending children from ages 3 - Kindergarten at two different hours. The children are divided into two groups during the hour and spend 20 minutes in a center then switch, then they have music in a separate room. It has worked out quite well, except for the stress of having to write so many lessons in addition to our 8 elementary centers. But I am learning to adapt many of the older lesson sets into younger versions. I am also getting better at learning about computer software that is appropriate for preschoolers (Thank you Neil M. for Sunday Software!) so that area can be better developed in the future. We include Kindergarteners in this age group because I ran out of space in our elementary areas, otherwise I would only have 3,4, &5's included.

Kim Eighmy
St. James Lutheran Church
Verona, WI

3/9/0411:43 AM

Kim TrimboliRotation.org Legend (500+ pts) Supporting Member!

An additional comment to add to Neil's. I spent time this weekend with a church member whose daughter, age 3, has started regularly participating in Sunday School. Mom was very concerned about her daughter's ability to participate and learn. But what she told me this weekend is how impressed she is with how quickly her 3 year old has taken to the "routine" of rotation, and how she comes home talking about the Bible story she has learned this fall. My first grade son still refers back to stories he learned in rotation two to three years ago.

It requires some extra work - but so would having a separate classroom for them. We are seeing good fruit from this style of learning.

Kim

10/23/0411:46 PM

Brenda Goodman -- member

We have preschool thru 8th grade in our rotations. The preschool move just like everyone else. Their schedule is a little different. we all start in one large group for prayer, mission projects, and a quick over veiw of the story. Than we split off into workshops. the preschool which 3 year ols thru 5 year olds. Schedule looks like this. 9:45-10:00 assembly time. 10:00 -10;05
sherherd time 10:05 -10:20 music time ,
10:20 - 10:35 lesson time and 10:35 - 10:45
free time where they have snack, or play time, dress up time (this time is flexalbe because some lessons take longer) We also have a team of people that will go in and teach if the workshop leader does not want to teach this group because this group scares some people.
We like having the preschools move through the rooms. We think that feel more apart of the church. That this is their home too.
It works for us.
Brenda

8/5/062:54 PM

Love to Teach

Here's what we decided to about our 3 classes of preschoolers (3's, 4's and K's) - Portable Centers. Portable Centers are 4-drawer carts on wheels filled with Christian toys and games. The carts rotate to the classrooms, the children stay put. Centers provide quality, Christian free play activity. The use of centers is augment a teachers lesson plan and minimize the amount of time required to prepare an hour-long lesson. Centers would complement the provided curriculum (new also). They can fill the time for Childrens Church when worship runs long. It should be easier to attract a teacher to fill an unexpected no-show position with ready-made activities - add a Bible story, and a song or game and you have a meaningful lesson.

We already are attracting new volunteers to teaching positions with its ease-of-use "I can do that". By design, the inexperienced teacher can feel confident in setting up and supervising these activities, assisting the children at play and providing positive reinforcement.

Design criteria for the presentation of centers: All centers feature Christian themes and props. They are convenient and very easy to use and Portable. They are age appropriate.

Center Activities
Each cart has 4 centers contained on a 4-bin cart with wheels. Each cart has a puzzle center and a craft center plus 2 other centers (see list below). The craft centers will be different for each cart. Crafts: 1.Stamps, stamp pads, stamp markers and paper, markers. 2. Art tape, paper plates, scissors, scraps, glue, markers, yarn, etc, 3. Playdough and cookie cutters

Each cart contains 2 additional centers from the following list: Dress-up clothes and props,Beads, Story books self read, Puppets, Games memory games and cards, Bean bag animals, Action figures - manipulatives, Veggietales characters, Listening center with readalong tapes and headphones

Not all centers are available all the time. Some of these centers will rotate off and on. There may also be seasonal centers added or seasonal items to existing centers.

Each center (bin) is stocked only for a maximum number of children (5-6) per center. With 4 center bins per cart, a cart will accommodate activities for 20 to 24 children. Additional inventory can then be used to replace and refresh the center contents.

Also in each cart for the teacher: Storybooks to read to the children, Game ideas, Activity sheets

Rotation of Carts - 3 carts are equiped with different centers and are on a rotation schedule for the 3 clasrooms.

This idea has created new excitment with the preschool teachers who felt left out by our new workshop rotation for the elementary children. We are tapping new teachers who feel more confident that they can fill the time with these new centers. Our mission for this age group is simple: to introduce Christian stories, ideas, vocabulary and messages:God is love and church is a fun place to be.

Our mission for the teachers: make it easy, fun, and hard to say "no" .

[This message has been edited by Catherine (edited 03-26-2001).]

8/5/062:56 PM

danaRotation.org Guru (300+ pts)

we offer a "rotation style" class to our 2/3 year olds. They stay in their classroom and have an older man (a shepherd) with them every week - 'Grandpa George'. Knowing that these children are just learning play and social skills (such as sharing) and have a very short attention span) any thing they do related to the lesson is only about 2-3 minutues long. Of course, most of the time is spent playing with the toys. Each month I try to write a very simple lesson/story based on the lesson used in the workshops. I look for very easy activites: games, crafts, songs, dances, snacks, etc. that relate to the story. I try provide the lead teacher - who changes each month - with enough activities to do something new each week or they can repeat an activity - since these children love repetition. We have used this model for about 3 years. It must be working as parents will often tell me that their little one will often do something they "learned" in class. For example - one month the children studied the Woman with the Alabaster Jar. A father told me that while giving his 2-1/2 year old son a bath, the little boy poured water on Dad's head. He said- I am anointing you just like Jesus was anointed. The boy even used the right word! Our four years olds rotate in their own group as part of the rotation classes.

8/8/0610:46 AM

CathyWalzBoard Member Supporting Member!

We have been doing rotation since October and PreK is included. Here is our info

History: Before Rotation, we had a separate class with PreK3, PreK4, and Kind--each with their own teacher & helper. We didn't want this age group rotating with the big kids. We thought about rotating them amongst the 3 classrooms (PreK3, PreK4, Kind) but thought that would be alot of work for the staff and would probably be confusing/stressful for our little ones.

Numbers: We have PreK3, PreK4, and Kindergarten all together in one room. Attendance ranges from 12-18.

Logistics: They do not rotate with the older kids. They stay in their one room, and we do a different workshop station with them each week.

Teachers: We have the same 3-5 adults in the room with them each week. The adults take turns teaching, so you are the teacher once a month and a helper the rest of the month (so the PreK teachers get the same benefit of only one lesson prep/month also). The continuity is good.

Curriculum: The little ones study the same story as the big kids. A week or two before the next rotation, I hand out the "Big Kid" lessons to the PreK teachers. They then adapt them to the younger audience. Sometimes one of the workshop stations just won't work for the younger ones so we substitute something else. The teachers have all taught this age in Sunday School for years so they have a pretty good idea of how to adapt the lessons. The lesson is the one part of this system that I would like to work on. It would probably be better to write out separate PreK lessons with their own goals and activities, but we haven't found the time yet so our teachers (bless them) figure this out on their own.

Response: A number of parents have said that their children are enjoying Sunday School. No one has expressed concern that the ages are grouped together now. Sometimes the older ones will help the younger ones. We have quite a few sibling sets in the room which I think has helped the younger one to be more comfortable starting Sunday School.

8/8/0610:48 AM

Love to Teach

We have two groups of preschoolers - PK3 and PK4. Our older preschoolers (about 8 on an average Sunday) rotate with the older kids but have two shepherds that travel with them each week. Our 3-year-olds (about 6) have a team of 2 teachers and they mainly stay in their homeroom.

We use a modified rotation curriculum for the younger group. They study the same story as the older kids but usually have a more structured class time. All kids meet in our fellowship hall for 15 minutes of singing, announcements and review of our memory verse, then we dismiss to classes. The 3-year-olds typically go to their homeroom, put stickers on their attendance chart and begin with a story time (we try to find an age-appropriate book that relates to the topic we're studying; otherwise, the teachers read from the appropriate passage of a children's bible that stays in the room). Following story time, there's a motor activity or game of some sort that allow the children to "get their wiggles out." Our teachers sometimes modify a game such as "Duck, Duck, Goose" or "Red Light, Green Light" with names or words from the story they just heard. Following the motor activity, kids go to a table for a hands-on project. This is where they enjoy "rotation"-style activities. Some weeks they may have a "cooking" project, which is basically an edible craft (for example, when we studied Jesus' healing of the paralytic man, the kids made a house out of graham crackers and peanut butter and pretzels and used fruit leather and fruit rollups to make a mat on which to lower a tiny doll through the roof). Other weeks they will have a craft of some sort that is modified from what our older kids are doing in Creation Station.

Our 3-year-olds will typically combine with the PK4s for movie week and travel to the theater. We generally will have a different video for the pre-schoolers than the one the older kids are seeing - just depends on what the topic is. Also, during the week that our drama workshop is not being used, the 3-year-olds will sometimes travel there to act out the story they are studying.

This is the second year of rotation for us. We have have incorporated PK4s in our program from the start, but only added the PK3s this year, due to the incredible demand and growth of our Sunday School attendance as a result of the rotation model. I am told that the 2-year-olds are getting a lot out of this program, and the format is easy for our teachers to do without feeling burned out. Hope this helps!

8/8/0610:51 AM

Lisa MartinRotation.org Legend (500+ pts)

We have two different approaches:

Wednesday night (this is our second rotation) we have a 3 year old through Kindergarten rotation -- actually two rotations with about 5-6 children in each group. Last rotation was the first time we tried it and the group grew from 4 to 11 kids which we found was too big. The children do some variation on the lesson learned by the older children, although we've had to completely scrap some lessons and completely redo for preschool. In general, they do the activity for about 25 minutes unstead of the full 50. Then they have activity books/coloring pages that we have made up and that the shepherds have them open and color. Question: Is it effective? It has been very effective in evangelism -- we almost tripled in this age group -- and the children really enjoy it. Parents are happy, children are happy. Teachers are okay with the idea since we don't ask them to come up with a new lesson plan, we just tell them what to leave out. Do they learn anything? A good question. I have a 3 year old and 4 1/2 year old who are in this program. We just finished Abraham and Sarah and they are most definitely A&S experts, but whether this is entirely because of the lessons or because as PKs this has been reinforced at home through the week, I don't know. (On the other hand, I get very little feedback from what they learn Sunday morning.)

On Sundays our preschool class is taught by a very committed lay person who insists on the one lesson a week format, so there is no repetition. He does like the idea of using the rotation spaces, however, so a couple times a month he will take his class to the computer lab, movie theater, or kitchen for all or part fo their lesson. My kids really like the teacher (he is great with the kids) and using the rotation rooms is very exciting for all the kids in the class. Are they learning anything? I'd have to say that they are learning to have positive associations with church, but not anything about the Bible.

So I guess I would say that I prefer the rotation approach, but would caution anyone doing it not to expect the same results as you see in older children.

Also, on a practical note, we found we really needed a small class size and extra shepherds. With the three year olds, expect a period of adjustment.

Lisa

8/8/0610:58 AM

Jaye -- member

We have been using rotation with our preschoolers for a year now. We have had to adapt it to them, using different types of books and art mediums. Preschoolers had 1 very large room and one 12x12 room. They previously sat at tables and were divided into the 3 year olds and 4-5 yro. We put them all together. We turned the smaller room into the Game room, Theater and Imagination Station. Of course not all these are used the same day. The large room has the Story/Music corner, Kitchen area, art area. The kids spend 20 min. in an area and have 3 groups that rotate during the hour. This works great for our kids. They love it and the teachers are happy that they can pick one area to work in. Each group has an assistant/sower that follows the group.
At first this didn't go over very well. In fact we had some major controversy and I got told on for changing it. They were so used to having to figure out how, that when it was basically done for them, they could not bare it. It was difficult but then through prayer and pressing on, and finding someone that could put it even more together for the teachers, they got it. Now its been over a year and they are happy and content with the lessons.
We use the same curriculua for preschool - 6th.

2/3/0712:56 PM

Love to Teach

We just started the rotation model this September. I have four groups that rotate - Preschoolers, K-1st, 2nd-3rd and 4th-5th grades. I was very excited to include the preschoolers because my daughter is in preschool. I write our lesson sets off of ideas on here and the internet. When I write them, I keep my daughter and one of my 4th graders in mind. He is very "Bible literate" and can get bored easily.
To help with this age gap, I do the following:
-I choose the most creative lessons that I can find for each of the rotations in the month. The wonderful thing about this site is that there are MANY ideas to pull from and you can mix and match to work for your program.
-I asked the 4th grader to have an open mind. He may "know" these stories, but I'm sure he hasn't learned them this way before.
-I also ask him and the other 4th-5th graders to let me know if they liked or disliked something. It makes them know that their opinion really counts and their feedback is helpful.
-I write the lessons for the older groups and modify it down for the younger ones when necessary.
-I ask the older kids to "help" with the younger kids in our group time together by leading the singing and drama time together.

I used to be a preschooler teacher, so to modify it down for the younger ones is not a problem. For example, I am doing an art project for the wise men where they are making a star. The older kids are making a very intricate star and the younger ones are making a tissue paper and contact paper star. Both groups are making a star, but in different ways to make it fun and age appropriate. The middle groups are making the intricate star, but with a little more preparation of the craft as the modification for the project.

I am so happy to report that 4 months into it, the 4th-5th graders are enjoying the "new way of learning" these stories and the preschoolers (including my own daughter) keep telling us the stories that they've learned. This model is really sinking in with all of the age groups.

12/15/088:06 PM

Wormy the Helpful WormSite Admin Supporting Member!

Compilation of posts by members specifically about Kindergartners in Rotation

Member Chris18 wrote:

Every church must certainly do what works in their facilities with their people and their numbers. But for others reading this, I just want to put in a plug for including the kindergartners.

Our Kindergartners have adapted well to rotation and so have our teachers. It's just been completely positive for us. We've always included the kindergarteners- we're in our 7th year. With minimal suggestions for age adaptation, the teachers have expressed no concerns about including the kindergarteners. We do keep an eye on the activities and pull in an extra helper when needed—especially for art projects that may challenge their fine motor skills

Member Lois Petersen wrote:

We are starting our 6th year of rotation and we've always included pre-schoolers and kindergartners. If the lessons are written for that age group, you will have no problem. I think if we didn't have rotation, that age group would be the first to complain.

What really helps is this:

Having a very good Kindergarten Shepherd look over each lesson in the workshop and make sure they are adapted specifically for that age group. That age group tends to need more "mothering" as well, so having one of the Kindergarten teachers rotate WITH the kids really helps.

The other thing is this:

Sometimes we rotate the K's into a workshop but do our own thing. For example, we often will do puppets and games in the Drama Workshop. And because we don't have a lot of software for the little guys, we'll use the computers for just a short time in the Computer workshop and then maybe do a craft or play a game.

Member Chris wrote:

Chris - I completely agree with you. We've included our kindergartners for the past 4 years (prior to that we did Rotation for 3 years starting with 1st graders) The K's do great! Their energy and curiosity are infectious and they're great role models for our 5th graders. :-

Member McKinney wrote:

We are just in our second year and have included the k and even pre-k. Yes, it takes modifications and adjustments, but they really enjoy the classes. We have 2 shepherds that go to each workshop with them, to help the leader out. Leaders have had no problem having that age group. My son is in that group, and I wouldn't want him in any other type of class. I love it!

Member LHambre wrote:

We tried it the first year and just couldn't make the stretch work. The lessons just weren't simple enough for them and it proved too challenging to tweak them that much to their level - the movie, the crafts, the games. About the only workshop, we didn't have to adjust somehow was the Cooking Workshop!

Their maturity and understanding just didn't mesh with the kind of lessons we wanted to offer the older kids. It's amazing what a difference there is between them and first graders, in our experience anyway.

We have a separate traditional Sunday School for them in a different part of our church, so that helps. It feels "special" to them and their parents.

That's been our experience - but each church is different.

Member Neil wrote in response to a question:

I think the K's love it, but the bigger question is really how much can YOU and your people handle administratively speaking. Some Kindergarten teachers, leaders, rooms, schedules, and parents are easier to work into Rotation.

When starting up a new Rotation Sunday School, adding K's in your first year can add "more things to worry about." So perhaps you should just get started with the older kids and see where it takes you. In many churches, the K-kids and parents see your workshop and want to be part of the action.

4/29/203:26 PM

Robin StewartBoard Member, Writing Team Supporting Member!Board Member

In our system, the kindergarten year is a year of big change. They move from the "nursery" area to the classrooms on another floor in the building. We have always treated that as a "bridge year" where they enjoy a new more grown up feeling but still know they will be in the same room or area each Sunday. They do move between two adjoining rooms for different parts of the morning plan. It is also a transition time for parents. Sometimes toward the end of the school year, we include the kindergarten students for special events or programs withint the elementary rotation. It has served as a good introduction and provides something for those families to look forward to.

This is within what has been a moderate to large size group with up to 20 kids in each grade. I can see where this would be very different in other scenarios.

4/30/202:37 PM

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