Christmas For Kids Checklist

Description

Christmas for Kids is a self-contained, one-day vacation Bible school program for use during a Saturday in the Advent season. This is a checklist of things that should be done to make it a successful program.

1. Schedule an org meeting, invite members of Bethany and Concordia to it.
2. Call older kids to see if they'd be shepherds.
3. We need one person in charge of each station. For the lesson stations, that person's job is to teach a certain lesson to every class. The other stations may need designated helpers to assist in playing music, organizing games, or completing crafts.
4. We need one person in charge of the front desk, and at least one helper during the registration period. The helper can guide additional students to their room after the lessons have begun.
5. We need one person in charge of lunch, and probably two or three good workers to help. Lunch should be ready to serve at the start of the lunch period, immediately after a prayer.
6. We need a Shepherd designated for each flock of students who will guide them from place to place, keep track of them so the students don't go missing, and help the teachers at each station to get everything done.
7. We should have a "crybaby" floater, armed with candy, who can help students who are having a hard time and turn a bad experience into a good one.
8. Station Schedule. The linked document is an OpenDocument spreadsheet, which should be usable by most any office software.
   1. Notice there are three sheets included in this file.
   2. When you fill out and adjust the "Master" sheet, data automatically flows into the second sheet ("Shepherd" -- individual shepherd schedules)
   3. Adjust or fill in the following items (in red boxes), as necessary:
      1. The order of lessons/stations in the headings across the top
      2. The times for each time slot listed on the top-left of the page
      3. Enter the locations for each station.
      4. Enter the teacher or person in charge for each station.
      5. Enter the names of each shepherd by their color.
      6. Write BRIEF summaries of the lesson/activity at each station toward the bottom.
      7. Adjust the meeting/organization places at the bottom.
   4. When finished, print and cut "Shepherd" sheet into separate pieces so that each shepherd can have their own.
   5. Print a Shepherd Checklist sheet for each shepherd. The front desk should receive a copy of the Master sheet, along with any floaters.
9. Obtain conference name-ID packs for shepherds and students
10. Choose video program or slide show for registration and release periods.
11. Print medical releases and registration forms.
12. Copy and assemble lesson packets from December Sunday School materials
13. Make list of needs from volunteers (teachers, etc.) and address it.
14. Advertise and invite.
15. Send postcards with last year's pictures to last year's attendees as invitations for this year.
16. Start with a prayer and a smile. Decompress when finished.

Other Needs and Ideas

• We need a loud bell that can be rung at the change of lessons. The front desk's helper could do this, or the "crybaby" floater.
• A photographer would be nice to have, who can just take pictures of the whole thing.
• Posters should say "Doors Open for Registration at X:XX; Classes begin at X:XX"
• We should have a TV in front of the flock gathering area showing a Gospel-oriented slide show or video related to the Christmas.
• Student lessons should be included in their manual
• Lunch tables should be color-coded for the flocks and shepherds
• Shepherds should have color-coded, uniform t-shirts. Helpers should have t-shirts too.
• Shepherds may be paired, if they are mature enough to work together
• We could use small tents for telling stories in.
• Lunch should be simple, without gummi-worms. Bento boxes, apple bunnies
• If there is time, we could use a staggered release to lunch.
• One of our volunteers should be current in CPR.