ELEMENTARY SCHOOL MINISTRY - WINTER 2024
Sunday Morning Faith Formation (Sunday School)
Happy Holidays - November 3 through December 15 from 10:05-10:50 a.m.
*No Sunday School on December 1
Psalm 100:1-2, 4 says, “Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth.
Worship the LORD with gladness; come into his presence with singing.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name.”
This winter we are getting in the holiday spirit while we learn about thankfulness in the Bible. We are going to explore how we can give thanks to God with our whole body, and prepare our hearts for our true light, Jesus! Through games, music, Minecraft and more, we will make a joyful noise while we give thanks to God.
All of our Sunday School workshops will be invited to participate in our Kids Christmas Pageant on Sunday, December 15 during our 9:00 a.m. worship service. Each workshop will be assigned a role and will help us bring the Christmas story to life! More details will come in early December.
At Abiding Presence, our Sunday morning faith formation follows a workshop model. Kids get to pick an age-appropriate workshop to engage in for the seven week session. Read more about our innovative approach to Sunday School in this article from The Living Lutheran magazine and scroll down the page to read our FAQs.
Registration is LIVE! While pre-registration isn’t required, it helps us out with planning and means you can jump right into the fun when you arrive. Questions, contact Michaela Putnam-Kwon, Children & Family Minister, at michaela@abidingpresence.net.
We hope you’ll join us for all the fun. Here’s a look at what we are offering this winter:
The Kindergarten Clubhouse - Our Kindergarteners are getting a Sunday School workshop just for them. Here we are going to build relationships while growing in our faith. We will do this through games, art projects, and LEGO building. This workshop will meet inside and outside. Students are encouraged to wear clothes that can get messy and that they can move around in.
Paint the Beat (1st-2nd Grade Art/Music) - We are exploring our musical side as we paint our own set of musical instruments. From castanettes to tambourines, our art workshop will bring their own artistic flare to their musical instruments. We will save these projects throughout the session to showcase during our Christmas pageant on December 15. This workshop will meet inside and students are encouraged to wear clothes that can get messy.
‘Tis the Season Gym Games (1st-2nd Grade) - Deck the halls with soccer balls and orange cones! Join our games workshop while they play games that help bring our Bible stories to life. This workshop will meet outside, weather permitting. Please dress for the weather, wear tennis shoes and bring a water bottle. This workshop will rotate meeting on the Playground and behind the Patio, see Sunday School map each morning to know where to go.
Minecraft Mods: Thanksgiving & Christmas (3rd-5th Grade) - Creative minds can thrive in our Minecraft workshop this winter. We will learn about thankfulness through various Minecraft challenges from building projects to games and more! Students are encouraged to bring their own devices (laptops/tablets) to Sunday School to play Minecraft on. Personal devices must have personal Minecraft accounts downloaded and logged-in to use during Sunday School.
Grateful Gym Games (3rd-5th Grade) - Lace up your tennis shoes and join the in the holiday spirit with our older games group. This workshop will grow faith while getting active this winter. Each Sunday play games from trashketball to flag football that will bring our Bible stories to life! We will meet outside, weather permitting. Please dress for the weather, wear tennis shoes and bring a water bottle. This workshop will rotate meeting on the Playground and behind the Patio, see Sunday School map each morning to know where to go.
Ukulele Crafting (3rd-5th Grade Art/Music) - Feeling musical? Want to be more like Jesus and practice a little carpentry? Then look no further than our ukulele crafting workshop! We will paint, assembly and learn to play our very own ukulele’s in this brand new Sunday School workshop. Help join our Angel Chorus for the Christmas pageant on December 15 while we showcase our musical skills. This workshop will meet inside.
6th Grade Hangout - This winter we have a special Sunday School Workshop just for our 6th grade students. Our 6th Grade Hangout workshop will be a great space to build friendship and grow in faith before starting Confirmation in Middle School with Pastor Kesley. There will be fun challenges, experiences, and “big kid” fun each week for our tweens.
Sunday School FAQ’s
Want to know more about our workshop model?
At Abiding Presence, we approach Sunday School by following Jesus’ example to meet people where they are and form faith through relatable experiences. This is exactly what Jesus did when he told parables about sheep, mustard seeds and sibling rivalries. Today, we do that through things kids know about like sports, art and computer games.
Our workshop-based model for Sunday School launched in the fall of 2021 and we’ve never looked back. Suddenly, kids who never wanted to go to Sunday School before were running into the church. Whether you’ve been doing Sunday School for years or this is your first time, we think your kids will love our workshop model.
For this first session, your kiddos will sign up for one workshop for the next seven weeks and engage with Scripture in hands-on ways. Each session, kids will have the opportunity to choose a new workshop (or stick with the same one).
What if we miss a Sunday during the session?
No problem! Our Sunday School workshops change topics about every 5 weeks to help students engage in a wide variety of Bible stories, workshop options and themes throughout the school year. Your family can come all five weeks in the session, or just once.
What does a “typical” Sunday morning look like?
On Sunday’s during our Faith Formation Hour, your kiddos will head directly to their workshop to check-in, receive a name tag, and open with an activity to help the group learn more about one another. There will be lots of people to help you find your way if you aren’t sure where to go.
After kids check in at their workshop, they will have a Bible lesson, which draws on the same Bible story for all the groups. Then, they will move into their workshop activity. Here they will engage in a hands-on way which could look like building the church in Minecraft, learning some soccer drills in the soccer workshop, or creating Jesus surprise boxes in the visual art workshop. Finally, each group will wrap up with a closing prayer. This prayer is the same each week with the hopes that the kids can memorize it and use it at home.
Where do the workshops take place?
We are planning for the vast majority of our workshops this session to be indoors with a few outdoor options (weather permitting). We encourage kids to come dressed to engage in their workshop activity. Some groups will require tennis shoes. At Abiding Presence, we believe you can worship in your sneakers or your dress shoes. Coming dressed for Sunday School is a perfect way to be ready to worship, too!
Who are the workshop leaders?
One of the amazing things about our Sunday School model is that the vast majority of our workshop leaders are 10th-12th grade high school students.
Our workshop choices draw on the passions and skills of the students teaching them. Why jump rope? Because we have a former Junior Olympian jump roper (which, by the way, we think is really cool). Why flag football? Because we have football players and part-time flag football coaches on our Abiding Fellows team. Our workshop leaders are passionate and knowledgeable about what they are teaching. That means they want to be here and cannot wait to share what they know with the kids.
To be a workshop leader, 10th-12th graders must participate in our Abiding Fellows program. Through this stipend program, they receive training in working with kids, how to teach bible stories and opportunities for faith formation. We think having older youth model faith and involvement in the church to our elementary school kids is incredibly powerful. Throughout the workshop time, we have adults walking around to jump in to offer support as needed.
What about kids with exceptional (special) needs?
If your child has exceptional needs, please be in touch with Michaela Putnam-Kwon, Children & Family Minister. We seek to make our Sunday School workshops as inclusive as possible. Often, we have enough workshop leaders that we can have someone working one-on-one with a kiddo who might need a little bit of special attention. We have several professionals in the congregation who work with kids on the autism spectrum who are on hand to coach our workshop leaders. If your child wants to give Sunday School a try, we will work with you to make it a positive experience.
What are you doing to keep kids healthy?
Our current COVID best practices include staying home if you feel sick. Your workshop will miss you, but our priority is keeping you and others safe and healthy. We encourage those who are able to be vaccinated to do so, and we will continue to follow CDC guidance for best practices.