Jesus and Me Caravan

The Jesus and Me (J.A.M.) Caravan is a wonderful place for children to learn about God and the love He has for us.  Our J.A.M. program uses a rotation model program where we teach His Word through workshops with storytelling, drama, art, cooking, science and games.

     This form of teaching is taken from the Bible, Acts 2:6; which says, “When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.”  This is what we are doing.  We are teaching God’s Word in a language the children can understand and remember.     

    Our curriculum is all written in-house using a 6 year plan.  One of the great aspects of this program is that we teach the same lesson for three weeks in a row, but each week the lesson is presented in a different fashion.   Below is our curriculum plan for 2007. 

J.A.M. Curriculum for 2007

Oct. 7–14 – 10 Commandment Boogie & Wheel of Faith Review Game

Oct. 21 - Commandments 8, 9 & 10 (Exodus 20:5-17)

Oct. 28-Nov. 11 – 10 Commandment Summary (Exodus 20)

Nov 18–Dec. 2 – Psalm 30 Thanksgiving Theme (Psalm 30:10-12)

Dec. 9–Dec. 23 – Christmas Theme (Isaiah 9:1-7)

Dec. 30 – Christmas Party (Nativity Trail Mix)

Prayer Tree

   The prayer tree is used as a visual aide for the children to see that God does answer all our prayers.  They can see through this tree that sometimes God’s answer is “yes” right away.  Sometimes our prayer is answered after we have prayed and listened and waited for the answer.  Sometimes God’s answer is “no”.  Prayer is very important and we want the children to learn to be comfortable talking to God.  The more the children practice praying the more it will become a daily  activity in their lives.

Father’s Word Story Tent

    The Father’s Word tent is a quiet place for the children to come to hear His Word.  The room has been transformed to look like a tent from Jesus’ day.  There are no chairs or tables – just big pillows for the children to sit on.  There is a basket outside the tent  to leave your shoes before entering.

    It is important that the children spend time reading and hearing God’s Word.  So even before the storyteller tells them the story they look up the Scripture lesson in the Bibles available in the tent and the older classes volunteer to take turns reading the Scripture out loud, or a shepherd reads the Scripture lesson to them.  We don’t ask children to read the Scripture, it is all on a volunteer basis.

    The stories are written using the Bible as our reference and then told by a storyteller.  Our storytellers are dressed in Jesus’ day costumes.   This time spent studying His Word covers those children who learn by hearing or reading and also helps the child visually by having the storyteller making it visually interesting.

Creation Station

      The Creation Station rotation is a real “hands-on” rotation for the children.  There are a variety of activities that are used to teach His Word.  We use games, cooking, science and art to bring the Word to life.

      One of the more popular games is the  “Wheel of Faith” game.  When games are used the children are divided into groups so a child doesn’t feel uncomfortable if they don’t know an answer.   This tool is great to review previous lessons with the children.

   Cooking is a great way to share the Word.  The children have made resurrection cookies to show that the tomb was empty on Easter morning and they have also made butter during a rotation of Feeding the 5,000.  The children hear the Bible lesson during the cooking time so it is a real hands on activity for those children who learn by doing.

    Art is another great way to bring the children closer to the Word.  One of the art projects the children did was to make Christmas ornaments to decorate the Sanctuary Christmas trees.  It was a wonderful way for the children to share the love of Jesus with the whole congregation.    Another art project the children really enjoyed was making creation bags that were used for our visitor gift bags. 

    One of the favorite hands-on activities is science.  A couple of our
science projects have included “The Chemistry of Creation” where the children learned that the creation of man was not complete until God breathed the breath of God in him.  Just like their science project was not complete and did not work until they put the last ingredient in.  The children also learned about the Fall of Man and that sin separates them from God.  This was demonstrated as they poured different colored liquids into containers and after the children had discussed that sin separates us from God they poured a black liquid into the container that separated the two other liquids. 

Daniel’s Drama Den

     In the Daniel’s Drama Den we have the opportunity to bring His Word in a visual and sometimes very hands-on format.  Sometimes we have volunteer actors bringing the Word by acting out a drama.  We have great flexibility as the Scripture lesson can be presented in a present day or a Bible times setting.   We also use puppets which the children love and sometimes we have the children act out the Scripture lesson themselves.

    We are blessed to have a sewing ministry team who makes our costumes and we have quite a wardrobe for our storytellers and actors to choose from. 

Dance