ONLINE HACKS
GROW KIDS | JULY 2020
HOW DO I ADAPT GROW KIDS CURRICULUM TO AN ONLINE-ONLY PROGRAM?
INSTRUCTIONS
STEP 1: BUILD A WEEKLY STRATEGY
You’re going to need a weekly strategy that’s unique to your church. But don’t worry! We have some resources to help you decide what you’ll do and when. Check this out if you need some help building your new weekly plan for online children’s ministry:
- FACEBOOK LIVE | 10 Tips for Building a Weekly Strategy for Online Kids Ministry (with Elle Campbell): Join our kids ministry Facebook group to watch this 1-hour workshop with Elle, where you’ll learn to build a weekly strategy and learn what other kids pastors are already doing well. WATCH
- PODCAST | 10 Tips for Building a Weekly Strategy for Online Kids Ministry (from Kids Ministry Answers): Join our hosts TJ and Kellee for a conversation unpacking Elle’s tips and sharing ideas of their own. LISTEN
- TRELLO BOARD | A Template for Online Kids Ministry: Grab our free Trello template to give you a structure you can customize and repeat each week for your ministry. VIEW
STEP 2: PLAN YOUR ONLINE KIDS SERVICE
By now, you’ve figured out that what works in person doesn’t exactly work online. Here’s a basic outline for an online service that you can use each week, using the curriculum you already have:
- MUSIC: Sing two worship songs.
- THE BIG IDEA: Share the Big Idea of the week.
- SCRIPTURE: Tell the Bible story (or show the teaching video) and repeat the Big Idea.
- DISCUSSION: Give families at least one question to discuss.
You can always add more elements if you’d like, but this is the basic formula you need for an effective online service — and with Grow Kids, you already have all of the elements you need to make it happen!
STEP 3: BUILD A LESSON GUIDE FOR PARENTS
Instead of talking to parents as if they’re only observers of what’s going on in your ministry, invite parents to participate as teachers and discussion-leaders for their kids! While families are watching church at home, equip parents with a weekly lesson guide that contains bite-sized versions of your curriculum that parents can teach with ease.
To create a simple lesson that parents can teach, edit the Word documents provided in your downloads to create a simple lesson for parents each week that follows this format:
- THE BIG IDEA
- SCRIPTURE
- ACTIVITY
- DISCUSSION
- PRAYER
- MEMORY VERSE
To make things extra easy for you, at the end of this post, we’ve identified the specific modules each week of the curriculum that we suggest including.
STEP 4: REPURPOSE (OR SKIP) THE REST OF THE LESSON
With Grow Kids, you get tons of activities, object lessons, videos, and more in each lesson! It might be sad to think you won’t get to use all of them during an online service, but there are ways you can still make use of those ideas! You can still make videos of object lessons and post them online! You can send parents the instructions for activities and games so they can play them at home!
At the end of this post, we’ve identified a few specific modules for each week of the curriculum that we suggest repurposing.
HACKS FOR EACH WEEK
WEEK 1: God gives extraordinary peace.
ONLINE KIDS SERVICE
Use these modules from your lesson to create your online service:
- MUSIC | Worship
- THE BIG IDEA | God gives extraordinary peace.
- SCRIPTURE | Judges 6
- VIDEO | Crossover, Episode 1
LESSON GUIDE FOR PARENTS
Use these modules from your lesson to create a lesson guide for parents:
- THE BIG IDEA | God gives extraordinary peace.
- SCRIPTURE | Judges 6
- ACTIVITY | What Brings Us Peace? (elementary) or ACTIVITY | Lead the Way (preschool)
- DISCUSSION | Give families at least one question to discuss together.
- PRAYER
- MEMORY VERSE | Ephesians 3:20 (NIV)
EXTRA IDEAS
Skip or repurpose the remaining modules in your curriculum however you’d like! But here are a few ideas…
- ACTIVITY | Dance Battle Ask your volunteers to film themselves doing one of the dances suggested in this activity. Put all of the videos together and let kids vote on who won the battle!
- OBJECT LESSON | Full of Faith Film yourself or one of your volunteers doing the object lesson and post for families to watch.
- SCRIPTURE | Philippians 4:7 Using the graphics we’ve provided in your downloads, create an image of this Bible verse and post it on social media during the week, along with a suggestion for families to read and discuss it together.
- ACTIVITY | Coloring Page Send a copy of the coloring page to families and host a weekly coloring page competition! You can create an album of completed ones and even get people to vote on their favorites.
WEEK 2: God gives extraordinary strength.
ONLINE KIDS SERVICE
Use these modules from your lesson to create your online service:
- MUSIC | Worship and Dance!
- THE BIG IDEA | God gives extraordinary strength.
- SCRIPTURE | Joshua 6
- VIDEO | Crossover, Episode 2
LESSON GUIDE FOR PARENTS
Use these modules from your lesson to create a lesson guide for parents:
- THE BIG IDEA | God gives extraordinary strength.
- SCRIPTURE | Joshua 6
- ACTIVITY |Extraordinary Strength(elementary) or ACTIVITY | Knock Down This Wall (preschool)
- DISCUSSION | Give families at least one question to discuss together.
- PRAYER
- MEMORY VERSE | Ephesians 3:20 (NIV)
EXTRA IDEAS
Skip or repurpose the remaining modules in your curriculum however you’d like! But here are a few ideas…
- ACTIVITY | Strong Arm During the week, post the instructions to this game on social media so families can do it at home. Have families take a photo.
- ACTIVITY | Strong Animals Create a daily poll on social media so families can do this at home. Allow for families to vote on their answer and do a Facebook Live to reveal the correct answers at the end of the week.
- SCRIPTURE | Joshua 1:9 Using the graphics we’ve provided in your downloads, create an image of this Bible verse and post it on social media during the week, along with a suggestion for families to read and discuss it together.
- ACTIVITY | Coloring Page Send a copy of the coloring page to families and host a weekly coloring page competition! You can create an album of completed ones and even get people to vote on their favorites.
WEEK 3: God gives extraordinary courage.
ONLINE KIDS SERVICE
Use these modules from your lesson to create your online service:
- MUSIC | Worship
- THE BIG IDEA | God gives extraordinary courage.
- SCRIPTURE | Daniel 3
- VIDEO | Crossover, Episode 3
LESSON GUIDE FOR PARENTS
Use these modules from your lesson to create a lesson guide for parents:
- THE BIG IDEA | God gives extraordinary courage.
- SCRIPTURE | Daniel 3
- ACTIVITY |Stand Together (elementary) or ACTIVITY | Into the Furnace (preschool)
- DISCUSSION | Give families at least one question to discuss together.
- PRAYER
- MEMORY VERSE | Ephesians 3:20 (NIV)
EXTRA IDEAS
Skip or repurpose the remaining modules in your curriculum however you’d like! But here are a few ideas…
- STORY | The Bravest Thing I’ve Ever Done During the week, post the instructions to this on social media so families can do it at home. Ask parents to share their story with their kids.
- VIDEO | Fiery Furnace Play this video by Kid Bible Stories about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
- SCRIPTURE | Psalm 46:1-2 Using the graphics we’ve provided in your downloads, create an image of this Bible verse and post it on social media during the week, along with a suggestion for families to read and discuss it together.
- ACTIVITY | Coloring Page Send a copy of the coloring page to families and host a weekly coloring page competition! You can create an album of completed ones and even get people to vote on their favorites.
WEEK 4: God gives extraordinary help.
ONLINE KIDS SERVICE
Use these modules from your lesson to create your online service:
- MUSIC | Worship
- THE BIG IDEA | God gives extraordinary help.
- SCRIPTURE | Daniel 6
- VIDEO | Crossover, Episode 4
LESSON GUIDE FOR PARENTS
Use these modules from your lesson to create a lesson guide for parents:
- THE BIG IDEA | God gives extraordinary help.
- SCRIPTURE | Daniel 6
- ACTIVITY |Junior Playwrights (elementary) or ACTIVITY | Prayers to God (preschool)
- DISCUSSION | Give families at least one question to discuss together.
- PRAYER
- MEMORY VERSE | Ephesians 3:20 (NIV)
EXTRA IDEAS
Skip or repurpose the remaining modules in your curriculum however you’d like! But here are a few ideas…
- OBJECT LESSON | Healthy vs. Unhealthy During the week, post the instructions to this object lesson on social media so families can do it at home.
- QUESTION | When is it okay to break the rules? During the week, post the instructions to this question on social media so families can discuss it at home. Have them answer the question on a social media post or by sending an email. You could even provide a prize from the Crossover programming guide for families that do this.
- SCRIPTURE | Isaiah 41:10 Using the graphics we’ve provided in your downloads, create an image of this Bible verse and post it on social media during the week, along with a suggestion for families to read and discuss it together.
- ACTIVITY | Coloring Page Send a copy of the coloring page to families and host a weekly coloring page competition! You can create an album of completed ones and even get people to vote on their favorites.
