PRESESSION AND POSTSESSION ACTIVITIES (ORGANIZED CHAOS, HERE WE COME!)

Presession Activities are things we do before we actually start the service.

We have long blocks of time, and a quality Kids Church service is no longer than 1 hour and 15 minutes. Therefore, we have time to do activities before and after.

I fit in the actual "service time" in the middle of our time block. That means that most of the late comers will be in and we can have a focused, uninterrupted service. Also, I finish with time left over for activities so that our prayer time and response times, including worship, is not interrupted.

Since some parents might be early or late in picking up kids, if we finish our "service time" earlier and then move to activities, we can avoid all that.

I have set up activity stations around the room and certain presession activities depending on the session to fill up this time. As kids are coming in, we want them to hang out, meet friends, get to know you and be prepared for the day's theme.

During presession, we might have a group activity. You will see it in the daily program. That means that we might have presession activities that kids can choose from (games, etc) and then at a certain time, coaches gather their kids by grade groups and work on an activity that I have selected that introduces the day's theme.

Then, we will have a video countdown for service to start (5 min) and an opening video. Then.... the fun begins!

Post-session activities are similar. Sometimes it might be structured games (like volleyball) or group activities. This is what we do while we wait for parents to come back and check out their kids.