Does anybody do pre-school age Sunday "school" groups? I'm looking for ideas.

[NannyR]

We don't really have a curriculum or programme we follow at the moment. We usually get between three and six, 2-5 year olds attending, the session lasts about 40 minutes, something structured for about 20 minutes then free play or drawing for the rest of the time.
I'm running out of ideas and would love to do something fresh and exciting with them, maybe some games or something physical but with a Christian theme to it rather than just sitting them down and reading them stories and doing crafts.
Any ideas would be very welcome indeed!

Spiritual Child Network has a particular focus on early years - lots of ideas, resources, links etc on their site. If you do FB they are also on there.

We just look at the readings of the day and pick one which is most relatable to little ones. We then talk about the message in a way they understand, read a children's version of the story and then do an activity based on it . Sometimes crafts, sometimes drama, sometimes a song. We then go back into mass. We have them for approximately 25 minutes. Hope this helps.

Our preschool groups come after the first hymn. They have a settling in activity - toys already set out. Then they are asked about their week/exciting news. After that they play a game then have bread sticks and water whilst they listen to a bible story. Then it's a craft related to the bible story.

And of course how could I forget the Wiggle song! Wiggle wiggle freeze!

I do a children's liturgy for that age, in my (RC) Church. So it's not quite the same as Sunday school.

I think firstly you need a structure to work with. So we take the readings the grown-ups are doing and pick the most appropriate for the kids (usually try to do the Gospel, but I wouldn't want to miss out on, say, pentecost or Jonah or creation if that was one of the other readings)
As you're doing Sunday school you are more free to take a 'series' of readings over a few weeks.
Or you could say...for the next few weeks we are going to concentrate on prayer. Then build up from the beginning to getting them praying in many different ways.

Once you have the reading the rest is easy, what's the point of the story? How is that relevant when I'm 4 years old.? How can we learn about it in a way which is fun and uses minimal pen work or reading?

We do games, crafts, act things out, colouring, simple worksheets, songs etc.
There are times I would have shown video clips if we'd had the facilities

I would say that two things help me. One is a routine (1st we do this, then we do that)
The second is having the church readings all ready to choose from, so I'm not having to pluck a theme out of the air.

One way to think of a plan is to take a children's bible that you have. (I like the beginners Bible) and work through a story each week.l- perhaps missing any that are trickier. Once you have a subject there are loads of great ideas on Pinterest or just google for simple craft or colouring. We read the story twice once at the beginning and then when they are having a snack.

Light live - by scripture union. All online. Awesome!

We use light live too soon the scripture union. Lots of good ideas that are not writing based.

Just to add about light live - it takes a few minutes to sign up but is free. I love it because:

It is theologically strong. It has one main teaching point each week that is based on the passage.

Over 3 years it covers the whole bible, and major Christian festivals fall in the right place.

It is organised as series - Paul's journey, for instance or Jesus heals.

It is super easy to use. All online, a good choice of activities, and you tick the ones you want. It then downloads the materials you need to lead and the materials the children need.

I was also going to day Light live - we love it. I think su has also brought a new material out but not sure what it's called.

Thanks everyone for all the ideas. Good to hear about light live, our church has signed up for this but they are trialling it with the older age groups first.

I think our preschool group use Click materials from The Good Book Company - they do a series for 3-5 yr olds. There are lots of suggestions for crafts/games etc linked to the bible passage and different ways to tell the stroy. Our older groups (5-7s and 7-11s) use Mustard Seed materials (aimed at 3-11s with suggestions for adapting for older and younger groups)