Ideas please from anyone whose child(ren) go to Sunday School.....and anyone whose child(ren) don't but are good with ideas!!! :)

[coggy]

I need to 'name' four (possibly five) groups at our Sunday School and I am not having much inspiration!
I'd like all of the groups to have different, but linked, names eg. Tiddlers, Little Fishes, Sharks....(told you I was low on ideas!!!! )

The ages are more or less..

1. pre-school
2. Y1 - 3
3. Y4 - 6
4. Y7 - 9

But may split the large Y4 - 6 group into two.

Any ideas/ inspiration would be MASSIVELY appreciated.
TY.

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, lol!
Seriously, am having a think.

The fish idea is good.

How about 4 fish species in ascending size order so...

um

1. Sardines
2. Koi
3. Cod
4. Marlin

Is a koi carp bigger than a cod?

Tuna are pretty huge but who would want to be in the tuna group?

bright sparks
live wires
power house

(this is what a church in Cambridge calls their's, I thought they were rather good!)

We have boring old CofE names for our groups -

Scramblers - KS1
Explorers - KS2
Pathfinders - KS3
CYFA - KS4 & 5

our creche is totzone
3-5 is minizone
primary age is kidzone
teens are teenzone

(not original, but good i think!)

squeakypop are you in Nottingham?

No

Obviously those good old C of E names are used all over!!

Had to LOL at those fish names....think I'd get some funny looks calling "Come this way all you Carps!!" And just think of the scope for spelling errors in the Church newsletter!!! It doesn't bear thinking about!!!

MaryBS..we have a FUNzone for an out of school type club so that theme would work well.....or does it then look like the weekday club is fun, but the Sunday School may not be......?!

Keep 'em coming....

Why not books from the bible?

Or something with some meaning like

Peace
Love
Honour
Trust

(am not churchy though!)

Or what about the firstchoice way lol

twinklestars, ministars, superstars.... (there's more but I forget lol)

oops sorry I was so interested in 'discovering' squeakypops that I forgot to add anything useful; rotation.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/682600034/m/604600034/p/2

hmm hope I have done that right...

Forgot to say that it is a link to an american website that is debating creative names for sunday school.. methinks might be useful

We have Seedlings and Sonflowers as our two pre-school groups in church.

You could ask the children to name their own groups (with help)- makes a real sense of belonging for them.

we have creche, climbers (3-4), adventurers (5-7), explorers (8-10), en:vision and en:counter (stupid names if you ask me) and cell groups for secondary students

I like MaryBS's, but I really like the fish idea - clever but without being obvious, & different.

How about

Small fry, tiddlers or clown fish (exploiting the nemo connection )
can't think of a cool medium sized fish
Stingrays/Barracuda
Sharks/Pikes (nice & predatory)

Perhaps a bit male though.

Or, increasing types of light - eg flickers, flames, blazes, infernos

I like the idea of getting the kids to name their own groups - give them a sense of belonging and a say in how things are run

MaryBS and FunnyPerc. I ran a competition for the classes to create a logo and name their own classes...they were very excited, I told them the competition closing date and I have had........NO entries!!!
Lots of reminding too...I may try one more time in the hols but I need to name them for Sept really.

I love Stingray for one of the fishy groups...definitely safer than carp!!
I am also VERY much liking the flickers, flames idea...maybe we could have a vote on a selction...might be less epic than trying to get names out of the kiddies!!

Kayran...interesting site...I shall peruse fully!! TY.

Our youth groups are called Courage and Victory. Which I quite like, apart from the fact that when they take a week off, you get church notices like: "Easter Sunday, No Courage, No Victory"

Or maybe our notice-editor just needs to engage her brain

LOL!!!

Anymore for anymore???!!

How about birds ?

Finches

Robins

Blackbirds

Eagles

or others ... Just avoid Tits

PMSL!
These ideas are entertaining me as well as getting me thinking!!!

the church where we go to toddler group has rocks, pebbles, gravel ( I think ) - that sort of thing

I've never come across it before (we Catholics are obviously very unimaginative!)

Catholics seem to call it, pretty universally, 'Children's liturgy'. Does what it says on the tin.

It tends to be only for the pre-1st communion children anyway, all the others are expected to join in the main Mass.

When do kids join in with normal church, then in this system?

Things like Explorers sound more like a group wheras Finches etc aren't as obvious.

We have (ascending order) twinkles (creche), fireflies, sparklers, spotlight and the overall name of the sunday school is lighthouse.