Animal Praise!

I used this program several years ago and the children are still talking about it! Its out of the ordinary and not what they expected, so the kids loved it. I'm even thinking about doing one with Aussie animals.

This program is great if you don't have a lot of time to prepare for Bible teaching during the week. I loved doing this program because apart from the time I spent in prayer each week about my upcoming lesson, I did not need to do any preparation. The lessons 'fall' (or maybe drive) themselves together as the children 'see' the animals. Just make sure you know how you can link the animal to the Biblical lesson.

We always have less than 15 children. I wouldn't recommend it for a larger church. Using animals may well work, but safari car idea may be a bit too noisy and crazy. After all, you're going on an African Safari, not a trip to the zoo!

Because this program was so different to what the kids had done previously I chose to use the last week of the term before to do an introductory lesson. During this lesson I explained routines I wanted to start for the following term. Expect the children to be excited, so come armed with lots of patience and an extra leader if possible.

Originally I had the entire program here for you to download but I have decided to remove this. Many hours of work has been put into developing this program. To save you those hours of work, I am happy to share ideas or even the program with you. However, I would like to know who is using the program and where, as well as feedback on it if you use it. Just drop me an email at kidsministryresources@live.com.au and I'm more than happy to share ideas.  

We work on a nine week term. The last week of the term I did a party. I got the children to dress up as their favourite animal. To start the lesson I did a fashion parade where I asked the children stand up 3 at a time out the front and say what their animal was and what we learned about the animal (help them if they can't remember). The children who weren't dressed up weren't left out - they could act like their favourite animal. I made some cupcakes and decorated them as different African animals (be creative!). We played a treasure hunt - I hid small pictures of all the animals outside and the person who found the most pictures got a prize. We also played musical statues, but instead of dancing, every round we chose a different animal from the term to act as. The children wanted 4 games of it! We also did some 'running' races being different animals. We ended the morning painting our favourite animal from the term.

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