Sightings
Sightings
a bloggish sort of thing
Greetings from Capitol Hill Baptist Church! I hope you are finding the Praise Factory resources useful! Here’s the latest on what we’re doing in our classrooms and what I’m working on, curriculum-wise.
Here at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, we are in various stages of piloting these new versions of our three, old friends “Teach, Take & Tell,” Big Questions and Answers for little people,” and “Praise Factory.” Here’s where you can learn from our experiences as we sail along these exciting, but still somewhat uncharted waters.
August Postings
8/5/2017 Creating smaller format storyboard pictures for those using a 24″ x 36″ felt board. Also slightly downsizing the currently available Visual Aids books to fit the 36″ x 48″ space on a bi-fold science project board with a bit more space between the images. Both the new smaller format Visual Aid books and the currently available large format Visual Aids books should all be available on website and through Amazon by 8/14/2017. If it was me, I would wait one more week to order these visual aids books and get them with these adjustments.
8/6/2017 Anyone using Teach, Take & Tell use the storyboard pictures in Hide ‘n’ Seek Kids. Same stories (with a few improvements), but prettier pictures.
8/13/2017 Almost done going through the Hide ‘n’ Seek Kids visual aids one last time. Have found a few images missing. Here they are:
I will be replacing corrected files both in the hard copy Amazon books and in the download sections. Check for these updated versions on 8/19/2017. The images mentioned above need only be downloaded by those who have purchased/downloaded Hide ‘n’ Seek Kids Visual Aids before this date.
8/14/2017
Hide ‘n’ Seek Kids Visual Aids Book Edits/Additions and the NEW Small Format Visual Aids Books
Just finished the final edits on the Visual Aids books for Hide ‘n’ Seek Kids, including the new Small Format versions. These are now available through the website and through Amazon.com..I did find a few missing pictures in the files that were previously available for purchase/download. You will find these pictures in Leaks and Squeaks.
Besides now offering the pictures in two sizes, I decided to add in the stories to the Visual Aids books, too. Makes it a better, all-in-one story-telling resource.
Here at CHBC, we have large classes of children. We find that we need big storyboard pictures so that everyone can stay in their place and still see. That’s why the storyboard pictures in the original Visual Aids books are so large. They will fit (snugly sometimes) on a 36″ x 48″ storyboard. We are actually turning sections of a wall in each classroom into a very large felt storyboard. We will include pictures of these as we get finish them in the Rigs and Ropes section. (Click here)
The storyboard pictures in the new, Small Format Visual Aids books are sized to fit a storyboard that is 24″ x 36″ to 36″ x 48″. The pictures will be placed more snugly together on the 24″ x 36″ board and with extra space on the bigger sized boards. These pictures are all the small sized class or a family need.
8/15/2017
Praise Factory Investigators: Beginning Year Two of Use
We transitioned our teachers to Praise Factory Investigators a year ago. The transition was very easy. The teachers found the lesson plan style easy to follow. The layout for the activities is essentially the same, which was also helpful. They love the bigger sign language pictures used with the songs (in the PFI Songbooks for each unit.) as well as the listening questions for each story. Perhaps the favorite element is the new, slightly-shorter, standardized length to all the stories. Parents are loving the new take-home pamphlets (PFI Prontos) that include the story, a few of the songs, the ACTS prayer and a few questions. This gives them a great resource to use at home with their kids. While we choose to print these out and make them available for parents to take home, you can refer parents to the Parents’ Resources section for Praise Factory Investigators where they can listen to music and download these resources, themselves.
8/16/2017
Slow Transition from Teach, Take & Tell to Hide ‘n’ Seek Kids
We have chosen to transition slowly to the new Hide ‘n’ Seek Kids curriculum. We rotate our teachers on a monthly basis, with six teachers in each class. That’s a lot of volunteers to train in a new way of using the curriculum. We have decided to start by switching to the new versions of the stories and the new storyboard pictures first. We also plan to begin to use the Listening Assignments and Discussion Questions, as well as the new take home sheets. Everything else will wait for now.
8/19/2017
New Hide ‘n’ Seek Kids Section: Bits and Pieces
Just finished a new Hide ‘n’ Seek Kids section called: Bits and Pieces. On this page, I have broken down the Core Curriculum books and Visual Aids books into individual resources. It is a great page for quick downloads of whatever individual resource you need. We find that it’s very useful to send substitute teachers a link to this page and they can easily download just the lesson plan and story for whatever unit they are teaching. It also makes it very easy to quickly download an extra copy of that random storyboard picture that has gone missing. There’s even a playlist of the songs for each unit that your teachers can use right from the website. Bits and Pieces makes a great a la carte resource. Go to Hide ‘n’ Seek Kids Bits and Pieces
Anchors Away Sections
Go to:
Sightings (updates on curriculum and our own piloting of the new curriculum) you are here
Captain’s Quarterdeck (resources especially for Children’s Ministry Administrators)
Leaks and Squeaks (corrections we’ve made to the curriculum)
Rigs and Ropes (favorite equipment and technology)
Sailors and Stormy Seas (understanding kids and dealing with classroom situations)
Ahoy, Maties! (building a volunteer-friendly classroom)
Tradewinds (making a smooth transition from original to new Praise Factory curriculum)
Cargo Hold (storage ideas)