Groups for Children
“We know you love your children. We do too!” At First United Methodist Church of Crown Point, we love having children in attendance in our services and in our Children’s Ministry programs. We understand that children may be noisy or may need to move around and we wouldn’t have it any other way. We are here to support you and your family in your walk with faith. We consider ourselves to be a family and hope that you feel at home with us!
PreschoolClick Here to see our Full Page
Mission
The mission of CPFUMC Play & Learn Preschool is to allow each child to grow physically, emotionally, socially, creatively, cognitively, and spiritually while exploring the world at his/her own level of development in a loving Christian environment. We approach each child as an individual and strive to recognize their own talents and needs.
At Play & Learn, we genuinely believe that play IS the work of children. We understand the demands of today’s Kindergarten experience and work towards exceeding those demands while maintaining a loving environment full of play and creativity. We offer morning and afternoon sessions for children 3 and over.
Children's ChoirChildren’s Choir
First United Methodist’s Children’s Choir is a choral group for all children in Kindergarten through 5th Grade. Due to the wide age range, we will provide extra opportunities for the older children. No experience necessary. Please contact us with any questions. We are looking forward to working with your children!
Who Can Join?
Practice and Performance Information
NurseryWelcome
We strive to provide an environment where parents feel confident leaving their children & where children feel confident coming in!
Overview
Location:
Times:
Ages:
Drop Off and Security
When you drop off your child at Nursery, you will be given a pager that will be assigned to your child. If, for any reason, you are needed during the service, your pager will light up and vibrate to alert you. You must have the pager to pick up your child. If you misplace the pager, you will be required to provide proper identification in order for us to release your child.
When you drop off, please also notify a volunteer if your child has any allergies, potty training needs, or other medical alerts.
We value an environment where children are physically and emotionally safe and secure from any kind of harm. Besides providing pagers, we also enforce Child Protection Policies. All staff and volunteers who work unsupervised with children have full reference and background checks and are trained to provide the best care and Christian teachings to your child.
At First United Methodist Church, professional child care staff will be caring for your child. Every child care provider is trained in CPR, First Aid and has undergone a background check. Our hiring process and training help ensure that we will provide your child with the best possible care in a safe and secure child-friendly environment.
Please label all personal items with your child’s first and last name before arriving at the Nursery.
- Two disposable diapers or pull ups. Please no cloth diapers.
- Pacifier, lovey, or other comfort item, as needed.
- A bottle or cup of milk, formula, juice or water, as needed.
- A change of clothing can be very helpful, but is not required.
For the protection of all of the children in Nursery, we ask that you please do not bring your child to Nursery if the child has a temperature greater than 100 degrees, a generalized body rash, diarrhea, or eye-drainage (pink eye), runny nose, persistent cough, or any other signs of possible severe illness. If we observe any of these symptoms, we will page you to come pick up your child. We thank you, in advance, for helping us keep all of our children healthy!
Sunday SchoolSunday School – Children
Partnering with you to build and encourage a full relationship between your child and God…
Welcome
Drop Off and Security
When you drop off your child in Sunday School for Preschool through 5th Grade, you will be given a pager that will be assigned to your child. If, for any reason, you are needed during the service, your pager will light up and vibrate to alert you. You must have the pager to pick up your child. If you misplace the pager, you will be required to provide proper identification in order for us to release your child.
When you drop off, please also notify a volunteer if your child has any allergies, potty training needs, or other medical alerts.
We value an environment where children are physically and emotionally safe and secure from any kind of harm. Besides providing pagers, we also enforce Child Protection Policies. All staff and volunteers who work unsupervised with children have full reference and background checks and are trained to provide the best care and Christian teachings to your child.
We strive to provide an environment where parents feel confident leaving their children & where children feel confident coming in!
Overview
2nd & 3rd Grade………….Room 112
4th & 5th
Time:
Curriculum
Preschool
- Stand alone lessons each week
- Play time
- Snack time
- Activity or Craft
Pre-K—5th Grade
- 4 Week Topical Curriculum
- Allows for deeper understanding of topic & a rotation of learning activities that include:
- Drama
- Music
- Games
- Cooking
- Crafts
- Science
- This class and it’s facilitators develop their own lessons to meet the needs and interests of the youth in the class
Event Information
We host monthly activities during the school year that include bowing, planetarium visits, movie days, and game nights.
We also have three parties throughout the year. We have a kick-off party in early September. This is a time to play together, learn each other’s names, and create some friendships. Our second party is the Happy Birthday Jesus party. We celebrate Christ’s birth with cake, ice cream, and games! The final party takes place after the Children’s Sabbath in May. We again take time to play games and celebrate all the amazing things they have learned and an excellent job during the Children’s Sabbath.
Volunteer Opportunity
We would love to have you join our Children’s Ministry team. There are so many different ways you can help. To volunteer to teach, substitute teach, help with activities or special events, please contact us. It’s fun, you get to make new friends, get to know the kids and show God’s love to our little ones! Training and curriculum are provided.
For grades K-5, we begin with an introduction or review of the current topic. We then have a time for offering. This is to encourage a cheerful heart in giving to the Lord and model an aspect of a normal church service. Following the offering, the children are given the opportunity to say any of the memorizations they have been working on. We then complete this time with a prayer led by one of the children. Then the children are dismissed to their age appropriate classrooms to learn more about the topic at hand.
For our preschoolers, we begin with a half hour of free play time. The children then eat a snack while the lesson is presented. Finally, they participate in a craft or activity based on the lesson.
For grades K-5, the same topic is studied for approximately 4 weeks. This allows for a deeper understanding of the topics and the ability to adapt to various learning modalities. The curriculum used is a rotation style curriculum which provides activities on each topic in a variety of different areas: such a drama, arts, music, games, cooking, crafts, and science.
In addition to the provided curriculum, we have created a program called Footprints to encourage participation in and out of the classroom as they learn to “Walk with God”. The children can earn points for doing a variety of tasks which include: leading a prayer, ushering, bringing a friend, bringing their bibles (Which are provided when a child enters this program), attending for an entire month, reading their bibles every day for 5 minutes, reading a book from the Sunday School library and filling out a small book report sheet, or memorizing scriptures. Twice during the school year, the children are allowed to spend the points they earned in the Sunday School Store. A challenge has been issued as well, that if any child is able to memorize all of the memory verses during a single school year, they will be able to throw a pie in Mrs. Kimi’s face during a church service to celebrate the wonderful accomplishment.
Please note that our summer curriculum is different in order to give our regular Sunday School teachers a break. Jr. High Sunday School does not meet during the summer.
During the summer, the program changes a little as the normal teachers are given a chance to rest and rejuvenate. For the months of June, July, and August, we use a weekly stand-alone curriculum and invite the parents to take a class for a week to teach. The lessons are user friendly and all materials are provided so it requires little to no preparation.
Junior High takes the summers off to give the children the opportunity to go to church with their families and to rest and rejuvenate our teachers.
We are always looking for substitute teachers and regular teachers (this can be done biweekly as a team!) for our Sunday School classes. We keep the same teachers for each class, in order to foster a stronger relationship between the child and his or her teacher.
We would love to have you join our Children’s Ministry team. There are so many different ways you can help. To volunteer to teach, substitute teach, help with activities or special events, please contact us. It’s fun, you get to make new friends, get to know the kids and show God’s love to our little ones!
Kiddie KampChildcare / Play School at Kiddie Kamp
Vacation Bible SchoolTo Be Scheduled:
You’re invited to Vacation Bible School (VBS) — a fun-filled summer week of music, Bible stories, crafts, games, snacks, and friendship. Adult and teen crew leaders join in on the fun and enjoy this time with the kids learning, creating, and serving. Preschool children through 5th Grade are invited to participate each summer! Please also check out our other Children’s Ministries !
