Saturday 3 November 2012

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Nursery Minutes of Meeting - 20 October 2012

Meeting Notes for Saturday 20 October 2012
Present: Rochelle, Simon, Allan, Jannie, Wi Min, VK, Juliana, Martin, Sarma, Chen Ying and Elaine

1. The Nursery/Preschool Vision Statement
The Nursery/Preschool Vision Statement was summarized into one sentence following inputs from everyone:

“To support parents in guiding their children with developing a personal relationship with God so that the children will come to know Christ.”

which is in line with the FIBC’s Family Ministry Vision Statement:

To encourage and equip families to be disciple-making disciples – living out the “Great Commandment (Matt 22:36-40)” and the “Great Commission (Matt. 28:16 – 20).”

2. The 3 Nursery/Preschool Mission Statements (Goals)
The 3 Nursery/Preschool Mission Statements (Goals) according to UP, In and Out principles were developed:
 
a. God made me and loves me so much and I want to love God (Upward focus)
b. I am of great worth to God and what I do matter to God (moral heart: right and wrong) (Inward focus)
c. All people are precious to God and I can help others around me (Outward focus)
which are in line with FIBC’s Kids Ministries Goals:
a. I can trust God no matter what (Upward focus)
b. I need to make the wise choice (Inward focus)
c. I need to treat others how I want to be treated (Outward focus)
 
3. UP, In and Out principles Diagrams
The UP, In and Out principles illustrated in the following diagrams by Rochelle and Juliana:
 

It means that the children knowing their identity in God (Up) which gives them their self-worth (In) would enable them to go out and serve others (Out).

VK mentioned that the easiest to teach is IN, since children are naturally self-centred, and the most difficult to teach are the OUT (to think of others) and the UP. We should not forget the UP and OUT and focus on the IN. We should remember to strike a balance and not only emphasize or concentrate on just one dimension when teaching the children.

4. Targets
The targets we expect our children to achieve when they leave the Nursery/Preschool were developed:
 
Upward Targets:
• God created us and that He is still here listening to us and we can talk to Him.
• Praying to God is talking to God.
• God is in their family.
• To respect God

Strategies:
• Pray fervently for the children we teach and parents we serve.
• Consciously incorporating these targets when planning our lesson plans
• Work alongside and support parents as role models
• Highlighting other people in the church as role models
• Help the children to experience God’s love as a family.

Inward Targets:
• They (the children) are special because God loves them.
• Their identity comes from God, which give them their self-worth and thus they should be self-confidence and brave not conform to the standards of the world.
• To Know right and wrong according to Godly principles.
• To develop a moral heart that is inward driven to make wise decisions that are guided by God’s moral principles.
• To be like Jesus who is our role model.

Strategies:
• Pray fervently for the children we teach and parents we serve.
• Using puppets for role play to give the children opportunities to express themselves.
• Giving opportunities for the children to perform and increase their self-confidence during normal class time and special projects or FIBC combined worship.
• Be sensitive to grabbing teachable moments during conversation with the children and take advantage of them to teach that they are special and to teach right and wrong.

Outward Targets:
• All people created by God and are special and we should appreciate one another’s differences.
• All people are and important to God and we should consider the wishes of others (to move from “self-centredness” to “other-centred”).
• To treat others the way they want to be treated.
• To be kind and help others.
Strategies:
• Pray fervently for the children we teach and parents we serve.
• Be a good role model to the children in helping others.
• Incorporate stories about what Jesus did to help others (Jesus as a role model).
• Providing opportunities for the children to serve one another when planning our lesson plans
• Work alongside and support parents as role models
• Highlighting other people in the church as role models
 
 5. Eight different kinds of smarts

VK shared with us the 8 different kinds of smarts exhibited by different children – Word smart, number smart, picture smart, body smart, music smart, nature smart, people smart and self smart.
 
6. Preschool Lesson Plans

Working in two teams, we practiced to develop preschool lesson plans that incorporate different learning style – Show me, Tell me and Let me try and learning levels – Discovering, understanding, re-stating, interpreting and translating.

VK reminded us that we are sowing seeds – we may not see the fruit now, but we have to trust that the children are learning.
 
7. Three Special Projects

Three Special Projects were discussed:
 
Nativity Project:
We would write a little nativity scene (Rochelle would be happy to do this) and one adult will be the narrator and another will help the children get to the stage or steps when their part comes up. We will dress the children as Mary, Joseph, Lamb, Angel, inn keeper, shepherds etc. This should last approximately 5 to 10 minutes. We will have to start practicing with the children soon and help will be needed from all to make costumes.

Christmas Shoebox Project:
Children give presents (giving away a present they receive or making something together) and put them into a shoe-box to send to the less unfortunate children who have no means of getting a Christmas present. Through this activity, we will teach the children the the best gift that God gave us - Jesus.

Palm Sunday/Easter project:
The sunday school children will be the narator, while the one of the nursery children will sit on the donkey (adult dressed up as donkey), and the other nursey children will wave using the palm leaves.Juliana agreed to look into compiling 10 Christian children songs that we could all use during singing time in class. This could be made into a CD.

8. Puppets (see attached doc. for pictures)

We discussed about getting hand puppets of Biblical characters and multi-cultural characters. They are quite expensive. We could decide whether we should get them. If we choose to get them, Elaine would be happy to coordinate and make the buying. If we choose to buy them, there will be custom duties, VAT and service fee for buying outside of the EU.

Here are some Biblical puppets and multi-cultural children puppets from Amazon US:



http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dtoys-and-games&field-keywords=biblical+hand+puppets

Here are some biblical puppets from The Puppet Store:
http://www.thepuppetstore.com/Biblical_s/62.htm

Here are some community Helpers puppets from Lakeshore. At the moment, they are offering 20% off:

9. Next quarterly meeting

Next quarterly meeting will be on Saturday 26th January 2013. Allan and Jannie have kindly agreed to host it. Elaine will draft the agenda and send out to the rest.
 
We thank Rochelle and Simon very much for their hospitality for making this meeting such a cozy fellowship, and VK for training us in this meeting. We also want to give a warm welcome Juliana and Martin to the FIBC Nursery/Preschool.
Blessings,
Elaine

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