First Congregational Church of Hudson

The Sunday School Workshop Rotation Model

Sunday School Workshop Rotation is a concept where elementary age (1st through 5th) classrooms are designed into creative, media-inspired, kid-pleasing workshops that teach Bible stories. Our workshops include art, drama, audiovisuals, computers, Bible games, puppets and music. Classes rotate to new workshops each week for five weeks in the rotation period. Workshop teachers do not rotate, but rather stay in the workshop for the rotation period, repeating the lesson to a new group of children each week (with age appropriate modifications). During the four or five week period only one Bible story is taught. The entire rotation - every workshop, every week- is focused on learning that one Bible story!

Why Sunday School Workshop Rotation Works

Sunday School Rotation is practical for the teachers and fun for the kids. It will be easier to recruit teachers, as they do not have to commit to an entire year of teaching. They volunteer for the story or workshop where they have expertise, be it drama, art or storytelling. There is minimal preparation for the teachers, since they will be doing the same workshop for the five weeks. The kids are excited to come to Sunday school and may even be greeted at the door to the Theatre workshop with a bag of popcorn! The next week the child will be going to the Bible computer lab!
Sunday School Rotation emphasizes the learning environment. Children need to be excited about learning. They "read" the environment we create for them and these impressions help shape all the lessons that follow. Because the atmosphere is so critical to the learning process, the rooms are made to be exciting places. With no cost for the curriculum, those funds can be redirected to those little extras that can make a big difference in the classrooms.
The Workshop Rotation Model uses multiple learning styles to teach the Bible lessons. Some students learn better by doing or saying, touching or tasting, moving or sitting still. The traditional lesson plan tries to do too much in one hour, which is a recipe for teacher frustrations and student overload. The Workshop Rotation model focuses on how to best organize the Sunday school to take advantage of different learning and teaching styles.
This model recognizes teachers for who they are and who they are not. We can identify the gifts of our teachers and put them in a workshop where their talents can best serve the children. The weekly repetition of the lesson lets them improve and feel better about their teaching experience. Each workshop teaches a complete lesson through its own particular style or medium, using teachers skilled in those styles.
The Sunday School Workshop Rotation model is adaptable to churches of different sizes and different facilities and to different theological points of view. The model has found its way into churches of all sizes and circumstances, from a church with 41 members to one that has 6000. It is the responsibility of the Children’s Education Board’s Curriculum committee to determine the content, scope and sequence of the curriculum.

The Shepherd

Each grade is assigned one shepherd who will guide the children to their appropriate workshop classroom each week during a rotation. The shepherd will be that familiar face that our Sunday School students will see each week, since the actual teachers of each workshop are different. The shepherd will come to the worship service through the children’s message (with their crook in hand) and lead the children down to the classrooms. It is important that the shepherds gather their "flock" together before entering the classrooms (remember that only the shepherds know which workshop each group is going to.)

The shepherd will assist the teachers with the lesson and with general classroom control. Because the shepherds accompany the same children for an entire rotation, the shepherds will be better acquainted with the children, their needs and their behaviors; therefore, the teachers will be looking to the shepherds for dispensing most of the discipline, keeping the students on task and managing student behavior.

The Sunday School Workshop Rotation Model

Why Sunday School Workshop Rotation Works

The Shepherd

5-year Workshop Rotation Plan