danielle bell, Author at dandibell

In next level ideas

Race Against the Clock

August 8, 2016 No Comments

hula hoop

Having kids memorizing Bible Verses, Key Passages, or the Books of the Bible can be a fun task alone but continuing to practice these things are important in the following years. One way to make recitation fun is to race a clock. Variations are listed below.

Hula Hoop while reciting a Key Passage, Memory Verse, or Books of the Bible (could be separated into OT and NT)
Recite using a Yo-yo for each word or Book of the Bible
Recite with a Paddle Ball
Let the class compete! Assign points for speed and accuracy!

We will be posting may other ways to help learn verses, and Books of the Bible, but we would love to hear any other race-against-the-clock ideas you have.

In next level ideas

Paper Bag Characters Craft

August 8, 2016 No Comments

paper bags

Paper bag characters are a simple a fun way to bring your Bible lessons to life and the variations can go from single character scene reenactments to whole unit reviews. Here are some possible variations, but we’d love additional submission in the comments.

Groups kids together in small groups depending on the story. Have them each create a paper bag character. Then when they’re finished, have them retell the story together as a small group.
Have each child create their version of the same character (Examples: Joseph (with his coat), Job (after illness had struck)).
Have each member of the class make a character for a unit review. Give them a name and a description to glue to the back. (Examples: Judges, Kings)
Have the class create a whole scene to reenact. (Example: Jesus’ Birth, Last Supper)

Kids love this activity. Let us know if you have other creative uses for paper bag characters in your classes.

In kidmin

all in for vbs part 2 of 2

May 25, 2016 No Comments

In kidmin

etch family ministry conference

May 22, 2016 No Comments

i am honored and excited to be included as a speaker at the new etch ministry conference in nashville this fall. here are my breakout topics and descriptions.

20 lessons learned in 20 years
some of the most effective ministry lessons are learned from mistakes and in-the-trenches ministry experience. if you are new in ministry, come hear from someone with 20 full-time years of kids ministry experience to help you avoid pitfalls and burn-out in ministry. we will have some hands-on fun, too.

making the Gospel center in every spiritual marker
there are many spiritual markers that dot the timeline during the the 18 years a child is in the family’s immediate care. let’s discover how to be intentional about applying a Gospel-centered approach during special times from birth to high school graduation.

i would love to see you there and meet some new ministry friends. find out more about the conference here. comment and let me know if you are coming.

In kidmin

all in for vbs part 1 of 2

April 5, 2016 No Comments

let’s face it, if we are honest we would admit that ministries can create the biggest of silos. if there is ever an event we need to work to get the whole church staff on board with, it is vbs. i have always been so blessed to work with staffs that go all in for vbs. at dawson we call vbs kidlife, and we have had so much fun promoting #kidlife16 as a staff.

in this post i will share some of the media images we are using to promote kidlife. the second blog post will share some of the videos our ministry staff participated in so bravely.

what makes our kidlife promotion campaign so great is there is a team of amazing people behind each step of it. because we all put our heads together and brainstormed, we are all in for this year’s kidlife. our communications team has been working non-stop and i must say i believe they have hit it out of the park.

our kidlife 2016 theme is God’s game plan – believe • obey • follow. we are excited to teach these truths with the backdrop of the summer olympics. so what better way to promote the summer games than to assign staff members olympic sports and get them to pose for pictures. they were such great sports. we have used these pictures in social media, bulletin inserts, posters around the church, displayed them on tv screens, and more. honestly i just can’t get enough of them. our hope is that the message of kidlife would be more far-reaching using all the different amazing people that serve on staff. it was a simple addition we made this year and the hype for kidlife had greatly increased.

below are some the pictures we used. they make me smile everytime. comment and let me know which one is your favorite and feel free to share how you creatively promote your vbs. summer is right around the corner.