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Creative names for Sunday School programs and classes

We call our rotation program "Faith Tracks" and use a train theme. Our workshops are:
"God Central Station Depot" -- our opening gathering place
"Boxcar Bible Stories"
"Whistle Stop Cafe"
"Craft Caboose"
"Science Siding"
"Clickety Clack Cinema"
"Computer Crossing"

Our pastor is a train buff and was the inspiration for our theme. We have train tracks running down the hallway and train murals in each room. Our kids and teachers LOVE WoRM!

Our church is Lake of the Isles Lutheran Church, so we are calling Sunday School "Sundays at the LAKE" and have designed our spaces with lake themes in mind.

Last edited by Neil MacQueen

We are a small church so we only have 2 rooms to work with. Our church is called CityChurch so Sunday School is called CityKids and we don't want to change that. I'm just starting to plan our very first rotation. Here's what I've come up with do far:

We'll all meet together first for JAM Sessions (Jesus And Me) where we'll have praise & worship, announcements, etc. Then we'll split up to our Experience Stations:

Arts & Crafts: The GLUE Factory (God Loves Us Eternally)
A-V: Holywood Video
Storytelling: BLAST from the past (Bible Learning And Sharing Together)
Games: FAST Track (Fun, Active, Spiritual Training)
Puppet Theatre: The Masters Hands
Cooking: Soul Cafe

We'll rotate between 4 different workshops (2 per week, 4 total) and on the 5th week we're going to have "Fun In The Son-Day" A big celebration outside with games,jumpers and food, etc.

We have a separate nursery/toddler room so I'm still looking for something for them and a name for them. And I'm looking for names for the 2 groups of kids. (K-3 & 4-6 grade)

I'm very excited to get started! All of you have given me so many great ideas! Thanks Smile



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Last edited by Neil MacQueen
Our children's Sunday School program is called Carpenter's Corner. Our workshops are:

Creation Station (art)
HolyWord Theater (video)
Apostles' Playhouse (drama)
Bible Story Laboratory (science)
Storyteller's Tent (storytelling)
The Coliseum (bible skills/games)
Solid Rock Cafe (cooking)
Spirit Moves (occasional workshop - liturgical dance and music)
Moving this post to its proper home...

Judi H.
Posted February 04, 2009

Our rotation Sunday School has a railroad theme. Our groups are called the Engineers (grades 5-7), the Boxcars (grades 1-4 and the Cabooses (ages 3 1/2 to 5). Our stations are Taste of Heaven Cafe' (creative cookery), Bible Bytes/Whirling Planets (computer and science share a room), Thou Art and Godly Games (share) and Story and Video Station (with puppet theatre as well). All aboard for God's children! Trinity Presbyterian Church, Starkville, Mississippi
We use the rotation model, but call our workshops "studios". We have 4 Experience Studios that use a variety of learning styles that covers kids from Kindergarten to 6th grade. Hence they are called K6 Experience Studios.

We teach one Biblical lesson 4 weeks in a row (when there is a fifth Sunday we do something special)
Storytelling
Discovery
Art
Music & Motion

This fall we are adding a new preschool focused studio called the Connection Studio for kids 3-5 years old. In this studio we will use the Young Children in Worship curriculum. Here we will repeat the Biblical lesson 2 weeks in a row.
Our children's ministry is known as "Kid Zone" and our rotation workshops are...
Adoration Zone-worship-singing,dancing
Imagination Zone-drama, skits, videos, movies
Creation Zone-arts and crafts, cooking
For the 2008-2009 church year we used the H.I.K.I.N.G theme since we are located in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina. It was an acronyn forHelping Inspire Kids' Interest in God Our groups were Hikers, Campers, Adventurers The stations were The Campground- meeting and story place; Mountain Top Productions-Video; Artist's View-Art, and Around the Campfire-the Kitchen


For the 2009-2010 year we have chosen "The Vineyard" as the theme. Children were invited to be one of the "Bunch" .(of grapes)
The The Vine and Branches Room is a multi-center room which includes the
Music Center ...Heard it through the Grapvine"," The Drama Center..Scene Pickin' Artist's Seeds Theatre Center...Raisin'Awarenessand finally our kitchen is the Vineyard. There was an increase in membership among our Toddlers, so one of our rooms was taken for the expansion for that group. Thus we have more centers in one area this year.
But the rotation concept still works for us!!
Our Sunday school is called:

Discovery Kingdom! Where Jesus is King!

Holy Land Theater- cinema/ drama
Parable Place- story/ games
Creation Cove- art
God Workx.com- computer lab
Kingdom Courtyard- worship & surprise

We started our rotations in September 2009. This program is great! Big Grin
We have been using rotation for about 10 years and this year we decided it was time to refresh so we have changed the name of our Sunday school program and are in the process of redecorating and renaming our workshops.

Our Sunday school is called Taking F.L.I.G.H.T. with the acronym standing for Faithfully Learning In God's House Together. Our church is located across the road from our local community airport.

Our workshops are:

God's Mission Control-computer lab
Master Peace Theatre-Drama and puppets
Creation Station-games and science
Sonlight Cinema-video
The Garden of Eatin'-cooking
Walking on Water Art Gallery-art and crafts
Our church is located in a beach town. Our entire leadership has tried to adopt beach/water themes. The entire children's department (birth-5th grade) is called The Harbor: A Safe Place for children and families to meet, know and serve Jesus. The Youth area is called The Landing. Our Sunday school areas are the Dock, where we gather and the beach huts where the crews go to class. Classes are:
Storytelling: Fish Tales
Art: Creation Cove
Cooking/Science: Mess Hall
Computers: Tech Deck
Movies: Seaside Cinema
Music: Wind Chimes
Our theme verse is "I will put my Spirit into your children. My blessing will be like a stream of water flowing over your family. Isaiah 44:3" We put this verse and others in vinyl lettering on the walls and painted the halls like the beach. We built a real dock for the gathering area, so it doubles as a stage.

Our Sunday/Wednesday School at Kanawha City Church of Christ is called "Treasure Seekers".

We are a small church (about 180 members) with about 20 children. Here are some of the workshops we use:

1. The Big Dig (reconstructing the facts of the story from an archaeological dig set-up)
2. Raiders of the Lost Art (art lesson related to the story)
3. Treasure Trove Theater (drama and creative movement associated with story)
4. Shipwreck Bay S.O.S. (Missions - "Share Our Story", "Serve Our Seniors", "Strengthen the Sick", "Stomp Out Sin", etc.
5. Discovery Island - (science experiments and cooking experiences related to story)
6. The Lost Temple (music, poetry, prayer related to the story)
7. X Marks the Spot - (games, scavenger hunts, physical activities related to the story)
8. Spyglass Cinema (video related to the story)

Last edited by Neil MacQueen
Our Sunday School at Mercer Island Presbyterian Church is called THE ARK (all remarkable kids). We have new homeroom classes from which we venture to our rotations. They are called: DOVE'S NEST and CANAAN COVE. Our rotations are: CREATED BY THE SPIRIT (art), HOLYWORD THEATER (movies), MARKETPLACE (cooking), BIBLE IMPROV (drama), MARY AND MARTHA'S B&B (storytelling). Now we're looking for a new name for our nursery to tie in with the water theme. Oh - and our 4th and 5th graders are called THE WAVE.
Our Sunday School is called Transformation Station. Our key verse is, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation" 2 Corinthians 5:17. We just completed our first year of rotation and we are taking a break this summer. We picked names for our various stations, but they haven't really stuck. Transformation Station has become a household word at our church, with even adults using it. We will resume in August and need ideas how to make the names of the workshops more meaningful.

Our children's ministry is now called Clubhouse Kids.

We are in the process of making our kids worship room look like the inside of a clubhouse. Each of our 4 workshops are a "corner" of the clubhouse.

Our workshops are Creation Corner (Art and craft),

Imagination Station (drama and worship),

Adventure Alley (large motor games and skills),

Discovery Hollow (science and nature).

We hope to add Digital Den as soon as we get some computers donated and ready to go. Cool

Last edited by Luanne Payne

We call our SS department " Disciple City" Since our church name is City of Hope.  Each workshop name alludes to the function of the Workshop, but with a modern twist on a Biblical name. ie; Noah's Art Studio, Cinema on the Mount, HolyWord Studio, and our currently only "traditional" class is called The Loft. I was told to keep a traditional class so this is my version of that. The Loft is actually a rotation workshop as well, but focuses on teaching the Bible story through Biblical History & Traditions. My idea is to show them old Israel through their clothing, customs, laws, etc... and hopefully soon the foods they ate. Really hoping to turn this into a deinite Cooking/Science Workshop And drop the "traditional" idea all together. Not surprisingly, it is the least favorite workshop. How many 10 year olds love history? But cooking, science, customs & costumes...knowing our kids, that would be a winner! 

Also...every 5th Sunday, we will have what I'm calling Bible & Bacon. All kids and teachers will meet in the gym for Music, Bible trivia, life sized games and breakfast! 

I want to share what we did with a theme and names for our Sunday school once we started using a rotation model last July.

We don't have a particular name for our Sunday school other than "Sunday School" but our theme is "Growing People of Faith."  It's a gardening theme.

We use rooms in our church that are not dedicated to the education program; many community groups and other church groups use them.  Also, we have different workshops in each space depending on logistics, etc.  So we have given  the rooms/spaces names which we post on doors, etc.  We have the Garden Patch and the Greenhouse.  We have an Orchard and an Arbor.  We have a tool shed (utility closet) and the Potting Shed (a space near the kitchen.)  The Orchard is a room with a door and the TV/DVD capabilities.  We tend to have movies in there or music, which tends to be louder.  Sometimes Drama is in there depending on how the other spaces are being used.  Our regular classroom is the Garden Patch and is where any number of workshops take place.  Because the Garden Patch and Greenhouse (2 halves of the classroom which has a divider) have carpet anything messy is done out in the Arbor or Potting Shed.  The latter are the areas we've designated in our Fellowship Hall.

Our classes are known by names rather than grades. This is both fun but also helps when students may need to be in a class other than the one that's their grade: a less mature student can go into the younger group or vice versa.

Our "Seedlings" are in the "Nursery".

Our "Sprouts" are K-2nd grade this year.

"Saplings" are 3rd-6th grade.

"Buds and Blooms" are Jr and Sr. High students.

The students all have aprons with their name tags on them which are different depending on their group.  The Sprouts have green ones, the Saplings have gold.  The Buds/Blooms have either a waist apron or a gardening hat.  The aprons are used to keep clothes clean, show the name tags and collect pins for each completed rotation.  The teachers are called "Gardeners" and they wear a yellow gardening apron upon which I put a picture of geraniums growing in little pots.  We also have "Wheelbarrows" (who wear an apron with a wheelbarrow on it) who take the Sprouts, Saplings or Buds/Blooms from workshop to workshop.  It's taken a while for folks to catch on to the names "Gardener" and "Wheelbarrow" but after nearly a year they seem to have gotten used to it.

The Sprouts and Saplings love their names and aprons, etc.  The older kids aren't so keen on their hats but they do attach their pins to them with some pride.

In each space we have different workshops each month and these workshops are simply called "Music", "Science", "Carpentry", etc.

This took a while to figure out, given our space limitations, but we are loving it.

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Last edited by Lesson Wrangler

This will be our 7th year of rotation Sunday school at our church.   We call it Cross Training.  Double meaning here with the cross Jesus died on and the cross training of going to different stations.  We had a church wide contest (win a big candy bar) and voting  for the naming of our rooms .  The choir room is called Hallelujah Hall,  Kitchen is Bread of Life Cafe', the art room is called Coat of Many Colors, the theater is called Holy Flicks Theater,  Science room is called Creation Station,  Our Drama theater is called Acts of Kindness,  our story room is called Glory Story Tent  and our Game room is called Arcade of Faith.  Outside each room is a banner that reflects the naming of the room.  It was a fun idea to include the whole church in the naming of our rooms as it  served  to spur the enthusiasm  of our new rotation program .  Sherry

We had our kick-off Aug. 19!  Our theme is Wellspring Woods and our workshop names are:

Prayer Pathway - Entrance & Hallway
River Rocks - Music & Movement
Zacheus' Treehouse - Storytelling, Bible Skills & Games
Starry Night Cinema - Video
Matinee Meadow - Drama, Puppets, Newsroom
Creation Hollow - Art, Cooking, Science

PrayerPathway1

[exchange volunteer edited post to add links to wonderful pictures of the classroom spaces at United Presbyterian Church, plus more detailed descriptions.]

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Last edited by Amy Crane

Mission/Service Workshop:  "FaithWorks"

Decor theme: Construction, tools, plans, supplies, what/who we are serving

James 2:14, What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says they has faith but does not have works?

FaithWorks is also a pretty good name for a Rotation Sunday School too!

Faithworks_Logo

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Last edited by Neil MacQueen

See a list of some popular and particularly clever Cooking Workshop names, as well as photos.

What are "Workshops" and what are the benefits to students and teachers? Check out this short video:

View articles about various workshops, their setup and methods, and see more photos.


View an Introduction to the Workshop Rotation Model for Sunday School

Last edited by Lesson Wrangler

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