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Creative names for Sunday School programs and classes

GardenofEatinWorkshop

Creative Names for Sunday School "Workshop" Classrooms and Programs

Our members have been sharing their creative names for their "workshops" (classrooms) and Sunday School program for many years here at Rotation.org. You're welcome to share yours by replying.

It's common for Rotation Model-style Sunday Schools to come up with inviting and whimsical names for their "workshops" and even rename their entire Sunday School based on a theme to reflect changes they have implemented and become more appealing to kids and families. A "workshop" is a classroom that is outfitted and decorated around one particular method of teaching, such as art or cooking or drama.  In the Rotation Model, classes "rotate" to a new workshop each week and the teachers stay put. Each workshop teaches the same Bible story for 4 to 5 weeks at a time so that the kids develop a great memory and understanding of the story through many different learning approaches. As you will read below in our lists of names, some workshop or Sunday School names are based on something peculiar about their church, such as its location on a hill or by the sea. Other names use words like "Trek" or "Discovery" to rebrand the Sunday School and give it a thematic motif. See the follow-up article by Neil about "naming cautions."

Learn more about "workshops" and how the Rotation Model works.

See our collection of photos of creative classrooms and signage!

Please notice that there is MORE THAN ONE PAGE of posts in this topic.

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Last edited by Neil MacQueen
Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Thanks Neil for all your great suggestions and for taking the initiative to start this ministry.

Our Workshop Rotation Model Sunday School is called "Sonshine Station" and all our workshop rooms are "places" such as

Parable Place (storytelling)
Activity Alley (games and activities)
Divinity Diner (food)
Luke's Lab (science/demonstrations)
Creation Station (art)
Visual Vineyard (video)
Music Mall

Watch a presentation about the Rotation Model

Last edited by Lesson Wrangler

We use the acronym A.R.K.
Awesome
Rotating
Kids

Obviously, we use a Noah's Ark theme and have a logo for all our Sunday School that has Noah's Ark and the caption
"Come Aboard"
Cheryl

Last edited by Wormy the Helpful Worm

Art: Creation Station
Drama: Moved by the Spirit
Stories: Temple Courtyard
Cooking: Loaves and Fishes Cafe
Movies: Mountaintop Movies
Computers: Fisherman's.Net
Program Name: Faith Odyssey

These are the names that won. We had a contest with open nominations for all six workshops and the program name. Our committee narrowed the list to two nominations and we voted on one a week for seven weeks.

A funny aside, one of our computer room nominations was "Bible Bytes." The adults all thought this was very clever, Cool

but a teenager pointed out that this sounds the same as "Bible Bites" -- a negative slang term. Eek

Not exactly the message we're trying to get across. The moral of the story is make sure the names sound good to kid's ears, not just adults. Big Grin

Last edited by Luanne Payne

Our Rotation is under construction. Actually this Saturday is our first work day on rooms. We are slated to start in January. Our over all feel is a travel agency where kids get their passports (Name Badge) when they arrive and have one destination stamped each Sunday. Our Shepherds are our "Tour Guides".

Theme: Testament Tours
Art/Cooking/Games: Mt. Carmel Creations
Theater/Music/Movement: Palestine Productions
Drama/Puppetry/Storytelling: Bethlehem Bijou
Computer/AV Newsdesk/Maps: Galilee Gigabytes

Last edited by Luanne Payne

Our Rotation Model Sunday School is called "Kingdom Trek"
and has a traveling/wilderness theme.

Our rooms include:
Garden of Creation (art)
Caravan Camp (storytelling/video)
Oasis Theater (performing arts)
Trekking Computers (computers)
we also do games and cooking, but no clever names for those workshops Smile

Our logo is a cartoon kid wearing shorts, t-shirt and a backpack. The logo is on the background of our song transparencies and will be used on our name tags.


What are "Workshops" in the Workshop Rotation Model?

and what are the benefits to students and teachers?


You may have noticed in the above presentation that "workshops" are often called by different creative names in Rotation Sunday Schools. An Art Workshop might be known as "Creation Station," "Holy Word Studios" for a Video Workshop, and so on.

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

Last edited by Luanne Payne

I love our Sunday School programs name. It was created by Luanne Feldman who started the W.o.r.m. program at our church. Our whole program is called "Footsteps" Of course our logo is a footprint and our key vs. is Psalm 119:133 Establish my footsteps in your word. We even decorated the kids hallway to have footprints on the wall leading to the classrooms.

Last edited by Luanne Payne

Our program is called 'Kids on the Move!' Our mission statement includes the following 3 objectives:

• Move kids to realize that God is talking to them through Bible stories.

• Move kids to Bible literacy by ensuring they remember the story and Biblical truth taught during each rotation.

• Move kids to faithful attendance and a desire to bring a friend by emphasizing the learning environment

Our workshops are Bible Beach, Thou Art, Mary and Martha's Kitchen and Holywood. The kids check in with the Travel Agent for attendance purposes and to find out which workshop they are assigned to for that day.

Last edited by Wormy the Helpful Worm

Our program is called the LIGHT House. "I am the light" is just one of many Bible verses we use to explain the name. We are also a seaside community with two lighthouses nearby, so this especially made sense for us.

Our workshops all have a nautical/beach theme:

Seaside Cinema: Movie Theater/Video Production
Surfside Studio: Art
Cyber Cove: Computers
LIGHT House Cafe: Cooking
Mission Marina: Mission
Parable Pier: Drama
La Playa Playhouse: Games
LIGHT House Chapel: Opening Space

Monica Buzbee

Last edited by Luanne Payne

These names were selected from those found at rotation.org, tweaked just a little:

B.L.A.ST. (Bible Learning Adventure Stations)

Bible Disc-overy Zone (Computers)
Desert Drama Theater
Thou Art! Studio
Marketplace (covers various subjects: storytelling, cooking, science,etc.)

Last edited by Luanne Payne

At Ellijay First United Methodist our rotation Sunday School is called "Ark Angels"

Art: Noah's Art
Science: Cubit's Corner
Computer: Binary Boat
Games: Arkade
Movies: Rainy Day Theater



You have at Rotation.org's website
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Last edited by Neil MacQueen

Our Rotation for 1-6th is Footprints to Faith. Our various workshops are:

Let There Be Light...Camera, Action (a/v)
Wheel of Verses (Bible Skills/Games)
Thou Art
God.com
Bread of Life (cooking)
Parable Room (puppets, drama, music, storytelling, depending upon the rotation).

Last edited by Luanne Payne

We're called Faith Finders for Grades 1- 4

Rooms :
Discovery Den (multi purpose changes each month
Saint's Stage (drama)
Potter's Workshop (art)
Olympic Way (games, activities)

Our four groups of children are named Explorers, Adventurers, Detectives, Spies

noreene




Last edited by Luanne Payne


Posted by Kathy Davis 

 

Our church is Bethlehem U.C.C., so we are working off of the Bethlehem theme.

 

We painted our main room like a courtyard (each wall looks like a different building in old time Bethlehem - a stucco look with cracks and just a few bricks painted here and there) we will have a "well" that we will gather at each week. The individual rooms are:

The storytelling room is like you are walking into a huge tent and we call it Tent Tales.

The Drama room will have different backdrops on each wall: a seascape, a meadow, a mountain and a dessert - this is called The Stars of Bethlehem (the kids are the Stars).

The Art room is Noah's Art and will be painted like you are standing on the deck of the ark. The art stools will be painted in various animal prints.

The Theater will be BibleMax Theater.

The computer room is God.com.

The Kitchen is The Bethlehem Bread Co., and will be painted in the same colors as the St. Louis Bread Co./Panera's restaurants.

The Bible Skills/Games will be Dave & Goliath's (instead of Dave & Buster's) and we will paint a D&G on the wall similar to the Dave & Busters logo.

Last edited by Wormy the Helpful Worm


We wanted our name to convey a concept so we studied the definitions of names that were suggested. We chose Faith Odyssey. The room names were designed to fit the acronym FAITH.

Father's Word = Bible stories – tent decor
Academy = Bible research & study – map decor
Imagination Station = Science/Art/Cooking –1-wall-art, 1-wall-science, 1-wall-cooking decor
Truth Theater=Drama/Puppetry/Music – theater decor
Heavenly Happenings = Video – Cinema decor

We have a small SS (25-30) right now, but have over 200 children when we have Upward Basketball, so we know that the children are there. We are praying that they will come.

Thank you for this website!

Last edited by Luanne Payne

Our Rotation Sunday School is called "Walk of Faith"

The workshops are:

  1. Bread of Life; cooking/science
  2. TINN (Tell It to the Nations Network); TV production
  3. Brown Street Chapel; worship/Bible study (Our original church was first built on Brown Street. This chapel looks like something from the 1950's)
  4. How Great Thou Art; art
  5. Acts of Faith; puppets and drama
  6. Temple of Faith; storytelling
  7. Heaven.com; computers
  8. How Majestic!; movie theater
  9. A Maze of Grace; geography/social studies/mission
  10. Shout to the Lord!; music/games


Our program is for 1st-5th grade children.
Judy

Last edited by Luanne Payne

Our theme for this year's Sunday School rotation of stories is "Fishing for Faith" on the S.S. Discipleship.

Our workshop names all have a fishing theme:

Computer: Computer Cove
Video: Fish Tales Temple
Drama/Puppets: Christ's Cast
Art:
Games: Fun Dock
Cooking/Science: God's Galley

Our hallway has disciples fishing from a boat with a net. Hung by it is a small fishing net with fish in it. Swimming around the net and boat are fish each child decorated with their name on it. A string of fish lights goes around the bulletin board.

The Computer room is decorated to look like a cove with cutouts of palm trees, sun, clouds, parrot, waves with fish, shells, lobster, etc.

Each child has their own "fishing" vest made out of felt. Each grade has its own color vest. A fly fishing lure (hook removed) is attached to the vest. Each child put their name on their vest with a marker.

Last edited by Luanne Payne

Our Sunday School is called m&m's for Memory Makers.

Our decorative theme is m&m's.

Our workshops are:
Michelangelo's Workshop (art)
Masterpiece Theater (puppets/storytelling)
Memories in Motion (creative movement/games)
Mess Hall (cooking)
Matters of Faith (science)

In the music room, we made large musical notes, with the bottom circle being m&m's. In the art room, we spray painted round styrofoam plates to look like m&m's and hung them around the room. For the mess hall, we decorated a pot with a wooden spoon full of m&m's. For Matters of Faith, we filled a beaker-looking vase with m&m's and made a cloud of them bubbling out of the top. We made a path of m&m's out of craft foam from the downstairs to our rooms upstairs.

Last edited by Luanne Payne

Our Sunday School is called Crosswalk for Kids.

The slogan is "It's not your regular Sunday School."

We alternate between 10 different Experience Stations, depending on what best fits the lesson topic:
B C Lab: Computer
Creation Station: Art
Biblebuster Video: Movie
Holyword Studios: Drama
Revelations: Storytelling
Temple Time: Bible skills, games
Soul Cafe: Kitchen
KNOW: news station
The Master's Hands: Puppets
Celebration Station: music

Last edited by Neil MacQueen

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