Little JAM Sessions

Tag: art

23 Oct.2024
How to raise a thankful preschooler
How to raise a thankful preschooler

Little JAM Sessions preschool ministry choir curriculum: Caregiver’s companion guide to Little JAM Sessions Give Thanks Unit.

I Chronicles 16:34 Oh Give Thanks to the Lord, for he is good.

Being thankful doesn’t always come naturally. We don’t just fall into it. It’s why we parents are always reminding our preschool kids to say thank you. Gratitude is easiest when we have what we want, when life is going our way. But Little JAM Sessions reminds our kiddos to be thankful always, for the important things like God’s love and for the little things too. If you’re doing this Unit with the Thanksgiving holiday approaching, we can be inundated with food prep and in-laws, costume parties and pumpkin spice everything and forget to actually be thankful. Each morning at breakfast or on the way to school, tell your kiddo three things that you are thankful for that day. Modeling gratitude is one of the best ways to raise thankful children.

Give Thanks Jesus Session

  • Thankful for God’s Love
  • Thankful Always
  • Thankful for Friends
  • Thankful for What we Have
  • Thankfulness Reduces Anxiety
  • Thankful for Salvation

Here’s some helpful advice from the Child Mind Institute on how to raise a thankful child.

Bring gratitude back into Thanksgiving or any time! Here’s a fun game from Teach Beside Me called The Pick-up Sticks Gratitude Game.

Play this with the kiddos and adults to remind everyone — including yourself — what you’re thankful for.

Give Thanks Art Session

In this unit, we play with a lot of creative expression versus realism in our art. It’s important for littles to feel secure in choosing favorite colors and designs. It’s okay if they want to color their leaves pink and purple. But patterns and mazes require absolutes. In life, some things are opinion and some things are fact. This is reflected in our crafts. We also introduce a variety of sensory experiences. Here’s some fun ideas on how to explore texture at home.

If you are doing this Unit leading up to Thanksgiving, this helpful article in Mother Mag discusses the tricky job of explaining Thanksgiving to littles in an accurate and age-appropriate way. One tip mentioned is to ask what they already know. Working through the JAM at Home worksheets is an excellent opportunity to do just that.

Give Thanks Music Session

The Thankfulness Unit’s song is “Let’s All Be Thankful.” We sing about being thankful in good times and in hard times.

Give Thanks Playlist

Show your gratitude to these musicians by purchasing some of their music.

Here are some suggested books on the Story Graph.

And here are some fun videos to keep up our thankfulness.

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Category: Give Thanks, Little JAM Sessions

art, Bible, choir, church, grateful, gratitude, jesus, music, parenting, preschool, sunday school, thankful, thankfulness, thanksgiving

23 Oct.2024
How to help your preschooler become a better friend
How to help your preschooler become a better friend

Little JAM Sessions preschool ministry choir curriculum: Caregiver’s companion guide to Little JAM Sessions Besties Unit.

I Thessalonians 5:11 Encourage one another and build each other up.

Friendship is all about being a better friend. JAM Sessions want to help remind your littles what friendship means. Social Emotional Learning is crucial at this stage in your child’s development so let’s lean into that learning. I recently read on article from Begin Learning about 8 ways to teach kids about friendship. Many of those ideas are implemented in JAM Sessions, including teaching characteristics of a good friend. Our model for friendship comes from Galatians 5:22-23a. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self control.”

Besties Unit Jesus Session

  • Being a Kind Friend
  • Being a Peacemaking Friend
  • Being a Patient Friend
  • Being a Good Friend
  • Being a Gentle friend
  • Being a Faithful Friend

Books on Friendship and on the Fruit of the Spirit can be found on the Story Graph.

Besties Unit Art Session

Friendship Unit will introduce different skin tones. The in-class activity will involve mixing paints to create these. ALL skin tones are good skin tones. This is an important lesson that children can learn early. Multicultural inclusivity begins young. It doesn’t mean being “colorblind,” but rather, appreciating the variations of color. This article by Embrace Race is a good place to start learning. Having friends of all colors makes us better people.

Mixing paints to create colors is a fun activity. Here is a fun video on mixing colors.

Besties Unit Music Session

Our Friendship song is called “Be a Good Friend” and it incorporates modeling the Fruit of the Spirit as a guide to being a good friend.

Besties Playlist

Here are some fun videos to keep the friendship theme going.

If you’re little one has trouble making friends, no worries, HERE is the start of my blog series on how to make friends.

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Category: Besties, Little JAM Sessions

art, Bible, choir, church, freinds, friendship, fruit of the spirit, jesus, music, parenting, preschool, sunday school

22 Oct.2024
Parent Guide for Little JAM Sessions
Parent Guide for Little JAM Sessions

Little JAM Sessions is here for you!

Little JAM Sessions wants to partner with you, the caregiver. Little JAM Sessions understands that YOU are the most important and influential person in your preschool child’s life. We are here to encourage and support you. JAM at Home is a take-home activity sheet made for you to work with your preschool kiddo to give you bonding time, entertainment, and to reiterate the ideas learned in the lesson each week. This parent guide will help you walk with your child through their learning. You can find the post that coordinates with your lesson through the drop-down menu or the QR code on your little one’s take-home booklet.

Preschoolers learn at different speeds. Some of the activities will be very new to them. That is Okay! Circling, drawing lines, tracing are all part of Early Childhood Education.

Some of you will need to start with the basics, like how to hold a pencil. In the meantime, you can draw for them while discussing the activity. Be sure as they learn new skills, like holding a pencil, to give them opportunities to use them.

Others may be in their second year of preschool or may have worked more on fine motor skills and be ready to write and draw on their own. Little JAM Sessions will have extra activities available to further your child’s learning. JAM-at-Home activities deal with both objective and subjective concepts. Some have right and wrong answers and some allow room for more creativity in their responses.

Many of the music concepts in Little JAM Sessions are based on antonyms. If opposites are new to your preschool kiddo, this is a great video to introduce them.

In Music sessions we’ll be learning high and low sounds, fast and slow, long and short, and loud and soft.

Hi! I’m Brenda

My three kiddos are all grown now, but I adore working with preschool-age littles!

Fam JAM Sessions

Fam JAM Sessions is Little JAM Sessions at-home family discipleship lessons. Click HERE for more information.

You can also find helpful parenting tips at Brenda’s Blog.

Three friends will guide you and your preschooler through the JAM at Home activities.

Josiah will be walking you through the Jesus Sessions.

Abigail will create with you in the Art Sessions.

Micah will sing with you in the Music Sessions.

Parents, grandparents, caregivers — JAM Sessions is here for you. If you have any questions, please reach out.

Email
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Category: Parent Home, Uncategorized

art, jesus, music, parenting, preschool

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