Seating

1. Queue the children outside the door until you’re ready to start. By letting them enter in a continual stream, one after the other, you’ll create far more excitement than a slow dribble in.
2. Have a helper welcome each child personally as they come through the door. Make each child feel special and wanted.
3. Make sure some upbeat music is playing as the kids come in.
   
4. Have helpers positioned to show the kids to their seats. Seat the boys in one section and the girls in another. This will create your two teams. There is a natural competition between boys and girls, so by dividing your teams according to gender, you’ll be able to tap into this.
   
5. Direct the kids to fill up the seats from the front to the back. By showing them where to sit, you are helping to establish order and preventing the formation of a rebellious "back row posse."

Entrance and Intro

1. When all the kids are seated, get them to put ten fingers in the air and count down for Kidz Klub – the most exciting hour of their week!
   
2. As the kids shout one, a loud burst of intro music comes on and four or five helpers run from behind a wooden set or backdrop. They’re armed with water guns, for shooting the opposing team and generally dance, clap and cheer to the music, encouraging the kids to do likewise.
   
3. After approximately 60 seconds, the leader blows a whistle. This is the queue for the music to be turned off and the club to return to silence and order.

Rules

Most Kidz Klubs have three rules:

1. Stay in your seats
2. Obey all the helpers
3. The whistle means silence

But you can add extras that are specific to your situation. At this point in the club the leader will explain the rules. They may get the kids to shout them out, have a competition to see who knows them or sing them to a popular tune. The important thing is that at the beginning of each club, you are re-establishing the boundaries of acceptable behaviour. By explaining to the kids that only those who keep the rules will be picked for games, you’re giving them a motivation to behave well. Finish this section by blowing the whistle and waiting until you have absolute silence. Then direct the kids to put their hands together and close their eyes (it might sound a bit old fashioned, but it really helps with concentration) and get a helper or child to come out and pray for the club.

Memory Verse

The teaching each week is tied into one simple, memorable bible verse. At this point in the club we get all the children onto their feet and learn the memory verse to a song or rap or by chanting it. We sometimes put memory verses to recent pop tunes, but it often works just as fell if we put them to well known tunes such as She’ll be Coming Round the Mountain, The Okey Cokey or Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. When you buy the Kidz Klub UK Resources, you’re given advice on creative ways to learn the memory verses.

Praise Party

From learning the memory verse, we run straight into the praise party. Some Kidz Klubs have live bands, while others sing to CDs. Either works well. We don’t write our own material, but draw equally from new kids praise CDs and old favourite tunes, like 'He’s got the Whole World in His Hands'. More details of the songs we use are available in the Kidz Klub Uk resources. We tend to sing three or four up-beat praise songs, followed by one or two quieter worship ones. Many people struggle to get non-church kids, especially boys, to engage with praise and worship. We want to encourage you that it can be done. When planning a praise time think about the following points:

1. Is the song up-beat and energetic enough for raucous inner-city boys?
   
2. If so, does it have actions and are they "male" enough to engage them. Foot stamping and punching fists in the air will always engender a better response than a complex sign-dancing mime!
   
3. Are the words simple enough? Because we work in an area where literacy levels are not high, we use songs that can be known by heart once they’ve been sung three or four times.
   
4. Do the kids understand what they’re singing about? Try getting helpers to give brief testimonies of answered prayer between songs, so when kids are singing that "it’s great to have a friend like Jesus," they’ve just heard why Jesus is a great friend.
   
5. Make sure all your helpers, those positioned around the hall and those at the front are singing and dancing enthusiastically. The kids will follow your lead.
   
6. Give some sort of reward to those who join in – get a helper looking out with sweets or prizes during the praise party or explain that the most enthusiastic singers will be picked for a game. This acts as more than bribery. Children are very susceptible to peer pressure. If the child next to them is scowling through out, they’re unlikely to engage in praising God. Their response will have more to do with the fact that they’re intimidated by their neighbour, than whether or not they love Jesus. By rewarding those who join in, you create an atmosphere in which praising God is acceptable. Some may be joining in just to get a sweet, but by changing the atmosphere, you free those who want to, to genuinely engage with God.
   
7. Start slowly. Initially aim to get the children to sing two or three praise songs. As the culture changes to one that will unashamedly praise God, you can introduce a longer praise time and then move into worship.
   
8. During worship songs, it’s often helpful to get all the children to sit down and close their eyes. Again this stops those who genuinely want to worship God from being intimidated by the thought that others may be staring at them.
   The praise party completes the first section of the club, Intro and Praise. By the end of this section each child should have been personally loved and welcomed, should be aware that they are in a safe environment, where discipline and order are maintained, and should have had the chance to engage with God.

You now move on to the Games Section.

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