Prepping materials for several age groups and several campuses can become overwhelming if you don’t have a good bin prep system in place. Here are some photos and details of the system we use to prep small group bins each week for 5 rooms and 2 campuses.

At Creekside, small group bins are prepped by volunteers who come in during the week.  They prepare all the materials for one age group.  Bin prep team members gather supplies needed for the small group activity.  They photocopy the take home sheets as well as any other copies needed for that day’s lesson.  A laminated chart is used to determine the number of copies that are needed for each room and each campus.  A whiteboard marker is used so that the numbers can be adjusted as needed.

Bins are prepped 2 weeks in advance at the Waterloo Campus. This allows the Kitchener campus team to take their bins to their campus when they are at the Waterloo Campus for meetings during the week.  All bins are prepped at the Waterloo Campus where the supply room is located.  Bins are prepped and placed on a shelf.  There is a space for returned bins, bins that are in process and a place for completed bins.  Signs below these spaces are laminated so that a white board marker can be used to change the dates each week. Each shelf is labelled with the age group so that the completed bins can be placed in their correct location. This makes it easier to see what bins still need to be completed before they are taken to their rooms and campuses.

bin prep system

bin prep system

Bin prep volunteers get everything they need from the Admin Bin for their age group. Curriculum for each age group is printed off and put in file folders labelled by date.  Admin prep volunteers gather supplies from the resource room for the small group activities.

Comment below if you have any suggestions from your bin prep system.

For photos of Creekside’s Kids area click here.

For ideas for room dividers for small groups click here.

To download a free template for a volunteer training book click here.

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