ROOTS Children & Young People

ROOTS Children & Young People is the magazine for those who work with groups of children and young people aged 3 to 16.

For each Sunday you'll find two two-page spreads – one for use with children and one for use with young people. They complement each other and you can select ideas from across the four pages according to the needs of your group. Each includes:
Planning – the overall context, suitable songs, music and other resources, and details of the Take-home sheet for parents and children;
Gather – ideas for an activity or how to prepare the space as well as a gathering prayer;
Open the Word – ideas for active ways of presenting and engaging with the Bible reading for the week;
Talk about – discussion starters;
Respond to – craft, prayer and other activities that help shape a response to what has been understood;
Send out – how the session could be 'closed', including a prayer of dismissal.

Bible notes (commentary on the lectionary readings) are published in ROOTS Adult & All Age and are available to CYP subscribers on the website.

At the front of the magazine you'll find Season setting (which describes the seasonal context in which the ROOTS issue is set); plus Prayers and music, Activities and drama, and Art and craft all of which are suitable for use at any time across the two months covered by the magazine.

There will also be one or more general articles on worship, learning or other topics of interest, including Pause for Thought – a question and answer format to encourage youth or children's workers to think about how and why you do what you do. In the first issue in the new format (September/October 2008) there is extensive guidance on how to work with children and young people using ROOTS resources.

To find out more, read the sample Sunday material available online now.