by Courtney Kirk | Jun 5, 2018 | Crafts & Activities, Teaching
How often do you find yourself going through the day not thinking about God? If we fall into this pattern at times, how do we get our kids thinking about God when they aren’t in bible class? Actually, this is probably one of the best times to start this habit. Starting when they are young, ingraining this into their regular thought pattern would be amazing! Now how do we do it?
I tend to think there a many, many ways to accomplish this. For me, we gave our K-5th graders “Bible Buddies” and a daily journal. Then we challenged them to share God with their Buddy every day of summer. Their squishy buddy has its very own pet carrier that lets kids easily take their buddy with them wherever they go. They can serve together, sing bible songs to their buddy, read their buddy a bible story, pray each evening with it…. The lists goes on and on.
Our kids were thrilled to decorate their pet carriers and even more thrilled when I told them there is a reward at the end of summer if they can show me in their journals what they did with their buddy each day. If you are interested, the squishy pets and treat boxes for carriers were inexpensive. Kids just add colors and stickers to the carrier. And you can print off the journal or make your own!
If you haven’t subscribed and would like to receive weekly updates with more articles like this, click here!
Thanks for installing the Bottom of every post plugin by Corey Salzano. Contact me if you need custom WordPress plugins or website design.
by Courtney Kirk | May 17, 2018 | Crafts & Activities, Holiday, Teaching
What are Memorials?
Did you know that memorials are not a human concept. Nope! God started this and we have many memorials we learn about in the bible. Do our children understand what a memorial is? Do they know that they have biblical memorials still today? Are they being taught in a manner so they don’t fall on the same path as the Israelite’s who so many times were found worshiping the memorial instead of using it only as a reminder to worship God?
Teaching kids about God’s memorials
Downloadable Memorial Day Lesson & Activity is available for you to use as it is or modify to best fit your kiddo’s. It teaches kids what a memorial is and the most important memorial Christians have today. Then, there’s a suggestion for an activity allowing kids to think about what reminds them of God and then mold their very own memorial out of clay. (You can use Play-Doh for the younger kids.)
If you haven’t subscribed and would enjoy more bible activities like this one, subscribe here so you don’t miss a thing! You’ll receive an email every Friday with posts from the week.
Need clay?
Need modeling clay? Here are a few options to make it easy on you, but look around. There are a ton of choices! I am purchasing a colorful one today for my class. Remember, clay is hard so kids will need to use their muscles and soften if to mold something amazing.
Thanks for installing the Bottom of every post plugin by Corey Salzano. Contact me if you need custom WordPress plugins or website design.
by Courtney Kirk | May 14, 2018 | Crafts & Activities, Holiday
YIKES! School’s out, the kids are home and parents need ideas! Lot’s of ideas!
Summer is a time when the kids are home, they quickly get bored and plant themselves in front of the television. Parents need fresh ideas. They want to be good parents. They want to spend time with their kids (well, at least some of the time), but they don’t know what to do without breaking the bank or without fighting their kids by acting as the T.V. police. So it has to be fun, something kids get excited about.
Be a hero with parents, the kids and with God! You have the solution right here, 25 fun activities for the summer. There are many activities kids can do by themselves or with each other to have fun outside of television, but the idea is for parents to spend quality time with their kids. Time together builds up a child’s self-esteem and makes them more comfortable going to parents with problems as they get older. None of these are very expensive, and many are free! So, print off “25 Summer God-Approved Family Activities” and send home with your bible class kiddo’s. (If you are tech savvy, download it and send as an email attachment.)
Encourage parents to try a few of these ideas and most importantly, have fun with their kids. They do grow up fast and they remember the time spent together. Encourage parents to consistently remind their kids that God gave them each other, loves each of them and will be the focus of the family.
If you haven’t subscribed, here’s a link so you won’t miss out on more teaching resources. Plus, you will receive a free download of Bible Class Warm-Up’s. SUBSCRIBE HERE.
Thanks for installing the Bottom of every post plugin by Corey Salzano. Contact me if you need custom WordPress plugins or website design.
by Courtney Kirk | Apr 16, 2018 | Crafts & Activities, Teaching, Teaching Resources
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FjPvFddVVyE" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Disappearing Sin! Was Jesus really the final sacrifice for our sins? Did he really take on all of our sin? These are big questions and often a difficult concept for a child to wrap his mind around. Help kids make sense of this with a very simple object lesson, especially perfect for the visual learner (which is over half the population). If you haven’t read it, you may go back and read my article about visual learners and teaching these children most effectively. You can read about it here. To sum it up, most of our children are visual learners, meaning, they learn by seeing. This may be through pictures, video, puppets, objects or object lessons. Get creative with your class and they will not only love you for it, they will remember more of what you taught them than ever before. Today I will share one of my favorite object lessons about Jesus taking on our sins. Supplies: A plate, a coin, a candle, matches (or lighter), cup of colored water (any color can be used), and a clear drinking glass.
- Show the penny to everyone telling them that the penny represents us. Place the penny on the plate. off to a side.
- Now pour the colored water which represents sin onto the plate covering the penny, just like in life we are covered with sin. (Experiment with the water to see how much to put on the plate for it to work right. You don’t want to use too much water.)
- Then, take the candle that represents Christ and place it in the middle of the plate.
- Jesus is the Light! So light the candle. (A lighter works best. I used matches and after class the hallways smelled of smoke so everyone was wondering what was on fire.)
- Take the clear glass and place it over the candle onto the plate. Within seconds the water will begin to draw up inside the glass, off the penny (us).
- Wow! Jesus took ALL our sin at the cross and continues to this day, forgiving us. What an amazing, loving Savior we have.
I have done this with kindergarten through fifth grades and they all loved it so much they begged to do it over and over again! It is a simple, but highly effective visual for showing our kids how Jesus took on all our sins that day at the cross. That means every sin was no on him. Can you imagine how painful this was for him? But he did it because he loves us and wants us to be with him one day. This visual will be stuck in their heads for all time and one day it just may click not to take Jesus on the cross for granted.
If you liked this, you may enjoy another experiment for kids. Take a peek.
Or download a 13-Week Series in Bible Science, using science experiments to impress God’s word on our children’s hearts.
Thanks for installing the Bottom of every post plugin by Corey Salzano. Contact me if you need custom WordPress plugins or website design.
by Courtney Kirk | Apr 5, 2018 | Crafts & Activities, Teaching, Teaching Resources
Learning stinks, right? Most kids think they do not enjoy learning, they do not want to go to school much less bible class. Like most of us though, they love learning when the love how they are learning. They learn best when they are having so much fun they do not realize they are learning. That’s the trick! As teachers and parents of God’s word, we have our work cut out for us. We must get creative in our teaching.
Reach all three major learning styles with one simple activity- a bible puppet theater. First, you share the lesson using your finger puppets to tell the story. Your finger puppet may be the student and you, the teacher, talk to the puppet. You tell the puppet the bible story while asking questions all along the way. Your finger puppet answers with amazement. And when the puppet does not know the answer, it simply asks the class! Get them involved. You reach the visual learner as they watch the puppets in action. The auditory learner hears the story and gets to answer some questions along the way. The kinesthetic learner is about to learn the way they do best now. You’ve been an example to this theater, it’s time to create theirs. It’s so easy!
Supplies:
1. Cut along all the dotted lines. This will separate the puppets from the stage and it gives your theater its windows.
2. Glue or tape your toilet paper rolls (or other items) to create the stand for your theater. These should tape to the back (unless the kids decorate them to be a part of the stage- Roman pillars?)
3. Now, decorate the finger puppets.
4. Cut them out.
5. Measure around kids fingers and tape to fit.
6. And there you have it! A finger puppet theater.
7. Let kids partner up to present the lesson. They decide who is the finger teacher and finger student.
God’s word is exciting and so very important; so let’s make learning about Him something our kids look forward to. And let’s try to create something with them they won’t leave on the seats at church or toss the minute they get home. Our goal is to keep God in their thoughts. After all, they play “superhero” make believe with each other; so why not reenacting bible stories?
Thanks for installing the Bottom of every post plugin by Corey Salzano. Contact me if you need custom WordPress plugins or website design.
by Courtney Kirk | Mar 29, 2018 | Crafts & Activities, Teaching, Teaching Resources
I recently shared with you characteristics of an auditory learner and ways to effectively teach them God’s word (View it here). I thought we’d have some fun and make some stringed phones for you to try with your class. Tin cans look cool, but paper ones work best (and are easier) so that’s what I will do here.
Step 1: You will need your supplies. It’s just 2 paper cups and string (as long as you’d like). Oh, and something to poke a hole in each cup. I used a pencil tip but something a little smaller may be better.
Step 2: Poke a small hole, just large enough to put your string through, in the bottom center of each cup.
Step 3: Push string through the bottom of one cup, tying a knot on the string inside the cup. This will prevent kids from being able to pull the string out when tightening to talk.
Step 4: Repeat with the other end of the string on the second cup and you’re done! You’ve got a stringed phone.
Once you make a set, how do you use it to teach? Good question! As kids arrive to bible class, let them pair up with a set of stringed phones. They can talk to their partner about anything! This is just a fun warm up. If they need prompting, list some questions they can ask each other and answer, a getting to know you time. Or, you may write questions out on a bunch of cards and hand each person a set as they arrive. They simply select a card and ask that question. Examples:
- What’s your favorite animal, ice cream, drink, holiday…
- What’s food do you hate the most?
- Who’s your favorite person in the bible?
Now for the lesson, the heart of the class where you share God’s word and pray that it sticks with them throughout their lives. Enthusiastically tell the bible story asking plenty of questions as you go. Now that they have heard the lesson, it’s time to reinforce it! The kids should be in pairs (if you have an odd number, the teacher participates too).
- Ask a question about the lesson. Keep questions short enough for kids to repeat.
- One person from each pair repeats the question in the can.
- The person listening now gives the answer. If the do not know it they say, “I don’t know, do you?” Now the first person gets a chance to answer back.
- After kids are done, the teacher gives the correct answer.
- Repeat asking another question alternating who asks the question into the can.
Trust me. The kids will have a blast and learn so much!
Thanks for installing the Bottom of every post plugin by Corey Salzano. Contact me if you need custom WordPress plugins or website design.
