by Courtney Kirk | Nov 15, 2017 | Teaching, Teaching Resources
GAMES! Especially when it comes to our fourth and fifth graders, pull out your games to reinforce the lessons. In the early elementary years, we want to teach them the bible stories using a hands-on approach. As I have mentioned before, use play-doh, silly putty, kinetic sand, floam, any number of squishy items to get their attention. But when it comes to our fourth and fifth graders, we want them to spend time actually in the bible, looking up scriptures to see what God has to say to us. The problem with this though is that kids may find this boring. As you are reading it and bringing the story to life, it is exciting, but they may not run home and tell their friends to join them. So let’s make it fun!
How do we make this more fun so our kids want to bring their friends? Play games! Not just any games, but games
that reinforce what they just read. This also teaches them to pay attention, preparing them for the rest of their lives as they enter a class. So what kind of games can you play? There are some games you can switch out from week to week. For instance, magnetic bible dart Tic-Tac-Toe. One team at a time gets a chance to answer a review question. If they get it right, one player tosses a dart onto the board. This continues to get three in a row! Another option is Bible Basketball. Same idea, but keep score. Pick up some small door or wall basket ball nets and you are set! Still need another idea? Get a couple of blow up dice, you know, the big ones! (Or foam works well too!) For each correct answer, roll the dice to see how many points you just scored. At the end, see who has the most points. This way, it’s not based solely on who gets the most answers right, but a combination of answers and rolls.
Get creative! There are so many simple and fun ways to make learning about God fun for kids! Let’s show kids that God is far from boring!
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by Courtney Kirk | Nov 6, 2017 | Teaching, Teaching Resources
How much thought goes into your children’s ministry? Since you are reading this article, I’m guessing you have dedicated some time to this effort. Thank God for you! If we are going to reach children before the age of 13, then we better have a plan. And we better be checking back against that plan to make sure we are staying on course. And we better check our stats and see if what we are doing is effective, because if it’s not, we better adjust.
To effectively reach children, we need to understand children and teach them in a manner that they learn best. So often, we are given a book with lessons and teach straight out of that. There are some great materials out there! Fantastic ideas, but are you teaching them in a manner that really reaches your children, excites them and stays with them? I started down this path when I had a severely ADHD child in one of my classes. The teacher asked me what she could do to keep this child from distracting other kids. I had to give this a lot of thought and prayer. I researched the topic and decided, the kids needed something in their hands.
This led me to Play-doh lessons. It worked great! I made up Play-doh mats for each lesson. All the teacher had to do was read the bible story with enthusiasm, stopping at key points to let the kids create what was on their mats, something from what they just heard. For instance, when we taught on the creation, they would go to the box labeled “Day 1.” In the box would be a light bulb. The kids simple shaped their play-doh over the light bulb on their pages. In the box labeled “Day 2” they filled the cloud with Play-doh. And it continued. This was so simple and the kids loved it!
How did it help with learning? First of all, it was hands-on so every child, from the shy and quiet to the loud and wild, was seated and participating. This is kinesthetic learning. They saw the lesson on their papers and created the pictures so now we are reaching our visual learners. Then we have the story being read aloud and the teacher asking questions allowing kids to answer and repeat. This is auditory learning. I discovered that through something as simple as Play-doh, we were able to cover all three major learning styles. After months of this, I checked in with the classes and was honestly amazed! The kids had retained so much of what they were taught. It was i
I was afraid the Play-doh might get mundane so I added kinetic sand, Silly Putty, play floam and white erase boards. By rotating these things out from week to week, the kids never got tired of one thing; in fact, they got excited when it came back around to their favorite. By the way, the play floam is an all time favorite! I also took out the mats and simple read from the scriptures telling the kids what to create. This worked well. I’d make it too so the kids could watch me and follow along. Plus, they could see that a camel doesn’t half to look like an actual camel. They get a good giggle out of what our items wind up looking like in the end.
On top of it all, this makes lesson preparation incredibly easy. Once you have a set of each in your class, you are set! Review the bible story, select the verses you will read (with enthusiasm) and which you will stop at to create something while reinforcing this part of the lesson. I’ve never had a simple and more effective class than I do now!
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by Courtney Kirk | Nov 3, 2017 | Teaching, Teaching Resources
Want kids in bible class to pay attention and retain what they have just been taught? Of course, you do! There are so many ways of doing this but today I thought I’d share just one. It is super simple and K-5th graders love it! All you do is make copies of the Raise Kids for Christ movie takes form. As you read the story from the Bible, pause at key areas having the kids draw a picture to describe what just happened. Often, I will draw pictures too so if they are not quite sure how to draw something, they feel better when they see my stick men imperfections. In the last space, have them write the scripture reference.
After you have read the story and they have drawn their pictures, let the kids use their movie takes to retell the story as a group. Then, if it works for the lesson, they can act it out too! Print as many copies as you like! Cartoon Drawings Movie Takes
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GAMES! Especially when it comes to our fourth and fifth graders, pull out your games to reinforce the lessons. In the early elementary years, we want to teach them the bible stories using a hands-on approach. As I have mentioned before, use play-doh, silly putty, kinetic sand, floam, any number of squishy items to get their attention. But when it comes to our fourth and fifth graders, we want them to spend time actually in the bible, looking up scriptures to see what God has to say to us. The problem with this though is that kids may find this boring. As you are reading it and bringing the story to life, it is exciting, but they may not run home and tell their friends to join them. So let’s make it fun!
