Sunday School Center Ideas

This is an opportunity for you to make "centers." For those with a school background, you know what these are. For those who don't have such a background, such as myself, centers are activities that kids can participate in before class officially starts. This is a good time for you to do attendance with each child. Each center should have no more than 3 or 4 children at it at one time for learning to be most effective.

1. Business card holder with vocabulary word book
2. Wikki stix on songs
3. Song charts with pointers
4. ABC order wise words (vocabulary words)
5. Perforations of wise words (vocabulary words)
6. Sequence story cards (ex. Life of Jesus)
7. Order books of the Bible in pocket chart (may have to have just a few books of Bible in jar at a time – 66 gets overwhelming for some)
8. 12 apostles song and characters
9. Sequence plan of salvation cards
10. Color cards to send to sick
11. Bible puzzles
12. Letter cards to spell vocabulary words
13. Bible opposites games/puzzles
    

We hope this blesses you!

How to Teach a Bible Class Lesson

It occurred to me that we may be jumping the gun a little. Maybe we should hit the basics. Kim prepared this list for teens she was teaching to teach. She really is an excellent resource for teachers, and I have been blessed to learn from her. Here is the method she taught me, and others, to teach little ones.

How to Teach a Bible Class Lesson

1. Read the scripture of the lesson
Reread the scripture for the last lesson
Read the scripture for this lesson

2. Rewrite the story in your own words (staying faithful to the Biblical version)

3. Lesson format
Sing for five minutes
Say a prayer
Begin with a review of the last lesson
Tell the lesson for today
Have some kind of application

4. Decide what you want to use to teach the lesson
Posters/pictures
Flannel pieces
Magnetic pieces
Overhead transparencies
Puppets
Read a book
Flip charts
Make up a song about the lesson

5. Write questions for the end of the lesson
Focus on some details and the main idea

6. Decide your application
Act out the story
Make a book
Make a puppet
Retell the story to a friend (buddy in class)
Folder games
Game
Color sheet
Worksheet
Crossword puzzle/word search
Make a chart together

7. Helpful hints
Always check your supplies before the lesson
Prepare some activity to practice the memory verse
Attendance charts
Consider what the kids will do when they arrive
Songs
Prayers
Children below first grade should not be expected to read or write or use scissors
Keep it hands on and fun!

Anytime Projects for Sunday School

This is a list of things that may be useful for those lessons that don't have an action intuitively associated with it. We have found this list to be a lifesaver on more than one occasion.

1. Folded fill in the blank book (kcrew style)

2. Make card to send to others – either encouragement, get well, etc

3. Necklace with verse

4. Headband with verse

5. Tear paper vocabulary word – print vocabulary word in large font on computer. Have kids tear tiny pieces of construction paper and glue over the word.

6. True/false statements from lesson – sort on T-chart or use happy/sad faces

7. Chart it!

8. Class book – words by teacher, kids illustrate

9. Class book – words by kids, teacher illustrates (we use worksheets for this)

10. Give kids cut up letters that spell the vocabulary word, help them spell word and then glue it down. Illustrate the vocabulary word.

11. Book mark with verse

12. Pocket chart sequence

13. Role play

14. Bag puppet of main character to retell story

15. Jigsaw of verse

16. Door hanger

17. Mobile

18. Picture concentration – vocabulary word on one part, illustration on matching part

19. Rainbow words of vocabulary word

20. Perforation – punch holes in black paper spelling out word using thumbtack. Attach to white paper, have kids illustrate word on bottom half of paper.

21. Wikki stix – have kids circle vocabulary word, “write” word with stix, etc.

22. M&M game – have a baggie of M&M;s – kids pull out one and answer the question based on color:
Red – main idea Orange – characters
Yellow – setting Green – application
Blue – scripture Brown – name 3 events

If you have any questions about these, feel free to comment or e-mail! We'd love to help!

Hope this blesses you!

Fun things to do with a worksheet besides color it!

We've all been there. The lesson is wonderful, but there's no activity for the kids, only a worksheet. And it's uninspiring. Here are some ideas to jazz up the worksheet. . . .

1. Teacher colors the sheet prior to class. Cut the worksheet apart into simple jigsaw pieces. The children can put the pieces together as a welcome activity.

2. Make a copy of the color sheet. Draw thick black jigsaw lines on the worksheet. Xerox one for each child. The kids can color or simply cut apart to create their own puzzle. Make sure to have a baggie for each child to take home their puzzle.

3. Find color sheets that are in sequence of the story, like a flip chart. Distribute one sheet per child. Then the children get in order of the story. They have to retell that part of the story that their picture illustrates.

4. Add something to the sheet that does not belong, like a hammer or cat or pencil. See if the kids can find the wrong object.

5. Use watercolors instead of crayons.

6. White out the words. Let the kids create a sentence to explain the picture. Kindergarten and early first graders will need the teacher to record their words for them.

7. Enlarge on a copy machine. Let the kids lay on the floor around the "poster" to color in a group. Hang on the wall. Teacher writes new words on a separate piece of paper for the caption as generated by the kids.

8. Create the color sheet to be a "color-by-number" sheet. The target color should be important to the story. For example, only color the blood red Nile River during the plagues, or only color the purple cloth with Lydia, or the water in the story of Jesus walking on water.

9. Add real objects with glue. For example, sand fore desert, blue cellophane for water, corn meal for grain, glitter for stars, straw/hay for straw in the manger, cloth for clothes, etc.

Hope this blesses you!

Announcing. . .

Revamped and updating! We're back! Kim and Daesha have teamed together and now we'll both be posting. Hopefully, this will be a more active blog, now that two of us are posting.

Check out our lessons as they come up. We would love to hear ideas from you, too! Shoot either of us an e-mail - Kim's is posted, and if you know mine (Daesha's) feel free to CC me on that. Or not! Kim's better at checking her e-mail than I am!

I'm writing a few posts this morning, and I will be posting them over the next few days. Hope you can use them!