Here are some more good ideas. A word of thanks is extended to the Sunday school teachers who have shared these with me over the years. In passing them along to you, I hope you will see something that gets you thinking about new and different ways to effectively engage your children in the learning process.
There is a common theme of student creativity in the ideas that are offered this month. Creative activities go beyond the routine accumulation of Bible knowledge. They allow the children to demonstrate learning through the use of personal interests and talents. These kinds of activities can tell us a lot about our children and their understanding of the Bible.
Visual creations
Set up a permanent flannel graph in your kindergarten or primary class area (i.e., for your pre-readers and beginning readers). A good-sized bulletin board that is mounted low to the ground is ideal for this. Get a large piece of flannel at a fabric store and back the bulletin board with it. Make a big pocket for storing lots of stick-on figures. (One way to do this is to fold up the bottom of the flannel and tack it into a long shallow trough.) Let the children use the stick-on figures to retell the Bible story they have learned. They can easily put figures on the flannel, move them around, and take them off. Leave their creations up from week to week for review purposes or to add to as a Bible story unfolds. Any time you want to use the bulletin board for something else, the flannel backing can be left in place and other things mounted on it. (Thanks to Diane Sabean, Meriden, CT)
Copy and cut coloring book pictures into separate pieces, each piece being a complete person, animal, building, Bible object, etc. Give each child a set of pieces and let them create their own Bible picture. Have the children color/decorate their pictures, add titles, make up captions, find and copy appropriate Bible verses, etc. This makes a good lesson reinforcement activity. It allows your children to express their understanding of the lesson better than an ordinary coloring activity can.
Make Styrofoam mosaics. Buy a package of Styrofoam trays or plates at a grocery store, spray them different colors and cut them into small squares with a knife or razor blade. In Sunday school, the children glue the colorful squares onto a foam board to create their own Bible picture or saying. (Thanks to Peter Dixon, Southern New Hampshire, NH)
More visual creations
Get your students thinking about the topographic features of Bible lands. Have them create a relief map of Israel or another Bible region using homemade modeling clay. You can find recipes for homemade clay online. A simple clay, made with flour, salt, and water, can be painted when it is dry. Stick flags on the map to identify key places. Have your students use the map to retell the story of important events that happened at these places. (Thanks to Carol Link, Baltimore, MD)
To help with a project like this, you might want to get a copy of Islip Collyer’s book, Where It Happened. In this little book, Bro. Collyer connects Bible events with the geography of the land. The book was published by The Christadelphian Office in 1946. Some brothers and sisters or ecclesias may still own a copy. The Office currently has copies available in its secondhand book supply.
Creating three-dimensional contour maps is another way to visualize the topographic features of Bible lands. Foam board works well for making contour maps. Draw and cut individual contours from the foam board, then glue the contours in layers to represent the elevation of the land. Paint the map, label it, and use it to tell what happened there in Bible times.
Illustrated story telling
Do you have students who like to draw? How about students who like to write? And do you have any budding orators? Let them put their talents together to create an illustrated Bible story. Then have them present their story to the rest of the Sunday school or the ecclesia. One older Sunday school class did this as a culminating activity after their studies of the life of the apostle Paul. They presented their story, complete with thirty colorful pencil drawings and maps projected on a screen, a full narration, and background music. The students did everything from start to finish. They also recorded their presentation. (Thanks to June Cawston, Victoria, BC. The project was done with a Sunday school class in Vernon, BC, several years ago.)
A variation of this idea is to have students create comic-strip depictions of Bible stories. Let them share their work with the rest of the class. This is also the kind of thing that can be easily published and credited in a Sunday school newsletter.
One teacher had her little ones create their own Bible story books. Each page was a visual representation of some part of the story. For example, the sun, moon, and stars, cut from gold and silver foils and mounted on construction paper to depict the fourth day of Creation. When all the pages were finished, they were punched and bound together with colorful yarns and ribbons. The children used their completed books in Sunday school to review the Bible story. Parents were also encouraged to have the children use their books at home to retell the Bible story to their families. (Thanks to Janice Baines, Sussex, NB)
Song writing
Children do not have to be musicians in order to write their own Bible songs. Let them write words to go with a familiar melody. Some might like to write songs that incorporate body movements as well (bowing, praying, etc.). Have the entire Sunday school learn to sing the songs that the children create.
Familiar melodies can be found in many Sunday school song books. Simple tunes and meters work best for this kind of creative activity. (Thanks to Mary Jane Farrar, Mountain Grove, ON)
Other student creations
Some children like to create word puzzles as well as solve them. Word searches are a big favorite. Have your students identify several key words in a Bible story and make a word search out of them. Others might like to try their hand at making a crossword puzzle, a cryptogram, or a jumble word puzzle. Let them try out their puzzles on each other. Student work of this kind can also be published and credited in a Sunday school newsletter.
Get some blank jigsaw puzzles at a craft store. Have the children make their own Bible jigsaw puzzles. When they are finished, some might like to donate their puzzles to the Sunday school for later use as a Bible learning center activity.1
Revisiting Sunday school goals2
Sunday school is about more than imparting Bible knowledge to children. By allowing the children to be creative and put their interests and talents to work, we can help them develop positive attitudes toward the vital things they are learning in Sunday school. That is what this month’s ideas are about. If you haven’t tried any of them before, give some thought to doing so. And send me your good ideas, too, please!
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