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A child will hold your hand for a little while but your heart for a lifetime.
Teacher Tidbits
Object Lesson Ideas For Teachers
In teaching your class, use your imagination to make it interesting and to keep their attention. Little objects can help them remember the lesson. The possibilities are endless with a little imagination.
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Absalom winning the hearts of the people – stand by the door and pass out pens and shake hands
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The woman at the well or John the Baptist – a simple glass of water
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Fruit of the Spirit—any fruit
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Various parables about growing – seeds, trowel, pot
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Turning water into wine or water to blood: take a small baby food jar and fill it about half full of water. On the inside of the lid put 2 or 3 drops of red food coloring and let it dry overnight. Set out the jar with the lid on tight (be careful not to shake the jar ahead of time). When you come to that part of the lesson then shake up the water in the jar.
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Aaron’s budding rod. Put eleven wooden match sticks in a small box with a removable lid (a check box works well). Show the box with the sticks to your class but don’t give them time to count the “rods”. The night before take the twelfth stick and glue some tiny flowers on it and then lightly glue the match stick to the inside lid of the box. After showing the class the other sticks put the lid back on the box while secretly knocking the “budding” stick loose. Later open the box back up and show them the rods.
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A child’s toy box can hold many items that make nice object materials.
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The temple or tabernacle—a simple sketch
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Offerings or sacrifices—a couple of plastic cows
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A small paper sack for the boy and his lunch
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Need a magnifying glass? Make a large one out of a coat hanger and clear food wrap.
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Lazarus—wrap a white sheet around you
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An old patriarch—dress up like one
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Choosing to go God’s way—old car-new car, old toy-new toy. Sometimes it can seem nice on the outside.
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Solomon’s choice—have various items laid out for them to choose from
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Noah & the ark—a few toy animals
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Hezekiah & letter from Ramshaki—a legal size envelope with a folded letter in it
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Naaman—muddy water and clear water in baby food jars
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10 commandments—cardboard tables of stone
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Jesus, the Light—a flashlight
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Naboth’s vineyard—set some artificial flowers around
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Elisha, the widow and the oil—a little bottle of oil and a lot of empty vessels
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Elijah and the widow—2 sticks, a small container of flour and one of oil
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Wise man and foolish man—a small rock and a little bag or jar of sand
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Samson—little exercise barbells
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Red Sea, Naaman, Jordan, John Baptist—glass of water
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Daniel—stuffed lion
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Gideon—flashlight, pitcher & toy sword
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Joseph's coat of many colors—try a bath robe with strips of various colored cloth pinned to it or to be a little humorous pin pieces of paper on the robe with the names of different colors written on the paper
- Moses and
the burning bush--put a small bush or branches in a pot and wrap
a string of Christmas lights with red bulbs around it (crude,
but they will get the point)
- Red thread for the story of Rahab
- David and Goliath--a slingshot
By now you get the idea; with a little imagination you can make even a dry lesson interesting.
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Be sure to learn the names of your students as soon as possible.
Take into consideration the age of your group and their general Bible knowledge.
Try some Biblical calisthenics to get some idea at what level your group is at.
For Sword Drills occasionally mix things up by picking the second, third, fourth, etc. person to find the reference instead of the first. Have a different number in mind for each reference to keep the group guessing.
Be interested in them. Find out what their hobbies are and when possible work some aspect of their hobby into your lesson.
Need a discussion topic? Start with a Bible verse. There are verses on praying, picking your friends, marriage, giving and a whole host more.
At the beginning of class session ask them a "Question for the Experts". It can be related in some way to the lesson or just a general Bible question. You want it difficult but keep in mind the level of your class.
Two things a Sunday school teacher tries to bring across – to teach the historical part of the lesson and to apply the lesson to today.
Scripture cards can be reproduced on pretty paper and put around the house, classroom or passed out to the students.
How about old fashioned "20 Questions"?
Sword Drills, review, object lessons, quizzes; as you prepare keep these in mind. There will be times you won’t use any, but most of the time you can use one or a combination of them.
A Sword Drill is an excellent way to bring in other verses about the lesson and it is more interesting when the student takes part instead of you just reading the verse.
Encourage them to use their imaginations. When you start studying about a new Bible character try to picture how they looked, what their attitudes were like, etc.
Tell them a short continued story for 2 or 3 weeks at the beginning or end of class.
Start a story or illustration before Sunday school and finish it at the end.
Two important attributes of a teacher—prayer & humility.
Teach them respect for God's house and His Word.
Be a student of God’s Word yourself.
A child’s toy box can hold many items that make nice object materials.
From time to time take a couple of minutes and flip back through your quarterly and ask questions from previous lessons.
When reading a story try substituting names from your group in place of those in the story.
For missionary correspondence you could have a list of birthdays and have the young pople sign a card and send it.
Have a different young person write a letter each month.
Encourage them to talk and ask questions.
A dry erase board is a handy teaching tool. You can use it for simple drawings to illustrate your lesson, write out difinitions for keywords, upcoming events, etc.
Spell out T-h-a-n-k-s-g-i-v-i-n-g and have them name one thing for each letter that they are thankful for.
If you are studying a Bible character spell out their name and
have the students come up with words starting with each letter of
the name that would describe that character.
EX.- RUTH: R- righteous, U- unselfish, T- thoughtful, H-humble
I like to use a class survey sheet at the beginning of the church year. It gives me a little bit of a feel for the general Bible knowledge of my group. Here is a link to the PDF file. You can copy & paste it into your word processor and make whatever changes are necessary for your particular class.