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Volunteer Appreciation Resources
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Soapin’ you have a merry Christmas!
Packed with Value
I have learned so much working with the Bible Studies for Life: Kids team this year and had such joy helping produce this ongoing curriculum for preschoolers and children. One of the most valuable resources we produce for teachers may be the least known — the leader pack. Of the many questions I receive from teachers new to our Bible study curriculum, I often hear these two: “What is a leader pack? Is it worth the extra cost each quarter?”
My answer is always a resounding yes — Leader packs are so valuable for teachers in the classroom! The challenge we face is to engage today’s visual learners and spark their imaginations with art and other engaging visuals that capture the attention and engages preschoolers and children to go deeper into understanding Bible Stories and how they apply to them. The leader pack helps us engage the visual learner.
Leader packs also make teaching easy. They are designed to go hand in hand with the leader guide, providing colorful pictures, posters, and other visuals that support teaching as well as games and materials that are connected to activities teachers will lead each week as part of their Bible teaching. Here are some details that show how valuable this resource is.
Teaching Pictures: The leader pack contains a teaching picture for every Sunday of that quarter. Teaching pictures bring alive the Bible story for children with an engaging visual of biblical art. Pictures are suitable for hanging on your focal wall and holding as you tell or review the Bible story. Our philosophy is that teaching pictures are not something just to be gazed upon (although they should be intriguing, beautiful pieces of art) as if kids will learn all that need to know on their own simply by looking, but they are to be engaged with interaction between teacher and learner (what are they thinking? what are they feeling? at what point of the story do you think this happened? what happened next?) so that kids understand on a deeper level what is happening in a Bible Story.
Memory Verse and Visual Posters: Each quarter kids’ packs will have three unit verse posters, one for each unit verse, making it easier to post on your focal wall for that month to help kids memorize it. Many age groups also have other unit posters that can be added to the focal wall to engage learners.
Teaching Aids: The leader pack contains many of the go-to teaching aids each week that connect back directly with activities in the leader guide and make teachers’ preparation easier. These colorful, creative items engage kids with that week’s Bible story and real life application.
Ultimately leader packs, through engaging visuals and teacher aids, help us reach our goal in Bible Studies for Life — for kids to receive the gospel message and to apply what they are learning to their lives each day.
William Summey is the Publishing Team Leader for Bible Studies for Life: Kids. He is a graduate of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and Vanderbilt University. William lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife, Christy, and their two sons.
Impacting Visual Learners with the Gospel
If you haven’t read William Summey’s part 1 of this post, you can find it HERE.
Having great visuals seems to be critical to effective teaching today. Some kids may be more prone to be engaged visually than others, but well-designed visuals, as William describes, can be an incredible way to engage kids of all ages as they consider the people, places, and events of the story each picture represents. In addition to using teaching picture visuals to help connect kids with Bible stories, many resources also include larger visuals. Sometimes these are large posters to place in a foyer or hallway, or maybe they are smaller posters that can be placed side-by-side almost like puzzle pieces. Whatever format these larger visuals take, they can be a major asset in helping kids connect to Bible stories.
Large visuals can provide a larger-scale wow factor. When space permits, using large versions of curriculum visuals can really make a space pop. Because of their size and bright colors, large-scale visuals will draw the attention of both kids and parents. They can be great discussion starters for parents to connect with their kids. If you don’t have space for the largest versions of available visuals, you can often use a piece of a poster set in your space to give extra cohesiveness between your space and what your kids are learning.
Large visuals often attempt to give a broader understanding of the content being studied. Like connecting pieces of a puzzle, large-scale visuals often try to tell a bigger story than what their classroom-size counterpart is able to do. Large visuals can tie together sessions into a bigger picture.
With the Fall 2018 release of The Gospel Project for Kids Volume 1, we are excited to include two brand new large visuals: (1) Giant Timeline and Genealogy of Christ and (2) our Small Group Timeline and Map Set. Each of these resources is beautifully colored, graphical poster sets to help remind kids (and adults) that the stories we are learning are about real people who lived in real places at a real time in history.
With The Gospel Project for Kids’ Giant Timeline, children can begin to see God’s one big story as it unfolds from session to session and volume to volume. Children can track the progress from Genesis to Exodus and all the way to Revelation. Each volume is on its own poster so if space does not permit displaying all 12 posters, a single volume’s poster can be used in a common space. Our new Genealogy of Christ four-poster set is included with the purchase of our Giant Timeline. This poster set graphically depicts Jesus’ family line from Adam and Eve down to Joseph and Mary. It’s a large four-poster set that shows both Matthew and Luke’s accounts of Jesus’ family line.
With The Gospel Project for Kids’ Small Group Timeline and Map Set churches can equip classrooms with 36 11-by-17-inch posters to display in classrooms. With each unit on a page, leaders could use one page at a time if space is limited or display all the posters side-by-side for large-scale impact. Our brand new oversized Map Set comes with four different maps: two for the Old Testament and two for the New Testament. In addition, a sheet of pin drop icons is provided to be able to place on a map and track the real places events occurred.
Most people, and it seems kids in particular, are drawn in by things they see, and there is so much information fighting for their attention. When we can make use of large-scale visuals to bring focus and cohesiveness to our teaching sessions and kids ministry space, we are able to help drown out the noise with a more singular focus, even if only for an hour or two.
Jeremy Carroll is the team leader for The Gospel Project for Kids. Before coming to LifeWay, he has been active in local church ministry for nearly 20 years in Tennessee, Texas, and Alabama. Jeremy earned a Master of Arts in Christian Education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. A Middle Tennessee native, he and his family live in Murfreesboro, TN.
Impact Visual Learners with the Gospel
The Art of Teaching Pictures
It has been such a pleasure these past few months working with the Bible Studies for Life: Kids team. I have learned so much and had such joy helping produce this ongoing curriculum for preschoolers and children. One of the greatest joys has been the opportunity to develop new teaching picture art each quarter. The challenge we face is to engage today’s visual learners and spark their imaginations with art that captures the attention and engages preschoolers and children to go deeper into understanding not only what is happening in the picture but also the real lives of the people involved—their feelings, thoughts, emotions. Then kids will start to be able to do what we hope to accomplish in Bible Studies for Life—for kids to receive the gospel message and to apply what they are learning to their lives each day.
So how do we accomplish this goal? Our philosophy is that teaching pictures are not something just to be gazed upon (although they should be intriguing, beautiful pieces of art) as if kids will learn all that need to know on their own simply by looking, but they are to be engaged with interaction between teacher and learner (what are they thinking? what are they feeling? at what point of the story do you think this happened? what happened next?) so that kids understand on a deeper level that these were real people with the similar thoughts, feelings, uncertainties, doubts, fears, hopes, faith, and wonder that they have today.
The following are some examples of kinds of questions you could ask and comments about the teaching pictures you show each week:
Prophets Told about Jesus (a picture of a prophet telling a crowd about the coming Messiah): The people of Israel listened to stories from prophets for generations and re-told those prophecies about the coming Messiah—Jesus. Why do you think God told them what He was going to do? How do you like waiting? How long is too long to wait? How do you think they felt waiting for years? How do you think they felt when Jesus actually arrived? What were they hoping the Messiah would do? Were they surprised by Jesus?
Joseph and His Family (young Joseph with his father or family): Joseph was his dad’s favorite. What problems would this cause in your family if one child was a favorite of the parents? How did Joseph feel? How did his brothers feel? How does God want us to treat others? How was God at work in Joseph’s life? How did God use Joseph later to help save his family?
Esther (before the king or just before or after entering the throne room and approaching the king): How do you think Esther is feeling? Do you think she prayed before she went in to see the king? What do you think she prayed? Do you think she prayed after she saw the king? How do you think she felt after she saw the king? How does God use us in similar ways to share the message of the gospel with others?
As teachers, help bring about this in how the kids you teach interact with teaching pictures. Great art and your teaching will help engage today’s visual learners and help them apply Bible truths to their lives!
Look for Impact Visual Learners With The Gospel Part 2 on the blog later this week by The Gospel Project for Kids’ team leader, Jeremy Carroll.
William Summey is the Publishing Team Leader for ParentLife, kids devotionals, and short-term products. He is a graduate of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and Vanderbilt University. William lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife, Christy, and their two boys.
Bible Teaching Activity: Bible Teaching Picture Puzzles
Puzzles are a helpful teaching tool to keep preschoolers engaged in learning. Many children enjoy puzzles, especially reflective, visual, and logical learners. Use the activity below to teach and review any Bible story with preschoolers.
Supplies Needed:
- Bible
- 2 Matching Bible Teaching pictures (save teaching pictures from the leader pack each quarter)
- Scissors
- Glue or glue stick
- File folder
- A piece of Velcro®
- Plastic zipper bag
Prepare:
- Open a file folder horizontally.
- Attach one teaching picture to the right side of the file folder with glue or a glue stick.
- Then, cut the matching teaching picture into the number of pieces developmentally appropriate for the children in your class.
- For storage of the puzzle pieces, attach a plastic storage bag with Velcro® inside the folder and left of the picture.
- For durability, consider laminating or covering the teaching picture puzzle.
Teach:
- Open a Bible to the Bible story and place the puzzle (folder open showing the Bible picture and the cut puzzle pieces beside it) on a table.
- Invite a child to put the puzzle together. Encourage him to place the pieces over the completed picture. (To make the activity more challenging, guide a child to put the puzzle together beside the teaching picture.)
- As the child works, share the Bible story.
- Review the Bible story with him, asking questions and referring to the picture in the puzzle.
- Help him discover ways he can apply the Bible story to his life.
Delanee Williams serves as a Ministry Specialist with LifeWay Kids. She is a graduate of Baylor University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Delanee has served in kids ministry for over twenty years and is passionate about developing, equipping and encouraging leaders.
Making Technology Work in your Classroom
In this day and age there is plenty of technology available. We live in a society that is immersed in it, and kids are growing up as digital natives, meaning they haven’t known a world without technology. Many are fluent users as young as three years of age. We’ve seen the tablets, the smart phones, the DVD players, and any host of other things out there (and technology we don’t even know about yet). The key is to know how we can harness this different technology as we teach and keep the digital natives engaged.
First know that technology should not be shied away from, but certainly not the only thing you use when you are teaching about Christ. The technology you use should supplement what you are teaching without being used in place of your teaching. As a general rule, when we are using our Bibles to tell the Bible story kids remember that God’s Word is real and alive and valuable. Using technology in place of that experience may turn kids away from wanting to handle God’s Word.
Here are a few tips to use when you do use technology in your classroom:
- Don’t be frightened to use technology. As you engage digital natives in their environment, some use of technology is going to be necessary. Don’t let the technology scare you and, if it does, practice using it ahead of time.
- Be the gatekeeper of the technology. As technology is used in your classroom, make sure you are gatekeeping how and when that technology is used. Don’t let kids surf the web while in Bible study, and if they use their own devices, make sure it’s for use as directed.
- Use technology only as needed. As we’ve already discussed there is no substitute for the real thing. When telling a Bible story, sure, you can use a DVD player or video online to teach the Bible story, but always follow it up by using your Bible to tell the Bible story in your own words.
- Use technology to help broaden your understanding. Use the available technology to help you as you plan for a session. Do research outside your leader guide or study guide to supplement your knowledge of the topic being taught and if necessary supplement your teaching with those things.
- Use technology to engage the learners. Many curricula available today have an outside app that can be used to help engage your learners as part of the learning process. Be sure if you use this technology you follow up with the learning by helping boys and girls apply what they did to the biblical content you are teaching.
- Use technology to engage others. Use email, social media, social groups, or microblogging sites to alert parents to things their kids may have studied and to elicit their feedback.
As you begin to use more technology in the classroom you will see a new way of engaging your kids, and who knows, you might get much more comfortable using the technology and letting it work for you.
Tim Pollard teaches 3rd graders at Tulip Grove Baptist Church. He’s passionate about helping kids dig deep into Scripture, which he pursues through his daily work as leader of the Explore the Bible: Kids team. Tim lives with his wife and daughters in Mount Juliet, TN.
Teaching Begins at the Door
As teachers, you are constantly teaching through your words and actions. We want our teaching to have a positive impact on a child. Greeting a child at the classroom door as he arrives has many benefits. Most importantly, the simple action of greeting children and their families at the door communicates you are happy they are at church. A teacher can set the tone of the class for the day when she physically greets a child at the door. A child can sense the teacher is happy he is at church. Additionally, when a teacher greets the child at the classroom door, he helps the child who may be experiencing anxiety feel comfortable .
Consider using the following ideas as you begin teaching at the classroom door.
- Designate the same teacher to greet children each week if possible. Seeing the same face each week can be comforting to the child and the parents.
- Greet the child by his name. Then, greet his parents. Smile and genuinely communicate you are happy they are at church.
- If possible, greet the child at his level. If you are physically able, bend down to the child’s eye level to greet him.
- Engage the child’s attention by showing her the teaching picture or another teaching activity for the day.
- Share the Bible verse for the day with the child.
- Post a sign outside the classroom next to the door sharing the Bible verse and other activities the child will experience during the teaching session. (Make sure to list any items on an allergy alert if necessary.)
- Sing a song or sing words to a familiar tune such as, “I am glad you’re here today, here today, here today. I am glad you’re here today. We will learn about Jesus.” (Sung to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb”)
Use the opportunity to build connections with the family, welcome the child, and begin teaching. By following the above suggestions, you as a teacher are not only teaching the child, you’re showing parents ways to teach and connect with the child. Which of these ideas could you implement as you teach? What other ideas can you think of to use to teach at the door?
Delanee Williams serves as a Ministry Specialist with LifeWay Kids. She is a graduate of Baylor University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Delanee has served in kids ministry for over twenty years and is passionate about developing, equipping and encouraging leaders.
Is Trustworthy Content a Kidmin Deal Breaker?
If you are a kids ministry leader, then you are a content provider.
“Whoa! Hold on now!” you may be thinking. “I’m not publisher, writer, song-writer, or video producer; so how am I a content provider?” Every preschool and children’s ministry leader and teacher is a content provider. The question is, “What kind of content are you serving to the kids in your church?”
Our ultimate goal is to make disciples of kids. The Bible is clear that making disciples includes teaching them the Bible. Jesus says in Matthew 28:19-20, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Emphasis mine.)
So, what are we teaching the kids in our churches? I’ve seen a lot of curriculum, some published and some not. A lot of good, trustworthy content is available. However, there is also an abundance of not-so-trustworthy content out there. How do we discern the difference?
Start with asking yourself, “Does the content teach the truth and nothing but the truth?” Paul reminds his young protégé in 2 Timothy 2:15 to, “Be diligent to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the word of truth.” (Emphasis mine.) This means that we present Bible content to kids without embellishment, always. If we think we have to add to the Bible content just to make it interesting to kids, what are we saying about our belief in God’s inerrant word?
Another question to ask is, “Does the content point kids to Jesus?” This may come as a surprise to many of us, but kids were around during Bible times. How do you think they learned about God’s plan of redemption? They studied the Scriptures. Again, Paul reminds Timothy, “And you know that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 3:15)
The kids alive during Bible times either experienced violence and hardship or heard stories about battles and God’s provision. Some of them heard about the Messiah. Others sat in the Messiah’s lap. They also memorized long passages of Scripture that didn’t have any action in them. Do you think their parents and teachers embellished the stories of old to keep kids from being bored? Of course they didn’t, and neither should we.
Before you teach kids this week, evaluate the video, music, scripts, and printed words you plan to present. Does the content teach God’s truth unaltered and point kids to Jesus? If not, what changes will you make to be a provider of trustworthy content?
Landry Holmes is the Manager of LifeWay Kids Ministry Publishing, Nashville, TN. A graduate of Howard Payne University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Landry served on church staffs before coming to LifeWay. He is a church leader, writer, workshop facilitator, and publisher. Landry also teaches children at his church in Middle Tennessee. He and his wife Janetta are the grandparents of two adorable grandbabies.
4 Signs You Might Teach A Reflective Learner
Scientist have defined around eight distinct approaches to learning. Many of us can identify the kids in our groups that fall into some of those categories. It’s very easy to spot a verbal learner who likes to lead discussion and chatter a bit; a physical learner who can’t quite sit in his chair; or a visual learner who loves to draw and always chooses the brightest crayons in the box. Some other approaches are a bit harder to identify. You might struggle to identify the kid who is a natural learner and enjoys natural environments to learning. You might not be able to peg the logical learner in your group, but after a few well placed puzzle games you will know who they are too. Reflective learners might be easy to spot, though sometimes we mistake their style of learning for apathy or rudeness. Here are four quick ways to possibly identify the reflective learners in your group.
- Reflective learners may appear to be disinterested. A lot of times a reflective learner by nature is reflecting on what you are teaching and saying. As leaders it is sometimes very easy for us to dismiss this behavior as disinterest and wonder if the child is even paying attention to any of the words that you are saying. I assure you, if you have a reflective learner, she heard every word you said and is pondering quite well.
- Reflective learners may not answer you right away when you ask a question. If you engage a reflective learner in conversation you may need to be patient and wait for an answer. Reflective learners want to make sure the answer they give you is the correct answer so they do an evaluation processes before giving you an answer. If you have a reflective learner include him in discussions but give him time to formulate an answer without pressuring him for an answer.
- Reflective learners like to journal. If you have a child in your group that likes to write or journal and usually chooses a writing activity when given choices chances are she might be a reflective learner. Journals are great ways to engage reflective learners and they will thrive in that endeavor. They might even be willing to share their journals with others. If you have a reflective learner make sure you provide choices that include some type of reflective activity to give them time to journal their thoughts.
- Reflective learners will ask you questions when you aren’t expecting them. Sometimes these kids will ask you questions weeks after a discussion because they have had time to process. One year the group of sixth grade boys I taught had a young man who would come prepared the next session to ask questions based on what he processed from the week before. If you have a kid who likes to ask question about prior content you’ve taught, you might have a reflective learner. Give time to answer those questions and maybe begin your session each week by asking if anyone had any thoughts from the last time you were together.
If you have reflective learners in your group take some time to identify who they are and give them an opportunity to be who God made them to be.
Tim Pollard teaches 3rd graders at Tulip Grove Baptist Church. He’s passionate about helping kids dig deep into Scripture, which he pursues through his daily work as leader of the Explore the Bible: Kids team. Tim lives with his wife and daughters in Mount Juliet, TN.
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