“Exciting and fun!” Teachers have to smile when he or she hears those words after a class. Teaching can get stale, predictable and boring, not because of the subject matter, of course. We just get stuck in a rut and sometimes it pays to return to these important keys to teaching. Make a personal review of your class, or ask a friend to sit in, and find the weak spot. Are the lessons too long? Are kids bored? Apply these six keys to teaching to have a more exciting Sunday School class, every week!
Key #1: Prepare for class. Let’s break this key down a little. Prepare means you’ve cracked open the Bible, read the Bible lesson, reviewed the schedule and tweaked it where necessary. Prepping also means gathering the supplies you need, and planning for extra children or a longer class with a bonus game.
Key #2: Let children teach. This step is exciting for both kids, parents and you. Set aside snippets of your lesson for kids to present. This may be the reading of the verse, the reading of the story or presenting an object lesson. For smaller kids, you can ask them to help with the puppet presentation or felt board arrangement.
Key #3: Play dress up. Allow your kids to act out the scenes by providing them with inexpensive wardrobe pieces like paper crowns, pillowcase tunics and plastic swords and shields. This kind of impromptu fun is play but with a purpose.
Key #4: Recite Bible verses in playful ways. For example, we repeat the scripture verse using the “underwater technique.” That’s just rubbing your lips with your fingers. Sometimes we pretend to speak in different languages. We might recite the lesson while pirouetting like a ballerina or charging like a bull.
Key #5: Pause for fidgets. I like this key especially when I teach the younger class. Stop every two to three minutes and shake off the fidget bugs. Start with the fingers, hands and arms. Get kids to shake their heads and stomp their feet for 10 to 20 seconds to shake off even more bugs. This helps kids who have problems focusing for too long. And it’s just fun!!
Key #6: Incorporate hand motions. Use hand motions with your praise and worship songs. Keep them simple and consistent. By doing them every week, you help children remember the words of songs and the children express their worship in a unique way that God loves. Now that’s truly exciting!
Read more from Monica Bullock by checking out her e-book, The Prophet’s Code. This book explores the role of the prophet in the modern church. An inspirational read for teens and adults!
6 Keys to Teaching an Exciting Sunday School Class
