Hello and Welcome!
Sharing my Classroom!
A few years ago, I had the pleasure of teaching students who were age 5 - first grade.
It was a wonderful little class with 6 sweet, beginner-reading, young hearts, though I have to admit, as someone who has had more experience with grades 3-5, these sweet young hearts about ate my lunch the first couple of weeks. 😉
I had to do something and fast!
The space we were blessed with for our classroom was large, so I just needed to split it up into useful areas for effective learning. Some of you may know them better as learning centers.
Before the next Sunday, I changed my Bible lesson area 3 times and settled on a round table so we could easily see one another. These kiddos have lots of energy and I needed to funnel that energy into learning God's Word in ways that would allow them to move but also focus on God and our lesson for that morning.
Entering the Classroom!
We had the same routine at every class period which helped them focus.
As my students entered, I gave them a warm friendly greeting telling them how glad I was to see them and remind them to place their Bible on the round table at the place they want to sit during our Bible lesson or early bird activities.
(This method works well with this group, but I do realize that at times, seating may need to be a little more strategic. I have tweaked the seating arrangement once or twice by having them draw a piece of colored paper cut like a square out of a bowl and had them find the chair with the matching square to sit in. This worked well to help the students sit by other students to get to know them or if I had a couple students who needed to be separated for whatever reason. They thought it was fun and went along with it very willingly.)
The student's Activity Table!
On this table they found stickers available to them for attendance and the inside cover of their Bible. They also found "early bird" activities until class begins. I didn't always have "early birds" but if they came, I was ready for them!
Some of our matching early bird games!
This teaching wall had the names of each student in a heart, a books of the Bible poster for practice, Bible facts, and our attendance chart.
Then a Bible verse that reminded us that God sees all of us and what we are doing.
I love the big wiggle eyes with Hebrews 4:13
We had extra Bibles on the table if we needed them,
and we used review questions
or our box of true and false Bible questions
for Bible tic-tac-toe.
The laminated X's and O's are easily attach to the laminated poster with Velcro.
Practicing putting the divisions of the
Bible books in order.
The bottom poster matches the top poster
and has separate magnetic pieces,
here's what it looks like when it's finished.
Singing Bible Songs!
Once it was time for class to begin,
we moved over to the Bible Song area where a half circle of chairs awaited them.
The teacher chair sat in the corner, and the student chairs face the teacher chair.
I put a strip of blue tape on the floor as a boundary line that their chairs need to stay on or behind.
They loved taking turns helping me pick songs to sing from our stash of song visual aids.
My students loved using props and visual aids as we sing.
We also talked about the meaning of the songs.
At first, I used a basket for the song props in zip locks, but
soon realized it would be easier for us to find what we needed
if they were on a shelf.
There Was a Rich Old King - Crowns
Oh, Be Careful Song - Body parts to hold up when we sing about them!
We have crowns on sticks for the song
Above, this small poster shows the Periods of Bible History,
I kept it in the room so we could highlight where we were studying.
Before moving to the table for Bible lesson time,
we found where our Bible lesson was on our Bible Timeline!
You can see my pointer over in the corner behind the chair.
The Temple furnishings are colored with chalk, provided by
the Polishing the Pulpit Chalking Class!
I normally have these numbers on the ceiling to help my students
recall some of our Bible facts.
Bible Memory Verse!
After singing we would walk over to the Memory Bible Verse Area!
Along the wall I had several chairs set up and our memory verses put on the wall behind them using pictures and words to help them remember the Bible verse.
Brief video of our Bible classroom
As said in my video, after our memory verse time, we make our way back over to the Bible lesson table and have our Bible lesson together with pictures and props.
This small table was the teachers' area
for lesson/teaching supplies.
Not very big but it did the job!
Thanks for stopping by
and feel free to leave a comment!
Have a blessed day!
No comments:
Post a Comment