Jogging Their Memory? Rice is Nice!

Sharing a Memory Prop!

(But first a little about me and a storage idea!)

Greetings! To my sister Bible class teachers,

I hope you are seeing good, rich, pleasant days in Christ.

I am doing well and just got done reorganizing my Bible class closet!

Whew! What a huge job! I needed to downsize and made some real choices.

Sorting and Sorting! Oh, and did I say sorting?

Posters, props, visual aids for individual lessons, books, boxes and bins!

Since I am still teaching Bible class, there are many things that I will definitely use and still need to keep. Then I found things that were still in good condition but did not see myself using, so I was happy to pass them on, then still lots of other items found themselves in the trash.

To say the least it feels really good to have my teaching supplies better organized and easy to find.

I was thrilled to be able to purchase 2 sets of 3 drawer storage! If you leave the wheels off one set, they can actually stack! They made such a nice difference in storing my 11x17 lesson visual aids. It was a lot to go through, but very worth it.

The finished job! 

The poster storage in front of the drawers is easily 

moved in order to get to the bottom drawers.

So, how do we jog our kids' memory with rice?

I was wondering the same thing when I was listening to my 5 yr. old grandson Micaiah describing it to me.

(My ears perked up because I am always on the lookout for different ideas that my class would enjoy and would help them remember the Bible lesson!)

The idea is, that they had to find the first letter of the person, place, or thing they were going to talk about in the lesson which was hidden in the rice. The students would each get a turn to see if they could find the letter(s) that represented things in the Bible lesson.

I thought it sounded like a fun idea and my students loved it and could actually remember whose name began with the letter "S" from our Bible lesson! They loved the feeling of digging through the rice and were excited to find the letter!  

You could actually add different letters at the same time of people, places, or things from the week's lesson! In Acts 9:1-19 we learn about the conversion of Saul. Instead of everyone only finding an "S" for Saul in the rice, maybe they could also find an "L" for the letters he was taking to Damascus, and an "A" for Ananias, and another "L" for the light that shown, and a "D" for Damascus! 

Then as you told the lesson they would find out who or what the letters stood for. They could hold onto their letter and hold it up when you ask who got the letter "A" for Ananias and so on. Then at the end of class, have them tell you who, what or where their letter represented! 

The rice will need to be put in a deep enough container that it doesn't spill when they dig through it. I ended up using something deeper than the bowl pictured.

I hope you can use this idea with your students!

I must thank and give credit to our sister Bible teacher, Lisa B. for this wonderful idea!

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave a comment!

Tip of the Day! - Take-home Cards!

 

Hello and Welcome!

Taking the Bible Lesson Home!

When I have spent time formatting pictures for my Bible lesson, I also like to copy and paste each picture onto a document, to resize them for take-home cards! 

Then I print off one set for each student and cut them apart.

They can be stapled together as a book or stored in a snack size zip-lock bag. 

For review, my students also enjoy putting them in order 

as to what happened first in the Bible lesson! 

The one little picture that doesn't match the rest is the application thought that I try to always include. 

A fun way to learn! 

Find pictures just like these to download and format for your Bible lessons here! 

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave a comment! 

A Life Size Review Game!

Reviewing is Fun! 

On the last day of our 3 day Vacation Bible School, 

we played this review game!

This was made by gluing 3-4 sheets of white bulletin board paper together. 

Then I drew out the the game spaces with pencil, 

and went back over them with black marker, 

and then again in crayon to highlight each space. 

Here I am changing out specific spaces that go along with our particular Bible lesson. 

Below are pictures of spaces from different Bible themes. 

These spaces will give you an idea of what to write on spaces 

where they may go ahead, go back a space, lose a turn, etc.

And of course the goal is to reach heaven! 

My students always love this game! 

It just folds up for easy storage 

and I pull it out year after year!

Supplies and Process of Game!

1. I had review questions from each day's Bible lesson. 
2. Divided my students into 2 teams, (however many teams you may need/want).
3. We had 2 dice with 6 sides, (one for each team) bought from the Dollar Tree Store. 
4. Whichever team rolled the highest on the dice got to go first. 
5. I had one student from each team on the start space. 
6. When the question was asked to a team, they discussed the answer together quietly with their team before answering. 
7. I had a buzzer for each team, (optional). After the team discussed and settled on the answer to the question, one person of the team buzzed in when they were ready to give the answer. (With each new question a different person from the team got to buzz in.) 
8. When the team answered correctly, that team rolled their dice, and their "Pawn" person got to move that many spaces. if they landed on a colored space they had to do what it said, (lose a turn, jump ahead spaces, etc.).
9. If the question is answered incorrectly the opposing team gets a chance to answer!
10. After 2 questions for each team we switched out the "pawn" for a new one, taking the place of the one on the space before them, standing on the same space. The one replaced, went back to answer questions with their team, (you can draw names for replacement or just have the teacher or helper choose).
11. Which ever team makes it to the "heaven" space first wins!

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave a comment!

Blessing in Disguise and Properly Stored Supplies!

 Colossians 3:23–24

Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.

Greetings!

You may find in some of my past articles where I have shared how our congregation has taken a priority in seeing that our teachers have supplies and equipment to help them easily teach the Bible to the children.

Well, in all honesty, we really had outgrown our resource space for props and class materials and choices needed to be made. An interesting problem to have but a problem nonetheless, especially when visual aids are stacked and piled so you cannot decipher what is available to you.

Early this summer we had somewhat of a disaster
on our hands at our church’s building.

You know that little song from Winnie the Pooh…

The Rain, Rain, Rain (Came Down, Down, Down).

Well, the rain, rain, rain DID come down, down, down! 

Right through the walls into offices, classrooms, storage areas, etc.

It was a REAL mess!!

Where is the blessing in all of this? Well before the blessing(s) was discovered, it got even worse.

Not only had we lost many books and several teaching props, there was also a lot of yucky mold found. We were sorry it was there but glad it was discovered so it could be dealt with!

But hold on it wasn’t over.

As a few of us were sorting through bins of Bible class props and such that had been moved from the flood area, deciding which items could stay and which had to go, we also decided to begin going through our resource room that had had not been effected by the flood but was in much need of organization!!

An AMAZING opportunity as we were already in the groove of clearing out and cleaning.

At this time if you would have entered our resource room you would have found a large supply of Bible class visual aids on shelves or tucked away in wooden slots, but also many things in that room of which had been piled and stuffed, heaps upon heaps! Some old some new. Some things that had been donated, and were thoughtful, but again we only had so much space to work with. Then there were those things that, who knows why they had ever landed in that room to begin with.

Someone has to do it!

Resource/education rooms over the years have a way of piling up unless someone with teaching experience and organization skills takes on the decision of out with the old, in with the new and saving what’s good and useful!”

The old is not always bad, but at some point pictures/games/posters/wall décor that are damaged or out of date, or if you find they are not scriptural, should definitely be pitched! If it is a useful idea but damaged, you may want to create a new visual aid from the old one.

Well, these someone’s were a sister in Christ and myself.

The first day we happily worked. I went home and sort of had a wheeze. I didn’t think too much of it seeing we had stirred up quite a bit of dust.

The second day I was going through some shelves and found lots of mouse droppings. I thought, “Yuck! And wow, this has really needed to be cleaned!” I went on working not thinking about it too much just really glad it was getting done.

We had many Bible class posters and pictures stacked from the floor up about a foot and a half deep and when I began going through them I  found our little furry friends had left their trademark in them as well! We ended up losing many good visual aids that could have been used had they been properly cared for. I had not even known some of what we had until I went through the pile!

While I was in the hall going through these things, our education minister began pulling out an old shelf he was going to replace with a better one and what was found next was sickening. Piles of mouse droppings that must have been there for years! Who knew? When an occasional mouse was trapped or died, no one thought about needing to clean behind and under the selves.

The third day I was sick at home and ended up going to the Doctor.

Our education minister suited up in face mask, plastic suit, shoe covers, and gloves and began a deep cleaning process of the whole room! He not only found the bones from old mice, but a nice, big, fat, dead one!

Were these things blessings in disguise?

YES!!

It all began with the flood that made all our hearts sink, then the cleaning of that spurred us on to eventually begin going through our resource room, that helped us find the mice and the mess they left behind. Which began the real sorting and cleaning! Without those things “helping” us along I wonder how long it would have taken us to act and think seriously about how the blessing of Bible class materials should be stored and dealt with properly. We now have a good start on some much needed improvements!

It is so worth the time, effort, and money to keep our education rooms clean, organized and filled with great visual aids!

It’s great to have a clean, better organized,

useful space on it’s way!

Now we can begin the more detailed sorting and organizing of the good materials!

As I was down in TX this summer helping with a new granddaughter, (Esther Rose, #5!!), we worshipped with the Village Creek congregation in Arlington TX where my son and his wife work and worship, and I had the pleasure of  visiting their Bible Teacher resource room and got some great improvement ideas to help us back home!

Ideas I really liked and wanted to share with you!

• A poster storage table/shelf. Option 2 , option 3 , option 4 for poster storage!
• Metal shelving (scroll through the pictures on the site to see the complete shelf) with nice large storage bags.
• A long plastic tote for bulletin board edging.

Tips for designing your own resource room here!

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave a comment!

Tip of the Day - Hanging Visual Aids on a Folding Wall!

 Hello and Welcome!

Today's tip has to do with 

Hanging visual aids on a folding wall!

Any time I have had classes in a room with folding walls, displaying 

my teaching visual aids has been a challenge!

I began by hanging a sheet from the ceiling and pinning my teaching aids onto the sheet.

Through the years, several ways to hang visual aids have been used and now 

I pretty much have in mind the process to do a neat looking 

job that enables me to refer to the visual aids easily.  

I love bulletin board paper and have used it to help with some of my largest projects! 

The picture below doesn't show my largest project but it does show the use of visual aids on bulletin board paper and the small tabs on the folding wall that made the display job easy and convenient! 

On each corner of the bulletin board paper display, reinforce by adding a piece of clear box tape on the back then use a hole punch making a hole through the paper and the tape. 

Put string (crochet thread #10) through hole and knot ends together, then wind around tab on folding wall, 

Do this process on the top and bottom corners. 

Your display should be sturdy, attractive and easy to teach from! 

 

Here I have displayed a map and the Names of Satan! 

Here I chose to display 7 things God hates Proverbs 6:16-19

Each thing God hates was listed 1-7. 

Then pictures added, showing these 7 things being acted out. 

I had numbers 1-7 on the side of the board

 and had the students match the numbers with the corresponding pictures. 

They enjoyed the challenge! 

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave a comment!

All Tales Wifey!

Hello and Welcome!

~ Godly Women ~

Just taking a peek today? 

Well here is something you may try taking a closer look at! 

As women of God, 

we strive to love God and be all He wants us to be in every aspect of our lives. 

As wives,

loving God includes loving our husbands. 

Wifey Wednesdays can help us do just that! 

This is a wonderful podcast hosted by my sister in Christ, Emily Hatfield!

Join Emily and her guests each week for tales in all things wifey! 

 

Brought to you by The Light Network, http://thelightnetwork.tv/

Check out Wifey Wednesdays here!!

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave a comment!

More Bible Class Songs!

 

Hello and welcome!! 

A wonderful link to learn Bible class songs!! 

Children's Songs ‹ Bellaire church of Christ

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave a comment!

Paul Travels - Room Décor!

"Hello and Welcome!"

Room Décor

Paul and His Travels!

I love teaching about Paul and his travels! 

Paul was a chosen instrument of God to preach 

to the Gentiles, Kings, and the children of Israel, Acts 9:15

I created this just outside my classroom door. 
It helped others to know where our studies were taking us!

Our theme was - Gentiles Hear the Gospel!

I tried to put the emphasis on the book of Acts and "Paul's preaching mouth". 

We had "His marvelous "light"...

...and "darkness" which was across from the light 

with an ear because the Gentiles 

were being called out of the darkness 

by hearing the gospel/good news of Jesus Christ!!

This is at the front of our room.

Here is a large wall map made from paper 

and crinkled up to add some texture. 

I was still able to add names of places and scripture. 

We charted Paul's journey with different colors of string. 

The next pictures are some of my teaching posters 

that I love to use with the conversions in Acts!

What a helpful chart! 

Order here! 

Here is our "Word Bird"! 

He helps us learn Bible words!

Our little "Word Bird" mascot! 

This little guy helps us review our Bible words! 

Whoever can tell me the meaning of our Bible word 

gets to hold him while they are answering, 

then they pass it on to the next person 

who volunteers to tell the next definition.

This is a handy little poster that helps my students 

learn what to say in a prayer, who to pray to, and how to close their prayer. 

Order a 5 fingered prayer poster here!

Whose Who? 

As I tell different facts about the Bible characters, 

my students can pick from those who we have covered!

Singing! 

Great verse to go with our songs of praise!

Order Bible class songs here!

This large mouth has served several purposes in teaching, 

I love 1 Peter 4:11 for our studies in Acts!

We travel to telling others about Jesus!

Paul traveled across the sea!

So do missionaries today!

Our ABC's of Acts! 

They are wonderful to help us learn the book of Acts 

and they also help to keep us on track in our studies, 

plus a great review tool! 

Order here!

Speaking of review! 

Match up the names of the places that Paul traveled 

with what took place in each place! 

This shows Paul's first missionary journey!

Order here! 

Order Paul's second missionary journey here! 

Order Paul's third missionary journey here!

How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel! 

Romans 10:14-16

I took pictures of my students feet for our door décor.

I love using this #13 about the books that Paul wrote! 

Free download here! 

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave a comment!