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Sunday School – What Would it Look Like CM?
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I’m starting to teach Sunday School at our church. At our old church where I taught, it had a set curriculum, and that was that. Now, we go to a smaller (Vineyard) church and I’m getting basically free rein. I’ll be teaching every three to four weeks. I’m wondering what a CM Sunday School would look like? The ages are about 2-11, all together. I have Betty Lukens deluxe flannel board Bible set. I also want to initiate some sort of incentive program, without it being gimmicky, junk toys, or of course, the only reason for the children to do stuff. I do want to start rewarding them for their work though. I was thinking that each week, they would get a special sticker to put in the inside cover of their Bible if they brought it. Other then my own, the kids don’t bring their Bibles, so this is something I want to start to create a habit of, which is why I’m thinking an immediate reward of the sticker. I’m also thinking that each time I teach, I’ll send the kids off with a memory verse and a service opportunity. The next time I see them, for each thing they’ve done, they can put a marble in a jar. When the jar is filled then I will treat the whole class (about ten) to some sort of fellowship party (think ice skating, pizza and movie night, picnic in park etc.). That way it’s a cooperative incentive, and is for things the kids have control over (I don’t like ones for attendance for instance when the kids have no control over) as well as a time of fellowship.
So I’d love to hear ideas on this? What would be good service opportunities for that age group? What would be good fellowship party ideas? What should the classroom time look like (we worship together as a whole congregation)?
I’m also planning on hosting a Birthday Party for Jesus for the kids in my home this Christmas time. Any ideas on what might make this really fun but also really meaningful?
Thank you kindly for all the help!
Rachel
I am so glad you posted this! I don’t have insight on it – but I am hoping some of the more experienced SS teachers will chime in with lots of practical suggestions. I have been wondering about this a lot lately, and my hubby and I have been falling into incentive, incentive, incentive. It is easy to do when that is what the kids in your class are used to. But I would like them to be more involved during the learning time – not just flipping to scripture, listening to the lecture, and waiting for a game or treat.
Yes, I think the incentive thing has gotten out of hand. I think there is a place for it. Both in our Spiritual lives and our Earthly ones, hard work is rewarded, so I think it’s a good lesson to learn. But where do you draw the line so that the reason children aren’t doing things is just to get the rewards? I also really dislike candy and cheap toys that go right into the landfills as the reward. That’s why I was leaning towards something like the fellowship party, but maybe that’s still too gimmicky? I’m not sure. It’s so hard when you’ve had something ingrained in you as to how Sunday School should be.
Eager to hear others thoughts and advice!
Rachel
Sorry, ServingwithJoy, I didn’t mean for that to sound like I thought you personally were getting out of hand with incentives. Just a general comment on the struggle to find a balance in Sunday Schools.
Rachel
Haha! No, I didn’t take it personally!! I was actually taking my cheapie bangle bracelets off my arm and handing them out to the little girls this past week, so I don’t think you would have missed the mark there if you HAD said I was out of hand!
I love the idea of building up to a fellowship party – that is something they could look forward to and it wouldn’t all be about incentives. Honestly, it sometimes feels like we are encouraging a greedy or entitlement feeling in church :(.
It’s funny but it is really hard to keep the interest level up of 20 kids in a class. Our kids are mostly homeschooled, but even among them and with lots of questions and interaction, it is just difficult to keep them learning for more than 5-10 minutes at a stretch. I am trying to build them up to about 20 minutes of lesson, a 15 minute game, and another 15 minutes of craft/snack time.
The incentives come in most with our memory verses…hopefully some wise CM Sunday School teachers will have ideas for both of us!
Well short lessons are very CM. I think doing something different very 15 minutes is fine. I would make one of those things read the bible and have them narrate. You could also do some memory work and maybe a handicraft (maybe something they can give away?). What about music?
Nebby
I’m thinking in a completely different direction. Here are some take/leave suggestions.
Bible story reading with narration afterward. Maybe even include writing three or four words on the board (names, descriptive words, etc.) to incorporate familiarity with reading/spelling those words (though I’d read the story to them to develop listening skills instead of having them read the story along with you.)
Goal: to hear and be able to tell/do the Word to someone else (parent, grandparent, neighbor, friend)
Copywork for Scripture memory verse to study during the week/month. This might include artistic embellishment.
Goal: to find beauty in the Word and hide it in their hearts. I’d maybe show examples of embellished Scripture. Maybe talk about the printing press early on to establish this idea…
Hymn study for the month (could be traditional song based on Biblical feasts, liturgical calendar, or praise and worship/VBS style song. Goal: to learn it by month’s end and sing for/lead parents during worship. You might also sing for residents at a nursing home. Take the party there. They’d love it!
Handicrafts could be to make small gifts for those in need. Say simple lap quilts, prayer shawls, bookmarks, pictures of Bible stories with simple frames to be delivered to nursing home residents.
Goal: incentive to serve others instead of becoming self centered on what do I get if I do this?
There are plenty of paintings and sculptures that could be utilized in a Sunday School setting.
Composers offer a vast amount of opportunities.
You might include nature study as part of your time once month, or have a nature study corner in the room for discussion.
Out of time. Maybe more later. HTH
I love the idea of doing handicrafts as a service to others!! I’ll have to brainstorm something that can be worked on by all the ages, in the short time we have (Vineyard churches typically spend much longer on worship, and shorter on the sermon, so we don’t actually have them for that long).
Keep the ideas coming!
Rachel
Oops. I misunderstood. Thought children were in church the whole time and separate ss. It’s like a children’s church situation where children leave during the sermon, correct?
Yes, sorry for the confusion. We do worship together with the children, and then they break off for Sunday School (they’re welcome to stay if wanted). We do this for about ages 2-11, so babes stay in the sermon, as well as preteens/teens.
One thing I like about our church, is that it’s small and pretty well all families do Bible study in their home, so Sunday School isn’t their only taste of that in the week. That gives us more freedom to focus on things like the handicraft idea, or other service projects instead of just a Bible story (of course we’ll do these too!). I’ve already arranged for us all to put together shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child on one of my Sundays I’m teaching in November. We’ll take the time to put them together and pray for the recipients, so I’m really excited about that!
Rachel
I’m the children’s director at our church. One way we make it more cm friendly is they read the bible story then they act it out. We also do a lot of object lessons. Each kid also has a journal they fill out every Sunday about the story. We use Go Fish hymns for the kids and they love the up beat of that. I require they memorize one bible verse a month (more if that is to easy for them). To apply lessons to their lives we tell them real life ways God is moving today. Sometimes I will bring in speaker (missionary’s or other workers) to talk about their jobs. We just dumped our last curium because we felt it was to ‘fluffy’ and had to much busy work in it. We do not need to keep our kids ‘busy’ on pointless things. The new curriculum we are using is much more CM friendly than our last one. I’ll let you know of anything else if I can think of it.
One thing we are doing is making bookmarks of our Bible verse. They write it out and can decorate it with stickers or draw pictures on it. I’ve been giving out tootsie roll pops when they learn the verse, but so far I’ve only handed out one.
I’m still trying to figure out ways to make it easier for them. I have mostly boys and they can easily get a bit rowdy! I have brought in our Bible map book to go with some of the readings. I’d love to find some crafts, but it’s hard to find good ones to go with our lesson.
Here is a good Parent’s Review (the magazine of CM’s PNEU) article about using CM methods in Sunday School:
Thank you MamaSnow for posting that. Certainly, narration is a tool to be utilized. Beyond that, I’m not sure if there is much advice there that is applicable to modern students. I don’t have this now, but in my old church, sometimes we would have over twenty students in our class. These are kids that are often raised on television, video games, twaddle books and lax habit training in the home. I can’t imagine them sitting well for an hour without being disruptive. I also really did not like the author’s idea of older kids ideally sitting quietly and reading to themselves after the Bible story. Where’s the community, the fellowship and co-operative work? I do agree though that we try to over complicate things and don’t give children enough credit as to their capabilities.
I think my plan is to do a flannel story, with some narration (most of my kids will be six and under), and a group handicraft that we can do as a service project. I’ll send them home with a service opportunity and memory verse, and do the marble jar idea for a fellowship party. I like the idea of a special speaker on occasion, too.
Rachel
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