MINGLE

  A great teacher strategy I love to use when I am working with a large group but need to divide them into smaller groups is called MINGLE. Start out by yelling out random numbers and have students get in a group with that many student EXAMPLE: If you shout 7 then everyone should get in groups ofContinueContinue reading “MINGLE”

DISCUSSION BALL

A great way to recap a lesson or to introduce new material to your class is by using a discussion ball. They make professional discussion balls with specific content questions on them, but I prefer to buy a $1.00 beach ball and take a list of labels and create 10 to 20 questions focused around my topic.ContinueContinue reading “DISCUSSION BALL”

THINK PAIR SHARE

The think, pair, share strategy is a cooperative learning technique that encourages individual participation and is applicable across all grade levels and class sizes. Students think through questions using three distinct steps: 1) THINK Students think independently about the question that has been posed, forming ideas of their own. 2) PAIR Students are grouped in pairsContinueContinue reading “THINK PAIR SHARE”

THE LINE GAME

Today’s Post is an incredible activity that my wife, Dr. Bobbi Morehead Superintendent of Covert Public Schools, created for the Sunday School Workshop in Grand Ledge a couple years ago. The purpose of the activity was to relate participants feeling to the feelings of Bible characters. The teacher will speak out certain feelings and if participants agree or relateContinueContinue reading “THE LINE GAME”

ACTING OUT

Your students are always “acting out”, so use that to your benefit. If your topic is repentance you can have a large box that is full of cleaning supplies. You can have participants come to the front, take one of the supplies and talk about how it relates to the topic of repentance. For instance a participantContinueContinue reading “ACTING OUT”

TWIST ME SILLY: PIPE CLEANER ACTIVITY

A great retelling activity is pipe cleaners! Pipe cleaners are cheap, easy to use and lots of fun. At the conclusion of your lesson you can have students use pipe cleaners to create symbols of their number one take-away of the lesson. For instance if you are teaching on prayer, at the conclusion of theContinueContinue reading “TWIST ME SILLY: PIPE CLEANER ACTIVITY”

ONE WORD RECAPPING ACTIVITY

A very simply activity that you can use in your classroom to check for understanding is called – ONE WORD. At the conclusion of your lesson, you go around the room and have participants say one word that sums up the lesson they just heard. If you have just talked about repentance, you could placeContinueContinue reading “ONE WORD RECAPPING ACTIVITY”

MR. TALKING STICK

My favorite way to guide a conversation in a classroom is by using a talking stick. The talking stick, also called a speaker’s staff, may be passed around a group as a symbol of their right to speak. I personally use a POOL NOODLE as my talking stick. I simply explain to the class that we are going to haveContinueContinue reading “MR. TALKING STICK”

PLAY-DOH CREATIONS

SUPPLIES NEEDED: Small individual cans of Play-Doh! Play-Doh is my favorite activity of all time! Children of all ages love to create things with Play-Doh. Give them a POWER WORD and let the creation begin. After teaching this concept, I had a youth leader tell me their Sunday School class created a replica of theContinueContinue reading “PLAY-DOH CREATIONS”

ALPHABET BALLOON ACTIVITY

You need 26 balloons. Write each letter of the alphabet on a balloon. Give participants a set amount of time to go from balloon to balloon and write words that start with the corresponding letter. This can be used as a before reading strategy to activate prior knowledge on a topic. Or this strategy can beContinueContinue reading “ALPHABET BALLOON ACTIVITY”