Teaching Sunday School: early elementary
Have you ever wanted to hide in the hall when the board sends out a need for people to teach in the Sunday school—especially in the younger classes? Do you think that you don’t have anything in common with younger children, or that the work will be too demanding? If you catch yourself feeling mentally resistant to working with young children in Sunday School, here are a few ideas that might help to create a bridge to that wonderful opportunity.
Start by simply loving and cherishing children and the child-like thought. Observe children’s innocence, joy, enthusiasm, kindness, creativity. See the qualities of God expressed. Remember how Christ Jesus loved little children and wanted them to come to him even though he was so busy in his healing work.
Get to really know the children in your church and neighborhood, by taking time to talk with them in ways that are not just superficial or repetitive. One child told me that the adults in church always ask her the same questions about how old she is or what grade in school she’s in.
Pray for inspiration and more love. Let God lead you gently forward to help the younger ones and communicate with them effectively. You know what to do. You know you’re not the one in charge. God is the revealer and the healer. God is the teacher. You don’t have to know all the answers.
Try teaching. Accept a position as a substitute but don’t feel you have to go in cold. Ask other teachers about what has worked for them in their classes and something about the children in the class. Replace trepidation with expectation of good for everyone in the class, including you!
Think about management and pacing of the hour. Some teachers of younger students start their class with enthusiasm, for the objectives for the day. They might have the objectives written down in colors that they post on the wall for children to check off as they go along. They start with a few minutes of getting to know the children or hearing about their week, but don’t let 20 precious minutes go by talking about the plot in a current movie. Each student might have 2 to 3 minutes to share anything they want to share (with a timer for students to time themselves with); after that time, all agree to give a high five, and leave the rest of the “outside talk” till after Sunday School, and then all move into the learning part.
Sometimes for a younger class, having a poster of items the children will be memorizing through the year, to put stickers on is helpful, so they can see their progress and also clearly know what they are working toward (see the photos of one classes’ list).
I’ve found it helpful to have big picture goals, as well as daily objectives. Both can provide a framework within which the teacher and student see progress and connect with the ideas in different ways over time. Having a framework doesn’t need to limit the learning and teaching. Sometimes, a topic or need will be so clear right from the start that that’s the way the class moves and the inspiration moves it that way for the whole period. Other times, children are working on learning about the Bible, the 10 commandments, prayer, and so on, in a more deliberate way, or there is a combination of approaches.
Think about agreements and rules. Teachers set up expectations and agreements together about the use of time and how people will treat each other in the class. I tell my current class at the beginning of the year the difference between rules and agreements. Agreements are things we all agree to follow because we want to; they don’t usually need outside enforcement. Rules have to be enforced by the teacher. We decide that we don’t want too many rules, and we work part of the first day on creating some agreements. We might have as some of our agreements, for example,
“We will listen to others before talking ourselves (not interrupt),”
“We will use inside voices not outside voices,”
“We will sit at the table till our story time or standing time,” and
“We work together to keep our focus on the objectives,”
We post the agreement list for reference as needed. It’s easy to turn to the posted list and say, “Let’s see, it seems we’re not following one of our agreements… which one do you think we’re forgetting?” This method moves discipline into the child’s sphere, rather than into personal push-pull talk or win-lose struggles. Agreements become ours as a class that we are all part of creating and following. On the other hand, rules can be perceived as the teacher’s which need imposing. The list we collaboratively create will need tweaking through the year. We revisit the ideas together often. We talk about why we need agreements to be a disciplined disciple. Agreements help us all to have a classroom of respect and learning, and they uncover things that are common sense expectations but may not have been made clear before. Visitors get a quick introduction to our agreements by the children.
Use the space in the room. In our class, we have “table time” and “floor time” and “stand and deliver time” for about 10-15 minutes each, which keeps the pacing energetic and the students engaged, and we include a conclusion of a few minutes where we revisit what we learned. During table time, we’re typically looking up things in books or discussing. The floor time is to cuddle together for stories from the Bible, from Mrs. Eddy’s life, or from children’s articles or testimonies. Stand and deliver time is for students to stand up by the wall and share what they have memorized, or to use maps or posters or the Bible cards. The time is broken into different experiences with different foci, within which, the students clearly understand the structure around them. This type of organization can keep the class from disruptions, because the students know what’s coming and they know there will be some time for movement and expression in every learning hour. There are so many ways to learn; we don’t have to just sit at a table and listen. Soul gives the creative ideas to each of us along with the reception (see the photo of a reading corner).
Have students memorize some key knowledge like the Lord’s Prayer with its spiritual interpretation, Psalm 23, the 10 Commandments, so that wherever situation they are in, they have effective tools and resources, and they also have a strong foundation of understanding how to pray. To help students get a visual understanding of the Old and New Testament, Bible characters and events, I used note cards with Velcro glued on the back. Each card is the name of a book of the Bible. After we learn something from the Bible, students quickly illustrate what they’ve learned and connect it to the related book of the Bible. Their note card is attached below the book of the Bible on the wall. One student introduced a visitor to her class by telling her some things she would learn, by going over some of the child-illustrated Bible stories using the wall cards. It’s a good review tool for those last 5 minutes of class, too.
Simplify the wording of the Commandments. The goal is for children to understand and remember what the important ideas are, so they can apply them, rather than to parrot exact phrasing with long words. Our class came up with this list for the Ten Commandments that they can reference in their daily lives
Have one God
No graven image or idol
Honor God’s name
Keep the Sabbath holy
Don’t kill
Keep your promises
Don’t steal
Don’t lie
Be satisfied
With each of these we had stories and examples of putting them into practice or missing the mark. One Sunday, a student mentioned an experience in which she quickly identified how a Commandment was broken. What a great outcome for that lesson!
Use visuals and color to the learning, and add ways for wiggly kids to move. In memorizing the 23rd Psalm, for example, students stood and used gestures and movements to help them move through the ideas. They illustrated walking beside still waters, feeling restored, a cup running over, putting oil gently on their head, and living in the house of the Lord forever. This connection helps some children remember the ideas better. I had one child mention to a visitor how to remember the ideas in the Psalm, and illustrated the psalm with gesture and movement A mother noted to me that when working in the garden, her daughter noted as she held the hose, “My cup runneth over. See how that works, mom?”
Stand at the entrance to your room and see what it is saying to those entering. Is there welcome and beauty, or is it kind of blah? Is it comfortable? Is it clean? Can everyone see and read easily? Everything speaks, we want it to speak well about the joy and beauty that is there for them. References are useful, but we found we had to make some of our own references. For instance, we have a booklet of hard words that we come upon. Instead of using a dictionary, we put the meaning simply and in our own words with a simple illustration that means something to the children. They are more likely to remember the meaning that way.
Involve parents and relatives in the conversation about what is being learned. Talk in the lobby or parking lot with them, so they know you and you know them. Send home emails with reminders of homework or things to read before bed. Remember their special days and events with a card and inspirational thoughts.
