3 Ways To Use Bible Story Booklets In Your Sunday School Lesson

When I was a kid in Sunday School, we had felt pictures to go with our lessons.  Anyone else remember those??  My first few years teaching preschool, we also used felt pictures, but I was looking for something a little more up-to-date that we could use over and over.  That's when I started writing Bible Story Booklets to go with our lessons.


Each Bible Story Booklet closely matches the Bible Story script in the lesson plans, but is written in a little more kid-friendly language depending on what age it is for.


The kids love listening to the books being read and they pay attention more too!


But you may be surprised to learn that reading aloud the Bible story isn't the only way we use the Bible Story Booklets in the classroom!  Let's talk about 3 ways to use Bible Story Booklets in your Sunday School classroom.


Read Aloud the Bible Story

The first one is obvious: We use the Bible Story Booklets to read aloud the Bible story.


But first, you need to know that I'm a stickler for using the actual Bible with my preschoolers. I always have a real Bible with us when we sit down to read a story.  You can see in the photo below, that I literally keep a real Bible right there in our carpet space.


I have a Bible story script that comes almost word-for-word from scripture included in our lesson plans, but the booklet is a more kid-friendly version of that script.  The booklets are written to whichever age group the unit is for (anywhere from Preschool to 2nd).  


When I am reading the booklet, I do add in other details from the script that I think are important so they are hearing a detailed Bible story.


Retell the Bible Story

At the end of our Sunday School hour, we retell the Bible story if we have time.


To do this, we reuse the Bible Story booklets.  But, we use separate pages so that we can order them.  


No, I don't staple and unstaple and restaple the booklets.  We either make a separate copy of the booklets (sometimes half the size to save paper). 


Or, you can hole punch the books and add rings so that it's easy to take apart and put back together.


Once we have the separate pages, we are ready to order the story and retell.


With my preschoolers, I show them the page and tell them what is happening in the pictures since they cannot read yet.  Then, we lay it out in order together.  It is definitely more teacher-led for younger preschoolers!  But just remember, they are getting another chance to hear a story from Scripture. :)


For older kids, they may be able to read their page on their own and work to order it and retell.



Classroom Library Exploration Station

Just like in my first grade classroom, our Sunday School room has a classroom library.  It's one of the exploration stations I have no matter what unit we are learning!


There are tubs of books--both Bible stories and fiction trade books.  On the top shelf, I usually place the booklets from our unit or any trade books that go with our unit.  I add a new booklet to the shelf after each lesson, so that there are only books out that we have read the Bible story for.


The kids love to grab our unit Bible Story booklets, get a stuffie and "read" or orally retell the story in our cozy corner to their stuffed animal friend. :)

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