Showing posts with label bible verses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bible verses. Show all posts
Memorizing scripture is an important and meaningful activity for kids (and adults!) of all ages!  I blogged a while back about the routines I use with my preschoolers... (SPOILER ALERT: yes, 3 and 4 year olds CAN and DO memorize Bible verses!)


Today, let's talk about what those Bible verse routines look like for older kids who are no longer emerging readers.  Some of the strategies are similar, and others are different.  Here's a look at how I help 1st and 2nd graders memorize Bible verses.


Read the Verse with Motions

I set up our Bible verse white cards in our pocket chart.

We start by reading the Bible verse together as I point to the words.

As we are reading, I have them do motions for the verse.  They don't have to do motions for every word, but I try to have at least 3 motions for every verse.  The motions help the kids attach the verse to movement which helps them remember the verse more easily!  I have suggestions for motions for each unit verse in my Bible unit curriculum!



Match the Color Word Cards

Depending on your first and second graders, you may or may not need to do this.  I have found that we start this way at the beginning of the first grade year, and end up skipping it by the second half of the year.  If your kids struggle reading, match the cards.  If they are reading independently, you can move on past this!

After we read the verse once, I pass out the color words to some kids...one card per kid.  I call one kid up at a time.  They read the word (or I help them read it) and find it's match.

After each kid puts a word match in, we re-read the verse with the motions.  So, not only are we working on matching and reading words, but we are repeating the verse and committing it to memory in a fun and engaging way!

Sequence the Verse

If most of your kids are able to read, you can skip the matching and do the sequencing routines instead.  To sequence, I start by passing out one card to each kid.  Then, I ask, "Who has the word 'The'" and kids bring up their cards one at a time.  

After each card, we read the cards we have, predict the next word, and I ask who has that word card.  We continue this way until we have sequenced the entire verse!

Later, when this becomes easy for kids (especially for 2nd graders), you can give each kid a word card and have them work together to sequence the Bible verse without your help!

TPR Reading

Once we have all of the words matched, we read with Total Physical Response (TPR).  This is my kids' favorite part!  We do some motion on each of the words.  The first one we do is, "Let's clap on each word."  Then, we say the verse and clap on each word.

Depending on time, we usually do about 5-7 repetitions of this with different actions each time.  The actions we've used are....
Clap
Snap
Pat Your Leg
Touch Your Nose and Whisper
Bear Claws on the Ground and Growl
Stomp Your Feet

Independent Matching

This last part of the routine is only done on the last day of the unit.  The other weeks, we just read, match, and TPR read.  The last week, we only do the independent matching.

Each kid gets a white paper with a space to sequence the Bible verse and word cards copied on colored paper.  My first and second grade units come with two handout options:  One is like shown below with the Bible verse on it and one does not have the verse on it.  I pick the one that best fits my kids' abilities.

After we read or say the verse, the kids sequence the word cards by cutting and pasting.

These routines are quick, easy and an engaging and effective way to help young learners hide God's Word in their hearts!  You can find all of these routines and materials in each of my Bible Units!
About 2 years ago, my then 5 year old Cooper started having night terrors.  They. Were.  Horrible.  As night terrors go, he would "wake up" (seem awake, but really still asleep...eyes open and all!) screaming or crying at the top of lungs...talking out of his mind and pacing in his room or even walking out of his room (SOOOO scary)!

The silver lining in night terrors is that kids don't remember them.  And he didn't.  But there were a couple that were so very bad that we couldn't settle him without completely waking him up.  And he was absolutely terrified with what happened to him when he woke up.

Y'all, it got to the point that he was scared to go to sleep because he was scared he would have another night terror (even though he wouldn't remember them!)  Crazy, right??  It was.  And it was also heartbreaking.

In no way could I tell my son, "Don't be scared.  There's no reason to be scared."  Because his feelings were absolutely real.  And I had to validate his feelings.  But I also couldn't allow him to live in his fears...and sleep with mom and dad every night!! :)

One of my favorite Bible verses ever is Philippians 4:8.

We started speaking this verse over him every night.  We prayed this verse.  We repeated this verse.  And this verse was the last thing he heard before he fell asleep each night.  It became Cooper's Bible verse.

Along with the verse, we also made a list of 3-5 things that made him feel happy and safe.  When he began to feel scared or upset, we taught him to literally grab hold of that thought and throw it up to God, based on the verse, "Cast all your cares on Him, for He cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7 (and thanks to a friend who told me she used this when she felt anxious).


Once he had thrown his scary thoughts up to God, he repeated his 3-5 things out loud.  Sometimes, his list was longer and sometimes he repeated the same 3 or 4 things over and over.

"Sharks, Mommy, Daddy, dinosaurs, and trains. Sharks, Mommy, Daddy, dinosaurs, and trains.  Sharks..."


He was literally fixing his thoughts on good things.  Just like Philippians 4:8.  As he called out the good, you could actually see his face change from scared to a sense of safety.  We would quote Philippians 4:8 and kiss him goodnight.  

We did this for a solid week without fail.  And in the meantime asked some people to pray for him.  And praise the Lord, God chose to heal Cooper of his night terrors!  And he hasn't had one in over 2 years after having them every single night for several weeks.

We learned a lot during those weeks of night terrors.  And the main thing was how to handle negative emotions in a healthy way.  That's one of the reasons I felt so strongly about adding this lesson into my Kindergarten Sunday School unit on health.  ALL emotions can be healthy within reason and God created us as emotional people.  So, it's important to validate them and not dismiss them.  But we do have to CHOOSE to deal with them in a Biblical, healthy way.  

We can honor God with our emotions by reacting in a healthy way.

You can grab these response sheets for FREE here.  They are also included in my Christian Health unit along with the lesson and 5 other lessons!
   



I often get asked how I get my preschoolers to learn their Bible verses during our Bible units.  Can 3 and 4 year olds really learn Bible verses and remember them?

YES!  Of course they can!  And it's so important that we teach them early that hiding God's word in our hearts helps us make good choices and shine our lights for Jesus!

If you follow this blog, you've already read about my schedule for preschool Sunday School.  Our Bible verse time is the last 5 minutes our our morning!  Here's a look at those 5 minutes of powerful Bible verse learning! :)

Read the Verse with Motions

Yes, I'm aware that most preschoolers cannot read.  But a few do read early.  And the majority who can't will only learn through exposure to print and words.  I set up our Bible verse white cards in our pocket chart.

I always tell my preschoolers, "Let's read our Bible verse," as I point and we read it together.  No, most aren't reading like adults would expect them to.  They are simply saying the words as I read them.  But they FEEL like readers because I've told them that we are reading!  And they are practicing tracking print with my finger and their eyes.  They are learning to read from left to right.  And they are learning what a word and sentence looks like!

These are all HUGE skills for emerging readers.  And THAT's why we "read" the verse together.



As we are reading, I have them do motions for the verse.  They don't have to do motions for every word, but I try to have at least 3 motions for every verse.  The motions help the kids attach the verse to movement which helps them remember the verse more easily!  I have suggestions for motions for each unit verse in my Bible unit curriculum!

Match the Color Word Cards

After we read the verse once, I show one color word card at a time.  We read the word and then I give the color card to a kiddo who comes to find it's word match.  They put the color card in front of the white matching card.

This helps my emergent readers attend to print and focus on the shape of the letters and words.  For my youngest readers, I cover up all but the first word on the color card and have them look for that beginning letter to add even more support.

After each kid puts a word match in, we re-read the verse with the motions.  So, not only are we working on print features, but we are repeating the verse and committing it to memory in a fun and engaging way!

TPR Reading

Once we have all of the words matched, we read with Total Physical Response (TPR).  This is my preschoolers' favorite part!  We do some motion on each of the words.  The first one we do is, "Let's clap on each word."  Then, we say the verse and clap on each word.

This is important because it helps kids hear the difference in words and syllables and words and sentences.  It's so good for building that phonemic awareness in our littlest readers.

Depending on time, we usually do about 5-7 repetitions of this with different actions each time.  The actions we've used are....
Clap
Snap
Pat Your Leg
Touch Your Nose and Whisper
Bear Claws on the Ground and Growl
Stomp Your Feet

Independent Matching

This last part of the routine is only done on the last day of the unit.  The other weeks, we just read, match, and TPR read.  The last week, we only do the independent matching.

Each kid gets a color paper with the Bible Verse on it.  We "read" it together.  I say, "Show me your reading finger," and they point and read.  No, they may not all point accurately, but they are getting a chance to independently practice moving from left to right and pointing and reading word by word.

After we read it, we go through a similar routine as the word matching in other weeks, just doing it independently!  I read the first word and they find their cut out white word card.  I cut out their words for them to save time since I only have them for 45 minutes and I don't want this to take the whole time! :)  But if you have longer, cutting would be great practice for those little guys!

Once they find the matching word, they glue it down.  Then, we move to the next word.  For older kids or kindergartners, they can easily match them on their own without needing to go word by word with teacher support!

These routines are quick, easy and an engaging and effective way to help young learners hide God's Word in their hearts!  You can find all of these routines and materials in each of my Bible Units!

Yesterday, I posted this picture on my personal Facebook page...

And since I've had a few friends request this template, so you can find the link to this FREE at the end of this post!

What is our family prayer routine?

Each night, we read our prayer verse from James 5 out loud.  Then, we ask and share any prayer requests that our family has and add them to our list.  We mark off any prayers that have been answered and praise God for his healing!

Then, Cooper prays.  The list is perfect because it helps him (and us) remember what to pray for.

When we use up the entire page, we simply print a new page, add the unanswered prayers to that list and keep going.

Why have a family prayer routine?

I love that this is just built in and part of what we do.  It's habit forming for us and makes us consciously think about prayer every single day.  Those are habits that I definitely want to form in Cooper.

But we don't just want it to be a habit.  We want it to be a building block for a relationship with God AND a relationship with others.  Many times, when we have had a prayer on our list for a long time, Cooper will say, "How is ____ family doing? Do we still need to pray for them?"  And then we can encourage him to ask that friend or family and let them know we are praying for them.  There have been several times he's started doing this on his own and asked about one of our own needs:  "Daddy, is your headache better today?" Or the other day, when he thought on his own about praying for Mrs. Patricia's arm because he noticed it was in a sling at Bible Study.  I love that this habit encourages empathy, and compassion and empowers him with a tool to help.

Grab this prayer page for FREE here and let's build and strengthen our family prayer life together!

We have been super busy this summer learning about the 7 days of creation in Sunday School!  My preschoolers absolutely LOVE this unit and all of the engaging activities that go along with it! Here's a look into this unit...

Exploration Stations

This unit's stations are all about numbers!

We build towers of blocks to match a days of creation number.

And we also use playdoh to form our numbers in lots of different ways!
    

I have these stations set up in our room for the first 15 minutes as kiddos are coming in.  Some  are specific like the one above and some are as simple as puzzles or coloring our coloring page for the week...

Bible Lesson

We start by singing our creation song to the tune of "Are You Sleeping?" {All the verses as well as the total physical response motions are included in the unit.}  We sing as many verses as we have learned so far and then add the new day for the week.

Many weeks, we sort cards by their differences.  For example, on day 2 we sort things in the sky and things on land. 

We always close our creation Bible story by saying, "God looked at _____ on day ___ and said...IT IS GOOD!" and give a big thumbs up!  {It's totally silly, but they love this part!}

Then, we cut and sort our own cards.  Here is the example from Day 2: Sky and Land....


Then, we practice our Bible Verse for the week with motions and by matching our verse word cards (I blogged about those routines here.)



Our end of unit activity will be to order creation numbers 1-7 and glue them on our "Days of Creation" mini-charts...

Check out these activities and so many more in my 50+ page unit!
During the week, I teach firsties.  On the weekend, I teach preschoolers at church during Sunday School.  I absolutely love teaching a different age at church because it keeps everything so fresh!  Plus, I just adore preschoolers.  It's just the best age.  And especially since Cooper is almost-- *gasp*-- a preschooler, I'm really beginning to appreciate this age group!

This is my 12th year or so teaching this class at church and while I love it very much, the curriculum we order is sometimes really great.

And sometimes, it's really awful.

So, over the years, I've written a few good units to fill in the gaps when I don't like what I'm given to teach.  The Fruit of the Spirit was one of the first units I wrote and it's seriously my favorite.  Take a look at one of my favorite fruit of the spirit activities for preschoolers.

The fruit of the Spirit is perfect for Sunday School, and it's perfect for character education in public school...no need to freak out about teaching these fruits in public schools!  I use these words all the time with my firsties.  They may not realize they are getting some Sunday School in first grade....but they are.  One of my favorite ways to weave in the fruits is with my group plants on their shelves.

We are just now getting to do this unit in Sunday School.  Here's a look at our fruit of the Spirit activities!

We start each Sunday School session with a Bible story about our fruit for the week.  We learn the motion to go with that fruit and sing our fruit of the spirit song.



Then, we head to the table and work on our Fruit of the Spirits book...

This Sunday, we learned about joy.  So, we read last week's page, "I have love" to review and practice our early reading skills! :)

Then, we traced the word "joy" in yellow--of course!

Then, we made our real lemon "show joy" by cutting a smile wedge slice out of it!  We used yellow craft paint to "stamp" the lemon smile on our paper.  We practiced saying the word each time we stamped the fruit.

My preschoolers always love stamping these fruits.  And I love when the fruits match their corresponding words when we stamp....the lemons smile for joy, the strawberries stamp hearts for love....

After we work on our books comes the best part...the taste test!  We each try out our fruit for the week to see if we like it.  The rule is...you must try and see and you must say and act out the fruit of the spirt for the week with each bite!  Lemons are especially fun!

And since Cooper is in my class now, you get the full show of what his taste test was....

"Joy!"  I'll just go ahead and add here that he refused to put his fingers on his cheeks to say joy because he didn't want to get his face sticky.  He is SO my child...
But they just light up saying, "joy" each time they licked the lemon!  So fun to watch!

After our stamp and snack time, we practice our Bible verse and then match our fruits.  Since we are only finished with two fruits, we are just matching our word cards this way for now.  Halfway through the unit, we will switch over to matching the entire verse, "But the fruit of the spirit is...." with the Bible verse cards.  It's amazing how fast they learn to "read" these fruits!  After we match, we point and chant our fruit of the spirit song again....repetition is the name of the game for the littles, isn't it?

I have also added some sentence frame cards for older kiddos to lead discussions on how they show these fruits or for writing about each fruit in their books. Over 50 pages of materials for this unit!  This fruit of the Spirit activities unit is always a favorite of mine and the preschoolers, but I'm especially excited to teach it with my own sweet child in class with me!

And a little video of my own kiddo (for permission reasons!) saying all of the Fruits of the Spirit with the motions!

As I've been blogging, we are in the middle of our final Common Core Unit on Fables.  In the past, we've taught this unit from Thanksgiving to Christmas.  This year, our district moved this unit to the end of the year.

I loved it around the holidays because we could focus our "life lessons" on giving back to others and service projects.

I love it at the end of the year because my firsties are more independent and we have time to do more with the stories...and I've even been able to focus on more "springy" fables this time of year too, since we are way past the holidays!

Somehow, no matter when I teach fables, I just fall in love with it!  Fables are classics and I love reading and discussing stories that I treasure from my childhood.

But fables are also my opportunity to share Jesus with my first graders.

As a Christian teacher in a public school, my hands are legally tied.  I cannot freely share my religious beliefs, teach my Bible units, or even start conversations about God...although I will never ever shut a kid down who wants to willingly talk about our Savior during class discussions.

And as a Christian teacher, I see public schools as my mission field.  My calling.  So, when fables just so happen to bring out spiritual truths, I jump all over it.

Common Core calls them, "life lessons."  My faith calls them, "doctrines," "spiritual truths," or even "fruits of the Spirit."

The education world calls them, "fables."  My Bible calls them, "parables."  And many of these fables mirror bible characters' experiences.

My Christian teacher lens allows me to see the spiritual truths behind the life lessons and weave those thoughts and scriptures into the hearts and minds of my sweeties.

Here is our almost finished Life Lessons anchor chart...

And here are the legal, Biblical conversations these fables have allowed me to have in my room.

The moral says, Treat others the way you want to be treated.
The Bible says, So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.  Matthew 7:12.
The Bible says, Be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake forgave you. Ephesians 4:32

The moral says, Slow and steady wins the race.
The Bible says, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. 2 Timothy 4:7
The Bible says, Don't you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win!  All athletes are disciplined in their training.  They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize.  So I run with purpose in every step.  I am not just shadowboxing.  I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. 1 Corinthians 9:24-26

The moral says, Hard work pays off.
The Bible says, So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31.
The Bible says, Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth. Proverbs 10:4
The Bible says, For whatever a man sows, that will he also reap. Galatians 6:7

The moral says, Always tell the truth.
The Bible says, Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment.  Proverbs 12:19.
The Bible says, You shall not bear false witness.  Exodus 20:16.

The moral says, Be happy with what you have.
The Bible says, For I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. Philippians 4:11.

We have had some powerful and very spiritual conversations the past several weeks.  As silly as it may sound to you, I know God was directing those discussions...helping me plant a seed...however tiny it might be.

So, even though May is upon us and the end of the year crazies are about to begin, I'll continue to focus on teaching fables because I may be the only spiritual voice these kiddos have in their lives.  And that is not something I take lightly.  That is a calling that will push the end of the year crazies back just a couple more weeks for this Christian teacher teaching in a public school.  Thank you, Common Core, for giving me a unit to express my religious beliefs in a legal way...And thank you to my Savior, Who has guided these discussions in a way that is most meaningful to my firsties.  Because people need Jesus.  Including my first graders.  And I want to choose to be Jesus to them every opportunity I get!


It's week 2 of my PreK Sunday School Valentine's Unit, Love One Another.

I love being able to make Valentine's Day a spiritual holiday for my preschoolers.  I've taught variations of this same unit for about 3 years now and we have so much fun!  And what I love about is that I've used the some of the same concepts and craftivities with my firsties over the years {minus the Bible verses...darn you, public schools!} and they have been perfect for that age group too!  Church goer or not...we can all use a little more practice in loving one another, no matter your age!

Exploration Stations

The first 10-15 minutes of each week in Sunday School we spend in exploration stations.  The preschoolers are welcomed in and then choose a station to explore.  Most stations are themed to support our big idea or lesson for the day or unit.  Here are some a couple of my favorites from this unit!



My preschoolers LOVE puzzles!  These heart puzzles show kids with all kinds of emotions.  They match the emotions and talk about ways to show kindness to friends showing that emotion!

Of course, we must always have blocks to play with.  But I love making their play purposeful and connecting it to our big ideas.  This one was last minute, so I just drew a heart and wrote in the "I can" at the top.  But I've added this to the unit if you already have it!

We also have mirrors for the kids to play with and show people that God loves!

God Loves Me

The first week, we learned that God loves me!  No matter what I look like and no matter what kind of choices I make, God will always love me!  We made self-portraits and talked about how much God loves our differences!

Love the Lord

Then, we learned that God wants us to love Him back.  We read a trade book and talked about how we give people we love things.  When we love God, we want to give him our heart.  We learned the Bible verse, "I will love the Lord with all my heart..." Luke 10:27.
Then, we made heart crafts to hang as a reminder of our gift of love to God!


Love Others

Our last week, we learned that we are to love other people the way God loves us.  We read about The Good Samaritan during our Bible Time.

Then, we brainstormed ways to show love to others and added the heart leaves to our kindness tree!

I also did this with my own kid and added hearts each time he did something kind on his own.

Such fun celebrating Valentine's Day with my Sunday Schoolers!  And check out my TPT store for my other Sunday School units.

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