A. TIME SPENT THIS WEEK 1/18/08: 1 Hour – meeting with Angel my supervising teacher discussing the programs and what she will be expecting out of me and expressing some of my interests and gifts in ministry.
1/20/08: 2 ½ Hours – went to morning worship service where I went and helped with the Kids’ church and observed in the 1st – 3rd grade Sunday school room.
1/20/08: 2 Hours – went to Kids’ World tonight and helped out there and played with the kids. There were a lot there, but they were fairly young.
B. CLASS THIS WEEK
This Sunday I observed in the 1st – 3rd grade classroom. Angel is the teacher for the 4th-6th grade class, but there was only one student and they decided to work on the puppet ministry so I went and observed the other classroom. Marion First United Methodist Church is a rather small church, and they are in the process of building up the children’s ministry. In Sunday school there were only two students, Lauren who is in first grade and her brother Drew who is in third grade. It was very interesting to observe this class since it was a brother and a sister who are very close to one another. When we were taking turns reading the Bible story, Drew would tell the teacher that she really should tell Lauren how to say the word, but to sound it out for her. The teacher, Joyce, responded by saying that it isn’t really a reading lesson, so it was okay. I liked how she dealt with the situation. One thing I did not like about this method was that by having them read, it was hard to really understand what the story is all about.
After going through the story we then did a project. Joyce had several footprints on brown construction paper and we all cut them out. We then put a word from Matthew 4:23 on each of the footprints. Once Lauren and Drew got the words on the footprints, they put the footprints on the floor in order and walked along with the footprints saying the verse. Then Joyce took one footprint away at a time and then Lauren and Drew tried to memorize the verse. They both did a great job at memorizing it; however, they were very sneaky looking at the piece of paper that was on the table that had the verse on it. We finally got rid of the paper and they were doing a great job. I thought that this was a very fun and creative way to teach students a Bible verse.
We did have a time to pray and we got in a circle, held hands, and prayed. Both Lauren and Drew had prayer concerns, mostly for their family, and I found it very amazing that at this age they were so in tune with the issues their family was going through. Church was released a bit early, so then Sunday school was a bit longer than usual, so we had about 20 minutes at the end that Joyce really had not planned on. She found a big floor puzzle that we worked on and it was fun to interact with Lauren and Drew like that. The teacher did not really have a back up plan for something to do if there was extra time, but she did a great job of quickly looking for something for the two of them to do and it was lot of fun for them.
C. QUESTIONS THIS WEEK
1. How do you feel about memorizing Bible verses? What would be a way to memorize the verse and get the meaning out of it?
2. How do you feel about a brother and a sister with three years age difference being in the same classroom?
2 comments:
I LOVED the descriptions of individuals..yes yes yes... also keep describing the teacher and how they are learning and responding....
TO ALL IN GROUP: gee I wise there were more responses here... seems odd to ask questions to which nobody responds--as if you are being ignored???
*to answer your question about memorizing bible verses... i think that at this age it is ok to use extrinsic motivation to encourage students to memorize bible verses. it is important to encourage students to develop the habit of memorizing scipture, and God says that His word will not return void! even if the motivation used is extrisnic (candy, camp, etc.) the kids are putting God word into their heart, and are spending time in HIS word! However, it is necessary that you underline the importance of memorizing scripture. let them know that it is more than just recieving candy or points each week, they are memorizing scripture because it is an importand discipline. you could even discuss some situations where memorizing scripture is so benefitial!
*to your second question about a brother and sister in the classroom.... ideally this would not be something that occurs. however, if you only have two students in your sunday school there is really no way to avoid it. obviously three years is a huge age gap, and there can be difficulties that arise out of a brother and sister being in the same class. for example, my brother and i are three years a part and we would never have made it through sunday school if we were in the same class. but it seems that in your case the siblings get along well, which is a huge blessing!!! are there no other kids there age in church? or do parents just not send them? if that is the case, maybe advertising the sunday school program and telling of its highlights would help to get kids in the door.
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