Kindergarten: Greedy Gehazi

I’ve been teaching the Kindergarten class at my church for a year now, and I’m only beginning to know the ropes of teaching little kids. During that year, I had 19 students in all, with about 12 present each Sabbath. The eldest was seven years old and the youngest was barely one. We had to put them together in the same class because we didn’t have teachers. This quarter, however, a sister volunteered to teach the older kids, leaving me with 13 children.

Each Sabbath, for about forty-five minutes, we sings songs, learn a Bible story, learn a new memory verse, and make a craft.

The other Sabbath, the story was about Elisha’s servant, Gehazi, who got greedy and decided to lie his way into getting garments and gold from Captain Naaman.

Every week, I give them a sticker with our new memory verse so they could review it at home. The following Sabbath, those who can recite the verse from memory get a butterfly sticker to stick on their paper gardens.
Our memory verse last week was from 1 Timothy 6:6, which I think was perfect for the story.



For our craft activity, I had the kids make a wall décor based on their memory verse. I got this idea from Hands On Bible Teacher, which I think is a marvelous blog about a marvelous Children’s ministry by a very dedicated teacher.

The kids enjoy being in class, and I’ve grown to really love making learning about Jesus fun for the little members of God’s family.

		Contentment Wall Decor VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I’m still looking for ways to improve my teaching and programming. Learning about other teachers who share my love for ministering to children inspire me to work harder and pray more for this branch of the ministry.

In my next Kindergarten post, I’ll be sharing how our Baby Moses class well. see you.

Kindergarten: Monggo Project

Last Sabbath, I had the kids start on a project and object lesson rolled into one: planting mung beans.

They were absolutely excited about it and couldn't help but jump and run around with their plastic cups.

First, I made holes in used plastic cups, and had them fill it with soil that I readied in advance. They were then given five mung beans each to plant in their cups. I also made them water the beans. They wrote their names in the cups and we set them aside.

They were so excited about the beans that they were really hesitant to just leave them there. As we carried on with the class, one of the kids interrupted me and exclaimed, "Teacher! The beans are about to grow, I can feel it!"

And teacher couldn't help but laugh and get excited with them.

This post will be updated on a regular basis, probably daily, with pictures of the growing mung beans.

DAY 1 (Planting Day)

Karl Nathan Gogo

Sheim Aidrion

Ashley Mhae

Ayn Angela

Harlie

Precious Joy

Shane Matthew

And we have a special guest participant: Ryna, from the Juniors Class.

I forgot to take pictures for Day 2. *face meets palm*

DAY 3

Ashley Mhae

Ayn Angela

Harlie

Karl Nathan

Precious Joy

Ser Ryna

Sheim Aidrion

Shane Matthew

I can't wait for Sabbath, when the kids get to see their mung beans again. Check back tomorrow for updates! :)

Teaching Reminder #1

You need to learn right methods and acquire tact for the training of your little ones, that they may keep the way of the Lord. You need to seek constantly the highest culture of mind and soul, that you may bring to the education and training of your children a restful spirit, a loving heart; that you may imbue them with pure aspirations, and cultivate in them a love for things honest and pure and holy. As a humble child of God, learn in the school of Christ; seek constantly to improve your powers, that you may do the most perfect, thorough work at home [and school], by both precept and example.

Ellen G. White
Child Guidance

my newest challenge

this quarter, i was given a new challenge at church: teaching sabbath school for kids ages four to six. i did teach Vacation Bible School Kindergarten for two consecutive years, but this new teaching stint is different because of at least three things:

(a) all the kids have prior sabbath school kindergarten experience; i don't.
(b) they have preference for the routine and songs from their previous teacher (which they've had from the day we put up sabbath school kindergarten); and
(c) 90% of the kids will have their parents in the classroom with them

these past two weeks, i spent a substantial amount of time just preparing lesson plans, learning songs, printing and cutting out materials, organizing visual aides, purchasing supplies, and basically just being nervous.

i'm not sure how many quarters i'll be teaching this class. this sabbath will be my third out of the 13 sabbaths in a quarter. so far, i have been able to keep the kids satisfied, but not ooh-ahhh-clap excited. the parents have been helpful, too - singing along when teacher doesn't know the song the kids want to sing and etc.

i have also managed to forget and completely skip major parts of the routine. boo!

so this week, i'm doing more prep work: researching on teaching strategies, organizing my materials better, and studying the lesson harder. i'm also going over their songs and fingerplays and thinking up ways to make our classroom more interesting for them.

my students, designing clothes (like Hannah for Samuel) in our makeshift classroom

in doing all this, i find many helpful places in the internet, such as

http://www.gracelink.net/article/3/kindergarten for lesson helps
http://www.kindergarten-lessons.com/kindergarten-teaching.html and http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/Play/Ktodayplay.pdf for teaching strategies
http://www.youtube.com/user/maranathakids/videos for children's music
http://www.mrprintables.com/ and http://www.activityvillage.co.uk for free printables

but my greatest help, as always, comes from the greatest Teacher. 

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV)

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all [men] liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.  James 1:5

“For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” Luke 12:12 (NKJV)

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.  1 Corinthians 15:58

so bring it on!

writing is a path to understanding

next to air, food, water, clothing, shelter, family and friends, the two earthly things i could not live without are pen and paper. that's how things have always been for me since as far back as i could remember. not that i write anything earth-shattering; mostly it's just doodles, ideas (that fleet without paper and ink), reminders, to do lists, insights. but you get the idea. i love words, the worlds they create, the worlds they make known.

when i look at kids of the younger generation - the ones who compose the Sabbath School class that i teach - i see a lack of this love, if not a complete absence of it. oh, how much they are missing!

what i did was provide them with notebooks to use as journals with the instruction that they write two entries per week. i don't care what they write about, their grammar, the language used (just as long as i understand), the spelling, the length, the viewpoint, the attitude. what i want them to do is to look at their subject and write about it. i am hoping that by doing this, they will learn to look beyond what meets the eye, inspect, analyze, compare, contrast, describe, think critically, form opinions, form attitudes and understand.

writing is a lot like public speaking, only you get more preparation time. the process usually compels a person to bring his thoughts together, choose the most appropriate words, structure a whole out of disjoint parts, and stretch creativity muscles. thus, a person's mind is exercised, strengthened, deepened, broadened and hopefully, elevated.

above all, i pray that the comprehension they develop will become one of their tools for understanding the Word of God and how it applies to the things they see and experience. God wants His every child to make full use of every opportunity for intellectual and spiritual growth. writing is one of those opportunities because it allows you to look not only at what you write about but more importantly into yourself and the things you value.

i am not expecting to suddenly discover Shakespeares or Davids in my students. i can't even expect to get them to share my love for words and writing. but who knows, i might be in for a surprise. this coming Sabbath, i'll find out. :)

what strategies do you apply to help your students understand?