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! :)

How to Make a "Teambuilding" Activity Super Fun

A rundown of tips to have a fun (ehem!) teambuilding activity with the youth, like we had yesterday at the beach:

1. If someone suggests that you hold a recreation/get-together/teambuilding activity somewhere special, agree with all your heart. Our getaway plan was Elleyse's idea, and we love it.

2. Set a date. For best results, set the date to tomorrow.

3. Plan, but not too much. Just agree on two things: (1) assembly time, and (2) to text one another.

4. Invite people. If they don't come, see Tip #10.

5. On the agreed date, meet up and head to your fun destination. If the said destination doesn't turn out to be as nice as you thought...

6. Go somewhere else. More fun if you don't know exactly where that "somewhere else" is so you have the opportunity to take "lost" photos of yourselves. Important: Don't forget to update late participants about your current and still-changing locations.

7. While lost, keep your eyes out for potential venues. For example, an old, rusty gate, with a view of the beach and a sign that says "Inquire." 

8. Set up food and drinks. These are things that you didn't actually plan on bringing (because Tip #3), but you're hoping at least one of you thought about it. :D

9. Play charades. Especially about the people who were supposed to be there but aren't. (haha. don't worry guys, we were nice... mostly.)

10. Take lots of pictures. For documentation and to make people from Tip #4 jealous so that next time they'll know better and join you.

11. Play games that make you look silly. No photo example of this in action. We were too busy holding our tummies in painful laughter. :D

and final tip...

12. On your way home, laugh a lot and excitedly talk about next week's "teambuilding" activity. And this time, do better than Tip #3.