At a recent workshop, we discovered a fantastic pre-class activity idea. We enlarged various activity sheets onto 11x17 colored tagboard, laminated them for durability, and now use them as engaging review exercises for previous Bible stories. This keeps students occupied while teachers interact with children or welcome visitors before class begins. To make the worksheets reusable, we use vis-à-vis pens and wipe them clean with a damp cloth. Our 3rd graders love this activity! We'll share our answer key setup in a future post. Be on the lookout for that!

We are developing a game for our Gideon lesson, inspired by the book "Interactive Bible Story Bulletin Boards." We have enlarged the pattern and the characters are ready for coloring! The game pieces, featuring review questions about Gideon's story, are already completed.  We will use this game alongside our existing "Judges" interactive bulletin board, attaching magnets to the pieces for use on the magnetic board.  Watch for upcoming posts to see this game in action.

Nancy, our resource room coordinator, has a wealth of visuals that she and her friends have created. This project for our Gideon lesson was incredibly easy to assemble because the coloring was already done. We simply printed the colored photos and mounted them onto gray cardstock. Once laminated, we intend to add magnets to the back of each piece, allowing us to build a large shield on the magnetic dry-erase board as we learn the story of Gideon.

This colorful display is the first thing children will see as they enter our classroom for the initial Sunday of our Judges unit. As we delve into the stories of each judge, we will unveil their identities by removing the gavel cover-ups, adding an element of excitement and anticipation to our learning journey!

This visual aid was created to illustrate the cyclical and repetitive pattern of how the Israelites abandoned God and how God punished them. The Israelites would cry out for help and God would raise up a judge. The Israelites would repent and fall back into sin with the cycle repeating. This was completed during a collaborative effort during a teacher’s church worknight. The judge graphic (source unknown), was enlarged on poster board and enhanced with chalk, visually representing the various “judges” on the “cycle”. The accompanying text, was mounted on patterned scrapbook paper, provides additional information about the Israelites. This visual tool hangs on our wall during the study of the book of Judges.

To help our students memorize scripture, we created a visual aid using a simple open-book pattern. We enlarged the pattern onto the poster board, added chalk for a 3D effect, and laminated it for durability. We added magnets on the back allowing it to be displayed year-round.  Students can interact with the book during pre-class activities, arranging the memory verse in order or reciting it aloud. This engaging tool reinforces learning and makes Scripture memorization enjoyable.