Clothespin Books of the Bible Tuesday, Aug 11 2009 

Bible and Games , , , lovelylissie 6:02 pm

We found this cute idea on a homeschool blog called homeschool blogger (The clothespin idea is on this page. Just scroll down past the Houston post). It’s really quite simple and can be used to learn letters and numbers as well. We are studying a survey of the New Testament this quarter and we needed something that would help our students learn the books of the Bible. This fit perfectly. I wrote the name of a book of the New Testament on each clothespin. They can then be attached to a hanger in the correct order. By writing numbers on the back of each clothespin, the students can turn the hanger over and check their work. It is working out quite well and I hope will be of use to someone else. Remember, that inspiration is all around you.

 

More Bible Games Tuesday, Jul 14 2009 

Games , , , , , , , lovelylissie 2:20 pm

As promised here is a list of all the Bible games I found in the teacher workroom at church. Again, these are fun, easy, and inexpensive to make.

1. Bible Men (Kites)
2. Let’s Make a Prophet!
3. Crown the King!
4. Here Come the Judges!
5. Samson
6. Faithful Daniel

7. Mighty Moses
8. Bible Men (Owls)
9. Floating Along (Noah)
10. Bible Lands

11. Israel
12. Beautiful Dreamer (Joseph)

13. A Job for job
14. Called by God (Abraham)
15. David, Friend of God

16. In His Hands (Creation)
17. Let My People Go! (Plagues in Egypt)
18. God’s Men
19. Bible Women

20. Children
21. Rightly Dividing (Old and New Testament)
22. Mountain Movers (Hall of Faith)
23. Christ the King
24. Fishers of Men (Apostles)
25. Bee-Atitudes

26. He’s Alive! (Jesus’ Lastweek)

27. Church Leaders
28. Mighty Miracles
29. The Churches of Christ Salute You (Early church & history)

I’ve included a handful of pics to give you an idea of what these games look like. If you would like the questions and pics of any game on this list please send me an email to lissieb7 at gmail dot com. I’ll be happy to send these along to you for your own use.

 

Bible Games! Saturday, Jul 11 2009 

Games , , , , , , , , , lovelylissie 7:22 pm

If you have visited my little bible blog in the past, then you already know that we have started a new curriculum at our church. This has involved sorting through whatever supplies are already available and reorganizing. This is still very much a work in progress. Everything has been moved into an unused classroom while the Teacher supply/workroom was being painted. Things are still a bit of a mess. However, while digging around I found some wonderful games that had been made about 20-30 years ago. These needed some repair work, but are quite easy to make and use. Each one was made on a sheet of posterboard and uses 10-12 questions. The questions are on the large piece of posterboard. The answers are seperate. The student matches the question with the answer using magnets. Don’t worry. I do have a couple of pictures to help this make more sense.

As you can see the games are themed and a simple pocket on the back holds the key and the answers. I found one for The Beautitudes using bumblebees and one for the early church using church buildings and steeples. These games are quite visual and fun. The magnets had come off many of them. This was easy enough to fix. Magnet strips with adhesive can be purchased. E-6000 adhesive also works well to glue the magnets. I am teaching a Survey of the New Testament, so I only pulled out and repaired the New Testament games. I did find some Old Testament games such as Joseph and Judges as well as Men and Women of the Bible. These can be made easily enough and for a variety of themes. I will take a few minutes tomorrow after church to make a list of all the games that are currently in existence (I hope to make a Paul game in the coming weeks) and will make this list available to you. If you would like a picture and/or copy of the questions used you can email me at lissieb7 at gmail.com. I will get this information to you as quickly as possible. Please visit again as I will be posting about other games and visuals we will be using. I recently looked through some bulletin board books that my aunt had in storage and found some ideas to use as visual aids. As I get things made, I will post and share pics. This new curriculum is fun and at the same time challenging. If anyone has any thoughts or ideas on teaching concepts from the epistles please share. I would love to hear from you.

 

Engraving Heavenly Truths – the Beginning Tuesday, Apr 14 2009 

Bible , , , , , , lovelylissie 3:08 am

We started the new curriculum, Engraving Heavenly Truths. We are studying a Survey of the Old Testament. The flashcards have been more fun than I expected. Of course, I believe that may have something to do with having hubby to study with. We have tested each other using the flashcards and I am beginning to see how this program can help home bible study. The cards often lead to questions and further study on the subject. I think it is important to emphasize using the cards as a jumping off point. We must look further than the facts to find the meaning. Also, we have started the Teacher Training class on Wednesday nights. In this class, we are studying the New Testament in order to prepare ourselves for teaching a Survey of the New Testament. As you can see, my husband and I are quite busy. It has been a bit overwhelming. Naturally, if one isn’t teaching this would not be the case. One would only be studying one subject at a time, instead of two. I have been surprised to learn just how much I learned as a child and how much I still remember. One of my concerns at the beginning was the idea that we not use crafts in class. I enjoy crafts and believe that they can be used as teaching tools. However, we only have a limited amount of time in class and that can make crafts difficult. This material does, however, encourage the use of pictures, games, props, and even puppets. The main idea to keep in mind is to keep as much time as possible focused on the bible study. I believe I can work within these parameters and I am looking forward to learning more and seeing the program unfold. I will share my thoughts and insights as we go along as well as any ideas for games, etc.

 

Monday, Jan 12 2009 

Bible and New Testament and Old Testament , , , , lovelylissie 4:32 pm

I realize I haven’t posted nearly as much as I had hoped when I began this little enterprise.  We are getting ready to begin a new curriculum at our church.  I am currently teaching, while some are in a teacher’s training class.  I will enter the training class in April and will prepare to teach in July, August, and September.  The new curriculum is called Engraving Heavenly Truths.  It is a four year program in which we will approach the bible from various perspectives.  We will do a survey of both the Old and New Testaments, then a look at the men and women of both the Old and New Testaments, and a look at the geography of both the Old and New Testaments.  It is a scary and exciting prospect.  You can find out more about this curriculum by clicking here.  I hope as I enter the training class to have more material and thoughts to share.  In the meantime I am finding myself quite busy preparing lessons for both Sunday and Wednesday.  Transistion periods can be a lot of work!  I did make some scrolls for our students a couple of weeks ago.  These are simple to make and can be used with many different lessons.  The students should be able to make their own, if time permits.  I’ll get some pictures taken and post a tutorial later this week.  Thanks for your patience and support!

 

With Childlike Wonder Friday, Nov 21 2008 

Bible and Self-Preparation , , , , , , , , , , , , lovelylissie 5:31 am

I wanted to share some thoughts with my fellow teachers.  I attended a workshop for bible class teachers a few weeks ago and several statements were made that really stuck with me.  I grew up going to church and bible class.  I have been a student or a teacher all of my life.  Some of the stories I’ve heard or told often enough that I’ve stopped thinking about them as much as I should.  Let’s take a closer look at Noah’s Ark.  How often do we sing the song and show pictures of the animals entering the ark two by two?  If we go back to God’s Word and read the story we find in Genesis 7 that there were seven pairs of clean animals as well as seven pairs of birds.  How often do we tell the little ones in our charge this detail of the story?  We should never become complacent.  It is important to prepare our lessons and know the details.  We want to teach truth to our children.

Before little ones learn to read we give them picture books. Why do we do this? We are using the pictures to teach our young. Have you thought about the pictures you use to teach Bible class? I admit until recently I have given this very little thought. The workshop leader pointed out the importance of using lifelike pictures when illustrating Bible stories. She talked a good deal about the pictures we are putting in the minds of our children. I want my Bible students to know that the events and people we are talking about were real and not cartoons. In a world full of TV, movies, computers, and video games it is more important than ever to teach our children the difference between reality and fiction. Where is that more important than in the Bible classroom? In my efforts to find more lifelike pictures, I have been using images made available by La Vista Church of Christ. They have scanned in illustrations from vintage Bible story books and made them available for free use. I have also been on the lookout for my own set of vintage Bible story books.

One last note: This came from one my 4th graders. Finding crafts is sometimes a bit of a challenge for this age group. My students were a little disappointed one Sunday because I had been unable to locate a craft for the chronicle of Jeroboam. This one particular girl then suggested that we could always draw pictures of the story. I believe this to be a wonderful idea. The kids enjoyed creating their pictures and it was evident by their drawings that they had not only listened, but also understood the chronicle. It was a good test for me of how well I had communicated the events of the account as well as what we can learn from Jeroboam.

 

Elijah and the Ravens Friday, Nov 21 2008 

Crafts and Old Testament , , , , , , , , lovelylissie 4:35 am

Our lesson last Sunday was about God sending Ravens with food to Elijah. We talked about God sending Elijah to the widow at Zarephath. The widow fed herself, her son, and Elijah during the remainder of the drought. Her jar of flour and jar of oil never ran out. We talked about how the ravens, Elijah, and the widow obeyed God. For our craft, we colored pictures of ravens, cut them out, glued to another piece of paper, and then wrote down ways we can obey God. The template and idea came from my teacher’s manual, New Life Through His Word. This curriculum is put out by 21st Century Christian.

 

Paper Chains Tuesday, Sep 30 2008 

Crafts , , lovelylissie 6:34 pm


I wanted to share this wonderful idea for a paper chain. I found it on the Folding Trees website. The good people at Folding Trees scour the web in search of paper craft ideas and then share them in a blog format. This paper chain can be made without glue or tape. You can find the tutorial for these paper chains here. Paper chains are handy for decorating and can be used in class as well. We made paper prayer chains one Sunday. The students wrote something on each link for which they could pray. I only wish I had found this paper chain idea in time for that lesson.

 

Creation and Babel Tuesday, Sep 16 2008 

Crafts and Old Testament , , , , , , lovelylissie 10:14 pm




This week’s lesson was the Tower of Babel. We illustrated this lesson using a dry erase board and markers. My husband began drawing a tower on the board. When he needed a different color, he merely asked. The key was asking for the colors in a made up language. The girls didn’t know what color he needed and had to guess. They had fun with the game and I believe it beautifully illustrated the difficulties that occur when one cannot communicate with another. After our lesson was complete, the girls finished their work on Creation Mobiles from the week before. The internet is full of free pictures to color. I found a sun, flower, etc. and allowed the girls to color and decorate. Voila! An instant creation mobile.

 

Pipe cleaner love Sunday, Aug 17 2008 

Crafts and New Testament , , , , , , , lovelylissie 10:18 pm


We made these this morning. Our lesson was from I John 4. We wrote “God is love” and “Love one another” on the hearts. The kids wrote other things about love on the hearts as well. They also decorated the pots using glitter glue. Silly me, I thought a few stickers would suffice. I found this craft in a book for 2-6 year olds, but my slightly older crew of girls really seemed to enjoy it. They were able to make the whole craft themselves with little or no prep on my part. You’ll need construction paper, pipe cleaners, small pots, stapler, and play dough. Cut hearts out of red construction paper and staple them to the pipe cleaner. The pipe cleaner was a little long so we curled it around pencils. Next, put a ball of play dough in the pot and put the pipecleaner in the play dough. My husband made the play dough lastnight. It is a simple recipe. You’ll need 1 cup flour, 1 Tbsp oil, 2 tsp cream of tartar, 1/2 cup salt, 10 drops food coloring in 1 cup water. Mix the ingredients in a saucepan. Stir and cook until the mixture looks like mashed potatoes and forms a ball. Knead until cool and place in an airtight container. This craft can easily be done in a short class time and again the kids really seemed to enjoy it!

 

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