Younger and Middle Elementary Projects — Plan a garden planting time at a spot in the church yard that needs sprucing up. Tell each child to bring a small garden tool and one or two plants. They will enjoy watching their own garden grow. Each week you can ask a different student to check the garden for water and weeding. This can be a real hands-on creation lab and help you to teach about such things as the "vine and the branches."
Student Created Mural or Bulletin Board —
For Younger and Middle Elementary, post pictures of everything they enjoy doing in summer (swimming, baseball, skating, playing in the park, ice cream, vacation).
For Juniors, post things they miss during the summer (snow, school books, football, ice hockey, basketball, sweaters, fireplaces, Christmas).
Junior Jaunts — If anyone on your congregation has a pool, swimming and pizza are a great event for this age group. They are old enough to swim well and still find it fun. While they are there, let them plan a ministry project for the group's next get-together. Helping elderly people with yard work, cleaning the nursery, or making thank-you gifts for church leaders are some ideas to suggest. There will be better participation if they decide as a group what they would most like to do.
Summer Bible Reading — To encourage Bible reading, ask questions each Sunday about the devotional readings that were assigned for the past week. Whoever answers a question gets a sticker. Whoever has the most stickers at the end of the quarter, gets a prize.
Elementary Crafts & Creative Ideas by Sue Jakes
Your ideas can help teachers and parents in other churches around the world. One teacher submitted a great idea for older classes:
We had trouble getting kids to come to class on time. When we started the lesson, students would be dribbling in, one by one. Now we open class, on time, with a rousing Bible guessing game (like "Hangman"). The mystery phrase may be a Bible verse, a Bible character from the lesson or a geographical place from the lesson. Small prizes (usually a food snack—5th graders love snacks!) are awarded to the winner and the competition is fierce. It gets the kids warmed up for the class, helps them to interact and motivates them to get to class on time.
Make Your Own Picture Books
Here are two easy-to-make picture books:
Use a photo album with magnetic pages and insert pictures to show the children.
Use re-closeable plastic bags to make a flip picture book. Sew four or five bags together at the bottom (opposite the opening) using a zigzag machine stitch. Cut colored poster board to make front and back covers to give the plastic bag book stability. Insert appropriate pictures.
Another way to bind the books is to punch holes along the re-closeable edge of the bag after pictures are inserted. Then use yarn or shoestrings to fasten the bags together like a book. You can also display various objects instead of pictures (like colored leaves or feathers) in the bags.
Consider how you can be an encourager ... to your students and to your fellow teachers, to those who support and help you in teaching!
Click here to read more about Elementary Sunday School
Click here to read about catechizing Elementary aged students
Sue Jakes is the Children's Ministry Coordinator of the Presbyterian Church in America.
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