Official Ball Toss

After having to scrounge up something to be able to toss between the kids during a lesson, I headed out to the dollar store that week and bought some water soaker balls. Those are the toys that soak up water and are intended to be thrown at other kids, kind of like water balloons. I found that these were extra soft and squishy, but were still heavy enough for the 3 year olds to throw accurately.

This is something that we always keep in our Primary Bag (that we tote around our lessons, pictures, etc. to church each Sunday) and if we have extra time at the end of class for some reason or another, it's a great activity.

Usually we will talk a little about the lesson and ask each child to say something about the lesson before we can throw them the ball. For the lesson "I Have Feelings", they were to say something that made them happy, show us their 'happy face' by smiling really huge and them we could toss them the ball. I love using this game because it's helping them to remember what the lesson was about, they apply it to themselves, and they have fun without being overly active/irreverent.

Our class is 3-4 year olds and they are still working on the motor skills to accurately throw balls and catch things, so it's getting two birds with one stone. They're learning spiritual things, as well as physical things. The more multitasking we can do in the short 1 hour of class time, always the better!

Matching Game

We struggled for weeks in trying to find some sort of activity that was Sunday appropriate, would teach the kids to share, and teach them what behavior is acceptable during Primary.

What we came up with (after many failures) was a matching game. We simply took what the lesson was about, printed 8-10 pictures on regular 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper, cut them in half, mixed them up and used magnets up on the board to put them face down and let the kids try to match as many as they could.

We usually have 8-10 kids in the class, so we purposefully have at least that many pictures (we used food the first time, for the lesson I am Thankful for My Body, then colored smiley faces for I Have Feelings). This way we can make sure that each child makes at least one match. They know that they need to wait patiently (reverently) in their chairs since we simply go around the room one at a time and let them try to make a match. They get to come up to the blackboard, pick whichever two papers they want, and we flip them over to see if they match.

For some reason this keeps all the kids interested in what is going on, even when they're not the one up at the blackboard and they are actually learning how to sit still and wait their turn. I also like it because it teaches them that it's okay to try something, even if you fail at it (or don't make a match) and eventually if you keep trying you will succeed (by making a match).

This game is easily tailored to each lesson and we use it about every third week or so. They don't seem to be bored with it yet, so we'll keep using it as long as it works!

Gone Fishing

This week, our lesson was “I am thankful for fish”. We struggle each week trying to come up with ideas for activities that are physical enough to keep the kids engaged, but reverent enough to be done in a church on a Sunday. This week, coming straight from the manual, we had a great idea to go fishing!

We bought a kid’s size fishing pole at Walmart, and brought a sheet with us to church. I just tied some yarn onto the end of the pole (we didn’t want any accidents with fishing line) and tied a clothes pin on the end. We all remember doing things like this growing up, and what a good way to keep them anxiously engaged!

We let them ‘fish’ for their snack, which were Swedish fish in little snack size baggies, then after they were done eating, we let them fish for ‘real fish’ which were actually just the fish printout that was in the manual too, cut into 4ths so that each child could go fishing more than once to get all four fish and then color them. I sat behind the curtain while my husband had all the kids line up single file (we’re working on waiting our turns, being polite and reverent) and it was a huge success!

This was the first week since we’ve been teaching this class that the kids didn’t want to go home! Some even cried when they had to leave! I know that this is an activity that we will be doing over and over again this year, now… only how to apply it to lessons?!?

Coloring Time Game

For the last couple of weeks, we have been trying out a new ‘game’ during coloring time. The kids in our class have a tendency to all happen to want the same color each and every time we color. Our budget (Primary budget or my own pocket book) doesn’t allow us to have a set of crayons for each child in the class. However, our new ‘game’ means that each child randomly gets a crayon without anyone seeing it ahead of time (the popular pink and purple ones always get in there somehow…) and they get color time with that crayon until the teacher says “SWITCH”. Each child must switch crayons with another child in the classroom; they cannot keep the crayon more than one turn. It is not required to color using this crayon, but you must hold it and keep it until a teacher says the magic word “SWITCH” and then you may get another color from another child. This not only keeps coloring time under a good schedule, but alleviates melt downs over the coveted Pink and Purple crayons that are oh-so-popular in our Primary class. The children also seem to enjoy this sharing process and it’s helping take care of other sharing problems that we have had in the past as well, without us ever having to have the “let’s share” discussion with the kids.