Sunday School

I have been teaching 1-3 grade Sunday school this month, and I hit the blogs to find some good ideas for my class. I thought with all these crafty Christian bloggers out there, I would find something besides commercial sites with coloring pages (yawn). Guess what I found? Nada.

So I think I will start sharing my ideas for Sunday school classes, and if you happen to have any great ideas or know someone who does, please let me know.

This past Sunday, I taught a lesson on Jesus appearing to the apostles and Thomas, and how they doubted he was raised from the dead until they actually saw him (John 20:19-30). Our church gives me teaching materials, and sometimes I use the paraphrased story or script from the lesson, but this week I didn't.

I chose to read the story right out of the bible. I don't have the kids read the passage because they are so quiet that every other kid tunes out, and I can stop to explain things or point out ideas.

Then, I found this awesome lesson for teaching faith, called Things I Don't Understand. I put a CD, telephone, medicine bottle, calculator, flashlight, and remote control in a paper sack. They were immediately riveted, and loved taking turns picking items out of the bag to show the group. This lesson really helps kid wraps their minds around faith, which can be a vague concept for them.

I am a substitute teacher.
I am an assistant in a gifted class one day a week.
I have 3 children.
I will be home for the entire summer with said 3 children.
These are the reasons I love Instructor magazine from Scholastic.
I just ordered it for $8 (1 year subscription).
It has tons and tons of learning activities, like . . .
Math games,
Gross, slimy science,
Flash card games,
Activities for writing poetry,
and on and on and on.

You can get some of the articles on their website, or you can order it here.

Oh, yeah, and they are going to have a Summer Reading Challenge where kids read from a book list, play games and earn points.

Sub Bag

I have been a substitute teacher for almost a year now, and I have had a few friends ask me what I take with me to the classroom. I have quite a few supplies built up, and I'm in the process of organizing them. What I would like to end up with, in addition to organized supplies, is a crate with file folders for each grade that contains activities in the folders that I can grab and go in the morning.

Anyway, for those of you who are interested, here are some things that I keep in my "sub bag":

Transition time (time when you are switching from one activity to the next or lining up and getting ready to go somewhere) can be difficult. It helps to have little songs and games to keep them interested and paying attention. I just got this book, Literacy-Building Transition Activities by Ellen Booth Church, from Scholastic that has a lot of good, easy transition activities:



Another favorite of mine is the Choose Your Own Adventure book series. The stories are quick, the kids get to vote on what the characters should do next, and they work for most elementary school ages.





I'm off to cut coupons and go grocery shopping, but I'll try to post more on this topic soon. Have a great day!

What's a mom to do ...

when she has to teach this mumbo jumbo
to this Cutest Football Player in the World?

That paper means about as much to me as a sewing pattern means to Mr. Jones. I'm thinking the 6 year old was probably feeling about the same. So I looked and looked to find a game or something that might have some football guys that I could use to teach him the positions. Then I stopped by our neighborhood toy store, hoping they would have something, but thinking there was really no chance that they would. I went in, and I turned the corner on aisle 2, and there it was. Football Guys.

Just what we needed.

My kitchen table was transformed.

Football was played.

Positions learned.

Touchdown. (Sorry, I couldn't resist)