FGC Library: Ideas for Teaching First Day School FRIENDS GENERAL CONFERENCE
Ideas for Teaching First Day School
By Marsha D. Holliday
Parts: [Intro/Home] [The Bible] [Quaker History] [Quaker Faith and Practice]
[Quaker Values] [Building Community] [Encouraging Children to Experience the Mystical]

I. IDEAS FOR TEACHING THE BIBLE IN FIRST DAY SCHOOL

KEY: Asterisks indicate the appropriate age levels for each section:
* A single asterisk indicates that the idea is especially appropriate for children.
** A double asterisk indicates it is appropriate for both children and teenagers.
*** A triple asterisk indicates that the idea is best suited for teenagers.
**** Four asterisks indicate it is ideal for all-ages.

*** ADAM, EVE, AND THE SERPENT ON TRIAL: Simulate a trial with Adam, Eve, the Serpent, a prosecutor, a defense attorney, and a judge. What happened and why? What is the next right thing to do?

* ADVENT CALENDARS: Cut little doors in a piece of construction paper for each day in December preceding Christmas. Label the doors with the days of the month. At the top, staple a piece of plain paper behind the calendar. Paste pictures that children cut out of magazines or Christmas cards behind the doors. Remove the staples and glue the two papers together around the edges.

Discussion question: How do we wait for something to happen?

** BIBLE BINGO: Create bingo cards out of paper or cardboard. On a grid, write names of the books of the Bible on the bingo cards in crossword-puzzle fashion-using one letter for each square. The squares on the grid should be about 1/4 to 1/2 inch in size. On the bingo cards, the names of the books of the Bible intersect. The squares about "Genesis," for example, could intersect "Thessalonians" at the "e," the "n," the "i," or the "s." Put a different assortment of about 12 names of the books of the Bible on each card. Use all of the names of the books of the Bible. Then write all of the names of the books of the Bible separately on pieces of paper that can be folded in half and put in a "hat." Next cut pieces of construction paper equal to the size of the squares. To play the game, give each child a bingo card and a pile of construction-paper squares. Draw a name of a book of the Bible from the hat and read it to the class. The children who have that name on their card cover each letter with a construction-paper square.

*** BIBLICAL SIMULATIONS: Use the following Bible stories for simulations and role-plays:

Concerning simulations and role-plays: Simulations and role-plays can be unrehearsed and spontaneous, or they can be planned. Although they begin with a given situation and given characters from the Bible, their resolution does not have to follow the Biblical story line. Most of the above stories are difficult theologically and/or emotionally. Allow enough time for discussion. It is extremely important, legally and morally, to follow-up with any teenagers who seem troubled by informing their parents or guardians of your concerns and by talking with a professional counselor, psychologist, or psychiatrist. However, don't probe into teenagers' personal lives. If teenagers willingly divulge important personal information to you, you are not bound to keep their confidence if health or safety issues are involved. Consult with a counselor, if you have any doubts or concerns. Teenagers should not have to actively participant in role-plays. This activity should be strictly voluntary, and teenagers should know the plot before they volunteer. For some, it may be enough just to watch. Team-teach with a seasoned, adult Friend and, before teaching, consult with a counselor, a psychologist, or psychiatrist in your monthly or yearly meeting. The story of the "Sacrifice of Isaac," for example, can be challenging for teenagers, especially those who have difficult relations with their parents. It could be healing for teenagers to work out different, less conflicted endings to these stories. You might have two or more groups prepare role-plays so that teenagers can see that there are many, different ways to solve a problem. It is also important to point out that the Bible deals with very difficult subjects in very honest ways.

**** BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR JESUS: As part of a Christmas celebration, each family brings a cake to meeting. After the party, take remaining cakes to a homeless shelter. (Tracy Sullivan)

* BUILD A CITY: Build a city out of clay. Hang a big, bright, paper sun in the classroom. Spend the entire class building the city.

Discussion question: What must it have felt like to be an Egyptian slave, working all day in the hot sun?

* THE BURNING BUSH: Go for a walk and collect fall leaves. Press them. The following week tell the story of Moses and the Burning Bush. Make pictures of burning bushes by pasting the dried leaves onto paper.

Discussion question: How does God get my attention?

** CARDBOARD HOUSE: Build a house out of cardboard that Jesus might have grown up in.

* THE CHRISTMAS STORY, WITH A NATIVITY SCENE: Bring a Nativity Scene to class. Sit on the floor. Have the children use the figurines to tell and act out the Christmas story. For an all-age follow-up, have the children present their story to adults who sit around them in chairs.

* THE CHRISTMAS STORY, IN CARDBOARD: Construct a Nativity Scene out of a cardboard box. Make cardboard figurines. Have children use the figurines to tell and act out the Christmas Story.

** CONFLICT RESOLUTION: LET'S CHANGE THE ENDING: Read a Bible story in which the conflict was not resolved or could have been resolved in a better way. Good stories to use are Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:1-16), Jacob and Esau (Genesis 27), Joseph and his brothers (Genesis 37 ff), and the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32). Divide the children into groups and ask them to come up with a better ending to the story. (Note: it is OK to disagree with God. Cain, for example, could tell God that it was not fair that his offering was not as acceptable as his brother's.)

Discussion question: What keeps us from solving our problems?

* THE CREATION STORY: Have the children draw seven pictures, one for each day of creation. Make a creature out of clay that has never been created before and name it.

Discussion question:

** CREATION STORY TIME-LINE: On a large role of paper, make a time-line combining scientific data and the creation story. Illustrate it.

** DAVID AND GOLIATH: Tell or read the story of David and Goliath. (I Samuel 17). Have the children act it out.

Discussion questions:

for the previously oppressed to oppress the oppressor?

** DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND TOPICS:

**** EASTER PARADE: On Easter Sunday, have adults and children bring their favorite hat to meeting. Each person makes a paper feather or sign with the name of a person who is very important to him or her and is either dead or is physically distant. Each person puts his or her feather or sign with the name on his or her hat. With music playing, everyone parades around the meetinghouse, singing songs, possibly from a hymnal. ("The Lord of the Dance" is a good parade song.) When finished with the parade, have everyone sit down in the meetinghouse. From the silence, Friends may share the story of the person whose name is on their hat. (Tracy Sullivan)

** FAMILY BIBLES: Have children bring their family Bibles to First Day School. Search for secrets found in their Bibles, such as genealogies, pressed flowers, bookmarkers, under linings, notations . . .

** FLANNEL BOARD: Have children cut out figures for Bible stories or for Quaker history stories. Have them tell and illustrate the stories. Tape record or video tape the stories. Make a presentation to meeting. This activity is especially good for groups with a variety of ages; or older children can prepare the lesson and present it to younger children.

** THE LORD'S PRAYER: The word Jesus used for "Father" was more like our word for "Daddy" (from Meryl Doney, Jesus the Man who changed history, Lion Publishing, 1988). Have children translate the Lord's Prayer into their language. Memorize both versions.

* MOSES CROSSING THE RED SEA: Fold a piece of blue construction paper so that both of the long edges meet in the center. Glue a piece of tan, earth-colored paper to the center so that it is not seen when the blue paper is folded. Have children cut out shapes of fish and sea animals and glue them to the inside of the blue folded edges. Make clothes-pin dolls using scraps of cloth for clothing. Tell the story of Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. When Moses, a stick figure, arrives at the Red Sea, the blue paper is folded. When Moses parts the waters, the blue paper is unfolded and he and the people cross on the dry land, the tan construction paper.

** MOVIE ON A SCROLL: On a scroll, draw cartoons telling a Bible story. Tape-record a story to go with it. Show your "movie" to your meeting.

*** MUSIC FROM "THE MESSIAH": Study the words and talk about them. Play the music.

** NOAH'S ARK: Read or tell the story of Noah's Ark in Genesis 6: 11 to 8:19. In a field, walk the dimensions of the ark, which are 300 cubits long, 50 wide, and 30 cubits high. (A cubit is an ancient measure based on the length of the forearm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger and usually about 18 to 21 inches. Make or draw a miniature model of the ark. Show Bill Cosby's video on Noah.

** PSALM RAPPING: Have the children make a rap out of a Psalm.

** PSALM SINGING: Have the children set a Psalm to music and sing it.

*** READING THE BIBLE OUT LOUD: Have older children volunteer to take turns reading the Bible out loud. (Be careful not to embarrass poor readers.)

**** PENTECOST: With both adults and children, have friends share out of the silence the most profound movement of the Spirit they have experienced in their lives. Follow up with a pot lunch banquet-as the Apostles did.

* SAND TABLE OR SAND BOX: Build a sand table or sand box for the younger children of your meeting. Make clothes pin dolls for the sand table. Talk about the life of people living in the desert and what it was like to live during the time of Jesus.

*** STORIES JESUS TOLD: Children readily understand the following parables:

Concerning Parables: According to Mark 4:34, Jesus rarely taught without a parable. Jesus' parables were meant for ordinary people. He talked about things that ordinary people knew about, like farming and shepherding.

Acting Out the Parables: Have the children find the parable in the Bible and read it to them. When parables occur in more than one Gospel, have the children look up and read them all of the versions, noting the differences. After reading the parable, have children volunteer for parts in a skit about the parable. Give them time to rehearse. If there are more children than parts, divide the group and act out two or more versions of the same parable or two or more parables. That way, one group can be the audience for the other. In advance, assemble a box of dress-up clothes, which the children can use in their skits.

Discussion questions:

Modern-Day Parables: Have children act out a modern-day version of the parable.

Parable Pictionary: At the completion of a series on the "Stories Jesus Told," have the children draw a name of a parable out of a hat. On an easel, one child at a time will draw a picture of the parable and the other children will guess which parable it is.

Write or Tell Your Own Parables: After studying the parables that Jesus told, ask the students to write or tell their own parables.

Discussion question: Which parable do you see most clearly in your imagination?

** VIDEOTAPE A NEWSREEL ABOUT JESUS: Have children prepare a news video of Jesus. Reporters from different towns and countries report on the whereabouts, the activities, and the reputation of Jesus. Reporters interview bystanders, Apostles, Pharisees, Roman officials, people who were healed, neighbors, friends, and relatives of Jesus. Have "anchor men and women." Include a weather report for the Mediterranean area. Read an editorial commentary. Include advertisements. Wear costumes. (Rob Duncan, Adelphi Friends Meeting)

** VIDEOTAPE A NEWSREEL ABOUT THE WRITING OF THE COMMANDMENTS: Have children prepare a video of the reactions of Moses followers to the new rules in the Ten Commandments. Make a clay tablet with the Ten Commandments written on it. Make a paper mache golden calf. Wear costumes.

* WRITE AND ILLUSTRATE A BOOK OR BIBLE STORY: Have your class make up a story, or read a Bible story to them. Write the story, putting each sentence or one paragraph from the story on the bottom of a piece of plain paper. Give each child one page from the story. Have each child draw the scene that accompanies that page. Make a title page. Staple or bind the pages together. Read the story to another class. Give the "book" to a to an elderly or ill Friend who cannot attend meeting.

 

Ideas for Teaching First Day School
Parts: [Intro/Home] [The Bible] [Quaker History] [Quaker Faith and Practice]
[Quaker Values] [Building Community] [Encouraging Children to Experience the Mystical]

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