Week 2 1-27-08

1-27-08

I spent my time this week observing in Splash, with Jil Mazellan. I was there for prep time, the service and then the big people service.

This week I observed in Splash, which is the children’s (1^st – 5^th grade) service at College Wesleyan. This week, I was told, was a little different because the normal teacher was not there, so the head of the Children’s ministry, Jil Mazellan, was teaching the in the service. Today I was able to take part and help direct the children as they were coming in and working on a worksheet. I don’t think this was very effective. The sheet itself was not bad, but it was basically a verse from Acts that the letters in the words were all mixed up and the children had to unscramble the words. This wouldn’t have been bad if it would have been mostly forth and fifth graders, but the younger kids were having a difficult time. And they ended up not even referring back to this sheet in the main story time or at the end. So this worksheet ended up basically being busy work. Like a little girl whose name was Katie, she was one of the younger kids and she was barely half way done with this worksheet before they went on to something else. I believe if I were doing that, I would have used the sheet and given more time for the children to fill it out. I would have incorporated this very into the story, referring back to that verse and possibly making it a memory verse.

During the teaching time, the lady teaching (She didn’t say her name) did a good job expressing the message. She used students to act out the story from Acts of when Cornelius sent men to go and get Peter and bring him back to him and God offered the animals to Peter but he wouldn’t eat them because they were unclean. She had a boy named Morgan play the part of Cornelius and had other students play the parts of Peter and the people who went to get him. I believe that this was effective in creating a bridge of understanding to the children because she had them share with one another about times in their lives that they had seen people treating others badly. She had only stated her question once when a boy named Ethan spoke up and talked about how a girl he knew was mean and punched one of his friends and how that wasn’t right. I was a little confused on the direct correlation between the story and her teaching point, but the kids were able to recognize her message and relate it to their own lives.

The students seemed to be inattentive during the time they were filling out the worksheet. Should they use one worksheet for such a broad range of ages? Should they not use one at all? Or should there be age appropriate worksheets?

Is it a good idea to have kids from 1^st through 5^th together in one service? If so, what how do you make a message simple enough for the young ones yet not too boring for the older ones?

Week 1, 1-20-08

1-20-08

This week I observed at my home church because I was at home for a family gathering.

I spent three hours in church, to observe Sunday school, take part in the worship service and for fellowship time after the service.

I had the opportunity to observe this Sunday school class that was taught by Mrs. Chamberlin, who is also my good friend’s mother. This class was comprised of about ten first grade students. As I came into the class, it was funny to see the reaction that the students had. Most of them seemed confused and others laughed (I don’t know why). But I was introduced and the children took turns telling me their names. It was interesting because in a class that small, there were actually two sets of twins. They had been given a paper to color as they came in, so they were intently working on coloring. After they were done coloring, they went into the lesson time.

It has been a long time since I was this age, so I don’t remember much of what happened when I was in Sunday School, but this seemed different. Each student was given an age appropriate Bible in which they took turn reading out of. I thought this was interesting because at this age it takes a child what seems like forever to get through one paragraph reading out loud. The kids were more disruptive during this time. (I think they liked looking through the Bible at the picture drawings that depicted different stories.) But Mrs. Chamberlin only had to say “hey” somewhat loud in order to regain their attention. After that, they seemed to follow the message out of the book of Matthew very well.

At the end of class, there were several volunteers to pray. As they were praying I couldn’t help notice how funny their prayers were. For example, one girl prayed for her brother to be nice to her, haha :). But overall I thought this was a very good class, the students seemed to comprehend and it seemed like they had a good relationship built with Mrs. Chamberlin.

I am curious about these age appropriate Bibles that they were using. I would like to know if it is better to use an age appropriate Bible, or just to use a set curriculum. What would the advantages or disadvantages be?

Also, Is it better for students to read and interact at that age, or is it better to read a lesson to them and have a different type of interaction?