For Teachers!
Thank you for volunteering to serve as a teacher in Family Ministry. In my own life, and probably yours too, my Sunday School teachers were highly influential in my coming to faith. This is a tremendous opportunity to pass down the Gospel to the next generation.
You might be wondering what you’ve signed yourself up for? This short page is designed with you in mind.
What Should a Class Typically Look Like?
The good news is that no matter which of the three classes you’re teaching, the format is exactly the same. Teaching requires virtually NO PREP from you. All you have to do is show up by 10:45am and your easy to follow lesson plan and coloring sheets will be ready for you:
10:50-11:00am - all children meet in the nursery for announcement, singing, and prayer
11:00-11:03am - teachers take attendance and place a sticker next to each child’s name who is there
11:03-11:07am - teachers sit children and read them whichever Bible story is planned for the day
11:07-11:10am - teachers discuss the Bible story with the children using the provided questions
11:10-11:12am - teachers read and help the students memorize the planned Bible verse for the day
11:12-11:20am - teachers use their phones to play the New City Catechism song. This is the only thing teachers need to prepare beforehand. Download the New City Catechism app and all the songs for each question are inside the app. During this time, teachers might read the question and then play the song a few times, helping the children to sing along. After they have sung it a few times, pass out their coloring sheets and they may finish class by coloring. At 11:20am, children are dismissed to the nursery to go back to their parents.
How Do I Manage a Class Full of Children?
It is easier than you might think! Here are a few tips:
1. Set clear expectations and model it for the children. For example: if during the story, you want your children to sit quietly with their hands on their laps, show them how and then ask them to model it.
2. Rather than correct disobedience right away, encourage those who are doing what you asked. If while reading the Bible story, a few children start to disobey, point out the good behavior in others and say, “Wow, look at the way Trinity is sitting still and quiet with her hands on her laps. Great job, Trinity!” Surprisingly, near every single time, the children who are disobeying will correct themselves and sit like Trinity. Encourage them when they self-correct.
3. Separate children who continue to disobey. If while reading, one or two students continue to be a distraction and disobey, ask them to bring their chairs right next to you and sit. Separation works really well with small children and even 1st and 2nd graders.
4. If at this point or any point during your lesson, children are being defiant and continuing to disobey, call me and I will have them sit in time out with me or call their parents to come and get them.
Teachers, I want you to know that it is not your job to put up with disobedient and defiant children in your classroom. We will do our best to manage the classroom and teach these children about God and his Word, but we cannot be the ones who discipline them.