Preschoolers Faith, Fun and Role Playing

Teaching Preschoolers faith can be fun. The key is for the teacher to have fun. If you have fun, they will have fun. They may call you silly, but they will remember silly. Keys to helping Preschoolers remember Bible stories is interactivity and including all 5 senses in your lesson plan. Exploring their world and their faith is important in their development at this age. Including touch, taste, smell, sound and visuals can be difficult each week. Planning a craft and a role play helps a great deal. Yesterday, we talked about crafts. Today we discuss role playing.

Role Playing sounds intimidating for Preschoolers since they can't read a script and their behavior can be unpredictable. But there are a number of ways to role play and include Preschoolers: Puppets, Walk Throughs, and Activities.

Preschoolers love Puppets. Puppets are cute, dramatic and usually funny. Puppets can do and say things that you, or the kids, cannot. Puppets are not as intimidating as a big grown up. There is not much interactivity, but Puppets offer visuals and sound. Preschoolers can interact by talking with puppets, but be careful not to lose control of the group. If Preschoolers are allowed to interact with puppets, you will need an adult to help with crowd control in the audience.

There are several websites on the web with Puppet scripts, but think about your Preschoolers. Most scripts need to be adapted. Scripts should be short and topics simple. Situations need to be Preschool appropriate. For example, right and wrong lessons should focus on topics like taking turns and sharing rather than if you should watch a scary movie at a friends house. Preschoolers are not likely to watch scarey movies in their own house much less a friends. Anyway, here are a few of my favorite Puppet Script websites: Fishers of Kids http://www.fishersofkids.com/ , Puppet Resources http://www.puppetresources.com/ , and Puppets for Jesus http://www.puppetsforjesus.com/ .

Walk Throughs are like mini-plays, but preschoolers cannot read a script and their behavior can be unpredictable. When you are preparing for story time to tell the Bible story, if it is appropriate, try to plan a mini-play of the story especially if you have more than one character in your story. For example, the story of Lot and Abraham. You ask for two volunteers. You, the teacher are going to tell the story, but you are using the volunteers kind of like props. They are your actors and you will be directing them through the story. For Abraham and Lot, tell your volunteers to face each other and hold hands out. Tell them you are going to bless them with stuff and that you want them to hold the stuff with their arms. You tell the story. Abraham and Lot were blessed with lots of livestock (pile stuffed animals on their arms), blessed with lots of family and workers (pile dolls), and blessed with tents and riches (pile a suitcase, pillows, whatever). Once the kids have too much to hold and are dropping things then tell them that they are going to have to separate because the have too much stuff. But ask them who is going to pick first? Who gets to decide who will go where? Tell the kids to let go of hands and let the stuff fall to the floor. Then tell them that Abraham (place your hand on one child) was very kind and let Lot (place your hand on the other child) pick first. Tell your "Abraham" to tell "Lot" to pick first. Then go to "Lot" and tell him to pick up some stuff and then gently guide "Lot" to one end of the stage or room. Then tell "Abraham" to pick up some stuff and gently guide him to the other end of the stage or room. Reinforce that they did not fight and that God blessed Abraham for his kindness. Your kids are part of the story, and they don't need to recite anything.

You don't need websites to create Walk Throughs. Simply read your Bible Story. Many Sunday School Teacher's guides have suggestions, but if you can tell a story, you can walk your preschoolers through a story too. Think of your Preschoolers as a prop like a doll or puppet. While you tell the story, you guide them. Mary and Joseph traveled a long way to Bethlehem. Two volunteers can be guided to walk around the room while you tell the story.

Another way to tell the Christmas story to include more Preschoolers: You might hang a star over a dolls bed and then make three paths with masking tape on the floor all ending under the star. One path has a toy horse or donkey and two volunteers (Mary and Joseph) ride/take the toy to Bethlehem. One path has three gift bags at the beginning. Three volunteers are the wise men carrying the gifts to Jesus. One path has a couple of toy sheep. A couple of volunteers are the shepherds who go to see Jesus. Ask for volunteers to go to the start of each path. They must stay there until you tell them to come to the star. You tell the story. While you tell the story, direct the kids. "Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem. Volunteers walk to the star." While they walk, add other story details. "An Angel told the shepherds the good news. Shepherds walk to the star." Give more story details while they walk. You get the idea.

Another fun way to get Preschoolers involved in the story is Activities. Activites can be a lot of things from simply holding a poster to an obstacle course to a game. Tomorrow I will give some fun examples to create Activity in your Preschool Sunday School Lesson Plan.