Tell students you will give them sixty seconds to find out everything they can about a certain passage. If this is the first time your students have done an activity like this, you may want to give them a chance to tell you some techniques they might want to use: reading the chapter header, checking […]

I use the phrase "Today We Learned..." to help establish direction in my lessons. First, I determine a lesson objective. Most of my lesson objectives start with the phrase "Students will ..." Here are some lesson objectives I've used this week during our study of Luke: Students will understand that friends and relatives of Jesus […]

Give each student a pencil and piece of paper. Tell your students that they will be cartoonists and should draw a cartoon of the story you are about to read aloud. Stick figures are perfectly okay -- this is not about drawing skill, but it's about picking out the most important details they hear from […]

This popular technique has been misused and abused in gospel classrooms for many years. It is rare that splitting into groups can be used effectively in the gospel classroom.  Read on to find out if you think you can use it in yours: Small groups should not be created from groups larger than 20 people. […]

This is another form of student-directed randomized scripture reading. Students stand to read a verse and then call the name of someone else to stand and read the following verse. The kids are "popping" up to read. This is also a good technique when you're doing Everybody Writes (each student writes a a brief response […]

You already know how to play Scriptionary -- one student draws a picture of a gospel story or item and the other students try to guess it. But in Seminary Scriptionary, I tell my students that they are going to draw a list of items that have to do with a certain gospel topic, like […]

This technique is found in the Come Follow Me manual. It's difficult to have several people teaching a class, and it's also not beneficial for other students to watch just one student teach. Here's how I would do it: Help each student prepare a brief lesson on a gospel principle, while working in pairs. The […]

Each student has a Styrofoam plate, a wet wipe, and a regular water cleanup (not permanent) marker. Ask students questions that can be answered in a few short phrases. They write their answers and flip over their plates. After a few moments, ask everybody to display their plates. I have used this as a lesson […]

We have done this a couple of times in my Seminary class, and it is always so fun! Use this to review material you've already covered or material that students already know very well. In our class, this ends up very silly, so it's best done at the very beginning or very end of class. […]

This is the easiest way to engage kids in scripture reading in my opinion. You'll need something soft like a beanbag or small stuffed animal. A wadded up piece of paper could even be used in a pinch. You may need to lay out some ground rules like : - do not aim above the […]