Great For: Lesson Openers

These ideas make great lesson openers. Check out our object lesson section for even more lesson openers and attention-getters.

December 31, 2012
Scripture Tweet

Assign students a passage or set of several verses to read. Have students imagine they are the prophet who would like to tweet the main idea of this passage or set of verses to his followers. What might he write? What will tell followers the most important information in fewer than 140 characters? After a […]

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December 31, 2012
Scripture Menu

Have students read a set of scriptures or passage. Pick an Appetizer - verse(s) that tantalize your own spiritual taste buds Beverage - cross-reference that helps wash down the Main Dish Main Dish - verse(s) that give an overall understanding of the entire block or main principle Dessert - short phrase that is spiritual topping […]

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December 31, 2012
Invite a Guest

Invite a guest to come share an experience with a gospel topic with the class. Listen during sacrament meeting, Sunday School, and other times to find people who have experiences or testimony that is valuable to share with your students. I've had great success doing this, especially when I take the time to explain the […]

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December 31, 2012
Jenny's "Today We Learned"

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 […]

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December 31, 2012
Find the One-Liner

This technique is great for scriptures that have multiple great phrases of advice or wisdom, but that don't require a whole lot of discussion to understand. Either have students go in order through a passage, or write scripture references on the board and use Hey There Delilah or Cold-calling to have random students read verses. […]

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December 31, 2012
Student presents

Before class, invite a student to prepare a short talk or devotional about a topic or scripture passage. You should give the student clear instructions about what you're looking for in the talk. For example, don't just assign a student to read Moses 7:18 and give a talk on it. Explain to the student that […]

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December 31, 2012
What's the Headline?

You can do this as a group activity or as an individual activity. I generally do it as a group activity. Assign students a passage to read. Have students imagine they are newspaper reporters who are going to write a headline for this passage. What will they write? What headline will tell your readers the […]

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December 31, 2012
Everybody Writes

I learned this extremely versatile teaching technique from Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov. Basically, you assign a writing prompt. Everyone writes the answer. Then, as many people as you choose are invited to share. Sometimes I have each person share their written response. Other times, when there's a big group, I assign a […]

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December 31, 2012
Mime

Invite all students to read a passage silently. Have a couple of students come to the front of the class. Tell them they will be acting out the events in the story, but with a twist -- they are mimes, and must act out silently. OPTIONAL: Ask other students in the class to follow along […]

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December 31, 2012
Topic Scramble

Write the main topic of a scripture passage or quote on a piece of paper. Cut each letter out. Let students look at the scripture passage or quote while they race to unscramble the word. This can be done for each individual in the classroom, or it can be done in groups, or even on […]

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