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
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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January 20, 2011
Jesus is the Son of God (Making a Puzzle)

Items needed: a picture cut into 20 pieces to create a puzzle. (The picture can be any picture of Christ, but a picture of his birth would work great.) Lesson: Cut a picture into 20 pieces to create a puzzle. (The picture can be any picture of Christ, but a picture of his birth would […]

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January 25, 2006
The Ultimate Participation Award

Items needed a small bag of sugar (or other sweet treat) for each member of the class another, better treat Begin the lesson by giving each student a bag of sugar as a present just for coming to church. I told them just like they received a present from me for coming to church, everyone […]

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