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Ice Cream Sundaes....teaching Sunday school...Kindergarteners. [Need ideas...]
Read life of Saint. Serve Sundaes....incorporate Saints...curriculum...Name days...younger child. ...ideas...?
What about, after hearing about the saints life, you could have a few generic costumes, and have the kids improvise a scene from the story?
Ice Cream Sundaes.
Those are great ideas!A nice thing to incorporate is to give each child the task of lighting a candle for their Saint at the start of class on his/her nameday, before opening prayers. I used to have them hold a long candle which I'd then light it with a match, then I'd guide them to light the votive under the saint's icon with the longer candle. Made a production out of it, but it helped them feel special and lent some solemnity to the occasion
Also, what we used to do is have icon albums. We'd print a small icon with a prayer to the nameday Saint on the reverse, then laminate it. The kids would look forward to receiving an icon each week, and repeating the prayer on the back. It was a good way to keep them excited about coming to class.
We'd also print off a larger version of the icon and tell the story of the Saint while pointing out the elements of the icon that refer to the story. This helped them to become more "literate" with iconographic symbols.
Sometimes we would teach them a song about the Saint. Gigi Shahid has some great CDs (you should be able to find her CDs for sale if you Google her name).
You can roll these smaller suggestions into the "acting it out" idea... or not! Good luck
Maybe you should have another prayer on the outside of your door for the late students to read so they don't feel completely excluded. They miss out on the communal prayer, but still get a chance to pray while they wait. Complete exclusion from prayer seems like a steep punishment, even if it isn't really intended as a punishment. Maybe a stronger "repentant" prayer would send them the right message. The Jesus prayer (while always appropriate in every situation) might be a little too strong for their young minds, though, so maybe something lighter than that.Well, I'm resurrecting this old thread because tomorrow is Sunday school graduation! Woo hoo, I survived the year with 13 kindergartners, 7 of which are boys, 2 of which have ADHD. I even agreed to teach it again next year. I am so looking forward to being present for the entire Divine Liturgy this summer. There were some really difficult months in there and I've struggled a bit with not complaining to God about how burdened it felt to teach it, but I made it and I get a few months off to recharge.
All in all, I think the children really learned and have become authentic inquirers about their faith. They are getting the idea of what reverence means and when waiting on the communion line, I loved how they would tune in to the icons and ask me questions when we got back to class. Next year I have some changes I'll be implementing. For one, any late students who arrive while we are praying at the start of the lesson will have to wait at the door before entering.
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