Five Fun Sunday School Games: Ideas How to Memorize Scripture With Children
Sunday School Games That Work Well For Memorizing Scripture
If you are a Sunday School teacher, or a classroom teacher at a Christian school you most likely recite scripture verses with your class each week. Often teachers use rote learning with their classroom, saying the scripture aloud and having the class repeat it. While this style of teaching can be effective for some students, making learning enjoyable by playing fun games will make your classroom one that little ones love to come too! Here are five games to help your children memorize scripture.
HEART HOP For this game you will need to cut out hearts on colored cardstock, poster board or other heavy paper. Make sure you cut the hearts to fit the size of the feet that will be stepping on them. You will want one heart to be a different color, or be decorated so it looks different from the others. In the room you will want to tape the hearts to the floor, preferably one heart for each child playing the game. You could have them sit on a heart at the start of class and teach as they sit in the circle, until game time. Once you’re ready to play the game, review the scripture for the day. After reviewing, explain that you will have the children walk around the circle and then you will indicate when it’s time to stop (you could play music, and then stop it, or blow a whistle, or just say stop!). Whoever is on the ‘odd’ heart has to practice saying the scripture.
Tip: Because this game has hearts as visuals, this would be a great game to play with a scripture that has to do with love or with Psalm 119:11 “I have hidden Your word in my heart…”
PARACHUTE PLAY For this fun game you will need to have a parachute. I purchased a parachute for under twenty dollars on ebay a few years ago. It is the kind that has handles for about ten children. You will want the children to each take a seat around the parachute. Practice the verse and explain that you will call a child’s name and then the child will practice saying the verse. The class will then raise the parachute up and the child can run through to an opening on the other side.
Tip: If you have a shy child who doesn’t want to say the verse alone you can have two children repeat the verse at the same time and take turns running under the parachute.
TRAIN TRACK GAME This game is similar to the heart hop, but instead of using hearts you will use train tracks. You can make train tracks by cutting a poster board in half and drawing a track pattern on each piece. You will want to lay the tracks out in a circle. One track will need to be decorated differently than the others. You will play the same as heart hop, but you may want to use a wooden train whistle to start and stop the movement of the game!
GOLDEN COIN HUNT For this game you will want to hide gold coins around the room. You will want to color one with a permanent marker on one, or put a sticker on one. Explain that the students will be hunting for the coins, and when they find them they will want to find the one with the special mark. The one with the special mark indicates which student will be saying the scripture to the class. You may want to make a treasure box out of a cardboard box, or buy one, so the kids can put their coins in it after they are done searching. You can re-hide the coins to give more students a chance to say the scripture.
Tip: You can find gold coins at most stores that sell party decorations.
MARSHMALLOW MEMORIZATION For this game you will need to purchase white and colored marshmallows and sort into bags for each student playing. You will want to put a small handful of white marshmallows in a bag and a few colored ones in each. For each colored marshmallow the student has, this is how many times he/she will have to repeat the scripture. For this game I would do the scripture all together, doing it as many times as needed to cover all the colored marshmallow turns!
Having God’s word deeply planted in young hearts is a great way to start a solid spiritual foundation. Enjoy playing these games while memorizing scripture with your class.
References
- Article image via Wikimedia Commons
