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Testimonies, Tips and Tidbits Curriculum Challenges Filling Empty Time Slots

by Robin Ulbredtch
05/10/17
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Filling Empty Time Slots

 Many teachers and other Christian workers who have taught Bible lessons know the challenge of working within the allotted amount of time scheduled for classes. Planning Bible lessons for a specific amount of time can be difficult. Having too much or too little of lesson material can bring about an unexpected burden.

Most Bible curriculums have a weekly lesson plan which generally includes a theme, scripture references, a Bible story, discussion questions and a variety of other activities designed to reinforce the basic lesson. These curriculums are great tools because they help the Bible teacher structure his or her lesson and provide basic lesson plans and activities. It’s important for the teacher to use these tools to make the most of the allotted class time slot.

By including a variety of activities, curriculums give the teacher the freedom to choose those activities that will work the best for everyone in the class. The teacher will be able to use activities that work with her specific gifting and personality. Then the teacher will also consider the students in class and their age level and ability to do the specific activities. If the teacher has a big variety of activities, it may be difficult to choose between them. But having to choose from a selection of activities is easier to deal with than not having enough material. A variety of activities for the lesson will allow the teacher to fill the designated class time.

Occasionally the students in a class will finish the lesson sooner than planned. When a teacher suddenly realizes the lesson is finished and he or she has an empty time slot to fill, the teacher must quickly find something additional for the students to do. This can be a stressful situation for both the teacher and the students. The teacher scrambles around the room looking for something to keep the class busy. If she can’t find something, the students get restless and begin to behave poorly in class.

One solution I found helped me prevent this dilemma from coming up frequently in class. My solution was to always plan a couple of extra activities to go along with my regular weekly lesson. Having the extra activities prepared, and the supplies on hand, helped me manage my empty class time slots. In addition to planning the extra activities, I kept some Bible activity books and coloring books on hand. These came in handy on those few occasions when the students finished their work earlier than expected.

Bible based activity books and coloring books are available in Christian bookstores, and they are valuable tools for filling in empty class time slots. Coloring activities, drawing, puzzles, and books with a variety of other activities can be used. However, finding an activity in these books that will go with your lesson and be appropriate for the education level of your students can be a time-consuming chore. This difficult challenge can take hours of searching and you may still have to order something special from the bookstore, if you can find it. Finding already-prepared, age appropriate activities that go with your lesson may not be possible. You may have to create your own.

Creating your own class activities can be fun if you enjoy creative ventures, but it can take a lot of money, time, and work. Some people do not enjoy creative activities and it’s possible they don’t have to resources to do so. For this reason, I would like to encourage Christian companies that make Bible curriculum to consider making add-on activity books with each curriculum quarter. These activities should go with the theme of the lessons in the curriculum so they can provide extra resources for Christian teachers and workers.

If designed properly and priced reasonably, these activity books could provide lesson materials for Christian schools and home-school families that might not have the money to pay for expensive textbooks for their children. Activity books with a simple lesson outline and scripture references may also encourage Christian parents to teach Bible to their children who attend public school.

Putting these activity books in both secular and Christian stores could also give stay-at-home parents some creative ideas for activities they can do with their children at home. They may also give Christian children a good alternative to spending hours in front of the television, game machine, or computer screen, watching questionable programming that bombards their minds with worldly examples, ideas and temptations.

So why not make activity books more fun and versatile? Why not price them reasonably and make them available in more locations? (Grocery stores, for example) It wouldn’t cost that much more time or money, but it might reap a vast eternal reward. How wonderful it would be if individuals or even whole families came to find the Lord, Jesus Christ, through the pages of a fun activity or coloring book. What a great reward!