The Importance of Sunday School
Being a leader or volunteer at a kids ministry is an incredibly important role; Sunday School is the best place for children to learn more about their faith and begin developing their relationship with God, making it your job to facilitate this and help young church members to engage with their bible studies.
Sunday School helps children to navigate the bible and God’s teachings, as well as allowing them to build relationships with other young Christians. It plants spiritual seeds in our future church leaders and helps to ensure that young church members feel confident in the knowledge that God will support them as long as they remain faithful.
If you’re a new children’s ministry leader, or you’re just struggling to build a substantial lesson plan that will fill the allotted time of the class, our Sunday School kickoff ideas are perfect for beginning your lessons or for aiding bible studies. Children often learn best when taking part in a variety of fun activities, so implement these ideas into your lesson plans and you’re sure to create a strong kids ministry curriculum that is brimming with things for Sunday School attendees to get stuck into, adding time and value to your classes!
Sunday School Ideas to Add Time to Your Class
Family Church Videos
If you’re trying to explain a bible story or more challenging concept to children, showing them fun and colorful videos can be a great learning aid! As well as adding to lesson time, videos can help bring children closer to their faith in a fun and engaging way, while also offering a great opportunity for relaxation after more vigorous activities such as games.
To help keep kids engaged, it's best to opt for shorter videos with plenty of colors and simple dialogue that explains topics clearly. To make the most of videos, pair viewing with activity sheets and discussion groups to ensure that the content has been understood and that the children feel confident in their knowledge.
To choose the best videos to incorporate into your Sunday School lessons, take a look at our guide to The Top 10 Bible Story Videos to Use in Your Kids Ministry, and add them to your curriculum to enhance bible study sessions.
Children’s Church Crafts
Arts and crafts are excellent for adding a touch of fun into your Sunday School lessons, and can encourage faith-based discussions in the home as children will take back their creations to show to their parents. Plus, crafts can be plenty of fun for church leaders and volunteers too!
By choosing activities that are related to particular stories, crafts can help supplement bible studies. For example, these paper plate whales are perfect for a class on the story of Jonah and the Whale and are super easy for young children to make. Another great craft activity is these interactive Empty Tombs that represent the resurrection of Jesus at Easter.
There are plenty of bible-based crafts ideas available online, ranging from quick makes to activities that can fill a whole lesson, meaning that you can choose a craft activity that suits your Sunday School needs.
Church Discussion Questions
While reciting bible verses and reading stories is an effective teaching method, asking children to discuss what they have learned by posing questions is one of the best ways to help consolidate lessons and encourage children to consider their faith on a more personal level.
Ministry to Children offers a selection of 100 discussion questions for kids, ranging from basic topics to help children get to know one another, to bible-based questions that will encourage them to consider why they attend church and the importance of prayer. For ideas on bible lessons to base discussion questions on, check out our pick of The Top 10 Bible Lessons and Curriculum to Present Them.
Song and Dance
Songs are one of the best ways of rejoicing and celebrating God’s love, so why not add them into your Sunday School classes! Songs with hand gestures are perfect for kids as not only do they provide an added dose of fun, they can help children remember the message of the song so as to aid their learning.
KidSpring Children's Ministry has dozens of age-appropriate songs for kids to sing in church, with fun lyric videos available on its YouTube channel. For more traditional Christian songs, CCLI’s Song Select tool will take you straight to thousands of classic and contemporary worship songs, many of which are public domain and therefore free to use in class.
Field Trips
Sometimes, the best way to help children learn about their faith is to get outside the classroom and engage with the world around us! Before planning any field trip, always be sure to obtain parental permission for every child, and ensure that you have enough church volunteers to attend the trip and that the children are safe at all times.
Excellent ideas for Sunday School field trips include visiting a local farm to learn about the animals that God created, or taking a trip to a nearby nursing home to teach children about the importance of respecting their elders. No matter what you choose, field trips can be a highly enriching experience, as well as an exciting opportunity for children to visit places that they may have never been before.
Now that you have plenty of Sunday School ideas to supplement your curriculum, your classes are sure to be bundles of faith-based fun for your young church members!