By Sandy Ditoro

My goal for this site is to be a source of help for Bible class teachers. New resources will be add on a continuing basis. If you have ideas or resources you would like to see added to this site, please send them to SJDITORO@AOL.COM

BIBLE CLASS TEACHER’S TOOL BOX Note: These ideas can be used to start a resource room if a congregation does not have one. They can also be used to start you own personal collection of teaching supplies.

A good Bible class teacher will be as passionate in collecting teaching ideas and aids as a collector is in finding new treasures. In fact, it can be as fun and rewarding as any hobby one might pursue.

RESOURCES AND SUPPLIES TO GET YOU STARTED

1. Start your own visual aid resource book library. This will include: coloring books, craft books, Bible story books, pattern books, puppet script books, bulletin board idea books, game books etc... Good sources for these books are Bible book stores or their catalogues (including local denominational book stores-learn to find the scriptural suggestions and to discard the bones (error). (If you are lucky enough to live where there is a Dollar Tree) Dollar Tree offers an abundant ever changing supply of Bible related material for children: puzzles, Bible story books, puzzle books, coloring books etc... all for $1 a piece! Also, Wal-Mart will have something useful from time to time. Look for coloring books that show people engaged in various activities, families, animals. I avoid cartoonish, make believe, creatures or talking animals. I think it is best to keep all pictures as close to looking like real life as possible. We want to avoid connecting Christianity to anything make believe or that gives children the impression that the Bible is on the same level as a Goldilocks and The Three Bears.

2. Computer clip art is a great source for making visual aids.

3. Visit different congregations. Ask to see their resource room. Jot down ideas you see there that you do not already have or use. Sit in on a children’s class. Record new ideas you learn there. I have always thought that it would be wonderful if someone would take a summer to travel to various large congregation to visit their resource rooms and sit in on children’s classes. From the ideas they glean, they could compile and publish a book. I’d gladly buy a copy! (Note: Our job is to teach God’s Word. These tools, aids whatever are meant to help us accomplish this job. Reject any teaching tools that are strictly entertainment and have no value in teaching God’s Word or the principles taught therein.)

4. Fabric shops: Look for doll patterns: simple head and body, no legs, the bean stuffed type is good. Use to make Bible characters. Dress in Bible character like clothing. Use for telling a Bible lesson.

5. Betty Lukens flannel graph. Enlist help to cut out , organize and to file.

6. Go to teacher’s workshops.

7. Start your own personal library. A good library will contain a good concordance, Vines Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words , several good translations of the Bible, Interlinear Greek - English New Testament etc...

MAKE A CRAFT CABINET (This also is a good way to organize resource room supplies)

Start your own craft cabinet at home. Everyone in the family will enjoy it. It’s a must for having supplies handy to work on teaching aids at home. A craft cabinet can be any book shelf, a cheap cabinet from Lowes or a cabinet/shelf purchased from a used furniture store. Purchase plastic shoe box size storage boxes, available at discount stores for about a dollar. Make a list of supplies and purchase a box for each category. Example: crayons, tape, staples/stapler, glue, hole punch. markers, labels/stickers, yarn/string etc... Put each supply item in its own individual box. Put a label on the end of the box. Stack boxes on shelves or in the cabinet. They can be stacked on top of each other and easily pulled out when you need a particular one. Enjoy!

DEVELOP A FLIP CHART FILE

It is good to have your own personal flip chart file so that when you move you don’t have to start from scratch, especially if there is no well stocked Teacher’s Resource Room available. A flip chart file is also wonderful to have in a resource room for all the teachers to have to use. I would love to see someone develop a visual aid idea swap web site. On it, ideas for different teaching aids and sources could be posted. I am always looking for new flip chart ideas. Larger teaching aids like flipcharts can be stored in the larger storage boxes. Under the bed size are good if space is limited. You can also store them in an old suitcase. In a Teacher’s Resource Room, wire frame dividers purchased in the office supply section at Wal-Mart are a good way to display them for use. An index can be posted on the wall above the flip charts. Have a box in the resource room to collect any unwanted visual aid pictures from old VBS or quarterly material from teachers. Everyone can have access to this box for making flip charts etc... At our church building in Florida, I found old visual aid pictures that had been collecting since the 1940’s! I went through them and tossed the ones that were in bad shape from age. Surprisingly, I was able to save many of them. I organized them from Old to New Testaments. They have been wonderful to have to intersperse with coloring pictures for flip charts.

A WELL STOCKED TEACHER’S RESOURCE ROOM

1. A paper cutter

2. A laminator. Laminating supplies are expensive but vital for preserving valuable teaching aids for repetitive use. Clear contact paper can be use but it is not as durable. If you do not have access to a laminator, office supply /printer stores will laminate your visual aid. However it is expensive.

3. A copier. One that enlarges and shrinks sizes is best. If you don’t have a copier, places like Staples have self serve copiers. You can make enlarged coloring pages on white paper for a few cents.

4. Shelves, work tables

5. A wipe off board/ shopping list for teachers to write in desired or low supplies.

6. Resource Room Library (Look at No.1 under RESOURCES AND SUPPLIES...)

7. Betty Lukens flannel graph (can be ordered from any church of Christ book store)

8. Flip chart library. One resource room I visited had Bible and application flip charts for every subject imaginable. I was told that two widow ladies had made most of them. It gave them something to do when they couldn’t sleep at night. Wow! What a wonderful gift to teachers! For Bible story flip charts, I like the REPRODUCIBLE BIBLE STORY COLORING BOOK Old and New Testament by The Standard Publishing Company. Copy the pages for a story. I like to enlarge them. If you go to somewhere like Staples you can enlarge these pictures even more. Crop with a paper cutter to the right size to fit the poster board you will mount it on. I buy the mixed colors, quarter sheets of poster board for this purpose. Color the pictures. I prefer to use magic markers because they are so much brighter. Use gold or silver paint pens for crowns or to decorate anything royal. Use glitter paint for effect also. Since flesh colored markers are hard to find, experiment with using crayons colored on heavy and then rubbed off or try using flesh colored blemish stick (Careful! a little bit goes a long way. Apply and rub to cover. Use a Qtip to get into hard places) Enlist the help of others for this is a very time consuming task. It’s a good way to get together for fellowship. Often the ladies would ask me for several to take home to work on. After the pictures are colored, glue them to the poster board. Arrange in order. Number them on the back in an upper corner. This is to help you keep them in order. It especially helps to reorganize them after they are laminated. After they are in order, glue on the story that has already been typed and cut into strips to coordinate with the pictures. Or you may prefer to print the story on the backs. In making flip charts, the story is told by reading the words on the back of the last page as they should coordinate with the front page picture. Read and flip, read and flip until you finish the story. After your pictures are mounted, the story is applied to the backs, and you have them numbered in order, it is now time to laminate them. After they are laminated, punch two holes in the tops of each sheet. To make sure that all the sheets have the holes in the same spots, punch out your first two holes and them use them as a guide for placing all the others. With a marker, mark the spots for the two holes through the holes of the first sheet and then punch out. Repeat until all sheets have matching two holes at the top. Arrange them in order. Now loosely tie yarn in the holes to keep the pages together.

Note: Recently I discovered “Flash-A-Card” pictures which can be ordered on line from A Beka Book in Pensacola Florida. This is a wonderful source of beautiful, colorful Bible pictures which can be made into flip charts etc. (Saves hours and hours of coloring) They are reasonably priced. You will find about 6 pictures for each lesson starting in Genesis. I only use the pictures. We do not support the doctrine that is taught by the institution that produces this product.

HERE IS A FLIP CHART IDEA:

1. This flip chart is a favorite of all children. It is used at the end of class before prayer. Computer clip art makes this one quick and easy. Look for pictures of people, animals or objects making sounds you can mimic. Example: a rooster, a cat, a man whistling(if you can whistle), someone singing, someone on a motorcycle, a telephone, a bell etc... End with a picture of a child praying. The caption reads: (Say loudly) Cock-a- doodle-doo! Cock-a-doodle-doo! Shhhh! Rooster! Don’t crow! Repeat with each picture until you get to the child praying. For this page you say, “Why? Because Anna is talking to God now. This is good especially for 2&3 year olds.