Teaching preschoolers faith concepts and Bible stories offers a different challenge than your older kids in Sunday school. After all, their attention span doesn’t last long – and that’s not surprising! In this blog post, learn three things you didn’t know about preschool Sunday school lessons.
The National Association for the Education for Young Children notes that play serves as a child’s context for learning. It teaches them cognitively and socially, more so than any other method of play.
When planning your preschool Sunday school lessons, integrate play as a key component for how you teach values and faith concepts to little ones. Combined with repetition, it will help them absorb and understand key concepts.
For adults, doing the same thing over and over again gets a little boring. For preschoolers? It opens a whole new world! In fact, when preschoolers continue to practice the same skills over and over (and over) again, they are gaining proficiency in those skills, which can help with self-confidence and learning key concepts, like cause and effect.
Preschool Sunday school lessons come in a variety of formats. As you evaluate the best one for you, consider one that focuses on repetition by covering the same Bible story or lesson over the course of two weeks.
From a young age, kids love music – beyond giving them something fun to sing and dance to, music actually has benefits to brain development. In fact, music can help little ones create neural connections – or create pathways between the cells in their brains – and helps them focus and control their bodies better, do better in reading when they start school, and play better with others.
Bringing music into your preschool Sunday school lessons offers a fun way for little ones to interact, all while giving them repetition on key faith concepts. Jesus Loves Me always serve as a classic – but try to find others that help them remember what you’re teaching them from the Bible.
Interested in learning more? Read one director of children’s ministry’s tips for selection your preschool Sunday school lessons.