My wife and I just picked up a new calling in our church to teach the Sunbeams (3-4 year-olds). This is a huge change from my last calling in the Teacher's Quarum (13-14 year-old boys).
I haven't dealt with kids of this age group for a few years since I did summer soccer camps as a teenager. I've grown up a bit and know that I don't know hardly anything. I know that you have a lot of dealings with kids of all ages.
My question to you is what do I need to know going into this?
Of course anyone else reading can answer too.
[ January 20, 2004, 10:04 AM: Message edited by: scottneb ]
Posted by Storm Saxon (Member # 3101) on :
3-4 year olds are a lot smaller and weaker than 13-14 year olds. Taking their lunch money will be much easier.
Also, if you have one of them stand on one end of a see saw, and then you jump on the other end, you can make him fly about 10 feet straight up in the air, I bet.
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
Why is this for me?
Admittedly we will be getting a 3-4 year old, or older, child via adoption within the next 6 months. That doesn't mean I know anything yet.
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
Yeah, scott, I think you need to change the title so that more people than just Dan will read it, and maybe give you some help.
FG
Posted by scottneb (Member # 676) on :
I think I'm mixing up screenames, standby...
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
Um...my $.02...
I think it would be very important to choose a curriculum that isn't a bunch of nonsense. The need to pitch the stories at a pre-school level should not mean OVER-simplification.
I'm not really aware of what's out there, curriculum-wise, so that comment is really aimed at my own assumptions versus any reality I've experienced.
One might wonder why I felt the need to respond.
One might continue to wonder for all I can help...
Posted by Derrell (Member # 6062) on :
Storm Saxon, wouldn't the height depend on the weight of the person jumping on the other end of the see saw?
How do you know the kid would go straight up?
Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
Having taught Sunbeams, I have a few pointers.
Don't get too attatched to the lesson manual. It's a great guide, it's got lots of good stuff, but content yourself with communicating the title of the lesson. If they remember one key word about what you're teaching them, they're golden.
Don't teach a lesson like you're teaching a lesson. They don't want to sit still. Some practice in sitting still is good, but don't make them do it for more than 10 minutes or so before breaking it up with a song, a game, or - the all time favorite of the mormon child - coloring something using your very small chair as a table.
Visual representations of the lessons are the most effective. Your lesson manual will have great ideas for this
If you need to, you can bribe them. I had a primary teacher once who would tape a string of licorice on the wall for each child. Every time we were bad, she would cut an inch off and by the end of class, we got what was left. This may not be entirely Christlike, but I sure enjoyed it as a child
Have fun. As long as you have a good attitude, they'll love you, and you'll have a hard time to get them to stop clinging to your legs every time you see them in the hall.
Best of luck! And really, sunbeams are way better than teenagers. They actually like you.
Posted by scottneb (Member # 676) on :
Definitely for Dan, your the Santa-man!
You've apparently dealt with a broad spectrum of kids in different ages. What strikes you about this age group, if anything?
Posted by Ryuko (Member # 5125) on :
Whoa! A topic I have actual input on!! Let me get over the surprise for a moment... OK, over it.
I taught 3-4 year olds at church for two years. Admittedly not a very long time, but it doesn't take all that long to get the basics. For one, the curriculum is almost always really bad. Ours had some very complicated crafts that the kids could never have managed, and sometimes the stories were hard enough for US to understand, let alone the kids. Here are some tips, this is what I'd consider useful.
1. If the kids aren't interested in doing the craft or settling down and paying attention, give them something else to do for a while. Coloring sheets are always useful. Unfortunately, this means that the rest of the kids are going to want to do coloring sheets, so you might want to wait until the others are finished.
2. If the craft in the book sounds like it would be too hard or too messy, it is. Don't limit yourself to doing what the curriculum says, or you'll be spending a lot of time after class cleaning up.
3. If the kids want to tell a story, don't interrupt them. Even if the story is long, pointless, and irritating.
4. No matter what, make sure the kids know you're into what you're doing. If you're really tired, or you went out the night before, or you have a headache, just try your best not to let it show. If you're even a little sick, don't go. There's nothing more depressing than going to class one week after you taught with a little bit of a sniffle and having half the class gone.
5. Above all, be patient and don't force them to do what you want to do. If you had a huge fun craft planned but they want to play tag, let them play tag. Not every time, but sometimes.
I guess that's all I got.
Edit: (high fives Annie)
[ January 16, 2004, 02:51 PM: Message edited by: Ryuko ]
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
tag, you're it.
Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :
quote:. . . or - the all time favorite of the mormon child - coloring something using your very small chair as a table.
Yes! I taught CTR 6 for a few months, and every time I started to lose control of them, I'd give them crayons. It was amazing. I'd try to tie it in to the lesson, of course, but kids don't always draw what you tell them too. The important thing is that it gives them something nice and quiet to do so they stop bouncing off the walls and poking each other.
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
<decides to bring crayons and sheets of paper to his next business meeting>
Posted by scottneb (Member # 676) on :
I changed the name of the thread to reflect the discussion a little better.
[ January 16, 2004, 03:14 PM: Message edited by: scottneb ]
Posted by peterh (Member # 5208) on :
My favorite sunbeam lesson: "I am thankful for fish"
I have done a lot of substituting in sunbeam classes and my son just finished his year in that class, so he's my advice:
1. Have fun. No 3-4 yr old is going to sit still for longer than about 90 seconds. Find things to do that relate (even remotely) to the topic.
2. Songs and games are like magic.
3. Try to think on their level. About 6 months after subbing for my son's class, I asked him if he remembered anything. He said, yeah, we had popcorn. The lesson was on plants (therefore seeds). I showed them all kinds of seeds, from green beans to apples. I thougth they would like seeing apple seeds when an apple is cut so that they look like a star. We even went outside and saw some in their natural habitat. But he remember that we had popcorn. And that's ok.
4. Compartmentalize the lesson. Each section should last no longer than 5 minutes before you change to something different. (Even if you have two different stories, they need to be separated by something)
Good Luck and you are the luckiest guy. Kids have unconditional love and they will love you no matter how badly you think you did.
Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :
I think you got the most peach calling in the Church. Enjoy it while it lasts!
I would thoroughly enjoy a business meeting someone brought crayons and paper to. As it is, the doodles that cover my notebook are depressingly monochrome.
Posted by ludosti (Member # 1772) on :
I remember teaching sunbeams for a little over a year. It was usually a pretty wild experience and I considered the "lesson" a success if no one was crying, they still had their clothes on (shoes and socks are not clothes), no one had to be taken to their parents, and no one was hurt.
Like most others have said, their attention span is pretty short, so you should have lots of different little parts to the lesson time. I usually spent no longer that 30 minutes on the "lesson" portion and left the remainder of the time for playing games, coloring, drawing on the chalkboard, etc. (which I usually tried to tie in some way to the lesson or some aspect of the gospel). I would usually have a couple of options, so they could choose what they wanted to do. Let the kids participate, get them involved, ask them to help you do things, ask them questions. They love to be involved. Be effusive with your praise. I found that rewarding proper behavior was better than punishing bad behavior (if that makes any sense).
Bribery can work miracles. I usually had something that I'd bring to class as a reward for good behavior (stickers, treats, cards, pencils, pens, etc.). I would usually put whatever it was out on the table next to me to serve a visual reminder to them to "be good". I rewarded them on an "all or nothing basis" - everyone got it, or everyone didn't. That way, they helped to remind each other to behave ("uh oh - you'd better stop or we won't get our treat", etc.). During times when they were particularly wild, I had one of those smiley/frowny faces that would help them to see if I was happy/unhappy with their current behavior.
They are a challenging age to teach, but it can also be quite fun. Good luck!!
[ January 16, 2004, 03:35 PM: Message edited by: ludosti ]
Posted by jana at jade house (Member # 6101) on :
I wanna be the Sunbeam teacher !!!!
Here is what I do with Beamers type beings: sit them on the floor on carpet tiles/ or some kind of sit-apon thing that has their NAME on it.
Learn every activity song you can find so that every 10 minutes or so there is a "commercial" break where everyone gets up and moves around and does "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" kinds of activities.
DO limit over anxious parents from coming into the classroom because their Beamer will just be miserable for that much longer.
Get your hand on an old Nursery Manual (it is yellow and white) I think that manual is geared for Beamers better than the one offered. You won't know for at least six weeks what and who the children are. The Nursery manual is less lessony and more activity orinted as IIRC.
Do not make the mistake of turning the class into pure playtime. This set the little ones up for a big shock when they move up. They DO need to sit for short periods. They DO need to practice reverent behavior. It IS after all a theology class for the very young...it is not a Sunday substitute for playschool.
If your class is larger than 10 children, start campaigning for another pair of hands right now. Believe me 3 pair of adult hands are not too many with that size of a Beamer group, especially if you need to divide into older and younger sections because of skill limitations.
Teach only one concept at a time, keep it basic, keep is simple.
Here is the best off the top of my head
Above all enjoy these little explorers.
Jana
Posted by BannaOj (Member # 3206) on :
While not LDS, my mother taught a similar age group in their church for years. The kids loved her. She was always coming up with random craft projects that didn't always necessarily relate to the lesson.
One of her standbys was froot-loop chain necklaces. You'd pray and thank God for the food before you made them. You do that at the end of class so you give them back to their parents so they have to deal with the sugar high. Lower sugar option (not as fun) is cheerios. I guess you could color the cherios with food coloring.
Another standby was colored macaroni art glued to a paper plate. You can color the macaroni yourself by immersing only briefly in warm water with food coloring in it. Theoretically the art should tie into the lesson however loosely. Even if kids try to eat the hard macaroni they generally can't hurt themselves cause it won't kill them. SHe'd also have strips of tissue paper to glue to the plates too. Blue for water, Green for Grass etc. Build a tree and then the house that Zacheeus took Jesus to out of the noodles. Normally they can manage a house shape. Also very good for the days of creation, she'd have a day/night plate a sky/water plate etc etc.
And combining the two above in another itieration is using large rigatoni noodles and making noodle necklaces.
One of the more ingenious ones I remember that had parents marveling was the lesson on the woman that built the room for Elijah (or was it Elisha). THe "room" was a paper lunch bag cut in half. She had a little peice of felt for a blanket and a small cardboard bed. The woman provided him with a lamp I think it says in the bible, so they got a birthday candle (unlit) with a lump of hommade play dough to make it stand up(homade salt dough is also your friend) Elisha, the woman and the womans son (the one that got resurrected) were all little pipe cleaner stickpeople wearing little felt clothes tied at the "waist" with yarn.
Pipe cleaners are your friend, egg and milk cartons are your friends. Start saving them up because you will think of a craft involving them.
AJ
[ January 16, 2004, 04:09 PM: Message edited by: BannaOj ]
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
Wow, my Santa experience has made me an expert.
My first suggestion, take everyone's advice here. It is all good.
Second, kids want just one thing from you, your unconditional love.
Some will seek it by being good. Some will seek it by being noticed.
They will settle for your unending attention.
Some will talk to you non-stop. Some will be scared to loose it and never speak up.
Some will be scared for good and obvious reasons that they can never communicate to you. Some will be fearless because they don't know they can get hurt.
Most, however, will be all of the above.
Don't belittle their fears. Don't let them get hurt. Enjoy their insights and the wonder when they speak. Enjoy the silences when they don't. (Make sure that the silent are not also unseen. Give them the attention they deserve, even if they don't ask for it) Reward the good. Ignore the bad. Have fun, and they will have fun.
Dealing with children is magical. Where else can you be so energized and so exhausted at the same time?
One last bit of advice called the Soggy Potato Chip.
Children like Potato Chips. They prefer the crisp chips over a soggy one, however, studies have shown that when forced to choose between a soggy potato chip or none at all, they will eat the soggy one.
The same goes for your attention. The kids want your praise and your love. However, if the choice is between bad attention--scolding and yelling, or no attention, they will take the soggy potato chip. They would rather you yell at them than you ignore them. They will act up and act bad just to get that negative attention.
Sometimes ignoring bad behavior is the best way to make it stop.
This wisdom, the Soggy Potato Chip, came from the font of all my wisdom....my Mother.
Posted by scottneb (Member # 676) on :
Thanks for the advise everyone! I'll try to remember it all.
I especially like the Soggy Potato Chip annalogy!
Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
quote:..but kids don't always draw what you tell them too.
Someone write this in the annals - Jon Boy made a grammar boo boo!
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
reminds me of the wire-frame and terry-cloth "mother" experiment.
anyone remember that one?
Posted by Kama (Member # 3022) on :
This thread makes me scared of children. Posted by Storm Saxon (Member # 3101) on :
I once considered Jon Boy nigh infallible, but now...the magic is gone. Another icon fallen. Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :
I blame it on the book I'm editing. It could make anyone forget how to speak and write correct English.
And actually, I'm going to claim that it's a mere typo. Some letter combinations seem to flow from my fingers of their own volition.
[ January 16, 2004, 05:34 PM: Message edited by: Jon Boy ]
Posted by Xaposert (Member # 1612) on :
Wait, wait.... you guys call your (3-4) kids Sunbeams?
Posted by Wendybird (Member # 84) on :
Please please please, as a frustrated mother of 2 primary kids, follow the rule of no food unless the lesson calls for it! In our ward the Sunbeams have lesson the first 40 mins and come in for singing time and sharing time from the beginning of the year. They enjoy it and they really do participate and listen well. I'm not sure about the food rule for that class in particular but I know the general Primary rule, except for nursery, is no food unless it directly pertains to the lesson. And if you do have to bring food make sure its not sugar!
3-4 yos are quite fun actually. They have such a fun viewpoint of the world around them and are starting to really have the vocabulary to tell it to you.
Posted by scottneb (Member # 676) on :
Well the first week is over.
We did better than I thought we would. For some reason I didn't think we were supposed to teach this week. So during the first hour of Primary I ran to the Library to get crayons and paper.
We've got a wild variety of kids. We've got one that pretended he couldn't speak (until he forgot), one that has daycare at his house every day (so he's really nice to everybody), one that was extremely smart for his age (but we still ran into the whole "acting out" thing), and one that I just don't know about because he went to sleep in the first five minutes.
Needless to say we had tons of fun with them. But, I did find out one good rule of thumb: Never ask them to draw there family until they get to know you! It will only make them want mommy.
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