Check out this helpful Sunday school teacher training activity idea. The object lesson, titled “Creating Clear Messages,” helps teachers understand different learning styles. Knowing this information will help people teach children of all ages more effectively.
Point: Understanding children’s learning styles
Scripture: Psalm 49:3
You’ll need:
- 1 clear bowl
- 4 clear cups with a different color of water in each (red, yellow, green, blue)
- 1 cup of diluted bleach for each group
Teacher Training Activity Idea: Creating Clear Messages
Give your teachers examples of learning styles. These include visual, kinesthetic, and auditory.
Form groups of four. Give each person a cup of either red, yellow, green, or blue water. Then place an empty bowl in the center of each group.
Ask teachers to identify which learning style most represents their teaching style. Then have them share examples of how they use a particular style to teach. As each teacher talks, he or she pours the colored water into the bowl. The water should become very dark.
After everyone shares their teaching style, have each person in the group hold the bowl of colored water and look through it.
Ask:
- How easy or difficult is it to see through your group’s water?
- How is this like or unlike how our teaching styles may look to children who learn differently?
Have one person from each group add the bleach to the water.
Debrief
Ask:
- What happened when the colors mixed?
- How is this like or unlike how kids understand information when it’s presented in a way other than how they learn best?
- What happened when bleach was added to the murky water?
- How can we make our messages clear to kids who learn in different ways?
