8th in a Series on Engaging Children and Motivating Them to Learn
Marrena Ralph
As you get to know the kids in your club, you get to know their unique needs, which may include help with their memory work. Here are suggestions for effective techniques.
Some children will study their memory work at home, but by in large, at least 50 percent of your children will not look at their memory work until they are on the way to church or at church. This can be due to a busy lifestyle, the child’s age or maturity, or parents who are unable or unwilling to help.
Once kids are at club and you are helping them learn, they will be more motivated and engaged in the memory work if you make it fun by using a variety of methods, including the following suggestions:
- “You Say What I Say” (a verbal Simon Says)
- Hand signals, or motions, that illustrate words and phrases; you can use sign language too (find words online)
- Games
- Clapping to the rhythm of the words or phrases
- Fill-in-the blank (leave words out once the material is learned)
- Racing (race to the front of the room to answer fill-in-the-blank)
- Saying it and moving around the room like an animal (slithering around like a snake, barking it like a dog, trotting like a horse, mooing it like a cow, etc.)
Remember to vary memory techniques to appeal to different learning styles (e.g., visual, auditory, and kinetic) and ages.
Marrena Ralph is the clubs program specialist at Regular Baptist Press. She is available for consultation and workshops. Contact her at 866.754.4272 or Marrena@Kids4Truth.com.
You are key to engaging and motivating students to learn, but don’t forget the workers. They may not teach a lesson, but they are just as important as you. “Make Workers a Valuable Part of Your Teaching Team” is the next article in this series. Making workers your teammates will go a long way toward engaging children and motivating them to learn.
