Adapting any Sunday school lesson

You don't need a separate curriculum. Take the lesson you already have and teach the same truth at more than one level. Here's how Stillwater does it.

Before Sunday

• Find the one idea. Every lesson has a key concept. Write it in one short sentence a young child could repeat. Everything else serves that sentence.
• Plan for more than one way to learn. Most lessons are built for listeners. Add something to see, something to touch and something to do.
• Check the plan a few days ahead. Small changes can happen Sunday morning, but the lesson itself should be ready before the week ends.
• Ask the parents what works at school. If a child already uses a picture schedule or a first-then card, use the same one. They'll know it. If not, make one here.

During the lesson

• Keep it short. Teach in blocks of a few minutes with movement or quiet time between them. Fifteen to twenty minutes of lesson is plenty.
• Act it out. Simple props and costumes turn a story into something a child can be part of. A flannel board does the same for the child who'd rather watch.
• Use music. A song carries a concept better than a paragraph.
• Same concept, different level. While one child writes a sentence, another draws it, another points to the picture, and another holds the felt piece. Everyone learned the same thing.
• Let the buddy help. Guiding hands, breaking a craft into one step at a time, or sitting slightly apart with the same materials.
• Pair the child with a peer. Another child who models what to do is often better than an adult telling them.
• Keep it predictable. Same order every week. The routine is part of the lesson.

Large group or small

Some children do best in the big, energetic room. Others need two or three kids and fewer distractions. Plan activities that work either way, so you can move a child between settings without starting over. Time with same-age friends matters for everyone in the room, so don't separate a child more than they need.