A few years ago, I was teaching the pre-school Bible class. During a brief lull in the activities, one of the students who was fairly new to the class asked if we could color. Another student who had been in my class for quite awhile said, “We don’t color in Miss Diana’s class.”
He was right. I rarely have my students color in class. Not because I am against coloring. I love to color. I enjoy coloring with my children at home. I just don’t take the time to let the kids color in Bible class. Why? There are several reasons but before I go into those reasons I want to make it clear that I don’t think there is anything wrong with coloring in Bible class. I just choose to spend our time in Bible class with other activities.
Now for my reasons to NOT color in Bible class:
1. Our time is so short in Bible class. We just have 35 minutes on Sunday AM and 45 on Wednesday PM. There are so many things for us to do in class, we just don’t have time. If you have a class of students who really like to color or who are perfectionists in their coloring, it can take a good 10 or 15 minutes to finish to their satisfaction. That’s a good chunk of our class time.
2. Coloring can distract the students. Some students are so intent on their art work that they aren’t really noticing what it is they are coloring. Their goal is to complete a beautiful piece of art. Others can get distracted searching for that perfect color, peeling the paper off the crayon so it is easier to color with, talking with their fellow students about the crayons, etc.
3. Teachers can get distracted while students are coloring. It is too easy for the teacher to find herself doing other things while the students are coloring. Teachers (including myself) have been known to get distracted setting up the next activity, tidying up the classroom or chatting with another adult in the room. I rarely have my phone with me in Bible class but the temptation to send a text or in some other way use the phone while students are “busy” coloring is totally unacceptable.
4. Coloring tends to be a filler activity. Many teachers prepare their class by studying the lesson, singing a couple of songs and finding a color sheet that may or may not pertain to the lesson. There is so little time, every minute should be filled with activities that engage the student in learning more about God.
What do I do instead of coloring? If there is extra time or if the lesson calls for it, I give the students a blank piece of paper and ask them to draw a picture of the story. This takes coloring to a different level. They are not just filling in what someone else has drawn, they are having to think about the lesson and put what was in their mind on paper. It also gives the teacher the opportunity to see if her students have truly understood the lesson.
I have to share a story of one class I learned how valuable this activity can be. We had been studying about Moses fighting the Amalekites in Exodus 17. As long as Moses held his staff up, they Israelites were winning the battle. If he let his arms drop, they began to lose. Aaron and Hur stood on either side of Moses and held his arms up so they could defeat the Amalekites. We had talked extensively about the battle. The students appeared to have understood the lesson. I gave them a piece of paper, colored pencils and asked them to draw a picture of the lesson. One little boy (about 6 years old) finished quickly. I looked at his picture. There was a hill with 3 people on it — 2 men, 1 woman. I asked who the woman was. He said, “You know. It’s her.” The whole time I was telling this great story, he was envisioning Aaron and some lady holding up Moses’ hands.
I will admit that occasionally I have the students color in class. Since we don’t do it very often, it is always a special treat. I have learned that reducing the typical coloring sheet to half size or quarter size greatly reduces the amount of time spent coloring. An example of this can found on my lesson plan about Saul.
Back to the original question. To color, or not to color? Choose this activity wisely, do it sparingly and always make sure that the students (and teachers) are focused on the lesson at hand while coloring.
I always have a coloring sheet for my 2’s & 3’s. Sometimes, we attach stickers or glue pictures or in the story of Lot’s wife, cover her entirely in salt. I consider this a perfect time to sing a song specifically about the story (even if I have to make up my own) and to use the coloring picture to review the lesson with them. The question shouldn’t be whether to use or not to use, but how to effectively use coloring sheets.
I agree! Thank you for sharing this! :)
The most important thing to remember more important than teaching in school is that during Sunday school and Bible study King Jesus is en trusting us to teach his young souls about him and his Love for us. The time we have with our students is seed planting time don’t squander it.
Thank you for the thoughts. I think that this is something good to think about. With crafts and coloring pages I try to remember to good to ask myself “Why are we doing this?” instead of just doing it out of habit. One of my reasons to have coloring pages is a way to connect with home about what the children learned. Also, it is our absolute last thing that we do, so sometimes it ends up being a take home activity. But you post encouraged me to continue to ask, “is there something else we need to be doing?”
I agree with you. I used coloring sheets at the very end of class and while we were still singing songs. This was a shock to some children at first because they had been used to some inexperienced teachers who let them spend most of the class time coloring. Some of the parents didn’t believe that their preschoolers were capable of learning the memory verses, reviewing the lessons in our current unit, learning the old Testament and New Testament books, learning important concepts, etc. But it was amazing what the children learned when we put the time to good use.
Thank you for your great thoughts. I agree. Being a teacher is a very important job and we need to take what we teach and how we teach very seriously.
Interestingly enough, I have a natural-born artist as a granddaughter. She has always wanted, as early as 2 years old, a completely blank sheet–reinforcing your idea that “starting from scratch” is the best way to tell a story.
I agree wholeheartedly Diana. I sometimes find a coloring sheet for send home to reinforce the lesson.
I agree. I rarely use color sheets also. I might have something ready just in case I see they have accomplished everything else and we have a little time at the end. Thank you so much for this blog.