A major primary hurdle....

Jeff and I were called as primary teachers in January. We are the teachers of 10 very rambunctious kindergartners (5 turning 6 year olds). We are constantly trying to come up with ways to keep them interested in what we are saying...and staying in their seats :) We usually do OK in class--mostly due to coloring and candy bribes. Sharing time is a whole different ball game. We have a couple of kids who are always mysteriously getting sick at the beginning, and some that come in and go to sleep and some that just like to climb on anything that they can get their little mitts on. The kids all want to sit next to Brother Henry because he is nice and lets them get away with stuff until Sister Henry makes him tell kids to knock it off. The kids unfortunate enough to have to sit in the same row as Sister Henry just try to get into as little trouble as possible :)


So two weeks ago we were in charge of sharing time. Sister Henry will admit to being terrified. This meant that the kids in her class would have a little more freedom as she tried to help get the other kids in primary involved. We finally decided on playing a game. It was a weird mix of Jeopardy and that pyramid game show. Basically, we had the teachers choose two kids from their class (the reverent ones of course!) and they were each given a bike horn. The kids then chose a question from 4 different categories. Our kids then read a question and the questionees squeezed their horns when they knew the answer. Our kids were really excited when we practiced the questions in class, and then they couldn't wait for singing time to end so they could get up to the front and talk into the microphone. I was really amazed at how well they did. I will admit that their excitement wained as they didn't get to ask their questions as quickly as they thought they should be able to, but you can't blame them, right?



Brother and Sister Henry were filled with trepidation prior to sharing time, a little flustered as they shuffled kids/asked questions, and then filled with excitement at the prospect of not having to do this again for a year :)