Sunday School Lesson Plans – The 3 Biggest Pitfalls

Even with the best preparation and a top notch lesson plan, any Sunday School class can “have its moments.” One minute, all will be coloring and happy. A minute later, they’re running, yelling over each other, talking too loudly, or laughing at inappropriate behavior of an instigator.

Let’s look first at the causes of disruptions that are easier to solve. Let’s say it’s the lesson plan that caused the problem. Here are some lesson-plan pitfalls and how to work against them.

3 Lesson-plan pitfalls that can be avoided

Pitfall #1: Sometimes those dreaded lulls in the action can cause challenges. Perhaps a lesson was shorter than you predicted—you thought it would take fifteen minutes and it only took seven. Such things happen all the time—less and less as a teacher grows more seasoned, but it is considered normal. Nonetheless, eight minutes is a long time for children to sit quietly at the end of class.

Effectively using free time is one of the biggest challenges Sunday School teachers face

Pitfall #2: Projects that continue past the length of children’s abilities to pay attention will cause those with short attention spans to act up. Let’s say you predicted your project would take fifteen minutes, and it did, but you didn’t consider Alicia, whose attention span is for some reason much shorter than the other children. She gets distracted and then as the great capacity to distract other students.

Pitfall #3: Finally, certain projects take some children seven minutes to finish and others fifteen minutes, just because some are more dextrous. Certain projects are worthy of attention, but not disruption.

Some solutions to the pitfalls

In any of these cases, think of something children can do next if they finish early. One teacher always says, “If you finish early, you have to start cleaning up.” That will give some the inspiration to stick with a project.

A secondary short project for those with less attention span works well. Some teachers keep a box full of “early finishers” games and worksheets in a closet, and consequently they’re always prepared to keep minds busy. Kids tend to spiral into not-so-good behavior when they’re unclear what they’re supposed to be
doing. Hence, it pays to keep their minds rolling forward.

Preserving the value of free time

However, no matter how well you plan, sometimes you end up with free time, so let’s look at how free time can serve and how to keep it under control. For children of schooling age, state rules associated with free time clearly:

• No running games
• Sit and talk
• Play a game that requires sitting down

For younger children, free time is almost necessary. However, they’re more likely than older children to use the time well. Preschool children have not yet formed collective thinking behaviors. Hence, their troubles tend to run in twos: Two children won’t share, Child A won’t do things the way Child B wants. As pre-school attention span runs about five minutes, you would drive yourself crazy having 12 five-minute activities. Free time before and after the lesson and activities will not be disruptive.

For both groups, practice good transition policies between activities. A transition policy involves announcing that kids will soon end one activity and move to the next. Older groups will understand, “You have three minutes to…” Younger children word well with, “Let’s finish up now because we’re going to…”

You will find that the balance between free time and structured time and the ability to predict the time of assignments comes more easily the more often you do it. In the meantime, remember what a famous millionaire once said, “Failure is part of success.”

What did you think of this article? Do you agree? Disagree with my tips? I’d really like to hear your feedback! Just leave a comment in the box below and I look forward to reading it! And if you’d like to get more tips, activities, crafts, and games, make sure to check out my Sunday School lesson plans here:

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