Monday, May 15, 2006

Fun Sunday School : Lets Make it ! I ( physical )

First question : How to make school fun?

My answer is, don’t make it a school. I know, that some school have a fun effect too. But majority, school is perceived as an unpleasant place. This happened mostly in East side of the world , where feudalism still exist. In Japan , Singapore, Indonesia, school is too hard, the quantity of freedom is so small. But it doesn’t mean that school at West is better too, although freedom and democracy culture are there. “School Sucks!” term is coming from West, yes its right that more freedom there but, also the needs for freedom is higher too.

So, lets change their ( students ) perception of school/Sunday school.

Classroom

This is a physical representative of school. Lets make over, put some bright decorative in there, and also outside the class. It must be up to date decorative. Some animals character made by cartoon is also good. One of my friend make over her class crazily, she decorate the class like a bedroom, with crane origami at the ceiling. And the other create an aquarium classroom, where fish and other sea character from paper are stick on the window. Still one of my friend create a forest in her class. I know this will cost a lot, but its nothing compare what you will get next, the joy of students in your class ( school ).

Sitting Arrangement

One of the sign of giving freedom is by let the children choose their own sit. You can arrange the chair forming circle or big U. It means openness. But if the class is small and the kids is too many, then using traditional row is ok too. Or you can avoid it by using mat, or just sitting on floor.

Toys and Books

You can add some toys and book in class. So kids can play or read it before the class begin. Or they can use it while they are waiting for parents to pick them. Better if the toys can be played together, so you can play it also, games like snake and ladder , ludo , puzzle are a good example. Books like comic and children books are good option, the books musnt to thick, so they can finish it fast. Or if the book is thick, you can let them borrow it, with promised that they must return it.

Wall Magazine

Put a big thick paper in the wall. Or place that can be view by kids. Then you can add some articles there, with smaller paper ( colorfull ) then stick it on that big paper. It can be informative articles, such as sports event, or news. Also you can stick humours or cartoon there, but remember to make it suitable for their ages.

At the next post I will write about the other points of Fun Sunday School. Although Im focusing this for Sunday School, but its also applicable for secular school or even for your house. I will also give some example of classroom decorative, sitting arrangement, and the wall magazine .


Comments:
Nice ideas about making the classroom environment fun. Most Filipino kids hate school, and its only from monday to friday that they have to go to school. When you say sunday school, they'll even hate your guts more. During weekends all they want to do is play. I hope we can also instill some love for education in our young minds so that teaching them won't be like talking to a tree.
 
yes, i know, the indonesian kids also prefer watching cartoon than sunday school. So we must make the school more interesting that that cartoon movie
 
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