God loves variety. Think of all the wonderful varieties of plants, animals, colors, and fish He created. Think about all the different types of people He created. It would be boring if we were all the same! He also created kids with a variety of learning styles. The effective Children's Ministry recognizes this and seeks to engage all learning styles.
Linguistic Learners have sensitivity to the meaning and order of words. They use an expanded vocabulary. They respond to jokes, riddles, reading, writing, telling stories, and word games.
Logical-Mathematical Learners like reasoning, patterns, and order. They want to know how things work, ask lots of questions, and collect things. They respond to puzzles, blocks, and counting devices.
Bodily-Kinesthetic Learners enjoy sports and physical activity. They respond to body language, dance, acting, and active games.
Musical Learners are sensitive to pitch, melody, rhythm, and tone. They love to listen to and play music, sing, hum, move to rhythm, and create tunes.
Spatial Learners perceive the world accurately and recreate or transform aspects of that world. They like to doodle, paint, draw, build with blocks, puzzles, mazes, and taking things apart and putting them back together again.
Naturalist Learners recognize and classify the numerous species of an environment. They like to spend time outdoors observing plants, collecting rocks, and catching insects. They love nature.
Interpersonal Learners are all about people and relationships. They have many friends. They are good mediators and team players. They enjoy group games and discussions.
Intrapersonal Learners use their emotional life to understand themselves and others. They control their feeling and emotions. They do a lot of observing and listening. They do best when working alone. They enjoy cameras, drawing pads, journals and questions about their experiences and emotions.
How to use the learning styles...
Make a grid with the above learning styles. As you prepare your lesson, run it through the grid and incorporate as many learning styles as possible. Over the course of a few lessons, you should hit all the learning styles.
Here's an example. Let's take the story of Jonah and the Whale and run it through the grid.
Linguistic – Dramatically tell the story to them. Then have them re-tell it to someone else in the room.
Logical-Mathematical – Have them put together a puzzle of Jonah and the Whale.
Bodily-Kinesthetic - Have them act out the story.
Musical – Sing a song about the story.
Spatial – Have them draw a picture of the story.
Naturalist – Bring some seaweed for them to touch or a picture of a large fish for them to look at.
Interpersonal – Have them play a group game and discuss the story with friends.
Intrapersonal – Ask them questions and have them draw pictures about how they would have felt if they were Jonah.
Your teachers will have a tendency to teach out of their own learning style because it's their comfort zone. Challenge them to engage all learning styles. When that happens children will be excited about coming to church because they will be learning in style...their style, that is!
How do you incorporate learning styles into your lessons?
What are some creative things you have done with some of these learning styles?
