11 Tips to Maintain Preschoolers’ Attention as You Teach a Bible Lesson

There are 20 wiggly little people on a rug, and it’s your turn to share with them a lesson from the Bible … are you ready?

Despite the wiggles you may observe, preschoolers love a story! For some, listening to a lesson will be their most memorable part of their time with you. When you stand up in front of them, you have the chance to engage them in a special way!

However, for the adult volunteer teaching the lesson, it can be an intimidating experience. Some may feel like they don’t have enough training to pull it off the way they wish they could, and from an outside perspective, preschoolers can seem to be a tough crowd to keep engaged during a lesson.

How can we get a game plan together for keeping their attention? Join us in our series of the 11 tips to coach you through to the victory of a successful Bible lesson!

This week we will cover the first 4 tips…

1. Be prepared

Look over the lesson ahead of time and be familiar with what you want to make sure the kids remember when you are done. Is there a certain part of the story, or a certain phrase you want them to register first when they think back on your time together? Not sure how your lesson fits in with the big picture of what the kids are learning? Check out this free download that contains all the lessons of Puggles and Cubbies shrunk down onto one page for you to quickly reference! You can write some thoughts down for you to remember, including what to do if you unexpectedly end up with a few extra minutes, or what to cut out if you don’t have time. Don’t have time to write it down? At least think through how you want the lesson to go, and the thing you’ll emphasize. It will make you feel better prepared as you teach!

2. Bring your love and excitement with you

You will set the tone for your time together—preschoolers are skilled at knowing whether someone is excited to be with them, so ask God to fill you with His love for these little ones. If you are excited and presume upon them to be excited too, they will likely follow suit. Not feeling in the right frame of mind still? Take a moment to pray for the kids by name that you will be with, asking God to draw them to Himself. Not sure what to pray? Follow the structure of a prayer from a passage of Scripture, like Ephesians 3:14-19 and insert the names of the kids in your group!

3. Use structure to your advantage

Preschoolers thrive in a predictable environment. Because they don’t have a lot of control over the goings on in their life, giving them an understanding of what will happen next helps them feel empowered. This kind of routine can seem mundane to you, but it is the best way to keep the kids in your class feeling a sense of safety, and therefore a willingness to cooperate. Within your whole class structure, you can make sure things are done at the same time (craft is always after snack, etc.), but even within your teaching time seek to have things done the same every week. Do you always sing a song to start your lesson time, or say the same phrase? If not, what could you start doing that works well in your context? What kind of visuals (like props or teaching cards) do you use, and can you always introduce them the same way? How will they know when your lesson is almost over? Can you end with the same thing every time, like a prayer or song? These little things matter to preschoolers and help them to be more present in the moment because they don’t have to worry about what is going to happen next!

4. Trust God with this opportunity

Take a moment to remember God has given you this opportunity to teach, and you can trust God that He will use it in the lives of the kids that will be there. Pray and give any concerns you have to Him, and ask Him to teach these kids all He wants them to learn through the lesson. He actually cares more about them than you do (remember this is God we’re talking about) and He uses times where His word is shared to impact those who hear it. You can trust that these preschoolers you are talking to have sincere needs for God in their lives! Sometimes we might acknowledge that these kids need God, but not really expect that a truth from a lesson you teach could be exactly what they need to hear in that moment. Being a preschooler is not easy, and they are setting patterns for the rest of their life for how they deal with difficult times. What if a concept you introduce reinforces them on a pattern of following God in how they deal with these things? Something you share with them in a specific moment could actually impact their understanding of God and His word in a way that lasts into eternity. That’s why you agreed to teach Bible lessons to preschoolers anyways, right?

In conclusion…

When Jesus said “Let the little children come to me” in Matthew 19:14, He didn’t expect them to stop acting like children, but He did expect them to walk away from an encounter with Him impacted by the time they spent with Him.

As we teach preschoolers we are also inviting them to an encounter with God through His word, and hopefully these tips will help you do just that!

Interested to know the other 7 tips? Continue reading part 2 of this series.