Teaching the Bible to children...how to whisper the Word guidelines

If you are going to whisper the Word to children, you need to reach the children where they are at.  This will involve engaging the kids in the learning, being active, developing a relationship with your students, building connections, showing unconditional love, eye contact, being animated or using intonation well, smiling, body language, etc.  You will need to remember that real learning begins when you apply, evaluate, analyze and create (Higher Order Thinking or Bloom's Taxonomy).  Remember that when you only remember or comprehend, that's the foundation you need to be able to think at a higher level, but it's only low level learning.

The next KEY to teaching children the Bible (or anyone) is to focus on Who God is in the story, passage, or scripture text you will be teaching.   Here are some things to be aware of:

• Use your Bible- let the children see that you are reading from God's Word.
• Use a real translation.  The International Children's Bible (written at a grade 2/3 reading level) is simple to comprehend.  Nivr is written at a 3rd grade level.  You can also add in Bible storybook lessons that may be paraphrased- but you want to be sure in your retelling that you also connect that this story is part of God's book.  
• Make a connection to how this story or passage fits in the Big Picture- is this a type of Christ or as we may more commonly refer to it- is it part of the Creation to the Cross development from the OT to the NT.  Share where this character fits in time.  Review and connect to your previous teaching.  
• Remember that when you review, when you repeat, when you build connections between stories that you teach from- the MAIN point isn't recalling all the details of a human's life- the main point is reviewing how we see Who God is from the life and experiences in the passage.  That's really the application for people- we need to see that the God of Abraham, Issac, Noah, Disciples is still the same today and is still working in our lives the same way.  
• Make sure you define vocabulary, and that you plan to check for understanding of Bible words or Theological concepts that connect to your lesson.  Plan to teach that God is Sovereign- also could be rephrased as God is in Control.  (and even better if you add hand motions to help kids remember the meaning of the name- so if you say "God is Sovereign" they all move their hands like they are holding a game controller for a device.) 
• Share the Gospel regularly, especially with Children.  It's essential to review that Jesus was sent as God to be Man to die a sinless human being, and show that He is God by raising from the dead three days later, in order to allow humans (who do sin) access to God.  Don't assume that kids have heard it over and over.  Some may repeat the facts of the gospel, but not understand it or have accepted the truth personally.  Others may not have ever really listened when it has been shared.  
• Think like a reading teacher.  You are teaching students how to understand and/or read the Best book ever: the Bible!  So make make predictions, connections, explain vocabulary, help them see the inferences, ask questions, and summarize.  It's your job as the teacher to share the thinking that is in your head aloud for your students, so they learn to do it for themselves. This is called Meta-cognition.  I have a Pinterest Reading Board that has ideas and bookmarks with the strategies. 

• As your students are older, you also want to teach them HOW to study the Bible on their own, so you want to explain the features in their Bible, how to use a concordance, commentary, favorite online Bible tool.  
• Pray before you teach, while you are teaching, and after that the Holy Spirit would guide your heart and mind and the students as well. 
• You can also teach them formulas or a graphic organizer for reading the Bible.  SOAP, Homiletic s, Inductive Bible Study, Focused Questions, ....  more to come....