School prompts creative spirit
JEFFERSON TWP — Scrapping lesson plans might sound like a teacher's worst nightmare, but at His Kids Christian School on Tuesday, spontaneity and creativity were the principal's goal of the day with lesson plans.
With standardized tests approaching, Debora Dawson, His Kids Christian School principal, thought it was a good time to do things a little differently.
“This is always kind of a tense time of year,” she said. “So I thought, let's do something to kind of spark them a little bit. Give them a fun day.”
Hoping to create a spark among the kindergarten through sixth-grade students, she told teachers not to plan anything for the day. She would provide some direction an hour before school started.
So Tuesday each grade level had a designated color and word to focus on throughout the day: Kindergartners had red and love; first graders had yellow and joy; second graders had blue and trust; and third through six graders had green and thanks.
It's all to reinforce the day's theme: God's wonderful world of colors.
Kindergarten teacher Marlene Beamer said she lives by schedules and lessons. She thumbed through a stuffed manila folder on her desk about two inches thick, revealing the array of lesson plans just for this month.
However on Tuesday “she gave us a half-hour to prepare,” Beamer explained.
Her students, all dressed in red, read Bible passages that included the color, as well as love, the emotion that was emphasized for them throughout the day. They also did arithmetic using hearts and used pattern blocks to shape hearts.
“That will incorporate all the subjects we teach during the day,” Beamer said.
Down the hall, Lisa Beale instructed her older students, from third through sixth grades, to make a list of things they should feel thankful to have in their lives.
Her students donned green outfits and made leaves imprinted with things to be thankful for to glue onto crafted thankful trees. Beale, coincidently, wore green as well, even though she wasn't aware ahead of time of the day's theme.“All year long, it's about teaching Christian values,” she said. “They can maybe think of some of the things they learned.”That activity was 9-year-old Eden Moyer's favorite part of the school day. “We painted pots, and then we got pipe cleaners and made a tree,” Eden said.She said she was most thankful for her family. Other students were thankful for things such as fishing, root beer, pets, friends, and of course, God.To conclude the day, all the students gathered together to talk about what they learned in group presentations. Students performed skits, sang songs and quoted Bible passages based on their themes. Each of the colors created a rainbow of color but also lessons.Dawson said the special day was to help students relax. In the past, the school has focused on different themes. Last year, students prayed every hour throughout the school day.“I think we had a wonderful color day,” the principal told the students. “When you put them all together, look at the beautiful design.”
