Extend Bible Lessons for Children with Special Needs
Children with disabilities often need to hear Bible lessons multiple times to truly understand them. To extend Bible lesson time for children with special needs, consider using activities. Children learn more when they are having fun and being successful, and volunteers love having meaningful activities to easily do with children. In this blog post, we will talk about how sensory bins can reinforce Bible lessons for children with special needs.
What is a sensory bin?
A sensory bin is a container that has a fill and pictures and objects related to the lesson hidden in the fill. Think of it as an “I Spy” activity that is in a container instead of the whole room.
How do I make a sensory bin?
Don’t worry – it’s easy, and you probably already have pictures and items available. Find a container – it can be a small box, have a lid or not, and be any size. I prefer scrapbooking containers because they are the right size with a lid for easy storage. But really, any container will work. I’ll give you an example of a sensory bin for The First Disciples. BONUS: Get the free download to go with the activity below!
Fill the container
Put fill in the container. I prefer shredded gift bag fill because it’s colorful and children don’t try to eat it. Other ideas are sand, dry beans, cotton balls, really anything that will “hide” the items you are putting in.
Find pictures and objects that go with the lesson. For example, if you are doing a lesson on The First Disciples, you could put in toy boats and fish along with pictures of the disciples.
Then, the child tries to find the pictures and items while the volunteer talks about them.
Examples:
- You found a boat! Peter had a boat.
- You found a picture of a disciple! The disciples helped Jesus.
- Can you find a fish? The first disciples were fishermen.
So why the download? It adds more instruction. Print out the instruction page – it’s in black-and-white. It’s easy to give to volunteers so they know what you what them to do and how you want them to do it. And it allows for children to have a space to place the items they find in the sensory bin. The organization helps volunteers discuss the story with the children.
Here are downloads for The First Disciples Sensory Bin Activity
- The First Disciples Sensory Bin – 3 pages (PDF)
- The First Disciples Sensory Bin (Member Only PDF)
- All Sensory Bins (Member Only PDFs)
What’s next?
Once you make the sensory bin, let children find and pull out the pictures or objects while you talk about the lesson.
Examples:
- You found a boat! Peter had a boat.
- You found a picture of a disciple! The disciples helped Jesus.
- Can you find a fish? The first disciples were fishermen.
Once all the pictures and objects are found, talk about them and how they relate to the story – that’s more reinforcement and more understanding for the children!
Conclusion
Children with special needs often need to hear Bible lessons several times to build understanding for learning. Sensory bins are a fun and easy way for volunteers to reinforce Bible lessons for children with special needs. You probably have a lot of the items needed – just use our free download to organize the activity!
To gain access to more sensory bin visuals, Join The Adapted Word Club!
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