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Rotation.org's Sunday School Lesson & Resource Forums

We are an online community of Sunday School teachers, Christian educators, and pastors creating, collecting, and sharing free and premium Sunday School lesson plans, creative ideas, and discussion. We are also the official website of the Workshop Rotation Model (The "WoRM"), a creative way to organize and teach Sunday School. Visit our Bible story lesson forums. View our creative Writing Team Lesson Sets. Explore our 24 downloadable Bible story software programs. Get a free Registered Membership or become a Supporting Member for full access to all site resources. Learn more about our volunteer-led, ecumenical, non-profit, ad-free resource ministry!

Reply to "2014 Member Newsletters (Jan-July)"

Wormy the Helpful WormSite Admin Supporting Member!

The following was emailed mid-May to all Supporting Members.

Rotation.org News

from www.rotation.org

May 2014

Does your Sunday School take the summer off?

Supporting Members are voting and discussing the question here.

The Rotation Tribe Has Spoken!

Here is the order of stories that our Writing Team will be working on:

Kingdom Parables: Mustard Seed, Leaven, Pearl, Treasure (68%)
Paul's Missionary Journey (58%)
Elijah and the Still Small Voice (34%)
Ezra and Nehemiah: Return from Exile, Rebuilding (25%)
Peter & Cornelius and the Vision of Clean/Unclean Foods (12%)

Thanks to everyone who voted. Thanks also to our many new Writing Team Members! Looks like a very talented and experienced group.

See a menu of all the Writing Team's Lesson Sets.

Share Your Workshop Photos

Email your favorite photos of your creative workshops to webmaster.rotation@gmail.com and we'll include them in our Photos Forum.

You can also post them there yourself if you wish.

Classrooms, decor, hallways, signs.

Include details about your church and photo.

The "Science Workshop" in the Rotation Model

Excerpted from the article at our website.

We don't teach "science" in the Science Workshop. Rather, we use science-inspired demonstrations as "object lessons" to illustrate points in our Bible study.

The "Science" Workshop properly named would be the "Demonstration" Workshop, but it wouldn't sound as fun.

Children's sermons are the more familiar venue of "object lessons." Object lessons are lessons with actual objects or props that when manipulated help teach/illustrate something.

In children's sermons, the object is often simply used as a PROP, whereas, in the science workshop, the prop is CHANGED or is the agent of change. Red water become clear, for example. Or a tough object becomes flexible after being treated or heated.

It is the CHANGE which creates the memorable "a-ha!" moment in the lesson. The scientific principles behind the change, while perhaps interesting, are only quickly mentioned, if at all. BIG changes and surprises = fun + memorable.

Science "Experiments" or Demonstrations are usually led by the teacher, with the children being able to get in the act at some point.

Good Science Workshop lesson plans will have more than one experiment or demonstration.

You don't have to have a Science Workshop to use science-inspired demonstrations in your teaching. Many science workshop lesson demonstrations can be used in any classroom. The Rotation Model enshrines this type of teaching activity in its own workshop space so that it can become a regular part of our teaching. We also create science "labs" so we can do some of the MESSIER experiments! In fact, it's not uncommon to see students in the Science Workshop getting into the role by wearing lab coats and goggles.