We also enjoyed working on scripture mastery with these fun activities:
Rollin' Rollin' Rollin' = a team competition that changes each round
Rhyme Time = using rhymes to help us remember what the scripture mastery verses teach (click here to download the rhymes)
Freeze Frame = a team challenge to portray a scripture with one picture pose (check out the video below).....
Other highlights from the week included:
Sharing Goals and Good Things - but you had to find your partner first using animal sounds only! (What sound does a bird make, Dandelion?)
Celebrating Trouble's birthday and watching KT and Colbinator bust out some quality moves for our Birthday Dance Bash! (Too bad the camera wasn't rolling!).
What a great week of learning!
FYI - several things have been updated or added in The Filing Cabinet, so check out:
Oh yeah, did you notice our new page at the top called: "Meet the Extreme Team?" It includes snapshots of each class member, their nickname, and a blurb about one of the strengths they bring to our class.
You know Goliath, right? The really tall, really strong, Philistine giant who wore some seriously heavy-duty armor and came out day after day to challenge and terrify the Israelite armies.
Well, Tuesday morning, September 13, we faced Goliath.
Not the Philistine giant Goliath... Daniel, the young shepherd boy, already took care him with a slingshot, some pebbles, and most importantly, the help of the Lord (you can read about it in 1 Samuel 17.)
No, we faced The Goliath Bug, and let me tell you, it was just as menacing as the Goliath of the Old Testament! See for yourself...
(Reminder, if the video doesn't load: refresh or visit this link)
Now, after our hearts stopped thumping from this Goliath experience (Okay, maybe it was just MY heart, but I have had one of those nasty cockroaches fly on me twice in my life, and let me tell you, IT IS CREEPY!).
Anyway, after this experience, we realized that there were some connections we could make to cockroaches, the challenges we face in life, and how much we need the Lord to help us.
That's right... we made Cockroach Connections!
Let me share some of the "Cockroach Connections" our Extreme Team Players came up with (class nicknames are in parenthesis):
"We have challenges in life and we need the guidance from the scriptures to get through them." (Dandelion)
"Like cockroaches on steroids, sometimes large creepy obstacles will be in our way, the gospel is the handbook on how to deal with these creepy obstacles." (Bandit)
"The roach can represent Satan and how he tries to distract us in our lives. It can also represent sin and how we need to get rid of it immediately through repentance." (K-T)
"The cockroach is like the unexpected trials that present themselves daily. It can also represent Satan and how he appears when you are least prepared." (Madsters)
"The tempation we feel to ignore adversity (the cockroach) instead of dealing with it is just another tactic Satan uses against us." (Poolside)
"We had to overcome it to learn from it. Things happen unexpectedly and we need to deal with them quickly by using the knowledge we have learned." (JesseJ)
"Sometimes large cockroaches of adversity show up on the ceilings of our lives and we have to ask God for His help to get rid the roach." (D.H.)
"God will never give us something we can't handle, even if it is a huge cockroach!" (Mouse)
And now, my own "Cockroach Connection," as the teacher who initially ran from the room and left these precious students to deal with the roach on their own (Hey, I would jump in front of a moving car for them, but they're on their own with giant roaches!).
As I reflected on my momentary flight from the room, I realized that these youth face "cockroaches" on their own every day, without a parent or a leader standing beside them to help them. We, the adults in their lives who care about them, have to help them prepare in advance to know what to do when "cockroaches" show up. This means we have to teach them that they can ALWAYS turn to the Lord - ALWAYS!
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said this,
"Adversity will come, but do not fear. The Lord will fight for you!"
And that means the Lord will help us get rid of the cockroaches, which I know from my own life is true. (KSizzle)
Have a great weekend reading something from the Old Testament and make sure to visit the Announcements for the coming week.
This was a short week but it was still packed with lots of great learning!
As part of our Friday reflection process, students post responses to what we have learned on our class Twitter board (more details and pictures coming soon to show our Twitter board - or just ask a member of The Extreme Team to explain it!). The Friday Tweet asks students to suggest something to highlight here on the blog.
With that said, I am excited to share the thoughts and reflections of The Extreme Team with you and hope you enjoy the top 3 highlights from this past week.
Highlight # 1 = The Time Capsule
We started our week off opening the Old Testament "time capsule" and found some great treasures that relate to our life today! We discussed how the Old Testament is not just a dusty old book, but that there are many connections between its teachings and our lives today.
As we reflected on the importance of studying the Old Testament, the students shared great insights including that "the reason we study these scriptures is to understand what they mean to us" and that "studying the Old Testament will help all of us get better."
Highlight # 2 = Order Up!
Students enjoyed our "Order Up" activity, where they had to work together as teams to put all 39 books of the Old Testament in order - without using their Bibles!
Challenging? Yes. Impossible? No. Especially when you have a fun song to help you learn the order AND you color-code the books by the type of writing they contain!
To listen to the song that we are using to learn the books of the Old Testament, click here and open the "Books of the Old Testament" link. The song is sung by a group named, The Sons of Ammon, and they also give you the option to try it faster or fastest!
Highlight # 3 = The Power of One
The last highlight the class wanted to include was how much they learned from doing The Power of One, which was an in-depth personal study of one scripture mastery verse.
Background on Scripture Mastery (SM): This year we will work to master our learning of 25 specific scripture verses from the Old Testament. There are several components to SM, such as: knowing where the scripture is, being able to find it, understanding what it teaches, being able to apply it, and explaining it to others.
The 25 verses for this year have been divided out among the students to do a personal study of their assigned verse (or verses) with the purpose of teaching their verse to the class as part of our morning devotionals.
So, they worked on studying their scripture and have done a great job of preparing for their first SM devotional, as seen in these student examples:
Here are what students thought of The Power of One:
"It helps us understand the scripture better and makes us think about something we may have never realized before"
"You get more understanding of how to live that scripture"
"The value of studying one scripture at a time is breaking it down and gaining an understanding of God's word, verse by verse."
"We'll be able to share our thoughts with others."
"It's important that we individually study scripture mastery to gain a deeper understanding of what we're reading."
"Studying one Scripture Mastery in-depth helps us related it more to ourselves and we remember it better."
"When we learn just one scripture, we have more appreciation for what the Lord says."
Whew! What a great (short) week!
Thanks for visiting! We love hearing from you, so to open the comment box and leave us your thoughts click on the "Comment Love" phrase after this post.
Parents: please view the Announcements link for reminders and important information.
To get things started on our Extreme Team blog, how about a video overview of the beginning of our seminary season:
Note: If the video won't load, try refreshing the page and then try clicking here to go to the actual video site.
Some of the highlights in this video come from the following photo albums in The Filing Cabinet (click on the highlighted words to see even more pictures):
Now, you should check out The Filing Cabinet, where you'll find EXTREME-ly important stuff about seminary this year.
Parents: Go to The Filing Cabinet to download copies of the calendar, class policies (grading, attendance, etc.), the Student Accountability Card for this term, and to find more helpful information.
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The goal is to update the blog every weekend and share what we are learning and the experiences we are having as a seminary class this year, so please share our address with others!
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