Jesus used pictorial or representation teaching when He met with Nicodemus and related being born again to our physical birth. We can help students learn with charts, graphs, graphic organizers, and pictures. Some students need to "see" what they are learning with the help of visual aids.

Jesus taught using the concrete method when He fed the 5,000, put mud on the eyes of the blind man, or perform the many miracles during His teaching. We certainly cannot perform miracles like Christ, but we can use concrete items for students to touch, feel or taste for learners that need to use their senses to learn.

Did you know God's Word is full of methods for teaching! Psalms 25:4-5 has three methods that Jesus models for us in the New Testament. Shew me; teach me; lead me. Following Jesus's example, we can see where he used concrete, representative or pictorial, and abstract methods depending on who he was teaching! He knew His audience!

Children may not always remember what was taught, but they remember how they feel. We can help students feel safe and loved through our teaching process.

Adding our senses during an experience will add lasting memories. I love the smell of cut grass. That smell always takes me back to when I was a little girl coming into our small town as we were driving home from camp. Those memories are etched in my mind and triggered through the smell of cut grass. When we add taste, smell, touch, sounds, and smells to a lesson it deepens the learning paths in our brains building long term memories.

Children learn best when they experience something. We can easily set up experiences in order to deepen and lengthen learning for our students.

The next few lessons are from the Daycation break out session in case you missed it. I found these verses and this truth out of a desire for finding the answers to learning. I don’t know why, but I am so amazed that God’s Word teaches us everything we need to know about teaching! I have not found all the answers yet, but I keep discovering hidden gems throughout His Word. God’s Word is packed full of learning and teaching strategies.

Another life changing therapy that we found in our search for answers was FIE. FIE helps to develop cognitive functions needed for learning. I like to say it is learning how to learn. These are strategies we need to input, process, and express information. You can find information about it on the website NILD.org.