Emotions: The Critical Cement in Your Learning Environment

“Feelings” are more than an old song. Emotions are actually the key to amazing learning in your children’s ministry classroom!

A lasting impression — set in cement. Isn’t that what you want in children’s ministry? A lasting impression on children’s lives and God’s truth cemented into their faith.

Well, it’s not as far away as you might think. Create a place where learning about Jesus is exciting, mysterious, relaxing, intriguing, and, well, downright fun.

Brain Chemistry

Research has proven that the emotional climate of a classroom or any other learning environment actually affects brain chemistry — and that affects what children learn. We’re just beginning to understand how what we see, feel, smell, touch, and taste is transported through the millions of neuron networks in our brain and then translated into millions of interconnected memories that travel down multiple different paths into long-term storage vaults. And even more amazing (if you’ve ever misfiled anything) is how we retrieve and use those stored memories to help us know what to do in every life situation.

One thing is clear — there’s one force that’s more powerful than any other when it comes to moving information into and out of long-term memory storage: emotions.

Emotions — Handle With Care

Because emotions are powerful shapers of human growth and development, we need to handle them with care.

Think of your brain working in dual mode — thinking and feeling. When information is received, it goes in two directions at once: The full message travels to the “thinking” brain (in the hippocampus and neocortex) while a shorthand version shuttles quickly to the emotional alert center (the amygdala and other parts of your limbic system). Before your thinking brain has time to retrieve and connect this new information to related memories and determine the appropriate response (which happens quicker than we can imagine), your emotional brain has responded to its first impression and set responses in motion.

Positive emotions facilitate these connections in a way that enhances learning, but fear and stress dramatically affect brain chemistry in ways that interfere with learning. We must plan learning experiences that integrate emotions in appropriate and positive ways. Avoid activities that arouse undue fear or humiliate students. Resist setting up highly stressful competitive situations. And never allow experiences that attempt to manipulate children.

Positive Learning Environments

What can you do to put the power of emotions to work in helping children grow in their relationship with Jesus? Start by creating a learning environment that has a positive impact on brain chemistry. Help kids feel safe — physically and emotionally. Let them know it’s okay to make mistakes as we learn how God wants us to live. Give kids lots of opportunities to work together collaboratively — not competitively. Encourage kids to express themselves in a variety of ways, such as journaling, artistic creations, dramatic presentations, and more. Use music to set the tone. It’s a great way to celebrate God’s goodness, to calm a group, to help kids relax, or to stimulate reflection and expression.

When you provide a place like this for kids, you’re mixing the water with the powdery cement and preparing a place where lasting impressions can be created.

Learning Strategies

Now you’re ready for the real work of helping kids learn what the Bible says — the stories, the facts, and the principles to live by. Not because knowing all that will help them pass a test or win a Bible drill. No, you want them to be able to remember those important life lessons to help them face the daily challenges of life in a way that reflects their relationship with Jesus. So what kinds of learning experiences produce that kind of long-term learning and life application?

Without a doubt, emotional memory strategies are the most powerful, says Marilee Sprenger in Learning and Memory: The Brain in Action (ASCD). Many researchers believe that emotions are the force behind our ability to pay attention. That means that active emotional engagement is a critical element of effective learning experiences. If that’s true, then we must be intentional about including emotions in teaching children to know and love Jesus. Here’s how.

1. Identify what you want kids to learn.

Itemize the Bible story, the key point you want them to remember, and the resulting life changes you hope to see in their behaviors.

2. Use your senses.

Select learning activities that involve as many of kids’ five senses as possible.

3. Build in movement.

Physical activity along with positive emotions actually increases the neurotransmitters for making brain connections.

4. Create a mood.

An emotional environment can consist of decorations, costumes, props, lighting, smells, and music.

5. Carefully stimulate the key emotions connected to what you want kids to learn.

Your opportunities are endless: games, crafts, role plays, videos, puppets, movie clips, snacks, science experiments, skits, and acting out the Bible story or a life-application challenge, to name just a few.

6. Always debrief activities.

Intentional discussion help kids connect their emotions with the Bible story so they remember the lesson for a lifetime.

Congratulations! When kids experience strong feelings, you’re helping to cement those facts and feelings into their long-term memory vaults. And you’re creating lasting impressions.

Looking for more teaching tips? Check out these ideas!