Chapel holds a special place in Lutheran schools. For a long time, it provided a model of worship for students. Today, many students experience school chapel as their first and only access to God’s house. This opportunity to come together as an entire school develops community and provides a unique worship experience for God’s children.
An Engaging Worship Experience
For most of my career, several of the students in my classroom only went to regular worship during the school week. When these precious moments are their only interaction with the Lord’s house, you want it to be a positive and engaging experience. While a great message and a melodious tune develop a quality worship service, students benefit from relating with worship in multiple ways.
How to Help Your Students Remember Worship
Elementary
There are two different options to meet students at various grade levels. For elementary, there are trading cards for chapel that you can pass out to students after worship. Each card as a verse that correlates with the message on the back and a picture that connects to the verse on the front. You can print the cards on AstroBrights cardstock for the whole year. Then, you can cut them into the trading card size and hole-punched for a large metal ring. My students have hung these on the hooks by their backpacks for storage, and then they take them home at the end of the year. They can’t wait to see what the new picture will be, and it is an easy way to reinforce the message each week! Check out the video below to learn more!
Middle School
For middle school, I created a new resource this year called chapel notes. The chapel notes also have the same Bible verse and picture as the trading cards. You can cut each sheet in half for two students. The students can take the sheet on a clipboard with a pencil to chapel, and there is space to write three things that they learned from worship. You also have four levels of a rubric from the bare essentials of the message to applicable ideas for life. Students find it helpful to see modeling of a chapel message note-taking after the first week and continuing to reinforce the highest level you expect until they fully understand it. You may need to be revisited later in the year to hold them accountable.
If you are interested in learning more, I have Chapel Cards available for the 2022-2023 school year! You are welcome to share these cards with other teachers at your school. Check them out in my store!
