Kids of all ages enjoy learning about animals and nature, so whenever possible I like to include something about them in our morning devotions. Besides, it’s an easy to way to help children see and understand God.

Recently I’ve been using The Big Book of Animal Devotions by William L. Coleman. It contains 250 great lessons. I started by preparing the first ten talks myself along with a five to seven slide PowerPoint presentation to accompany each one. However, since I know students learn more when they are involved than when they are merely being read to, I have transitioned to having them prepare and lead our class’ morning worship.

I taught them all how to make a PowerPoint presentation, find a video online that demonstrates what the lesson in the worship book talks about, and how to include a hyperlink to it in their slideshow. I then assigned each one a certain day to present and a chapter in the book. On the morning of, they bring in a flash drive with their completed presentation and lead us through the lesson. We always begin with reading the story in the book and reviewing the questions before watching the video clip.

The students really seem to enjoy having a part in our daily routine and hearing from each other. And of course, I enjoy having the lessons done so nicely without having to do all of the work myself! After each presentation, I add the PowerPoint to our growing collection, making only small edits if needed. We don’t have all 250 lessons done yet, but here are the first 15. I will post more as they are available.