I love Dale's cone!

Since I have SO many relatives who teach primary right now, I thought some of you might like this. Or maybe you'll just think I'm a dork because I love Dale's cone ;o)

A friend of mine who homeschools her kids made a comment about homeschooling on her blog, and it got me all excited about teaching, and my training in preschool education, and my favorite...Dale's cone. I'm a little funny about Dale's cone. I've actually given a couple of enrichment classes on it.

Even though I could never homeschool because of my ADHD tendencies (those of you who know me well, stop laughing at the thought...in the next life I'll have my brain back), I've had the opportunity to to teach kids plenty...and this is the model I use and love, even for teaching PRIMARY (although, I need to explain adapting it to a church calling so bear with me here).

I hesitated to post this picture I found online because I've read that Dale's cone is often misrepresented, and I have no idea if the statistics are correct, but it really doesn't matter. You can still improve your teaching with it. Just ignore the numbers.

I'll start with an example of flowers. If you're going to teach children about flowers, the top of the cone would suggest reading about flowers. Take it a step further, and you might look at pictures of flowers, or color a flower. Even better would be to watch a movie about a flower, or take a walk and actually look at flowers. Moving on down the cone, you could pick flowers, dissect them, smell them, press them, make arrangements, etc. And finally, the best way to learn about flowers, would be to actually plant a seed, watch it grow, do all the activities that I just mentioned, and document it.

Any time I planned a preschool lesson, I would apply Dale's cone to try and come up with the best way to teach any given topic. Unfortunately, most of the time in church and schools, teachers are stuck at the top of the cone...giving out worksheets or a coloring page. It drives me crazy! There are so many better ways to teach something--especially to kids.

Why do a worksheet where you cut and paste the life cycle of a butterfly, when you can actually watch a caterpillar make the chrysalis, and come out a butterfly...or act it out with music...or have the kids re-tell the life cycle with flannel figures, or toys? They remember it so much better if it's fun.

After I graduated in preschool education, I thought I was a pretty good teacher...

And then I was called to teach the Sunbeams.

At first I was very frustrated with the lessons because I couldn't get very far down on the cone. I remember one lesson on the Godhead. As hard as I tried...I just couldn't get the Godhead to come to our class that day :o) Some lessons were easier (like I am thankful for fish), and I was able to move pretty far down the cone and provide some fun learning experiences, but others seemed impossible.

As I've continued to try to use this model in Family Home Evening, and in my current calling teaching primary, I've learned a little something. Any time you have the spirit there, and the kids feel it, you've reached the bottom of the cone. The spirit can teach their hearts and they can know and really experience what you're talking about. I am grateful for this because some of the topics we teach in church seem so far over their heads...but I know they are getting something if we make the effort to prepare, and invite the spirit.