Ideas to Help Children Memorize the Books of the Bible using Sword Drills

Sword Drills are an excellent way to teach children the books of the Bible and how to use their Bible. Kids will search the Bible to find verses that are commonly referenced in Sunday school lessons and memory work. This article will explain the game and how to use it in your children’s ministry.
Sword drills are best used in a class of ten or larger but can also be adjusted to use in smaller classes.
First you need to prepare the class several weeks ahead for this game. Preparation will include; starting to learn the books of the Bible, explaining how to find Verses in their Bible, and looking up verses for the weekly lesson.
The combination of these thing along with this game will give the students a better overall comprehension of using their Bible.

Start teaching the books of the Bible.

Teach the children how to find a verse. Help them find a book of the Bible, let’s say John. Tell the students to “find the book of John; John will be written at the top center of the page”. After the kids have found John tell them to “find chapter 3- it is the big dark number.” Now they have found John chapter 3, “now find verse 16, it is the small numbers.”
It would be very helpful to demonstrate the structure of Book, chapter, verse on a white board, chalk board or power point.
Have the students find verses for a few weeks before using this game.
Eventually enough students will be adequate in finding verses and you can play this game.
Note: Don’t expect any or all the kids to be perfect at finding verses before playing the game; playing the game will make the kids want to learn the books of the Bible and how to find them, because they are competitive or want to win a prize.

Set-up to play the game. Use the index cards to write down verse for the kids to find; one verse written on each card. You will shuffle the cards and pull out random verses. The verses you use can be past and future memory verses or verses from the lessons. You will need at least fifty verse cards. You will read the Card during the game like this: “Chapter 3, Verse 16, John…..GO!”
Repeat the verse a few times as the kids are searching.

Set up the five chairs in front of the class. The game will be played in groups, divide the class into two or more groups. For a class of ten you would have two groups of five; for a class of twenty, four groups of five.
Have the first group take a seat in the chairs and give them each a Bible. (I recommend cheap Bibles from a dollar store as the may become damaged over time.)

Rules to the Game:
1. When the teacher says “Bibles up.” the student must hold the Bible straight up in the air, elbow locked.
2. The student cannot drop their arm and look until the word “GO!”
3. When the student finds the verse he or she must stand up with their finger on the verse. If their finger is not on the verse the student must sit down and stand up when it is.

Round one.
Group one.
The first two students that find a total off thee verses correctly will move on two the second round. Have the five students go back to their seats after you have to round one winners. Have group two come up, play until you have two winners from that group.

Round two.
Have the two winners from each group come forward. The first person to find three verses correctly is the winner and the second person to find three is the runner-up.

Give a grand prize to the winner, a smaller prize to the runner-up and a few pieces of candy to everyone that played.