March Madness - New Testament Scripture Mastery Style

This year I decided it would be fun to bring some energy into seminary by doing a March Madness activity.  It actually turned out really well.  We had three teams - Red, Yellow and Blue - and kept points.  Most of the points were earned through the "New Testament Scripture Story Grab Bag" activity.

This idea came from the February 1999 Friend.  I had the pictures in my file, but you can find them at Sugar Doodle.  After drawing one of the pictures, each team got points for sharing a story related to the picture, a principle related to the story, and a relevant scripture mastery verse.  They got extra points for extra stories and scripture masteries.  Every 100 points the team would pull a slip from the "mad" bowl.  Some of those were questions worth additional points, but most of them were "switching" cards.  They didn't particularly like switching teams, but were good sports about it.  These activities were mainly used as fillers, either before or after the regular lesson.

The last several days of the month we worked on the Scripture Bracket Tournament.  As the teacher I came up with 64 different scriptures in the New Testament.  I used the scripture mastery verses, took some from a list of "scriptures quoted the quoted in general conference" that I had, and picked a few of my favorites to round it out.  I was able to divide them into four "regions" by author - Matthew, John, Paul, and Others.  Then the students ranked their favorite verses from each region to fill in our bracket.

When it was time for the tournament, which lasted several days, we would compare the two scriptures "competing" and ask the question, "Which of these two scriptures would bring me as a teenager the most help, comfort, peace or understanding?"  For most of the rounds, the winner was the majority favorite, although we did do a round or two in a debate format.  (One team would present reasons for why their scripture should be chosen, another team did the same, and the third team made the decision.)  

Guess what the winning scripture was?  If I had filled out a fantasy bracket, I would have sorely lost!!

"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." Revelation 21:4

March was a wonderful month in seminary.  We had fun.  We felt the Spirit.  And we know some scriptures that we can turn to when we need help and guidance.

And you can find the prizes that were handed out at the end here.