Using Brilliant Star with Multiple Students

View Photo Gallery

Brilliant Star provides kids, parents, and teachers with fun, creative resources for spiritual development. Whether you’re a classroom teacher, a homeschool educator, or a community children’s class organizer, Brilliant Star offers engaging educational tools your students are sure to enjoy and learn from. Here are some ideas for using Brilliant Star with multiple students.

Virtue Discussions

Several of Brilliant Star’s regular features highlight the lives of inspiring people, which give teachers and students opportunities to explore the application of virtues or character qualities in real-life situations. Shining Lamp, Stargazer, Bahá’u’lláh’s Life, and Lightning & Luna all feature stories of individuals who exemplify virtues such as integrity, honesty, perseverance, and more. Read these features aloud with students and invite discussion about questions such as these:

• What virtue did this person have to call on in that situation?
• What challenges did this person face and how did he or she handle them?
• How would you feel if you were in that situation? Which virtues would you use?
• You can also make a game out of finding specific virtues. (e.g., Can you find an example of determination in this story?)

Word Search Team Races

Word searches are usually considered an individual activity, but you can turn it into a class activity by having group races. Split the class into groups of two or three and give each group a copy of a word search. It’s helpful to have kids cover the word search at the beginning, so they aren’t trying to find the words before the timer starts. Read through the introduction with the whole class and encourage discussion about it. Then set a timer for three minutes, and tell them to reveal their word searches. The team that finds the most words in three minutes wins.

Vocabulary/Spelling Practice

Another way to use word searches and other word puzzles is for spelling and vocabulary practice. Use the words as your students’ spelling list for the week. Or have them complete the puzzle and then write down the definitions for each word.

Brilliant Star also features prayer pages in some issues, where students match words from the prayer with their definitions. These pages are perfect for choosing prayers for memorization, as well as learning their meaning.

What Do You Say? Role Play

Most of us occasionally find ourselves in situations where we aren’t sure how to respond to someone. Whether you’re trying to defuse a confrontation or comfort a friend in distress, thinking ahead and role-playing can help prepare us for tricky conversations.

Brilliant Star’s What Do You Say feature gives specific scenarios with ideas for what to say in those situations. You can use these scenarios in the classroom by having kids role-play the different parts. When they get to the “What would YOU say?” question, the class can offer different ideas and have the role players act them out. This activity offers a good opportunity to discuss balancing virtues such as honesty and tact, assertiveness and wisdom, confidence and humility.

Classroom Quizzes

Brilliant Star offers readers some kind of quiz in almost every issue. Usually these quizzes are designed to help kids assess their own virtues, talents, or interests. You can use them in a class by reading the introduction and quiz questions out loud. Have each student write down their answers on a sheet of paper. Then walk them through how to count up their scores.

Some quizzes are designed to help kids find a category of interests that most fits their personalities. With these types of quizzes, it can be fun to have the students complete the quiz as above, put students into groups based on their results, and have them consult about ideas for service. For example, in a quiz about what type of service you prefer, you might end up with a group who prefers utilizing the arts, one who likes to work with people, one who enjoys being in nature, and one who likes to write and do research. Consulting with others who share their interests can help spark kids’ imaginations and feed their drive to get involved.

Science Experiments with Maya’s Mysteries

Maya’s Mysteries is Brilliant Star’s regular science and nature feature, which often includes a hands-on experiment for kids to try. You can read the introduction aloud and have kids perform the experiment in small groups. 

Music-Making with the Treble Chef’s Music Café

If you are a music teacher (or have some musical ability), try out the songs in the Treble Chef’s Music Café. Make it a sing-along, or have students sight-read the music and play it on an instrument.

Arts and Crafts with Nur’s Nook

Nur the firefly is one of Brilliant Star’s most popular characters, and with good reason. Kids love to get creative! Nur offers art and craft projects using household materials, and ties them into a virtue or spiritual lesson. These projects make excellent class projects, without making you find or purchase rare or expensive materials.

Write Your Own Adventure with Lightning and Luna

As Brilliant Star’s most popular feature, Lightning and Luna is a “super” tool for teachers. Each episode leaves the reader wondering what happens next, so tap kids’ imaginations and have them continue the story. Use the cliffhanger question at the end of each episode as a jumping-off point. Will Lightning recover? Can anything stop Dr. Devious?  For kids who like to draw, have them create an actual comic. For kids who prefer just writing, have them write up the next episode in a story format.

Letter-Writing Practice

In the days if of casual e-mail and texting, letter writing as a regular activity has taken a backseat. If you’d like your students to practice this valuable skill they’ll need for job searches and formal correspondence, have them write a letter to Brilliant Star, sharing their ideas for what they’d like to see in the magazine. They could also write a letter to one of our Stargazer interviewees or an imaginary letter to one of the heroes from history profiled in our Shining Lamp feature.

Environmental Exploration with We Are One

Brilliant Star readers frequently cite the environment as one of the main subjects they’d like to learn more about. The magazine’s We Are One feature highlights aspects of environmental education and stewardship. Each page offers interesting facts, highlights an inspiring person working to protect the earth, gives tips for doing your part to help the environment, and more. Teachers can use the different page elements as jumping-off points for discussions, have students make a poster about the Earth-saving tip, or have small groups research the geographical landmark or animal featured on the page.

How do you use Brilliant Star with multiple students? Join the discussion in our Facebook group, the Brilliant Star Idea Exchange, or e-mail us at brilliant@usbnc.org.

Annie Reneau is a homeschooling mom of three, lover of chocolate and travel, and former assistant editor with Brilliant Star. She now works as associate editor at Upworthy/GOOD and shares her personal musings on life and parenting at Motherhood and More.

Updated on 6.20.13