Sword Drills: Verses, Tips, and Methods

How to choose Sword Drill verses

• When choosing verses for your sword drill, be sure to use verses from both the Old and New Testaments and from a variety of books. The wider variety of books and chapters you utilize, the more experienced your students will become with using their Bibles.

• If you are working with younger students, newer students, or focusing on a specific section or book of the Bible, it's okay to just choose verses from one of the testaments or from a specific book. This method allows students to get a lot of practice with a certain portion of the Bible before adding more sections. Don't worry--with enough practice they will eventually be able to do drills with the entire Bible!

• For the added benefit of familiarizing your students with common verses, plan your verses ahead instead of just calling out random references. Some common verses are:

  • Genesis 1:1

  • Isaiah 9:6

  • John 1:1

  • John 1:4

  • John 3:16

  • Acts 2:4

  • Romans 3:23

  • Romans 6:23

  • Romans 8:28

  • Ephesians 2:8-9

• For a list of 52 fundamental memory verses in a convenient card set, check out our Printable Memory Verse Cards.

Sword Drill Methods

The Traditional Bible Sword Drill

The traditional way of doing a sword drill is to make sure each participant has a physical Bible, then the leader calls out a reference and the players race to see who can be the first to find it in their Bible. The player to find it first then stands up and reads the verse out loud.

To keep score, either give a point to the player who finds the verse first, or, if you have rows of seating, you can have all the students start on the back row and the students move up one row each time they win a round (verse). The first person to get to the front row wins 1st, the second person 2nd place, so on and so forth. Otherwise, the student with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Printable Sword Drills

Printable Sword Drills are a great tool for teaching kids how to look up verses in their Bibles and for providing practice doing so without the pressure of competing against others. These drills feature a number of verses on a specific topic, and each verse is missing one or more words. Students will look up the verse in the Bibles and fill in the missing words.

This method is great for practice and, if you gamify it by offering points and/or prizes for finishing the pages, it's a wonderful tool, especially for students who struggle with the high-pressure traditional version of the game. After all, the entire point of either version is to get kids using their Bibles! Interested in printable sword drills? Check out these!

Tips for Successful Sword Drills

• Gauge your students' interest as you go. Sword drills are supposed to be fun, so if you notice while doing them that a majority of your students dread them, get frustrated with them, or otherwise have a negative reaction, try teaching/practicing Bible usage with a different method.

• You may need to teach your class how to look up Bible references before playing the game. It's a good idea to regularly remind kids how Bible references work. Show them the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament, how to know which book of the Bible is which, and how the reference numbers correlate to the chapters and verses.

• Store extra Bibles in your classroom so students who don't have their own can still participate.

• If one student is particularly well-skilled, consider asking that student if they would be interested in calling out the verses for a game. This will give the other kids a chance to win.

Interested in printable sword drills or memory verse cards? Check out these resources in our shop:

Sword Drills Volume 1

52 Fundamental Memory Verses Card Set

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