The month of October is the first month I am going to try this. (See I'm already late! haha) This month's theme is missionary work. The idea is to do one of these activities on your week to do sharing time. If a similar idea was done the week before, or you're not crazy about an idea, you have several other choices! Most of all just to get everyone brainstorming and maybe you'll come up with something even better. :)
I posted this last year, but I love the idea of giving them missionary tags. That is the link to my previous post about where to find printable missionary tags or ones that would work. I like the idea of making them about business card size so they could put them in their wallets/purses/pockets. This way it's not an advertisement that they're members. To me this month is about how we don't need to broadcast it per say, just live our lives the way were supposed to. That in and of itself is missionary work.
Activities:
A.) Acting out scenarios they could be missionaries: I think it would be really fun to let the teachers play the part of the nonmember or less active. This will avoid the primary children being funny by being really difficult or mean and will also allow the children not in class with a certain teacher to become familiar with them. It may be a good idea to ask teachers if you they would mind participating before sharing time starts, just so you don't put them on the spot. But if your teachers are anything like mine, they won't mind at all.
There are several ways to go about doing this.
I think the easiest way for me to tell you what I'm thinking is to just give you an example, haha.
Have reverent child come up and piece of paper out of bag, numbered 1-however many scenarios you have, with a coordinating teachers name on it (this way the teacher knows ahead of time what part they will play, it may help them). Lets say the child pulls out a piece of paper that reads, " 1 - Sister Smith" You will have that child stay up there and Sister Smith come up. You play the narrator, and read them the scenario, "Your coach wants you to play in the big game Sunday. What can you do?" Sister Smith then can say a few lines, like "Please, we really need you in the game!" You can either A) Allow the child answer the teacher (this may work best for smaller primaries) B) Have the entire primary a chance to answer (this may work better if you have a larger primary). Of course what you want them to say would be something along the lines of, "No, I don't play games on Sunday. It's a special day for my family." At this point have the teacher, Sister Smith, say something like "Oh really, what do you guys do on Sunday?"
I like this idea because it gives them an opportunity to practice answers to questions they will most likely come across throughout their lives. This is a great opportunity to practice our answers. They say the more you practice the better prepared you are if the situation arises.
Situations you could give them could be:
1. Your coach wants you to play in the big game Sunday. What can you do?
2. Your friends invite you to go to the movies with them. Everyone is going with a date, but you're not 16 yet. What can you do?
3. (Continued from number 2) You decide to go to the movies with everyone, but without a date. While one of your friends is buying a snack, you notice another friend is trying to steal some snacks while the attendant is busy helping your first friend. What can you do?
4. You go the store with a parent. While you're there, you see someone from church that hasn't been there in a while. Your parent doesn't see them, what can you do?
5. A friend invites you to come play/hang out at their house on the night you have Cub Scouts/Activity Days. What can you do?
Try and think up a few more that would allow them to have a missionary opportunity in everyday life. I based these on my own life, and things that actually happened to me.
B.) Make a card for a less active child in primary. We've done this before and then delivered the cards. It's nice for the less active primary children to know we were thinking of them. You never know, maybe they'll ask their parents to take them next week. Sometimes it's simple things that make a difference! If you don't have very many inactive children, you could have them write their testimonies in a BOM and challenge them to give it to someone they think could benefit from it. It doesn't even have to be someone new, it could be someone investigating the church. It doesn't have to be that week necessarily, ask them to be mindful and watch for an opportunity. It will come if they pray for it, maybe not that day, that week or even month, but it will come.
C.) Talk about the story of Ammon and King Lamoni. Ammon was obedient, he was a good example of someone who lives the gospel and was able to have missionary experiences because of it. I found these awesome Ammon coloring activities. This lady has a ton of other really great looking activities you should check out when you have time also. You can print out enough for each child to take home the characters so they can tell the story to their families.
D.) Ask the missionaries to come in and share a couple experiences or stories that involve primary aged children. Empower the kids to help them know that they can make a difference, even at a young age.
Ways to make each activity fit each weeks specific theme:
A.) This activity fits really well already with weeks 1-3. To make it more specific for week 4, tell them that when they share the gospel, they feel the spirit. Personally, this is one of the best ways my testimony grows. Whenever I am able to share the gospel, or explain something to someone gospel related, I feel so sure, so confident that what I'm saying is true, because of the spirit. Heavenly Father wants you to have a testimony of the gospel. When you spread the gospel, your testimony grows. It's one of those things that when you share, you end up with more afterwards then you had before. :)
B.) This activity fits weeks 1-3 the best. To fit week four, tell them that by sharing their testimonies or going out of their way to reach out to someone, they'll feel the spirit and their testimonies will grow, even though it can be scary.
C.) Ammon's story is so perfect for this whole month. You don't have to tweak this too much. Just reinforce the theme for that week. For week one and two, Ammon stood out because he lived the gospel. For week three, Ammon wasn't afraid to share the gospel, he wanted to. He was brave. For week four, Ammon probably had such a strong testimony because of his willingness to share the gospel.
D.) Ask the missionaries to share stories or experiences to fit the weeks theme. Try and keep them involving young children though, to keep it relevant to the age group.
Other ideas:
This is a link to a Friend article from the current issue. It has some good stories from primary aged children of when they shared the gospel. You can use these to make your scenarios above, or you can just read them to the kids.
Also from this month's Friend, "Dare to Stand Alone." Haha, I heard this story from President Monson at General Conference and I thought it was so good, definitely worth sharing.
Challenge each child to invite someone to the Halloween church party. It's a great opportunity that you don't get very often! I'm going to try and get 5 friends total at the church activity (we don't have a very big primary, haha).
