Sunday Before General Conference Sharing Time Ideas

Hello!

This year, the week before General Conference is a fifth Sunday. This means we get to be creative and plan something fun for the kids. Last time we did this, we focused on teaching the children about the general authorities and focusing on being able to draw things out that they may have in common with them. We were hoping this would get them excited to watch conference, and they would pay special attention to when that person was getting up to speak. Our primary president actually got pictures of the people who would likely be speaking and let the kids come up one at a time (whoever was most reverent first) and they would choose one to take home so they could remember what they looked like. She had two of each person.

I thought this was the coolest most clever thing to do so when it was my turn this year, I got a little intimidated. I wanted to do something different, since my kids already had that last time, but I was a little nervous. Well, I came up with something I think is going to be just as neat.

I want to draw a parallel from the ancient prophets to the modern day ones. I want to drill into their little brains, that when Heavenly Father has a message to send to lots of people, He uses prophets. What better time for our prophet to tell us something Heavenly Father needs us to hear then at General Conference? I'm hoping that by the time Sharing Time is done, they are really excited to see what the prophet is going to tell us.

My other hope is that it will help some of them to remember the scripture stories.

I am going to prepare my punch board ahead of time. If you don't know what a punch board is, follow this link here. This is the tutorial I used to make mine. If you don't have enough time, or don't want to create a punch board, just put pieces of paper in a hat/basket/etc. (I actually made paper apples a couple years ago and colored them. I labeled them 1-20 or however many and sent the kids "bobbing for apples." Each number coordinated with a question to answer etc. I liked doing the number, because I can reuse them again in the future.)

In each place I'm going to have one of two things, either "act out ____ story" or "stay up front and help the next person act out their story." I don't think I'll have a ton of time to let them act things out, so I only can have about 3 or 4 stories. Each story will be able to have multiple characters, so if two or three children in a row get a piece of paper asking them to stay up front until the next person gets something to act out, I'm not too worried.

The ones I have thought about doing are:

Noah and the Ark
Jonah and the Whale
Abinadi
Lehi and going into the wilderness
Nephi (you could choose on of many stories for him)

The key to this is when they get their piece of paper, don't let them read it out loud! You can either take it out and whisper in their ear or have them read it to themselves. If they need help they can use the people waiting up front (if there are any) or they can call more people up. They aren't allowed to speak, only use actions. Everyone else has to guess what story they are acting out. After they guess which one it is, discuss the story together. You can have a picture that goes along with each story for the little ones to look at. Your library should have those you can borrow. Ask them what the story teaches us? Why was it important to listen to the prophet? If they are having a hard time remembering the stories, refer back to the scriptures.

Tell them that President Monson may not announce anything drastic, he may not make a huge announcement, but if he were to, that would be the place to do it. This is the opportunity we get twice a year to listen to our prophets directly, to hear what Heavenly Father needs us to hear.

Afterwards pass out General Conference packets and it'll be time to head home! I have a couple word searches I've been working on to add to your General Conference packets, and here is a link to those.

I also did a post last year with some neat, different ideas for General Conference packets I found on the web.


If you want to do the bobbing for apples, I have a black and white apple print out here, or you can get a color copy here.

General Conference Activity Sheets

I've been wanting to make some pages for everyone for General Conference for about a year now. I actually did make some last spring, but couldn't figure out how to upload them. Well, I have finally figured out a way to do it that I think will work!

I have two word searches, one for older kids up to adults, and one for younger kids.


HERE is the link for the easier word search.

HERE is a link for the more advanced one.

I have a couple other things that I want to get on here, but I figured I'll post this up and update it when I have more.

Last year I posted a few links for neat General Conference packets that I'd seen, so don't forget to check that out. I found some neat ones that were a bit different then the normal ones you've all seen I'm sure.

Please let me know if you have any issues printing them out as I am trying something new with this. I don't know there is a problem unless you guys tell me. :)

Also, I should have the whole month of October Sharing Time helps up this week, so be sure to check in for that!

5 Tips for Teaching Nursery

Before I was in the Primary Presidency I was in Nursery. For years. Before I got married, I was unofficially in Nursery, for years. I would skip Relief Society and help my mom in the Nursery before I met my husband and started attending the Singles Ward in the area.

I have a strong testimony of Nursery leaders. In many cases, a Nursery Leader is a child's first interaction with church as an individual. The only time this is not the case is when a child does not attend Nursery for whatever reason. Before they are 18 months, they hang out with Mom or Dad wherever they are during the second and third hours. Nursery has a special place in my heart, because it's the first opportunity we have as leaders and teachers to touch the lives of children and make church an enjoyable experience.

I realize that for many children, Nursery is not enjoyable at all. It's frustrating and sad because Mom left them and they're with complete strangers and they don't like it. I don't think it has to be like that! I believe there is a period of time where they don't want anything do with anyone other than their parents, but I do believe that period of time can be shortened (depending on the circumstances of course!).

So what works?

1. Strategic planning
2. Being prepared
3. Creativity
4. Flexible structure
5. Talk to the Primary Presidency

Those would be the four major tips I would give anyone who asked me. 

You want to plan the schedule for your Nursery based on what makes sense to you. There are tons of schedule samples out there to give you ideas, but pick something that works for you. Look at the children in your Nursery, their temperaments and needs, and figure out what you think will work best. Try to stick to it, and remember that if it doesn't work you can always mix it up.

Be prepared for snack times, lessons, singing times, etc. I know that it's easy to say, oh they're two, they don't need a lesson. But I strongly believe that a lesson in Nursery is so important. Even from a nonreligious stand point, they need to learn to sit still, and they need to learn that during a lesson that is what you have to do. The lessons don't have to be long and detail oriented, but they should happen. The manual, Behold Your Little Ones, is so great. It has so many helps and activities and ideas in it. I would make sure that before Saturday night (I'm totally guilty of it too!) the lesson gets read for Sunday and the activity is thought about. That way, if there is anything it calls for that you don't have at home, you can grab it while your out and about. I can't tell you how many times I have had to teach on the spur of the moment and I wish I had known so that I could have done one of the activities in there. Some of them only require bringing in brown paper bags, or yarn, but they're all really great and geared towards the age group. There are also plenty of blogs and websites that have created extra helps for you if want to use them. Make sure they go along with our gospel doctrine but use them! I promise you, the weeks you prepare a lesson, activity, handouts etc, the class will go more smoothly. The more prepared and excited you are about your lesson, the more they'll be into it. Again, you don't have to make it long, just make it good. :)

Creativity. This goes along with the point mentioned above, but sometimes you have to think outside the box to drive a lesson home, especially to two year olds. The more props you get them to hold, games you can get them to play, etc, the better off you all will be. They don't have long attention spans, so you have to mix it up. You have to aware of when they're getting bored of one thing so you can switch to the next.

By flexible structure, I mean that it's good for the kids to have expectations coming to class each week. They should know when they get in there they get to play for a little bit, then it's snack time. After snack we have lesson, etc. What I mean by it being flexible is that it's important to remember that the needs of your class are going to vary week by week. It's important to be sensitive to the needs as they change. If you have a new child, whether they've just turned 18 months or are an investigator or visitor, this is a new maybe scary experience. They may be okay for 10 minutes playing and not 20 minutes. You may want to cut play time short and offer snack early in order to keep them happy. Or you may want to allow them to skip snack and color while the other children eat. I believe that being sensitive to the needs of the child that needs it the most will benefit everyone in the long run. If you can prevent that child from having a tantrum, your more likely to not have other children throw fits as well.
Please keep in mind that sometimes it may be best to take the child to their mother, if none of this is working. This may not work all the time, when it gets to that point, getting the child to their parent is probably best for everyone. They can join everyone when they're feeling up to it.

It is so important to talk to your Primary Presidency. Let them know what your doing that works, if you need help, if you are struggling with something, keep the communication open. That is the best way for them to help you. They'll feel more involved in the Nursery, making it a high priority on their list (out of sight, out of mind sort of thing), they'll make sure you have what you need etc.

As I've mentioned before there are tons of websites and blogs that have posted things to help with Nursery and that age group. I have been pinning a lot of things on my pinterest account and want to weed through the good ideas and not so good ideas in the next few days. So look for that also! I've also been doing some research on how to post fullsize attachments to the blog so I can continue making handouts. So hopefully next week I'll be able to make a couple things for Nursery specifically. If you follow me on Bloglovin you can get my posts directly to your email, so you won't miss a thing. :) There should be a direct link on the right hand side.

Sharing Time: Jesus Christ Taught me How to Serve Others

Hey all!


So I have sharing time this week and it's on how Jesus taught us to serve others. I really love the idea of showing them the pictures of Christ serving others and trying to act it out. To make it extra fun, you can bring some robes and scarfs in and they could dress up as the character. **Update** As mentioned by commenters below, please remember that children are not to dress up as Christ. This is why I love when people comment, we help each other out!!

One of the ideas I thought of immediately when I thought of this subject is the "secret service" activity I've seen float around Pinterest some. The whole idea is to give the kids some kind of "sign" and have them preform an act of service secretly and leave the little sign by the act of service they did. For example, you see your mom has a ton of dishes in the sink, secretly (we don't want to get caught!) do the dishes. After they are done, leave the sign by the sink.

Ideas on what they can do...
1. Clean the litter box
2. Take out the trash
3. Make a siblings bed
4. Weed the garden.
5. Clean up a siblings toys.

Now that they're mom, sibling, friend or whoever has the sign, they have to do a random act of service....secretly. It's fun to keep it going. You can give each child a couple of them so that if one person doesn't keep it going, someone else might. They can come back the next week and share their stories on how sneaky they were, and what they were able to do.

I cannot for the life of me figure out how to attach a full size document to this post. If anyone knows how to do this using blogger, I would SOOO appreciate a quick walk through. I've been using Photobucket in the past to create a link, but now they don't save it full size. Again, any help would be awesome! (to be honest, I've been so frustrated with this it's kind of zapped my desire to post :()So I didn't make a hand out, but I posted a link to a picture that is kind of what I'm talking about. If someone helps me out, I will totally make a handout for it!!

I like the idea of using a heart, writing "secret service" and putting underneath that something along the lines of "Now it's your turn to serve someone....secretly! Don't let it stop with you!" I think it's neat for the children to see how one good deed can multiply. 

http://ldsmobileapps.com/activities/secret-service,1/  Here is a picture of what I was envisioning, unfortunately I don't see a link to print out. It looks like they just used a crayon to write secret service on it.


If you're looking for an awesome FHE to do along this same idea, check out THIS blog post. I thought it was a neat idea!

When I repent, I can be forgiven

Repentance. Such a great thing to teach children. It's such a beautiful apect of the gospel.

 

I like the idea of starting with the words cut out individually and piecing them together in to make the sentence "When I repent, I can be forgiven." (This is in the outline provided by the church.) If you didn't want to place them in envelopes you could stick them under random chairs and have them check. This is an immediate attention-getter, and I like it for that reason.

 

I like the story of the Prodigal Son. I think this is a good way to go, but I also really like the story of Alma the Younger. This came to my mind almost immediately when I was thinking this week over. I found an old friend article that tells the story for anyone who doesn't like summarizing themselves, you can find that HERE. I found a page on Sugardoodle (seriously, I love that site!) that is dedicated to this story. It has way too much to list but in short, it has links to clipart, lesson helps and a lot more that involve this story.  You can find all of that good stuff HERE.
 

This is the part I was really excited about. For this week I want to do a object lesson. Show everyone a penny that is clean and new looking. Tell them that this is them when they are born. Throughout their lives they make mistakes, they sin. If we don't repent we can't stay clean. Show them an old penny that is dirty. Pour some lemon juice into a clear glass and put the penny in. According to THIS site (I wanted to try this out before posting but haven't had the chance. It may be a good idea to that beforehand, haha), it will just wipe clean (You may have to soak it). Tell them that sin is like the dirt on the coin, and the repentance process is like the lemon juice. If we repent after we sin, we can be clean and pure like when we're babies (or after baptism). I thought the example of babies would be more universal because there are lots of kids in my primary who aren't 8 yet and therefore haven't been baptized.

Give each child a clean penny to take home to remind them of how they can repent and stay clean.

**Variations** Because I haven't tried this experiment yet, I am not sure how long it takes to soak the penny in the lemon juice to get it clean. If you do this at home first and it takes longer then 30 seconds or so, you may want to drop some dirty pennies in there before you do sharing time so they have time to soak and get clean. You can always drop a dirty one in and just pull a clean one out. I am going to have to test this to see if it works.

Matching Game ~ Primary Style

My mom came up with this idea, so I will take zero credit for it. But I have to say, it's adorable. She did this a lot on week 5 or when someone couldn't come at the last minute and they didn't have a back up planned. It takes a little prep work, but it's a good result.

You need to break your primary into groups. Four or five will probably work best. You have two different sets of cards, they need to look different, either in color or size or something. One set of cards is going to have an adjective on it. It could say "goofy," for example (Other ones could be funny, wise, good, etc.). The other set has a noun on it. These might say, "Bishop (insert your Bishop or Branch Presidents name here)" or "Resurrection" or "Baptism."(she used names of people in the primary or bishopric, aspects of the gospel, or things they discussed in primary) Each group gets several cards with a noun on them to choose from. You choose one card on it from the adjective pile. So for example, lets say you chose the "goofy" card. Each group chooses which noun card they have that would best be described by that word. After each group chooses which card they want to use, whoever chose the adjective card gets to choose a winner. Whichever group gets rid of all their noun cards first, wins. If you want the game to go faster, you can have the person who chose the adjective card choose two winners, the best one that fits with the word and the funniest one.

For the cards, you could put the words on monkeys, elephants, or something else. I personally like the idea of using CTR shields. You can do large ones for the adjective cards and smaller ones for the noun cards. On the back you would have your word. If you wrote someones name you could put a picture of them for the kids that can't read. It may make it more fun for them. 

Here is a link to a couple cute CTR shield print outs.

5 Easter Sunday Sharing Time Ideas

This Sunday is Easter!! I can't believe it is already here, I have literally done nothing to prepare yet. This week also happens to be week 5 of March, so we get to be super creative. I've been thinking about some fun things to do this week involving Easter. I've listed a few ideas below.  You can even combine a couple ideas and do one half an Easter egg hunt and the other half a craft or whatever you feel like. Feel free to comment if you have a fun idea you would like to pass along.

1. Easter Egg Hunt-  This was actually a tradition in our branch up until the last year or two. The presidency would fill the eggs with candy and hide them outside in the bushes and grass and would let the kids find them. You can even color code the eggs for age group. For example tell the older kids they are only allowed to grab the pastel colored eggs, or the green and blue eggs, etc. This way the little kids get to find eggs to and it's all equal. If you don't want to fill them with candy, you can fill them with little prizes like erasers, stickers, rings, etc.

2. Movie with snacks- Bring a big blanket and provide popcorn and juice while they watch a movie. You could do something like Veggie Tales or maybe a movie about Easter. Turn the lights off to make it extra fun.

3. Make a Paper Plate Tombstone Craft- I found the idea here. These are seriously so cute, and they look so EASY. We don't get to do this sort of thing in Sharing Time very often, it is nice to branch out a bit and do something different. It's worth a click over. :) I found another craft here that is similar, but you don't use a paper plate. One less thing to buy :)

4. Play Matching Game - Primary Style - My mom made this game for her primary years ago, and her kids loved it. I have a full explanation of the game here.

5. Easter Trivia - I found this game from Martha Stewart that looks so adorable. You blow up balloons and stick a piece of paper with a question on it inside the balloon. Each child gets to pop a balloon and has to answer the question. All you have to do is make the questions about Easter and make sure you have enough balloons!


Have a Happy Easter everyone! I have a lot to get done before Sunday, I hope everyone else planned better then I did!

March 2013 Week 4 Sharing Time: Jesus Christ is our Savior

I've had a hard time thinking of what to do this week for Sharing Time. The topic of Christ being our savior is so important and well discussed, there is so much you can do with it. I finally decided to focus on why he was chosen to be the savior and what that means for us. The following isn't really applicable to the lesson, but I found it while looking for inspiration and I really felt the spirit while reading it, and thought it was worth sharing. If nothing else, it'll help to set the spirit while you prepare and ponder your lesson. 

'A man died and was resurrected and waiting in a room to be interviewed. Another man was ahead of him. The door opened, the man entered, and the door closed. The man on the outside could hear the conversation on the other side of the door. The interviewer began: “I want you to tell me what you know about Jesus Christ.”
“Well, He was born of Mary in Bethlehem; he lived thirty-three years, spending the last three organizing his church, choosing his Apostles, and giving the gospel to direct our lives.”
The interviewer stopped him and said: “Yes, yes, that’s all true, but I want you to tell me what you know about Jesus Christ.”
“Well, he suffered and died so that we could have eternal life. Three days later he was resurrected so that we might return to Heavenly Father.”
“Yes, yes, that is true, but I want you to tell me what you know about Jesus Christ.” The man, a little perplexed, again began: “Well, he restored the gospel in its fulness to the earth through Joseph Smith, reorganized his church, gave us temples so we could do work to save our dead. He gave us personal ordinances for our salvation and exaltation.”
The interviewer again stopped him and said, “All of what you have said to me is true.” The man was then invited to leave the room. After he left the door opened and the second man entered. As he approached the interviewer he fell upon his knees and cried, “My Lord, my God.”'

 I am going to begin by reading a story to them from this months Friend magazine. 

Once when Elder LeGrand R. Curtis Jr. of the Seventy was a child, he and his sister were playing in a small boat on a river. At first their adventure was fun, but as the boat drifted farther from the shore, they realized they were floating toward dangerous waters downstream.
The children began calling for help. Their father heard them and raced to the boat to rescue them. He saved them, which was something they could not do for themselves. He did this because he loved them.

Next I want to ask how Christ saved us? I don't want to spend a lot of time on this area, maybe 3 minutes tops. I want them to know that he suffered and died for us.

I then want to ask if anyone knows why Christ was one who did this for us? The answer is because he was the only one who would be able to come down to Earth and live a perfect life. I also want to emphasize that he was willing to do this because he loves us very much. That we are his brothers and sisters.

What does this mean for us? What does it mean that he atoned for our sins? Or that he died for us? Or that he saved us? Why does that matter? This gets to be a bit more discussion. This is why we are able to repent. This is how we are able to live with our Heavenly Father again. We don't believe that everyone will return back to Heavenly Father just because of this, we believe we have to choose to use it. We have to choose to repent when we have done something wrong. We have to try our best to choose the right, but we're not always going to make the right choices. That's why we have the atonement. That's why Christ suffered and died for our sins, it's so that we can repent and live with our Heavenly Father again. 

Now for the activity or more fun part. I have a couple different ideas. A few weeks back someone commented saying that the teachers in her area don't like to break into groups, so she doesn't like to do that. It's unfortunate that sometimes you have to feel that way, but I do understand. You don't want the children to pick up on any resentment any of the teachers may have, so I can totally understand not wanting to break into groups. So I'm going to try from now on to come up with an activity that doesn't involve groups every week, so some weeks may have two ideas. 

1. Bring candy (or stickers, rings, prizes etc), and lots of it! 

a. Pass out candy as they help with the lesson. The outline lists five scripture stories as reference for the activity part of this Sharing Time. One by one, ask if anyone knows who this or the story about him. For example, "Can anyone tell me who Alma the Younger is and what he did?" If someone does (which I'm hoping they know who at least one or two of them are), ask them to briefly tell us about that person. If they don't, you can tell them the story of that person. If they're short, you could even just read the story to them. You just may not want to be up there reading 20+ versus ;). Although, each story has a few versus that I think would be good to read to really help the children understand what the person was feeling, and what they were going through. I've listed those below.  

b. Give one child a piece of candy, as they listen to each story and hear a word that describes how someone felt (i.e., sad, joy, cheerful, awful etc.), pass the candy to the person to the right (or behind or in front if they're at the end). When the story is done (and you've added whatever you need to to it), whoever has the candy gets to keep it. Do this for all of them. Make sure you give candy to everyone else before they leave. You don't want any sad kids. :)

2. Break the children into five groups and have each group read a story. Have them prepare a short version of the story to read in front of everyone else. While it's being read everyone else in the group acts out the story silently. Be careful with time, every time I get them to break into groups I do something like this I end up being a little short on time. I would say have them start presenting with about 10 minutes left so that they all get a turn and you have time to close up. 

Scriptures in Each Story Worth Emphasizing
Alma the Younger - Alma 6:10; 12-13; 20; 24 Compare the words he uses in the first few to the last couple. He used such strong and descriptive words for both his anguish in the beginning and his joy after repenting. 
Enos - Enos 1:4; 8 He prayed to Heavenly Father to repent and was made hole by his faith.
Zeezrom - Alma 15:5; 11 This man was healed physically because of his faith. We can draw a comparison there and also in his feelings and temperament. 
Lamoni's Father - Alma 22:14; 23-24 This is a great story of how one man was able to convert so many. That he believed in Heavenly Father and was able to have a huge impact on others.
The Man Brought to Jesus - Luke 5: 20; 24-25 This is a great one because it's a story involving Christ. I think it's important to emphasize that faith is important to have. Without it, this man would not have been able to be healed or his sins forgiven.

Close with your testimony of the Savior. I added some links below to some coloring activities if you want to send them home with anything to do that night or if you have time at the end. 

Mary by Christ's Tomb Dot-to-Dot

Christ with a Child Coloring Page 

March 2013 week 1 sharing time: Jesus Christ taught the gospel and set an example for us.

I am so excited for this week!! I really love the outline the church has made for us to use, so I'm going to tweak it some, but stick to the main points. It uses lots of scriptures, focuses on Christ, I love it! 

Okay for the beginning I love the idea of starting with the "Do As I Am Doing." The biggest thing I would stick to is not letting the kids pick anything. If your kids are anything like mine, they'll choose jump and spin and hop on one foot, and good luck getting their attention back after that. So what I'm going to do is make some flash cards ideas from them to choose from. They'll be fun, just not so fun that I'll never be able to get their attention again. 

After this I'm going to tell them that just like that child set the example for us on what action to do during the song, Christ set the example for us on earth. At this point I'm going to introduce our activity. You break the kids into four groups. Each group is going to get an envelope with puzzle pieces inside. I've attached the puzzle printables below. If you have young kids that can't read in a group, have the teacher help. 

On each puzzle is a scripture to look up and an activity or task to go along with the scripture. For prayer (3 Nephi 18:19) they are going to think of a time when prayer has helped them. If they can't remember a time, it could be a story that was told in primary or they read. If you don't have a lot of kids you could have them share multiple stories. For baptism (3 Nephi 11:37) they will find a story in the scriptures where they followed Christ's example and got baptized. For the picture of Christ with the children (John 13:34-35) I will have them perform a skit showing a time we can follow Christ's example by loving one another. For the picture of Christ teaching (Mark 16:15) they will find Give each group enough time to complete their own activity. When their all done have them present to the rest of the primary children. As each group presents hold up the picture that corresponds to that scripture. After they are done emphasize that just like many of the stories they shared today, Christ set the example for us in all of these things. If you have time you can even share a couple stories from Christ's life that would really drive this story home. To me, the Garden of Gethsemane is the one that stands out the most for an example of prayer.

Close with your testimony of Christ and his example he set for us.

These links are for the puzzles I've created. I made the lines you cut along yellow.

Here is the puzzle for John 13 

Here is the puzzle for 3 Nephi 18:19

Here is the puzzle for 3 Nephi 11:37

Here is the puzzle for Mark 16:15

February 2013 Week 3 Sharing Time: I have been sent to earth to gain a body

I am so happy to be back posting again. This has been such a great outlet for me these past few months. I have a lot of ideas of different things to start up on the blog in the next few weeks, so stay tuned.
Now for this weeks Sharing Time. This week is about coming to Earth to gain a body and to be tested. This is a great opportunity to build a strong foundation for our youth, to help them understand the purpose of being sent here.
I have a couple different ideas for activities to mix it up a bit.
To begin have an older child look up and read Abraham 3:25. After they finish ask them to explain what it means to everyone. If they need help, see if another child can help, if not, either you or a teacher can pitch in. There shouldn't be too much issue though, its pretty self explanatory. Abraham 3:25 tells us that we came to Earth to be tested. We also came to Earth to get a body. 

Have another child read D&C 29:39. This scripture tells us that the devil tempts us so we can know the bitter from the sweet. We talked about this last week with the joy & pain, happiness and sadness, health & sickness, etc. These week we want to focus on our bodies and how we can make good decisions with them. This leads us to our activity.

One idea I had was to play "Pin the CTR Shield on the Child!" Get a poster board and draw a person on it and make sure to bring a piece of fabric or a bandana to cover eyes with. If a child puts the CTR shield on a body part, (i.e. feet, ears, hands, etc) they have to tell everyone how that body part can help us make good choices. For example, our hands can serve others, hold our scriptures so we can read them, stop a fight, give hugs, etc. If they get an area that is not a body part or a body part listed, (the blank poster area or you could even do the stomach or other areas that would be hard to answer those questions for) they get to pick a body part that hasn't been done. I really love this idea because its different and will keep their attention. 

The second idea I had was to divide the children in four or five different groups. Print out my guy linked below and cut him out. Assign each group a different body part. Get some manila folders and label it a top secret mission. Inside put a different body part to the guy along with the message of what to do. Each groups mission is to identify what choices each body part helps us make.Have them color the body part they were given so that when it's assembled it will create a fun looking guy. They can be as crazy or not crazy with this as they want. Let each group complete their mission in front of everyone else by sharing what they can do with that body part to choose the right. Have them attach the body part to the torso after they've presented. Close with your testimony. This is a fun activity that will hopefully have them thinking outside the box. 

Here is a link  to my person assembly coloring page.


CTR Shields can be found here with a few different options to print. 

Have fun with it everyone and don't forget to follow the blog for (hopefully) weekly primary updates along with recipes, crafts and more!

December 2012 Week 1 Sharing Time: Heavenly Father Sent His Son to Earth

Who doesn't love Christmas time? Sure, the stores are insane and we may spend a little too much money, but it really is the best time of the year. It's an excuse to see our extended families, wear ugly sweaters, indulge in delicious yet maybe not-so-good-for-you foods, and experience a little magic with Santa, his elves, and his reindeer. But most importantly, it is a time to focus on Christ. This season celebrates the birth of Christ, the beginning of his life that would touch billions and billions of people. A life that made it possible for all of us to be with our crazy families throughout eternity.

This week in primary we get to talk about the birth of Christ. I get to do sharing time this week, and I'm really thankful. To me, this is a great way to spiritually prepare for the Christmas season that is now upon us.

To start, I will ask everyone who is excited for Christmas. Of course I get a lot of response from this. I will then ask everyone why do we celebrate Christmas? I am sure I will have at least a few shout out the right answer. I will then tell them that today we're going to talk about the story of Jesus Christ's birth. I have two thoughts on this. I have a toy nativity, much like this Fisher-Price Little People Nativity , that I want to bring in to help as a visual. If you don't have one, and would like to get one, that is a really cute one I've been eying up. I already have one, so I feel a little silly buying another one. But they're so cute! Plus, they'd be great for the Nursery ;). Anyways, my thought is, I will ask for a child to tell just one part of the story. Whoever tells that part can come up and act it out with the little nativity. I'm hoping this will keep their interest, encourage involvement, and make it memorable for them. 

Another thought I had was similar to the last. If you don't have a nonbreakable nativity you feel comfortable with them using, and you don't want to buy one, you could get a few volunteers and act it out. You could even break them into groups and have them put on the skit after reading some scriptures. You would need 7 children in each group, if I'm remembering all the major parts correctly. ;) That would give you three wise men, Mary, Joseph, a shepard, and an angel. I would bring in a doll to be baby Jesus. 

If you have time left over I love the idea of singing Christmas songs. We only get four or five weeks out of the year to sing them, so why not make the most of it? I would definitely do Away in a Manger. 

For coloring pages I have a few ideas. 

1. I found this one that has the manger, Mary, Joseph, an angel, shepard, and a wise man in.

2. I also found a color by number nativity page here. 

3. The last one I found is a coloring activity that you make a nativity out of. It has a Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus you can color and cut out and put into the nativity. I like this one, I just wish it had the wise men and shepherds too. 

I hope you found some good ideas here. What are you planning on doing? Have you found a fun printable or hand out? Leave your ideas or tips in the comment section below. They could help someone out! Thanks for stopping by and please remember to "follow" so you can get sharing time helps weekly. :)

November 2012 Week 3 Sharing Time: I can teach my friends about Jesus Christ and His church.

I haven't posted on here in so long it feels like. About a week and a half ago my son got sick with an upper respiratory infection. He got an antibiotic, but of course my husband and I still got it, and worse then he did. So I have been in a coughing fit with a fever for about a week. Just when I thought, "I'm feeling better," my son threw up all over me. It looks like it's just a stomach bug, but somehow that doesn't help me feel any less helpless. I feel terrible for him. He doesn't like the bland diet he's on and he doesn't understand why he doesn't have the energy to get up and play. It hasn't been fun, but I'm hoping it won't last more then another day or two. So long story short, I appreciate your patience as I write this next sharing time, as it will probably be written over a several day span. I'm hoping my thoughts are coherent. 

Like I mentioned in my previous post, missionary work is something really close to my families heart. We are fortunate to have great missionaries. We have both a senior couple and a pair of full time Elders and we are lucky to get to work closely with them. 


If your Primary didn't make missionary badges on any of the previous weeks, I still think it's an awesome idea. I will be doing it for this week. Even if you did it on a previous week, you could pass them out to anyone who was not there, or maybe if kids didn't bring them in. Here you can find links and ideas on how to do this. 


I want to open it up to the Primary to share stories of how they've shared the gospel. See if anyone has a story about how they've taught a friend about Jesus or the gospel. This can be as simple as a time they've invited a friend to church, answered a question about our Church, Christ or even just religion in general. It can also be a time they shared their favorite scripture story in church. If you don't have anyone raise their hand, share a story from your youth. You could also dive right into the story I talk about in the next paragraph. This will give them a chance to think of something.

In the outline it says to share the story about the boy sharing the articles of faith, and the older man being so impressed by this. I LOVE this story. I heard it when I was a young girl, and it has always stayed with me. In fact, I'm grateful the outline gave a reference for it, because I never could remember where I heard it from. Here is a link to the November 1975 Ensign article that has the story in it.  I think this story illustrates the concept of being a missionary now so well. I also love that it's something that anyone can do, even the sunbeams. Also, memorizing the Articles of Faith is something they can do now to prepare for a mission later in life. With the age lowered for young men and women to serve missions, they have less time to prepare. That makes preparing while in Primary that much more significant.

In the outline it wants us to work on The Articles of Faith. I really like their idea for an activity. If you wanted to do something different, I had a few ideas for that too. 

1. It thought it would be fun to prepare a punch board. In each area you could have an article of faith with a couple words missing. Whoever's turn it is has to fill in the words to complete it. For the Junior Primary you could focus on the first 5 or 6 Articles of Faith. This way, they have a better chance of actually memorizing one, or knowing which words to fill in.

2. Another option with the punch board is to not only put Articles of Faith in the holes, but also stories from Christ's life. For example, one hole could say "Tell the story of when Christ walked on water." To me, this would be neat because in order to teach our friends of Christ's church and about him, we need to be familiar with his life. 

3. Another idea is to have them divide into groups and make a little skit about an opportunity to share the gospel. Assign each group a location (for example: school, a friends house, soccer practice, cub scouts, etc) and have the group come up with a scenario that they would have the opportunity to share the gospel. To incorporate the Articles of Faith, you could have them choose which one would be good to know for that scenario. Then they can share their skit with the rest of the Primary.

November 2012 Week 1 Sharing Time: I Can be a Missionary by Serving Others.

Hurricane Sandy. My family and I were right in her path this past Sunday evening and Monday. Luckily we didn't have any real damage. We didn't even lose power. I know there weren't very many people as lucky as we were. I'm grateful we were able to get through it without any lasting damage. Prayers for those in New Jersey and New York specifically who got the worst of the storm it seems. I know Maryland and Delaware beaches were also pretty bad. The pictures I've seen of those areas are tragic.

So on that note, it's taken me a little bit longer then I wanted to get working on this weeks sharing time. This WHOLE month is about missionary work, and being a missionary now. This topic, in particular is very dear to me. My husband is our branch mission leader and I am a branch missionary. I have been able to teach with the missionaries a couple of times and have had the opportunity to go to a crazy amount of baptisms the last few months. Our little branch is growing and it's such a blessing to see. Our whole branch is super excited about missionary work. It's great to see so many people get involved that weren't so involved a few months back and to see them have these experiences. One of the really great thing about doing sharing times on missionary work is it will get the children to be excited to invite friends and talk about the gospel. This whole topic can be so fun! I've had so many fun ideas I'm having a hard time choosing which one would be good to do. I may just post up lots of different ideas. ;)

I think it would be good to start off by having a missionary come in a share a story about how serving others has furthered the work of the gospel. I  have heard a lot of stories about someone who had no interest in the church and service was able to help them through that. The missionaries, or someone else did acts of service for them (whether it be yard work, moving furniture, repairs, etc), they saw the gospel at it's finest and had a change of heart.

While the missionary is telling his story, you can take the opportunity to hand out missionary badges to each of the children. For badges you have a few options.

1. I found some printable ones here on Sugardoodle. These have an option to fill in a last name. I don't know if you can leave it at just "Elder" or "Sister" or put "Future Missionary," or if you have to put in a last name. If you have to, it would just take more time and you may run into issues with any possible visitors that you have. 

2. Another thought I had was to have each child make their own missionary badge at the end and you can tape it on them.

3. I found this on Pinterest of a YM/YW activity on going on a  mission. They made badges for the youth there and I thought it was a neat idea. You can get black card stock, silver sharpie, and pin on plastic sleeve. You write on it and stick it in the sleeve.

When the missionary is done you can ask them if they think that you have to be a full time missionary to have an experience like that, or would a primary child be able to spread the gospel through service? Of course the answer is that anyone can be a missionary, especially when it comes to service. Then you can explain this further for one or two minutes. Haven an older child read Matthew 25:34-40. Another scripture the outline uses is Mosiah 2:17. You could share your own story of how you've seen this work in your own life, or you can share a story you find, if you have a difficult time finding one, you can use this one here. I think the page it opens up to has two stories on it, the one I really liked was about the father who had cancer and how everyone in the ward pitched in to help drive him to and from work. I know that primary children can't drive, but there are things they could do to help. You could ask them what these things could be? They could help their mom or dad bring dinner or cookies over, write a card, befriend the children, or invite the children over to play (to give their parents a break). Explain that even though this family was already members of the church, they still needed service. Tell them full time missionaries serve both members and nonmembers. This will lead you into your activity.

For an activity I though it'd be neat to do a punch board activity. You could put in each hole a scenerio to act out. It could be "You walk a neighbors dog." The child who got this has to act it out with a friend, and then whoever guesses what it is has to say how this would help missionary work. That person then gets to take a turn, or choose someone else to take a turn, if they've already gone. We do scenerio games so often, I think it would be fun to do something a little different.

If you don't want to make a punch out board, you could always do the classic pick a piece of paper out of a hat/bag/bowl.

If you have time and want to do another activity, you could have them write a card to an inactive member, someone who is sick, someone from your ward/branch who is serving a mission, or even people who have been effected by Hurricane Sandy.

October 2012 Week 4 Sharing Time: I can go to the temple to receive ordinances for my ancestors when I am older.

This week we are going to be discussing doing work for our ancestors. When I first read this sharing time, I'll be honest, my first thought was, "Thank goodness I don't have to do that one!" Because it just seems so deep I wouldn't want to get anyone confused or leave anyone with any weird impressions. I've mentioned before that we do not separate for senior and junior primary, so this makes it even more difficult. Well, long story short, I am doing sharing time this week. I thought because we had practices coming up for the program I was off the hook, but I was wrong. But, this just means I have to come up with something REALLY great this week. I know this post is long, but please keep in mind there are some great links at the bottom to talks I've found while researching. You may not want to include it but it could be a good resource to prepare spiritually. Also, I have an idea for treats at the bottom too. Annnnd without further ado, here it is.

I am going to start off by asking what everyone is going to be for Halloween. (I know this doesn't seem related, but bear with me. They're going to want to talk about it, trust me.) What I'm listening for is someone to be someone who would not have been able to have been introduced to the gospel when they were alive. Your listening for people that actually existed. So you're listening for a princess (assuming it's an old castle and horse kind of princess), an Indian, an Egyptian, a pirate, etc. If you don't get any of these I would be you will have a little girl be Cinderella, Snow White, etc. You could easily say that people who lived in the time when that story took place would not have had the opportunity to learn about the gospel. You could emphasize this further by saying this is however many years after Captain Moroni buried the plates, but this many years before Joseph Smith received them. They may have learned about Jesus but they would not have learned all of the things that we know about the gospel and Heavenly Fathers plan for us. I want to start off by doing this because you're going to have them all want to talk about Halloween anyways, this will get it out of their system, and keep you on topic.  

From there, I will ask them if it is fair that they didn't get to learn all the things you get to learn?  After they acknowledge it isn't fair we can talk about how they will have an opportunity to learn about the gospel after they die. A few months back they should have gone over the plan of salvation (I know we did, I didn't teach it but I do remember them doing it), so this shouldn't be a foreign idea. If it is you could always do a light recap on it. Keep it to one or two minutes.

The next thing I will do is ask them, "If someone who is taught in Spirit Prison decides they believe in the gospel and want to live with Heavenly Father, do they  still need to be baptized?" When they say yes you can say, "How will they be baptized then?" The older kids I bet will know this, the younger ones may not. John 3:5 is a great scripture to emphasize the importance of baptism. This applies to the living and those who have passed on. This is when you get into the subject of them getting to help with this. Hold up a picture of the temple and tell them that when they are 12, if they have been worthy, they will get to go to the Temple and be baptized for someone. You may want to gage their reactions and further explain that we do not actually baptize dead people, we are baptized FOR them. Tell them that now the person they are being baptized for will have to opportunity to accept the baptism or reject it. 

Then I will ask, "what about all the other things we do in the temple?" I will then tell the children that we have the opportunity to do something really great for them. We can help them with these special ordinances in the temple. That is why it is so special to go through the temple and to do service for them.

My great grandma died when my grandma was a young teenager. She had to step into a mother like role when this happened. She helped my great grandpa to raise all of her siblings. Soon after she got married to my grandpa, my great grandfather died. My grandma and her family were not members of the church. My grandma discovered the church through my grandpa. A few years afterward my great grandparents were able to be sealed together for eternity. This is a blessing to my family to know that my death did not separate them. They are able to be together forever, even though they didn't know that was a possibility while they were alive.

I think it's important to get the kids excited to do baptisms for their own family members when they are old enough. Even if the work goes back far, it probably doesn't go back all the way. If you really didn't feel like you were able to do work for your own family, there are tons of names submitted to the temple. You can do those and help someone else get work done for their family.

I really liked the coloring activity idea for this week of drawing themselves on one side of a piece of paper, and an ancestor on the other. They could even just make up what the ancestor would look like. I made a coloring page if you didn't want to have them do it free hand. You can print it from here.

Also, I know this is the week before Halloween, so you may want to do treats. I had a fun idea for that too. Make sugar cookies, and use a gingerbread man cookie cutter. Frost like usual, or decorate them. Super cute and it would use your gingerbread man cookie cutters you normally only use once a year (or if your like me, you buy them and never use them, I'm so terrible with this).


I found this talk on genealogy and temple work from the October 2012 Ensign that may be good to read first to spiritually prepare. This isn't exactly on topic with what we're talking about, but I felt it was a good read to prepare myself mentally. Here is another one from Henry B. Erying that I though was really good also. I couldn't decide, so you can. :)


I want to close by bearing my testimony to anyone who may read this. I know that this can seem an odd or weird practice at first. I encourage anyone who feels this way to read about it from a church website, such as lds.org or mormon.org. I know that this practice is ordained of God. I know that this is a sacred responsibility of ours to care for our ancestors who have passed on. I want anyone who may read this to know that we believe the person must accept these ordinances for them. These are not forced on them, but are there as an option should they decide to use it. This practice is done out of love for those who have passed on.

October 2012 Week 3 Sharing Time: I Can Receive Strengthening Power Through Priesthood Blessings

In my branch we alternate doing sharing time each week, meaning I get the opportunity to do it once every three weeks. This works out really well for us. I really like that once I'm done, I don't have to wait forever until I get to do it again. Usually when I finish, all I can think about is, "Man, I should have done this!" or "Oh, this would've been so cute!" So with the once every three week system, I don't have to wait very long to do it again. So I get to start planning right away. Like that day.

The only time this kind of backfires on me is in situations like this, because of General Conference and Stake Conference, I will not be in charge of another Sharing Time until November. Crazy huh! Well, I have been itching to get some stuff together, so I will continue to post helps to help people prepare here. It helps me feel like I'm contributing :)

This week is on the priesthood again, keeping with theme for the past few weeks. This week is about priesthood blessings and how they can strengthen us. This lesson has a lot of potential to be neat, because so many children have experiences with the priesthood. Before we dive in, I just want to stress, as the manual does, to be sensitive of any children in your primary that may not have a priesthood holder in the home, or maybe a child who has not had an opportunity to have any kind of blessing. You may be shocked at how many children this can apply to.

The guideline has us starting out discussing our hands and how they can help or bless. I like this way to introduce the material. Another idea is to have a speaker come in and talk about an experience they've had with the priesthood. You could do both if you'd like, start with talking about hands, and move onto the speaker. Kids love having a guest come in. They get really excited about it and it usually helps them to listen and take in what the speaker is trying to say. I would suggest using a priesthood holder and having him share an experience of when a particular blessing they gave or received helped to strengthen. If you can't think of someone, use a missionary. If I were doing sharing time this week, they would be my first pick, and here's why. The missionaries love to come into primary and to get to know the kids. They also have a lot of experiences with the priesthood and are young and fun to the kids. They usually love to listen to missionaries.

In the guideline it suggests for us to have them trace hands, cut them out, and place them by a type of blessing they've received and invite a few to share their experiences. I like this idea, but as I mentioned before you may be surprised by how many children have not had an experience like this. My fear is that you could end up pointing out children who do not have priesthood holders in the home, or who have not had an experience with the priesthood like this. For example, I was blessed when I was a baby, but other then that, my first blessing was when I was 12 at Girls Camp. It was not from my father. This is not because my dad was inactive, unworthy or a nonmember. I just had never received one. I share this to illustrate that you may not even be aware that some of your children may not have had this experience.

So my thought is this, after you open up, whether it is from the discussion on hands or from a guest speaker, I would ask the children, "When do we have the opportunity to be blessed or strengthened from the priesthood?" The answers you are looking for are baby blessings, baptism, confirmation, fathers blessing, blessing the sick, passing the sacrament, etc. I thought it would be neat to emphasize the "strengthen" part of this lesson. I think it would be really neat to go with a "armor of God" theme during the discussion that follows. You would clip up a picture of a person, and as you discuss each way that the priesthood can strengthen you, you add a piece of armor to the person. By the end they are covered in armor and protected. Here is a link to a printable person and armor you could use. The only thing I wish is that it were bigger. Maybe it can be enlarged though. You could even have a child come up and put the armor on the person, to keep them talking and involved. There a seven parts to the armor, so you can combine a few of them to make it work out so they are all up there when your done or you can add a few more ways the priesthood can bless us.

As they mention each answer, talk about it for a minute to help them understand how we this would strengthen us. You can also present a picture of each example for while you're discussing it. I've listed my thoughts on each topic to get you thinking. Feel free to use what I've written or add things in as the spirit leads you.

1. When the sacrament is passed. This can strengthen us by allowing us to be closer to our Heavenly Father. When we feel close to him and feel his spirit it encourages us to make better decisions. This is a spiraling effect, the more good decisions we make, the easier it is to make them and so on. This strengthens us against the powers of Satan.
A good quote for the sacrament is:
"As we worthily partake of the sacrament, we will sense those things we need to improve in and receive the help and determination to do so. No matter what our problems, the sacrament always gives hope." - John H. Groberg April 1989

2. When we receive a fathers blessing. This is a tool that we can use to receive help in a specific area of our life, or during a specific difficult time. The great thing about this is that it can be specific. You can get strength and guidance on a particular topic in your time of need or worry. This is an invaluable tool and should be used! Please emphasize that if a child does not have a priesthood holder in the house, a home teacher should be asked. If they don't feel comfortable they could ask someone they do feel comfortable with. You don't want children to feel they are a disadvantage for guidance because of a home situation.

3. When we receive a blessing for healing. This should be pretty straight forward. When we receive a blessing for healing it can help make us strong again. Being healed through the priesthood blessing combined with your faith will strengthen your testimony of Heavenly Fathers love for you and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

4. When we are baptized. When we are baptized we are making a covenant with Heavenly Father. By doing this Heavenly Father promises to give us certain blessings if we keep our end of the deal, so to say. When we see these blessings come into our life it can help strengthen our testimony. When Heavenly Father asks us to do something it is for our own good, it is to help us be stronger and better people, to keep us safe from things that could hurt us spiritually or physically. You could even relate back a month or so when we talked about keeping a baby safe, that we have rules for them just like Heavenly Father has for us.

5. When we are confirmed a member. When we are confirmed we also receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. This can be a huge strengthening tool we receive from the power of the priesthood. We know the Holy Ghost can never lead us astray, so when it testifies to us, we can trust what were being told.

A huge aspect for me is feeling the spirit, that strengthens me to make good decisions and stand up for what is right. If we can remember the spirit that we felt when we are confirmed, or baptized or receive a blessing, etc, we will have a easier time choosing the right.

This is from the outline also, read 3 Nephi 17:11-25, this is the story of Christ blessing the children. The outline says, "Explain that priesthood holders have the power to act in the name of Jesus Christ; they can bless us just as Jesus would if he were here." I couldn't have put it any better myself :)

Nursery has a cute handout for the priesthood that I thought would be a little different to hand out. It makes a flip book instead of a plain coloring page. Here is a link to the coloring page. You will have to click on the coloring page image of someone receiving a blessing to download the one I'm referring to. It took me a minute to figure this out.

I realize this is long, I usually try to shorten it up but I just felt this week needed to be a bit longer considering the sensitive material being covered.

Sharing Time October 2012 Week 2: We Receive Ordinances of Salvation Through the Priesthood

Sorry this is so late getting posted. Things have been crazy at home with my son lately. There has been a pretty gross bug going around and it's required a good bit of my time to deal with him. Luckily my husband and I seem to not have gotten it. :)

This week my stake has Stake Conference. So we won't be doing this sharing time, but I still thought I would post a few ideas and thoughts for this week.

The church's outline this week reads:

IDENTIFY THE DOCTRINE (seeing an object lesson): Have one child hold an opened umbrella. Let a few children stand under it. Compare the umbrella to the priesthood. Point out that if it were raining, all the children under the umbrella would receive the blessing of staying dry, not just the one holding it. Similarly, God has provided, through His priesthood, a way for all His children to be blessed. Through the priesthood we receive the ordinances of salvation that allow us to return and live with God again.

ENCOURAGE UNDERSTANDING (putting together puzzles): Write each of the following on a separate piece of paper: baptism, confirmation, priesthood ordination (for men), temple endowment, and temple sealing. Cut up each piece of paper into a puzzle. Briefly explain to the children what an ordinance is (a sacred ceremony or act that has spiritual meanings), and tell the children that some priesthood ordinances are required for us to return and live with Heavenly Father. Draw five steps on the board, and place a picture of Jesus Christ on the top step. Divide the children into five groups and give each group one of the puzzles you made. Ask them to assemble their puzzle and then share what they know about the ordinance with the rest of the Primary. Have the groups post their assembled puzzles in proper order on the steps on the board.

Now for my own thoughts. I looooove the idea of using an umbrella in the "Identifying Doctrine" part. I think it is a really cute and easy to understand way to illustrate how the priesthood blesses everyone, not just those who carry it. If I were doing this sharing time this week, I would absolutely want to do something with that. Buuuuut I don't have an umbrella, I know I'm weird. The rain has just never bothered me enough to get one. So for all of us weirdo's out there without an umbrella, what to do? Use a poster board.  You could make a big one with a poster board (less than a dollar), color it and make it fun. You can clip it up on the chalkboard and have really kids stand "underneath" it, or you could just print out some paper families. 

I created a little coloring page for you to use if you'd like. I thought it'd be neat for the kids to draw pictures of their families, friends, or just be creative under the umbrella. As if the umbrella is "protecting" them from the rain. They could even color in rain too. I think it's a cute reminder of the lesson today, plus they get to use some of their creativity. You can find the coloring page here. Again, let me know if you have any issues with this. I am still new to it.

Here is a link to Sofia's Primary Ideas. She has a really cute idea for this week that is definitely worth checking out too.

Thanks for stopping by!

Child Scripture Set DIY

Okay, I know these are not authentic scripture sets, but as I mentioned here, I wanted to create a little scripture "set" I could give my son to carry around, knowing fully that they will get destroyed. The purpose of this is to teach him that they are special. This way, he has his own he can learn from until he gets a nice set for his eighth birthday. After giving them to him I had him hug them and tell them he loved them. I told him they were special and we took care of them.

For this you will need:
Index Cards (or card stock)
A ring to put it on (I used one you would put keys on)
Stickers to decorate (optional)
 Hole puncher

Cost wise, it really couldn't be any better. I bought the cards at Wal Mart for .48, the hole puncher for .97, the ring I already had (Wal Mart had 6 of them for 2.00), and 2 packs of stickers at 1.00 each. I probably had stickers I could use but I didn't feel like digging around for them. I would HIGHLY recommend laminating these. Especially if you are giving this to a young child. My son is 20 months old and will probably destroy these in 5 minutes. He's a little crazy though. I don't have a laminater, but after seeing how easy it is for him, I will be using my mom's next time I am over her house. Until then, close supervision! I don't care if he messes them up in general, but 5 minutes is too short for it to last in my opinion. If you don't have someone who has one you can borrow or use, you could go to Kinko's or Staple's. I believe they do it there cheaply.

The first thing I did was pick what I wanted to be on there. I chose the story of Noah's Ark (Because I could animal stickers), Daniel and the Lion's Den (Again, all about the stickers), my favorite scripture, and my husband's favorite scripture. I wrote a sentence or two on each one until the story was told. I punched a whole in it and let him put stickers on. I did have to rearrange some of the stickers so they weren't covering up words. Then I put them on the ring, voila! 

If you laminate them (again, highly recommended), do it before putting them on the ring. Maybe even before stickers depending on the kind of stickers you use too. I used puffy one's that probably won't go through a laminater. So I will have to peel them off or chose different ones. 

These were pretty easy, but in case you have issues shortening the stories, I will write out what I did, to at least get you on the right track. I love the idea of putting their favorite stories, or one's you've talked about recently in there. My son is too little to have this work for us, but maybe it'll work for someone else. The joy of this too, is you can always add on to it. 


Noah's Ark:

The Lord told Noah to build a big boat because a flood was coming. Noah built the boat and everyone told him he was crazy. After he built the boat he put two animals of every species in it. So two turtles, two cats, two puppies, two elephants. The flood came just like the Lord promised.

 Daniel and the Lion's Den:

Daniel was a prophet who refused to stop praying. The King threw him in the lion's den. Angels calmed the lions and Daniel was saved.

 Let me know what you do with yours! This would be great for Sunbeams, Nursery, or FHE.

Nursery Behold Your Little Ones Lesson 23: I Love the Scriptures

My son is in nursery and he has a really great Nursery Leader. He gets to take home his coloring pages every week discussing showing what he learned. Normally I would just stick it up on the fridge or file it away in his "baby book," but I got the idea today, while I was struggling with what to do tonight for FHE, what if we revisit his Sunday lesson tonight? The more I think about it, the more I like it. It reinforces the lessons and gives him a second exposure to it. Plus, there aren't a ton of things to do for FHE that keep a 20 month old's attention. Anyway, the more I started researching different ideas to reinforce these lessons, the more I realized there isn't a ton of helps out there for our Nursery Leaders. It's sad because it really can be a fun calling. You have the opportunity to make so many fun crafts and cute snacks, but sometimes it's hard to get brainstorming. I figured if I was going to be doing it anyways, I would put up any thoughts or ideas I had to help.

The lesson they taught yesterday was Lesson 23, I Love the Scriptures. I'm not sure if there is an official church wide schedule to be on, or what other areas are doing, but this is what they taught.

The lesson can be found here. There should be a link there for a puppet project that they can do. I like that idea, but I would probably print it out on card stock and laminate it before hand. Little ones can be hard on regular paper. ;)

The idea I had that was a little bit different is to make a little scripture thing for them. This would be theirs. They could protect it and keep it safe. It would be a good practice for having their own set of scriptures one day. My original thought was maybe 4 or 5 pages with a few scriptures and pictures to coordinate on it. I still like that idea but I think I found a better finished product here. I think I am going to get some index cards, write a few scriptures on a few different ones, poke a whole in them and put a ring in it. If you have a laminater that is probably a brilliant idea, I don't so I'm not going to worry about. To me, this is going to be the set he can practice on. He can get used to bringing them to church, learn not to put them on the kitchen table, etc. I'm going to teach him that they're special and he needs to take care of them, and that's true. But between you and me, I won't shed any tears if they get too messed up, because they're cheap and easy to replace, unlike the set he'll receive when he's 8.

When I go home and make them, I'll take pictures so you can see how I did them. I'll link it up when it's finished.


UPDATE: I just finished the tutorial on the practice scriptures. You can find it here. I hope you guys like it!