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.
