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!

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 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!

General Conference Packet

I am so excited about this post! I have seen so many adorable pages that I really wanted to compile the best and include a few unique ones of my own to create a really fun packet to get children involved in General Conference. Unfortunately I've gotten really busy with work and family things going on, so I wasn't able to get everything together. I wasn't able to create a few unique pages like I wanted, just one. I'm going to start working now on April's and maybe I'll have it done in time. :) 

I have also spoken to a few moms to see what their kids liked and didn't like to try and weed out the ones that seem like a great idea, but maybe aren't. I've decided to list links to each of the pages individually in case you would rather not include one in your packet you won't have to waste any ink or paper.

The first one that I like is the one I've heard the most positive reviews about. This one has a picture of the prophet/apostles and a blank tie underneath so that they can color the tie to match what tie the prophet/apostle is wearing that day.This one is in the sugardoodle packet for this conference, which is really great through and through. I ended up printing out the whole thing for my Primary kids. They also have a cute maze that says "Follow the Prophet." So stinking cute.

This one is really neat because it is a chart of to guess the number of missionaries, branches, etc. there are, and then an area to fill in the actual number. I didn't find anything else like it, so check it out!

http://ladycreate-a-lot.blogspot.com/2011/04/general-conference-games-and-activity.html

Kids love getting new crayons. They're super cheap. Great mix? I think so. This one was really cute packaging that I think would really take it up a notch and get them even more excited about it.

http://fluffybunnyfeetdesigns.blogspot.com/2011/09/general-conference-packets-for-my.html

This is some coloring pages from sugardoodle.

http://www.sugardoodle.net/joomla/index.php?id=8546&option=com_content&view=article

Also, check out my coloring page my husband made of  Thomas S. Monson!

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!

Sharing Time September 2012 Week 5 Ideas

This month we have five Sundays, which gives us a fun opportunity to be creative. I love how the church organizes things for us every week, and makes it so simple to do sharing time, but sometimes it is really fun to be able to be creative and think outside the box. When I was thinking about what would be fun to do this week there were a lot of possibilities.

1. Practice for your Primary Program if you have that coming up. I know many wards and branches have already had theres, but if you haven't, this may be a good time to do it. This is kind of neat because you won't have to skip another lesson to do this. It's kind of a free week.

2. Do a scripture chase. You could do the classic one with the senior primary and a younger version with the junior. One idea I had to make this a little easier for younger kids was to tell them part of a story and they can kind of finish up or say who the story was about. You could get pictures from the library and use those. I liked this because it helps the children get more familiar with their scripture stories before they can read. It's a nice foundation to build upon when they're older. To make this even more fun you could involve snack size candy or a homemade treat.

3. Keep on subject with the 10 Commandments. You could play a game to get the children to understand them better/memorize them. I have a punch out board I made for a sharing time a while ago, you could have scenerios in each one and have the children match it to the commandments. You could have something along the lines of "Your mom told you to clean up your bedroom. You chose to go outside and play soccer." This would be breaking the commandment of Honor thy father and mother. You could have some in there that follow the commandments. My kids really love the punch out box, you could put anything in there and they would think it's the coolest thing ever. I don't have a tutorial of mine, but this is very close to mine. I don't have that nifty circle cutting tool, so I used an exacto blade and cut squares, it was easier then trying circles.

4. Play a General Conference game. A few months ago I did a Sharing Time on the First Presidency and Apostles. We played a little bit of a matching game with them. One thing I liked about this is I found out some fun interesting facts about a few different ones and read them to the kids. I then would read out some of the fun facts and have them match who it was. We had a neat experience because Dieter F. Uchtdorf was a pilot, and we have a child who is interested in doing that for a career. So it was neat to see that child draw a connection to him. I think it helps to view them as real people with families and hobbies, it makes them more relatable to us. To me, this is so important for our children. The more they can connect and relate to a speaker, the more they will listen and trust what they have to say.

5. The next idea I had was to do October 2012 week 1, since we will have general conference that week. You can find some thoughts from me here. And you can find the outline from the church for this week here.

6. Movie and snacks. This is a really simple, really fun thing for the kids to get to do. You could bring in a couple big blankets, push the chairs to the wall, pop some popcorn and enjoy a movie together. My family has The Living Scriptures, The Prodigal Son. We watched this a few weeks ago for FHE, and it was so cute. My son was a little to young to appreciate it, but I think it's perfect for the primary aged kids. The great thing is they have so many different movies that you can find one to fit whatever lesson you want to teach. You do have to pay for these, but chances are if you don't have some, someone else in your branch/ward will. Ask teachers, councelors, or other moms. If you can't find any, the church library always has some fun movies to watch.

I hope you guys were able to find something fun to do this week and think outside the box. Let me know what you guys end up doing!

Prophet Thomas S. Monson Coloring Page

I have been thinking a lot about General Conference and what we as parents can do to prepare for the inevitable struggle with our children during this time. I know my son is too little to understand what is going on, or to get anything out of General Conference, but he won't be for long. I have been researching a lot of different ideas for what to do with the kids during conference, things to keep them occupied or things to help them stay focused. I've found so many great ideas out there that I really liked I wanted to hopefully compile a few different ideas into one place.  That is something I'm going to work on over the next couple of days so please check back by Monday night hopefully I will have everything up, and a few of my own added.

What I wanted to share tonight was a project my husband and I worked on together. As I was looking through all of these ideas, I noticed that there weren't very many options for a coloring page of the prophet, Thomas S. Monson. I thought it was strange because it was something basic I wanted to include in a packet for my primary kids. Anyways, I decided that I can draw a little bit (a VERY little bit) and my husband can draw really well, so between the two of us, we can do this! Anyways, below is a link to print the page out. I thought it turned out well, so I hope you do too. :)

Coloring page here.

Sharing Time September 2012 Week 4: I Should Respect Others

This week I am in charge of doing Sharing Time at my church. It is about a 20-25 minute lesson for the children aged 3-11. Most of the churches around us break it up into two age groups within that, but we're so small that we don't. It's difficult sometimes to target everyone within that age group, but I usually find some way to not lose the younger ones while getting the older ones involved.  Anyways, I wanted to post my thoughts to maybe get some people brainstorming.

The first thing I'll do is share a short story about a friend of mine and how we are really great friends but have different talents. I am doing this to illustrate that everyone is good a something, even if it is just being kind to others, it doesn't have to be the piano, singing, or drawing. I am then going to have the children go around and say one thing that makes them unique. It could be something like the piano, or it could be something along the lines of "I really like bugs." (We don't have very many children so I think we'll be able to go through this quickly, you may have to nix this idea if you have lots of kids.) Again, the point of this is to illustrate that we are all unique and special in our own ways. I have some stickers my mom gave me a while ago that say "I am special" and "I am a child of God," I am going to hand these out while they're doing this.

Then I am going to draw a parellel between the idea that we are all unique and special, and Heavenly Father loves us, to the idea that we need to be kind and respectful to others. This should be pretty simple. I just want them to understand that we need to remember that everyone is special in their own way so we should be kind and loving towards them. I will probably use the word respectful instead, and that way they can brainstorm what it is to be respectful.

I got this idea from someone posting on Sugardoodle. The link for Sugardoodle is at the bottom of this page and her comments are in that section. I'm not sure how to work it in quite yet but I really like it. I'm thinking maybe at this point would be a good place. If not, I will just veto the whole idea and move onto the next part. What you do is start by inviting a child up to talk about something. It can be to read a scripture, talk about their week, share an experience, it doesn't really matter what it is they're sharing. I am going to go and talk to another adult in the room a little noisely. I am probably going to choose for them to read a scripture. Maybe the ten commandments? The whole point of this is for the children to be a little distracted and to illustrate how disrespectful it is to talk while someone else is supposed to have the floor. I am going to ask the child who stood up how it felt when I was being rude.
I try to use scriptures as often as possible in these, so I am going to have an older child read Mosiah 18:21, and then hopefully explain the idea behind it.

Then I want to tie in the idea of the Good Samaritan. I may be short on time, but I really like the idea of using scriptures, to get the children used to pulling them out and being familiar with them. So I am hoping to make it to this part so we can read it outloud and discuss why this demonstrates respect. I also found a good coloring or activity page about the Good Samaritan for them to take home (or if this, by some miracle, is really short, can fill in the remaining time). You can see where I got it here.

I will close by sharing my testimony on loving thy neighbor, the ten commandments, and how respecting others can make us happier and our lives better.


Here is a link to the official guideline from the church for this week. (On Sugardoodle)