Monday, March 28, 2011

April 2011 Lesson Schedule



This month, as it is the month of Easter, we will be learning all about Jesus so we can better understand Who He is and what He's done for us.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Lesson 18: I WILL LOVE OTHERS

For today's lesson I followed the Behold Your Little Ones manual and also tried doing this idea from sugardoodle using hearts that I cut out of colored foam sheets.



As I handed out the hearts we talked about ways that they can show love to others. Some of the things we talked about:

Sharing toys and snacks
Not pushing or hitting
Using kind words
Saying please and thank you
Saying I love you
Giving hugs
Being kind
Helping people in need
Helping your mom's and dad's
Smiling

Then I bore my testimony of Heavenly Father and Jesus' love for us. That if we follow Their example and show love to others we will feel good and help others to feel good too. By showing love to others we can make the world a better place and Heavenly Father will bless us.



We made these for our craft using the handout from the manual and attaching a chain of good deeds the kids can do for others to show their love. I pretty much typed out the list that we named off when passing out the hearts during the lesson and cut them into strips.



So each link has a suggestion on something they can do to show love. Maybe if their parents are feeling up to it they can have the kids choose a link each day of the week to work on.



I printed these little characters off from Church Babies blog and colored and cut them out. I printed enough kids for each of my kids to have one.



We talked about how all of these children look different from each other, but even though people are from different parts of the world, look different, act different, or make choices different from us, we still need to treat them with love and kindness.



And during the last few minutes of class while we were waiting for the parents to come and get the kids we played "Pin The Kid On The Earth." :)



And they liked it. The only problem is that all the kids crowded it at once and I couldn't get tape on the backs of their little people fast enough.



And of course we had the Jesus cut-out to be our example.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

I CAN LOVE ALL OF GOD'S CREATURES

I had a lot of fun preparing for this lesson. It was a little hectic in our class today and didn't go exactly as I had dreamed, but when does it ever when you have a room full of two year olds? They still had fun and I hope they learned a thing or two.


I made about 12 of these binoculars this week, mod podging patterned paper around empty toilet paper rolls and hot gluing string to the sides so they can hang around the kids' necks. I've been saving TP rolls since the first day I learned I would be in nursery because there's always something you can do with them.



We started our lesson off with prayer and then I handed out puzzle pieces and miscellaneous toys all of animals for each kid to hold. We talked about them asking what the animal was and was it big or small. Then I gave each child a pair of binoculars. They spent the remainder of the lesson looking through them at each other and the animals I had handed out, but that was the whole point. I told them that everything we see through those binoculars was something that Heavenly Father put on the earth for our good. Everything we see through those binoculars we need to treat with love and kindness and respect. In two year old words, everything we see in those binoculars you need to be nice to.


They were such a hit!


I found these little "magic beans" at the dollar store. I gathered all of the children around a table and told them we were going to do a magic trick. They were really excited. I handed each of them a magic bean and they all put them into the tub of water I had out. Then I told them that while the magic was happening we would go and color a picture and when we were done our beans would transform into something really cool.


We ended up having to put the lid on them and put them up and out of the way because the kids were a little too intrigued wanting to hover over it, stick their fingers in it, and dump the water.



We went to our table and colored this picture.


I added a little text on the side in a word document and for a little extra "umph" I brought some colored feathers and had each kid tape a bright feather onto it.


When we were done we checked on our magic trick and much to the kids' surprise their magic beans turned into animals! Each kid got an animal, and once again we talked about each animal and how we need to be kind to all of God's creatures.

After singing time, toy time, and snack time we have a little space at the very end of class before the parents come and grab their kids. I had made this little matching activity for the older kids with animal picture I found online and colored. I was actually impressed that the older kids could play the matching game and they really loved it. For the younger kids I brought some animal puzzles for them to do. Again, we focused on being kind to all of God's creatures.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Lesson 5: JESUS CHRIST SHOWED US HOW TO LOVE OTHERS

My whole family, myself included, ended up being really sick this weekend and we didn't go to church. I had one of my other leaders cover nursery for me today. I was going to have them color this picture and maybe make cards for their mom's telling them they love them.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Lesson 4: HEAVENLY FATHER AND JESUS CHRIST LOVE ME

For this week's hand out I made these little cards:

With little mirrors inside so they could see their cute faces and know that Heavenly Father and Jesus love them.

I had a hard time finding mirrors that small or lightweight that were cheap enough, so I ended up just making my own. I bought an emergency blanket in the camping section of Wal-Mart for $2.00 and cut it up and mod podged it onto little pieces of craft foam sheets. It wasn't exactly like a real mirror, but it worked for what I was wanting to accomplish.

In addition to send them home with these we had them color the little faces that go along with this lesson in the manual.