Lesson 21: JOSEPH SMITH SAW HEAVENLY FATHER AND JESUS CHRIST

  I got this from the manual and colored it to use to teach the kids.  We went over each one in order and told the story of the first vision.  I opened the scriptures and read Heavenly Father's words when Joseph Smith saw Him.  "This is my beloved Son.  Hear Him!"  The kids were reverent while I was giving my lesson.  They definitely know when the spirit is present. I love it!

After the lesson they colored their own first vision.

Lesson 20: I WILL BE REVERENT

We did the handout from the manual.  We focused a lot on quiet mouths, folding arms, and when are appropriate times to do that.  Pretty basic.

Lesson 19: I CAN BE HAPPY

 I was out of town for this lesson but these are the handouts that I left for my substitute.  I gave her a choice of which ones she wanted to use because I wasn't positive if balloons would be a little too much for chaos for the kids.

Lesson 17: I WILL SHARE

The only thing different from the manual that I did, was that I brought treats and shared them with everyone.  I had the kids come and get their treats and share their treats with someone else until everybody had their own.  I think the kids really got it.  It was fun.

We did the handout from the manual.  It was a hard thing for them to color because I had already made them into the cubes, but it worked out okay.

Lesson 16: I WILL SAY I'M SORRY

 We followed the manual and I added this little story from Sugardoodle.  The kids loved the story.

Instead of making the necklaces from the manual I thought it would be a fun idea to make them more my own.  I got these little bears at Hobby Lobby and made them into necklaces with yarn and a hole punch.  I bought some fun bandaids and had the kids choose which bandaid they wanted to put on their bears, which is to indicate that saying sorry is like putting a bandaid on a wound so it can heal.  The kids really liked this.

Lesson 14: I WILL OBEY

I followed the manual on this one as well.  We had a bag with a few items inside: a hair brush, a tooth brush, a banana, a toy, etc.  The kids drew the items out and we talked about what kinds of "chores" those items represented and we talked about how when their moms and dads asked them to do those things that they needed to listen and obey.  We sang the song "Quickly I'll obey" from the children's songbook.  Then we also talked about the religious things we needed to do that were obedient.  Saying our prayers, attending church, serving our families and neighbors, etc.

I printed these characters out and put them on popsicle sticks that said, "I Will Obey".  The kids colored those to take home.

Lesson 13: MY FAMILY CAN BE TOGETHER FOREVER

 I mostly followed the lesson from the manual, but added my own little bit with these links.

 Each link is a member of a family - there are mom's, dad's, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins, and grandparents.  We talked about how the temple can seal our families together, and linking us as a family unit for eternity.  If even one person doesn't make it to the temple, although everyone else is still in tact, that eternal family circle is broken.

I made the links myself on a word document using clip art from this LDS Clip Art website.  I put it around the kids necks like a necklace for them to take home.

 

 For their craft I used this print out from here because I liked that the family and the temple were in the same shot.

 The kids colored it and then I came around and put glue on each of the temple spears and let the kids put glitter on them.  They loved this and it was a nice extra touch to a plain coloring sheet.

Lesson 12: I CAN PRAY WITH MY FAMILY

I brought a picnic basket with a few items inside: a piece of play food, a picture of a house, a picture of the temple, a picture of Jesus, a book of mormon, some toy characters that represented a mom, dad, brother, sister, and grandparents.  We talked about prayer and the proper way of saying a prayer, who we are praying to, who's name we pray in, and the other things we say in a prayer.  After we discussed it I pulled out my picnic basket and had each of the kids draw something from it and we talked about each item and how we are thankful for those items and how we can say thanks to our Heavenly Father for those blessings.

They colored the handout from the manual.

Lesson 9: I HAVE A BODY LIKE HEAVENLY FATHER'S

I was on vacation this past weekend so I wasn't there for the lesson, but I did make handouts for our class.  I thought that it would be fun for the kids to have paper dolls to play with to help them learn that we were created in Heavenly Father's image. I thought about going to the store and buying them some already made paper dolls, but decided I would check and see what the internet had to offer first first.  I came across an LDS clipart paper doll that is free to download. I thought they were really cute and I loved that they had more modest "underwear". You can download it here.

I printed them on card stock and wrote the name of our lesson on their "underwear" so that the parents would know what we were trying to teach them and therefore would reinforce the lesson whenever the kids played with the dolls.

I only did one sheet of clothes for each kid, gender specific, and I didn't cut the clothes out.  It was a lot of work to cut out 15 paper dolls and so I figured the parents could cut the clothes out if they wanted to.

Lesson 8: SUNDAY IS A DAY TO REMEMBER HEAVENLY FATHER AND JESUS CHRIST

 Here is the handout that I made for the kids.  They loved it.

Here it is after they colored them. :)

Lesson 7: JESUS CREATED THE WORLD FOR ME

I had the kids to a little puzzle that I made out of the illustrations from the handout with the lesson. I explained to them that Heavenly Father asked Jesus to make the world and then I pulled a puzzle piece out in order of when they were created, asking them what it was that Jesus made.  When they told me what it was, we talked about it for a minute and then they got to place the puzzle piece on the board with a piece of tape.

 

 After we talked about each one, it formed this, which meant there was only one puzzle piece remaining.  I asked them what they thought that was.

I bore my testimony that Jesus followed Heavenly Father's commandment and did create all of those things and together they made the world that we live on today.

 

 This was what we did for their activity.  I brought the styrofoam balls already attached to the sticks, and had the kids color on them with green and blue markers. None of theirs had continents or anything, but I'm sure the parents got the point.

 _________________________________________________________

On a side note, this past Sunday was Mother's Day and we had the kids string noodles onto ribbon to make necklaces for their mom's.  This is me with the one my daughter, who is in nursery, made for me.

Lesson 6: THE HOLY GHOST HELPS ME

 I saw this little analogy on sugardoodle.  You take an empty box and explain to the kids that you have a special gift inside the box (this really got their attention and all of them crowded around to see).  Tell them that you have filled the box FULL with so much love for each one of the kids.

Open the box and show them the inside.  Ask them if they can see all of the love that you put inside the box. Explain to them that when we are baptized we also get a special gift called the Holy Ghost.  Just like the love inside this box, you can't see the Holy Ghost, but you can feel him.  The Holy Ghost is a feeling inside that tells you right from wrong. 

 I showed them this picture and told them that this is a picture of a little girl who has just been baptized and she has hands upon her head, giving her the Holy Ghost through the preisthood.

I put that picture in a word document and above and below the picture I typed,  "I receive the Holy Ghost after I am baptized.  The Holy Ghost helps me know right from wrong." The kids colored this and I had several kids talk about the Holy Ghost throughout the rest of class.

Lesson 29: JESUS CHRIST WAS RESURRECTED

I loved this lesson.  In preparation for it, I printed out the handout from Behold Your Little Ones lesson manual onto card stock, assembled, and colored it.  I put a black backing behind the tomb with tape on the top and the bottom so that Christ could be slid in and out of it easily and could stay in there.

I began my lesson by asking the kids to say the word "resurrection".  A couple of them could say it pretty well, so I asked them if they knew what it meant.  They didn't.

I simply told the story of Christ's Resurrection.  I explained that he had died and that all of his family and friends were so sad. They put Jesus' body in a tomb, and I pointed to the handout and explained that a tomb was like a cave, and told them that back in Jesus' time that's where they buried people who had died.  I placed the cut out of Jesus inside the tomb so that he was laying down.

I assembled the handout by attaching the stone to the tomb with an brads, making it so that I could roll the stone in front of the opening to the tomb.  So, I explained to the kids that after the people put Jesus' body in the tomb there was a big heavy stone that was pushed in front of the opening so that no one could go in or out of it, and as I explained it, I rolled the stone on my handout to demonstrate what I was explaining.

Then, as I brought my cut out of Christ out of the tomb, I told them that after three days two angels rolled the stone away and Jesus came back to life!  I told them that that is what it means when we say that Jesus was "resurrected" - that he died, but he came back to life.

I brought a glove and thought about doing the whole glove analogy.  You know, the one where the glove is the body and your hand is the spirit.  When the glove is on your hand the glove can move, but when the glove is not on the hand, it can't move.  That's how it is with our bodies, we all currently have our spirits inside our bodies, but when we die, our spirits separate from our bodies and our bodies "die", though our spirits are still living in heaven.  Christ was resurrected, and so after he died - after his spirit separated from the body - his spirit came back to his body.

I showed the picture of Mary and Jesus at the tomb.  I told them that this is a picture of Jesus just after he was resurrected and came back to life.  The first person to see him was Mary.  She was so happy to see that he was alive again and that all of his owies were made better.

I bore my testimony of Christ's resurrection and that it's because He was resurrected - came back to life - that we will all be able to live again after we die, just like Jesus did.  We will all be able to live with our families in heaven forever.  I told them I have a tesimony, and am so grateful that Jesus suffered so much so that it could all be made possible. I bore my testimony in His name.

I made copies of the handout from the manual for each of the kids and assembled the stone with the brads and put a backing on each of their tombs.  The kids loved the one that I used for the lesson and really clung to every word I said.  Having the visual was a key thing for them and they were all so happy to get their very own.

Unrelated to the lesson, just as a gift for each of the kids for Easter, I made little Easter Egg Guys and filled them with candy.  I thought they were so cute and the kids absolutely loved them!  They were each unique and cooky in their own ways and the kids were thrilled.

Boy     &     Girl

Lesson: JESUS WALKED ON EARTH

This lesson wasn't out of the manual, but since we talked about learning about Jesus in the scriptures last week, and next week we'll learn about the resurrection, I wanted to focus this week on his life - the fact that he was born and lived on earth just like all of us were born and live on earth.

Our library didn't have a picture of Jesus as a baby, but I would have used one like this to talk about how he had a mommy just like all of us do, and he was once a little baby just like all of us were.


Then we showed this picture of Jesus as a young man helping his dad with chores. We talked about how all of us help our parents at home, and Jesus was just like us and helped his parents, too.


We showed this picture and talked about when Jesus was a grown up and that He taught the gospel to everyone and blessed everyone and spent His time doing good things for other people.



For the handout, I found these little poster-board-like feet at Michael's. I drew toenails on the front and wrote on the back, "Jesus walked on earth."

Lesson 22: THE BOOK OF MORMON TEACHES ME ABOUT JESUS

This was the most successful lesson I've had to date. The kids responded so well to it.

To begin with, I printed the handout from the manual onto card stock paper, colored each picture and cut them out along the dotted lines. I read through the scriptures that are written beneath each picture and marked parts of it to read to the kids.


I decided to splurge this week and buy each of my kids their very own Books of Mormon. At the beginning of my lesson I told the kids I had a very special gift for them. I told them it was so special and they needed to take really good care of their gift and treasure it. That really got their attention and they all crowded around me. I gave them each a book and asked them if they knew what it was. Most of them knew they were "scriptures". I asked them if they knew what they read about in this book. None of them could really tell me.


The first story I read was to accompany the first picture. I had one of the kids hold the picture of Jesus' birth that I colored from the handout and I asked them if they knew who was in the picture. They all knew that it was Jesus as a baby. I told them to follow along with me (flip through their scriptures) as I read the story about Jesus being born. I marked only a few sentences from the scripture the handout gives - Alma 7:10-12


"And behold, he shall be born of Mary....and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God."
I summarized explaining that that was saying that Jesus was born to Mary, and that Heavenly Father was Jesus' dad, then kept reading:

"And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind."
I explained that that was telling us that Jesus would grow up but that he would have a lot of hard things he would have to go through.

"And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people."
I explained that that meant he would die, but that his death would make it so that we would all, respectively, be together after we died.


I had another child hold up the next picture and asked if they knew who was in it. They're all so smart and know Jesus' picture immediately when they see it. I explained that it was indeed a picture of Jesus and that he was healing a boy who was sick.

The scripture to go along with this picture was 3 Nephi 17:7-10 and I read the following:


"Have ye any that are sick among you? ...Bring them hither and I will heal them."
I explained that it was saying that Jesus asked if anyone was sick and if they were to bring them to him and he would heal them.

"And it came to pass that when he had this spoken, all the multitude ... did go forth with their sick and afflicted...and he did heal them every one."
I told them that that was saying that the people brought all of their family and friends who were sick to Jesus and Jesus did as he said he would and healed them, "every one".


Again, I had another child hold up my last picture and they told me it was of Jesus with little kids. The scripture is 3 Nephi 17:21-24.

"...and [Jesus] took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them."
That one's pretty self explanatory, but I explained it again to them in my words, pointing to the picture of Jesus with the kids.

I told them that scriptures are a wonderful gift. That inside there are so many neat stories about Jesus just like the ones I just read to them. I told them to take their books home to their moms and dads and ask their parents to read them more stories about Jesus. I told them that the stories inside the Book of Mormon are all true stories. I bore my testimony in the name of Jesus Christ as they all clung to their books with pride and listened to me intently. I know the spirit was there and I watched as each of the kids felt it. They felt it! That is what it's all about! The spirit bore witness to them and they felt it's truthfulness. It was the greatest experience being able to witness and take part in such a special thing.

The kids colored the handout from the manual.


And at the end of class I had each kid put their hand print inside the front page of their Book of Mormon, along with their name and the date. When the parents came to get them, the kids were beyond thrilled showing their parents their very own Book of Mormon and their awesome hand print inside. It was such a hit! The lesson couldn't have gone any better and I credit that to the Holy Ghost. I love it when He's present!