June 2011 Lesson Schedule

June 5: Lesson 11 - I Love My Family

June 12: My Family Can Follow Jesus Christ In Faith

June 19: Lesson 12 - I Can Pray With My Family

June 26: Lesson 13 - My Family Can Be Together Forever

We've got a family theme going on this upcoming month.

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.

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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.

May 2011 Lesson Schedule

May 1: Lesson 6 - The Holy Ghost Helps Me

May 8: Lesson 7 - Jesus Christ Created The World For Me

May 15: Lesson 8 - Sunday Is A Day To Remember Heavenly Father And Jesus Christ

May 22: Lesson 9 - I Have A Body Like Heavenly Father's

May 29: Lesson 10 - I Will Take Care Of My Body

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