May 4, 2008 Sharing Time
Apr 29th, 2008 by Bethany
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Primary’s May Theme is…
Heavenly Father planned for me to come to a family. I can strengthen my family now. “The family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children” (“Proclamation,” paragraph 1).
…and I’m in charge of Sharing Time next week. Next week’s lesson in the Outline goes like this:
1. Families in the scriptures teach me how I can strengthen my family (1 Nephi 8; 16; Mosiah 27; Primary 3,lesson 39).
Divide the children into three groups and give each group a picture, a Primary song, and scripture references.
- a. GAK 102; “Follow the Prophet,” third verse (CS, 110–11); Moses 8:18–20; Genesis 6:9–14, 22; 8:20.
- b. GAK 301; “Nephi’s Courage,” third verse (CS, 120–21); 1 Nephi 3:1–7.
- c. Picture 1-69 or 4-53; “Dare to Do Right” (CS, 158); Ether 1:38–43; 6:2–12.
Write the basic events of each story on the board as each group displays the picture, sings the song, and tells the story. (For example: surrounded by wickedness, gathered together, followed God’s plan, showed gratitude to the Lord.) Ask, “What did these families do to strengthen each other?” Ask the children to write or draw three ways they can strengthen their families.
The Friend for May hasn’t come out yet, but it will eventually be here.
We’re starting on a Jr/Sr Primary schedule next month, so I can do a lesson for little ones and another for older kids.
Junior Primary Sharing Time:
My three-year-old son loves to do treasure hunts, so I’m guessing that the kids in my Jr. Primary will enjoy one too. I’d like to use pictures from different scripture stories as clues, then have a box with stickers in it for everyone at the end.
Tell the kids that we’re going to do a treasure hunt, and that we’re going to get clues about how to find the treasure from families in the scriptures. I’ll have one class start with a clue (picture) that has a clue about where in the room the next clue is on a post-it on the back–I’ll find a way to relate the clue to the story somehow when I write it. They can either tell the story on the picture or have their teacher tell the story while one of the kids in the class holds up the picture for everyone to see. We’ll decide as a group how the families in the pictures show us how to strengthen our families. Then they can read the clue to the group and go try to find the next one. When they find it, they hand it to the next class and the system repeats until the treasure is found. In order to retrieve their sticker, each child (some with the help of their teacher) says something they can do to strengthen their family, then we can sing “We are a happy family” (CS 198).
Senior Primary Sharing Time:
We’ll do what the Outline suggests, above.
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I did the treasure hunt idea (mostly) last week and it went over well with both the Jr and Sr Primaries. Instead of relating the clues themselves to the pictures/stories, I had the kids talk about the story before they could look for the next clue.
With Jr. Primary, I made the clues very, very easy. For example, I hid one behind the blue curtains of a window in the Primary room and the clue said “Look by a window for the next clue.” There were four windows they had to check, but even the Sunbeams were certainly able to find it. Another one was in the podium, and the clue said “Look where we stand and pray.” I rotated classes for each clue (we have bigger Jr Primary classes), and had the teacher choose a reverent child from his/her class to hold the picture and tell the story if they knew it while I’d read the clue on the back. Then I’d let one child (chosen by a teacher again) look for the clue with verbal help from friends and teachers.
Instead of doing the Outline suggested plan, for our smaller Sr. Primary I did a treasure hunt like Jr. Primary, only I made it harder. On the back of each picture, the post-it had a short scripture summarizing the answer to the question below from the story in the picture that everyone had to look up and read to themselves and then I called on someone to read it aloud and answer the question “What did this family do that is a good example of how to strengthen our families?” Then I’d read them a clue and they’d all go looking. The clues were tougher, like the window clue said something like “Look for the next clue behind something blue.” Sufficiently vague, but it only took about 20 seconds for 10 kids to find it.
I found a small box in the Primary closet that I emptied temporarily as a “treasure box” and put stickers inside. When a child found the treasure, I had him bring it to me. I’d told the kids at the beginning that everyone gets a piece of the treasure after they tell me something they can do to strengthen their family. So, I took the treasure box to each child, had them tell me something they could do to strengthen their families (Sunbeams needed a bit of help from their teacher), then let each child choose a sticker.
That’s it! The kids liked it (especially the stickers), and the Sr. Primary did really well with looking up scriptures and understanding how they applied to the question. We didn’t do any music this time, but we had plenty of music later in Singing Time preparing for Mother’s Day (our Primary traditionally sings a special musical number in Sacrament Meeting on Mother’s Day). I was surprised at how reverent the Jr. Primary was because they wanted to be chosen by their teachers to find a clue. Four-five clues was plenty for the time allotted.
P.S. Give yourself plenty of time for setting this one up beforehand. It took me 20-30 minutes to get my clues and pictures hidden and my treasure set up. Good hiding places: behind curtains of a window, in the piano seat, in the podium, taped under a chair.