Just like the last lesson, last year I printed letters onto a piece of cardstock, spelling the words "I'm sorry". Then, I wrote one activity on the back of each letter card. I had the children take turns selecting a letter to determine the lesson activities.
Here are the activities that I included last year, as well as some current thoughts on these activities:
I: Snack
Including snack as a random activity makes it too random. Snack needs to be given when the children need snack. In my case right now, that's at the very beginning of class.
'm: Game - happy :) or sorry :(
I found clip art showing various actions a child might do that could make him/her feel happy or sorry. I made cards with them, and 2 large cards showing a sorry face and a happy face. I placed the sorry and happy face cards on the board with a magnet. Then I placed the action cards upside down on the table. The children took turns picking a card, then deciding whether it would make you feel sorry or happy. Then they would put it on the board below the appropriate face. It went over really well, and gave us the opportunity to discuss a lot of specific situations.
s: Scripture Story - Alma the younger
I used visuals from Latterday Chatter on Etsy.
o: Coloring Sheet
I used the black and white poster from Sunday Savers,
r: Scripture Story - Jonah & the Whale
Like last week, this story wasn't included in the manual or on Sugardoodle, but I included it because it goes very well with the topic, and I already had the visuals (Friend, January 2006).
r: Game - block stacking
For this game, I had the children work in pairs. I gave each pair a set of foam blocks and told them to work together to build a tall tower. They were to take turns placing blocks on the tower. But if one of them accidentally knocked it down, they were to say "I'm sorry!" Well... it didn't work out. The children thought it was fun to knock the towers over, and would laugh as they said "I'm sorry!" I stopped the activity very quickly, as I realized that it wasn't conveying any sense of remorse, and was, in fact, making it fun to make a "mistake". They were knocking the stacks down on purpose. So, no... not doing this one again.
y: Song - When You're Sorry and You Know It (to the tune of "When You're Happy and You Know It")
I read this idea somewhere... but I don't remember where. It was kind of cute, but I didn't feel it conveyed the right ideas regarding feeling sorry.
So, this year, I made some changes. As I did last week, I reduced the number of letter cards, so that the coloring page and snack were not included. I also tried to more closely follow the lesson manual. So, this is what I ended up with...
We started with snack. While they snacked, I read the story "I'm Sorry" by Sam McBratney. Thank you to Faye Houser for submitting the idea to Sugardoodle! As Faye mentioned, it is quite long. I did read the book though, instead of telling it in my own words. But, I skipped a bunch of pages. I paper clipped a bunch of the early pages together so the children didn't know I skipped them, and it went over very well.
Then onto the randomly selected activities.
S: Game - happy :) or sorry :(
I used the same pictures and method as above.
O: Story of Travis & Matt
Thank you to Sugardoodle for posting this. There are visuals for this story in the Friend (Mar. 1987). I extracted the pictures then made them a bit larger before printing them and making a little flip chart booklet.
R: Scripture Story - Alma the younger
I used the same visuals as last year.
R: Storybook - "Uh-oh! I'm Sorry" by Little Scholastic.
I found this story while looking for the one by Sam McBratney. I thought it was cute and simple and presented some very practical situations for the children. I didn't read it, instead, I just talked about the situations presented. I let the children say what they should do about the situation before we lifted the flap to see what happened.
Y: Steps of Repentance
I made four footprints, and wrote on them the steps included in the lesson. I had the children gather around me on the floor, and I put the footprints down one at a time, discussing what each step was. Then, I had each child take a turn at stepping from footprint to footprint, and reviewed each step as they did. Only four children were present, but that meant that we reviewed the steps four times.
We finished with the same coloring page.
When I was called as the Sunbeam teacher last fall, this was the first lesson that I taught. I hadn't thought about starting a blog yet, and I hadn't formalized my ideas on how to teach Sunbeams. It was through planning and teaching these next lessons that my ideas for a lesson structure developed.
Right from the beginning, though, I knew I wanted to break the lessons into small activities. Since this lesson was about "obedience", I printed each letter of the word OBEDIENCE onto a piece of cardstock. Then, I wrote one activity on the back of each letter card. I remember I didn't have a lot of time to prepare, so I mostly used materials and resources that I already had.
Here are the activities that I included (which were randomly selected by the children), as well as some current thoughts on these activities:
O: Song - Quickly I'll Obey (CS pg. 197) (as included in lesson manual)
B: Scripture Story - Noah & the Ark
This is one of the suggested enrichment activities in the lesson. I used a resource I purchased a number of years ago (seen below), as it allows the children to interact with the pieces of the story and participate in its telling. It's cute, but very oversimplified. You can find other toys (soft or otherwise) that would accomplish the same thing, but with more animals/pieces. I would recommend something that includes a more accurate representation of the story (e.g., something that actually has 2 of each animal included).
You could also just use visuals to tell the story. There are a lot of nice visuals and other resources available on Teachers Pay Teachers. I particularly like those by Keeping Life Creative.
E: Game - Simon Says
This was an activity idea listed on Sugardoodle. Very simple, and requires no preparation. Although it may seem that the game is about "obedience", it's really not. I now wouldn't recommend this game, as it is very difficult for a young child to differentiate between the specific way in which a command is given. Obedience shouldn't be about listening for specific commands, but rather, doing what the commands say. So, the message of this game could actually be confusing, rather than reinforcing the idea of obedience.
D: Scripture Story - Jonah & the Whale
This wasn't mentioned in the lesson manual, but, the story is about obedience, and I already had the visuals ready to go. I used the visuals from the Friend (January 2006) to tell the story. From my experience, the children LOVE these visuals, and always want to be able to hold the whale and make the jaws move up and down. But, there are also plenty of other lessons to which this story is appropriate.
I: Coloring Page
I used the black and white poster from Sunday Savers, but I really like one of the coloring pages on Sugardoodle.
E: Game - Red Light/Green Light
Another activity idea listed on Sugardoodle. Very simple, and requires no major preparation. I made a "stop" and "go" sign, but you could just cut out two circles, one in red, one in green, and alternate holding them up. I do like this game better than Simon Says, and would recommend it, because it really is about obedience. The children enjoy this, and it focuses on listening, and quick obedience.
N: Scripture Story - Nephi & the Brass Plates
This story isn't in the lesson, nor is it on Sugardoodle. But I'm not sure why. I know that when I think of scriptures about obedience, this is the first story that comes to mind, and the specific scripture of 1 Nephi 3:7. So, even though it's not included, I wanted to include it. I used some visuals by Latterday Chatter on Etsy to tell this story about obedience.
C: Snack
E: Storybook - "No, David!" by David Shannon
Although the lesson went fine last year, and considering how little time I had to put it together, it wasn't bad. But, it didn't touch on many of the important points of the lesson. That is something I need to improve upon for this year.
I haven't done this system of randomly selecting activities in a number of weeks. But, I want to go back and try it again and see how it works out! Based on my reflections, though, things will be modified as follows:
We will start with snack and a story. I like "No, David!" by David Shannon because it really opens up possibilities for discussion, opportunities for observation, and for children to realize on their own the consequences of disobedience.
I will then open with the lesson section "Heavenly Father and Jesus want us to obey our parents", following pretty closely to what is written in the manual.
We will then turn to the randomly selected activities.
O: Action verse - as found in lesson
B: Song - Quickly I'll Obey (CS pg. 197) (as included in lesson manual)
E: Scripture Story - Noah & the Ark
This is one of the suggested enrichment activities in the lesson. I will again use the resource I purchased a number of years ago (see above), as it allows the children to interact with the pieces of the story and participate in its telling.
D: Game - Red Light/Green Light
An activity idea listed on Sugardoodle. Very simple, and requires no major preparation. The children enjoy this, and it focuses on listening, and quick obedience, and is aligned with a couple of the activities listed in the manual. I will use the "stop" and "go" signs I used last year (see above).
I: Scripture Story / Activity (1) - Jesus & His Commandments
This will be based on the lesson section "Heavenly Father and Jesus want us to obey the commandments". It'll be broken into 2 parts, so when a child picks one of these, we'll do the first part, and when a child picks the second one, we'll do the second part. Part 1: I will start with the picture of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and talk about how Jesus gave us commandments to follow and that they're recorded in the scriptures. Part 2: We'll play a matching game with commandments to look at some of the commandments the children can follow. I'm going to use the Finch Family Games - Commandment Keepers, though instead of doing a Bingo game, I'm going to use a double set of the cards and play a matching game instead. I will not use all of the cards, though.
E: Scripture Story / Activity (2) - Jesus & His Commandments
This will address the second part of this.
N: Scripture Story - Shadrach, Meshach, & Abed-nego
To tell this story, I'm going to use a story wheel I found in a Bible Unit on Teachers Pay Teachers. It's expensive ($24.99), but I purchased it some months ago, and like how many stories it covers. The stories are very simplified, so some of it's appropriate for Sunbeams, though I would've liked to have seen more visuals included for each story, and a greater variety of resources/activities.
The resource is not LDS. Each of the 15 story units (or most) includes a story summary, a scripture verse coloring page, an illustrated story scramble activity, an illustrated story wheel, true/false activity, word search, bingo and trivia games, as well as a couple other things not appropriate for Sunbeams.
C: Song - Keep the Commandments (CS pg. 272)
E: Finger play - found in additional activities for younger children in the manual
We likely won't get to all of these activities, and certainly can't give all of them significant time or attention. But it's important to be aware of priorities and give those activities that are priority the most attention. Additionally, depending on how many children are in the class, you can always "blank out" some of the activities (or write "pick another card"), eliminating activities so that there are just enough activities for each child to pick one, or simply tell the children to pick again if they pick those that are of lesser priority.
To me, the priority activities are the scripture stories, and I would also like to include one of the songs, but not necessarily both. The action verse and finger play, in my opinion, are of the lowest priority. These types of activities are important for engagement and participation. But if you have ways to engage and involve the children in the other activities, they are not as important.
In fact, since I've only got 4 children now that come regularly, I may just go with the following:
O: Song - Quickly I'll Obey or Keep the Commandments
B: Scripture Story / Activity - Jesus & His Commandments (combining both parts)
E: Game - Red Light/Green Light
Y: Scripture Story - Shadrach, Meshach, & Abed-nego
We will close by coloring the black and white poster from Sunday Savers.
With the success of the personal take-home storybooks discussed last week, I also wanted to put together a storybook. This is something that could be included, or not, to reinforce the lesson and send home for reinforcement. If I just do "OBEY", I should have time to include this.
I found the images for "Quickly I'll Obey" on an entry on csarnett.blogspot.com after doing an image search. I'm not sure where she got the images from, or if she made them. But I traced the images and changed them a little bit. (I try to give credit for all of the resources I use. Most of the images I use in my books just come from a google image search.)
Please leave your comments and suggestions!
OK, so when I first looked at this lesson, I was strongly reminded of the lesson we did earlier in the year on prayer (lesson 4). Although I recognize the importance of repetition, especially with little kids, each lesson in this manual presents new material. They aren't simply repeating themselves. They are building upon prior lessons and ideas, but each lesson offers something unique. So I pondered, how is "I can pray to Heavenly Father" different than "we can pray as a family"?
Something I've learned about teaching, especially when it comes to the gospel, is that the teacher really needs to understand what the lesson is in order to teach it effectively. I trust that those who wrote this lesson manual were inspired. So, what is the primary purpose about this lesson? Is it really about prayer? Or is it about the role of prayer in strengthening families, with the added benefit of reinforcing how to pray?
See... as the teacher, it is my responsibility to have a clear understanding before I teach, to make sure that I am addressing the real purpose. If I'm not clear, I could certainly teach something, but I may miss the intended point. To do that, I am missing the purpose of my calling. Teaching in the gospel is not like teaching school. Yes, they both involve teaching. But in teaching the gospel, the curriculum comes from the highest authority possible. I need to make sure I understand what God would have me teach, what He wants His little ones to learn in this lesson. Only then can I teach it.
In looking through the ideas on Sugardoodle... there isn't much there. Basically everything focuses on how to pray, not on family prayer, which goes with reinforcing the earlier lesson.
I also found nothing useful on Etsy or Teachers Pay Teachers. I did find one activity on Finch Family Games that I liked and will use - I can pray all day. But it is still aligned with the earlier lesson on prayer in general. So I turned to the lesson to study it in depth.
The lesson itself does include considerable repetition regarding how to pray. So, some ideas from the earlier lesson could be revisited. But there's not much substantive (or concrete, in particular) that focuses on family prayer. So, it's time to get creative in teaching the role of prayer in strengthening families.
Here's what I ended up with...
We started with snack and story time. I used the same story I used in the earlier lesson (4) on prayer: "This Little Prayer of Mine" by Anthony DeStefano. It is a cute book, though not LDS. I only used it to re-introduce the focus of prayer, because the book itself doesn't use the right language or order. But it does set a nice mood!
We then reviewed how to pray (both the physical act and the verbal components of prayer) using the file folder game created by Kimberly Bourne, found on Etsy (for $2.50). (I used this in the earlier lesson, too.) I had printed it on card stock, laminated it, and used Velcro for the pieces. I placed the laminated pieces on the table in front of the children. As we reviewed, they took turns picking out the correct pieces for the file folder game.
We also reviewed the story of Daniel in the lion's den, to reinforce the importance and specific blessings that can come from prayer. I know it's not in this lesson, but I wanted to utilize the "take-home" I had made for lesson 4. The children absolutely loved it with lesson 4, and using something they'd loved, and taken home, allowed greater chance that they would remember it, and be able to recall and build on those earlier ideas. I've copied the "take-home" idea from lesson 4 below.
Take-home: Thank you to Katie Evans on Sugardoodle, for finding this activity on LDS.org. I loved the general idea, but wanted something more specific to what we had covered in class. So I found a clip art image of a lion that would work, and I put together my own handout reviewing how to pray. I used a brass fastener to connect the pieces.
Moving beyond prayer, in general, to prayer as a family... we quickly discussed that, just as we should pray individually morning and night, we should pray as a family morning and night. We discussed things that matter to our whole families that we could talk about in family prayers. I asked each child to name something, and they came up with some good ideas... that a specific loved one would get well, that a baby sister would learn what she needs to learn, that grandma could come visit... We talked briefly about each idea, and I tried to generalize the ideas so that each child could see how he/she could ask for the same blessing for his/her own family.
But, most of the rest of the lesson, I wanted to put into a concrete form. This past week, I was speaking with one of the mothers of the children in my class, and the mother told me how much she liked the story that I had put together for last week's lesson. And I thought, that's what I could do... make another story. Something that would be really personal, that hopefully the children would use at home. I started putting a story together for family prayer based on the rest of the lesson. Unfortunately, I didn't finish it in time for church, but, here it is for future use.
Print them out 2-sided, 2 pages per sheet of paper, cut and assemble the pages, and staple the books together. You can read the story to touch on those aspects of the lesson, then let the children color the black and white drawings.
I used the black and white poster from Sunday Savers to finish off the lesson.
Please leave your comments and suggestions!
I can't believe the year is over half over! Only 20 more lessons to go...
Some lessons are harder to prepare for than others. The more abstract the concept, the more difficult it is for me to prepare a meaningful lesson for young children. Young children, in general, need things to be very concrete. But, finding "concrete" activities and materials for abstract concepts are generally absent from our common resources. Look at Sugardoodle, and you will see. I love that site! It has so many amazing resources and links, but... when it comes to the more abstract concepts, there are considerably less ideas provided, because there are less available, and a lot harder to think of. So, what do you do when the concept is abstract? Looking for ways to focus on the concrete can make it easier.
"Forever" is not an easy concept. But, I decided not to focus on the concept. Rather, I decided to focus on temples. Temples is something that young children can understand.
I liked the idea of the activity listed on Sugardoodle - to take the children on a tour of the church and compare it to the temple. But, I didn't find it to be very practical. Every room in our building is being used, so a tour would disrupt classes or meetings. And I'm not sure that the young children would really grasp the abstraction of the comparison. In addition to which, our building in no way compares to the beauty of the temple. I didn't want to diminish the special nature of the temple and risk the children thinking the temple and the church were too similar.
Unfortunately, that was the only activity idea given on Sugardoodle. :(
But I did find some good ideas on Finch Family Games and in the current issue of the Friend (July 2015)
I also liked the idea found on Church Babies Blog to make a book on preparing to go to the temple, and using the visuals from the lesson manual. But I ended up modifying it (see below).
We started the lesson time with snack... something we've been doing the past several weeks. We get to the classroom around 11:20 a.m., and the children seem to be starving by the time we get there. So, we've started doing snack first. Otherwise I keep hearing about how hungry they are. And they can't stay focused when they're hungry.
So, we start with snack. And while they're eating, I read a story to introduce the topic. For today, I found a beautiful book on Amazon "Families can be Together Forever", featuring art by Greg Olsen and song lyrics by Ruth Muir Gardner. The children were mesmerized. I read the lyrics, rather than singing them. The last page, though, showed the sheet music, and one little boy asked what that was. I told him it was the music to the story. They hadn't recognized the words. So, I pulled out my iPad and played the song using the LDS music app. This time, I sang along as I turned the pages. The children loved it!
Then I began to follow the lesson in the manual. I showed them the picture of the Salt Lake Temple and asked if they knew what it was. Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised, but at first, none of them knew what it was. But then again, we live in New York. Temples aren't commonplace, as they are in Utah.
I showed them the Friend (July 2015), and opened to the story "What do we do in the temple?" We looked at the pictures and talked about the things that are done in the temple, as discussed in the lesson section "The temple is a sacred place". I then turned to "Temple Time" and read them the short story. Some of it was above their understanding, but they were quiet and attentive and seemed to grasp the sacred nature and desire to go to the temple.
Next, I shifted attention to what they can do now to prepare to go to the temple. For this, I used an activity found on Finch Family Games - Temple Worthy Workers. The activity includes six simple puzzles showing different things children can do to be temple worthy. They include: prayer, going to church, paying tithing, studying scriptures, eating good foods, and loving one another. I had the children put together each of the puzzles. I only had 4 children in class, so I was able to give each child one to complete independently, then paired them up to do the last 2 puzzles. If you have more children, you can have them work on them in pairs.
Then we took time to look at each of the pictures and talk about what they meant and why they are important in preparing to go to the temple.
On a practical note, I tried to hold up each puzzle to talk about them, but it was tricky to hold the four pieces together. I should have either used tape or magnets to put them on the board. Also, that way, the pictures would have remained as constant reminders of the ways to prepare. Because once we were done going through all 6 puzzles, I asked the children if they could remember the things they can do to prepare to go through the temple. I was met with blank faces. Seeing them once, and having a short discussion, is not enough. Young children need something more to hold onto something to remember it. So, I role played the 6 puzzles to remind them of the things they can do.
Next, I handed out the books that I had made for each child. I printed these out 2-sided, 2 pages per sheet of paper, cut and assembled the pages, and stapled the books together. I also took pictures I had of the children and pasted them on the second page (where indicated). They came out really cute!
I read the story to the children, then gave them each their books. They then colored the black and white images.
Finally, we used the black and white poster taken from Sunday Savers.
The lesson turned out very nice! The children were very attentive and well behaved, and it was a joy to see how carefully they colored the pictures. They have grown up so much in the past months. They began with scribbles, but now, they are coloring.
Please leave your comments and suggestions!
I am sorry... I have fallen so far behind. Several posts will be blank until I have time to come back and fill them in. But I want to hold their places.
I found a cute matching game on Finch Family Games.
I am sorry... I have fallen so far behind. Several posts will be blank until I have time to come back and fill them in. But I want to hold their places.
I am sorry... I have fallen so far behind. Several posts will be blank until I have time to come back and fill them in. But I want to hold their places.
I am sorry... I have fallen so far behind. Several posts will be blank until I have time to come back and fill them in. But I want to hold their places.
I am sorry... I have fallen so far behind. Several posts will be blank until I have time to come back and fill them in. But I want to hold their places.
I am sorry... I have fallen so far behind. Several posts will be blank until I have time to come back and fill them in. But I want to hold their places.
I am sorry... I have fallen so far behind. Several posts will be blank until I have time to come back and fill them in. But I want to hold their places.
I am sorry... I have fallen so far behind. Several posts will be blank until I have time to come back and fill them in. But I want to hold their places.
I am sorry... I have fallen so far behind. Several posts will be blank until I have time to come back and fill them in. But I want to hold their places.
(So, this is where I am now. But I'm really trying to get caught up! Hopefully I can get back on top and post my planning ideas prior to teaching again.)
The children have been so engaged the past couple of weeks, despite my lack of preparation and not doing lesson selection activities. I have chosen the activities to do and the order to do them, and they have been so well behaved! So... I think that I will choose the selection for the time being and see how it goes.
Read through "Days of Creation" one last time, reminding children that we have been learning about the creation. Briefly discussed everything that God created. After we finished, I went back to Day 6 and focused for a moment on the creation of Adam and Eve, and showed them the visuals we constructed last week of Adam and Eve. Then I told them that we are now going to focus on us, and our bodies, and how our bodies are like Adam's and Eve's, and that they reveal many blessings from the Lord.
Song: "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes"
Picture of baby
Drawing of "I have a body" - focused on each part of the body as mentioned, drew it, and did actions with it. Did snack right before this, so with face, we focused on goldfish for smell, taste, look, feel.
Body Bingo (Finch Family Games)- different body parts (only for 5 children)
Word of Wisdom matching.
(More details to come...)
I will have to come back to this one...
As with the past few weeks, we will start the lesson off with the Creation storybook by the Barefoot Teacher found on Teachers Pay Teachers ($1.75), that I introduced in Lesson 8. I printed out the pages, but didn't bind them in any way. This way I could pull out the focus page(s) when the story was done and place them on the board. We will repeat this each week for the Creation lessons until we've completed all of the pages. Reading the same story each week will create a concrete connection between the lessons and help the children better grasp the process of the Creation.
I didn't have much time to prep this week, so I was very happy that I had some materials I could use, as well as review.
As we reviewed the Creation, we did one activity from each week to remind the children of what we had been learning. These review activities took about 1/2 of the class time. (Whew!) Then, I introduced the story of Adam and Eve. I already had a board game made from Finch Family on The Garden of Eden. We did a modified form of the game to discuss the "images" of Adam and Eve, and how they were similar to each other. Instead of using the body pieces I had for the game (already laminated) though, I printed out and cut out a set for each child, and punched holes in the pieces. As we gathered each piece, I used brass fasteners to connect them. The children were able to take these home with them.
We did the black and white posters from Sunday Savers.
(When I have more time, I will go back and add detail about what I would've done had I had more time to prep. But I was very happy with how it went given the short amount of prep time. And by selecting activities that the children had enjoyed the past weeks, I think it was a good review lesson, and they enjoyed it and were well behaved.)
Please see my page on Sunbeams for an overview of my teaching system.
I love the post on Sugardoodle, Collecting the Crickets, though I think I would find plastic bugs to use instead of paper. Maybe use a timer to see if they can collect all the crickets in a short length of time... making it into a game!
(Because I've fallen behind on my blog, I am posting brief notes at this time, but will come back and fill in details later...)
As with the past few weeks, we will start the lesson off with the Creation storybook by the Barefoot Teacher found on Teachers Pay Teachers ($1.75), that I introduced in Lesson 8. I printed out the pages, but didn't bind them in any way. This way I could pull out the focus page(s) when the story was done and place them on the board. We will repeat this each week for the Creation lessons until we've completed all of the pages. Reading the same story each week will create a concrete connection between the lessons and help the children better grasp the process of the Creation.
For the introduction activity, I made a cutout of a bird, with the different parts separate - the body, head, tail, wings, beak, eyes, feet. I basically followed the introduction in the book, but used the visuals. The children very quickly guessed it was birds (and I put up the page from the Creation book). But since we hadn't yet completed assembling our bird, I had the children figure out what we were still missing. Once they identified a missing part, I attached it to the bird.
For the activity selection, I just used cards with the activities on them. I didn't have much time to prep, or I would have found something better than cards to use... maybe bird cutouts, or a bird puzzle.
Activities:
- Story: Elijah and the Ravens (I used clip art found online to tell this story - I will add this later)
- Story: Crickets and the Seagulls. After telling the story, I used the activity found on Sugardoodle. I copied and cutout enough seagulls for each child. Instead of using the paper crickets, though, I went onto Amazon. I couldn't find crickets, but I found a package of 72 cockroaches... they looked very similar! The children loved it! I printed out some images of wheat, as well as a lake. I covered the wheat in coackroaches, and had the children pick up the "crickets" and take them over and dump them in the lake.
- Insect Guessing: see the activity in manual
- Bees: see manual. I brought in honey for the children to taste.
- Song: "In the Leafy Treetops"
- Craft: Page showing "I am thankful for birds" and an outline of a bird. Using glue, children glued colorful feathers to their birds.
Story: Very Hungry Caterpillar
Black and white poster from Sunday Savers
Please see my page on Sunbeams for an overview of my teaching system.
Looking on Sugardoodle... there are so many fabulous ideas!
I do love the idea of Animal Bubbles! It's a very cute and interactive way of reinforcing what children know/learn about animals.
I also loved Carrie Gribbon's idea of using the dissolving capsules with foam animals in them. I'm sure the kids would love it! And it offers another opportunity for children to identify animals.
The idea of burning animals sounds on a CD is also great! But if you don't have the time/resources for making a CD, there are also a number of Animal Sounds Bingo type games out there that would work. One I know is Listening Lotto. These games would be great reinforcers, build problem solving skills, and would be very engaging for the kids.
I like the craft by Sunday Savers, but I like one from the Friend even better that I found on Sugardoodle! That is the one I will be using. I will be using the black and white coloring page from Sunday Savers, though.
The ideas on Chicken Scratch n Sniff are also good! I just love how many wonderful resources are mentioned on Sugardoodle.
Here's what I'm going to do.
As with the past few weeks, we will start the lesson off with the Creation storybook by the Barefoot Teacher found on Teachers Pay Teachers ($1.75), that I introduced in Lesson 8. I printed out the pages, but didn't bind them in any way. This way I could pull out the focus page(s) when the story was done and place them on the board. We will repeat this each week for the Creation lessons until we've completed all of the pages. Reading the same story each week will create a concrete connection between the lessons and help the children better grasp the process of the Creation.
For the activity selection, I have taken a wooden animal puzzle and have written the activities on stickers affixed to the underside of each animal in the puzzle. As there are more animals in the puzzle (9) than there are activities, not all of the animals have an activity listed. I will let the children pick animals until they have found one showing an activity.
(NOTE TO SELF: Reorganize this section according to manual. I sincerely apologize. Things have gotten very busy, and I have fallen behind on this blog. I am now trying to catch back up, but some of these posts will likely not be complete for awhile.)
- Noah's Ark - I have a cloth activity set to go along with story that I will use. For follow-up (or a separate activity), the printout from the Friend.
- Where do I live? - from Teachers Pay Teachers
- Animal Noises - book I've made, matching animals to the noises they make (I will post this when I get a chance)
- Pretending - name an animal, or let children name an animal, and everyone pretends to be the animal
- Song "Old MacDonald"
- How do animals help us? - from Etsy
Story - Brown Bear, Brown Bear
Black and white poster from Sunday Savers.
Due to ward conference... we had a very short class time. We didn't get to a couple of the activities (Where do I live? and Pretending).
Please see my page on Sunbeams for an overview of my teaching system.
Looking at Sugardoodle... as usual, there are some cute ideas. But as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I'm concerned about keeping the activities meaningful. Our goal shouldn't simply be for the kids to have fun with something that is thematically related to the lesson topic. Our goal should be for them to learn something meaningful with each activity. That doesn't mean it can't be fun, too!
With one of the activities posted on Sugardoodle, though, the person who posted it explicitly mentioned that it really kept the kids busy for awhile. But, keeping them busy shouldn't be the point, and shouldn't be our focus. Teaching them should be. However, we all have those days where we are simply trying to survive. At times like that, busy is good!
So maybe I will also list "busy" activities that you can use when you have one of those days, or to have with you in case you need to fill some time. You can use them if you feel you are losing control of the class, too! But even so, I would encourage you to make some kind of meaningful connection with whatever you do! If you make meaningful connections, then it's not just about survival!
On Sugardoodle, some of the activities I really liked included the Fish in a Bag craft, the starfish craft, the beaded necklace craft, and making a fish tank craft. But, the fish in a bag is outside of my comfort zone. I would need to learn more about making soap/melting soap before I did that one, but I think the children would love it! And what a way to give the children a meaningful home connection to the lesson! You could make a little handout note to have the parents remind the children of this lesson each time they took a bath and used the soap.
The starfish craft would be a cute craft (but I like my craft better - see below). But it would be good to attach it to some explicit reminder that we should be thankful for fish.
I've done necklaces before with stringing beads. I like this one, too. It would be nice to attach a tag to the necklace, though, saying that "I am thankful for fish".
I love the fish tank craft, but I don't like the idea of bringing paint into the classroom. Paint requires too much set-up time, but more importantly, too much clean-up time, and dry time. And I don't like risking getting paint on children's clothes, or my own.
But aside from Sugardoodle, there are so many other activities out there.
Let's Go Fishing game is one such activity (I found this one on Amazon, but you can find it most places that sell kids games). Though it only allows 4 children to play at once if you use the fishing poles. But, if you let them use their fingers (which can still be challenging for young children), you can let more play. If you have a large class, though, this will get very chaotic and out of control.
You could make this meaningful by asking children why we go fishing? What do we do with the fish that we catch? But also, pointing out that catching fish is not easy. They are animals created by God, and we need to respect the fact that they are living animals.
You can also make a fish bingo game or matching game.
Our Water World by Finch Family Games is one I've used. It's a simple bingo type game (but it's for up to 5 children). (This will work well for my class, but maybe not those that are larger.)
I have also made cards for a matching game.
There are also some nice file folder games. One I found on Etsy ($2.50).
So... onto what I am going to do for this lesson.
As with the past few weeks, we will start the lesson off with the Creation storybook by the Barefoot Teacher found on Teachers Pay Teachers ($1.75), that I introduced in Lesson 8. I printed out the pages, but didn't bind them in any way. This way I could pull out the focus page(s) when the story was done and place them on the board. We will repeat this each week for the Creation lessons until we've completed all of the pages. Reading the same story each week will create a concrete connection between the lessons and help the children better grasp the process of the Creation.
The activity selection is going to be done by fishing. I have the activities listed on the backs of fish cutouts with paper clips attached. I have a short dowel with a short string attached, tied to a magnet. The children will take turns fishing to select the activities.
(I used the fish design from the back of the lesson to do the fish cutouts, but wouldn't recommend it. They're not easy to cut out. I would recommend a simpler design with straight edges and simple curves. Try cutting one out before you commit to doing a whole bunch!)
If you do the fishing activity, make sure to not have the string too long, or the "pole" too long. Young children (and adults) will have a difficult time "fishing" if the string is too long, and they will get frustrated. Also, make sure to spread the fish far enough apart that they will only catch one fish when the magnet drops.
Activities:
- Aquatic animals matching game - the cards show different kinds of fish, as well as frogs, turtles, dolphins, crabs, seals, seashells, etc. As children turn over cards, we will discuss what each animal is and where they live, to help children become familiar with them. (This goes along with the manual section "Heavenly Father asked Jesus Christ to create fish and other water animals".)
Here are the cards I have made.
Copy each page twice and cut out cards. You don't have to use all of the cards, but I included a wide variety to give choices and still allow children to be exposed to the wide variety out there! (I will only be using about 1/3 of them.)
The first page shows different kinds of fish. Starting from the top left (moving right): clown fish, blue tang, shark, sting ray, seahorse, tuna, puffer, eel, trout, lion fish, sword fish, goldfish.
The second page shows other kinds of aquatic life. Starting from the top left: whale, dolphin, sea lion, crab, frog, turtle, jellyfish, starfish, lobster, octopus, scallop, anemone.
I don't mix all the cards together, as traditional "memory" is too much for many of these little children, and too time consuming. I separate the two sets into different groups and have the children choose one card from each group. But I leave the cards up, so they don't have to remember where they are. They just have to figure out if they've made a match.
To make sure that this activity has meaning, I will remind the children that God made each one of these fish and aquatic animals... for a purpose. We eat many of them, and others are there to support the marine life. But they all have a special purpose, just as we do.
- (Another option... but I won't be doing this.) Pretend game - have cards showing different aquatic animals (could be some of cards used in matching game). Have children select a card and act out how that animal would move - swim, walk, or hop. You could either have the children mimic or guess. (This goes along with the activity listed under "Heavenly Father asked Jesus Christ to create fish and other water animals".)
- Story of Jonah and the Whale - using Jonah and the Whale visuals from the Friend (January 2006) to tell the story. The children LOVE these visuals, and always want to be able to hold the whale and make the jaws move up and down. Use the manual for guiding questions you can use.
- Story of the loaves and fishes - for this story, I'm going to show a picture of Jesus teaching people (1-55 from the Manual Pictures, or pg. 39 from the Gospel Art Book will work). But for the part of feeding the people, I've got a small stack of blue post it notes that I've cut into the shape of a fish, and yellow post it notes cut into the shape of a piece of bread. (There is at least one fish and one bread per child.) To tell this part of the story, I will let each child pull a fish and bread off the stack, and then point out that there are still fish and bread remaining. Or, there are some free visuals for the story on Teachers Pay Teachers that you can use.
- (The manual includes plenty of finger plays or poems that children would enjoy!) I like 5 Little Speckled Frogs which isn't listed in the manual. Finger plays are good to get children engaged and active. And learning to count is a very necessary cognitive skill.
- Song - Follow the Prophet (Jonah verse)
- Craft - "I am thankful for fish" showing a large fish. Children will decorate the fish with squares of different colored tissue paper and glue sticks.
- (I also like the guessing game using clues listed under the additional activities for younger children.
For a take-home, Finch Family Games has a cute take-home of an "Under the Sea" necklace. But I'm going to do the craft from Sunday Savers. As with many I've chosen in the past, it is interactive, which I particularly love. If it is interactive, the children are more likely to "interact" with it than if it is just a piece of paper. The more interaction, the more reminders and connections with the lesson and what we want children to learn. I also believe parents are less likely to throw something like this in the trash immediately than they would just a piece of paper.
Also, as mentioned above, the children always love the story of Jonah and the Whale. Since they love the visuals from the story, I decided this would be the take-home. I also prefer take-homes that are explicitly linked to the scriptures or the gospel to ensure that children focus on the spiritual aspects of the lesson in any home reminders.
For the coloring activity, we will use the black and white poster from Sunday Savers.
During snack time, I will read "Rainbow Fish" to the children. I know it's not a church story, but the message is good, and the story is entertaining. (Keeping them entertained during snack time will alleviate many of the problems that typically occur during that time.)
OK... so I'm so excited! My friend Brandi taught this lesson before me, and it's so great getting her thoughts and input... and questions! If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please send them to me! My goal really is to help anyone who wants help, to make Sunbeams a better place for our precious little children!
So, Brandi asked what she should do if she has more children than activities. "Won't those who don't get picked get upset?" Absolutely! Little children like things to be fair. They like getting their turn, and feel cheated if they don't get it. Sometimes you can break longer activities into shorter ones, but that's not always possible. So, instead, you could just make extra selection cards. In this case, fish. Instead of leaving the extra fish blank, you could put a scripture on it, or a reminder ("Trees give us many wonderful things!"), or something like that. You can let the children know that not every fish has an activity on it. Make it part of the game... let's see who can find the activities! But this way, every child will get a chance to fish or choose a card.
Also, what happens if the children get rowdy, and you lose control? How do you get it back? Well, yelling doesn't work very well... that just upsets them, and you. Punishment never works as well as positive reinforcement, and also tears down their self esteem. So try to avoid punishment. So, how do you do it? You offer something more enticing than misbehavior. If stickers work, pull out stickers and give to those children that aren't misbehaving. The others will see and stop so they can get a sticker. (Once you've got their attention back, make sure to do something engaging to keep their attention!) If they are all getting fidgety, that might be a good time to break for snack. But, in general, don't give someone snack who hasn't calmed down and is showing they can sit reverently. If you do, you will only reinforce the bad behavior. Or, you can pull out a more engaging, hands-on activity. But again, don't let them participate if they don't improve their behavior. You ALWAYS want to reward good behavior, not bad behavior. However, if there are special needs involved, this may require more flexibility, and more compassion. But, even so, you don't want to reward bad behaviors.
My boys both have Autism, so their behaviors have posed challenges for many of their Primary teachers. You cannot expect more than the child is capable of doing. But, most children truly do want to meet expectations and to be good. So you have to make sure that your expectations are appropriate, and the necessary supports are there.
If a child cannot sit still, you do not want to require them to "sit still". You can sit that child on your lap. You can give the child a "fidget". That is something an occupational therapist calls something that a child can "fidget" with in their hands to provide sensory input. There are many different "fidgets" available on the market. Do a search on Amazon.com for "fidget toys" and you will see a lot of options. I personally like the Tangles and squishy balls. There is also Theraputty, and a lot of different options from suppliers for occupational therapists.
If you have a child with special needs in your class, learn as much as you can about the special need. Talk to the parents. Do some research. You want to be proactive in terms of meeting the needs. That is not only the most loving and compassionate approach, it is also the one that will minimize frustrations and problems in class.
You also want to make sure that children have choices. Some children may elicit challenging behaviors because the only option they have to show some independence is to "disobey", because you have not offered them any choices. This can be overcome by offering choices. You will quickly discover which children need choices. The activity selection is one "choice". When you are using visuals, ask the child to help you and offer a choice as to which visual to hold. For coloring activities, offer a choice of pages to color. Simple choices will alleviate problems with those children seeking to gain their independence in this way.
So... how did it go? I used only 10 pairs for the matching game, and it went well. With each card, we identified what it was before drawing another card. The kids were very engaged. Leaving the cards up, the game went fast, and they were all excited to find the matches.
Jonah and the Whale was a big hit! It always is. And they were so excited to get the take-home of Jonah and the Whale.
We ran out of time and never got to the loaves and the fishes. I was a little disappointed to not get a chance to try out the Post it notes.
We did 5 Speckled Frogs, and the kids loved it! I have a glove with frogs on the fingers and I used that to sing the song. Some of the kids used their own fingers to count down the frogs, but they all were completely engaged and focused on my hand as I counted down the frogs.
The craft went well! Instead of giving every child a glue stick, I used a glue stick to generously cover the fish before giving the paper to the child. It stayed plenty sticky for them to stick on the tissue paper pieces.
I also included something at the last minute. Yesterday I stopped at the Dollar Store to get some tissue paper, and they had packages of seashells. So, I spent $2 and picked up two packs of shells. We talked about going to the beach and finding shells in the sand. I pulled out a small container with the shells, and we talked of how beautiful they are, and how wonderful it is that God created such beautiful things! Each child was allowed to choose two seashells to keep. I put their names on ziploc bags and they put their shells in their bags.
