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.
