After reminding the children that we have been learning about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, I told them that today we would be learning about different ways that they have shown their love for us.
Selection Activity: Children randomly selected cards for the activities.
- Song - My Heavenly Father Loves Me. (See manual: Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ give us blessings.) After singing the song, we made the necklaces from Sunday Savers. I had printed the colored pages onto cardstock and cut them out (and punched the holes, of course). Each set was in its own baggie, with a piece of yarn. I also brought beads to string between the hearts, so they wouldn't all bunch up. But, there are some other things I should've done. I should have put tape around the ends of the yarn to help the children thread the yarn through the hearts easier and also keep the yarn from fraying. Fortunately I had masking tape with me and did it while they worked on the activity - but this took time. Also, the children kept pulling the yarn completely through as they worked to add more hearts. I came up with a bright idea to stop this. I used some masking tape to tape the other end of the yarn to the table. This stopped them from pulling the yarn through. When they were done, I just pulled the yarn up and tied the yarn ends together. I also should have put the hearts in order. They spent a lot of time trying to find the right hearts. And as some of the children worked faster than others, it was difficult to keep track of what the right order was. But the kids absolutely loved this activity and were so proud of their necklaces! Unfortunately, with the time it took, we ran out of time and didn't get to one of the activities (sheep), nor the coloring page. So these suggestions should help with that.
- Puzzle - I only had 5 children, so I removed one of the puzzle piece cards. But if you have more than 5 children, this is an easy activity to break into two separate activities. I used the same visual on both cards, though, because you should do the activities in this order: Puzzle, Creation.
For the puzzle, I took a clipart image of the earth, and overlaid it with a puzzle piece template. I printed it on cardstock and cut it out. When the child picked the card with the puzzle piece, she saw that it was a puzzle piece and got excited. I told the children that we were going to put together a puzzle to show something that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ had created for us, because they love us so much! (See manual: Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ give us blessings.)I let each child take one puzzle piece to put in the puzzle. I put the other pieces together to create a foundation for them.
Jigsaw puzzles are very difficult for young children, but they can enjoy them if given support.
There were some problems, though. I should have glued it onto foam board or cardboard, or just something to make the pieces thicker. They didn't stay together. Or, I could have put tape on the backs so they wouldn't slip, or magnets and put it together on the board.
But because jigsaw puzzles are difficult for children, another option would be to just print out two copies of the earth. If you increase the picture contrast on one of the copies, it will become "washed out". Then just cut the other picture into 9 square pieces (no need for the "jigsaw"). Put tape on the back and have the children just match the piece with the appropriate place on the "washed out" picture.
For the second part (or the second activity if you break it into two), we very briefly went through the creation of the earth. I used visuals by Pam at Keeping Life Creative, found on Teachers Pay Teachers. I placed the visuals on the table in front of the children. I put the day numbers on the board. Then I told them what was created each day, and the children took turns finding the right visual and placing it on the board next to the numbers.
- Sheep - Jesus loves and cares for us as a shepherd does his sheep. When one gets lost, he goes to find it. On Sugardoodle, I found a cute activity from LDS.org that can help children understand the love a shepherd has for his sheep, searching out the lost sheep. But because our classroom isn't large, I didn't think going on a search would work very well. So instead, I took clipart images of a tree, a bush, and a rock, and taped them to plastic cups. I had a little sheep from a Little People toy. The intention was to have the children cover their eyes, I would hide the sheep under one of the cups, and they would have to find it. Unfortunately this was the activity we didn't get to because the necklace activity took too long. I think the kids would have loved it!
- Gift - The greatest gift that we have been given, that shows how much both our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us, is Jesus coming to the earth and giving His life for us. But they have given us many other gifts, too. I threw a bean bag to each child in turn and asked them to name something that shows how much Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love them. (See manual: Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ give us blessings.)
- Who? - Who does Jesus Christ love? I showed a picture of Jesus with little children, and told the children how much Jesus Christ loves little children. (See manual: Jesus showed His love for children.) Then, I had taken pictures of each child, cut them out, laminated them, and put Velcro dots on the backs of each. I had taken another picture of Jesus Christ, laminated it, and placed Velcro dots on it, enough for each child. I laid out the pictures of the children on the table, and let each child find his/her picture, then attach it to the picture of Jesus. By attaching their pictures to the picture of Jesus, we created an image of Jesus with them, similar to the one of Jesus blessing the children.
Story & Snack: I really wanted to use "Guess How Much I Love You" by Sam McBratney, but I couldn't find my copy. Instead, I used "Love You Forever" by Robert Munsch. That was OK, but I really wanted a story that represented a father's love for his child. And "Love You Forever" is too long, so I didn't read the whole thing.
Coloring Page: I again selected the black and white poster from Sunday Savers. Since we ran out of time, I sent them home with the children to color at home.
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