Lesson 7 - The Holy Ghost Helps Me

Please see my page on Sunbeams for an overview of my teaching system.

As I read through Sugardoodle, and other sites, I found a lot of neat ideas, and so this lesson came together quite easily, but it was different than any lesson I had done before.  It was much more symbolic.

To start:

I really liked some ideas posted by Sherri Boekweg on Sugardoodle.

 "To help them understand the Holy Ghost as a friend, I brought lots of stuffed animals (at least one for each child) and told them to choose a special friend (stuffed animal) at the beginning of class.  Then we did some movement activities with their "friend."  Then they sat down on the floor with their friend and we talked about friends and how Heavenly Father has given us a very special friend--the Holy Ghost.  They got to hold their "friend" during the class time as long as they listened and kept the friend close.  In helping them understand the Holy Ghost being a comforter, I brought a large piece of fleece fabric that we wrapped around each of them so they could feel how soft and warm it was.  Then we talked about how the Holy Ghost can help us feel soft and warm just like that blanket.  After I told the story of Harold B. Lee, we played this game.  I had all of the children stand on one side of the room and when I said "Walk" they started walking toward me.  But when I quietly said "stop" they stopped. Then I would say "walk" again and they walked until they heard "Stop".  (Idea by Sherri Boekweg)

I decided to incorporate parts of her ideas. 

Instead of the standard room layout, I decided not to have the children sitting at the table.  I moved the table and chairs against the wall, then laid out a blanket on the floor.  Building on Sherri Boekweg's idea, I had each child select a friend (stuffed animal), then we sat on the blanket, went over the class rules, and prepare for prayer.

After the prayer, we talked about friends, what friends do, then introduced the idea that Heavenly Father has given us a very special friend - the Holy Ghost.

I followed the second part of the manual attention activity, using the picture of the First Vision.

I explained that the Holy Ghost can do many things for us.  He can comfort us, he can guide us, he can warn us of danger.  "Today we're going to learn about these things."

Then I brought out the activity cards (5 this week).  The activities were:

• Story of Harold B. Lee - Taken from the manual (The Holy Ghost gives us comfort and help).  I found some clip art images of a shed and some fence.  I printed them out on card stock to make props for the story.  I acted out the story with action figures.  I also showed a picture of Harold B. Lee.  (You could also use the idea shared by Misti Lee on Sugardoodle.)  (Her idea is built on materials posted in the Friend from the life of Pres. Lee.)

 

• Do we feel happy or sad when we...? - Building on the second activity in the manual (The Holy Ghost helps us know what is right), I modified an idea by Julie K. Nelson.  Julie suggested putting sentence strips in a jar.  But since these young children cannot read, I decided to use visuals instead, to represent the ideas provided by Julie... and more.  I made them on cards using clip art pulled from Google.  Some of them had copyrights, or other identifying information on them... and I left them.  (I do not like removing identifying information.)  I laid the cards face down on the table, drew happy and sad faces on the board, and had the children take turns picking one.  We would identify what was happening in the picture, and the child would tell whether they would feel happy or sad and place the picture with the appropriate face. 

 
Not all of these pictures may be self explanatory... so from top left to bottom right...

o   Making a mess that mom has to clean up

o   Going to church

o   Folding clothes (helping mom)

o   Going to bed without saying prayers

o   Fighting over a toy

o   Saying prayers before bed

o   Fighting

o   Being mean to someone/saying something mean

o   Sharing

o   Telling a lie

o   Playing nicely with another

o   Giving mom a hug and a kiss

There are certainly many more options that could be used.  One thing I thought of after the class to get the children more involved, I could have given them each a smiley and frowney face.  After each picture was discussed, the children could have each held up their "vote".   

• If we can't see it, is it real? - Taken from the activity in the manual (The Holy Ghost helps us know what is right), using an object placed in a bag to show that just because we can't see something doesn't mean it's not real. I actually used a sock, and placed a few jingle bells inside.  With this, I was not only able to make the connection that just because we can't see it doesn't make it not real.  But I was also able to make the connection, that although we cannot see the Holy Ghost, we can hear him, and we can feel him.  I gave each child the opportunity to touch the sock and feel the bells inside and to shake the sock to make the bells ring.  I thought this also made a nice connection to the take-home materials below.  The jingle bells were small, so they didn't make much noise.  So we were able to also talk about how you have to be quiet to be able to hear His still small voice.

• A special gift - Building on the activity in the manual (We can receive the gift of the Holy Ghost), I showed the children a gift box.  Inside I had placed a picture of a child getting baptized (found on the LDS media site).  We discussed how receiving the Holy Ghost is a gift. 

• The Holy Ghost whispers - We played the game suggested by Sherri Boekweg, where the children walked from one end of the room to the other.  When I whispered "stop" they had to stop.   When I whispered "walk" they began to walk again.  They loved it!  And I used it as a good opportunity to praise them for good listening.

Snack & Story - I didn't have an appropriate story to use (though I found one that looks promising.  I may have to purchase it for next year:  The Holy Ghost is Like a Blanket, by Annalisa Hall).  But I found a beautiful illustrated book for the song "The Holy Ghost", on BasicPrimaryMusic.blogspot - a very nice blog I just discovered.  I printed and bound it as shown, then read it to the children during snack.

At the end, I went over some take-home materials I had made for each child.  This is where things were particularly different for this lesson.  I usually just send them home with printouts or crafts, but this week I wanted something special.  I found so many neat ideas about the symbolism of the Holy Ghost during my research.  The inspiration began with Sherri Boekweg's idea of wrapping the children in fleece.

• I made a booklet to remind each child of what the Holy Ghost can do for us.  I printed it out, cut each page in half, then stapled each booklet together.

• To go along with the booklet, I was going to just do what Sherri had done, and give each child a piece of fleece (because I've got a lot of fabric scraps), but instead, I found a cheap ($2.88) fleece blanket at Walmart.  I also found a cheap ($1.00) flashlight at Walmart for each child.  In addition, I put a small bell on a piece of ribbon for each child.  (Having only 5 children in the class, this was quite cheap and do-able, but may not be for those with more kids.)

Finally, we had prayer, then I had the children sit at the table to do their coloring page (the black and white poster taken from Sunday Savers).

Having the children sitting on the floor had some problematic aspects, though.  They kept "scootching" to get closer to me, so when there were visuals I would have to have them "scootch" back.  It was a minor point, and didn't really cause problems, but again, I only had five children.  One possible thing you could do if you have more children, or think that it's going to get out of control, you could take pieces of masking tape with a child's name on each piece, and place it on the carpet, or blanket.  Require the children to sit on their names, and remind them as needed to return to their names.