Behold Your Little Ones, Lesson 24, I will Follow the Prophet

When the kids first come in  They will color the picture from the manual of past prophets.

Then later as we begin the Lesson we will sing the do as I am doing song and allow everyone who wants a chance to be the leader a chance. (just like the lesson manual says)

Then we will talk about a Leader, and how we have a leader of the church, he is the Prophet.  We will have the children each repeat the word Prophet.  We will hold up pictures of different prophets, including the ones the kids colored earlier  and talk about how we have always had prophets on the earth. After each one we will have the kids repeat, "I will Follow the Prophet"

We will discuss how the words of the prophets can be found in the Scriptures, and then we will read a verse from the scriptures and help each of the kids mark it in their scriptures with a smiley face sticker.

We will then go on a Reverence walk around the hall to look at more pictures of the prophets, and ultimately of Christ and talk about how Prophets talk to Christ and Prophets tell us what Christ wants us to know.

We will then return back to the class room to color a picture of president Thomas S. Monson.

First Day

Today was our first day! What worked well? and what did not work well?

We decided to have a coloring sheet right when the kids came in. That went great!  The kids I know often have a hard time coming in to nursery came right in without crying. So structure right from the beginning was great.

We had a mini lesson with role call and talking about being a star shinning brightly, That went well.

Today's lesson was on being reverent, and as part of the lesson we had a reverence walk. The kids practiced folding their arms and walking very quietly in the hall. We had pictures that we stopped and looked at on the walls, they loved that, and they were so quiet. I think that was my favorite part of the day.

We had a clothes line with their pictures hung on the wall that was great.

What didn't work so well?  I think we actually had too many workers. With too many nursery workers, they tend to not feel as needed, and then gab with each other. There is actually plenty for them to do, but it just seams like because there is so many there is no need (so then they don't do anything). Maybe we can alternate weeks,  or hours that they are there.

Things we will try for next week is to have a visual schedule to follow. We took pictures of the kids today to make a role, so next week we will have a role.

LDS Nursery Lesson #21~ Joseph Smith Saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ

The gathering activity I think we will try is to have a movie playing. I am not so sure that this will work, I do not know if children under the age of three even care to watch movies, I know my 18 month old doesn't.  We might try Living Scripture's Joseph Smith Story, or we might try the Church's Restoration movie they made just a couple years ago. I am not sure which is a better choice. I love the movie made by the church, it has beautiful music, and it is short, so it might be good because I don't want to take up too much time. However it is live acting and Living Scriptures is animated and maybe children enjoy animation better. Now on to the real lesson plan.

If you have your lesson in a seperate room you could line the halls with pictures from Joseph Smith's Life up until the first vision and you can talk about each event  leading up to the first vision, and then complete the lesson in the classroom.

I really like the layout of the lesson today. So I think that we will follow pretty straight down the line. 
I like the Exercise listed in the manual about telling the story again only have the kids pretend to be trees.  I like how it suggests that even the plants show respect and reverence for their Creator. I like the repitition of the story, the more times the kids hear it the better off they will be.  The image below could be used the first or second time of the story.

I think we will use it the first time So they can see the visual, if we have the gathering activity be the movie, they will have seen it on movie, talked about the pictures on the way to class, watched the  puppet show of it. And then We might have a few of the kids act out the story. Bring a big bible, have some white robes for the kids to put on and they can stand on the chairs and someone can be Joseph Smith, we could bring a hat for them to dress up. We could have the remaining kids act like the trees like the manual suggests. If we do that I will take pictures, and post them later. I like that idea. I think actually acting it out will drive home that image in the kids heads.

Be sure to reread the Joseph Smith Story found in Joseph Smith history and pray and reaffirm your testiomony once again on this subject before teaching the Lesson. That way you can bare testimony to the kids, and your testimony can be strengthened.

Here is the puppet show from the Friend Magazine

Remove pages 14 and 15 (I included them below) from the magazine and glue them onto a sheet of heavy paper or lightweight cardboard. Carefully cut out each piece, then glue a small craft stick onto the back of each, with the stick extending out the side (see illustration). Find a box about the size of a medium-size shoe box. Cut large openings on both ends and on the box lid (see illustration). As you tell the story of the First Vision, use the box as a stage. Move the different figures and scenery on and off the stage through the side holes as you tell the story. You may want to tell the story at a family home evening.

I also think it would be fun to help the kids do a puppet show and act out the story, or simply leave it out for the kids to play with the rest of the day, maybe keep it in the nursery to play with on other days as well.

For our art activity we might also do leaf rubbings for the pictures. But the title of the lesson is that Joseph Smith Saw Heavenly Father and Jesus, so I haven't decided if leaf rubbings deter from the main idea. I just like to do something a little more than just coloring something that might stick with them longer. Maybe helping the kids make their finger puppets and helping them tell the story with them would be a better use of time and effort for the kids.

Nursery Graduation

My only memory of nursery is when my younger sister who is two and a half years younger than me graduated from nursery. They had a big cerimony and made a big deal about it. I remember thinking it was really cool. And some how to this day I remember thinking that those nursery leaders loved my sister, and that they had testimonies.  So I keep thinking that my job isn't just to the kids in nursery but also to their older brothers and sisters.  I think that having some sort of graduation cerimony would be cool. But we will see when the time comes. The other thing I remember from when my sister was in nursery was that we were in a very old building (it has since been demolished)  however, in my memory the nursery was painted with murals of nature. I remember how much I liked being in the nursery room. I wonder if I could get permission to make the walls in our nursery not so bleek?

Visual Schedule

So part of having a schedule that you follow is actually having a schedule to look at, so that everyone in the room, teachers, parents, substitutes, and child alike know what is coming next.  If it is large enough that you can see it from anywhere in the room then you don't have to divert your attention from what you ae doing to figure out what time something is going to happen or what is coming next. If you make it with pictures than the kids will know what is coming next and they will be able to be at peace that their favorite part of the day is coming.

If you use a pocket chart than you can change the order of things without too much excitement in the room. Or you can put specific pictures such as playdough on the days you are doing play dough and mr. potato head on the days you do potato heads. . .

Or you can be a little less specific and more rigid and just stick to your schedule every week and have it on a poster board unmoveable.  I think that is what I will do.  When I get it made I will surely post pictures of it.

anyhow a large visual schedule will make all nurserys run more smoothly.

A new nursery leader's to do list

Prepare first lesson
Get recipe for playdough
Make playdough
get some quite music
See if we have a cd player in the nursery room
find some wood suns
paint the wood suns
Create a poster for the suns
make stars for check out
talk to primary president about obtaining a seperate room for lessons
Find binder and page protectors for books made by children
Make a visual schedule for the children and Adults

LDS Nursery Lesson #20 I will be reverent

I like how the lesson progress in the manual. My daughters have a book called, "I am Reverent When. . ." by Val Bagley. I purchased it at Deseret Book a number of years ago. I like it because it shows different kind of Revernce. It has a rhyming poem in it which is good for little kids to hear. and it has flaps to lift and wheels to turn so it would be great attention getting activity for the lesson.

Then I think will start in with the lesson and Explain what Reverence Mean, and have all the kids repeat the word reverence.

I will show the picture suggested in the Manual and talk about how the people in the picture are being Reverent.

In the October 2008 Friend there is a book to make about Revernce. Instead of making it for every kid, I think that we will simply make one for Nursery and it can be a book we read at story time, or any other time during the day in weeks to come. It will be good for the kids to have something to go back to. Maybe we can have each of the kids color a page and then turn it in to a book.

After We read the book We can practice being reverent. Then we will go for a revernce walk and practice walking quitely in church, practice having our arms folded. I plan on having pictures of the Savior on the walls like a museum. We will practice thinking about Jesus, and talking quietly. Then we will walk back to nursery. (this will help teach the routine of going to a different room for lesson if we can get permission).

We will have papers that say, "I can keep my hands and feet reverent"  and then we will help each kid trace their hands and feet. And they can color them if they like.

We have singing time seperate, our primary chorister does it in the primary room, I think she does a fabulous job. But I think that music can really bring the spirit to a lesson. So I think we will sing, Reverence is Love  and The Chapel Doors.  The kids sing The Chapel Doors every week in singing time, so it will be go to tie it in.