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.

Effective Teaching

Being a nursery teacher is no different than being any other teacher, in that it requires study, preparation and relying on the spirit to help you teach.  I will be studying The Church of Jesus Christ's, "Teaching no Greater Call" Book to help me learn to be a better teacher.   A few weeks ago I was using the "Preach my Gospel" Manual to help me with my personal scripture study.  On page 19 it states,

. . . you are responsible to thoroughly understand the lessons and teach by the Spirit in your own words. Teach so that others will strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ, Desire to repent, and enter into covenants with God.

Effective teachers are always working to improve their knowledge and abilities. Although you will not teach all you know about the doctrine, your increased knowledge will build your testimony and your abiltiy to teach with spiritual power. You will know you are using the lessons as intend when you:

• Help others make and keep commitments taht lead to baptism and confirmation.
• Strive to consistently study, treasure up, and apply the doctrines in your life.
• Seek and follow the Spirit as you prepare and teach the lessons
• Work with your companion to make specific plans for each person you teach.
• Focus on the central messages and doctrines as you teach.
• Adjust the order, length, and pace of the lessons to meet the needs of those you each.
• Teach often from the scriptures with clairty and conviction.
• Bear testimony frequently

I think to be effective as a teacher in Nursery we need to apply all of this as it is appropriate. We need to be studying the subject of the lesson in our personal study, as the manual points out, we WILL NOT teach everything we learn, but we will better be able to bare testimony of it, we will be better prepared for questions, and most importantly we will be more open and capable of knowing what the spirit wants us to teach.

Craig and I both agree the less time spent in unstructured play time the better.  This does not mean that we should have no fun, or no play. It just means that playing with toys tends to lead to tears and lots of noise, and people getting hurt.  So I have been exploring for some ideas of activities we can do at the beginning and end of nursery. I found a website called LDS Treasure it seams to have some fun Ideas.

Nursery Games

Two hours is a long time to entertain toddlers. The schedule suggested in the lesson manual is valuable for making the time move along without allowing children to become bored or fussy. However, it can be challenging to think of games to play with children so young.

Little ones like simple games. Anything with a bit of action will entertain them and the same games can be played week after week. Toddlers like that which is familiar, so don't try to think of new games for each week. It takes time for them to learn activities. Introduce one or two new games at a time. Eventually you'll learn to stop just before the children become bored, but this takes practice. Watch your students to see if you can tell when they are getting tired or perhaps too stimulated. Then notice what happens just before that.

Following are some simple activities that will keep your little ones occupied for the fifteen minute gathering time:

Blanket and Ball

Have all the children hold the edge of a blanket or sheet. Place an under-inflated ball, cloth doll, stuffed animal or other safe toy on the blanket. Have all the children bounce the blanket up and down to make the toy bounce. This may not sound exciting, but toddlers find this highly amusing. They especially enjoy trying to knock the toy off the blanket, which is why it must be safe.

Blowing Up a Balloon

I believe this was in a previous nursery manual. Children join hands and move in very close together. They gradually move backwards, blowing as they move. When they are stretched as far as their arms will go, yell "Pop!" and fall down. Children love anything involving falling down.

Flashlight Chase

Move a flashlight beam slowly around the room. Let the children try to stomp on it. If each adult has a light, you can keep a number of children occupied at once.

Balance Beam Game

Create a masking tape line around the room in a square. Have the children line up on the line and move around it following your instructions. Have the children hop, wiggle, tip-toe, take large and small steps and so on. Tell them to pretend they are on a high wire or balance beam way up high.

Let's Pretend

Have the children pretend to be anything that fits your lesson or interests them. They can be animals, trees, butterflies, fish, and so on.

Line Ball

Have the children sit in a line facing to the left. Give the first child on the left a ball. He must turn around (scooting while sitting) and roll it to the next child. That child catches it and also turns around to roll it. If you have a large nursery, make two lines. The last child could get up and run to the front of the line and sit down.

Toy Pass

Have all the children sit or stand in a line. Give the first child a toy. Have her place it on her head and take it to the next child. Vary this game by thinking of new ways to get the toy from child to child.

Block Stack

If your nursery has blocks or other stacking toys, let each child in turn get a block and stack it up. Build the excitement. When it topples, laugh. This helps children decide it's okay to make mistakes.

By Terrie Lynn Bittner

Names

Another thing that I think is important is that the kids are all called by name.  Names are very important. As the lesson manual points out, "Children love to hear their names. The greatest gift you can give children is to love, recognize and value them."

With 15 plus kids in our nursery, and with them moving out and moving in so often, this can be difficult. I was thinking simply having sticky name tags every week, possibly stuck on their backs, or their fronts (if the kids will leave them alone) would be good. Kids love stickers and Kids love their names. 
I liked this idea as well from a comment on someone's blog

She suggested a special nursery apron. It had big pockets and would have special things in the pockets.

One pocket would have a treat of some sort (a piece of candy I think) and her theory was that the kids would eventually be trained to come to the person wearing the apron.

The other pocket had a clippy tag with the child's picture and name on it. So they would get the candy and then receive the tag with their picture and name.
But I think maybe I would make it just an address Label with their name that we write on it.  And the supplies for what ever we are doing at the momment (the play dough, the fruit loops etc) maybe a small tootsie roll just to make coming to nursery fun and exciting. It is a thought. Just some ideas to play with.

Ok So another problem I have noticed during nursery is the "Magic Carpets"  for lesson time. I tried these as a teacher for circle time and it never worked, kids don't sit still they are all over the place. It is a just a mess I prefer not to deal with.  I think I will use chairs I am not sure how to transition.  Currently the kids go from singing time (which is in the primary room) back to the nursery room where snack is all set up. I think that is one of the things that is working well in nursery. The kids walk in and each gets hand sanatizer on their hands and then goes to sit down at snack. The lesson is currently immidiately after snack.  The problem I see with this is that not all the kids get done with snack at the same time. and also I want to use chairs for the lesson. I also want them to get scritpures. so bring chairs, and getting scriptures, might be overly chaotic. I would like to just have chairs already set up. I have thought about having lesson in an empty room, but that might create too much transition, too many opportunities to loose kids, but they seam ok going back and forth from singing time, and it signals to them that it is time to pay attention. So a seperate room might be a good idea. Someone submitted this idea to sugardoodle:

We have a large group of Nursery children and we have a hard time getting anyone to sit for our lessons and we have a harder time getting our ideas across. So my co-leader and I talked the Primary President into letting us use an empty room for our lessons, and now we divide our children into groups and bring them into the other (very empty) room for our lesson! We hang pictures up low on the wall and pretend that we're walking through a "museum"- discussing each picture as it pertains to the lesson. Then we sit on the floor and do our activities and the rest of our lesson. The children LOVE it and its different enough to totally keep their interest. Helps that there are no outside distractions! It works much better with our older crowd than our younger crowd, but we're hoping that it helps prepare our older children for Sunbeams next year! (Idea by Vickie Kelly)
I really like this idea. I am not sure how it will work with kids finishing snack at different times. or if lesson needs to be moved to a different time.  I would also have to find out if there are any empty rooms that we could use.

Lesson Schedule

There are only 28 lessons plus an Easter and Christmas Lesson. This leaves plenty of time for review and repitition. There is no reason to just simply go straight through the lesson manual.  Either there should be reviews, or more than one week spent on one lesson, or you could do one week where you give a general over view of the next couple lessons. Which ever way seams approprite for the set of lessons. Many of the lessons can be grouped together in themes. any way you do it, the lesson should be thought out and prepared and planned long before showing up at church. No one would dare get up and teach gospel doctrine simply by showing up to class and opening the book. These lessons need to be well done and prepared so that you can keep the children's attention and build in them a love for the gospel.  On sugardoodle someone has provided their entire year's schedule for teaching, with reviews  scheduled in, and with general conference and stake conference. . . they also have the activities and songs and such preplanned. 
Here is a sample of their lesson schedule. I haven't included the activty section  simply because I think I would do better to prepare weekly the individual lessons. I will have to create my own schedule because I am almost finished with this year and my stake conference is at different times.   But the point is, they are looking at the long term goal

Date	Lesson #	Subject
Jan. 2	1	I Am a Child of God
Jan. 9	2	Heavenly Father Has a Plan for Me
Jan. 16	3	I Can Pray to Heavenly Father
Jan. 23	4	Heavenly Father and Jesus Love Me
Jan. 30	Review 1-3	Review
Feb. 6	5	Jesus Christ showed us how to love others
Feb. 13	Valentines	Valentines
Feb. 20	6	The Holy Ghost Helps Me
Feb. 27	Review 4-6
Mar. 6	7	Jesus Christ created the world for me
Mar. 13	8	Sunday is a Day to Remember Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ
Mar. 20	9	I have a Body lIke Heavenly Father's
Mar. 27	Review  7-9
Apr. 3	no lesson	General Conference
Apr. 10	10	I Will Take Care of My Body
Apr. 17	11	I Love My Family
Apr. 24	#29	Jesus Christ was Resurrected  (Easter) Book, My First Story of the First Easter
May. 1	Review 10, 11, 29	No review, lesson 11 wasn't used so we taught that.
May. 8	Mother's Day	Mother's Day
May. 15	12	I Can Pray with my Family
May. 22	no lesson	Stake Conference
May. 29	13	My Family Can Be Together Forever
Jun. 5	14	I Will Obey
Jun. 12	Review 12-14
Jun. 19	Father's Day	Father's Day/Summer begins (21)
Jun. 26	15	I Will Be Thankful
Jul. 3	Indepen-dence Day	Independence Day
Jul. 10	16	I Will Say "I'm Sorry"
Jul. 17	17	I Will Share
Jul. 24	Pioneer Day	Pioneer Day
Jul. 31	Review 15-17
Aug. 7	18	I Will Love Others
Aug. 14	19	I Can Be Happy
Aug. 21	20	I Will Be Reverent
Aug. 28	Review 18-20
Sep. 4	21	Joseph Smith Saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ
Sep. 11	22	The Book of Mormon Teaches Me About Jesus Christ
Sep. 18	23	I Love the Scriptures
Sep. 25	Review 21-23
Oct. 2	no lesson	General Conference
Oct. 9	24	I Will Follow the Propet
Oct. 16	25	I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Oct. 23	no lesson	Stake Conference
Oct. 30	26	Halloween, I Will be Baptized and Confirmed
Nov. 6	Review 24-26
Nov. 13	27	The Sacrament Helps me think about Jesus Christ
Nov. 20	Thanks-giving	Thanksgiving
Nov. 27	28	Heavenly Father Blesses Me Through the Priesthood
Dec. 4	Review 27-28
Dec. 11	30	Jesus Christ if the Son of Heavenly Father (Christmas Lesson Pt. 1)
Dec. 18	30	Jesus Christ is the Son of Heavenly Father (Christmas Lesson Pt. 2)
Dec. 25	No lesson	Christmas Day

If you are Ready for Our Lesson

I think the best resourses are the ones that the church provides.  I think it is a given that you use those. And I think that the majority of the lesson and such should come straight from the manual provided. This way you know you are teaching what the Lord would have the kids know. It also has some great ideas for most nursery. For instance,  Transition are hard on kids and mandatory that you get them down for there to be peace in nursery. They have some great ideas for how to help this. One that I really like is their transition to Lesson time. 

Sing this song to the tune of "if your happy and you know it"

If you are ready for our lesson, come sit down
If you are ready for our lesson, come sit down
If you are ready for our lesson, it will surely be a blessing.
If you are ready for our lesson, come sit down.

I could change it up, since I plan on haveing them get their scritpures,

If you are ready for our lesson, get your scriptures,
If you are ready for our lesson, get your scritpures,
If you are ready for our lesson, it will surely be a blessing.
If you are ready for our lesson, get your scritpures.

Then when most the kids have started getting their scritpures sing the previous verse
If you are ready for our lesson come sit down etc.

I Read the Scriptures

Nursery is not just babysitting. Nusery is to teach the youngest children about Jesus, the Gospel, their Divine Nature, and how to follow the prophet. It is there teach the basics of the gospel and to begin life long habits.  I have a friend who use to teach seminary, she told me that she was amazed at how many kids start seminary in nineth grade who have never owned their own set of scriptures. Who didn't know how to use scriptures. Nursery is suppose to prepare kids to be able to be ready for Primary. There are countless stories of people who's testimonys of certain subjects have roots all the way back in nursery. They know that the gospel is true because their nursery leader knew it was true. As nursery leaders and teachers we are the first experience children have with the gospel outside their own home. . . and in some cases the first experience the kids have with the gospel period. It is mandatory that we express the love for the gospel and our testimonies to these very young children.

I love this idea. (once again found on sugardoodle)
by Janis Peterson

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I just wanted to share an idea that my friend, Kristen, told me they did in her old ward and I think it is great! The church sells the softcover Book of Mormon's. Each child in the nursery got their own scriptures. Each Sunday they would read a scripture from the Book of Mormon and put a small sticker on that page or put it next to the scripture. She shared how her daughter would just sit at home and in sacrment meeting and go through her scriptures and try to find the pages with the stickers in it. 

I thought this was a great way to introduce the scriptures to the little ones. Any way that there can be a hands on experience with the scriptures for these little ones is great.


ADDITIONAL NOTE by Yvonne Moo: I prepared paperback Book of Mormons with a name and picture of each child on the cover of their own. I ask them to get their scriptures as I begin the lesson. I highlight the scripture prior, then during the lesson we assist each to find the new scripture, then I read a portion and everyone puts a sticker to mark it. We, the leaders, help them to flip through to glance at the prior scriptures. It only lasts a few minutes, but I've enjoyed introducing them to the Book of Mormon. It will go with them when they move on to Sunbeams.

I love the additional note on this by Yvonne Moo.  I like having the kids learn that you use the scriptures for lessons, that the truths of the gospel are found in the scriptures. I like the idea of highlighting the scripture before the lesson. I also like the idea of having happy stickers that the child places next to the previously highlighted scripture. In my opinion this will help build ownership and also help the children recognize that the scriptures make them happy.

I like the idea of keeping the scriptures at church, because in our ward they would never make it back. . . I think that in most any ward with nursery children it would be only a few that would make it.  I think that giving them their set of scriptures when they graduate from nursery would be a great idea. Then they have them that they can take to sunbeams.  They own them, they have scriptures marked and they know their scriptures make them happy.

Birthday Plate

I absolutely loved this idea I found on sugardoodle.net

We have a very limited budget for Nursery but I still wanted to do something fun for the children's birthdays this year. So, I bought some paper birthday plates from the store and I'll give each of them a birthday plate along with this poem which I've taped on the back of the plate. We sing to the Birthday child in Nursery and afterwards I'll give them their plate and let them know it is just for them to eat their birthday dinner or for any meal they choose. They get to decide. Here is the poem:

This big day comes just once a year,
hip, hip hooray your birthday is here!
We all love you and think you're great
so we're giving you a special plate.
Save it for your birthday dinner
or cake and ice cream if it's the winner.
Either way, it's up to you,
Just know we love you too.
Happy Birthday!

Schedules and Routines

I taught special education for many years before I had children. One thing I learned was that down time was asking for trouble, and that a schedule, a routine schedule without a lot of change made for happy kids. Happy kids mean teachable kids. Transitions are hard so make them fun, or decrease how many transitions there are.  With young kids or kids with special needs attention spans are short, so decreasing transitions is very difficult. So the first thing is to develop a schedule and then make it a routine. Then the kids know what to anticipate and they know what is coming and so it isn't scary, confusing or overwhelming.

I liked some of the ideas from this article I found at bellaonline which I am not exactly sure what the website is, I will have to go check it out and see if there is anything else useful on it. But it did have this nice article.

Ideas for Nursery Leaders

Guest Author - T. Lynn Adams

Years ago one of my daughters felt shy about going to nursery. Thank goodness for Nancy Rush. This dear nursery leader treated all the children with love and made them feel important. They received cards and special treats on their birthdays. Often, when the weather was warm, they played outside or looked for butterflies. Other times Nancy would bring cookies and frosting to church and let the children decorate. They stamped cards, did scrapbook pages to give to their parents, and planted seeds in paper cups to grow for their gardens.

A move took Nancy away from our ward but she gave my daughter a beautiful book before she left. Almost a decade later my daughter was looking through the book and said, “I love Nancy.”

“Do you still remember her?” I asked.

“Yes. Nancy was the best!”

Nancy truly was the best nursery leader my daughter could have had. She made all the difference in the world for my child.

As a mother who has sent six children to nursery, I understand the importance of a good nursery leader. As a former nursery leader, I understand the trepidation of the calling. Can you really love and enjoy nursery?

Here are some tips that might help you and the children share the best time of the week.

SET UP
Be in the nursery early to greet each child by name and with a smile, a hug (if appropriate) or high-five.

Have things ready to go including tissues, wet wipes and a garbage can.

SCHEDULE
Have a schedule: Nurseries will not work without one! Leaders dislike their calling and children fuss, cry and feel more frustration without one. They need routine. You need routine. Create a schedule and visibly post in the room! (This will also help any substitutes.) A great article and basic schedule are provided at lds.org (see below).

My first experience with the nursery was amazing. With over 30 children in the nursery, the wise bishop called three full-time leaders. Two part-time helpers rotated in each hour. The children and leaders loved nursery. This is the schedule they used.

Play time
Clean-up and wash hands for snack
Snack and clean up
Lesson
Lesson-related activity
Music time
Free choice (During the last ten minutes the children could choose from three activities: listening to stories with one leader, coloring quietly at the table with another leader, or playing games with another leader such as Ring-Around-The-Rosie (so no toys were used).

When the parents came the room was clean, the toys put away and the children happily engaged in an activity of their choice. Wow! What a great learning experience for me!

PLAYTIME
Play with them. Get down on the floor, even in a dress, and play.

Guard against escape artists by sitting in front of the door as you play. You may have to move for parents coming in and out, but that’s okay.

Sometimes you just have to let them wiggle it all out (especially around the holidays). Hold different kinds of races or jumping contests, let them act out different animals, play follow the leader. Those real wiggly days will happen so just join in and wiggle with them. You’ll have more fun if you do.

CLEAN-UP
Play games while cleaning. Let the children pick up toys by color, shape or function. Teach them to have fun cleaning.

SNACK TIME
Children love to help. Let them pass out napkins or paper towels and paper cups.

Try to keep snacks healthy. Besides avoiding sugar buzzes, healthy snacks are cleaner! Raisins make less mess than cookies. Water is cleaner than juice if spilled. Make sure snacks are small and easy to chew. Use small paper cups for drinks and don’t fill them full. Know of any allergies and plan accordingly

LESSON TIME
Have a weekly lesson. Children love lessons. Lessons are also important for you, the leader. You will feel you are making an important contribution to their growth and development, and will often feel the spirit very strongly.

Keep them short, about 10 minutes long. You can adapt lessons from the primary manual or create special lessons just for them such as sharing, how to pray or having a new baby at home. Use stories, pictures, puppets, toys--they love visual aids and facial expressions are your greatest aid.

Have lesson time in a special place every week. This helps the children settle for the lesson. Letting each child sit on their own personal rug (samples from a flooring store) helps keep little hands and feet from invading the space of other children. (If you want, let the children decorate their rug square during an activity time and store them in the closet. When they leave nursery they can take it with them to use when saying their prayers.)

ACTIVITY
Plan a lesson-related activity. Think beyond the coloring crayons but remember you will need to do prep work at home. Cut out pieces ahead of time, pre-assemble some parts and be prepared to help with finishing touches. Remember glue sticks work better than liquid glue, all supplies should be washable with water and never use paints without large paint shirts and drop clothes.

Try to help the children make something they can take home with them every week. They love accomplishing that, you will feel better, and the parents will love seeing that their children are doing something more than just playing.

Look in the Friend for ideas. There are also some great books with pages you can photocopy and craft ideas you can use.

EXTRAS
Consider a special rest area. In one corner, have a soft quilt and large fluffy pillow. Let the children know this area is for resting. If a child is tired, he can lay down there to rest (and even nap if he chooses) before coming back into the mix. A safe, quiet area where he can retreat and be comfortable will save a lot of tired tears.

Use music. Music can change moods. Use quiet music to settle down before lesson time or just before their parents come.

Don't forget prayers. Help them pray at snack time or in conjunction with the lessons.

I always found that the more I prepared for nursery during the week, the more I loved my time in nursery on Sundays.

An excellent source for nursery is this article at lds.org

My favorite ideas from this article are the free choice time.  Having three different activities that the kids can participate in at the end. . I might change it into two. And then have one adult floating and one focussing on makeing sure they know who is leaving.

I think the schedule I would like to have is Something like this
10:10-10:25 Check in and Check in activity
10:25-10:35 Roll Call/Birthday/New people recognition and talk about being a Sunbeam
10:35-10:45 Play with Toys
10:45-10:55 Singing time (close off half of the room with toys when kids go to singing time)
10:55-11:05 Snack
11:05-11:15 Lesson
11:15-11:20 Lesson activity (not coloring)
11:20-11:25 Coloring or craft
11:25-11:45 toys
11:45-11:50 Clean up
11:50-12:00 free choice

Check in and Check out

I think it is very important to have a very organized check in and check out system. A couple weeks ago I substituted in nursery and parents would drop off kids and not saying anything, there were a couple of kids we didn't even know their names or who their parents were, there were new kids (which happens often in our ward because we have lots and lots of appartments and so people are always moving in and out) And then the parents would come pick up their kids without us even knowing. And then it was panic because we thought a kid escaped!  The saftey of the kids I think is the first and foremost important thing. If the kids are not safe, and do not feel safe, they will never feel the spirit, they will never learn and they will never make friends. I feel an organized nursery will help them feel safe and be safe. Also if I am constantly worry about who is lost, I won't have time to teach the rest of the kids. So the check in and check out systems are very important. So here are the ideas I have found that I like. Once again I think most of these have come off of sugardoodle.net

For Check in I liked this idea

It's hard to get names and faces for everyone. I brought my digital camera to church for several Sundays and took everyone's picture. Then I bought wooden flowers at the craft store, painted them all a different color, and glued their photo to a flower. The wooden flowers are indestructible, so the children can't smoosh them and ruin them. I used a Sharpie to write the child's name on the flower. We use a basket to hold the flowers, and as each child comes in, they find their flower and attach it to a poster that I made. It's a field of 'stems' with a piece of Velcro at the top of the stems. I have a Velcro dot on each wooden flower. The poster says: "Our Nursery Friends". The children love their flowers, and it gives them something to do when they get there. It helps with separation anxiety a little bit.
One thing I think I will change will be I want everything to have a teaching purpose, not just be cute. It needs to be functional and it needs to bare testimony of something in the gospel. So I thought I could either change the flowers to suns, and put at the top that Jesus wants me for a sunbeam. And every week we can talk about ways of being a sunbeam. So they think about it when they find their name on a sun.  Or I might find just little boy and girl figures and glue their faces on it and say something about being a Child of God. When Craig and I decide, what we think will be best I will put pictures.

For Check out I liked this idea



I have found that in nursery you have three kind of children. The ones that cry EVERY time the door opens, the runner who runs out when the door opens, and the ones who are bored.

I found a way to make all 3 happy. By putting their name on a star, outside on the door. Then the parents come to the door pull off there child's star. Sliding the star under the door, the children then RUN the star to the teacher to find out who is outside the door. Using the 2nd door in the room, the child with their name on the star goes through. Those who cry or run, are to busy waiting for their star to be doing so, and no one is bored.

Doing this has make pick up time so much easier and less crazy. You don't have to use stars. you can use just about anything: apples, animals, circles, squares, triangles...any kind of cut out you can think of.

I like the star idea because we can talk the song "I am like a Star Shining Brightly" We sing this every week in singing time and the kids love to do the twinkles with the stars, once again we can do a short weekly lesson on what it means to shine like a star. Repitition is important at this age. Also giving visual reminders  during the day is a great way to help instill in them a testimony of being a good example.

Roll Call

So far most of my favorite ideas have come from sugardoodle,  I would just leave them there, because I am not in any means trying to challenge sugardoodle, but I am simply using this blog to collect what ideas I think would be good to improve our nursery. I am a little bit nervous, being called as the nursery Leader, they have left the same nursery workers in there, so I am afraid to go in and tell them we are changing things. I hope they are greatful for the help and not resentful.  Craig and I will definatly prayerfully consider the changes we make, and how we make them. So these are just some of the ideas that I have found, they may or may not be used, and later posts I am sure will state what we have found to work, and what we feel the Lord wants us to do.

In the past few weeks I have noticed that a lot of kids come in and just scream, I think this is normal. Seperation is difficult for kids. My daughter is one of them. So I was talking to another mother who is in the same boat and she said that she has seen nurserys that this doesn't happen and the thing that makes a big difference is that they have an organized activity right in the beginning. it isn't just mass chaos. I can see how that would be helpful, coming in to lots of noise and chaos could be very overwhelming for little kids.

So I have been looking for ideas of what to do when the kids first come in. Some of the ideas I like are:
playdough
fruitloop necklaces
making a cave with blankets and reading stories
bubbles

I will be looking for more ideas in the next few weeks. If anyone has any ideas feel free to share.

So after five to ten minutes of that activity when all the kids for the day are there I think taking roll would be good (I plan on  having a check in process as well, which will be another post) but I think that physically taking roll so the kids know you are taking roll helps with a couple things. It teaches routine, which I think is one of the main purposes of nursery. It also shows the kids that we care if they are there and that we miss the children who are not there. It helps the adults in the room know the children's names, and it recognizes visitors.  I also think it would be a great time to highlight birthday kids (i am sure that birthday ideas will be coming as well. . I think it is important for every kid to feel very special and be highlighted). It is also a great time to introduce new kids.

I really liked this idea for roll call. I got it off of sugardoodle.net

After the children arrive and they are getting wiggles out from being in sacrament, we go through the roll by everyone getting out their pretend glasses (cupping hands around eyes like binoculars). I go through each name on the roll, asking all the children to look for "name of child". Everyone puts on their pretend glasses and I pretend I can't find them. The children get so excited when they find the "named" child. Then I say "There you are! I'm so happy to see you!" Continuing through the roll. When we get a child who is not present, I show sadness that they are not with us and move on to the next name. This helps the children know who visitors are too.

A New Calling

Yesterday, my husband got a phone call from a member of the bishopric and asked if we could come visit with him for a few minutes in the morning. He of course said yes, and then hung up, and then came the guessing game as to who would get the new call and what it would be.  We came in this morning and we both had been called to serve together as Nursery Leaders.
Honestly I couldn't be more excited to share a calling with my husband.  Who better to serve with than my favorite person in the world.  So I am so excited that we can do this together.
My baby is Lucy, she is eighteen months old, so I have spent the last couple weeks in nursery trying to help her adjust. One thing I have noticed is that our nursery needs help. So I am excited to go and make nursery a fun and happy place to be, and to help the kids learn something new every week.
My Lucy is sick today, so after meeting with the bishopric member, Lucy and I came home.  She is down for a nap, and so I have been reading the manual, and the church handbook for ideas, and then I started searching the internet for ideas of how other people make their nursery's functional. I tried using pintrest to store the ideas I liked, but most of the ideas don't have visuals, so that doesn't help me because Pintrest is a visual way of organizing things.  I started saving some of the ideas on my computer, but I could get a very full memory that way, and some of it is not in need of a space on my computer.  So I decided the best way to collect my ideas is in blog format. So if anyone else wants to stumble on to my blog, then they can use the ideas I have collected from many places.  There are hundreds of ideas out there, so mine will be no better than anyone else's collection, it will simply be what I think might work for me.