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.

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.

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.

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.