General Conference review and conference cards

I forgot to take a picture on Sunday but I had this fun General Conference review on Sunday where I put up a bunch of pictures next to the picture of the person who gave a talk, then let kids share what they remembered from whatever talk they picked. I had about 10 for them to choose from, plus a map so I could show how far the butterflies traveled in one talk, or how far a sister had to travel to get to the temple, for instance.

What I shared with a friend about it:

"I am so impressed every year by how much the Primary children know. The Junior kids weren't as knowledgable about the stories told during conference but they listened when I told them about monarch butterflies and what that meant.

In Senior, children identified pictures I had up next to leaders and re-told the story about the watchman on the tower, moses with the serpent  President Oaks), the monarch butterfly, Ensign Blair on the ship during the Typhoon (Elder Wilson), Orson Pratt and Parley Pratt (family history) ... and then they went a step further ... "wait, wasn't that the same guy who talked about the sidewalk cracking?" "wait, wasn't the the one where the boy said, 'just one more day' the day before he died?" It was really fun and cool!!"

I also made General Conference cards for the kids. 

By popular demand, I've decided to sell a digital copy on Etsy, too!
My (brand new!) shop is: https://www.etsy.com/shop/iliketocreatestuff

A Letter to Primary Parents

I just emailed this letter to my ward's wonderful Primary parents. I love General Conference and am so excited to have a discussion with the Primary children about what they learned, and what spoke to them! I am hoping to finish a project for the children in time for Sunday but it was a bit of a grand project to only have a week to complete so we'll see if I get it done in time. I might have to adapt for Sunday and then finish it over the following week. Or have the children help assemble their own gift :) 

Dear Primary Parents,

We will be reviewing some of the conference talks with the children during Sharing Time this Sunday. 

As I have been preparing this lesson, I have enjoyed many delightful conversations about General Conference, the things we learned, and the comments that specifically spoke to my friends, family, and me.

I did not want to make any assignments to any families regarding this lesson for Sunday because it is Spring Break week for most of you. However, if you are back in town, and your child was particularly impressed by a General Conference talk and would like to share their thoughts during Sharing Time (not opening exercises but the actual lesson time) please let me know by Saturday night. I will call on children who raise their hands regardless, but if a child wants to prepare in advance a thought from Conference, I welcome that opportunity and will set aside some time for them to come to the front of the room. They can bring a picture or object to share along with whatever General Conference talk was impressed upon their minds.

In the meantime, for you wonderful parents and grandparents, I also want to place special emphasis on the talk by Devin G. Durrant, called, "Teaching in the Home - a Joyful and Sacred Responsibility." This is a wonderful talk. I could see that Elder Durrant is the man he has become in large part because of teaching in the home. 

He says, "Years ago, my mother shared that her two best gospel conversations with my older brother, Matt, were once while she was folding laundry and another time while driving him to the dentist. One of the many things I admired about my mother was her readiness to teach her children."

Handbook 2: Administering the Church, says, "Parents have the first responsibility for the spiritual and physical welfare of their children (see DC 68:25-28). The bishopric, Primary leaders, and Primary teachers support but do not replace parents in this responsibility."

I know most of you already listened to Elder Durrant's talk but I want to invite you to review it again online. At the end of the talk, the written version shares references that were used. This includes some specific quotes that were not in actual talk but are a great supplement.

Lastly, I want to share the quote from President Dallin H. Oaks talk, "Small and Simple Things." He quotes President Howard W. Hunter, who taught “frequently it is the commonplace tasks … that have the greatest positive effect on the lives of others, as compared with the things that the world so often relates to greatness.”

Thank you so much for all that you do. 

I hope that you have had an amazing Spring break!

Easy sew nativity costumes for Primary

I made some nativity costumes in 2013 that I have pretty much used every year since I made them. They were super easy to make, for someone with limited sewing skills.

I always get a ton of traffic to this blog post every year so I wanted to share it with my LDS primary leaders audience!

http://iliketocreatestuff.blogspot.com/2013/11/easy-diy-how-to-make-easy-bible.html


On a personal note, for those of you that don't know me, I wrote a Christmas children's book! I'm a published, professional writer but this is the first time I've tried to get a children's book published so it's been an exciting process for me. I just found out my book, "My Nativity ABCs" is at Deseret Book today. I received a Deseret Book catalog in the mail and there was my book, smack in the middle of the "bedtime stories" page. You can also find my book at Seagull Book, Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, Walmart, Target, and other bookstores!

Fun Primary Program Day Lesson: Articles of Faith

Our Primary Program was on Sunday.

To make the day special, but not detract from the purpose of Sharing Time and Singing Time, we spent the day on a combined Singing Time/Sharing Time focused on the Articles of Faith.

Our Primary works on one of the Articles of Faith every month by singing them (from the Children's Songbook) during opening exercises. We don't spend any real time on it - we just have a child recite it, then everyone sings it for four weeks before we move onto the next one. (Since there are 13 Articles of Faith, we combine 1 and 2 in January). They know the article and song pretty well by the end of each month though!

So, for this lesson, we reminded the children that they probably know the Articles of Faith better than they realize.

Our first counselor put together these two activities. For Junior Primary, she pulled a name out of the Helping Hands jar, and that child was invited to find puzzle pieces hidden around the room. The puzzle pieces went to different articles. When one was completed, she talked about them about the Article of Faith and what it meant, and then our chorister led them in singing the song version. Our counselor also gave children the opportunity to recite the article.

                                

In Senior Primary, our counselor put together a Jeopardy board with section for Key Words, General Trivia, Fill in the Words, Name the Article of Faith, and Match the Picture. 

Combining Singing Time and Sharing Time in a General Conference and Pre-Program Song Review

I just posted a combined singing time/sharing time to prep for the Primary Program but with the dual purpose of reviewing General Conference here.

General Conference Activity Packs

I have a two-part, free General Conference activity packet for Primary kids here.

It's a combination of Singing Time and Sharing Time topics that are appropriate for General Conference. For example:

Emailing Primary Parents

We occasionally send emails to our Primary Parents to let them know about some resources that could help enhance a lesson that we taught in Primary, or whatever other bit of inspiration comes to us. I would say this happens on average once a month or a bit less. We don't want to inundate folks with emails, but it's nice to share a gem of inspiration once in a while, or just give the parents an idea of what is happening during Primary.

This is an email that we sent out today after Stake Conference this past weekend:

Hello Primary Parents,

Don't forget that the Primary Program this year is on October 15 at 1 p.m. Practice will be held on the Saturday prior, at 9 a.m.! 

We hope you were able to enjoy Stake Conference this past weekend. We enjoyed some great, inspiring talks, particularly some guidance that we can follow for our Primary children. 

1. We love the challenge from President Corbridge to take the next 19 days and spend 5-10 minutes per day on our knees in sincere prayer with our Father in Heaven. This is such a great challenge for the Primary children because even the little ones can do this on their own! On Sundays, we will be reminding the children that they can participate in this challenge - and even invite their families to participate in this challenge. 

2. Sister Arnold also encouraged us to take advantage of the resources found on LDS.org to participate in activities that help our children fight against the influence of pornography. You can find a link to some of the resources (including a fun activity) here: https://www.lds.org/children/resources/topics/pornography?lang=eng.