Articles of Faith: Pathway to a Testimony


After 2 months of only attending the Sacrament meeting portion of church, I finally climbed back in the saddle and went back to Primary. And boy did it feel good to be back.

The lesson was simple this week with only a brief history to teach, which left us more time to do an activity. The lesson: Joseph Smith writes the Articles of Faith.

We followed the manual pretty much to a "T" to get the lesson started off. You can get the manual and their ideas here.

After telling the kids of the events that surrounded the writing of the Articles of Faith, we dove into an activity that got the kids out of their seats, make them work for a little treat and it turned into a huge success. This activity was adapted from idea #1 & #2 given in the manual.


The activity was to teach the kids that knowing the Articles of Faith can help lead them and others to a testimony of the gospel. To start off I pulled out a dish full of little baggies with some skittles in them. I explained that these were everyone's testimonies and I put the dish at one end of the room. I then had all of the children move their chairs over to the opposite corner of the classroom.


On the table up front, I laid 3 footsteps upside down. The children took turns coming to the front and selecting a footprint. On the hidden side was a number of an Article of Faith along with a picture and keyword to help them remember that article (these keywords and pictures are used in activity #2 in the manual). Once the child selected the footprint, they were to then recite the Article of Faith from memory for the entire class.


We've been working on the Articles of Faith in our class all year but many of the kids still don't know them super well. To avoid any child feeling embarrassed for not knowing them (because I still don't know them all!), I told them that if they didn't know the article, that was okay because we are still all learning them to build our path to our testimony. If they needed help, they could pick a friend from the class to come up and recite it with them. If no one knew it, like Article of Faith #11, then we all pulled out our scriptures and read it together.

Once the selected Article of Faith had been recited or read, the child placed the footprint on the floor leading to the dish of testimonies.

The class had a lot of fun and I even had kids who didn't know the Articles of Faith raising their hands for another turn! Once they reached the testimonies, I let them each take a baggie and eat their treat as I told them President Monson's story as outlined in enrichment activity 4.

It was a very successful class that got them to understand why they are learning the articles and helped them to practice all 13.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Church History in Review: Primary Jeopardy Game

Image
The first Sunday Justin and I attended our new ward in Vernal, the bishop called us into his office. We assumed it was just a "get-to-know-you" meeting... We walked out of his office 10 minutes later with a new calling: Co-primary teachers for the Valiant 9 class (9 year olds). We love teaching primary and have actually been lucky enough to partner up before. I've got the whole hand-out and object lesson thing down and Justin is pro at telling stories and engaging the class. This year the subject for primary is Church History so we've been learning about Joseph Smith, the angel Moroni, and the publishing of the Book of Mormon. Last week we had a review of everything we've taught the class thus far. Instead of just reviewing everything, Justin and I spiced it up with a little game of Jeopardy. Winning team's prize was a plate full of Easter cookies. The TWIST : Each 500 point question came with a challenge. If the team wins the challenge, the que
Read more

Coming Closer to Christ in 30 Days (Part 1)

Image
We all experience different seasons throughout our lives. At times we walk through this journey with the crisp air of Spring filling our lungs, the scent of fresh flowers and rain making every breath one of renewal, and the refreshing vision of a world blanketed in green. Other times we walk--or in my case, run--through the bitter winter storms. During those times, the heavy pressure of an oncoming thunderstorm can weigh on our shoulders, especially if we find ourselves stuck in the middle of a hurricane with no foreseeable way out. No matter the season we walk through today--or the season we'll face tomorrow--we have to rely on Christ always. Speaking from personal experience, it's often easy to forget Him when we walk through the Springs and Summers of life. It's not that we want to, but the peaceful time distracts us from the constant need we have to improve ourselves to become like Him. After the April 2018 LDS General Conference, Justin and I both felt the urgen
Read more

Birthday Celebration: Flaming Gorge Dam

Image
I had a monumental birthday on Sunday - the big 26! It was such a fun birthday to get to explore and play the entire weekend in Vernal. The best part of it was that my mom and twin sister drove out from Utah county to spend the weekend with me and Justin. We did a lot of fun stuff: Beauty & the Beast movie night, hike to Moonshine Arch , dinner at 7-11 Ranch Restaurant, but one of the highlights was getting to see Flaming Gorge Dam while they had the spillway open! Tours of the dam are totally free and last about an hour. A guide walks the group through the dam, giving you some good knowledge about the construction and purpose of the dam along with an amazing view! The tour is easy (even for a pregnant lady) and pretty interesting. After looking down at the dam from the top, the guide leads the group to the bottom of the dam near the spillway. If you're lucky, the spillway might be open and you'll get to see water flowing out of the dam at 75 mph.
Read more