Free General Conference Bingo Cards

I've updated my General Conference Bingo so there are now 12 playing cards available.  You can find the FREE download below.  Cover the space when the word is mentioned in General Conference OR use the calling cards included in the download to play the regular way over and over again!  Print the boards and optional calling cards (cardstock recommended).   You can find the original post here.  All graphics are from the amazing  Melonheadz's Graphics and Fonts are from Hello Literacy.  Watch for more Conference ideas this week and some of our old favorites updated. 

Download Here

Come Follow Me:Matthew 16-17, Mark 9, and Luke 9 (Part 1) April 1-14

The Come Follow Me chapters for the next two weeks cover Matthew 16-17, Mark 9, and Luke 9.  Since we have two weeks to cover these chapters I decided we are going to use this week to learn about testimonies.  We are going to focus on how we gain a testimony, cover Matthew 16:13-17 (Peter's Testimony), and prepare for General Conference by getting to know a little more about the prophet and apostles and reading their testimonies of the Savior.

The first activity can be done two ways.  You can do it in one night OR you can do one or two a day and use it as more of a count down to General Conference.  Before I explain how we are going to do this activity here's a quick run through on what's included in the download for this activity.

Get to know you cards for the prophet and apostles.  Each card has their picture and some fun facts about them (pictures and facts found on lds.org).  Print preferably on cardstock. If you want to save some ink you can find a power point version in this post.  Easy to pull up on your computer each day.  I've updated the file and there is a fun fishing game you can use as well or instead of the activity below. 

Testimonies of the prophet and apostles.  I was so excited to find this article.  When they were in Rome for the temple dedication they shared excerpts from the Living Christ (I plan to show the video clip ) and their personal witness of Jesus Christ.  I put these on individual hearts.  They can be printed and left as is or print on the back of patterned or colored paper and fold into mini envelopes.  (you can find a tutorial here). You can place these in a basket, clip to a ribbon, tape them to the wall, or keep in a pile to pull out as needed. I need to finish cutting mine out but here's how I'm displaying my envelopes for the week.

 The 3rd part of this activity is the this quote page.  There is a black and white option.  To set up this activity read and display the quote below.  Each day pick a couple of hearts.  Read the testimony on the heart and find the matching person.  Read the fun facts about that person.  Display the heart and the fact card under the quote.  Add the hearts and fact cards through out the week.  I hope to have all of them displayed before conference starts.  This will be a fun reference to help your kids recognize the prophet and apostles as they speak.

After conference I plan to hole punch the top corner and add a book ring to create a mini book for our church bag.  I did laminate mine.  I like to spend some time introducing my children to the apostles and prophet before each conference because I've noticed if they recognize the person talking to them they are more likely to stop and listen.  They are little and sometimes they only stop for a couple of minutes but during those few minutes they hear the message of the gospel and have the opportunity to feel the spirit.  This is how they develop their own testimonies of the Savior and the gospel.  

The second activity for this week will be our FHE night. We are going to talk about gaining a testimony and how to find answers to our questions. To do this we are going to use steps President Nelson shared in his talk from last April's General Conference.  We did this fhe last year and I included the outline I used. I am following it pretty close when we do it this week.  I did change the game to a board game which is included in this post.  To play print the board and page of cards.  cut the cards apart and mix them up.  Place on the cards spot.  On your turn roll a dice and move the correct number of spaces.  Pick a card and do what it says.  Most are fun active movements.  There are 7 cards that are numbered and correspond with the steps in President Nelson's talk.  Set these aside and the player moves forward one extra space.  The goal is to find all 7 steps before every player reaches the end.  If you run out of cards mix the movement cards up and use again.   

In the original fhe post you will find the puppets I reference to in the outline and it has a life size version of this game instead of the board game.  Its played a little differently but has a lot of the same elements.

That's my plan for this week.  Early next week I'll be back with some updated Conference activities and a new game.  Next Friday I will post the 2nd half of this lesson covering much more of the assigned chapters and topics .  As always if you have any questions, find any mistakes, or have trouble downloading something please don't hesitate to let me know.  

Download this weeks lesson helps here

Elephant Preschool Theme

My kids are so excited about the new Dumbo movie coming out next week.  I knew we did a fun elephant theme a long time ago and realized I haven't shared it on this blog.  So here are a few fun ideas from our old preschool blog.  Can you believe that cute little girl is now 13!  Time flies way to quickly.
------------------------------------------------------------
E is for Elephant

E elephant- Our variations of No Time for Flashcards E elephant. He is pretty cute.

Elephant puppet- (found here). We used him to sing our elephant songs found here
Simple Shape elephant- I cut out circles, rectangles, triangles, and ovals to make an elephant. We sorted the shapes and then counted them. We put our elephant together and glued him to a big sheet of paper. We wrote the number of shapes used to make the elephant on our paper. Later we used it to find the shapes on the elephant (an I spy type of game)

Number elephant- I used this week to introduce counting to 8. I printed off 8 elephants each had a number on it (1-8). We put the elephants in numerical order. Then I made 8 cards with dots on them (again 1-8). We matched the elephants number with the correct dot card. Third each number elephant was outlined with a different color. I made up cards with the different colors on them and we used them to match shapes. Quick and easy to make three different learning activities.
Funny story-As we were putting the elephants in numerical order Aubrey noticed the size of the first few elephants and called them "mommy, baby, and daddy" for the 4Th one she called it Kade (my brother). When we were matching the colors she noticed the "Kade elephant" was PINK she thought that was so funny and kept laughing.

Mixed black and white to make gray. We made hand print elephants (found here). I even let Aubrey paint my hand so I could make an elephant. She thought it was pretty cool. We used paper for the ear and black marker for the eye. She then colored her paper to make them a home.

We watched a few fun videos on You tube- One with baby elephants playing (found here). It is really cute and Aubrey enjoyed watching it. Also we this video of an elephant painting found here. It was fascinating to see. Its a little long so you might want to just watch some of it but we really enjoyed the entire clip. It inspired this activity-painting like the elephant. We discussed how hard it must be for the elephant to paint with his trunk. We tried to paint using only our mouths. It was really fun and the pictures turned out awesome. Scott was impressed when he saw our pictures. (Aubrey has really been into taking pictures lately-She took this one of me painting.)



We have been practicing the letters in her name and helping her recognize her name. I made these little cards to spell out her name. We used them to practice letters and also put them in the correct order. She played with them often.Aubrey also LOVES to write letters. She is getting pretty good at the letters-A,U, E, and Y. (we have really only done the letters in her name). Here is a picture of the letter Y she wrote all by herself. I was so proud of her. Now I need to figure out how to get her to write them in a line and not all over the page.E Word file folder- We used pictures we already had on the computer and a few pictures I quickly took. Our words included- elephants, eggs, elbow, Elsie, Ella, earmuffs, ear, elliptical, Erik, and eel. We also used this as an I spy game.Paper plate elephant- (Idea found on Casa Camacho) We mixed our paint again. We used a paper plate, and cardboard (from a cereal box) Aubrey painted everything and when it was done we glued the pieces together and added wiggly eyes.
We also made the Letter E out of Popsicle stick and colored the letter E and and elephant.
Next week we are doing a mini them due to vacation most of the week- We will be doing F for the Fourth of July. Instead of one big post at the end I will try and post our activities as we go in case anyone wants to do them before Saturday.

Come Follow Me: Matthew 14–15; Mark 6–7; John 5–6 (March 25–31)

This week's Come Follow me we are focusing on Jesus feeding the 5,000 and Jesus walking on the water.  These ideas go along with the Individual and Family and  Primary manual.  As always the printables can be found in the free download at the end of this post.  I loved spending time in the scriptues studying these stories and can't wait to teach my own children and primary kids. I'd love to hear what you have planned for the week.  Also thank you all for your kind comments on last weeks post.  I appreciate every single one and all of you for stopping by :)

(This post contains affiliate links. That means if you use my link, I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. As always, thank you for your support.)

Jesus Feeding the 5,000: I've included some cute and simple story cards that you can show as you tell the story.  Print and cut apart.  Follow up with this cute basket of questions.  

 Print and assemble the basket by cutting around the edge but NOT where the bottom meets.  fold in half and staple around the edge.  Print and cut out the bread and fish with questions and place them in your basket.  Take turns picking and answering the questions. (black and white option included)

With this story we are going to talk about how Jesus was kind and served those that came to listen to him.  We are then going to think of some ways we can serve others this week. As a visual reminder we are going to make this fun craft that goes along with the question basket above.  Print a set for each person.  Have them cut out the pieces (basket is just like the one above).  Let them color and write a way they can serve someone on each loaf of bread and fish.  To assemble the basket you can use glue, staple, or hole punch and use yarn to stitch together.  If choosing the sewing option I would print the basket on cardstock.  (there is also a colored set if you want to make a set as a family instead of individually and skip a step)

How cute is this basket from Blissful Domestication!  This would be an adorable substitute to the printable basket above.  Make and add the fish and bread.  It would also be cute to make an extra and fill with some treats and deliver it to a family.  Great way to serve.

As I was reading through the Individual and Family and primary manual I had the idea for this activity.  I hope you can follow my train of thought on this one :)  The title in the primary manual is our small offerings can make a difference and I really like this theme when talking about Jesus feeding the 5,000.  It was a young boy that gave what he could.  It was no where near enough to feed that many people but with the Savior it was not only enough but there was extra!  What an amazing miracle.  To teach this concept I created an I spy page with tiny images (if you have older kids and want the pictures even smaller print 2 to a page).    The images are of things that they can do to follow our Savior.  Grab a magnifying glass and look at all the different ways we can serve other, build our testimony, and follow Jesus. They may seem like small acts alone but as we "yoke" ourselves to the Savior he can help these acts become great in our lives and those we serve.  (You can find cheap magnifying glass at walmart in the office section or I love these jumbo ones found here but they are more expensive)

Here are a few additional activities I found

video clip of Jesus feeding the 5,000

Find it picture from the Friend 

Picture story from the friend- I love that it ends with "miracles still happen."  This would be a great conversation starter on some modern day miracles or miracles you've witnessed in your life.

Easy read picture story-my 5 year old loves these

This idea would be cute to go with the service theme 

If you want to talk about Jesus being the "bread of life" I liked this article  Importance of bread during Jesus's time.  If you didn't make bread last week this bread in a bag activity would be fun to tie into this topic.  

Jesus Walks on the Water: "What could have inspired Peter to leave the safety of his boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee during a boisterous storm? What led him to believe that if Jesus could walk on water, he could too? We can’t know for certain, but perhaps Peter understood that the Son of God came not just to do wonderful things for the people but to empower people like Peter to do wonderful things too." (I & F)  

Find the video clip here

Retelling board would be so fun to use while telling the story the first time or use it as a review activty.  Print the board and the cards and the next page.  Cut the cards apart.  I recommend cardstock and add velcro or magnets to each number and card.  Add the cards in order or mix them up and see if your little one can put them in order. (b&w also included.  would be really cute as a coloring page!)

This next idea comes from the primary manual "Ask the children to imagine they were present and had a camera when Jesus and Peter walked on the sea. Which moment would they choose to photograph and why?...Invite them to draw a picture of the moment they chose, share their pictures, and explain why they chose that moment."  Have them color the picture of the kid with a camera (ideally to look like themselves).  On the second page have them draw the moment they would choose and write why on the lines.  Cut the two pieces out and glue the kid to the top of the drawing page.  Display or take turns sharing their picture. 

I really loved this talk it would be a great one to share. It would be a great way to talk about some of the things that distract us from the Savior.  I included a quote from it in the download.

A few other ideas:

I love the picture in the I & F lesson 

To go along with the idea of "be not afraid" You can use this story board from my post a few weeks ago found here or there is a cute story in this months friend that would work as well (find it here)

That's all for this week.  I hope there is something that will work for your family or primary class.  As always if you have any questions or trouble with the download please let me know :)

Download Free Printable Here

Adorable graphics from Melonheadz,  Krista Wallden - Creative Clips, Mather's Music, Educlips,   Creating4 the Classroom, Graphics From the Pond , and Fonts by Hello Literacy and Kimberly Geswein Fonts

Free Unicorn Bingo (Numbers 1-20)

Practice number recognition with this adorable unicorn bingo game!  We are working on numbers 1-20 and this game is so fun your little one won't even mind playing over and over. My little one LOVED it!

Download the free bingo cards below (there are 10 different boards). There is also a set of calling cards (color and b&w option). I printed my boards 2 to a page but you can print them as a full sheet.  Laminate and cut bingo boards apart if needed and calling cards.

Place the calling cards in a bowl or bag.  We used "rainbow puffs" aka mini marshmallows as markers.

First person to get 4 in a row wins!

Make it a little harder and let your little one call out the numbers.  This will give you an idea of the numbers they recognize and the ones they need a little extra help with.  I think I heard a "fiveteen" in there :)

Download Here

Adorable graphics from Creative Clips and fonts from Hello Literacy 

Come Follow Me: Matthew 13; Luke 8; 13 (March 18–24)

Hi everyone! I have some really fun FREE lesson helps to teach Matthew 13, Luke 8, and 13.  This week it's all about parables and these ideas are great for families and primary.  Today I'm going to take a minute to get real with you.  I don't do this really ever because I honestly like to be the behind the scenes person.  Every time I publish a new post or idea I have so much anxiety just pushing that publish button.  Not because I'm afraid that someone may not like my idea-it happens and I'm okay with that.  But its more about putting myself out there, talk about major introvert over here.  These Come Follow Me lessons have taken that worry to a whole new level.  I worry that I'm not teaching something quite right or maybe I don't know the gospel well enough and there are so many people that know so much more then me.  However I am so grateful for this new curriculum.  Its pushed me to study, to pray and then listen to the spirit as I work on these lessons for my family and primary class each week. I have been learning so much and I can see my own children's testimonies grow.  It has been such a blessing.  I also feel so much joy that some of these posts have helped others teach their families and class.  And I want to thank all of you that stop by, for your kind words, and just for taking a chance on me.  I'm sharing this because I know there are some of you that may have felt these same insecurities when it comes to teaching your own family.  Its easy to look at others and think they have it all together.  The truth is there is no wrong way to do this and you are doing great!  Last week I was planning and studying the wrong lesson and luckily caught my mistake in time to prep the right lesson.  I'm grateful for that extra week to study this lesson because I sure needed it.  This is one of those lessons that really stretched me and pretty much lead to the rambling above :)  Anyway I hope you find something that works for your family or primary class.  I know I learned a few things this week and I can't wait to teach my little ones about some of Christ's parables :)

This week we are covering 6 parables!  Its totally up to you if you want to do all of them or just 1 or 2.  Each parable has a couple of ideas.  There is so much so break it up or use just what works for you.  My plan is to use the parable of the sower one day, the wheat and tares the 2nd day, then combine the pearl of great price and hidden treasure on a day, and then the leaven and mustard seed the last day.  I pulled ideas from the Individual and family, primary, and even a couple of quotes from the Sunday school manual.

Each parable has one of these puppets.  You can add it to a Popsicle stick and hold it up while you read or tell the parable.  Sometimes its just nice to have a visual especially since little ones might not know what wheat or a pearl is. 

The Parable of the Sower
In the download I've also broken it up with a cover page for each parable with a list of ideas.  This one is the longest and some just have one idea or a link if I referenced another post.  You do not need to print these pages its just to help you out so you don't have to scroll through this post so much.

The first idea is to use these jumbo puppets to tell the story.  I did include color and black and white.  Hold them up with you read the parable or I thought it would be really cute to dress one child up as the sower and give them some seeds (maybe jellybeans!) Have them walk and drop a few seeds and then have another child bring the birds in and pretend to eat them.  Then keep moving to the stony ground, the thorns, and the good soil dropping seeds.  

These pictures have rectangles on the page and an additional one on the top-now I haven't tested this yet but hopefully it works :)  Cut along the bottom straight edge and around the top of the picture and the extra rectangle.  Tape the ends together to create a circle (like a crown) and have your little prop stand up.  Your sower can drop the seeds into the center of this circle.  Another option would be to just cut around the picture and glue it to a Popsicle stick and use as a puppet.  The thorns do look like grass hopefully a little like weeds.  The main reason is I didn't have the right clip art but also I ran with it because my kids don't really know what thorns are but they definitely know what weeds are. Its kind of the same idea where their seed is planted among the thorns or weeds and there is so much extra stuff that the little plant cant' grow.  Its a lot like when we allow all of the extra worldly stuff into our lives that that we can't grow.  I really love this talk by Elder Oaks. It really helped me understand this parable so much more and I am going to reference some of his example while teaching my older children.

I included a notes page.  This would be great to slide into a journal.  And I included a little recipe page for dirt cups!  These would be so fun to make and kids remember treats haha.  One additional idea I thought of would be to plant some jellybeans in your dirt to carry on with the theme.

Here's pin the seed in the dirt game.  The idea is just like pin the tail on the donkey but you are trying to plant your seed in the good soil.  The picture below shows the easy version of the game.  I also included another one for the kids that want more of a challenge. It has a lot more of everything on it and small good soil spots.  If you see a page that looks like a jumbled mess you've found it :)  There is also a page of seeds-print on brown paper or color them.  Write each child's name on their seed and add tape to the back.  Blindfold and have fun!

There are also 2 coloring pages with space to answer the question at the top of the page.  One can be done individually the other would be fun to do as a family.

You can also find smaller puppets for this parable in this post

Wheat and Tares:  I love how this parable is explained in the primary manual.  We are going to talk about good and bad choices.  If you played my choosing the right makes me happy game then you might recognize these scenario cards.  To play roll the dice and move the correct number of spaces.  Then pick a card, read it, and decide if its a wheat choice (good choice) or a tare choice (bad choice). I've also included a quote page (the quote if from the Sunday School manual).  We are going to use this quote for our discussion that there is wickedness around us and sometimes its hard to recognize.  The wheat and tares look a lot a like in the beginning and relate that to somethings in their lives that may seem okay at first but turn out to be not so good.  We actually had an experience with this not too long ago with a tv show we were watching.   It was a cute one that we really enjoyed watching together but one day they introduced a new plot line that we were not comfortable with. We decided together to stop watching the show.  It was a great teaching moment and an example I will be using when we go over this parable. 

mustard seed- This is one of those activities that I was hoping to have a sample for you but I didn't make it to the store.  I share mine as soon as we do it!  I'm hoping my extra images will help out with my explaniation.  I'm going to get some mustand seeds and we are going to glue one in the cirlce.  Then we are going to draw a tree in the empty space where it says after.  You can make your tree however you want.  Paint, construction paper, etc.  We have been loving directed drawing lately so that's what we are going to do.  I found one for a tree here. 

If you have't heard of directed drawings (I hadn't a few weeks ago) the idea is you and your kids draw a picture step by step together often with you modeling it.  I'm not very good at drawing so I usually show them the instructions and we draw each step at the same time. Even my 3 year old joins in.  The fun part is they all end up a little different and it gives those little ones that may not be that comfortable with drawing enough help that it really boosts their confidence in this new skill.  Anyway after we draw we either color it or outline it in sharpie and use watercolors.  If you are going to use watercolors I strongly suggest printing this page on cardstock.

leaven-This one I do not have any printables for you.  We are going to make homemade pizza and observe what happens when we add the yeast and what happens to the dough after its had some time to rise.  If you don't want to make pizza bread is another good options.  I added a link for bread in a bag that looks like a lot of fun.

Hidden treasure-We are going on a treasure hunt!  I've included some gems with pictures that make the gospel a treasure.  I also included some coins without pictures.  First you want to assemble your treasure box.  It's simple print the 2 pages for the treasure box-color or b&w.  Careful there are 2 colored lids-you only need one of these pages.  One has colored coins and the other has b&w coins. Its up to you which ones you want to use.  After you print your treasure box cut around the outer edges.  Staple the lid at the top on the top (on the blank white part) so your lid can open.  You will glue your treasure to the white part after you find it.  Cut all your gems and coins.  Hide them around the room and let your little ones hunt for them.  After all the of the treasure is found read the parable of the hidden treasure.  Talk about the pictures on the gems and how they are a treasure to you.  Pass out the coins and have everyone draw something about the gospel that is a treasure to them (they can copy some of the ideas you already discussed if they want to).  I've also included some mini treasure boxes and  coins to go with each.  You can lets your littles decorate their own box and treasure.

pearl of great price-We are going to "search" for the missing pearl.  You can play this 2 ways.  The first is to get a bead (pearl) and 3 cups. Hide the pearl under one of the cups and mix them up.  The other player has to guess what cup the pearl is under.  The second option is the same type of idea but I wanted to add a printable in case you didn't have a bead to use.  There are 5 colored squares and one pearl.  Lay out your 5 squares.  Have someone leave the room and hide the pearl under one of them.  Have the person come back and try and guess which square the pearl is under by lifting each square.  Let them continue guessing until the pearl is found.  Continue playing until everyone has had a turn. I also included a story from the Sunday School manual that goes with this parable. 

Okay that's it for this week!  I hope you found something that will work for your family or primary class.  As always if you have any questions or are having trouble accessing the download please let me know!

Download your Free Printables Here

 Adorable graphics from Melonheadz,   DSart ,  Chirp Graphics, Glitter Meets Glue,  Krista Wallden - Creative Clips, Mather's Music, Creating4 the Classroom, Educlips  and Fonts by Hello Literacy and Kimberly Geswein Fonts