Come Follow Me: 1 Corinthians 14-16 (September 2-8)

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!  I have some fun ideas for next week's Come Follow Me lesson.  We are covering 1 Corinthians 14-16.  These ideas are perfect for families or primary classes and as always they are free!  You can find the printables in one big download at the end of this post.

I feel like these letter chapters are so much harder to plan.  There are a lot of topics each week and overall I find it a little more difficult to understand. I narrowed it down to a couple of topics and hope there is something that will work for you :)

1 Corinthians 15: 40-41- "After I am resurrected, I can live in the celestial kingdom. To teach the Corinthians about the bodies we will receive in the Resurrection, Paul mentioned three degrees of glory: celestial, terrestrial, and telestial." (primary manual) 

This can be a little confusing for children so I'm going to break this down quite a bit.  

Prep: -Print the sun with the images and the sun with the words (black and white option included).  Cut apart the sun with the images-the circle and the triangles. 

- print and cut out the dice on the solid lines.  Fold the dotted lines and tape together.  You can try glue but I think tape works better.

-Print and cute 3 degrees of glory page and image page.  cut around the images and word boxes.  Glue or magnets optional.

First we are going to start by exercising!  Run in place, do push up, or any type you want.  You can also use this fun exercise dice.  Roll the dice and do that exercise 5 or 10 times.  Then roll again.  Once they are nice and tired talk about why it's important to exercise. (makes our bodies strong and healthy).  Heavenly Father also wants our spirits to be strong.  We need a strong spirit so we can live with Heavenly Father and Jesus again.  Show the blank page with the sun. Add the center piece of the sun.  Tell the kids you are going to discuss some of the ways you can help your spirit become strong.  Pick one of the triangle and try to find the correct spot on the sun.  You can glue, tape, or just set on the right spot.  Continue until you have finished the sun.

This would be a great time to talk about the 3 degrees. There is a poster ready for you to print or you can use the interactive pages and see how much they know.  This is a great visual as you teach these verses.

1 Corinthians 15 is about the ressurection.  I loved the question in the individual and family manual so I used them for a journal page.  It also reference the talk by Elder Paul V. Johnson’s “And There Shall Be No More Death.”  I loved this talk included it in the download for reference more for myself so I don't loose it :)

1 Corinthians 15:29-Baptism for the dead.  I have a 13 year old that can go to the temple and an 11 year old getting ready to go in January so this is is going to be my main focus at home.  

 I found these awesome resources in this months friend

Family History Step By Step:  This is a great way to introduce family history.  If you have some pictures or a story of your ancestors it would be fun to share. Discuss as a family how you can do family history together.  Do you have some people that need their work done in the temple?  Maybe try indexing?

Peace in the Temple: This is a cute story I plan to share.  Its about a young boy that is a little nervous about going to the temple for the first time.

It's Temple Time-Here's another great resource if you have a young one getting ready to go for the first time.  It walks you through the steps and helps them to know what to expect.  

What's on your Mind? This is a good one that goes over some of the question that will be asked in the temple interview.

Draw a Temple-I love drawing activities and this is so cute.  I plan to try this drawing with my kids and then let them paint it with water colors.  I am going to try water color paper this time but we've used cardstock in the past and it works just fine.

I found this cute YouTube channel today and it looks like she is posting a new video each week.  This week she covers baptisms for the dead.  These are so fun and perfect for kids. Its adorable kids teaching the doctrine in a fun and easy to understand way.  I watched a couple of them and will be using them each week!

Here's a few activities I came up with.  

Coloring page/writing activity.  This is a fun way to help your kids start journaling as they answer the prompt and color the picture.  I also included to free prints that can be displayed through out the week or frame and use them in your kids' bedrooms.  I love how they turned out.

Preparing for the temple mini bingo.  Yup this time you one need to get 3 in a row.  This is great for little ones but your big kids will love it too.  Maybe they need to get 2 bingos or make an x.  You can come up with some fun new ways to play.  I also wanted something my bigger kids could keep in their room and check off the boxes as they prepare to go to the temple.  As they feel confident to say say yes I keep the commandments they can check off the box or make prayer a habit then they can check off that box.  I know there are many other ways we can prepare but I didn't want it to be overwhelming.  

 The last activity is to create a family tree.  This is a fun activity to introduce family history to your family.  In the circles they can draw a picture of the person or write their name (maybe birthdate). 

That's all for this week!  I hope you found something that will work for you and if you have any questions or trouble with the download please don't hesitate to ask!

Download the FREE Priantable here!

Additional ideas

Gift of Tongues or Prophecy (1 Corinthians 14) -Find these fun activities here

Come Follow Me: 1 Corinthians 8-13 (August 26-September 1)

Good morning!  I hope  you have all had a wonderful week.  Thank you all for being so patient with me last week as I was out of town and didn't have much time to pull activities together.  I am back and have some fun things planned for the upcoming week.  We are going to be covering 1 Corinthians 8-13.  There are so many topics that can be covered this week so I used the primary manual to narrow it down a little bit.

Heavenly Father has blessed me with spiritual gifts: This goes with 1 Corinthians 12: 7-11

There are 2 pages of presents.  One page has the gifts mentioned in these verses and the other page has gifts from a talk by Elder Marvin J. Ashton.  They were listed in the primary manual. There are additional scripture references in the primary manual but I didn't want this activity to be too overwhelming :)  The idea is to print, cut, and hide the presents around the room.  After a gift is found discuss what it means and glue it to the page with the little girl.  Another option would be to use the black and white version as a coloring or journal page and let them glue the gifts they think they may have.

I also included the pages below that can be used as a journal page or I love in that the primary manual suggests writing a letter to your child about some of the spiritual gifts you see in them.

Heavenly Father will help me make righteous choices. 1 Corinthians 10:13

This is a game we've played before but my kids love board games.  You'll need a game piece for each person (buttons, pompoms, etc all work) and a dice.  Roll the dice and move the correct number of spaces.  If you land on a ctr you get to move forward 1 more space.  draw a card and decide if the choice was right or wrong.

This idea comes from the primary manual.  Give each child a mini stop sign and have them raise the sign when the person in the story makes a wrong choice.  I included some scenarios for you but feel free to make up your own.

Charity is the pure love of Christ. 1 Corinthians 13. I plan to start by watching the video "Pass it on" found here.  Its located towards the middle of the page.  Then play hot potato- use a beanbag or stuffed animal and pass it in a circle.  Play music in the background (maybe I'm trying to be like Jesus) and stop it randomly.  Whoever is holding the beanbag can share a way they can show love this week. 

A couple of printables that you can use as a display for the week. 

In the Individual and Family Manual it suggests creating a poster with some of the phrases about charity.  I included theses blank templates for you to decorate.

This idea goes with the intro in the Individual and Family manual found here "he taught that when you join the Church of Jesus Christ, you are “baptized into one body,” and every body part is needed " After discussing this you can play this fun game.  Everyone needs a blank body to start.  On your turn you will roll the dice.  If you get a 3 you will draw a mouth on your person.  or if you get a 6 you will draw clothes on your body.  If you have already rolled the number you do not get to add anything on your turn.  the first person to finish their body wins.

That's is everything for this week. If you have any questions or trouble with the download please let me know.

Download FREE printables here

Come Follow Me: 1 Corinthians 1-7 (August 19-25)

This week we are busy with family and fun! I've been away from my computer all week but was able to put a quick plan for my family that I thought some of you may be interested in.  I apologize for not having my regular style of post full of activities but hope you understand :)

 My body is like a temple (1 Corinthians 6:19).  This month the Friend (New Era & Ensign) have so many great articles on this subject.  We are going to be using a couple of articles and activities from the Friend to discuss this subject. I really feel that the articles this month were an answer to my prayers.  They cover everything in an appropriate and easy to discuss way.
Here's what I'm going to do:
Temple/Body game: found here
Quiz:found here
Story: Done with Swim Team! found here  I really love this story.  It is a great way to discuss body image and also treating other kindly.  My kids start school next week and these are two topics that I really want to discuss before we go back.  In the story the mom writes down a quote for her daughter from President Nelson.  The young girl puts it on her mirror as a reminder that her body is special, like a temple.  I thought it would be great to create a printable that we could put on our bathroom mirror as a reminder for my girls.  If you would like to print one as well right click on the image and save to your computer.  You can print from home or send to your favorite printing place.  If printing at home I like to copy and paste in a word document and size to fit my needs. Then print. Another tip to save ink is use the draft setting on your printer. It is sized as a 5x7.

A couple of years ago we did an activity days lesson on the topic of loving and accepting yourself.  It was one of my favorites.  I plan to share the two videos I linked (I LOVE both of them) and also the activity you see in the picture below.  (you can find the post here)

One Other ideas would be to play a temple match game.  I have one for you here.

That's all for this week. I'll be back next week with my regular posts. I hope you are all having a wonderful rest of the summer :)  Thanks for stopping by!  -Crystal

2020 Calendar (Free Printables)

Update: 2021 is now available here.

Some of you have been asking for a 2020 version of these calendars and today I finally have them ready for you :)  School is just around the corner and I love using these calendars to help me keep me organized.  (2019 Calendar can be found here if you need it).

Download Free 2020 Calendar Here

Come Follow Me: Romans 7-16 (August 12-18)

I feel like the weeks are flying by!  Its is alreay time for the next Come Follow Me lesson.  I have a ton of free helps for you to teach your family or primary class Romans 7-16.  I have found since moving from the 4 gospels and even Acts these chapters to be more difficult to understand.  I'm so grateful for the lesson manuals in helping guide my study this week.  Also there are SO many topics in these chapters.  I narrowed it down to a few (again based on the study guides) but there is no way we will get through even half of the ideas below.  I may have gone a little crazy this week :)  Just a reminder all of the printables are available for free in one giant download at the end of this post. 


Our first topic is judging others.: (Romans 14) There are 2 videos at the end of the Individual and Family lesson that are awesome.  I included a printable to go with the first one and the 2nd one is a little silly and a great message.

 Okay please don't think I'm crazy (I may be but just go with me for a second haha) we are going to use the story of Beauty and the Beast to talk about how judging off of first impressions can give us an inaccurate view of a person.  I was looking for a story I had read as a youth (unfortunately I couldn't) but I ran across this fhe idea that sparked this whole idea.  Start off by asking your kids some questions like what did Belle think of the beast the first time she saw him?  What did the beast think of her?  Where they right or wrong?  What changed their perception of that person?  We are then going to play a guessing game based on the idea of "you can't judge a book by its cover."  There are 6 books (I did include black and white for those interested), and one rose.  Cut all of the pieces out.  Lay the 6 books in a row.  Have someone close their eyes and hide the rose under one of the books.  The person then opens their eyes and tries to guess what book the rose is hidden under.  If time watch your favorite Beauty and the Beast Movie.  I included some fun popcorn boxes for the occasion-there are instructions in the download.

Another fun way to teach this same concept is to play "Don't Eat Pete!" or Charlie...you choose :)  There were conflicting opinions on which name should be used so we'll let you pick which board you print. If you've never played here's a quick how to:  Print off the board game...cardstock works best.  Place one piece of candy (candy corn, m&m's, Cheerios, or whatever you have) on each person.  Send one person to out of the room and quietly decided which one is going to be Pete for that round.  Lets say you pick the one in the center.  Have the person come back into the room and eat one of the pieces of candy off each person UNTIL they pick up the one chosen as Pete (in this case the one in the center).  When they pick up this candy everyone yells "Don't eat Pete!" and their turn ends.  Add candy to the ones taken on the last turn and play as many times as you want picking a new Pete each time.  

*To teach the concept that its impossible to judge a person just by looking at them you can give them 1 clue before they start grabbing candy.  It will be something like this person likes to draw.  (There are no correct answers it could be any of them :) 

The next topic comes from Romans 8:16-18.  We are talking about being children of God.  In the primary manual it mentioned a talk by Sister Dalton.  I loved everything about it and think it is perfect for my older girls to read and study this week (11 &13). I look forward to studying it more closely as well.  I included some printables to go along with this talk.

I did include this talk in the download for convince as I print and I also included the talk with a page at the end for notes.  One of my daughters needs the print a little larger  so this works for me.  You can always read or print from the church's website.  Another tip if you print it 2 to a page it will give you larger margins to take notes and save you paper.

This was one of the questions asked in the primary manual.  This would be such a great discussion for your family or primary class.  You can put it on a chalkboard and write the answers below or write the answers directly on the paper.  It can also be used to display maybe on your fridge for the week to keep it in our mind during the week.

For the little ones you can teach them what it means to be an heir.  Then make and decorate crowns.

Romans 8:35-39 These ideas go along with the 2nd idea in the primary manual (for the younger kids).  It suggests using the warmth of the sun to explain how we can feel our Heavenly Fathers love for us.  

These are from an old post but work perfectly for this lesson:  I have a friend that teaches her child a new song each week.  I thought that was such a great way to teach the gospel.  I know my little guy LOVES to sing so this is perfect for him.  This week I included Song Cards to go with the song My Heavenly Father Loves Me.  Print and cut the pages apart.  I had a few ideas for these: 1. use a book ring to create a mini book that you can easily flip through as you sing. Also makes a great sacrament book  2. Tape the pictures to a board so you can see them all week and makes an easy visual when practicing the words  3. As you learn the song try removing a card at a time and see if your kids remember the words.

You can also make this adorable sun craft.  Color or print the circle that says "Heavenly father loves me" on yellow paper.  I only included one triangle.  Use this for a template.  It will be much quicker to cut a stack of paper then trying to cut one at a time.  The 2nd circle has pictures that go along with the first verse of the song.  Have your little one color the pictures and cut the circle out.  Now you are going to glue the triangle to the back of the page with the pictures.  Place the first circle (with opening) on top of the circle with the pictures.  Use a brad to connect in the center.  Now you can spin the pictures around to see a different part of the song as you sing.  

 Romans 15:4 In the Individual and Family manual it suggest having family members share some of their favorite scriptures after studying this verse.  I decided to create a template for you to make your own mini book of favorite scriptures.  You can do this as a family or individuals.  Print and cut the cards apart (I recommend cardstock).  To bind I would use a hole punch and a book ring.  I think this would be something that can become very special to a person.  Keep it by your scriptures and add to it over the years. 

 Romans 16:1-4 Paul was thankful for the people that helped him.  Help your little ones think of someone that has recently helped them.  Make and send that person a thank you card.

 The primary manual suggest to learn the song "Children all over the World" from the primary song book.   We used this a few lessons back and my class loved these puzzles.  If you haven't used them yet this would be a great week to do so.  
Its a lot of fun to learn how to say thank you in a few different languages.  I also included some fun puzzles.  To put the puzzles together you will need to find the language, a country that speaks that language, and the word thank you in that language.  There are two versions of the puzzles.  One is a self check puzzle and the other one is harder because all of the pieces will fit together.  I know some of your little ones can't read so use the self check one and you can read the words to them.  The final activity was inspired by my 11 year olds love for research.  Its just a simple country research paper.  Have your kids pick a country-maybe one you or someone you know served a mission.  Write the country under all about.  The research or ask some one what language they speak, how to say different phrases in that language, and then a few fun facts.  It would be really fun to present your findings to your family.

Romans 12-16 From the Individual and Family Manual "The last five chapters of Romans contain dozens of specific instructions regarding how Saints should live. You may not be able to apply all of this counsel at once, but listen to the Spirit, and He can help you find one or two that you could start working on today. Share your desires with your Heavenly Father in prayer, and ask for His help."  You can use one of these journal pages to write or draw some of your impressions.

Alright that is all for this week!  I hope you find something that will work for you family or primary class.  As always thank you so much for stopping by!  If you have any questions or troubles with the download please let me know.  I will be busy with family this week and may not have as much access to my computer so email or facebook would be best look under the contact me tab :)  Also I am not sure how much I'll have for next weeks lesson, I'll try and pull a few things together before our family events but you know how crazy life can be.

Download the Free Printables Here

Come Follow Me: Romans 1-6 (August 5-11)

This week for Come Follow Me we are covering Romans 1-6.   As always the printables are free and found in one big download at the end of this post.  I truly hope you find something that will work well for your family or primary class. 

Romans 1:16-17 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ..."  I knew I wanted to discuss these verses this week but I wasn't quite sure how I wanted to approach this topic.  I decided I want to simplify it to being brave enough to live and share the gospel even when its hard.  I plan to share this story about Joseph F Smith.  Paul was also a great example of being bold in sharing the gospel even though he was persecuted for it.  I think of the prophet Joseph Smith and the early saints being driven from place to place, threatened, and in some cases hurt.  To bring in some modern day example that they kids can relate to I remembered a lesson we had last year about letting our light shine.  These stories show how we can be brave in our living and sharing our faith (not ashamed).  When I think of ashamed I think of someone hiding and that goes right along with not putting our light under a bushel. Instead we should let our light shine.

Each story has a basket, candle with a name, and a puppet to show while you tell the story. The stories come from last years primary manual.

If you print these on cardstock use some of the left overs to cut a small rectangle not much bigger then the candle.  Tape to the bottom of your basket then slide your candle in.

You can hold them up and the candle will stay in place until you gently slide it down.

Here are the character puppets for each story.  Aren't they cute!

There is an extra basket and candle with a question mark.  Save this for the end and ask "How can you let your light shine?" Then they can use this journal page to write some of their answers.  Use the page blank and write or draw pictures OR you can use the next page of candles.  Let them color, cut, and glue to their page with ways they can let their light shine on the candles.

Next we are going to talk a little about baptism and repentance (Romans 6).  More specifically that as we are baptized we become clean and later as we repent our sins are washed away.  I wanted a way to teach my little ones this concept of becoming clean.  Okay now don't laugh I am not a writer haha but I did come up with a little story to about a teddy bear to illustrate this idea. Its about a little boy named Tyler (I used my own little guys name but feel free to change it to one of your kid's names.  They love this).  He gets a new teddy bear and drags him everywhere during the day.  While they are playing he gets dropped in the mud, food on his face, and really dirty.  In the end his mom helps him give his teddy a bath and wash away all of the dirt until he is clean.  We are then going to compare ourselves with the teddy and how we get spots on us and feel unclean when we make wrong choices.  Just like the teddy was washed clean we are also washed clean when we are baptized and feel so good.  Unfortunately we don't stay sparkly clean forever.  We will eventually make a wrong choice BUT its okay because we can repent and those spots and dirt are washed away.

 The really fun part is I included a bear, stains, and a bathtub for you to use as you tell the story.  Cut all the pieces apart before your lesson and as you tell the story add the different stains to the bear.  Stick him behind the bathtub and pull the stains off to show he's clean again. 
 *If you want to make it more hands on pick a toy that can get wet and dirty (my kids like figurine or lego guys).  Use that toy in the story and get the toy nice and dirty.  You may need to substitute some of the messy parts to fit what you have at home.  Then pull out a bowl and some soap and water and clean the toy.

To go along with the idea of being clean we are going to learn/practice the song "When I am Baptized."  I have different pictures to represent some of the words in the song.  To make it easier for you I did include the words to the song and underlined the ones that have pictures.  If you have little ones you can use them as visuals to help them remember the words.  If you have older kids or maybe they already know the song pass out the cards to the kids.  Have them look to see what words they will be in charge of during the song.  When their word is said they will need to raise the right card.  Start slow and then increase speed after you tried it once or twice.  I've done something similar and it usually ends in them giggling.

 Sticking with the rainbow theme I have a cloud template to create this cute craft.  Print and cut out the cloud.  Then cut out strips of colored paper to make your rainbow.  Now here is where you can customize it to fit your kids...on the rainbow pieces they can write their baptismal covenants, ways they are preparing to be baptized, or ways they follow Jesus Christ.  It would also be cute to add a string to the top to create a mobile.

Need a few other ideas this post has some other fun  Baptism & Repentance ideas

Romans 3:23-24 included in the download are a few ideas to teach your children about grace.  For this one i found a great idea that uses the analogy of piano lessons (find it here)  I also loved the object lesson in the Come Follow Me Primary manual that teaches us that the Savior did for us what we could not do for ourselves.

Download Here