Come Follow Me: Mosiah 4-6

*originally posted in 2020

Happy Sunday!  Sorry for being so late this week-I lost track of the days!  I honestly did not realize yesterday was Saturday until about 9 pm.  Here are some fun lesson helps for Mosiah 4-6.  I am trying something a little different and I included the instructions in the download instead of the post.  Let me know what you think.   Most of these ideas were inspired by the activities in the primary manual.  We are talking about Baptismal covenants and repentance this week.  Service and Loving Others is also another great topic but we spent a lot of time on it last week so I did not add any additional activities for this one.  You can find last week's helps here.  Also if you need additional ideas we've covered all of these topics a few times-type your topic in the search bar and there should be several ideas that pop up for you.  For example This post has a ton of ideas for baptismal covenants.  If you need some help with this please let me know :)

The following activities are included in this week's download found at the end of this post.  The instructions are in the download this week :)

 I do have a puzzle option for this one here

Download Free Printables Here

Have a wonderful day!

Come Follow Me: Mosiah 1-3

*Originally posted in 2020

I hope you are all having a wonderful Easter.  I have some really fun ideas to go with this week's Come Follow Me lesson.  We are covering Mosiah 1-3. I followed the Primary manual pretty closely this week in fact I loved all of the ideas and went a little crazy making printables for almost all of the activities in the manual.  If you aren't quite sure how to use one of the activities that might help.  

There are tons of ideas this week!  There is also a second page with some ideas for serving during this time of social distancing.  I asked for some ideas on my facebook page a couple days and the answers were so great!  I included those along with a couple of others.  If you have some ideas please leave them in the comments for others to see :)

On the additional information page I also included the activity from the Come Follow Me primary manual that goes with these recipe cards. It's the very last activity in the manual and it invites the children to use Mosiah 3:19 to come up with a recipe to become like the Savior.  I thought it would be so fun to bake something together and then do this activity. 

This one just a simple fill in the blank.  Print and you are ready to go.  \

 King Benjamin taught us a lot about service.  The next several activities go with that theme (you can also use the search bar on my website and it will pull up more ideas). 

The first idea I had was to create a poster or jar to document the service we provide to our families and others through out the week.  The Warm Fuzzies (and this idea) comes from a talk by President Monson called What Have I done for Someone today?  I plan to show this video clip  or this one is a clip from Conference.  The idea is to place a warm fuzzie (pom pom) in the jar when you provide an act of service.  Once our jar is full we are going to do a special activity as a family-probably a movie night or take out :)  I did include two label options.

Another idea is to print on of these posters and color in a heart or write down the service you did inside each heart.  There is an option for family or individual.  Same idea once its full plan a special surprise or activity to celebrate your accomplishment.  Third printable is inspired by the talk mentioned above.  This one is more of a journal page.

Here are a couple more printables-the I can serve ones are good for brainstorming ways to to serve or it can be used as a journal page.  There is plenty of space to write or draw your answers.  The helping hands comes from the primary manual.  The idea is to trace your hands and share a way you can serve your family.

The primary manual suggests thinking of ways you can serve your family and sing when we're helping we're happy.  I wanted to build on this a little and talk about ways we can serve different people.  Roll the dice and thing of a person and how you can serve them.  I tried to make most of them more general so you can play several times.  Use these just for a discussion or add in the song. 

Another idea in the manual was to memorize this part of Mosiah 2:17.  There is a basic, one that can be colored or traced, and then one that is more for display.

As you tell the story have your children illustrate what is happening.  Draw the tower, the tents, the people gathering, etc.  I did include printable King Benjamins that they can glue on their picture if they do not want to draw him.

This idea is similar to the one in the manual but I am going to use it more as review.  My kids are going to take turns pretending to be King Benjamin (wear the crown and stand on a tower-probably a chair) and share a few things they learned about service during the week and share a few ways they served.

I saw this question in the Individual and Family manual and knew I wanted to discuss it during our scripture study.  They can write or draw their answer.

Mosiah 2:19–25 we learn that all blessings come from Heavenly Father.  My daughter has been asking to play charades so that is one thing we are going to do.  We'll think of something we are grateful for and act it out (maybe draw it) I also included some pages to use as a gratitude journal.  Over the last few weeks I have been trying to focus on being grateful and finding beauty and joy each day.  I had the thought a few times that we should start gratitude journals as part of our writing lesson and after reading through this lesson I knew this would be the perfect time to start.

Cut and paste activity.  Read the verse and match the picture.

Last idea is more of a fun challenge but will keep the scriptures in your child's mind as they work.  These are building challenges.  I like to hang them up as inspiration.  Sometimes I give them certain items to use and other times I let them use whatever they can find.  For smaller creating there are printable King Benjamins that will stand.

That's all for this week.  If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.  Also share your ideas for service in the comments...I love hearing your ideas!  Have a wonderful Easter and week!

Download Free Printables Here

Come Follow Me: Jacob 5-7

*originally posted in 2020

Wow this has been quite the week.  I hope everyone is doing well.  We just found out our schools will be closed for 6 week and are figuring out what that will look like for us. As I was preparing this post I ran across this printable I made a while back and I thought it fit so perfectly. 

I mentioned this on facebook with meetings being canceled temporarily I would love to know what you need for your family in regards to lesson helps for Come Follow Me.  I have had such an overwhelming feeling of peace and gratitude knowing that we have been prepared to teach our families at home.  While I will miss being at church I know that this can be a very special time for our families to learn and grow together. For this week I pulled ideas from the individual and family manual as well as the primary manual.  

Here are some helps for studying chapter 5. The first is a match game for the symbols and the meaning (the wording came from one of the church manuals).  The second is a page for notes or to draw what is happening in the chapter.  I broke it down using the suggestion in the individual and family manual.  Also here are some great article from this month's Ensign here and here

This one is for the younger ones-It's very basic and is from the primary manual.  You can also use the two pages that say "master of the vineyard" and servants to help explain the meaning. Fold the page in half so they can only see the clip art side.  Ask who do you think this is in the story.  After they answer you can flip the page over to reveal the answer.

I normally use clipart for my lessons but I couldn't find any and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to use real pictures.  I plan to share these as we read through this chapter in hopes it will help them visualize the story a little easier.  I'm pretty sure my 6 year old doesn't know what a vineyard is and I don't think I knew what an olive tree looked like.  So I'm hoping this helps.  They are a full page but you can print them small like 2 or 4 to a page if you want to save on ink.  Also I'll add a pdf with just the pictures (turned the right way) in case you want to show them on your computer instead of printing. *Just added this!

 We are also going to talk about being a missionary and how we are helping the master of the vineyard.  We are going to sing the song below-I'll find the page number and I'm going to share some of the suggested talk by Elder Ballard.  I included the parts I'm going to share for convenience but as always I suggest sharing what you feel is best for your family.

I found  this cute article in the Friend where children share some ways they have been missionaries.  I have them on different cards and will hide them around the room.  After we find one we'll read it and see if it reminds them of a time they have been a missionary or if it helps them come up with something they can do.  I really loved the idea of giving them example because we often talk about being a missionary but we don't always know what that looks like.  It might seem a little intimidate when we tell them they can be a missionary right now but after this I'm hoping they will see that they are already doing these things!

You can find lots of missionary activities from other weeks here.  Here are a few samples

I haven't completely decided how I am going to use these cute fruit puppets (maybe).  If you have ideas please share :)  I'm think I am going to print and attach to Popsicle sticks. Then we are going to talk about how our actions (works) produce good or bad fruit.  I'll probably give them some good and bad choices and have them raise one or the other.  Does that make sense?

 In the improving our teaching box at the bottom it talks about memorizing a scripture.  This is one that I really loved and will share with my family. I'll encourage my older children to pick a scripture and work on memorizing it this week.

I also included some song cards

Download Free Printables Here

Just the pictures Here

30 Fun and Unique April Holidays Calendar

April is full of fun holidays to celebrate with your family or friends. Here are 30 kid-friendly holidays that can turn an ordinary day into a memorable day. YOu can find the free holiday calendar at the end of this post. Download, print, and display. We love finding simple ways to celebrate throughout the month but also have fun just checking our calendar to find out what crazy holiday lands on that day. 

Here are 30 Fun April Holidays which ones are you excited to celebrate?

1-April Fools' Day

2-National Children's Picture Book Day

3-Find a RAinbow day

4-International Carrot Day

5-National Dandelion Day

6-National Handmade Day

7-Geologist Day

8-Nationa Zoo Lovers Day

9-National Unicorn Day

10-National Farm Animals Day

11-National Pet Day

12-Big Wind Day

13-National Peach Cobbler Day

14-National Gardening Day

15-World Art Day

16-Save the Elephant Day

17-Go Fly a Kite Day

18-National Velociraptor day

19-Bicycle Day

20-World Circus Day

21-Thank you for Libraries Day

22-Earth day

23-National Picnic Day

24-National Skipping Day

25-World Penguin Day

26-Alien Day

27-Babe Ruth Day

28-National Super Hero Day

29-International Astronomy Day

30-National Tie Dye Day

Download your free calendar here

Come Follow Me: Jacob 1-4

*Originally posted in 2020

This week for Come Follow Me we are covering Jacob 1-4.  I have noticed such a difference in my own reading as I have slowed down and focused on the chapters for the week.  I have learned so much and this week I can honestly say I am thankful for the words of Jacob. I choose a couple of topics from the primary manual. All printables are free in the download at the end of this post.

 As I was reading through the individual and family manual the the words spiritual danger stood out to me and reminded me of a talk by talk by Boyd K Packard- Spiritual Crocodiles.  This inspired a few of these activities.  Jacob warned his people about a couple of dangerous traps and sins they were falling into just like our prophet and apostles warn of today.  Using the talk spiritual crocodiles we are going to talk about some of the things our prophet warns us about today.
*Someone let me know this talk was in the Friend a couple of years ago and sent me the link! You can find it here. 

First I have adorable puppets to help you tell the story.  You'll want to read through the talk a head of time and then summarize for your family or class.  This will vary greatly on age :)  I tried to find pictures to cover all of the different part.  To use: print (cardstock recommended), cut, and add to a Popsicle stick.

Another activities is to hide the crocodiles around the room.  Let your family go on a hunt to find them.  Once found write on each crocodile something the prophet warns us about.  I left lots of white space to make it easier to write on.  This would make a cute display for the week.  To step up this activity make binoculars our of paper towel rolls ahead of time. Your little ones will LOVE hunting for crocodiles using their binoculars.  Sometimes I just roll construction paper to create them and it works too.

 One last activity: I think a really important thing to point out is some dangers are easy to see like the lion.  You can see it coming and know its dangerous.  But there are other dangers that may not be so obvious or hidden like the crocodile.  This week I've been talking to my children a lot about the world presenting evil as good and thought this tied in so well.  Okay to play you are going to cut out the ponds and the animals.  Have everyone close their eyes and hide one animal behind each pond.  Then take turns trying to avoid the dangerous animals.  After talk about why it was difficult to pick.  Maybe bring up the guide in the story and how he warned about the dangers in the water and how it could have been so easy to miss.  Then talk about why we have a prophet and that he warns of of dangers that maybe we can see and already know about but also danger we may not be as aware of or thing its not something that we will ever need to worry about.  Again adjust the discussion to fit your family.  The page with the elephant and lion is just a fun way to sort the pictures after you find them.

 Next we are going to talk about sharing with others in need and how sharing helps us to be happy.  This might be a good time to share one of the humanitarian videos on the churches website found Here.
This first activity is a spin on the activity at the end of the lesson.  There is a cute spinner for the kids to make.  This page provides a space to draw or write some of the ways we can share.  (I did change toys for talents.  Toys can be combined with possessions.

These cards have the same words but can be used as discussion cards, for pictionary or charades.  Cut apart and think of something that fits in that category.

 Here's a story (found here) about David sharing crayons with his little sister and how he felt when he did.  After set out some crayons for everyone to share while they color the picture included. (this idea and story came from an old primary manual)

 I also included the story about Jesus feeding the 5,000.  It was a young boy that had the fish and bread and decided to share.

(this link has some question & story cards to go with this)

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

Download free printables here

Additional ideas

Jesus feeding the 5,000 here & here

Exercising your faith idea here

wise man and foolish man ideas here

Thank you cards here, here, and here