I'm Teaching Young Children In Church, Again

“Children will follow your example. You are always teaching, even when you are not aware of it. You often teach more by your attitude and example than by your words. For example, children will notice whether you treat the scriptures respectfully. They will observe how you speak about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. They will watch how you live the principles you are teaching."

I bring my ideas from three years ago to teach these new 6-7 year old children. I want them to know how much I love the scriptures so every week we have a scripture experience related to the lesson.

The skill of finding a scripture is paramount and building confidence in that skill is my goal. Step one is having scriptures for each child. Step two is isolating two to three scriptures from the reading block that are simple and relevant to both the child and the lesson. I stick a piece of removable highlighter tape under the scripture when thy find it. That makes it visible on the page.

I'm also back to making journals and working on a page every week. Doing lesson journaling fits well with the suggestions below from the Primary Resources Page.

"Make a paper chain. Make road signs. Make class banners. Make salt dough figures. Draw a picture. Make bookmarks. Write an incomplete statement about the doctrine on the board.  Invite the children to look for important words or phrases from the scriptures and teachings of latter-day prophets that could complete the statement."

Foldables are a favorite journaling technique. The lesson on telling the truth  was well suited to using a hot dog shaped foldable with the honesty train as the principle. The engagement was glueing and reading.

The week before I taught them about tithing and using a small pop up element in their journals.

  My favorite so far has been the obeying laws journal entry. We used the street signs to play stop and go singing. Obeying my metronome was an added element of fun.

    Want to know more about pop up foldables? I did a pretty good tutorial here. I actually had to use this tutorial to remember myself. I won't deny how much I like teaching every week. It is my passion and I hope I never tire of wanting to do better.