Sunday, May 16, 2010

Primarily Primary

Spiff and I are the ward's newest primary workers (CTR4). When I was released from the nursery, I found myself surprisingly broken-hearted by the loss of my coworkers, my wonderful class and the familiarity of something I felt like I finally had gotten the hang of. As I prepared the lesson for today, I became less and less excited to try my hand at something so new. Spiff on the other hand is looking forward to a change of pace. This is the first time he hasn't been in the Elder's Quorum presidency since he returned from his mission six years ago.

Our first day went quite well, considering that we both felt like fish out of water. I also think we both enjoyed it. I had to hide my face several times to hide the fact that I was cracking up at the silly things the kids were doing. And as an added bonus, the kids listened really well! They participated, and we ended in about the right amount of time, so we didn't have to scramble for boredom busters at the end of church.

The highlight of the day was singing time. The chorister is a genius and brought a game for the kids that she made at home by cutting eight holes out of a large cardboard box and covering them with pieces of tissue paper. She calls it "Singing Time Punch Out". Like a game on the Price is Right, kids are called up and they punch out a hole, which has the name of the next song behind it. Not only do the kids get to take turns participating, but they get to legally punch the crap out of something! Pure genius!

Anyway, we're in new territory, and we need your help. My question to our faithful readers and anyone who has experience teaching primary classes:
What are your genius ideas? What do you do to make your lessons interesting? Do you have any awesome tricks or games that engage the kids?

7 comments:

Madame Palmkey said...

Try sugardoodle.net, they had tons of ideas. I've also found googling non-lds sites to be helpful, since plenty of churches have sunday school and vacation bible school. Obviously not everything transfers automatically but a lot fo things do. I had some friends bring in a warm blanket to teach about how the holy ghost feels. They dyed water blue and put it with oil in a tightly sealed bottle to teach about waves and water. Good luck.

Britta said...

I just saw this idea: http://creativenesting.blogspot.com/2010/05/easy-quick-simple-game-shake-six.html. I'm thinking about throwing something together to keep in my purse for my kiddos. You can have different questions about your current or past lessons for the kids to answer when they roll a 6, or really have them do whatever you want. Good luck!

Dave and Kathryn Dodds said...

Hey Mindy! I have a whole page of ideas that I wrote for our primary workers! I'll email it to ya! Good luck! YOu guys are going to be AWESOME!

Mindy said...

Thank you so very much, my friends!

Dan's mom said...

How great for these kids - they just graduated from Nursery in January, so they know you. Sing, use LOTS of pictures, flannel boards & interactive ideas. Get them up & moving a bit- break up the "sitting still" time. They are crayon & marker conniseurs so get the wash-out (for the moms)scented markers (OK - that's what I do but Craig graduated from medical school in 1978, so you can use whatever the Primary provides) & have some project each week. I tried to have a caption on it to explain to the parents what the subject was that week so they can talk about it at home. Follow the guidlines in the manuals.

Linzi Lou, Samantha Boo, Madi Moo, and Chris too said...

Um, I just wanted to say that I think the punch idea is brilliant, can I come and visit sometime in hopes for a turn???

Katie said...

I've only substituted in primary, but whenever I do I live and die by this idea.

Don't expect to keep the little ones sitting still for more than 4-5 minutes.

I ask them to stand for part of the lesson, sit in a circle on the floor, jump up and down at some points. That means I had to select my sunday wardrobe with care so I could move around too.



Expecting them to sit still for 3 hours is insanity.