Here's my lesson plan for Sunday.
Opening: Brown Bag Surprise
I bring a brown bag full of things I am grateful for. I'm going to tell the kids that the bag is full of things I pray about. I'm going to let them guess what's inside. That should take about ten seconds since none of them really talk yet. I'm then going to take the objects out of the bag one by one and talk about them. If things are going well I'll let the kids come up and help me pick the objects out of the bag. Here are some of the things I plan to put in the bag.
A picture of my family
A ball
My scriptures
A fake flower
A little globe
A paint brush
Food
Something that has to do with sleep
I'll talk about how I am grateful for each thing and I thank Heavenly Father for each them by praying to Him.
Picture Time:
LIttle Girl Praying
I'll show the picture of a girl praying and ask if the kids can say what she is doing. I'll ask the kids if they know how to pray.
Family Praying
We can pray with our families too! Talk about that
How Do We Pray?
We fold our arms
We bow our heads
We close our eyes
Now we are ready to pray!
Let anyone who wants to say a prayer.
Daniel and the Lions Den (MUST FIND PICTURE. I might just check out a picture book of the story from the local library.)
Do you know there once was a man named Daniel who loved to pray? He loved talking to his Heavenly Father. Some people didn't like Daniel praying so they threw him in a lion's den. Do you know what lions are? What do lions say? (Let the kids roar. Kids like to roar.) Lions EAT people. Daniel was afraid they were going to hurt him so he prayed. Do you know what happened? Heavenly Father sent an angel who shut the lion's mouth so Daniel was saved!
Craft
Make Lion's masks with paper plates and string. I'm going to figure this out tomorrow. I think I'll have them mostly made but will let the kids color and decorate them.
Daniel in the Lion's Den Game
After the kids have their masks made I will let them pretend to be ROARING Lions. They ROAR and Snarl as loud as they can and act like lions but when I pray - they shut their mouths. We'll see if that happens. As soon as I stop "praying" they can start ROARING again.
If they don't want to stop roaring and acting like lions I think I can be okay with that.
That's my plan. Any suggestions?
I think you do a great job of magnifying your calling. This looks like a great lesson plan!
ReplyDeleteI am teaching the nursery lesson sunday and I haven't even cracked the book! Sounds like a wonderful lesson.
ReplyDeleteThe lesson sounds great...and not too long, which is critical for this age group. I might try to give the kids a chance to "play" different roles. Let one of them be a faithful Daniel and you be a lion...kids love to have "power".
ReplyDeleteDad says that you should bring Battle in the bag as one of your thankful displays...that would be exciting!
Prayer is something most of these kids do know a little bit about since their parents have been trying to get them to fold their arms and bow their head forever...especially if they are not the oldest kid in their family.
He he, I also thought about bringing Battle (my cat) but I don't know if he would survive it. I bet the kids would like it. So tempting....
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'll make a beard too for anyone who wants to be Daniel?
And for snacks, pretzels. Because pretzels look like someone folding their arms....
ReplyDeleteThe History of Science and Technology, by Bryan Bunch and Alexander Hellemans, says that in 610 A.D. "...an Italian monk invented pretzels as a reward to children who learned their prayers. He called the strips of baked dough, folded to resemble arms crossing the chest, 'pretiola' ("little reward[s]")"
see? I'm not making it up.
Oh, and for my lesson? I made some finger puppets for the kids. a Daniel and lion. (much easier than it sounds. I just drew a boy head and a lion head on cardstock and made a partial cut at the bottom to poke their fingers through... but I like the lion mask idea better.... I'll have to think about it.....)
ReplyDeleteSuch awesome ideas. Since I'm short a Daniel story book maybe I"ll try to do puppets to tell the story to. I'm amazed at how well liked the puppets are.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip on the pretzels. SO COOL.
I like your idea about bringing things in a bag and talking about them. I found a little puzzle in the Friend that has things that you do when you pray and a sheet about ways to pray for them to color. I thought we could take turns praying since most of them can do it since they are Sunbeams. This is a great lesson because hopefully most of the kids have already been exposed to prayer and how to do it. Good luck and have fun!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the help! Cute Lesson plan, I bet the kids will love the lions! I found a picture of a lion from the Friend and I am going to have the kids glue hair on that instead..
ReplyDeleteThis is fantastic. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this! I'm finding that teaching directly from the manual doesn't really work so well with 3 year olds. I haven't worked with kids much so I'm literally relying on blogs like this to save me! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI am so so so grateful for your ideas. I can't even tell you. Thank you for sharing. It's more appreciated than you know.
ReplyDeleteI love this. Thanks for sharing your thoughts so we "future" teachers have someone to look up to for inspiration.
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