Since stake conference has put my ward a lesson behind a lot of other people, our lesson on being grateful for plants is right next to St. Patrick's day with all its four leaf clovers. So here is what I'm think of doing for Sunday:
Snack Time:
We'll eat our normal snack but I think I'll try to bake some four leaf clover cookies. I'm going to bring some green icing and let the kids decorate the cookies and eat them.
I have the book The Giving Tree but it's really sort of sad (though is shows how much trees do for us) and the book Blueberries for Sal to read to the kids. Any other suggestions?
Show the picture of the Earth. Ask them what it is.
Show the picture of Jesus. Ask the kids who it is. Tell them Jesus made the Earth. Why did he make the Earth? Because he loves us.
Brown paper bag:
In the bag will be things that come from plants. A wooden block, an apple, a carrot, a flower (for them to smell), some spices (I'll let the kids smell and maybe taste some cinnamon sugar), paper, whatever else I can find in my house that comes from a plant.
I'll pick kids to come up to the front and pick something out of the bag. We'll talk about the plant that it came from and why we like plants.
Our class tree.
I'm going to make a tree with brown construction paper. I'm going to give each kid a green construction paper leaf. I'll ask the kids something they like about plants and let them come put their leaf up on the tree. I think we'll hang this on our bulletin board. During craft time I'll trace the kids hands on different color paper and cut those out so the tree can have some flowers too. I'll let each kid put up their hand on the tree.
Tree songs:
We'll sing some songs about trees. Popcorn popping. In the pretty treetops. Leaves are falling.
Craft:
Leaf rubbing
or
Flower puppet:
Take a small cup and poke a straw through the bottom. Have paper cut out in flower shapes that the kids can color then tape onto the top of the straw. The kids can move the straw up and down so their flowers can "grow."
