I love my Da....

Yesterday I started looking over the lesson for next week, Jesus Christ is the Son of Heavenly Father. The manual suggests to start the lesson by having someone's daddy come in and talk about how much he loves his child. I'm a little worried about this idea because I think if one person's Dad comes in the others will expect theirs to come too. I'm also a little worried that when that Dad leaves, his child will fall apart.

I was trying to think of an alternate opener and thought it could be fun if I got pictures of the kids' Dads through email requests, printed them out, and hung them on the wall. I would then start the lesson by letting the kids come up to pick out their daddy and say what they like about him. I was starting to get into the idea but then I remembered that one child in my class has a single mother. Her dad isn't in her life at all.

I feel like I want this child more than anyone else to know that she has her Heavenly Father who loves her. I really don't want her to feel left out. To avoid that, I'm thinking I maybe need to skip all the earthly daddy stuff, but that would make teaching Heavenly Father's relationship to the other kids really difficult. Does anyone have ideas? Advice?

Clock Watching

My ward has gotten into the habit of going ten to fifteen minutes over every Sunday. This has left me thinking very mean thoughts. I don't like thinking mean thoughts but after two hours of toddlers who are becoming exhausted and irritable I am SOO ready for church to end.
What adds to my problem is I watch the clock like a hawk, doing my best to pace my lesson and activities to the end. Another ten minutes can be a VERY long time. As soon as the first kid leaves, usually the one lucky enough to have parents in primary instead of EQ or RS, the others are antsy and eager to go. I'm not sure what a good activity for this time could be. Does anyone have any ideas?

No Daniel

I picked up some cookie cutters at the craft store by my house. The big box bookstore is next door so I stopped in hoping to peruse their selection of Daniel in the Lion's Den children's books. I expected a few cheesy offerings and maybe something nice but they didn't have a single version of the story. I was surprised and a little disturbed that such a common Bible story wouldn't be available.

Jello Playdough

This is by far the best use I can think of for Jello since I can't stand to eat the stuff. It's Jello Playdough! It provides color and a good smell. I think I might try to make it today. You can see a recipe here or here.
I found out about this at Design Mom which is an awesome blog to browse if you ever have a moment.

Nursery Talk

There's quite the discussion going on at Feminist Mormon House Wives right now and it's ALL about nursery. Go check it out here!

Lesson 4: I Can Pray to Heavenly Father

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?

Island Hopping

Here's another little game I discovered by accident. I guess it's kind of a modified hopskotch. I call it Island Hopping.
Take some masking tape and tape out small circles all over the floor. Have the kids try to hop "island" to "island" without falling into the "sea".
I don't know why but the kids seem to really like this game. They'll hop the route over and over. They're islomaniacs. Check it out here. It's a real condition, an obsessive love of islands.
My lesson plan for this Sunday should be up by tomorrow. Thanks again for dropping by.