Bathroom Breaks

A problem we have each week are the constant potty breaks. Some kids really do have to go, and you can definitely tell when a child really has an emergency, but others just play the 'potty' card when they are bored. I honestly was too scared to have to deal with accidents in the classroom to stand up to these kids about these potty breaks, but in Sharing Time this week, the Primary President was not going to stand for it.

I admire this lady so much, especially because she has a daughter the same age as the kids in my class, so her advice is directly relevant to me and when she has an idea, it always works. After I came back to Sharing Time with the 3rd child who needed a potty break, she drew the line. She explained to the kids that we get drinks and go potty before we come to Primary. If there is an emergency, we can go on our way to class after Sharing Time, and then again after church if we need to, but we do not leave the class room during Sharing Time, Singing Time, or Class Time.

The kids knew she meant business and weren't going to challenge her. She always knows exactly how to say things to these kids so that they understand her expectations, and obey immediately. Partially, I think, because she will many times get down to their level, by kneeling on the floor, and talking with a smile on her face. That change seems simple, but I find it makes all the difference.

We did not have a single potty break during class time that day, and many asked their parents if they could get a drink after class when they came to pick them up. The rules definitely stuck and I'm so happy that they are growing up into these little people who are learning things and remembering them so well. These last 6 months have shown a tremendous improvement with these kids, and I suppose, to a 3 year old, 6 months is like a life-time!

Official Ball Toss

After having to scrounge up something to be able to toss between the kids during a lesson, I headed out to the dollar store that week and bought some water soaker balls. Those are the toys that soak up water and are intended to be thrown at other kids, kind of like water balloons. I found that these were extra soft and squishy, but were still heavy enough for the 3 year olds to throw accurately.

This is something that we always keep in our Primary Bag (that we tote around our lessons, pictures, etc. to church each Sunday) and if we have extra time at the end of class for some reason or another, it's a great activity.

Usually we will talk a little about the lesson and ask each child to say something about the lesson before we can throw them the ball. For the lesson "I Have Feelings", they were to say something that made them happy, show us their 'happy face' by smiling really huge and them we could toss them the ball. I love using this game because it's helping them to remember what the lesson was about, they apply it to themselves, and they have fun without being overly active/irreverent.

Our class is 3-4 year olds and they are still working on the motor skills to accurately throw balls and catch things, so it's getting two birds with one stone. They're learning spiritual things, as well as physical things. The more multitasking we can do in the short 1 hour of class time, always the better!

Matching Game

We struggled for weeks in trying to find some sort of activity that was Sunday appropriate, would teach the kids to share, and teach them what behavior is acceptable during Primary.

What we came up with (after many failures) was a matching game. We simply took what the lesson was about, printed 8-10 pictures on regular 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper, cut them in half, mixed them up and used magnets up on the board to put them face down and let the kids try to match as many as they could.

We usually have 8-10 kids in the class, so we purposefully have at least that many pictures (we used food the first time, for the lesson I am Thankful for My Body, then colored smiley faces for I Have Feelings). This way we can make sure that each child makes at least one match. They know that they need to wait patiently (reverently) in their chairs since we simply go around the room one at a time and let them try to make a match. They get to come up to the blackboard, pick whichever two papers they want, and we flip them over to see if they match.

For some reason this keeps all the kids interested in what is going on, even when they're not the one up at the blackboard and they are actually learning how to sit still and wait their turn. I also like it because it teaches them that it's okay to try something, even if you fail at it (or don't make a match) and eventually if you keep trying you will succeed (by making a match).

This game is easily tailored to each lesson and we use it about every third week or so. They don't seem to be bored with it yet, so we'll keep using it as long as it works!

Movie Time

Today was another first for our class… We decided to show a short movie of Jonah and the Whale. It took a long time of searching the internet to find an age-appropriate, biblically accurate, short movie, but after a couple of hours of searching, we found one that was pretty good! Our class ranges in age from 3-5 so we needed something that would appeal to all of them, and keep their attention!


The movie we found that worked the best was 9 minutes long, animated, and had narration as well as actual voices for the characters. The kids surprised us all when they actually could answer questions after the movie about the story! We combined this story with the activity “Gone Fishing” and it was a bit hit! I almost had tears in my eyes when one of the little girls said “That looks just like the fish that swallowed Jonah!” when she ‘caught’ one of the blank fish to color in on her own.


The kids seemed to pay attention, and actually retain the information in the story. Obviously, we can’t use this in every lesson, but it’s a great treat for them to get to watch a movie while at church. Now, I am always on the lookout for good clips to show the kids for future lessons!

Gone Fishing

This week, our lesson was “I am thankful for fish”. We struggle each week trying to come up with ideas for activities that are physical enough to keep the kids engaged, but reverent enough to be done in a church on a Sunday. This week, coming straight from the manual, we had a great idea to go fishing!

We bought a kid’s size fishing pole at Walmart, and brought a sheet with us to church. I just tied some yarn onto the end of the pole (we didn’t want any accidents with fishing line) and tied a clothes pin on the end. We all remember doing things like this growing up, and what a good way to keep them anxiously engaged!

We let them ‘fish’ for their snack, which were Swedish fish in little snack size baggies, then after they were done eating, we let them fish for ‘real fish’ which were actually just the fish printout that was in the manual too, cut into 4ths so that each child could go fishing more than once to get all four fish and then color them. I sat behind the curtain while my husband had all the kids line up single file (we’re working on waiting our turns, being polite and reverent) and it was a huge success!

This was the first week since we’ve been teaching this class that the kids didn’t want to go home! Some even cried when they had to leave! I know that this is an activity that we will be doing over and over again this year, now… only how to apply it to lessons?!?

Fire Alarm

Today during sharing time something completely unexpected happened… The fire alarms went off and we had to evacuate the building! The kids were terrified, the noise and lights scared them half to death. Luckily, there was a long pink ribbon on the table that I was sitting at. I remembered our walk that we had gone on last week, where everyone was required to hold onto the string and not let go, and I thought this would be the best way to keep track of all 7 kids. One was so scared that I had to carry her outside, but with the presidency able to lead and follow the line of children, we were able to safely get everyone outside in a surprisingly short amount of time. Several parents stopped in the Primary room on the way outside and picked up kid’s coats (since it is winter time here, it was in the 20’s) and met us outside and tended to the kids that were upset while we kept counting and recounting all the kids to make sure we didn’t lose any. Thankfully, it was a false alarm and we were able to go back inside within 10 minutes of the evacuation. There was no way we could have prepared the children for the loud noise and lights that come with a fire alarm, but I was so glad that just last week we had gone on that walk with the string around the building. They had something familiar during a time of distress that helped them cope and not freeze up in the craziness, which also helped us get them out of the building in an orderly fashion. I think we will be doing fire drills in the future every couple of months or so to make sure that we are all prepared for that type of evacuation again.

Field Trip

This week seemed to be an especially difficult one with all of the children being extra cranky. There’s always one or two each week that are having a bad day, but this week, EVERYONE was having a bad day. We were battling it through the lesson, not very effectively, and the spirit definitely wasn’t in the room. I had to resort to ‘counting to three’ to get the children back into their chairs and pay attention. Just before I was about to loose it totally, on the brink of tears, the Primary Secretary said, “Who’d like to go on a walk?”

The children were so excited about this mini field trip they immediately jumped into the line behind the Secretary and were at attention. She had in her hand a piece of yarn about 5 feet long and each child had to hang onto the string. She discussed with them the rules for this walk. “There is no talking, and you must not let go of the string.” When we were all on the same page, we began our trek through the halls. We only made it down one hall and came back to the classroom, but the kids weren’t having that. We explained that because they were talking in the halls and one of the children let go of the string (they bolted toward an exit door, which we luckily caught him before he ran outside) we had to come back to the classroom. We asked them if they wanted to go out again and they were very enthusiastic about it and promised to follow ALL the rules this time. We made it down 2 hallways this trip (there were only 2 in the building…) and came back to the classroom.

After this little trip, the kids were still anxious and wiggly, but we were able to have the spirit with us and enjoy the last part of the lesson. This was an excellent example of thinking on your feet and being prepared to make changes to the lesson plans. Thanks again so much to that special lady who had the brilliant idea to ‘go on a walk’. She not only saved the lesson, but my sanity!

Coloring Time Game

For the last couple of weeks, we have been trying out a new ‘game’ during coloring time. The kids in our class have a tendency to all happen to want the same color each and every time we color. Our budget (Primary budget or my own pocket book) doesn’t allow us to have a set of crayons for each child in the class. However, our new ‘game’ means that each child randomly gets a crayon without anyone seeing it ahead of time (the popular pink and purple ones always get in there somehow…) and they get color time with that crayon until the teacher says “SWITCH”. Each child must switch crayons with another child in the classroom; they cannot keep the crayon more than one turn. It is not required to color using this crayon, but you must hold it and keep it until a teacher says the magic word “SWITCH” and then you may get another color from another child. This not only keeps coloring time under a good schedule, but alleviates melt downs over the coveted Pink and Purple crayons that are oh-so-popular in our Primary class. The children also seem to enjoy this sharing process and it’s helping take care of other sharing problems that we have had in the past as well, without us ever having to have the “let’s share” discussion with the kids.

Last Minute Ball Toss

This morning I was running through my lesson plan for today one last time to make sure I didn't forget anything and realized that I didn't have a single ball or bean bag toy, stuffed animal or anything that slightly resembled a kid-sized tossing mechanism for us to use during our little 'game'. I had this 'genius idea' that called for us to sit in a circle on the floor for a small class activity during the lesson and toss a small object to each other and complete the sentence "I am thankful for _____". I ran frantically around the apartment trying to find something that we could toss to each other without getting hurt and all I could come up with were things like shoes, boxes of Kleenex, DVDs... nothing toss-worthy whatsoever!
Needless to say, I ended up in the last room of the house, the bathroom. (There aren't that many rooms so it didn't take too long) My eye was drawn to the rolls of toilet paper that my husband left perched on the counter. I grabbed one and ran to my fabric stash and grabbed the first piece of fabric that I thought would be big enough (it only needed to be 18'' x 18'' square to fit I found out later) and wrapped the fabric around the toilet roll stuffing the ends into the inside of the cardboard roll in the middle!
It wasn't fancy, but it wasn't the normal ball that the kids were used to. It was the hit of the lesson today! It was just odd-shaped enough to catch their attention and they liked rolling it around and tossing it to each other. The most important thing was, no one got hurt! Many of the kids in our class are different sizes (since they're between the ages of 3 and 5) and definitely have different strength between them, but the roll was so soft and squishy that no one had any problems at all!
I did secure the inside a bit with some sewing pins, being sure to stick them inside the center cardboard roll on the diagonal so no little hands would get pricked accidentally and it kept the fabric secure the entire game! I'm thinking of a way to make a little pattern and hopefully post it here at a later date for a more permanent fixture to keep on hand in our Primary closet for future last minute tossing needs!

Reverence: Sara and Sam Sunbeam

I found a cute idea here with new ‘friends’ Sara and Sam Sunbeam. My husband was a bit skeptical, but I was determined to give it a try. I was working on this the day before the lesson so I didn’t have time to print out nice colorful versions, laminate them and so on. I simply put the images into Paint, colored them in, and printed them. I cut them out and slapped them on some Popsicle sticks and we were good to go. The kids paid total attention while I was introducing my new ‘friends’ saying that they had never been to primary before and needed to learn how to act. I went through questions like “What do our hands do in Primary?” “What do our feet do in Primary?” and the kids never looked away. I printed out extra sheets with black and white pictures of Sara and Sam Sunbeam that the kids colored in and they ended up wanting to cut them out and have their own ‘friends’. Anytime during the lesson that followed, I would simply say, “What do our ___ do in Primary?” (Insert whatever they are using to be distracting to the other kids) and point at the figures that we taped to the chalkboard. Sara and Sam Sunbeam are a huge success in our Primary class. The whole ordeal took all but 10 minutes (including the coloring – which only happened the first week) but the lesson they learned will (hopefully) last a lifetime.

Thank you Sugardoodle for a wonderful idea!

What do you use to help your kids be reverent?

My "Ah-Ha" Moment

My husband and I were recently called as Primary Teachers in our married-student ward at BYU-Idaho. Last week I came home crying from teaching our first lesson. Everything that could have gone wrong did. I mean EVERYTHING.

Children were going crazy running around the room fighting over toys (the origin of which I’m still baffled by), 3 kids escaped and ran into the Chapel during another ward’s sacrament and my husband had to chase him around 3 laps until someone caught on what was going on, others were crying for their parents and screaming, one was trying to hang off of the curtains, and on top of everything else, one little boy had an accident and didn’t tell anyone until he was completely soiled, down his legs and up his back.

I came home and never wanted to go back. I felt completely defeated. I sat on the couch on the verge of tears for several minutes before realizing that I was completely and utterly unprepared for this calling that I thought we had in the bag! Both my husband and I have taught in the Primary before, and we were both Nursery leaders as well. We thought we had this totally handled and that it would be a piece of cake and by doing so we underestimated the power of 10 3-5 year olds, bored, energetic, and totally aware of our shortcomings.

After some time to calm down and do some other things for a while, I came to the computer and started searching the internet for any sources that could help me prepare to tackle this thing called “Sunbeams”. I realized that the more prepared I could be, the better the lessons would go. Having never taught children of this age, I needed to look to some experienced members for their advice. After a quick prayer and a moment of reflection, I began my search. Needless to say, I found a plethora of sites, blogs and articles all across the internet. This was even before I tried calling friends and family for their advice as well.

Everyone seemed to start by saying the same thing: be prepared. Different sites had wonderful ideas on how to encourage reverence, how to keep my cool, what kids of this age find interesting so they won’t get bored, things that I knew that I didn’t have time to just sit by and figure things out myself. We had 7 days until our next lesson and I had to come armed with solutions to the problems that I knew I would be facing.

I buckled down and started listing things that I knew were problems that I saw this week:

• Reverence

• Kindness (we had some rough housing)

• Inside Voices (screaming was a fun pastime of theirs)

• Boredom
  

• Staying in our Chairs

• Participation in Lessons and Sharing Time

This is when I realized that I had ideas of my own that I know work really well with older and younger children that maybe others are hoping to find help with. This is what made me have my “ah-ha” moment in starting this blog. Not only am I hoping to document things for myself to reference in the future, but also, so that others may have yet another resource for them to look to if they are stumped and need a fresh point of view. I will try to tackle each category on a later date with some of the tips that I found useful, as well as things that worked themselves out on their own. I still have many strategies that I am in the process of trying to see which works best for these kids. For now, we are working on our upcoming lessons and have a new and refreshed sense of commitment to this calling. Thank you for your support in the trek of mine and I hope that I can help at least one other person and keep the cycle of exchanging information going!