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!

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?!?

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!

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!