We talked about the importance of expressing gratitude in our prayers. With the help of Mr. Happy Face, we took turns saying things for which we are thankful.
We colored pictures to remind us of what we had learned about prayers.
Sister Combs forgot to take a picture of the M&M Blondies for the blog, but everybody loved them anyway. As usual, one child asked if we were allowed to have seconds before she tasted the first one, and another child thought we should suspend the two-treat limit so he could have a third. We listened to a song and discussed the proper way to sit or kneel during a prayer. The children all agreed that we need to sit still so that we don't distract others. We close our eyes so that we can concentrate on communicating with Heavenly Father and are not distracted by all the interesting things around us. Our special visitor Emi explained that we bow our heads to show respect for Heavenly Father. We heard an interesting story about Brigham Young and Heber J. Grant. As a boy, Heber would play at the Young house and sometimes join the family for prayer. President Young prayed as if he were speaking to a friend in the same room, and Heber sometimes opened his eyes to look for Heavenly Father. Even though Heber could not see Heavenly Father, he knew that he was listening to President Young's prayers, and he would also listen to Heber's prayers. We talked about the importance of expressing gratitude in our prayers. With the help of Mr. Happy Face, we took turns saying things for which we are thankful. We talked about asking for help in times of need, then learned from a story from the childhood of President Monson. The children were surprised that $5 was a lot of money during the Great Depression, and they loved the happy ending!
We colored pictures to remind us of what we had learned about prayers.
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Fast Sunday was hard today. The children were all convinced that they would perish of malnourishment before their parents came to pick them up! Fortunately, they all survived to the end of class. We learned about how people lived when Jesus was a boy. The children all knew that there were no iPads back then, but they were very interested to see an illustration of a house with sleeping mats and jars to fill with water. We learned that they used oil lamps to see when it was dark outside, because they had no light bulbs. We talked about some of the things that our fathers have taught us, and then talked about what Joseph probably taught Jesus as he was growing up. The children all thought being a carpenter sounded like an interesting job. We learned that boys learned to read in rabbinical schools, and that they had scrolls instead of books like ours. We had a scroll to examine, and it had a scripture for us to read and discuss. We learned that Jesus learned and grew, and people liked to be around him because he was kind and helpful. We sorted pretend food into a pile of things that Jesus might have eaten and one of things that were not around in Biblical Israel. The children enjoyed thinking about all of the items, but said that talking about food made them hungry. We heard the story of when Jesus was twelve and his parents found him teaching in the temple. The children had a lot more sympathy with Mary, who was worried about having lost her son, than they did with the old men who were learning from the Savior. We discussed how we do not yet know as much as Jesus did, but we can be good examples to other people and learn and grow as he did.
We finished class by coloring an assortment of spring pictures. We are grateful that Heavenly Father gave us beautiful flowers and cute animals. The children were not too sure about the concept of homemade animal crackers, but they all agreed that they tasted good, and it was fun to have lots of little things to nibble. We learned all about the wise men who came from the East to visit Jesus. Mees, Ellie, and Brooklynn were excellent wise men, even complaining about how tired they were from their long journey. Sister Comin was our King Herod, and Syler was her advisor, who read the scriptures and told the wise men that they needed to go to Bethlehem. We followed the star all around the building and eventually found Jesus and his mother at our classroom! The children loved giving gifts to Jesus. We learned that Heavenly Father sent an angel to instruct the wise men not to go back to King Herod and tell him where Jesus was, and that another angel came to Joseph and told him to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt, so they would be safe. The children were very relieved that Jesus was safe from the evil king. We learned that Heavenly Father watches over us, just as he watched over Jesus. We talked about how we ask for his help -- we pray! We talked about things that we can pray for help with, and most of the children shared memories of praying for help in finding lost toys. We enjoyed a story about the young David O. McKay, who prayed for help when he heard frightening noises at night. David heard a voice telling him not to be afraid. We discussed some of the different ways that our prayers can be answered: we can have a good feeling, or the Holy Ghost can whisper to us, or the Holy Ghost can inspire somebody else to help us. We also talked about how our prayers are not always answered in the way that we expect, but Heavenly Father always hears and answers our prayers. We drew pictures on medallions like the one above to help us remember what we had learned in the lesson. When we had finished, we colored crowns like King Herod's and put them on. He was a terrible king, but had great taste in accessories!
As usual, everybody loved the snacks. The children really enjoyed the powdered sugar coating on the chocolate crinkle cookies. Ben was also a huge fan of how they "taste like chocolate chips". We talked about birthdays and put our namesake sheep under our birthday month on a timeline. The children explained why birthdays are important -- we get presents, and we grow older, so we know more things. We talked about how excited our parents were when we were born, and all the things that they did and bought to prepare for our birth. Then we talked about somebody else's birth. We learned what shepherds do: they take care of their sheep, which involves staying with them night and day so that they don't get lost. We learned about the shepherds who were visited by an angel on the night that Jesus was born. The children loved hearing all the things that the angel said to the shepherds, and they were really excited when more angels came and sang! The children already knew the next part of the story: the shepherds found Mary and Joseph and the Baby Jesus. We learned that the shepherds told their friends about what they had seen and learned, and we can also share what we know about Jesus with our friends.
We finished our class by coloring, as usual. The children enjoyed adding foil star stickers to the night sky to make it even more exciting. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day, so we took a walk outside before class. After two laps around the building (in which Syler and Mees must have traveled at least twice as far as Sister Combs), we were ready to go inside and have a lesson. We reviewed last week's lesson. With a little prompting, the children remembered what they had learned about Heavenly Father's plan for us to come to Earth and receive a body. They remembered that Jesus was chosen to help us. He would show us how to live and die for us so that we could return to live with Heavenly Father after this life. They also remembered Satan's plan to make us do what is right, and that Satan was cast out. We learned that the right to choose is called agency. We talked about some of the choices we make each day, and all the chances we have to choose the right. We learned about a time when Jesus was in the temple. The children were not very sympathetic to the priests, who became angry as Jesus healed people and more angry when children shouted Hosanna. They said if they saw Jesus, they would celebrate and tell everyone, just like the children in the Bible did. We talked about how we can praise Jesus Christ by following his example and doing what he would have us do. We practiced saying part of Doctrine & Covenants 37:4: Let every man choose for himself. We put this game board between our pictures of Jesus and Satan and put a game piece in the middle. Then we took turns reading scenarios. If the sentence described a good choice, we moved our token one step toward Jesus, but if it was a poor choice, we had to move one step away from him. We took a lot of steps forward and backward, and were very excited to reach our destination! We talked about how we feel happier when we choose the right.
We colored adorable heart animals (near the bottom of the webpage) and decorated them with heart stickers. Having only two students made it easier to share the stickers! Sister Schultz gave each child a cookie as part of her Sharing Time lesson, but the children insisted that they needed more snacks, so they each ate one of Sister Combs's chocolate-chip cookies as well. We reviewed what we had learned last week about our life before we came to the earth. The children remembered that we used to live with Heavenly Father, and we liked it there. We watched a video about the Council in Heaven, where we learned about Heavenly Father's plan for his children. The children were excited to learn that they had been at that big meeting. They were sad to learn about Satan's plan, which was all wrong, and to find out that some people had chosen to follow Satan instead of Jesus Christ. We drew names and talked about whether each person had chosen Jesus or Satan in the War in Heaven. Since we learned that only people who followed Jesus Christ are allowed to have a mortal body and live on the Earth, this was an easy game! The children enjoyed arranging the names of friends and family members and prophets around the picture of Jesus. . .although one of the children felt a little sorry for the sad person who was stuck by himself on the other side of the chalkboard.
We talked about how Satan is still trying to convince us to follow him. If we make good choices, we will be happy, but if we make bad choices, we will be miserable like Satan. The children drew pictures showing how they will choose to follow Jesus Christ at home, at school, and at church. Each child in our class has a father and a mother, so they each ate a little sugar cookie man and woman. . .and most of them had seconds. As they chewed, they entertained each other by announcing that their moms and dads had lots their heads, arms, and other body parts. We looked at a picture of a baby and talked about where she lived before she was born -- she lived with Heavenly Father. We learned that Heavenly Father is the father of our spirits, and every person on the Earth is his child. The children discovered by looking at Sister Combs's Kindle that their spirits look like their physical bodies. They loved seeing their own faces on the screen, and would have liked to spend a lot of class taking selfies, but we had too many other things to do! We learned that our spirits are what give life to our bodies. We talked about all the things that we can do with our bodies: run, jump, skip, eat, see, talk, and hear. The children were very eager to compare their skipping and jumping skills. They are grateful to have bodies so that they can learn and eat. . .especially eat! We talked about all the ways that we know our parents love us. The children had a harder time explaining how they knew that Heavenly Father loves them, so we watched a little slideshow. They liked the butterfly picture best of all. We enjoyed coloring pictures of the earth and people who live on it. While coloring, we watched a video of "I am a Child of God". Mees and Ellie loved hearing the song in different languages, and everyone joined in and sang at the end.
It was Bird Day in CTR 5! The children loved their tiny egg cupcakes, especially the yummy chocolate frosting. We reviewed what CTR means: Choose the Right! We learned that Jesus wants us to follow Him, and we do that by obeying his commandments and making wise choices. We learned about a boy named Warren who lived near a bird refuge. Warren found some children who had killed a bird and wanted to destroy some eggs. He chose the right by preventing the destruction of the eggs and telling his father what had happened, despite the threats from the other children of what they would do to him if he told the truth. Warren's father taught him to be kind to the others, even though they had been mean to him. Our feathered friends helped us with the next part of the lesson. Each bird had a scenario attached to its wing or leg, and the children explained how they would choose the right in each situation. The children loved the birds and wanted to keep the especially interesting ones! We concluded class by coloring pictures of birds and playing with our lesson helpers until our parents arrived.
We started class by writing our names and drawing things that we like. The children added lots of happy face stickers to their drawings, because we all like being happy! We learned that Jesus loves children. Because he loves each of us, he wants us to be happy. He knows that we will be happy if we make good choices as he did.
We learned what CTR stands for: Choose the Right! We discussed how it is not always easy to make the right choice, but we feel happy when we do. One of the children mentioned that if you make the wrong choice, you should say sorry and try to make it better. We talked about several scenarios, and what would be the right choice to make in each one. When the children decided that stomping their feet loudly was the wrong decision, they demonstrated several better ways to walk at church! We colored CTR shields to help us remember to Choose the Right always. The children explained that a shield provides protection to our bodies, and choosing the right protects our spirits and helps us to be happy. They also suggested that Sister Combs should buy a bigger printer, since these shields were not quite big enough to protect their whole bodies! All four children in class today enjoyed their gingersnaps, thoughtfully provided by the other Sister Combs. We enjoyed sharing what we had received for Christmas, and then played a boisterous game of Concentration. Byron made his first match later than anyone else but still ended up with the most cards at the end. We looked at the pairs of animals that we had found and remembered a Bible story about someone else who had pairs of animals: Noah. Ian gave us a great summary of why the ark was built and what happened after Noah and all the animals were aboard. We learned that animals are important to Heavenly Father and we should take care of them as he does. We learned about what happened when a bird flew into the Tabernacle in Salt Lake and was too frightened to find its way out. Some men tried and failed to catch it with big nets, and then someone suggested shooting it with a pellet gun. The caretaker of the Tabernacle prayed to find a way to extricate the bird without harming it, and was inspired to close all doors except one and turn off all the lights. The bird saw the light in the open doorway and flew out immediately. We learned that we should not kill animals unless we need to for food or to protect ourselves.
We enjoyed coloring pictures of birds. One child asked to see photographs of the birds so that she could color them accurately, while another colored rainbow stripes and yet another colored the cardinal orange because "blue jays are orange". Six-year-olds have wonderful imaginations! |
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