I Love My Brothers and Sisters

To encourage each child to show love for his or her brothers and sisters.

Invite a child to give the opening prayer.

Attention Activity

Here We Are Together

Sing “Here We Are Together” (Children’s Songbook, p. 261), using father, mother, sister, and brother where the song indicates to insert names. Place the mom, dad, sister, brother and the sun on popsicle sticks.  Have the children take turns holding up the popsicle sticks with the pictures on them.

Here we are together, together, together;

Oh, here we are together in our family.

There’s     

father and

mother and

sister and

brother;

Oh, here we are together this

bright, sunny day.

We can love our brothers and sisters

Do any of you have a baby brother or sister?

Let children who have a baby brother or sister talk about the baby and tell how their families prepared for a new baby.

Do any of you have older brothers or sisters?

Let the children talk for a few moments about their brothers and sisters. Remind the children that you talked in the previous lesson about how all families are different. Some people have lots of brothers and sisters, and some people have only a few or none at all. No matter how many brothers or sisters we have, we should love them and be kind to them.

One way we can show love for our brothers and sisters is by helping them.

Story

I am going to tell you of a man who lived a long time ago.  This man also had very important things to do for our Heavenly Father.

There was a very evil Pharaoh in Egypt,

 a Pharaoh is a fancy name for a king.  He made all the Jews, they were God’s people, into slaves.  The Jews did not like being slaves.  Would you like to be a slave?  They didn’t like it either but there was nothing they could do about it.

This very evil Pharaoh came up with a horrible idea.  He decided to kill off all the baby boys

that were born in Egypt!  That was a horrible idea!   What do you think the Jews in Egypt thought of the Pharaoh’s idea?  That is right, everybody was really upset!

There was one mother who wanted to save her son from the awful Pharaoh.  She put her baby boy in a

small basket and put him in the Nile River.  The mother

and his sister watched as the baby boy float away.  How many of you have a baby brother or sister?  How would you feel watching your baby brother float away?  It would be really sad.

What do you think happened next?  Later that day, the Pharaoh’s daughter,

the princess, came down to the Nile River.  She was looking out on the water and what do you think she saw?  Yep, she saw the little baby floating on the Nile River.  When she saw the baby she knew that he was a Jew and was supposed to be killed,  but he was so cute and little and she wanted to keep him.  She took him home with her and she named him Moses.

Moses’s sister

came to the princess and offered to help the princess find someone to help her take care of Moses.  Do you know who Moses sister found to help take care of little Moses?  Moses’s sister went and got Moses’s mother to help care for him.  This was a wonderful idea because Moses’s mother could still take care of him!

Moses had an older sister who loved him and helped him when he was a baby. Miriam watched over her baby brother.

How did Miriam help baby Moses?

We can help our brothers and sisters

How can you help your brothers and sisters?

How do your brothers and sisters help you?

Activity

Describe some actions that show how the children might react to their brothers and sisters. Glue a happy face on one side of a popsicle stick and a frowny face on the other side.  Give each child a popsicle stick.  Read the situation and let them decide if it is the happy face or the frowny face.

Share your new toy with your sister.

Borrow your brother’s ball without asking his permission.

Help your sister pick up her toys.

Ask your brother for permission to play with his ball.

Refuse to play a game with your sister.

Be kind when your brother is sad.

Play with your sister when she is lonely.

 Chopsticks

(A Vietnamese folktale)

He commanded them that … they should look forward with one eye, having … their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another(Mosiah 18:21).

Once there was an old man who lived with

his three young sons in a small village in Vietnam. Though they all loved each other very much, the boys seemed to always be fighting and quarreling.

One day the father called them to him. “My sons,” he said, “I want each of you to bring me a chopstick.”

“Yes, Father,” they said, and each ran to get a chopstick.

When they stood before him again, he said to his oldest son, Ta, “Can you break your chopstick?”

“Yes, Father. That’s easy.” He snapped his chopstick in two. (Have a child break a chopstick)

The father asked his middle son, Hai, “Can you break your chopstick?”

“Yes, Father. That’s easy.” Hai snapped his chopstick in two.(Have a child break a chopstick)

“Can you break your chopstick?” the father asked his youngest son, Thu.

“Yes, Father. That’s easy.” It was harder for him, but he was able to break his chopstick in two.(Have a child break a chopstick)

“Now,” the father said to his youngest son, “bring me three unbroken chopsticks.”

Thu ran to get them.

“When you hold them together, can you break them?” asked the father. (Have a child try and break 3 chopsticks)

Thu tried as hard as he could, but he could not break the three together. Hai also tried, but he couldn’t break them.

Ta, being the oldest, thought he might break the three, but try as he would, he could not do it.

“I hope you have learned from the chopsticks,” said their father.

One day soon after that, Thu was taking his new ball to a friend’s house to play. At the end of his street,

a bully, much bigger than Thu, jumped out and took the ball away from him.

“Please give it back,” Thu begged. But the bully would not. Thu went home and told his brothers what had happened.

Ta and Hai looked at each other. “Chopsticks?” they said, and they went to find the bully. “What are you doing with our brother’s ball?” they asked.

“Aw, I just borrowed it,” said the bully, looking nervously at the brothers. He gave it back at once and didn’t borrow it again.

Some time later,

 Hai got sick and had to stay in bed for a while. He became cross and restless. “My sons,” said the father. “Have you noticed that Hai is getting very tired of having to stay in bed day and night? I wonder what can be done about that.”

“Chopsticks,” said Ta and Thu, and they began bringing things to their brother and entertaining him while he was sick. Soon he was feeling much better.

Years passed, and the boys had grown into fine young men. Each had a farm and a family of his own.

One spring a terrible rain lasted so long that the river flooded. Hai and Thu lived on high ground, but Ta lived near the river, and his entire rice field was swept away by the flood.

Hai and Thu got together to talk about their brother’s loss.

“Chopsticks?” asked Hai.

“Chopsticks,” answered Thu. And until the next rice harvest,

a bag of rice appeared on Ta’s doorstep every week so that he and his family never went hungry.

When the old father, who was very old by this time, heard of it, he was sitting in front of his house in the sun. “Chopsticks,” he said, and he smiled a very happy smile.

We can help with our baby brothers and sisters

Place a pacifier in a small brown bag.. Have the children reach inside without looking and try to guess what the object is by touching it.

Sometimes it is difficult when a new baby is born into a family because the baby takes a lot of the parents’ time and attention. Although parents may be busy with the new baby, they still love all their other children. A baby needs help with almost everything, while older children (such as those in your class) can do many things for themselves and for a baby brother or sister.

How could you help your parents with a baby brother or sister?

Activity

Show the children how to hold the baby doll carefully. Teach them a simple lullaby or sing “I Am a Child of God” (Children’s Songbook, p. 2) while they take turns holding the doll.

I am a child of God,

And he has sent me here,

Has given me an earthly home

With parents kind and dear.

Lead me, guide me, walk beside me,

Help me find the way.

Teach me all that I must do

To live with him someday.

 

Testimony

Share your feelings about the importance of brothers and sisters helping and loving each other. If possible, share a personal childhood experience when you and your brother or sister helped each other. Remind the children that when we help our brothers and sisters we are showing our love for them. Express how grateful you are to Heavenly Father for placing us in families.

Give each child a Chopstick coloring page.  Help them write in the number on their brothers and sister is the empty space.  Remind the children that they should always help their brothers and sister.  Let them draw a picture of themselves and their brothers and sisters.

Invite a child to say the closing prayer.

There are 3 options with the lessons.  The first one is a color PDF of the full lesson, all the pictures, scriptures and art projects with the watermark removed. 

The next options is all the pictures in Black and White

The 3rd option is a PowerPoint with all the pictures and scriptures that you can pull up on your device.  It is like having a digital copy.  It eliminate the printing and the cutting out.  This makes the lesson easier come Sunday morning.

All three options are now included in a zip drive that will immediately be emailed to you for $2.75.  You can pick and choose from all three options to make your lesson just right for you!

Please use the lesson free of charge.  I am only charging for the visual aids which take a considerable amount of time to create.  The art work is mine and my son’s original drawing.  Thank you for your help as I try to continue to be a stay at home mom of four boys.

All purchases are final. Because of the nature of the digital product, no refunds will be available. I will how ever do whatever I can to make the download available to you.

This download is a copyright of TEACHING STRIPLING WARRIORS and is for personal or ward use only.  You may not share, forward, sell or redistribute in anyway.  Not for commercial use.