December 28–January 3
Doctrine and Covenants 1
“Hearken, O Ye People”
Your first step in preparing to teach should be to prayerfully study Doctrine and Covenants 1. As you do, listen for promptings about the children’s needs, and look for principles that will be meaningful to them. These impressions will help you plan meaningful activities to teach these principles.
Invite Sharing
Hold up the Doctrine and Covenants, and ask the children to share anything they know about this book. Who wrote it? What does it contain? Why is it important? For help, you could refer to “Chapter 23: The Doctrine and Covenants” (Doctrine and Covenants Stories, 90–92). Share your love for the Doctrine and Covenants and your eagerness to learn from it this year.
Teach the Doctrine: Older Children
Doctrine and Covenants 1:15–17, 29–30
The Lord knew the challenges we would face, so He restored the gospel through Joseph Smith.
You can help the children prepare for future challenges by teaching them how the Restoration of the gospel provides spiritual protection.
Let’s plan a day hike! What do we need to bring? What do we need to do to get ready? How are we going to get there?
Write a list of how to prepare for the hike on the chalkboard.
Instead of going on a hike, let’s go to Disneyland! What do we need to bring? What do we need to do to get ready? How are we going to get there?
Write a list of how to prepare for Disneyland on the chalkboard.
The preparation to Disneyland is very different from the preparation for the day hike.
If you follow the path you described for the day hike, will it bring you to Disneyland?
How does the destination you choose influence the path you must take to get there?
Read together verse 17, and discuss what the Lord knew would happen to us and how He prepared for it. (If necessary, explain that a “calamity” is a disaster or terrible thing.)
How do God’s commandments help us deal with the challenges of our time?
Let the children hold pictures of warning signs—
—and talk about how they warn us of danger. Compare these warnings to the warnings the Lord gives us through His prophets. Testify that He warns us because He loves us and wants us to be safe (see also this week’s activity page).
Read to the children from Doctrine and Covenants 1:4: “And the voice of warning shall be unto all people.” Share something that the prophet has recently taught that can keep us safe.
Doctrine and Covenants 1:30
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s “true and living church.”
How can you help the children appreciate the great blessings of belonging to “the only true and living church”?
Cut the memory pictures out. Show the class each picture. Briefly discuss if the object is living or not living.When you have finished, give each child a paper
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and have them list the objects in order that you showed them. This activity helped them see how well they could remember.
Invite the children to list some things that are living and some things that are not (if possible, bring pictures or examples). What is the difference between a living thing and a nonliving thing?
Read together verse 30. What does it mean that the Church is “true”? that it is “living”?
Doctrine and Covenants 1:37–38
The word of the Lord lasts forever.
You can help the children build their faith in Jesus Christ by teaching them that His word is sure and dependable.
Treasure hunt
Have a simple progressive treasure hunt. Begin by stating: “Somewhere in this room is a message from the prophet of the Church to the members of this class. See if you can find it.”
1st Clue:
Place under your chair the 2nd Clue:
Place under the table the 3rd Clue:
Place the Final Clue under a chair:
When the children discover the magazine, read from the magazine the marked message from the prophet. Then explain what a treasure the words of a prophet are. Prophets can tell us how to live so that we can return to Heavenly Father.
Help the children understand that the “voice of my servants”
includes the voices of our apostles and prophets. Help the children find “prophecies and promises” in a recent general conference address by one of the Lord’s servants. Bear your testimony that these words are inspired by the Lord and “shall all be fulfilled.”
Encourage Learning at Home
Review with the children what they learned today, and invite them to pick one thing that they feel everyone should know about. Encourage them to share it with a friend or family member.
Improving Our Teaching
Children learn in many ways. “Not all children are alike, and each child is developing rapidly. Your efforts to teach children will be most effective as you use a variety of teaching methods,” including stories, visual aids, and music (Teaching in the Savior’s Way, 25).
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 option 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 eliminates 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!
*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.
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