My First Sharing Time

Part of my new calling as the 2nd counselor in the Primary presidency, includes teaching ALL of the children on Sunday at least once a month (for the time being....next year we are planning on doing things a little differently).  I was most excited for this part because I LOVE teaching...children especially.

We are given a manual to follow for the year so that all the children in all the world are receiving the same guidance and learning.  Like a world wide curriculum.

Each week there is a main objective to be taught and the month all ties together with a central theme...which is tied to an overarching yearly theme.

My main objective for this week was to talk to them about the importance of Jesus being sent to earth, namely, so that as an adult he could atone for our sins and die for us.  If we didn't have Christmas, we wouldn't have Easter...and then we wouldn't have the Atonement and a way back to live with our Heavenly Father.

I started by telling them 5 simple concepts to think about that would lead their minds through the idea of this concept.

*Heavenly Father sent His Son to earth.

*He came as a baby.

*He grew up like you and me.

* Because he loved us, He died for us.

*Because He was resurrected, we will live again!

I passed out paper (to the older class, called Senior primary) and pictures (to the younger class, called Junior primary) to color different parts of the Nativity story.  So that we could tell the story with some awesome visuals.  I'll show you the Junior primary pictures.  They are classic.

First, I told them the story of Mary and Joseph going on a long trip to Bethleham and  Mary was about to have a baby. (Which prompted one small child to yell, "YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE A BABY!"  and I said, "I am...but my baby isn't Jesus."

Mary had her baby in a stable.

Mary: colored by a 6 year old

Joseph: colored by other 6 year olds

They saw fit to make it so when you turned it around, it looked like he was holding a heart.

Baby Jesus: colored by 4 year old (with some help from his teacher)

Donkey: expertly colored by a little 4 year old boy (coloring in the lines was important to him)

Meanwhile, shepherds were watching their flocks by night and an angel came to them and told them to follow a star to wear baby Jesus was.  At first they were afraid but the angels told them not to fear because they were bringing them good tidings of great joy.

Star: colored by 7 year olds (they didn't get to finish coloring the sky which disappointed them)

Shepard: colored by 4 year olds

Sheep: colored by 4 year old girls (I'm assuming that this is what Old Testament's Joseph's technicolored dream coat was made out of)  

Angels: colored by 6 year old boy (who also wanted to include his own star and baby Jesus...overachiever)

The most important part of this story for the children to know was the story of the wisemen.  The wisemen went looking for the baby Jesus and before they found him, they met King Herod.  King Herod heard that they were looking for a "king" and he didn't like that...because he didn't want anyone making him not king.  He told the wisemen to find baby Jesus and then come back to tell him so that he could "worship" the baby too.  The wisemen had a dream that they shouldn't go back to King Herod.  They found baby Jesus but they didn't tell King Herod where they found Jesus.

If they had told King Herod, than Jesus would have been killed before he could atone for our sins and we wouldn't have the Atonement to help us repent and go back to live with Heavenly Father.

Wisemen: colored by 7 year old girls

Wiseman and Camel: colored by 5 year olds

I think that I'm really going to like this part of my calling.  It is a little hard to change the lesson enough to interest 11-8 year olds and then also interest the 7-3 year olds.  But it is my opportunity to teach kids instead of the adults...so I'll take it.  Hopefully I will enjoy all aspects of my calling but right now, it is still the children.