Well, I have a new calling-- Second Counselor in the Primary. I am pretty excited. I get to work with some AMAZING women! Our President rocks. She is so calm and collected and keeps things unstressed. Our First Counselor is a go-getter! She knows what she is doing and she does it well. And the secretary is my good friend and is such a put together and organized person (plus I just love her!). So, I think we make a good team and we are going to have a lot of fun!
I did the Sharing Time today. I was in Primary a few years ago as the secretary and was so glad I never had to do ST. I was terrified of it. But, after being in Scouts for three years, I got over my fear and it is pretty fun! I started off today's ST by "seeing" a mouse running around. I "caught" it and showed them that we have a "church mouse" living at the church. He is as quiet as a church mouse, and we need to be quiet like he is (and not scare him off with all the loud noises). I think it went over well. As they left the room, I let them see him and I reminded them to be quiet as church mice.
So, I am not full of ideas, and I know many of you are--plus you probably have served or are serving in Primary. Is there anything that works for your primary that we can try out? Anything you have done or seen that is amazing? We are thinking of changing our nursery to "stations"--three nurseries that move from room to room doing the different things (singing time, lesson, snack, toys, etc). Anybody done that? Hints? any other ideas you'd love to share?
9 comments:
Currently my wife and I are nursery leaders. This works great because our girls are only 17 months and we were just wandering the halls for the last 6 months wondering why we bothered coming to church. So they split our nursery into three groups. Youngest, middle and oldest. We are in three adjoining rooms. We have snack time lesson time puzzle time book time and singing time all on our own. Then we open the curtains and all the kids play together with toys for the last 30 minutes. It seems to work pretty good. I wish we had someone who came in for singing time though. I was in Nursery once before and a lady who was fabulous came in with an apron on that had a million pockets in it. She had items in all the pockets and each child could pull something out of a pocket and then we would sing a related song. It was great and kept their attention wonderfully!
When I was in nursery we did that. They split our ward a couple of weeks ago so I don't know if they still do it but we had a huge nursery with 4 different classes. I liked it & I think the kids didn't get as bored being able to move from room to room. Good luck with your new calling, my sister in law just got called to Primary Pres. She is still trying to figure things out :)
Congrats on the calling. So did you have a stuffed mouse? I like the nursery stations idea. There are great ideas in the Friend and LDS.org for sharing time. You'll do great, I bet the kids just adore you, you're so fun!
nate said that you did 'good'. then he asked how did i see that you taught.
i told him magic.
that is my story and im sticking to it!
You guys are going to be great! You will LOVE it! That was a great idea about the church mouse. The kids are not what you would call...reverent. So I think that was a great idea, especially for the Junior primary. Anyway, Good luck in there. I am sad that now I can go to RS, you won't be there to sit by, which might be a good thing since we are kind of irreverent together. Why is that, do you think?
Such a great new primary presidency for our ward!
I don't have any tips for you on this but I love the nursery station idea--I know my Caroline would think that's pretty cool.
My sister and sister-in-law are the primary presidents in their wards and they both love the website sugardoodle.com for inspiration and ideas regarding sharing times, music and even primary activities.
Yea. Kaehler will miss you in scouts. You were always so fun. I am so excited for you, but a lot of work.
I am so excited for you guys! You are seriously such an amazing group of women. Love the church mouse. Love the nursery stations idea too!
Hey Brittany - I'm newly called in my Primary Presidency too - I'm over the music and the children's program. This is my second time in a primary presidency. I love doing sharing time. Looking back one of my favorite and most memorable sharing time was when we acted out Daniel and the Lions den. Of course for the kids their favorite part was that I had a lion costume (from halloween) that everyone wanted to wear, but beyond that I think they really liked being involved in the story.
I find that simple is best. If I go beyond simple it just never works out quite as well. I mostly go with what is suggested in the Friend magazine on the sharing time page or the ideas in the yearly theme book that outlines the weekly theme. For me personally, I really like to keep the focus on the scripture stories or the primary songs. When the Friend has a suggestion to use pictures from multiple scripture stories, I'll usually only use one or two. For instance, last week for the topic of prayer it was suggested to use the GAK pictures to have the classes individually talk about a scripture story and then share with the primary their story and how it relates to their life and faith. This was a great idea, but I knew I didn't have enough time to follow through with the whole idea (we only get 15 minutes) so I focused just on one scripture story (when Nephi went to get the plates). Our Primary is so little (Sunday there were maybe 20 kids) that I just split them into two groups.
Sorry this is so long, but I just love Primary. I just got released as the music leader, so music is a big one for me that I use a lot. It's fun to base sharing time around one Primary song and intermingle the song with the lesson - maybe only singing a line or two that pertains directly with the lesson.
The main thing is, which you probably already know, you'll find what is "you", what it is that you have to offer the children, for me it is the scripture stories and the songs and for me it works best to keep it as simple as possible.
Primary is the best calling - and I really love being in the presidency - the opportunity to be involved with all the children and sharing the gospel with them.
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