This ended up being a two part lesson as well. I get such fantastic input from the kids that I'm often not able to get through everything I've prepared. Sometimes this is fine, other times I feel like they need the other stuff I have prepared, so I continue on with it. That was certainly the case this time, since learning is why we are here on earth and it's also why we come to Sunday School!
After opening with prayer and reviewing how we recognized Heavenly Father's hand this past week, I asked the question, "Why is LEARNING an important part of Heavenly Father's plan? I got very little response, so we moved right into reading the scriptures found in 2 Nehpi 28:27-30, and then D&C 98:1-12. I asked what was common between those scriptures that were read, and the response was that we learn precept on precept. We discussed what that means (learning a little at a time). I used the analogies of teaching a Kindergarner trigonometry vs. an adult with only very basic math skills vs. a college student or high school student with advanced math skills. We talked about age and mental capacity, then about the learning required and the understanding required to be able to learn that harder information and to know how to apply it.
I then asked, "Who can tell me what the plan of salvation is?" I got TONS of partially correct answers..bits and pieces of what the plan of salvation is. I asked, "Why do you think you are learning about the plan of salvation today when most of you have probably heard about it all your lives?" A couple of answers were because we could learn more about it, and because we needed to be reminded of things. Both were great answers.
I had previously printed "Plan of Salvation" from True to the Faith and inserted it into their journals, so I had them all turn to that. I separated the 10 kids that were in attendance into 3 groups and had them study together for 10 minutes (I set a timer), with the assignment to find things they hadn't known before (as individuals). I then gave them 10 more minutes (set the timer again) to study as individuals and continue writing down things they may not have known before or that someone else might find interesting that wanted to know more about the plan of salvation. I gave them strips of paper to write questions on that they now had the answers to (i.e. Q. What are the three basic parts of the plan of salvation?)
We ran out of time just a few minutes into the question writing.
The following Sunday I was released as a Sunday School teacher and called as 1st Counselor in the Primary Presidency, so the last half of this lesson was my final lesson for this class.
We jumped right back into writing questions from the print out with the timer set for 10 minutes. I asked the question again, "Why is LEARNING such an important part of Heavenly Father's plan?" We took a couple minutes to discuss that, and I got more input than the first time I asked that question. I had written a few bullet points up on the board of other things we had already discussed and went over each one and it's importance in the learning process. These bullets included inviting the Holy Ghost to accompany us to help us to learn, to listen, talk, learn during class, to record feelings and impressions, to record those feelings and impressions in ACTION FORM (we used examples to help us understand what this means), to JUST DO IT, and to share. We talked about how they could use their journals now that I'm not their teacher, and I encouraged them to continuing using them to follow those steps of learning.
I had drawn a grid of dots on the board while they were writing their questions, and I gathered all the questions they had written. I only had three boys and three girls this week, so I had a girls team and a boys team. I would read a question and the first one to raise their hand got to answer the question. We discussed before we started how an answer could be acceptable even if it wasn't the exact one and that I would make that call. I ended up having to have all the kids scoot closer to the middle because I couldn't always see the kids raise their hands that were seated to my far right and far left. We also had to come up with a rule that if a hand raised in the middle of my asking the question I had to stop reading and they had to answer the question from what I had already read (some of the kids would just raise their hand so they would have the first opportunity to answer not necessarily because they had the answer first). The first one to raise their hand AND answer correctly got to write a line from one dot to another to try to make a square. If a square was made the boys put a "B" in the square and the girls put a "G," and another line was made. If a square wasn't made, just one line was drawn. We said a closing prayer at the first bell and kept playing until the 2nd bell rang. It was a ton of fun.
Loved my class and I'll miss them. My next posts will probably be about Primary sharing time!
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