Week plan for JANUARY 28—FEBRUARY 3
Matthew 3; Mark 1; Luke 3
Young children
Monday
Doctrine: I can be baptized as Jesus was.
Song: Baptism
Fill water bottles half way and tighten the lid to make a simple instrument for the song.
Other songs of the week
This Is My Beloved Son
When I Am Baptized
The Holy Ghost
The Fourth Article of Faith
The Still Small Voice
Scripture story
Watch: Jesus Is Baptized
Memorize: "Repent ye" (Matthew 3:2)
Write the phrase on a piece of paper and explain the meaning of each word. Then tell your children to hold up the paper when you say a true statement about what "repent ye" means. Make your false statements silly and easily identified as false. Example: "Repent ye means. . . to say I'm sorry" (true! hold up the paper). Next: "Repent ye means. . . the hippo ate my spaghetti and meatballs" (false! don't hold up the paper).
Coloring page
Activities
Talk about when each child will turn eight years old and how that is the age they can choose to be baptized like Jesus was. Make figure eights with pipe cleaners and have your children thread beads or cheerios through them (save for putting in the baptism time capsules on Wednesday, along with the other crafts from today and Tuesday).
Draw your own version of this Number 8 Lacing Card on card stock, then punch holes along the edge and help your child learn the number eight by lacing or sewing it.
Watch this One in a Million, "Allison" video about a girl's baptism experience
Make this Baptism Punch-a-Box with a foam poster board, plastic cups, hot glue (or brads), tissue paper, rubber bands, and printable scripture questions and scenario questions; or, for a time saving alternative, do a paper bag version of this activity.
Find everything that starts with the letter "b" in the picture Learning about Baptism
Tuesday
Doctrine: I can be baptized as Jesus was.
Song: This Is My Beloved Son (1st Verse)
Play Hot/Cold by hiding a small object in the room and having one child find it while the rest of you sing louder or softer based on how close the child is to the object.
Other songs of the week
Baptism
When I Am Baptized
The Holy Ghost
The Fourth Article of Faith
The Still Small Voice
Scripture story
Memorize: "Repent ye" (Matthew 3:2)
Have your children stand on chairs and dramatically shout the scripture phrase in a deep voice over and over, waving their arms for extra emphasis. Tell them they can picture themselves as Lehi or Noah or John the Baptist telling people to repent.
Coloring pages
Activities
Print this path to the temple. Write "baptism" on a popsicle stick and lay it across the path next to the baptism picture. Have your child grab a little toy person to walk along the path. Say, "wait, to get to the temple, you have to enter the gate and be baptized first." Make a creaking noise and open the popsicle stick like a gate as the little person gets baptized.
Do any of these four repentance/baptism object lessons.
Eat a yummy baptism snack of teddy grahams on blue frosting covered graham crackers. Show what "immersion" means by dunking the teddy grahams in milk (idea from here).
Show baptism by immersion in another way with this craft using the printable on cardstock, brads, and popsicle sticks: I Will Be Baptized Like Jesus
With a hole punch and string/ribbon, assemble My Baptism Book.
Print this Understanding Baptism page and with a box cutter, cut out the little pictures. Read aloud each section to your children and let them try to choose which picture matches the description and fits in the hole.
Wednesday
Doctrine: I can be baptized as Jesus was.
Song: When I Am Baptized
Watch: Baptism Medley: Baptism/ When I am Baptized – Children’s Vocal Arrangement
Do the five minute prep for making a rainbow density tower. Then while singing, have each child slowly pour a layer one at a time: bottom layer Karo syrup (dyed purple), then dawn dish soap (blue layer), next water (dyed green), then vegetable oil (yellow layer) and finally rubbing alcohol (dyed red). (Idea from Summer Wilson)
Other songs of the week
Baptism
This Is My Beloved Son
The Holy Ghost
The Fourth Article of Faith
The Still Small Voice
Scripture story
Read: Jesus Is Baptized
Memorize: "Repent ye" (Matthew 3:2)
Write each word on a band aid and stick the band aids on a doll or on one another, discussing how repentance through Jesus Christ fixes the "owies" of bad choices.
Coloring pages
Activities
For girls, watch the music video What Heaven Sees In You.
Work together to create a baptism time capsule for each child to open when they turn eight years old. Some options to place inside: number eight candle, Preparing for Baptism booklet, framed picture of their favorite temple, 3 Bears of Baptism bookmark, baptismal covenants, new journal, baptism pillowcase, baptism towel (here, here, or here), baptism flashlight, key and compass, printable baptism bag, rainbow paper plates and napkins, tissue paper tassels, Great to Be 8 printables, rainbow baptism prints
Thursday
Doctrine: The Holy Ghost helps me.
Song: The Holy Ghost
Do this story song and clap the song's beat vs rhythm (described in the same link)
Other songs of the week
Baptism
This Is My Beloved Son
When I Am Baptized
The Fourth Article of Faith
The Still Small Voice
Scripture story
Watch: The Baptism of Jesus
Memorize: "Repent ye" (Matthew 3:2)
Print (or cut out from past issues of The Friend) pictures of good choices and bad choices. Randomly order them in a pile, then hold the pictures up one at a time. Have your children yell out "Repent ye!" when a bad choice is shown.
Coloring pages
Activities
Make this fun listening ears headband and take turns making different noises (i.e. tearing paper, opening a soda can, shuffling cards) for the child wearing the headband and closing his or her eyes. After everyone takes a turn trying to guess the noises while wearing the ears, say that there is one more thing we should listen to in our lives that has a still, small voice and is a gift we receive when we are baptized: the Holy Ghost!
In a large bag, conceal a few objects that represent how the Holy Ghost can help us. Have a child stick their hand into the bag to feel one of the objects and guess what it is. Pull it out and use the above link's explanation for each object. Here are even more object lessons on the Holy Ghost.
What does the Holy Ghost feel like? Try an experiment to see if you can invite the Spirit. Gather close around the piano with one person playing I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus"(youtube piano accompaniment if needed). Sing together the first verse, but when you get to the chorus, everyone stop singing and just listen quietly to the piano. Talk afterwords about if anyone felt the Spirit and how it felt. (idea from Heidi Trimble) Then have them try these simple activities (found at the bottom of the article), such as standing by a fire, and make comparisons about how they feel.
Friday
Doctrine: The Holy Ghost helps me.
Song: The Fourth Article of Faith
Go to a staircase and climb together one step for each of the four principles of the gospel when it is sung in the song. It may be helpful to tape a picture representing each principle to its corresponding stair.
Other songs of the week
Baptism
This Is My Beloved Son
When I Am Baptized
The Holy Ghost
The Still Small Voice
Scripture story
Read: Jesus Was Baptized and then answer the scripture questions
Memorize: "Repent ye" (Matthew 3:2)
Tell your children to listen to the words of "The Fourth Article of Faith" song and find one word that sounds like the scripture they have been memorizing ("repentance").
Coloring pages
Activities
Help each child put on a helmet and grab a stick or long serving utensil, then sit on the couch with legs extended. Pretend to ride bicycles down a windy, bumpy trail while you read the story Safety and the Spirit. If you have one, pull out a whistle and blow it at the appropriate point in the story. Hang the picture quote somewhere as a reminder.
Play Telephone with phrases about the Holy Ghost from primary songs, such as "The Holy Spirit whispers with a still small voice" (Song: Holy Ghost); "Listen to the still small voice!Listen! Listen!" (Song: Listen Listen); "The Spirit will guide, and, deep inside, I'll know the scriptures are true" (Song: Search Ponder Pray); I try to listen as the still small voice whispers love one another (Song: I'm trying to be like Jesus). (idea from May Bo Hubbard)
Grab backpacks and walking sticks and go on a guided hike (in the house) with dangerous obstacles that will teach your children about the Holy Ghost. The hike activity is listed under Week 3 in the above link.
Share your own experiences with receiving help from the Holy Ghost.
Saturday
Doctrine: The Holy Ghost helps me.
Song: The Still Small Voice
Print or draw a few traffic signs and explain their connection with the Holy Ghost as described here. Then choose one child to lead you all in tiptoeing around the house while singing the song. Let the leading child use the traffic signs to tell you to stop, keep right, etc.
Other songs of the week
Baptism
This Is My Beloved Son
When I Am Baptized
The Holy Ghost
The Fourth Article of Faith
Scripture story
Read: Jesus Christ Is Baptized rebus
Memorize: "Repent ye" (Matthew 3:2)
Tell your children to walk slowly in a straight line and whenever you say "Repent ye", they should turn around and start going in the opposite direction. After making them turn around multiple times, let each child take a turn calling out the scripture.
Coloring pages
Activities
Put on a life jacket (or show a picture) and explain its purpose. Then explain how the Holy Ghost can save our lives too. Watch this One in a Million, "Joey" video (on page 4) about a boy from Alaska who listens to the promptings of the Holy Ghost and saves his family from harm just before their furnace explodes and the house catches fire. Optional: eat lifesaver candies
Play this Listen, Listen game to learn about how things can distract us from hearing the Holy Ghost.
Scroll through this page under the "Stories" section, reading off the summaries and letting each child pick a story he or she wants to hear.
Sunday
To review the week's songs, do this Sing a Story about twins getting baptized. Instead of "Listen, Listen", sing "The Still Small Voice" and instead of "When Jesus Christ was Baptized", sing the first verse of "This is My Beloved Son." Also combine the steps of faith and repentance with "The Fourth Article of Faith" instead of using the songs listed.
Help your children assemble a reverse time capsule of family history. If one of your ancestors had created a time capsule, what would have been in it?
Send your children to church with a challenge to pay attention to each time they think they feel the Holy Ghost. After church, back at home, gather together and pass around a fuzzy blanket. Whoever has the blanket tells about what he or she felt at church.
Role play what will happen on their baptism day (pretend to: invite loved ones and maybe friends not of your faith, put on a white jumpsuit, go to the church building; etc). Hold up a picture of when the Savior was baptized and try to find similarities to how your child's baptism will be.
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