Nursery Lesson #42

I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

I made up a puzzle where I wrote each of the kids names on a piece of paper and then cut them out. I started with putting the puzzle together and told them that Just like every piece belongs to the puzzle, every on of them belong to our class. I also explained to them that belonging to something means being a part of it.

I asked them what else they belonged to. IE: family, neighborhood, pre-school class.

I then told them that each one of them belongs to Jesus' church.

Picture 1-39 What is happening in this picture? When they were born they each received a name and blessing and their names were put on the records of the church.

I had them all say "I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints"

I then did the little hand play "This is the church, this is the steeple, open the doors and see all the people, close the doors, hear them pray, open the doors and they all run away."

We come to church to learn about Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father and what They want us to do.

I made signs that said:

Jesus' church has the Priesthood.

Jesus' church has a prophet.

Jesus' church has the scriptures.

and

We belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

I held up the sign (I mostly made these so I could know what I was talking about) and then showed the pictures.

Priesthood: Pictures 1-8, 1-12, 1-40 and 1-39 and we talked about the different things that men who hold the priesthood do.

Picture 1-18 we talked about Jesus being baptized and that when they turn 8 years old they'll be baptized and officially become a member of the church.

Prophet: Picture 1-4 talked about the first vision and that Joseph Smith was the first prophet of the restoration.

I brought in my Ensign from November (conference issue) with President Monson on the front and told them that he is our prophet today. I had them repeat his name for me. I told them that a prophet tells us what Heavenly Father and Jesus want us to know and that it's important that we have a prophet today to know what to do.

We sang Follow the Prophet.

Scriptures: I held up my scriptures and told them that we have the scriptures and that they teach us about Heavenly Father and Jesus and what they want us to do. I also told them that other churches have scriptures but that we're special because we have the Book of Mormon.

We sang Book of Mormon Stories.

I had them say "We belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" again. And then asked them whose church we belong to.

To finish up I did "Jesus Christ Names His Church".

And we colored a picture.

Also, since it was the last Sunday of the month I asked the Sunbeam teacher, Sister Johnson, to come in during singing time so that she could meet the kids going into her class so they wouldn't be so afraid. I also gave them Graduation Certificates with a little story on the back. I'm going to Primary can be found here (the words) or you can find it here (it's a word file so you have to click on the right link.) I actually cut out the pictures and re-typed the words using the actual Sunbeam teacher's name.

My frustrations this week included: once again, my little tornado who tore one of the pictures, no helper at all for the first hour (even though one was supposed to be coming) and the helper for the second hour brought her husband and it was just TOO much for the little room we're in. Plus he kept making comments about it being a torture chamber, and the pits of hell, and if he were ever called to the nursery he'd go inactive. And he and his wife spent the whole time talking to each other. So, in all actuality it would have been easier to just do it myself. I found myself rushing through the whole lesson and wasn't happy with the way I presented it. I was disappointed because the girl who was going to help me is my friend and she babysits 10 kids every day so she would have been really helpful if her husband wasn't there.