Note: I used this idea for Mother’s Day but it could be used with spring, summer, or fall flowers for reviewing songs.
Tell the children they are going to review the songs they will be singing in Sacrament Meeting for Mother’s Day. Show them the flowers and tell them you brought flowers as a visual aid because mothers love getting flowers on Mother’s Day. Point out that the flowers are very pretty, but they aren’t blooming yet or as pretty as they could be. They are like the Mother’s Day songs, they are beautiful but still need a little work. Explain that the flowers will take notice and “bloom” when the children sing their songs with amazing projection, presentation, and word recall.
Preparation
Items needed: inexpensive silk flowers that have petals that can fold up, green twine or thin green ribbon, a glue gun, decorative ribbon, a small rubber band, clear tape, and 2×3 Ziploc type baggies (from craft store). (If this item is not available you can make the small baggies using larger Ziploc baggies. Cut a piece of plastic four inches by three inches. Fold it over and tape together the bottom and side with clear tape.)
The flowers need to be on their own stem. If your silk flowers came in a bunch, cut the bottom of each stem with wire cutters. Remove the leaves from the stems. Put one flower in each baggie by poking the stem through the bottom of the small baggie and pulling the baggie up over the flower (you may wish to cut the zip part of the baggie off first).
Cut a piece of twine for each flower. The twine should be a little longer than the stem. Tie the top of the twine around the bottom of the baggie and then put a piece of clear tape around the tied section. The rest of the twine should hang down the stem. Do this with each flower. Hot glue some of the leaves to the bottom of the baggie where the twine is tied and taped. Gather the flowers into a bunch and put a rubber band around them about two inches down from the flowers. Tie a decorative ribbon around the rubber band.
Presentation
Pull down on a string and the baggie will be pulled off a flower and the flower will “bloom”. Show the children the top of the flowers when pulling the string. (The above pictures don’t do the effect justice. It is really fun and amazing when the flowers “bloom”.)
Note: The above flowers came in a bunch for a dollar at Dollar Tree, but I think it would be more fun if all the flowers were different. The children would look forward to seeing what each one looks like when they open.
Friend March 2024 “The Shiny Purple Stone” Marie collects pretty stones. When she saw a a pretty purple color on a display table at the library, she put it in her pocket. That night for story time her father read her a story from the Friend magazine about a boy who repented after making a wrong choice. She started feeling uncomfortable. Even though it was hard, she told her father what she had done and she prepared to take the stone back and apologize. She began to feel lots better.
Friend August 2023 “The Sparkly Necklace” When Isabella showed Carolina her mother’s necklace, she thought it was the most beautiful necklace she had ever seen. She kept it safe for Isabella in her pocket, but when it was time to go home she didn’t give it back. She just wanted to keep it a little longer, but she felt a bad feeling. She put it under her pillow, but her parents found it. She told them the truth and then took it back to Isabella and asked her forgiveness. The bad feeling was replaced by a warm feeling.
Friend March 2022 “(For Little Ones) “A Crayon Mistake” Lucie and her friend drew on some church chairs with crayons while waiting for their moms. Afterwards, she felt sorry for making a mess. Her mom got them wet, soapy paper towels and they cleaned up the mess. It was hard work, but she was glad she could make things better.
Friend February 2022 “Elevator Repentance” Benjamin pushed all the buttons in the elevator on his way up to where he lived. But then a neighbor got in the elevator. Benjamin felt awful. He and his mom went to the neighbors apartment and apologized, and he promised to never to do it again. Then he felt good.
Friend February 2022 “Sarah’s Solo” Sarah forgot the words in the middle of her solo but she started again and did it right that time. She thought how her experience was like repentance. She told her her mom ““I made a mistake in my solo, but I fixed it and moved on. In life, when I make a wrong choice, I can fix it by repenting. Then I can move on and do better.”
Repenting and Not Making the Same Mistake Again
Friend March 2022 “The Bike Prank” Sam’s friends want to do a prank where they take all the valve caps off bikes at a bike stand. Sam doesn’t feel good about it but he agrees. He feels really bad about what they did and asks Heavenly Father to forgive him. The next time his friends want to do the same thing, Sam says no and distracts them with a bike race.
Best to Repent Early
Friend March 2018 “Abuelo’s Shoe Shop” Miguel takes some of his grandfather’s candy without asking first. He learns from his grandfather that it is best to fix mistakes early before they become big problems.
Repenting Helps Us Feel Happy
Friend December 2017 “How Can Repenting Make Me Feel Happy?” When Elder Renlund was young, he lit a firecracker in a church building and felt terrible about it. His bishop helped him repent and feel happy again.
Friend September 2024 “The Dart Disaster” Daniel accidentally hit his aunts car with a lawn dart and made a dent. He didn’t say anything when she noticed the dent. He felt awful, but he was afraid. Then he decided to be like his favorite scripture hero, Daniel in the lion’s den. He bravely and he told his mom what happened and that he would work to pay for the damage. The heavy feeling in his stomach left and he felt peaceful.
Friend February 2021 “Repenting and Trying Again” After yelling at his brother for breaking his toy, Raymond remembered what the bishop had said during his baptism interview, “We all make mistakes. But we can repent and try again.” Raymond apologized to his little brother for yelling.
Friend October 2020 “Tyler Tries Again” Tyler feels bad about joining in laughing at the new kid when he asks to play. He knows that mistakes happen but we can fix them. He decides to go say sorry and ask the new boy to play.
Friend May 2020 “Sister Squabble” Jaide’s little sister borrowed her tennis shoes without asking and accidentally got them muddy. Jaide was so mad that she told her sister, “I wish you weren’t my sister.” She felt terrible about what she said. She read a scripture about Jesus forgiving and healing someone, and she realized she needed to forgive and try and fix what she had done to her sister with her words.
Friend September 2017 “The Sparkly Sticker” Emily and her friends teases a boy in an unkind way, and then Emily feels terrible about it. Her mom remind her that she can repent and make thinks right.
Friend September 2016 “Matt and Mandy” Mandy ignores a friend while walking with the popular girls. She feels bad, repents, and invites the friend she ignored to eat lunch with her and her new friends.
Friend March 1988 “Heather Mends a Mistake” Heather feels terrible about getting angry and breaking her brother’s model airplane.
Repenting of being Dishonest
Fiend July 2021 “The Honesty Question” Christy was nominated for an outstanding citizen award, but she had to fill out some questions about the good things she does in the community. She ran out of ideas and decides to write what she plans on doing. She didn’t feel good inside after turning in her answers. She repents and goes to the office to make things right the next day.
Friend August 2019 “My Mastermind Fail” Henry copied some class dollars on his printer so he could buy root-beer floats at the last auction of the school year. Some classmates told the teacher, and he wasn’t allowed to bid on the auction at all. The teacher also emailed his mom. His mom was shocked and sad, and he knew Heavenly Father was too. Henry had just turned twelve but knew he shouldn’t go to the temple unless he was clean, so he repented. He was so happy when he was able to go to the temple. He realized that wickedness never brings happiness.
Repenting of Stealing
Friend August 2017 “Calvin Says Sorry” Calvin takes his friend’s car and feels terrible. He gives it back and says sorry and feels happy.
Friend March 1987 “Travis Repents” Travis steals some toys from a friend, and then he learns how to repent.
Show the video “The Shiny Bicycle” (ChurchofJesusChrist.org), or tell a story of your own about a child who made a wrong choice and then repented. Help the children discuss what the child in the story did to receive forgiveness. How has the Savior made it possible for us to be forgiven?
Items needed: ten clothes pins, ten strips of cardstock to cover each set of words, double-sided removable tape.
Print the colored hearts (or print the heart outlines onto purple and red colored paper). Cut out the hearts. Glue or tape a heart to the bottom of each clothes pin.
Print the song pages. Attach two heart clothes pins to the left side of each song page. Put the red on top and the purple on the bottom to start off.
Optional: Attach each song page to a sheet of colored construction paper. Or trim the pages, attach them to cardstock, and put them in page protectors.
Presentation
Introduce the song words to the children as you put each song page on the board. Have the children sing the song. (You may want to sing only a couple of pages at a time with junior primary, and then put it all together.)
Point out and show the heart clothes pins to the children. Assign one of the clothes pin colors to each side of the room. Explain that the children will only sing the lines that their color of clothes pin is pointing to. Have them sing the song. Afterwards have two children go to the board and mix up the clothes pins. They can put either color on any line. Some pages may have two of the same color. Have the children sing the song again, only singing the lines that their color is pointing to.
Have two more children mix up the clothes pins again. After they are done, cover up some of the words using the cardstock strips and double-sided tape. Have them sing the song again and see if they can remember the lines that are covered up. Continue in this manner, mixing up the heart clothes pins and covering up words, until all the words are covered up. This may be a review for senior primary so more words may need to be covered up at a time.
Another idea would be to change who sings what by assigning the colors to certain groups such as boys and girls, specific classes, blue eyed children and brown eyed children, etc.
Note: The song pages are a combination of a couple of flipcharts from Sugardoodle. Thank you to those ladies for the help.
Questions such as this could be asked to review the Article of Faith. In a small group children could write their answer on a paper and show it to the teacher. In a large group have the children hold up fingers to show their answer.
Song – When I Am Baptized- Verse One (CS, pg. 103)
Print the raindrops onto blue paper and cut them out. Also print the pictures. Cut them out and trim them so they look similar to above pictures. (The pictures are from Microsoft Word clipart)
Print eight clouds onto white cardstock and cut them out. Print two sets of the rainbow. Cut out the rainbow pieces. Each piece then needs to be cut into two puzzle pieces. Work on one rainbow at a time. The two end pieces need to be cut so that each piece will fit on the back of a raindrop. Each of the two middle pieces need to be cut so each piece will fit on the back of one of the pictures. (The first rainbow goes with the first verse and the second rainbow goes with the chorus.)
After the rainbows are cut into puzzle pieces, attach them to the back of the raindrops and pictures. I attached them face down with removable double-sided tape, and then I attached a magnet to the back of each piece. (The magnet serves a dual purpose of holding a raindrop or picture on the board, and then later to attach the rainbow piece on the board. ) I also attached a magnet to the top, back of each of the clouds for easy set up.
When setting up, put a raindrop under each cloud and attach them to the left side of the chalkboard (see above picture example). Only set up four clouds and raindrops at a time. The raindrops should be sticking out of the bottom of the clouds so they children can pull them down. Tape each of the pictures on the walls around the room before primary starts.
Presentation
Choose a child to pull down the first raindrop. Have the child read the words and look around the room for a picture that matches it. The other children can help by pointing to the picture if needed. Have the child put the picture under the raindrop. Choose another child to pull down the next raindrop and find its matching picture. Have junior primary sing these first two lines. After that continue with the activity until all four raindrops are pulled down and have matching pictures with them. Have junior primary sing the last two lines and then put all four together. Have senior primary sing all four lines.
Memorizing Activity
Have a child choose a raindrop to take off the board. That child will hold it so the other children can’t see the words. Have the children sing the verse again. If the children can remember and sing the missing words, the child can take the rainbow piece off the back of the raindrop and put it on the board above the clouds.
Explain to the children the following reason a rainbow is used in this activity: Remind the children that the song is about baptism, and the rain washing clean the earth in the song is used symbolically and reminds us of baptism and being washed clean of sin. And just like we enjoy rainbows after rain, there are many wonderful things we enjoy after being baptized, such the gift of the Holy Ghost, being clean of sin (but remind them we have the sacrament and repentance to help us be clean again if we make a mistake), being members of the church of Jesus Christ, being on the path towards gaining eternal life, etc.
After explaining what the rainbow in the activity reminds us of, have another child choose a raindrop to take off the board. Continue doing the above memorizing activity until each of the raindrops and pictures are off the board and the rainbow is complete.
After the children learn the first four lines of the song, put up the clouds and raindrops for the chorus on the right side of the board, and do the same entire activity with the chorus.
Note: If the children in senior primary are already familiar with the first verse, this will just be a review. Have them tell you what the first line is. Have the child that quotes it correctly, or almost correctly, check it by pulling down the first raindrop. Have that child find the matching picture. Contiue in this manner. During the memorizing part have the children take off two raindrops at a time, and then do the same with the pictures.
