Sunbeams

 I did 6 or 7 primary lessons during February-May.  We had combined the Sunbeams and CTR 4 classes by then, so there were 3 other teachers besides me.  However, it was usually me and one other teacher there each week.  I wasn't having to teach every Sunday though.  By April and May, we were back down to 2 teachers for the combined class, rotating teaching every other week.  So out of the 14 possible Sundays to teach (we didn't teach on Stake Conference, General Conference, and Mother's Day), I did end up teaching about half the lessons.  I did a lesson on kindness and choices, but I must not have documented it anywhere.  I think I used some visuals and materials from a previous lesson for that one.  Anyway, here's the 6 lessons that I have documented.   

In February, I taught about Abraham and Sarah.  We talked about the scripture in Abraham 1:18 that says, "Behold, I will lead thee by my hand, and I will take thee, to put upon thee my name, even the Priesthood of thy Father, and my power shall be over thee."  We talked about how the Lord helped and protected Abraham, led him to safety, and made promises to him.  The promises made were a large family, a land of promise, the Priesthood, Gospel blessings, and that they would bless and serve others.  We talked about the promised we make at baptism and when we take the sacrament.  We talked about how we could serve others.

I spent a lot of time making visuals for the lesson on Joseph of Egypt.  We went through the story of Joseph and the coat of many colors, being thrown in a pit by his brothers, sold into slavery in Egypt, and eventually becoming a leader.  We talked about forgiveness with that story.  

I used the 11 brothers, sister, and other people from that story later as visuals for the children of Israel with Moses, so I got some use out of the little people I'd made.

We had several things to talk about with Moses - the plagues of Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, finding manna in the wilderness, and the 10 commandments in another lesson.  I found these mini vanilla wafers that worked well as manna, which was a wafer-like food that tasted like honey.  The kids enjoyed "gathering manna" to eat, although it was more chaotic than I imagined.  They didn't take turns gathering the manna one by one.  It was more like handfuls, with a couple kids not getting any!  We had to re-distribute so that everyone got some "manna" (also a lesson on sharing I guess).  They also had fun saying, "Let my people go!", as we talked about each of the 10 plagues.  For the lesson on the 10 commandments, we did that as a matching game.  With each match made, we briefly discussed that commandment.  I found cute visuals on-line that had a simple way of explaining the commandments to kids.  I made a custom coloring page for that one as well.    

 

We did a lesson on keeping the Sabbath Day holy.  We talked about loving God and ways that we could keep the Sabbath Day holy, using 3 questions to help think about that:  Is it restful/relaxing?  Does it help us think of Jesus?  Does it help us do good / love / serve?  In a bag were various pictures of different activities.  The kids decided if it was good for Sunday or good to do on other days and placed it on the board. 

The end of May, I got called to be the 2nd counselor in the Young Women's, so my last lesson as a Sunbeam teacher was on May 29th.  We talked about Joshua and the tower of Jericho.  One of my favorite scriptures comes from Joshua 24:15: "Choose you this day whom ye will serve...but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."  The Lord spoke to Joshua and said to be of good courage, meditate on the scriptures, and keep the commandments.  Joshua 1:9 says, "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest."  I like the faith and courage of Joshua.  

We then talked about the taking of the city of Jericho and the miracle of the walls coming down.  They had to obey specific instructions though - on the 7th day, walking around the city 7 times and then blowing their horns 7 times, shouting for the walls to come down.  I had constructed a simple block wall and given the kids cardboard "horns" (party hats) to blow into.  They had fun watching the walls come down after they blew on their horns 7 times.  We talked about how the Lord helps us too, and we need to obey with exactness.  (It was a little difficult keeping one little girl from messing with the block tower though.  I had to re-build it a couple of times and try to get her not to touch it...)

Being a Sunbeam teacher was a good creative outlet for me.  I had been in that calling since about April or May of 2019, so I'd been doing it for about 3 years.  We missed one whole year due to Covid though, so I was only preparing lessons for about 2 years.  I enjoyed teaching the kids.  They always said and did funny things.  I should have kept track of all the things they did and written a book on it!  Lots of fun.