Primary Projects

Last summer I felt stirrings in my heart telling me that I needed to be doing more in Primary. It was not a welcome feeling because it felt like I was already spending every non-family-needing minute on Primary (I'm sure that wasn't true, but I was busy enough with it that I didn't want to do more!). Beyond that, I couldn't figure out what else I should be doing. One Sunday the bishop handed me the outline for 2011 and immediately I knew that was the reason for the stirrings. The theme this year is "I Know the Scriptures are True" and I knew something must be done to help the children in our Primary be able to say that for themselves. After I accepted the prompting, we got to work.

We came up with a theme of "Unlock the Power of the Scriptures" for our Primary. The basic elements of what we are doing:

The kids set a quarterly goal and at the end of the quarter if they have met their goal they get a key to put on their key holder.

We are having a scriptural visitor come out of a time machine monthly (that is opened with a giant--18"--golden key).

We had a kick off activity on Saturday where William Tyndale came out of the time machine and told how he died because he translated the scriptures in English and how blessed we are to have the scriptures in abundance. (We used Elder Christofferson's April '10 conference talk as a basis for this.) We gave the kids their key holders and hopefully motivated them to develop a scripture-reading habit.

Just a note about the time machine-- I create so many headaches for myself! I don't do it on purpose, and it usually isn't until part way through the process that I realize there is an easier way. This was absolutely the case with the time machine.It is fabric on a shower curtain rod so we can roll it up and keep it in the closet. I had the idea to make a door in it, it has strips of metal measuring tape in the frame and held together with magnets. After I got mostly through with this headache of a model, someone said to me (in essence), "Why couldn't it just be a curtain and the person comes in on the side?" It was a huge 'DUH' moment for me. I hadn't even thought of that!! Tom says I'm my daddy's daughter in that ideas come in big huge ways and rest isn't possible until they are carried out. Sometimes it is such a curse.

We also have weekly reminders in Primary for the kids to read and if they have worked on their goal that week, they get to put their name in for a drawing to try to open a locked treasure box or earn a traveling trophy for their class. We truly desire the kids to spend time in the scriptures and feel their power for themselves. Hopefully this will be a motivating program for them.

Also just before Christmas I made these cute snowmen for all of the Primary kids that I don't see very often.

I got the idea here. I thought they looked quick and easy. . . 4 hours later I wished I had made cookies! They went quickly once I had figured out a few tricks: Hostess donuts work the best. Cut the white part off the candy corn then cut that piece in half lengthwise to use for the nose (a whole candy corn requires a HUGE hole in the donut that still isn't deep enough to hold the candy in anyways). Just use black frosting for the eyes & buttons. Looks better and is much, much quicker than mini chocolate chips. Skip the cellophane bag. I used a large clear plastic cup to put over them--glue down in two spots w/ a glue gun. (in one of the pictures, you can see one in the very back.) Although these were a headache to figure out, they were fun and I think the kids really liked them!

Now I'm off to boring projects for Primary like figuring out the budget and digesting the new handbook more fully. . .

PS. . .I don't know why I can't get my pictures to enlarge when clicked on--if you know any tips, please send them to me!