Visual Aids for Primary

[Cherrybrook]

I'm teaching a very busy CTR6 class and need some help. I need more visual aids that the manual provides since I've noticed that it's the only way to get their attention at least for a couple of minutes. A few years ago I got a list of websites that had colouring pictures and all sorts of stuff to help in primary. I've lost the list so I thought I'd ask if anyone here knows any of those websites?

[BusyMom]

I don't know the websites but here's some stuff I did with my 6 year olds that worked really well:

1) I put the main word we were talking about into a hangman, they LOVED this!

2) I opened classes with smilies and frownies, good things and bad things, that happened to them this week. (Little smiles and frowns make this visual).

3) I had magic reverence dust and a magic reverance wand. When they got out of control, I took out my magic want and sprinkled magic dust (confetti) lightly on them to remind them. Believe it or not, this worked wonders!!!

4) I took out the chairs! The chairs were a HUGE distraction, once I got on the floor with the kids, they did fine. We had bishopric members and primary presidency members join us on the floor because this is what worked.

Sorry, I don't have the websites, but hope these tips might be helpful!

[NevillesLostToad]

Wow. That is a great idea!! I think I'll use that next time I sub for the Sunbeams. Well, not the hangman but the reverence dust and sitting on the floor.

[Cherrybrook]

Thanks busy mom! Great tips. I'll have to use them. My class likes crafty things a lot so if anyone knows any websites to help with that, I'd appreciate it too. I'm not very crafty person myself. Or any ideas will be quite welcome, since my class is the most hopeless one in the whole primary.

[susieSA]

Try LDS - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - Mormons

In the search box type in your topic... You should come up with a few things... I used this site alot a few years ago when I was Primary President... But since then it has changed alot but still has the old stuff there....

Also you can do a search for Primary sites... And it should come up with alot of other site that you can use... I was very surprised to see what is all out there on the net if you just search...

Another one to try is The Idea Door LDS helps and more

I am not on my own computer at the moment but those are the two that I can remember off hand...

Also another thing that I did when I was teaching CTR 8 that they really loved... Anytime there was a picture for them to colour in from the lesson I could enlarge it & colour it in myself & put it on some cardboard & stick it up the next week & every week after that... Worked well to remind them of what they had learnt from previous lessons & worked great as visual aids...

Another thing you might want to try is to stick the picutres that you do use for you lessons on thier eye level... They seem to enjoy it more that way...

Hope this helps

Busymom... love the idea of the reverence dust etc... The taking the chairs out of the room worked well for me too...

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by BusyMom

I don't know the websites but here's some stuff I did with my 6 year olds that worked really well:

1) I put the main word we were talking about into a hangman, they LOVED this!

When I was 1st Councilor in Primary, our Stake Primary told us we were NOT to use Hangman- Do a Face instead, adding all the facial features as they get the word correct. Hangman denotes hanging a person- death.

Originally Posted by BusyMom

3) I had magic reverence dust and a magic reverence wand. When they got out of control, I took out my magic want and sprinkled magic dust (confetti) lightly on them to remind them. Believe it or not, this worked wonders!!!

Who vacuumed up after you? Leave the dust and keep the wand.

Originally Posted by BusyMom

4) I took out the chairs! The chairs were a HUGE distraction, once I got on the floor with the kids, they did fine. We had bishopric members and primary presidency members join us on the floor because this is what worked.

This isn't a bad idea, except getting on the floor, in a dress, with the children. We did this frequently as we had very small rooms that would only seat maybe 6 children with a chair for the teacher and a small table. In the summer when we had visitors, there was never enough room, so we stacked the chairs outside the door, the children sat on the floor and the teacher sat in a chair.

If you have one or two children who are always disruptive, then at the beginning of class, give them some masking tape and ask them to give it to you as you give the lesson. Whether you use it or not is not the point, it keeps them alert and attentive- even if they ball the masking tape all up.

OR use a small bean bag (we made them to look like the Bible, Golden Plates, Noah's Ark, Lamb) and tell the class that you are going to toss the bean bag to someone when you want them to answer the question. Be fair in tossing it, make sure that everyone gets a chance to catch and answer. When we did this, the shy children shocked us all by being eager to catch and answer. DO NOT have the child toss the bean bag back. Have them hand it back to you.

I found that playing "Concentration" for the last Sunday of the month helped in recapping all the lessons for that month. I would make up cards, sometimes with verses from the lesson, sometimes with pictures from the lesson and the new song(s) that we had learned that month, quite often with all three. I put the game cloth( a large square of felt) on the floor and everyone sat around it. Then I laid the cards out, face down. Always on the backs of the cards I had the CTR symbol. As the children each took a turn and tried to match up the cards, when they made a match- then I would question them about what was on the card. You don't have to go into great detail- say the picture is of John the Baptist baptizing Christ- ask them what it happening. Keep the responses short, and encourage total class participation. If some of the children are not good at picking matching cards, help them out. Give them clues.

We had a very small primary and quite often we did this in Sharing Time- the older children were wonderful in helping the younger children in picking out the cards and in responding to the questions.

[Silver Girl]

Originally Posted by Iggy

When I was 1st Councilor in Primary, our Stake Primary told us we were NOT to use Hangman- Do a Face instead, adding all the facial features as they get the word correct. Hangman denotes hanging a person- death.

My husband was a substitute Sunday School teacher, and he played Resurrection Man with the kids... Same idea as Hang Man, but he resurrected the guy!!

Silver Girl

[ruthiechan]

Do you have snacks? Sometimes at the last hour the kids just need a little snack. My daughter's teacher usually has snacks, but today her teacher wasn't there and thusly no snacks either. My daughter was very agitated and even hit me while I was talking to my home teachers after church today! All because she was very hungry.

Invite the children's input. Ask them questions and expect answers. Include role playing in your lessons and other games. Music and movement, role play, and being *actively* involved help the children learn.

Create "books" for each lesson with little pictures and such. They won't care if the pictures are stick figures.

Have an art activity. My daughter nearly always has something to bring home from Sunday School and she loves it! Today she brought home a bookmark, with punched holes around it with ribbon that she threaded through those holes. She says it's for her Book of Mormon. And that's where we're putting it.

Have assignments for each child such as prayer (open and close), someone to help put up pictures, passing out snacks, a line leader.

My daughter's teacher has her kids go out on a quick walk around the building to help get some of the energy out. I remember when I was teaching the seven year olds the kids were so bored I said, okay, lets go outside. So we went outside and played a game. After that we often went outside for parts of our lessons and the children we so much more cooperative (I had two kids who would literally bounce off the walls so this was a definite plus).

I hope this helps.

[Cherrybrook]

Originally Posted by ruthiechan

Do you have snacks? Sometimes at the last hour the kids just need a little snack. .

In our ward the kids always have snacks that they bring from home. I actually would prefer them not to. We attended an another ward for a while and I noticed that none of the primary kids ate their snacks or lunches during the primary and I loved it! I still took snacks for my kids and after sacrament meeting I took them to kitchen to eat them. I think in my class the kids' foods are also a major disturbance. I've tried to talk to the presidency that maybe we could in our ward try the "no eating in primary" policy since in my class the eating takes way too long and leaves them with stuff to fool around with during the lesson.

Also any material that give them will cause disturbance. And I guess the biggest problem is that they will not stop talking. No matter what I do at least one of them will talk constantly about something not related to the topic. Even during an activity. It's a very challenging class in deed.

[Truegrits]

We had a major problem in my Ward. When I first moved here, the Primary (before separating into individual classes) would set out FOOD! Not just a snack...but food. It took up so much time, and the kids wouldn't settle down...and the leaders would say to the kids..."hurry up and eat, we need to have the lesson." They would even say to each other "I wish we had more time for our lesson." DUH!!! I was sooo frustrated. Finally, we did stop having food.
In our individual classes, we could choose to have a snack. I would give my kids a snack when we finished the lesson...if they were attentive, reverent, etc. Just enough of a snack to make them happy, but not to spoil their appetite for their Sunday dinner...