The Church of Jesus Christ Is on the Earth

For our Active Faith to accompany this LDS Primary lesson, The Church of Jesus Christ Is on the Earth,  as taught to 4-5 year olds, I used one activity described in the lesson, and one that I found in a web search.

The Church Is As It Was Matching Game

Materials Used:

• Prints of applicable pictures
• Sandwich bag (to store each child's cards)
• Print of directions

This idea is directly from the lesson.  My spin on it was to create a set of these for each child to take home.  I printed mine at home using our laser printer and card stock   I didn't think of it at the time, but another option would be to have these printed at, say, Walmart Photo.  The result would be sturdier and quicker, and the price would likely be similar.

I bagged each set of prints and included the following instructions:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the same church that Jesus organized when he was on the earth.

Game: Match the pictures of the church as it was when Jesus was on the earth, to the church as it is in the latter days. 

At the beginning of the lesson, one by one I set out the prints of parts of the church as it was established during Jesus' mortal life in the Holy Land: organize, baptism, priesthood, sacrament.  Then one by one I set out the prints of the latter-day equivalents of those parts.  We then played the matching game, matching the "is" to the "was" pictures, twice during class.

At the end of class I handed out the sets of matching cards for each child to take home.  I explained that they would need to show their family the matches and then they could play the matching game at home, too.  The children liked this idea.

I Belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Model Church

Materials Used:

• File folders
• Prints of Jesus Christ
• Prints of LDS church building sign
• Card stock
• Medium binder clips
• Sandwich bag (to store binder clip figurines)

To emphasize that we are members of Christ's church, each child was given a model church and a set of card stock strips and binder clips for them to turn into figurines of their family.  I found the file folder church and instructions here.  I changed the door opening to make it easier for a 4YO to play with, and then glued to the file folder church, images of Jesus (positioned behind the door) and the traditional LDS church building plaque (I found this one in an online search).

Earlier this year I had snapped a photo of our class sitting in their chairs during a lesson.  I printed that picture on card stock, and then cut out each child's image and set it in a binder clip to fashion a figurine.  See the inspiration for this idea here.  When I handed out the file folder churches, I had attached each child's figurine to their own model church.  The kids seemed to like this.

Our lesson material ran out with 25 minutes left in our class time.  I was nervous.  But the model church kept all of the children occupied for the reminder of the time, either in coloring (with washable markers) or playing with their completed models.

Whew!

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