The Holy Ghost

First of all, with the size of our branch/Primary, I was informed that we'll most likely be combining Jr and Sr Primary for most of the summer.  Which I'm a little bummed about, since I like to really challenge my Sr Primary in ways that would be difficult for the littles to keep up with.

Secondly, this whole week, I have had the hymn "Testimony" as an earworm.  Probably because I know I'm teaching The Holy Ghost to the Primary this month and Testimony starts off with, "The witness of the Holy Ghost, as born by those who know, had lifted me again to thee, O Father of my soul."  Either yesterday or the day before, I thought about teaching that four-line song to the Sr Primary, and today I realized I can just teach it to all of them.  I'll post the plans for that later in the month, once I've finalized them.  (Right now, I just know that each verse answers a different question and I can use that to my advantage.)

Finally, on to how I plan on introducing the doctrine of this song.  The couple who did Sharing Time last week did a pretty good job with teaching about the last line in the fourth Article of Faith, which is, "the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost."

Through a series of links, I discovered this lesson plan, that will require very little tweaking for us.  You could either view it as being repetitive or a review of the last few weeks.  I don't care; I'm confident the kids will take to it.

• 1. Sing Fourth Article of Faith
• 2. Explain that to help us learn more about each of these principles and ordinances, I have brought 4 bags. In each bag, there is something that will help us understand that principle or ordinance better.
• 3. Use the bags
• Faith: packet of seeds.  Sing the song "Faith" (96)
• Repentance: bar of soap. Making wrong choices is like getting our hands dirty.  Repentance cleans our souls/hearts just as soap cleans our hands. Sing second verse of "When I Am Baptized" (103)
• Baptism: the rainbow I made for the Jr. Primary.  Rainbows symbolize the promise God made to Noah that the earth would never be flooded again, just as the sacrament represents our renewing our baptismal covenants. Sing first verse of  "When I Am Baptized (103)
• Gift of the Holy Ghost: doll and a picture of someone being confirmed.  I'll also share a story from Brother Bennett, who was my family's home teacher when I was in Primary.  I don't remember much about my baptism, but I remember him speaking.  After, he typed up his talk and gave it to me, and it is a gift I cherish.  He talked about a doll named Annabelle that his great granddaughter Krystal carried with her everywhere when she first came to live with them because it gave her comfort and made her feel safe.  Share testimony.
  Sing "The Holy Ghost" (105)

Wiggle songs between Sharing and Singing Times, depending on which we do first.  If this activity doesn't take up the allotted time, we'll do either Sing With Style or Sing It In, Sing It Out (which was a hit last week, although I think I might have snag something from the nursery for the cue to change).  If we're cutting it close on time, we'll just sing both verses of 103 together after the third bag, and I'll cut the story short.


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Edit: it has come to my attention that I didn't mention anything about the activity we did last week.  The idea came from here, only I called it Sing It In, Sing It Out.  And because the cue was my clapping, the (slowly becoming verbal) Sunbeam who was there loved it and called it the Clapping Game.  Sure, kid, if it gets you into it, we can call it the Clapping Game for ya.