Sunbeams Lesson 1: I am a child of God

I am currently teaching the 3 year olds in primary at church. At first I was a little skeptical and not so excited about it. Turns out I really enjoy it. Of course. They are so fun and cute. And full of energy. Plus they are easy to teach and actually answer questions, even if they aren't sure what the answer is. How could you not enjoy being around people who are excited over what the color name of their crayon is? Like orchid or apricot. Or macaroni and cheese.

I team teach, meaning I teach every other Sunday. I like it that way. It can get to be a bit much to teach every Sunday. I did that with the 12-13 year olds. Never a break. Anyway... I taught the first Sunday of the year. The first lesson in the manual is the most simple, yet the most profound lesson. I am a child of God. This simple understanding is one of the greatest principles of the gospel. We are children of a Heavenly Father. We are created in his image and have every potential to be just like him, as we have the same potential to grow to be just like our earthly parents. I love this.

As a child in primary long ago, I remember receiving a small circle with the phrase I am a child of God written in it. It hung on my bulletin board even until I was a teenager. I may actually still have it preserved in a box with other special items from my growing up. In preparation for this lesson I decided to make something similar for my class.

    

For my class I typed in each child's name so it was personalized for each of them. I know they don't read yet, but the first word kids learn to recognize is their name. And they love to see it written. I also wanted to personalize it for each of them, so hopefully they might begin to internalize the idea that they truly are a child of God.

I printed the circles out on cardstock and cut them out ahead of class. I brought tape with me and put it on the back so it could be stuck to the child's shirt.

I like to give the kids some sort of handout to take home with them that relates to the lesson. Mostly this is so the parents know what we talked about, so they can reinforce it at home if they'd like. My daughter is 4 and I can hardly ever get an answer out of her when I ask her what her lesson was about. Usually her response is the very broad answer of Jesus.

At the end of class I had a coloring page for the kids to color and take home as well. Coloring in sunbeams is a requirement, isn't it? :)

             

The coloring page is actually one from the nursery manual, I just revamped it a little bit. You can find the original from lds.org here.

After putting in the effort, I thought, why not share it? Click the images above or the link below to download the PDF files.

i am a child of God circles
i am a child of coloring page

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I realize it has been about 7 months since I last posted. I haven't abandoned this blog. Promise! I have more to come. :)