Sunbeams

Today was my first day with the new Sunbeam class. I have 5 students who come on a regular basis- 4 girls and 1 boy, with 2 sets of twins!! I knew the first day was going to be a little difficult because I don't know the kids very well and what their learning styles are. But it didn't go too badly. They have a much shorter attention span that I expected, and I quickly learned that I have to have a lot of activities planned to keep them busy. I thought the CTR 5's (who I taught last year) kept me on my toes, but these Sunbeams will definitely keep me on my tippety-tip toes! I was just talking to a friend last night and told her that teaching experiences like these mold the best teachers (and the best memories). It's going to be a fun year.

I don't have to prepare a lesson for next week because a presidency member is going to teach for me so I can attend Relief Society (it's a new program they're starting this year- bless them!). But I already started reading Lesson 3 from the Primary 1 book, and here are some of my ideas:

1. Towards the end of the lesson it says to use all the pictures from the "Preparation" section. Lay all the pictures on the floor, face down. Let each child take turns tossing our bean bag onto a picture and have them turn it over and describe the picture and how it shows something that we should do/learn to return to Heavenly Father (like pray, share, love our families, go to church, etc).

2. For Enrichment Activity #3, cut out 6 pieces to make a snowman (three balls of snow for body, two arms and a hat). Write one question on the back of each piece (I added one question, "Who created the earth?"). Scatter the pieces on the chalkboard. Let each child pick a piece of the snowman and answer the question. The snowman will be "put together" with each question that's answered.