Pioneers

There are lots of Pioneer activities out there, but these were the ones we researched and thought were best for toddlers and preschoolers. Hope you enjoy!

We spread quilts out on the floor and started our Family Home Evening there.

Gathering Activity: The kids built log cabins out of Lincoln Logs while they waited for us to get all of the materials together (and while I hid the scavenger hunt clues).

Musical Game and Lesson : I printed out the Pioneer Flannel Board Pieces from the Friend and wrote the names of pioneer songs on the back of each one. I placed them in a basket. The children took turns choosing one out. We talked about what the children in the picture were doing and then listened to the song. We listened for things that the Pioneers did and then talked about them after each song. We used our Children's Songs CD to sing along with or just listen to the songs because not all of them were familiar to my little ones. (or Daddy). We marched to Pioneer Children Sang as the Walked, and played a pushing and pulling game to The Handcart Song. Andrew heard a guitar in one, and pulled his out to play along.



Songs we used were in the Children's Song Book pages 216-222.



Scavenger Hunt: We used the Pioneer Treasure Hunt from the Friend magazine. The kids had a lot of fun hunting for the clues and learned fun facts about the Pioneers along the way.



Games: We played some pioneer games together including Horseshoes and Button, Button, Who has the Button. (That one was a little harder for my 2 year old, but he eventually got the hang of it with some help).



Snack: We made Johnny Cake (very similar to cornbread) together in the afternoon and ate it for Family Home Evening treat with homemade butter the boys also made. The picture of them jumping around is of them shaking the butter. They also tried (and LOVED) some beef jerky.



Craft:Tin Punch Art: This was my kids favorite! Take a pie tin and draw a design upon it with a sharpie using dots. (looks like a dot to dot) Then with CLOSE supervision, allow the children to use a mallet and nail to punch out the dots. My two year old was even able to do this, and they both felt so grown-up. We had a grown-up per child helping.

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

Attention Activity: PREPARATION: Print off 9 lamb pictures and write one word on each of the sheep from the memory verse Psalms 23 "The Lord is My Shepherd, I shall not want." Number the sheep 1-9 in order so that they will be easy for your little ones to arrange. Hide the sheep with word #5 with "SHEPHERD" printed on it.



Ask the family to help put your little sheep in a row in order. When they realize that one is missing, ask them what we should do? (Hopefully they will answer look for it).

Seek for the sheep together and then finish the verse. Read it together several times until everyone has it memorized.

Scripture Story: Tell the children that you are going to read a story together about a lost sheep that Jesus told. Read Luke 15:4-6 together and explain that the Lord says that we are all His sheep and that if we are lost He will find us. That we are all important to Him, even though there are many of us on Earth. We counted together to 100 and talked about how one little sheep might not seem like a lot, but that all are important to Heavenly Father. We talked together about how Heavenly Father has asked us to help Him look after each other here on Earth. We discussed ways we can be shepherds and explained a little about why Mommy and Daddy go Home and Visiting Teaching.


Game: We played hide and go seek together. When Daddy found the Lost sheep, he picked them up and carried them on his shoulders like a shepherd carrying the sheep. There was lots of giggling.



Service: After our lesson, we carried a treat to share with a family Daddy home teaches.

Daniel and the Lion's Den

MUSIC: We sang the chorus to "Follow the Prophet" and "Called to Serve"

LESSON: I gave each family member a lion mask I had printed on yellow paper and cut out ahead of time.

Lion Mask

I then read the following version of the Daniel and the Lion's Den story . Each time I said the word "Lion" I had the entire family put on their masks and "Roar" as loud as they could. I added in a couple of extra "Lions" in a few spots. As we read I asked questions such as "Is it a good choice to pray?" "Who was making good choices?" "How did Heavenly Father protect Daniel because he made a good choice?" The kids loved this part and listened hard to the words to hear when to "Roar."

GAME: We played a variation of "Duck, Duck, Goose" but instead said, "Daniel, Daniel, Lion" and roared as we chased each other.

ART: Paper Bag Lion Puppet. The boys colored these and we helped cut them out.



SNACK: The boys and I made lion cupcakes during the afternoon for FHE snack. We used yellow and orange icing, and M&Ms for the eyes. (These are not the ones we made. Ours were eaten before we remembered to take a picture. Oops)!

Wiseman and Foolish Man

Opening Song: "The Wise man Built His House Upon the Rock"

Flannel Board Story: Tell the story from Matthew 7:24-27 of the Wise man and the Foolish man. Act out with Flannel Board Pieces.


Discussion/Activity: We want to build our house upon a rock not sand. Jesus taught us that his gospel is the rock. D&C 11:24 Jesus has given us some tools to help build our house on the rock. Satan wants us to build our house on the sand. He has given us tools to make our house shaky and sink.

Pull Out Tool Box (I labeled tools (Tools to Build Our House I modified this idea for preschoolers and toddlers) from the boys' play tool kit with good tools and bad tools. We sorted them and decided which ones Jesus would help us build a house on rock and which ones would help us build a house on sand).



(Rock tools were: Sharing, Scriptures, Prayer, Helping, FHE, Nice Words, and love. Sand tools were things we are working on extinguishing from our home: Mean words, hitting, lying, not sharing)




We played with the tools and built two houses out of lego blocks.


Then we placed one on sand in a casserole dish and one on a large rock in a casserole dish. We used duct tape as one of our rock tools and labeled it love. We made sure that we used a lot of this "love" to firmly attach our house to the rock.


Next we poured water on each house. The sandy one washed away and the rock house stood firm. (Thank goodness).



Art: We colored Wiseman Foolish Man "Filmstrip"of the song and played with them together. (This are really long, and neither boy finished coloring, much better for older children).

Scripture Memorization: We pounded our fist on our open hand as we repeated D&C 11:24 together over and over.

Snack: We made houses out of Rice Krispie Treats and ate them! We actually had a kit, but I found this cool site with directions for making your own.



Grown-up Lesson: After the boys went to bed, Chad and I used this time to make our own goals for the New Year together to help us Build our house Upon the Rock.

Gratitude and Thanksgiving

Music: Children All Over the World (CS 16) and I am Glad for Many things (CS 151).

Attention Getting Activity: I set up a bowl of water, a 1/4 measuring cup, and a glass goblet (inside a plastic container) on the table. I read Psalms 23:5 and we discussed what it meant to have so many blessings that our cup would overflow. We each took turns pouring water from the bowl into the cup and naming something we were thankful for. We each went several times until the cup overflowed with our gratitude. The boys loved the water splashing over.



Lesson:Using the Children's Scripture Stories, we read the story of the 10 Lepers. We talked about how only one came back to say thank you. I asked how he thought Jesus felt when only one said thank you. Then we talked about how Jesus felt when someone did say thank you. We showed on our fingers how many did say thank you and how many did not.



Activity: I have a flannel board Thanksgiving set that we used to tell the story of the first Thanksgiving. You could use the internet to print out pictures of your own to tell the story or get a book from the library. (If you choose to do this lesson at a different time of year, skip this part altogether).


Game: We played a turkey hunt game using turkeys I printed on different pieces of colored construction paper. We picked up the turkeys and said something we were thankful for that was the same color as the turkey we picked up. If you do this at a time other than Thanksgiving, you could just hide pieces of colored construction paper and play the same way.



Art: We made Mayflower boats as seen below.



Snacks: Make turkey cupcakes.

Creation Day 7-The Sabbath Day is A Special Gift

Music:
"There Are 7 Days in a Week" (This is a song I sang with my kindergarten class each morning during circle time). I used word strips with the names of the days of the week written on them. Then we counted them together to make sure there were 7.

There are 7 Days, there are 7 days, there are 7 days in a week. There are 7 days, there are 7 days, there are 7 days in a week. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday."

"Saturday" (CS 196)

"The Chapel Doors" (CS 156)

Lesson/Activity: We read Genesis 2:1-4 together.

Heavenly Father and Jesus spent 6 days making our beautiful world. What are some of the things they made for us? (We looked back in our creation books we made). On the last day, Heavenly Father gave us a very special present. It is a gift that we get to enjoy each week. Can you guess what that gift was? I pulled out a gift box that I had filled with the following things.



*A set of scriptures, several Gospel Art Kit pictures showing Appropriate Sabbath Day activities, (Sacrament, attending primary, visiting the sick), Scripture Story Flannel Board pieces, Children's Scripture Stories, envelopes and crayons (for writing letters), picture of family members that live close enough to visit on Sundays, Friend magazine, a whisk, (we like to make treats for neighbors on Sunday together) and the Children's Primary Songbook.

The gift Heavenly Father gave us was Sunday. We call it the Sabbath Day. On Sundays we get to rest from all of our work and do things that help us feel closer to Heavenly Father and our family. In this box I have some things that we can do on Sundays to help us feel closer to him.

I let the boys take turns pulling out one object out of the box at a time and we talked about how we used those things on Sunday. I really tried to focus on what a special day it was and all the things that we GET to do, and not on the things we don't choose to do.



Scripture Memorization: After we pulled out all the items and discussed them, we opened the set of scriptures from the box and read Exodus 20:8 "Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it Holy." We memorized this scripture together by repeating it several times.



Snack: Ice Cream Sundaes

Creation Day 6- Animals

Music: We sang All Things Bright and Beautiful (CS 231), Old McDonald Had a Farm (We pulled out different animals to sing about with each verse)., and I Went to the Animal Fair.

Lesson: We read Genesis 1:24-30 in the Old Testament. We talked together about Heavenly Father making all of the animals and then about him making us.

Activity: We named as many animals as we could think of together. I brought all of the animals in the house into the living room. All stuffed animals, flannel board pieces, plastic animals, Fisher Price animals, and puppets. We played three different games with the animals.

Game 1: Guess Who I Am? : I placed an animal underneath two pillows. Then I described the animal using clues such as "I am gray. I like to eat cheese. I squeak." After a few times of guessing, my three year old was ready to give the clues and the rest of us guessed.



Game 2: Animal Train: We placed all of the animals in a long line around our living room and then named and counted them. We talked about how many different kinds of animals Heavenly Father had given us and how they help us.


Game 3: Animal Sort: We sorted the animals into different groups. We sorted by colors one time, size, and habitats. Then we sorted them all back into their "place" in our home.



Art: We made our page for our Creation book using foam animal stickers.


Snack: We simply ate animal crackers with milk.

Day 5-The Birds and the Fish

Opening Song: Birds in a Tree (CS 241)

Lesson: We read Genesis 1:20-23 in the Old Testament. We asked the boys to name animals that live in the water and animals that fly. We showed pictures of birds and fish from books we have.

Music: We sang songs together about birds and fish. We sang In the Leafy Treetops,(CS 240),
I'm a Little Fishy. and "The Goldfish Song" by the Laurie Berkner Band.

Activity: We played a a Go Fishing Game with a magnetic pole and magnetic fish. You can make your own by following the directions here.




Art: We made birdseed feeders to hang outside from pine cones, birdseed and peanut butter. This can be really messy, so I highly recommend paper plates, plastic table cloth, and parental assistance. Then we took them outside and let each boy choose where to hang his.



Snack: Make bird's nest snacks to eat.

Day 4-Sun, Moon, and Stars

Opening Song: I Am Like A Star Shining Brightly (CS 163)

Lesson: We headed outside with a flashlight, blanket, and binoculars. Together we read the scriptural account of the creation of the sun, moon, and stars in Genesis 1:14-19. We looked at the stars and the moon with our binoculars.



Activity: With our flashlight as our light, we sat outside in the dark and sang songs and read stories about the sun, moon, and stars. We sang "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," "I See the Moon," and "You Are My Sunshine." We read Goodnight Moon, Happy Birthday Moon, What the Sun Sees/What the Moon Sees, Wake Up Sun, and The Sun and Moon.



Snack: We came inside and ate Astronaut Ice Cream in honor of our outer space creations.


Craft: We made pretend telescopes together out of paper towel rolls. Paint the telescope, add star stickers, and have fun looking through it outside at the stars.


Art: For the 4th page in our book we glued down die cuts of a star, moon and sun.

Closing Song: Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam (CS 60)