Don't Eat Nephi! (or any other prophet)

I came up with a version of the game "Don't Eat Pete" the last time we studied the Book of Mormon for Come Follow Me in 2020.  It does not have to be Nephi.  It can be any prophet.  It is a super easy and fun game that the children enjoyed.  Instead of saying, "Don't eat Pete", we say, "Don't eat Nephi!"

Supplies Needed: 

*Nine 8X10 pictures of Nephi (I printed pictures from the Book of Mormon movie.)

*Round magnets (I used these 1-inch round magnets.)

*Glue

*m&m logo for magnets (I searched on google for the m&m's logo)

*Snack-sized m&m's for each child in primary (optional)

Preparation:

1.  Print out the m&m logo on cardstock.  I looked up images of the m&m logo on google.  I had to figure out how large to make the image so that each m&m was the right size for the 1" magnets.

2.  Cut out the m&m logos and then glue them to the magnets

3.  Write names of songs or verses on the back of each picture.  We are learning "Nephi's Courage".  These are the song I wrote on the backs of the nine pictures:

Nephi's Courage verse 1, Nephi's Courage verse 2, Nephi's Courage verse 3, Nephi's Courage all verses, Book of Mormon Stories, Books in the Book of Mormon, chorus of We'll Bring the World His Truth, We'll Bring the World His Truth verse 1, I Will Be Valiant

Game Rules:

If you do not know the rules to "Don't Eat Pete", then you can see the rules here.

Singing Time:

1.  Tape the pictures to the chalkboard in this formation:

(I do not know why I put numbers on each picture back in 2020.  My only guess is that I assigned the song on the backs of the pictures with a number on the front of the pictures and gave the list to the piano player.  If anyone has any other guesses then please let me know.)

2.  Put one m&m magnet on each picture.

3.  Choose a child that is being reverent to go out of the primary room.  Then have another reverent child come up to the front and point to the picture (or number) that is going to be "Nephi".

4.  Have the child that went out of the room come back into the room.  Have the child take one magnet off at a time.  When the child takes the magnet off the picture that is "Nephi" then everyone will say, "Don't eat Nephi!"  

5.  Take the "Don't Eat Nephi" picture off the board and see which song is on the back.  Then sing that song.

6.  You can choose to play the way I played the game or not.  I did not tape the pictures back up after they were chosen as "Don't eat Nephi" so that we could get to all of the songs.

7.  I handed out snack-sized m&m packets to all the children as they left primary since the game is usually played with real m&m's.    

Around the World Singing Time

Supplies Needed:

*Two white poster boards

*Permanent marker or marker

*Scissors

*Nephi Costume (mine is extremely homemade and wonky!  You can use a Christmas nativity costume.)

*Someone to play the role of Nephi 

*Nephi Script below (PDF): 

*You can find my visuals for Nephi's Courage here.

Preparation:  

1.  It was 2020 last time we studied the Book of Mormon for Come Follow Me.  I gave him a very homemade Nephi costume and a short script that I told him does not need to be memorized or perfect.  The script is to introduce Nephi and goes along with the song "Nephi's Courage". 

(The children recognized "Nephi" because he was in my ward at the time.  I asked him because everyone talked about how he looked like the guy that played Nephi on the Book of Mormon movies.  He really did look like him!  This time around I have had a harder time following someone that looks like the Nephi from the Book of Mormon movies.  I did find someone to play Nephi this coming week that the children will not know, so it might go even better than last time.)

2.  I cut two white posters in half.  Then I put one line of the first verse onto each of the poster boards.  I printed out a visual to go along with each line.  In the picture below I used a paper plate.  I like to use visuals that make it easy for the children to remember the words.

Before Primary Starts:

Tape one poster and the visual that goes along with it on each wall of the primary room.  One poster and visual per wall. 

Nephi's Courage Song and Activity:

After "Nephi" introduces himself and tells the children a little about himself, have him open the floor to the children to ask him questions.  Then introduce the song "Nephi's Courage":

1.  Ask the children what makes Nephi a hero.  We are going to be introducing a Book of Mormon hero every month.  This month's hero is Nephi.

2.  Teach the children the chorus and the actions that go along with the chorus.  You can watch this video to learn the actions to the chorus.  I only want to teach the children actions to the chorus and not to the verses.

3.  Go to each wall one at a time and teach the lines to the song.

4.  Start singing the song facing the poster with the first line of the song on it.  Jump or turn to the wall with the poster with the second line on it.  The last line should be facing the front of the primary room so that the children will be facing the front when they do the actions to the chorus.

More Silly Signs (Fun ways to Sing Songs)

If you need instructions on how to make the silly signs, or you want more silly sign ideas, then see my blog post here.

I love coming up with more silly signs (different fun ways to sing a song).  I came up with some more ways to sing songs recently.

*STAND LIKE A FLAMINGO/DANCE LIKE A CHICKEN

*SING LIKE A ROCK STAR(Air guitar or head bang)/DANCE LIKE A ROBOT

*WHISPER LIKE A LIBRARIAN/SING LIKE A BRITISH GENTLEMAN

*SING LIKE A SNORKLER (sing like you're underwater by moving your fingers up and down across your lips)/SING WITH A SMILE (lips can't touch while smiling)

*DANCE LIKE A BALLERINA/DRUM LIKE A DRUMMER

The next two signs do not have back sides.  It is just one sign per painter stick:

*ECHO EACH LINE (There is a picture of a duck on the sign.  There is a myth a duck's quacks do not echo, which has been debunked depending on which scientist one listens.  For the fun of primary, one side of the room will sing a line of the song and the other side will repeat the line throughout the entire song.)

*EACH SIDE SINGS EVERY OTHER WORD (There is a picture of a tennis player serving a ball.  One side of the room will sing the first word of the song and the other side will sing the second word of the song and so forth throughout the song.)

Here are the PDF'S:

Introducing the Book of Mormon and Singing "Book of Mormon Stories" (Who's Your Hero?)

 

I am excited that this year we will be studying The Book of Mormon.  Tomorrow is the first Sunday of the year.   I will be introducing heroes from The Book of Mormon throughout the year.  Tomorrow we will talk about what a hero is and if we know of any heroes.  Here is the outline of my lesson plan tomorrow:

BEFORE PRIMARY STARTS:

Make sure everything is setup before the primary children come into the primary.  I have to leave sacrament meeting early some Sundays to be able to setup for primary since there is a ward that meets right before my ward.  For this activity, I just had to tape words and pictures up and set my flipchart on the music stand.  Anything else I used for the activity I had ready on the little table in front of the primary room.

(I taped the words "WHO'S YOUR HERO?" up on the chalkboard and then taped up pictures of the heroes in the song "Book of Mormon Stories" around the words.  You can use chalk and write the words if that works better for you.  I then taped up the names of the heroes to the side of the chalkboard.)

 Lesson/Activity Plan for Introducing The Book of Mormon:

1.   Have the new Sunbeams come up and sing “Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam”.  (I made suns out of yellow poster boards for each Sunbeam to hold.  I cut out the middle so they could stick their face through it.)

  

     2.  Teach actions to “The Books of the Book of Mormon”.  Click on the link below to watch a video of the actions.

Actions to The Books in the Book of Mormon

3.  Introduce the Book of Mormon theme for the year.

 Ask:  What is a hero? And let the children say what they think a hero is.

 I looked up the definition of a hero and it says:

 a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.

Example:  "a war hero"

 What are “noble qualities”?

·         Courage

·         Honesty

·         Integrity

·         Honor

·         Respect

·         Kindness

·         Patience

 This year we are going to be studying The Book of Mormon.  There are heroes throughout the Book of Mormon that we will be getting to know.  As you learn about The Book of Mormon heroes, try to pick out the qualities that make them a hero. 

Did you know that you can be a hero too? 

Choose to be noble and eventually, you will have heroic qualities too!

So many things in life are unchangeable, but in this one thing we are allowed control.

4.  Activity: 

*Sing the first two verses of “Book of Mormon Stories”.  I got some visuals off of a website right here:  Book of Mormon Stories Visuals  

You do not need the visuals to do this activity.

*Explain to the children that you are going to read a short story about a Book of Mormon hero and then they will try to guess who the hero is in the story.  

*Sing the verse in "Book of Mormon Stories" that correlates to the hero in the story.  The first story is about Alma the Younger, so you would sing verse three of “Book of Mormon Stories” since verse three has to do with Alma the Younger.

*Continue with the next story, which is about Abinidi, and once the children guess who it is then sing the fourth verse which has to do with Abinidi, and so forth.

(I was pleasantly surprised at how reverent the children were as I read the stories of each hero.)

Here are the PDF short stories about each Book of Mormon hero in the song "Book of Mormon Stories": 

Here are the PDF words to verses 3-8 of the song "Book of Mormon Stories".  There are three different PDF files with words to the songs.  I put the words in page protectors and then in a 3-ring binder to make a flipchart.

 

 

 

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Extra:

You can use the lesson and activity above.  You could also add a few items.  I have big letters that spell out "WHO'S YOUR HERO?"  I will be taping them to the chalkboard in the front of the primary room.  You could write out, "WHO'S YOUR HERO?" with chalk.  

Then I am putting pictures of each of the Book of Mormon heroes in the verses of the song "Book of Mormon Stories" randomly around the "WHO'S YOUR HERO?" words on the board.  I got the pictures off the church website.  

I then printed out the name of each hero.  I will stick the names of the heroes taped on the wall by the chalkboard.  When the children guess who is in the story then I will take the name of the hero and tape the hero's name under his picture.  

I also got the visuals of "Book of Mormon Stories" off the website https://www.loveprayteach.com/ .  When the children guess the correct hero that goes with the story, I will then pick a reverent child to come up to hold the face of the prophet we are singing about.  The faces are cut out so the child can stick his/her face in it.  

I am also going to have the presidency hand out "high fives" to the children being reverent and singing their best.  I got them off of Amazon.  Just put "finger puppets" in the search bar and a bunch will come up.