Kate's Primary Chorister Blog: Soft or Hard Heart Simple Object Lesson and Singing Time Game

**If you are wanting to see what the object lesson and activity are before you start preparing then skip to the part that says OBJECT LESSON and the part that says GAME.**

INTRODUCTION:

You could hear a pin drop in the primary room during this simple object lesson that teaches about having a soft heart or a hard heart. I loved the answers that some of the youngest in primary gave. I asked the question, "What does it mean to have a hard heart?" A little Sunbeam rose her hand and in her sweet little voice, she answered, "It means that your heart is sad because it does not have Jesus." So sweet, and so true! You can correlate this object lesson and game to go along with anything that is being taught in CFM.

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

1. Play Dough (I brought many containers of Play Dough to primary, but the most important color to have is either red or pink to mold a heart)

2. Rock (preferably a rock that is the size of the palm of your hand)

3. White poster board

4. Black poster board (or a different color than white)

5. Post it notes or you can cut out paper that is about the size of a Post It note.

6. Paper to print out red hearts and rocks (If you don't want to print then you could draw and color rocks and hearts on paper and cut them out with scissors.)

PREPARATION:

1. Cutout a Tic Tac Toe (or the hashtag symbol) using the black poster board or whatever color poster board you have on hand.

2. Glue the Tic Tac Toe board onto the white poster board. (I like to get my poster boards laminated, but since it was late Saturday night when I was putting this together, I was unable to get it done.)

3. Write or print out each song. Make sure the title of the songs are small enough to be covered by a Post It note. Tape or glue song names into each square of the Tic Tac Toe.

4. Print out rocks and hearts for the Tic Tac Toe game. Again, you can draw hearts and rocks. The children do not care if the hearts and rocks are perfect!

5. Optional: Print out one picture that represents each song you are singing for the program. Just, FYI, I think this was the children's favorite part of the activity. I'll explain later in this post.

6. I try to put everything together on my kitchen counter on Saturday night so I don't forget anything. I also leave Sacrament Meeting a little early to set up the Primary room. I can't get into the Primary room until the ward before my ward is out and that ward is not out of church until the middle of my Sacrament Meeting.

OBJECT LESSON:

(Keep the lesson short and sweet. You don't even need to do the "wrap it up" part and it would still be great. Most of the time should be singing.)

A. Call a child to come up to the front of the primary room. Ask the child to mold the red (or pink) play dough into a heart. Display the heart on the pulpit or somewhere in the room.

B. Call another child up to the front. Hand the child the rock and ask him to mold it into a heart. Why can't you mold the rock into a heart? (It's too hard.)

C. What does it mean to have a hard heart? (Have children give their answers. Their answers are so pure!)

"Having a hard heart means that it is too hard for the spirit to get into our hearts. It means we have a hard time feeling love, especially from our Heavenly Father. It means we can't be molded or accept anything from God."

D. What does it mean to have a soft heart? (Have children give their answers)

"Having a soft heart means that our hearts can be molded by Heavenly Father. It means that out hearts will recognize the spirit and allow the spirit into our hearts. Having a soft heart means that we can feel Heavenly Father's love."

I made sure to cover anything that wasn't covered in the children's answers. They did such a great job that I didn't have much to say.

**At this point in the lesson, I talked about Alma the Younger's hard heart and how his heart became softened. You don't have to talk about any scripture prophet or you can talk about a scripture prophet that is part of CFM at the time you teach the lesson.**

Wrap it up: The gift of agency is one of the greatest gifts Heavenly Father has given us! He desires to bless us, lead us, comfort us, heal us, strengthen us, and to reveal all things to us. But He will never force us. So, what will we do? Will we harden our hearts and not be able to feel the Holy Ghost or Heavenly Father's love for us? Or, will we soften our hearts and allow him to mold us into a better and happier person than we could ever be without him?

SINGING TIME GAME:

How to Play: Call on a reverent child to come up and take one of the Post It notes (or paper) off of one of the squares which will reveal a song. If the children sing the song with all of their hearts (know the words, sing at a good volume, respectful) then they get to put a heart in the square. If the children mumble the words, do not know the words, don't sing, don't sing at a good volume, etc, then a rock goes in the square. We had the piano player play against the kids. She was the rocks and the kids were the hearts.

VIDEO OF HOW TO PLAY THE GAME & HOW TO INCORPORATE THE PLAY DOUGH:

EXTRA (FYI, the kids loved this part)

I was only looking for one container of red or pink Play Dough. I sent my husband to the store and he came back with a case of Play Dough. I still have no idea what we are going to do with all this Play Dough since we no longer have little kids. It worked out great for Singing Time though!

After a child would come up and take the sticky tab off the Tic Tac Toe board to reveal the song, I would call on another child to come up to "mold" a picture that has to do with the song we were singing. I printed out one picture to go along with each song. The child molding the picture with the Play Dough would have the picture as a reference. Then I would show the picture. The kids thought this was so much fun. I only called on kids that wanted to participate. I also told them that none of us are professionals and creating something out of Play Dough is very hard. I made a big deal about how wonderful each creations was. The child chosen had plenty of Play Dough to choose from! Haha!

Here are the songs and pictures I chose for the songs:

I Know That My Savior Loves Me