Well, it’s the second day back at school after Christmas break, and the kids are already starting to droop. It was 12 degrees outside when they came in this morning. Brrrrrr. This was the first day that no one complained about sitting close beside each other on the couches :)
I didn’t write out my entire lesson plan Monday since I hadn’t given the lesson yet, so here it is:
Back to Seminary and Deuteronomy 4
The kids were assigned to read Deuteronomy 4 and 6, and I had promised that for each scripture mastery they memorized over the holiday I would pay them a dollar. They were in shock, but I knew that virtually none of them would do it. So yesterday, I held up this big stack of ones to give out, but no one had done it. I wasn’t disappointed — means they had a great vacation, and I get to keep my money!
The kids were pretty silly today. Glad to be back from vacation. And shockingly, my chronic tardy fella was on time.
As an opener I asked the kids how they learned things. Do they memorize a scripture mastery the first time they read it? No, we need repetition. We discussed the need for repetition i learning of all kinds, even religious. This was based loosely on the material in the manual about Deuteronomy 1:1. I summarized Deuteronomy 1-3.
Using Samson, we read out the following verses in Deuteronomy 4 and each kid got a chance to tell us what to underline. This is one of my favorite activities, because they tell each other what’s important, and it’s a good scripture study skill to develop. When I do this activity I write the verse numbers on the board so they can follow along.
v 1
v 2
v 4
vv 5-6
v 9
v 20
v 23
vv 29-30
v 31
vv 32-35
vv 39-40
By the time we got to verse 31, it was getting close to time to wrap up, so I summed up and turned the TV on. I had decided to challenge them to improve their personal scripture study during the upcoming year, so I showed them the Elder Oaks’ Welcome to Seminary video (below). My kids are always so excited to watch a movie. I passed out a slip of paper for them to write on, and told them to write down what Elder Oak’s taught them to do during their personal study. After the movie we talked briefly about other things they may need to focus on to improve their study like setting apart a regular time, writing down questions, and reading with a pencil in their hands so they can mark the good stuff.
Deuteronomy 6, 7, 9
The kids were assigned to read 4 & 6 last night, but I knew I wouldn’t get finished covering it all. I warned them about it yesterday, but of course most of them forgot. And today I knew I wouldn’t get through 8, but tomorrow’s lesson will probably be short, so I’ll catch up.
We continued with our activity for Deuteronomy 6 with the “what’s important” activity. I was just calling out names, but the kids asked for Samson to come out again. Basically, they just toss him around and that determines who answers next. It helps keep their attention. Here’s the verses we used:
v 3
vv 4-5
vv 6-7
v 12
v 13-14
v 16
v 17
v 18
vv 20-23
v 24
Next I moved into Deuteronomy 7 and 9. They also read 8, but I will cover it tomorrow. For these chapters I passed out three leftover noisemakers I had from our New Year’s Eve party to each zone leader. The class members had to tell their leader the answer, who would blow on their noisemaker to indicate that they were ready to answer. I had written a couple of questions out. I also wrote the location of the answers up on the board so that the kids who hadn’t read could look up the answers. In a few cases, everyone had to read the passage to get the answer.
1) Why were the Israelites the chosen people> Deut 7:6–8
2) Why did the Lord counsel the Israelites not to marry outside their own people? Deut 7:2–4
3) How many generations will God keep covenants with his chosen people? Deut 7:9
4) Which warning is repeated the most number of times in this reading? Deut 7:16
5) Name the blessings found in Deut 7:12–16
6) How quickly will the Lord destroy the surrounding nations and why? Deut 7:22
7) Why did the Lord destroy the Canaanites? Deut 9:4–6
8) Why is this distinction (in question 7) important? How can we apply this knowledge to ourselves?
I let them go about 5 minutes early, but it was still below 15 degrees out and the kids all stayed inside until the very last minute chatting. They are so much fun!
