Lesson #5: JC Showed Us How to Love Others

Another nice Sunday! We had a new little girl this Sunday and it was fun! a few months really make a difference with kids, on the way they act and what they can do, me not being a mother, really teaches me a lot about kids, also helped the older kids to learn to be nicer to smaller kids than them, this babe was 17 mo. so we were careful, but she did pretty good.
The lesson was fun, although I couldn't get much of their attention this week, but the activity did the trick. So we had a little different week this week, first we colored the coloring page from the manual, I asked them to pay attention to what they were coloring, then we had the class, and talked about what they had colored, that was all the attention I got from them, so I continued to asked them who loved them and who do they love, and went on to the second activity, I trace their little hands and cut them, they colored them, glue them to a paper heart doily and then they added foam embellishments, they turned out cute and they like them. So we had homework this week, they needed to give their paper doilies to the people they loved and do nice things for them, don't know if they actually will, but at least they repeated it ;)

Lesson #4 "HF and JC love me"

I had a great Sunday, my assistant wasn't there, but hubby helped me, since he couldn't go to class because he was taking care of our 11 mo. nephew, so it worked out good, the baby was playing with the girls at play time and hubby was helping me set up and get everything ready.
We had a really good play time, they are learning to share, I specially have one little girl that is soooo good sharing, you wouldn't think, because she is always very quiet, but very very sweet once she gets to know you, then we had my niece there, she is doing much better at sharing, and another one that still has to work a little bit on sharing, but she understands me when I talk to her and tries. Was really excited when one of my girls was talking more, she wasn't very much, and still is hard to understand her, but this Sunday and just after talking to her mom, I noticed her talking much more and actually I could understand some of it, really exciting time :)
Ok, FAVORITE snack of all, has to be the "Fishies"! oh my goodness, bring them yogos, dora crackers, something else, they like them, but nothing like the goldfish right? ;)
We did the activity before class this Sunday, just because I wanted them to have their HF and JC love me sign done by the time of the class, I used the activity from the manual and mat it on a heart and put a string on it so they could hang it on their neck or wherever they wanted, and they after painting it, decorated with foam shapes, and a little bit of glitter glue, notice the emphasis on "Little" this time I learned my lesson and I helped each of them do it, they had fun doing it.
Class went really really good, again, surprised that they all sat down and listen to me for I think 6 minutes, I am either getting better at getting to them, or they are just getting used to lesson time. I think it helps that we have a schedule for everything, when I told them it was class time, they actually helped me set up the chairs, same with singing time, when I said singing time, they helped me set up the carpet squares down, I just get excited about their progress and mine, we are learning together :). Anyways for class they talked about all the people that loves them, and were really excited to hear each of their names when I told them that HF loved them.
All in all a very good Sunday, it is a real testimony for me how much I am learning with these little ones.

Christmas craft

I did this with my nursery kids on Christmas time, but this is my niece, she isn't on my branch, so I did it when we were at my mom's. Basically is just two popsicle sticks with a ribbon looped on the top, to hang the ornament, and mettalic wires around them to make the branches, we decorated with glitter glue to make it look like ornaments :)

Lesson #3 I Can Pray to Heavenly Father

We had a pretty good lesson this last Sunday, and fun too, all girls again, my assistant there and sanity was back!
I have to tell you, I decorated the whole room for Valentines, I thought it would go good with "HF love us" theme, and it did, I decorated one of the boards with HF, Jesus and some pictures of kids, together with hearts all around the room, and they just seem very interested in the decorations.
So, when lesson time started, I sat them down in fron of that board, and ask them who they saw, they got it all right and made the connection with them and the hearts very well, I was really proud of them, I tell you, it never seize to amaze me how much they relate to pictures, I gotta always remember that.
Talking about pictures, I tried to do some songs without pictures, like "Soy un hijo de Dios" and it didn't work very well, so that was a good test on how much they relate to the HF and world pictures, they did work good with "A Happy Family" because I had the pictures for that one. Favorite on Sunday, definitely "Si en tu cara enojo hay" ("If there's a frawn in your face"? don't really know the name in English), they loved the face that turns happy with just turning it.
At the end of the class, each one of them using their handout from the nursery manual that they had colored, took turns praying and did very well with help.
A really nice reward for me was later in the day at home, I was babysitting my niece, I am giving her a snack, and she tells me "Tia we haven't said the prayer" and folds her arms and starts, I guess that's the whole reason why you put effort in your classes, even when you don't notice, they really are listening! Gotta love this calling!

Lesson #2: HF has a plan for me

So, I decided I was going to focus on one thing only for them to learn, if they learned that, I would be a happy camper. My main focus was on them learning they have a body that HF gave them when he sent them here to their parents on earth, and it is one just like His. Now, a lesson you have planned in your head sometimes doesn't work as planned when your assistant doesn't come, sometimes you don't know how much you depend on a person until that person is gone, granted, she's been gone before, but I've always had somebody else (usually my husband) to help me, not this time, my husband was busy and the missionaries couldn't come, so it was just me, BUSY, CHAOTIC, BUSY, to say the least, but still wonderful, I had a couple of things to do with them but instead I concentrated my efforts in tracing their hands and making a flower out of them, and I multi-task and taught the lesson while I was tracing their hands, I knew I wasn't going to have more time, so while tracing I was talking to them about the lesson and how our little fingers are just like HF's, they liked that, and they colored them too, so that bought me some time to get the snacks ready.
We did sing too, not very succesfully, I have to say, this week, they did good on "Soy un hijo de Dios" they all seem to know that song now, but when we or I started singing "A Happy Family" they seemed to have forgotten it, that caught me by surprise, they knew it pretty well a month ago, so off we go to learn it again :), of course they did the "Popcorn song" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider" well too, but that just seemed to be the end of their interest in singing, they were just too excited to get their flowers done, and again, it was just me, so the process wasn't going too fast, I kind of entertained them making them color the color page on the manual,
they did like that and gave me the chance to finish the flowers. 2 hours flew by, before I knew it the kids from the other ward were coming, none my kids were picked up, and I hadn't cleaned up yet, so yes, it was busy, of course chaotic, but still, wouldn't change my calling for anything in the world right now :).

P.S. I'll post some pictures of the project later, they loved their flowers and loved more that they could write with them. Note to self, bring camera every Sunday, they were excited to have their pictures taken.

My Nursery Schedule

So new year is here and new schedule, of course I am keeping the same format, for the most part, but I think I like the times better, when we were doing nursery at 2:30, some kids were ready for naps, so far I like this better. So my schedule goes like this:

Nursery Schedule, 9th Branch
Horario de Guarderia Rama #9

10:15 - 10:20 .- Greeting/Opening Prayer
Bienvenida / Primera oración
10:20 - 10:50 .- Playtime
Juego libre
10:50 - 11:05 .- Singing Time
Tiempo de cantar
11:05 - 11:20 .- Snack Time
Bocadillos / Merienda
11:20 - 11:35 .- Lesson Time
Lección
11:35 - 11:50 .- Activity Time
Actividad
11:50 - 12:00 .- Closing prayer / Free play
Ultima oración / Juego libre

Of course, sometimes I don't follow right to the T, but it goes something like it, and well I always use the activity time to talk about the lesson, since it usually is very short and only according to their attention span for the day, also sometimes I do an extra activity and that I do before snack time, and I use it for lesson time. The singing time is also a good time to talk about the theme for the day. And for the closing, we do play a little bit if there's time, usually if I don't have an extra activity, and we do bubbles, or puzzles, or the girls love playing kitchen. All through the 2 hours we pray, to start, to eat, to start lesson, to finish lesson, to finish day, they like taking turns praying and it is a good way to teach them that Heavenly Father is real and that we can ask him and thank him for anything.

So I guess it is different for everybody, it just takes knowing your kids, and adjusting the times for them :)

Lesson #1: I am a Child of God / Soy un Hijo(a) de Dios

So yesterday I had such a fun class, 5 little girls, no boys class, the boys might get intimidated I think with so many fun little girls :). So it was fun, we were talking about being a Child of God, and of course being girls they LOVED making their I am a Child of God crown, I printed it from the Primary Partners Nursery Vol. 1, and they colored it and put glitter on it, and loved it, so loved the fact that being God their father, they are princesses, because they are His daughters. We also made a foam door hanger with a crown that I found at the dollar store, I cut some letters with my sissix and spelled "Hija de Dios" from a foam sheet, I think I should take pictures to remember these things, but it was fun and made the 2 hours go fast, they are getting so used to crafting or "cracking" like my niece calls it, that they don't even want to play for very long, they want to go straight to crafting.
Oh the singing went very well too, I just love how their faces lightup when we talk about God and how he sent us to this earth to good parents, they just love that story and could listen to it over and over again, so singing went well. One of their favorites right now though is the snowman song, it helps that there's so much snow on the streets that they can relate.
So in short this was my Sunday. Very fun :)