Choose The Right Path
Michelle writes, "In our Primary, we came up with a game for the primary children to play that focus's on the 2012 Primary theme "Choose The Right". The game is called, "Choose The Right Path". In the game we focus on three different areas: Reverence, Scriptures, and Articles of Faith.
To play this game, we first created a game board which has a winding path all the way up to the tree of life with a few golden apples dropped along the path, there are even a few golden fruit surrounding the tree as well. Then we made a maker which is a clip art pic of two children walking, as they come along the path to the golden apples that have been dropped on the path, the primary children get a treat. When they reach the tree of life at the end of the path, they get to have a huge party. Which in our case is a huge pizza party, where they get to "choose" their own toppings for their very own personal pizza's.
As before mentioned, in the game we have three ways for the primary children to earn steps, which are Reverence, Scriptures, and Articles of Faith.
First, Reverence- Our Stake Presidency gave all the wards a Reverence Chart that has a picture of an outline of a child, than cutouts of folded arms, eyes, ears, lips, and a heart. We put the picture of the child on a board and Velcro on the back of the cutouts. Each week one of the primary classes gets to take the board to their classroom so that during class if they are being reverent they can move the cut outs to the outline of the child. If the child is filled in, the class earns steps for that week.
Second, Scriptures-First part if obvious, if they bring their scriptures to church they get to move forward a step. However, we wanted to take things a little further then that, not only did we want them to step forward by choosing to bring their scriptures, but we wanted them to know why bringing their scriptures was the right choice. so we invited them and their parents on a scripture hunt through the scriptures. And since we are studying the Book of Mormon this year, we chose to focus the scripture hunt in the Book of Mormon. Each week we send clues home with the children and with the aid of their parentsm they discover answers to the clues we send home with them each week. they then bring back their answer the following week, see what the treasure is that was found, and receive and new clue.
This is the intro letter to the "Scripture Hunt" game we sent home to the parents:
"In Primary we are learning how to "Choose The Right" Path. One of the ways we are doing this is by going on a scavenger hunt through the scriptures to uncover hidden treasures. Each week the children will be given a clue that they, with your assistance, need to seek the answer to in the scriptures. Once found, help them to write the answer down on the back of the paper, sign it and have your child bring it back with them to primary. they will then receive a new clue."
We created a treasure box which contains the answers to the clues they bring back each week. The following are some examples of the clues and the symbols we use to represent each one:
"The Lord did not want Lehi and his family to get lost in the wilderness so he gave them a special tool to use, what was it? and How did it work?"
(Liahona-took a plastic ball, like one u would find in a ball pit, and put a design with hot gun all over it. then put a stick through it. And finally strayed it with gold spray paint)
"Nephi told of a dream he had about a tree which grew the most desirable fruit. How did Nephi find his way to the tree?and What was it called?"
(PVC pipe spray painted crome)
"After Lehi and his family left Jerusalem, Lehi sent his sons back for something. What was it and why was it so important?"
(Brass plates-took 3 pieces of foam board and scribbled with hot glue on it to make it appear like ancient writting, spray painted it gold and silver to give it a brass look then bound all three with pipe cleaner)
"The Brother of Jared needed light to see inside the barrages that his people used to travel across the sea's in. What did he do to obtain the light he needed?"
(Clear glass flat beads from craft store, put in a simple sandwich baggie. Keep it simple, what focus on stones)
"Helaman led a large group of young men into war. Who were the young men? and Why did they choose to bravely follow Helaman into battle?"
(Sword, from local dollar store)
"To inspire the Nephite people not to flee but to stand & fight for their rights, Caption Moroni tore his coat and wrote the title of liberty on it. What are the words he wrote?"
(A piece of red velve fabric with words written, "In memory of our God, our Religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives and our children" and fasten it to a rod)
Those there the clues we have given out so far, it is amazing to us how excited the children still are about the scripture clues we are giving them and they are still bringing them back each week, even tthe parents are getting more involved aswell, which is making it all the more fun. So they earn a step each for bringing their scriptures and a step each for bringing back their clues.
And finally the Articles of Faith, We put together the 13 Articles of Faith cards for each of primary child 8 - 11 yrs old. These cards have the Articles of Faith on one side and the first letter of each word of the AofF on the other side to help with the memorizing. We also handed out a list to "what the Article's of Faith Mean" to each one. We are trying to encourage the children who are in the Faith in God program to not give up in the program, but to keep working towards their goals and to obtain their 'Faith in God Award' as well as bring awareness to their parents about their roll in the program so one way in doing this is have the children practice their Acticles of Faith with their parents at home and then pass them off in Primary with their teachers. Each article of Faith passed off earns them another step closer to their goal.
Choosing to do this game with our primary children is turning out to be more of an adventure then we ever thought possible. Its so much fun to see, not only the children, but their parents as well as our primary teachers get excited about stepping futher up the path by having encouragement with reverance in class, discovering hidden treasures in the scriptures, and ingiting a desire once again to work on their Faith In God programs by memorizing the Articles of Faith. As the children watch the marker get closer and closer to the tree of life, it is quickly turning into an exciting adventure for both primary children and their families, as well as the primary leaders... after all the children love to share in the fun which is all about learning to choose the right."




I wish I had seen this earlier. I'm still printing it and am going to use it at some point. Thank you for all your hard work.