Teaching Abraham 2, The Blessings of the seed of Abraham Lesson 20

I did this to use with the Seminary Old Testament Manual, Lesson 20

https://www.lds.org/manual/old-testament-seminary-teacher-manual/introduction-to-the-book-of-abraham/lesson-20-abraham-2-genesis-12?lang=eng

I had another great lesson with the students today so I thought that I would share it.  It all started in our Relief Society lesson in church.  The gal giving the lesson used the cutest sunflower and sun to teach her lesson.  When I commented on it she told me to take it home and use it for seminary.  I did and I worked out great.

I reviewed with the students a little about being the seed of Abraham and gave them this quote by Russell M. Nelson from the lesson.  I printed mine on a bright yellow paper.

Here it is in journal size:

After we talked about being the seed of Abraham, I put the sunflower on the board and told them we needed to be like the sunflower and face the sun ( Jesus Christ) at all times.

I put the sun over the flower.

I put the dirt underneath the flower.

Then I told them that the dirt is the responsibilities that we have and the sun is the blessings that we will receive.  Then we went through the Abraham 2:9-11 and wrote what those blessings would be on the sun-rays and then taped them on to the sun.  I also had them underline them in their scripture

Print two sun-ray

I ended by explaining that the blessings of the sun are those blessings that we would receive in the Celestial Kingdom.  I had them read D&C 76:70:96.

I also took a little time telling them about Abraham's travels and such.  I tried to use their Bible maps, but unfortunately none of the kids had a good map in their Bible.

I hope this idea works for you.  Please feel free to drop me a note to tell me about your class and what you are up to.

For all of my Old Testament Seminary ideas click here.

Teaching Abraham 1, LDS Seminary Old Testament Lesson 19

Today lesson 19  in Seminary went great so I thought that I would take the time to blog about what I did.  We were learning from Abraham 1. We read through Abraham 1:19 and discussed the scriptures and why God didn't save the daughters of Onitah, but he did save Abraham.  I also asked them how we can learn from this story in Abraham.  As a thought provoking question I asked them how many of them had had their father's try to sacrifice them. Of course there are a few that jokingly answered yes.  So then I asked how can this apply to our lives?  I gave them the handout below.

We read the quote together and they pasted it into their journals.  Then I had them watch a portion of the talk "Spiritual Whirlwinds" by Neil L. Andersen from April 2014 General Conference.   I had the students listen for parallels between this talk and the things that Elder Andersen talks about.  Here is the portion that I had them listen to:

My young friends, the world will not glide calmly toward the Second Coming of the Savior. The scriptures declare that “all things shall be in commotion.”¹Brigham Young said, “It was revealed to me in the commencement of this Church, that the Church would spread, prosper, grow and extend, and that in proportion to the spread of the Gospel among the nations of the earth, so would the power of Satan rise.

More concerning than the prophesied earthquakes and wars³ are the spiritual whirlwinds that can uproot you from your spiritual foundations and land your spirit in places you never imagined possible, sometimes with your barely noticing that you have been moved.

The worst whirlwinds are the temptations of the adversary. Sin has always been part of the world, but it has never been so accessible, insatiable, and acceptable. There is, of course, a powerful force that will subdue the whirlwinds of sin. It is called repentance.

Not all the whirlwinds in life are of your own making. Some come because of the wrong choices of others, and some come just because this is mortality.

As a young boy, President Boyd K. Packer suffered from the crippling disease of polio. When Elder Dallin H. Oaks was seven years old, his father died suddenly. When Sister Carol F. McConkie of the Young Women general presidency was a teenager, her parents divorced. Challenges will come to you, but as you trust in God, they will strengthen your faith.

In nature, trees that grow up in a windy environment become stronger. As winds whip around a young sapling, forces inside the tree do two things. First, they stimulate the roots to grow faster and spread farther. Second, the forces in the tree start creating cell structures that actually make the trunk and branches thicker and more flexible to the pressure of the wind. These stronger roots and branches protect the tree from winds that are sure to return.⁴

You are infinitely more precious to God than a tree. You are His son or His daughter. He made your spirit strong and capable of being resilient to the whirlwinds of life. The whirlwinds in your youth, like the wind against a young tree, can increase your spiritual strength, preparing you for the years ahead.

How do you prepare for your whirlwinds? “Remember … it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, … his shafts in the whirlwind, … when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power … to drag you down … because of the rock upon which ye are built.”⁵ This is your safety in the whirlwind."

I had them take notes in their journals.  When they were done watching the talk I had them work in groups of three.  They had to come up with two interesting things that they learned from the talk and then ask one question.  

I also had them write their answers on sticky notes. Then each group shared what they learned and put their sticky notes on the board under the saying "what stuck with you today." 

We didn't have time for all the groups, but the ones who did get a chance to share did an amazing job.  I was able to pick groups of students who didn't usually answer questions.  This gave me the chance to hear their thoughts and to get them more involved with the class.'

To see all of my Old Testament Seminary ideas click here.

Old Testament Tower of Babel Object Lesson

Today we learned about the Tower of Babel in my Old Testament LDS Seminary Class.  It went really well so I thought that I would share some of what I did.

Since today is Wednesday, I did a "Worm Wednesday" competition with my students.  To get the printout just click on the picture above. My main reason for doing this exercise is to help them to see that reading scriptures really does not take that much time out of your life, but the benefit so so good.  I had them all read Genesis 10 and 11 while I passed out a few gummy worms to each student.   The first student who finish got a bag of gummy worms.  Before I was done passing out the gummy worms to 26 students I had at least 5 students finished with the reading.

Before we started the competition I asked a couple of the boys to build me a tower out of Legos.  These boys did not compete in the reading, or participate in the lesson, but they were in the room with the rest of the class.


After the students were done reading I gave the lesson on the Tower of Babel out of the LDS Seminary Old Testament Teacher's manual. ( https://www.lds.org/manual/old-testament-seminary-teacher-manual/introduction-to-the-book-of-genesis/lesson-18-genesis-10-11?lang=eng)  

The lesson went great and the students had just finished reading the scriptures, so they were all participating.  Just before it was time to go the boys finished their Tower of Babel.  It wasn't as tall as I thought it would be, but the lesson pointed out that when the language was confounded that the people ceased working on the tower, so that fit into the lesson.

I asked the boys how they felt building the tower during the lesson. They said that it was fun, but that they also felt left out.  We talked a little about sin being fun, other wise why would people be so tempted.  By paying more attention to the Legos than the scriptures they weren't able to feel the spirit as strong as if they had been reading out of their scriptures and marking them.  

We then drew a picture of a Tower of Babel in their journals.  I had them list some of the things that could be their "Tower of Babel" in their life, and the things that they could do that would bring them closer to the spirit. The lesson went great and the students loved it.

To see more of my Old Testament Ideas click here.

Old Testament Scripture Mastery Quizzes and Games.

I like to number my scripture Mastery so that I don't go crazy!  I don't always make a test for every scripture mastery.  If it is short I just have them write it in their journal, or say it out loud to each other.  For the quizzes that I do create I have decided to post them here .

The Seminary in a Sack is a small item that I give the students when they pass off the Scripture Mastery Scripture. 

 You can learn about it by clicking here.

The Targets are for a Nerf gun challenge, 

or you can use them as flash cards.  

You can learn about it by clicking here.

Here is a "cheat sheet" to help with remembering the first 5 Scripture Mastery

Here is a journal size "cheat sheet" for the first 5 Scripture Mastery

Quiz for first 5 Scripture Mastery

Scripture Mastery 1-Moses 1:39

The students wrote this one down in their journal.

The Seminary in a Sack item that they got was a small plastic sun to represent the Celestial Kingdom.

Scripture Mastery 2 - Moses 7:18

The students wrote this one down in their journal.

The Seminary in a Sack item is a "1" charm

Scripture Mastery 3 - Abraham 3:22–23

The Seminary in a Sack item is a crown charm

For this one we drew the picture above on the first day.  The second day we memorize Abraham 3:22.  The third day we memorized the first half of Abraham 3:23.  The fourth day we memorized the second half of  23.  Then the fifth day we went over it again and took our quiz.

Scripture Mastery 4 -Genesis 1:26–27

The Seminary in a Sack item is a small mirror.

Scripture Mastery 5 -Genesis 2:24

The students wrote this one down in their journal.

The Seminary in a Sack item that they got was a small piece of Velcro.

Here is a "cheat sheet" to help with remembering the second 5 Scripture Mastery

Here is a journal size "cheat sheet" for the second 5 Scripture Mastery

Scripture Mastery 6 -Genesis 39:9

For this scripture I had the students race to see who could write it down the fastest.  I gave a reward for the fastest, the slowest, the neatest, the messiest, etc.

The seminary in a sack item that they got was a spider web.

Scripture Mastery 7 -Exodus 19:5–6

The seminary in a sack item was a toy gold coin

We had each student say one word and then we tried to see if we could beat our time.

Scripture Mastery 8 -Exodus 20:3–17

The Seminary in a Sack item is a Shrinky Dink version of the Ten Commandments.

I had the students watch this video and it was really helpful.  It teaches the students the Ten Commandments on their fingers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8KDbIUACf4

Scripture Mastery 9 -Joshua 24:15

The Seminary in a Sack item is charm house.

We broke it down and memorized a section each day.

Scripture Mastery 10 -1 Samuel 16:7

The Seminary in a Sack item is two googly eyes glued together.

Scripture Mastery 11- Psalm 24:3–4

The Seminary in a sack item is a charm of hands holding a heart.

Scripture Mastery 12-Psalm 119:105

The Seminary in a Sack item is lamp charm.

This one we just read through a few times and then discussed what it is like to walk in darkness.  Then I had the students write it in their journals with an explanation of what it means to them.

Scripture Mastery 13-Psalm 127:3

The Seminary in a Sack item is child charm.

This one we just read through a few times and then discussed the joy of children.  Then I had the students write it in their journals with an explanation of what the scripture means to them.

Scripture Mastery 14-Proverbs 3:5–6

The Seminary in a Sack item is heart charm.

For practice I went down the row and had each student say the next word in the scripture until we repeated the scripture several times.

Scripture Mastery 15-Isaiah 1:18

The seminary in a sack item is a small piece of batting.

For practice I had one of the students write this on the board and then erase a few words at a time until we erased the entire scripture mastery.

Here is a "cheat sheet" to help with remembering the third 5 Scripture Mastery, 11-16

Here is a journal sized "cheat sheet" to help with remembering the third 5 Scripture Mastery, 11-16

Scripture Mastery 1-15 Review Sheet

Scripture Mastery 16-Isaiah 5:20

The seminary in a sack item is a black star.

I had the students write this one in their journal.

Scripture Mastery 17-Isaiah 29:13–14

The seminary in a sack item is a lip charm.

Scripture Mastery 18-

Scripture Mastery 19-

Scripture Mastery 20-

Scripture Mastery 21-

Scripture Mastery 22-

Scripture Mastery 23-

Scripture Mastery 24-

Scripture Mastery 25-

Bingo Boards for Scripture Mastery Review

I love to use these to help the students review scripture mastery.  I use candy or cereal for the markers.  The students write in a scripture mastery reference for each spot.  Then I call out the clues and they look for the reference that Matches.

To see all of my Old Testament Seminary Ideas Click here.