Skip to main content

Brainstorming - OT - Ruth and 1 Samuel

My last post summarised the scriptures for this week's Primary lesson, which are from Ruth and 1 Samuel. In this post, we'll discuss ideas for how to teach the scriptures, including any links to scientific topics.

  • I taught this lesson back in 2018, and I looked back at my notes on how I did so. Back then, I did a little treasure hunt where I hid clues relating to the scriptures around the church, and the kids had to go to each location, find the clue, answer the question, and then go to the next location. The clues also linked to a crossword puzzle that they had to solve. Getting the kids to move around is always a nice idea, so we might try and bring back this element.

  • In Ruth 2, Ruth gleans corn, barley and wheat from the fields of Boaz. Gleaning (Wikipedia page) is an old concept where the poor were invited to collect the scraps following the harvest, since it wasn't always practical to collect every last part of the crop. It could be interesting to look more closely at what this involves. 

  • The Come Follow Me manual has a nice idea about getting the kids to act out the story of Samuel receiving promptings from Heavenly Father during his sleep, and thinking that Eli is calling him. This is used to teach chidren about how they can recognise promptings from the Holy Spirit.

    • Lessons on listening to promptings could link into animals with a sixth sense, for example magnetoreception. (I did a lesson a while ago about how turtles can find their way home after traversing the world.)
       
  • In 1 Samuel 1:5 it talks about how "the Lord had shut up her womb", referring to Hannah, the mother of Samuel. Infertility is an interesting topic, but not one that we'll be likely to use for a primary lesson.

  • In 1 Samuel 3:4-8, Samuel hears voices in his head. Could be an interesting link with sleep hallucinations. 

  • Ruth 2 has some interesting parts. One is Ruth 2:12, "The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust." It could be fun to make some paper wings in the class, talk about what wings do and why birds use them (both to fly and also to protect their young), and tie that back to the protective properties of Heavenly Father's grace.

  • Another is Ruth 2:14, "And Boaz said unto her, At mealtime come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers: and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed, and left." It's a strange notion to us to dip bread into vinegar. We could do some experiments with tasting bread dipped in different vinegars (e.g. malt, balsamic, red wine vinegar etc), and seeing which ones the kids prefer. Alternatively, back then, vinegar may have meant wine, and we could do something similar with juice. We could talk about how vinegar is formed (by taking a fermented drink and converting the alcohol into acetic acid), and this might tie back somehow.


Experiments with vinegar? Photo by Caroline Attwood on Unsplash

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Brief update

For the time being, I'm going to switch formats for future lesson plans, and post my thoughts and plans on Twitter instead. Twitter's terseness makes it much quicker to write, which is ideal as I don't often have time to write the more expansive blog posts. (It's also perhaps a bit more readable too, for anyone with a cursory interest but who doesn't have time to digest the lengthier posts here.) At some point I'll come back and revisit this, with a view to having detailed lesson plans and explanations for as much of the scriptures as I can. In the meantime, you can find me over at  https://twitter.com/bobby_science . 
Post a Comment
Read more

Lesson Plan - OT - Judges

 This post follows on from the previous few posts where: I reviewed the scriptures for this week's Come Follow Me Primary lesson. ( link ) I then brainstormed various science themes that could link to the scriptures. ( link ) Yesterday I worked up one of those themes into a potential lesson plan. ( link ) In this post, I'll provide a concise lesson plan for teachers to use if they find this useful. The first part of this post (in green) is an overview of the lesson aims, and the second part (in yellow) is the actual lesson plan that you can use.  Writing down the lesson plan for this weekend's Primary lesson. Photo by  Nils Stahl  on  Unsplash Overview What's the lesson about? It's about Gideon, one of the many Judges of Israel following the Prophet Joshua, struggling to have faith in Heavenly Father, and frequently doubting his veracity and asking for proof of his existence. It's also about the unorthodox way in which Gideon selected warriors for his battle aga...
Post a Comment
Read more

Brainstorming - D&C 41-44

My next lesson will be from this chapter of the Come Follow Me manual, which talks about D&C 41-44. I've read through the references and the manual chapter, and have started working up some ideas on how to teach. (If you're not familiar with how I approach planning lessons, this post provides some details .) The core of D&C 41-44 is about revelations given to Joseph Smith during his early days in Kirkland, Ohio, in February 1831. Chapter 41 is fairly short, and covers a decree regarding where Joseph will be housed. Chapter 42 is the longest. It starts by calling upon the brethren to go and teach, and also touches upon a reminder of the Commandments (twice), and what will later become the Law of Consecration , where Joseph exhorts his followers to pool their property in the name of the church in order to share more equitably amongst everyone. It also touches upon the idea of receiving personal revelation.  Chapter 43 deals with the issue of false teachings, and makes cl...
Post a Comment
Read more