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

Idea Workup - OT - 1 Samuel

In my last post, I discussed some ideas for teaching 1 Samuel . In this post, I'll work up some of these ideas into a potential lesson plan.  Sometimes I get weeks where I toil for ages to find the right angle to teach a lesson from. Last week's lesson was a good example of this, where I really struggled to figure out a theme and a link that I could use. Other times, the right idea just hits you, and this feels like one of those weeks. There's a lot of material in 1 Samuel that could be used for a lesson, and it would be nice to devote more weeks to it. However the David and Goliath story is the dominant story here, and when you're working with young children, then you simply have to teach it. It's the archetype underdog story, which illustrates how the seemingly impossible can be made possible with faith. We want to pass on stories that will inspire the children and give them believe that they can similarly have confidence in themselves and aim high. We haven'...
Post a Comment
Read more

Brainstorming - OT - Judges

In my previous post , I reviewed the scriptural content in the Book of Judges. In this post, I'll summarise the scientific themes that I've been able to come up with, that link somehow to the text, which I could build a lesson plan on top of. In Judges 6:15 , Gideon exclaims to Heavenly Father, "Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house ". I thought about linking this to the idea of small creatures that can do great things. Ants and beetles are great examples of small animals that are very powerful for their size . Beetles are strong creatures for their size. Photo by Weronika Romanowska on Unsplash In Judges 6:39-40 , Gideon requests of Heavenly Father to keep his fleece dry during the night and to let the dew settle on the rest of the ground. "And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground." Perhaps we could talk about what ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lesson Plan - D&C 67-70

 After a lengthy hiatus, we're back! This week's lesson is based on the section of the Come Follow Me manual about D&C 67-70 ( link ). We're going to work with D&C 70 , which talks about the early days of the Law of Consecration.  Back in 1831, the church assigned 6 people to starting a set of church businesses. I found a nice article that explained the history in detail ( link ), but in brief, Prophet Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Martin Harris,  Oliver Cowdery, John Whitmer and William W. Phelps were all involved in the "Literary Firm", which was responsible for publishing the Book of Mormon, the church hymn book, and a church newspaper. D&C 70:7 reads 7 Nevertheless, inasmuch as they receive more than is needful for their necessities and their wants, it shall be given into my storehouse I thought that we could structure a lesson that talks about (a) the reasons why a storehouse was set up, to help provide for the needy, and (b) a bit of maths relatin...
Post a Comment
Read more