Short Attention Span Sunday School: Primary 5 Lesson 14 Emma Smith Selects Sacred Hymns

PRIMARY 5 LESSON 14 EMMA SMITH SELECTS SACRED HYMNS

CLASSROOM PREP

On the board, post the words to “Hum Your Favorite Hymn”

OPENING ACTIVITY

Have our ward music director come in and talk with the class for a few minutes about how she chooses the hymns for Sacrament Meeting each week.

LESSON

Why do you think we use music in our Church meetings?
Why do we sing hymns?

Do you have hymns that you like?
What difference do you think it would make if we did not sing hymns?

Today we’re going to learn a little more about Emma Smith and the first hymnbook!

Who was Emma Smith? (show church artwork painting of her)

• A schoolteacher from a good family
• Tall with black hair and dark eyes
• Her family didn’t believe Joseph Smith was a prophet and didn’t want them to marry
• Later they became friendly to him

What was life like for Joseph and Emma?

• She supported her husband in his calling
• She was his scribe for a time between Martin Harris and Oliver Cowdery
• She wasn’t allowed to see the plates even though they were in her home for 2 years!
• Joseph and Emma suffered a lot of persecutions and had to move around a lot. They also did not have a lot of money.

Open to D&C 25

This was received for his wife Emma to comfort her and help her understand how she can support him in his calling.

It also tells her to compile a hymnbook for the Saints to sing during their meetings.

It was completed in 1835 and had 90 hymns

34 of these were written by Church members about the restoration of the gospel

The rest were from other churches. Remember these Church members had been going to other churches!

There was NO music printed in it (show in our hymnbook what that means)

They would sing the words to melodies they already knew from other songs.

Which are some of hymns from that first hymnbook that we still sing today?

Redeemer of Israel, How Firm a Foundation, Guide Us, O Thou Great Jehovah

HYMN STORIES

John Taylor story from the manual (illustrate it)

Native American story from the manual (illustrate it)

HYMNBOOK STUDY

Pass a hymnbook to each person

1. Study the layout and discuss and discover how they can find hymns in it (topics in the back, first lines, etc.)
2. Pass out index cards that say: Find a hymn about _____________ (fill in the blank with a topic...see below for mine) and give them a few minutes.
3. See which one they have chosen and play it on your laptop or phone
4. Then have everyone pick a hymn they like
5. Bring the hymnbooks to the library and everyone gets to photocopy their hymn of choice to take a copy home

Back in the classroom...

Remember how I said the early church members would sing the words with a different melody?

Here’s an example to try:

Pass out the words to How Firm a Foundation and Away in a Manger (just the words)

Sing it (words of one to the melody of the other), then switch!

HUM YOUR FAVORITE HYMN

• Discuss the words on the board and what they mean
• When we have angry or unrighteous thoughts, we can replace them with good thoughts by singing or thinking of the words to a hymn
• Play the song with words, then play the "music only" version and sing it together

ACTIVITY CARDS WITH HYMNS

• Use app to play and use cards from Chicken Scratch N Sniff

https://www.cknscratch.com/primary-5/lesson-14-emma-smith-selects-sacred-hymns

TAKE HOME SCAVENGER HUNT BOOK
Really easy list of things for them to find home online!