Short Attention Span Sunday School: Primary 6 Lesson 1 Heavenly Father's Plan for Us

PRIMARY 6 LESSON 1: HEAVENLY FATHER’S PLAN FOR US

Found on Pinterest but source is unknown

There are many other variations as well if you look up “Plan of Salvation Love” on Pinterest

CLASSROOM PREP

Post this quotation at the very top of the board:

"I testify that life is a gift. God has a plan for each one of us, and our individual purpose
began long before we came to this earth."

—Rosemary M. Wixom

Or just the word PURPOSE with an image of the earth/globe next to it.

Have these questions printed/written out on separate pieces of paper and taped up to the board

What is the PURPOSE of life?

How can my life have greater PURPOSE?

OPENING ACTIVITY

Pass out post-it notes and pens to each person.

Give them time to answer one or more with separate post-it notes.

Have them stick their notes on the paper of the question they’re answering.

Tell them we will talk about their answers later on.

LESSON

Sing the first verse to “I Lived In Heaven” as you put up the sections of the Plan of Salvation.

Create them based on the image at the top of this post so you can rearrange later and have it
look like that.

For now, put them up as shown more traditionally in the manual etc.

I lived in heaven a long time ago it is true (put up premortal life as you sing this)

Lived there (point to it) and loved there with people I know, so did you (point to them)

Then Heav’nly Father presented a beautiful plan, (start filling in the bars between the
first sections)

All about earth (put this one up) and eternal salvation for man (put the rest up)

Today we're going to talk about a very amazing journey that your spirit goes on.

Let’s talk about this (refer to diagram of Plan)

What is called? Plan of Salvation, Plan of Redemption, Plan of Happiness

When you look at this plan, how does it make you feel?

Why would this be called the Plan of Salvation?
Why is it also called the Plan of Happiness?

Stick up Romans 8:16 on the board.

We are spirit children of a loving Heavenly Father - all of us!

That’s pretty cool!

Stick up President Kimball’s quotation from the manual (“Long before…”)

And before this earth, here in the premortal existence, we lived together as spirits.

In the premortal life, we learned!

Stick up D&C 138:56

We were preparing our spirits for life on earth.

When the plan was presented, we shouted for joy!

A Grand Council was held to present the plan
We learned we would need to follow the plan to become more like Him
That we would have an earth to go to, that we would forget our heavenly home,
that we needed all of this so we could choose between good or evil,
that we would have trials in our life in order to gain experience and to teach us to have
endurance, patience, and charity.

And then we came to earth - why don’t we remember the premortal life? We forgot our life with Heavenly Father, allowing us to develop faith in Jesus Christ.

What are we supposed to do while on earth? It says in Alma that this life is the time for us to prepare to meet God so we need to keep the commandments, repent when we need to, etc.

When we die, our spirits go where? Spirit world

This is not God’s presence...yet.

Resurrection will occur for who? For everyone, all mankind, this is a gift from our Savior’s
atonement

After resurrection, who will be worthy to live in the celestial kingdom? You must have faith in Jesus Christ, repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost, live worthy
and prove their faithfulness / These are all degrees of glory

What if I were to show you something kind of cool:

Rearrange the Plan of Salvation cut outs to look like the image at the top of this post

Why would I arrange it this way? Our Savior loves us, we love Him, love one another, etc.

This plan is here because Jesus Christ, our Savior, loves us.

So what about your answers? Go through their post-it note answers and discuss

What is the purpose of life?
Discuss the below points, or review if already said
To prepare to meet God, to gain a body, experience joy and sorrow, make choices
To return to our Heavenly Father as a more intelligent, more mature, and more compassionate person - to be more like Him. 

Refer back to D&C 138:55-56

We were prepared for many great things we would do on earth.
We each have important things to accomplish

How can my life have greater purpose?
Discuss the below points,  or review if already said
Read the scriptures and follow our prophet
Stay close through prayer and follow the Holy Ghost’s promptings
Try each day to be more like our Savior
Appreciate our blessings
Serve others

HAIKU ACTIVITY

We’re going to do something to get you to think a little more about the Plan of Salvation.

Have any of you heard of a haiku?

What is it? Poem with a set number of syllables

So a haiku is a Japanese poem where the first line is 5 syllables, the second is 7, and the third is 5.

For example, a haiku about the Plan of Salvation could be:

I think it is great

I can be with family

For eternity

or

It’s all about love

And how we can be happy

For eternity

If you think you’ll need help, then pair up with someone else.

If you want to work alone, you can write your own

(pass out paper and pens)

Let everyone share their haikus

INTRODUCTION TO THE YEAR

So let’s talk about the PURPOSE of what we’re going to be learning all year.

Have the first letter of each book in the Old Testament written out on one long scroll

(tape together multiple pieces of paper and write the letters big).

G

E

L

N

(etc.)

Reveal it and see if they can guess what it refers to.

Once they figure it out, reveal a second scroll to replace the first one, and the second one
has all the names of the books written out.

Sing the Old Testament song with them a few times, pointing to each book as you sing it

(maybe really fast one time, maybe pinching their nose another time just to mix it up).

This year we’re going to learn about the Old Testament!

I want to hear what stories you know from the Old Testament (hear their answers)

Here are some of the stories we’ll be learning: Noah and the ark, Moses, Adam and Eve,
Daniel and the lion’s den, David and Goliath, Esther, etc.

What is the Old Testament? History of God’s dealings with his people from the creation of
earth until about 400 years before Christ was born.

There are a lot of FUN stories in the Old Testament!

Next week we’ll continue talking a little about the Plan of Salvation and then it’s onto Adam
and Eve.

Who has scriptures that they bring to class? Who has the Bible?

GETTING TO KNOW YOU GAME: NEVER HAVE I EVER

You guys probably already know a lot about each other, but let’s play a game so we can all
get to know each other better!

Have paddles created for each kid - could be a simple paper plate with a handle taped on
of some sort, etc.

One side it says “I HAVE” and the other side is “I HAVE NEVER”

Each side could be different colors to make it easier for them to quickly answer

Never have I ever…

...missed a high five

...eaten all of my Halloween candy in a day

...laughed so much that I cried

...been scuba diving

...had braces

...gotten stitches

...gone horseback riding

...read an entire book in a day

...dropped something in the toilet

...held a snake

...broken a bone

...slept until noon

...jumped off a diving board

...been to Disneyland

...won a contest

...been on a cruise

...been on TV

...stuffed my mouth full of marshmallows

...had dessert for dinner

...had sushi

...run or biked in a race

...thrown up on a roller coaster

...been rock climbing

...performed on a stage

...been trapped in an elevator

...chipped a tooth

...had a tree house

...traveled out of the US

And so on...continue until class is over.

If you run out of questions, have them make up their own to ask everyone.

TAKE HOME/TESTIMONY

We have a loving Father in Heaven who wants us to return to him!

Our purpose is to prepare for that day, and to try our best to choose the right and
learn to be like our Savior!

Take home ideas:

Something related to the LOVE theme for the Plan of Salvation
Something related to earth (earth squeeze ball etc) with the below quotation included
Something related to the Old Testament year topic
A photo of them (if you have one) with the quotation below printed on it
Something with their name or initial on it with the quotation below printed out to keep

"I testify that life is a gift. God has a plan for each one of us, and our individual
purpose began long before we came to this earth."

—Rosemary M. Wixom