I am thankful for my home and family
 

 

To prepare ahead of time:

Before Primary, place the following four clues in sealed envelopes and label each one "Clue 1", "Clue 2" and so on.  Here are the clues:

1. When people think of me, they think of love.
2. I am a place where you find kindness and charity.
3. I am a place where you feel safety, security, happiness, and joy.
4. I am a place where we want to be.

You'll also need the following word strips: LOVE, KINDNESS, CHARITY, SAFETY, SECURITY, HAPPINESS, and JOY. Also prepare one word strip with the words HOME and HEAVEN to use later.

On strips of paper, write “Successful … families are established and maintained on principles of … respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.” Cut the sentence into individual words and place in an envelope.  Make enough envelopes so that each class can have one.
 

Invite the children to look under their chairs for clues about today's sharing time. After the clues are read, place the keywords (your word strips) on the board randomly, in no particular order.  Ask them if they know the answer to all of your clues.  Without answering yes or no to any of their responses, continue on with the following...

Everyone close your eyes.  Picture a house.  Are you picturing a building with windows and a door?  A house is where families eat, sleep and live.  A house becomes a home when family members learn together, help each other and do fun things. 

Then, just you sing the first line of the song, "Home can be a heaven on earth" p. 298.  Choose a child to help you.  Have them place the keywords/word strip for that line in the order you sang it.  Then sing the line together as a Primary and make sure they chose the right word strip.  Repeat this process for the other three lines of the first verse until you have all the keywords in the correct order.
 

Hold the HOME and HEAVEN word strip so it does not face the children and give them the last clue: “I start with the letter ‘H.’ How many think the answer to this clue is HEAVEN? How many think it is HOME? [Show word strip.] It is both HOME and HEAVEN!”
 

Sing the whole first verse, and ask the children to sing the answers HOME and HEAVEN more loudly than the other words of the song. 

 Hand out the envelopes you prepared or each class (see instructions above).  Invite the class to look for the words and work together to arrange them. Also give them a sheet of paper and a glue stick so that they can assemble the sentence once they've figured it out.

After they have completed the project say, "Just as you've worked together to arrange the sentence, it is also important to work together in our families."
 

Activity Idea #1 - If possible, sit in a circle and tell the children you are going to play a game to help discover things we can do to strengthen our families. Hold up a word strip that says, “I strengthen my family when I __________ .” Fill in the blank with a short phrase that suggests a way to serve, work, or show love to family members (for example, wash the dishes, take care of the baby, say kind words, clean my room, hug my dad). Then hand the word strip to a child, and have him or her repeat everything you said, then add his or her own suggestion of what we can do. The child then passes the word strip to the next person, with each person continuing to repeat what has been said and adding to it. When the statement becomes too long to remember, start over at the beginning. Encourage the children to strengthen their families this week by doing what they discussed.

Activity Idea #2 - Display a picture of King Benjamin (GAK 307). Read together King Benjamin’s message to families (see Mosiah 2:1, 5–7; Mosiah 4:13–15, 30).  Have the children play a matching game using duplicates of pictures that depict family togetherness (for example, Primary 1-6, 1-45, 1-51, 1-53, 2-42, 3-25). Place the pictures facedown on the floor. Have the children turn over two at a time to try to make a match. Share an experience of when your family was blessed by following the Church’s counsel for families.

SUMMARY - Bear your testimony that when we show kindness, charity, and love to our family, we make our home like heaven here on earth.