Primary Lesson: Serving

I love being a Primary teacher.
I love that I can be silly and my class loves it.
I love the random things my class will say. (my fave so far, "I keep the sabbath day holy by not coming to church naked.")
I love that I'm teaching children about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
I love just love it all.

But teaching a lesson can be difficult sometimes. This week's lesson is on serving. Easy, right?

No.

Whenever I mention the word service I get the usual response...
"Do dishes for my mom"
"Do dishes for my dad"
"Clean my room"

All very good things but I'm not one to think inside the box.
So with Halloween approaching Mike helped me take this lesson to the next step.

When explaining the story about Jesus washing his Apostles feet I knew I was losing them. So I stopped and we played this game. Mike made a bean bag game for me to take. After each kid threw the bean bags into the plastic pumpkin they picked a popsicle stick from my "Halloween" jar. And on each stick their was a name written.

Mom, dad, sister, brother, teacher, God, friend, neighbor, and home.

When a kid picked one out they then had to share a memory of how and when they served this person. It really helped them get out of the usual answers and ponder when they served their sister.
We heard some sweet stories. We also heard some funny stories about sharing markers that they stole earlier in the say. Another day; another lesson. :-)

After our game announced a class challenge. I wrapped bite size snickers up in some scrapbook paper and gave each child one. The look in their eyes... it was as if they hit the jackpot.
But I told them to not open it. And went into my enrichment activity.

I explained that service is a wonderful act. That helping someone is wonderful. But also giving can bring a wonderful feeling. I gave examples like giving food/clothes to homeless people. Or giving a meal to someone in need. Then I explained that sometimes service can be hard. Like sharing with your sister when you don't really want to....or giving someone a candy that you want to eat.
That's when it all changed.
I challenged all my kids to do an act of service today. To give this candy to someone who they feel needs it. It could be their parents, siblings, or someone in the hall. And if they did this challenge  I promised that they would feel happy by doing that. That service brings a sort of happy feeling in their hearts that they could get no where else. ( <--- sort of my testimony sharing time)

After everyone promised to try to serve I handed out my Halloween gift/treat. Nothing says Christ like pumpkin pencils, bat straws, and marshmallow sticks.

But the joy I experienced after class is describable. Even though the halls were extremely crowded I seen each child from my class hand their candy to either their sister, mother, or father. One little boy gave his to me. Which was very sweet. I admit I felt happy :-)
Then he seen his mom and asked for it back. hahaha....I love being a Primary teacher.