This is my follow-up post for my “Follow the Prophet” lesson plan (found HERE). The purpose of these is they help others, going forward, tweak plans for their primaries, stray away from lesson plans that flopped {yes, it happens to everyone…even me!!}, and give feedback (don’t be too harsh!) about how it went in general. You can find my response below. These posts will be linked back to the actual lesson plan so they’ll be easy to reference.
So, I ask you…
If you taught my lesson plan for “Follow the Prophet,” how did it go, what things did you change, what do you wish you would have done differently, would you do it again? Leave a comment below!
Here’s my response:
I ended up teaching the Senior primary the “Jewish folksong” actions that Sister Pat Graham demonstrated on her video. It was a hit. The boys in the back would start standing tall and by the end of the chorus, they were down on their knees so they gradually got lower with the movement as we sang…glad they had fun with it! The Junior kids, I taught them the actions as I intended and it went over well. So well, that my little 3-year old was rolling his arms and clapping while singing “follow the prophet.” A success in my book!I finally decided on using the GAK pictures instead of the Susan Fitch ones. I will be using the Susan Fitch artwork for the Memory Game here soon.
I didn’t bother with the scripture references but instead had the kids tell me the story in their own words. I was amazed at how much they knew. There was one verse we got stuck – we couldn’t remember who the prophet was when Samuel was a boy in the tabernacle so we looked it up…Eli!I was wishing I had posted the words (don’t know what that is? Check the “Posting Words” tab above) to all the verses like I always do but that slipped my mind. I would have loved to have “guessed the prophet” and then brought out the words so everyone could sing. I’ll be doing that this week when we finish up.Then for Junior, the kids weren’t guessing the “Name that Prophet” very well so I held up each picture instead and they’d guess the prophet from there. Again, seeing if they could help me remember the story. I started to write the words on the board then stopped. I pretty much sang each verse to them and we’d all sing the chorus with actions together. The chorus was a great way to break up the prophet stories, but they were pretty engaged!
Facebook commenters said:
Staci said, “I did it and I used the gospel art pictures. It was a very good singing time. We had great discussions in senior primary. We learned a lot about the prophets. My new sunbeams were so excited because they knew the song already. We stood up and added marching in place as we did the hand movements as we sang the chorus. I felt it was a success. I don’t know how well they really memorized the verses but they learned a lot. I’m excited to continue this next week with it. Thanks for your great help.”
See more comments below as well!
6 thoughts on “Follow the Prophet Follow Up”
Please, where can I find Pat Graham's actions to Follow the Prophet? thanks
Hi Janie!
If you follow the link back to my "Follow the Prophet" lesson plan, you can find all the information there. To find it quickly, do a simple search for "Pat Graham" on the post and it will pop up.
I hope that helps!
Camille
I used it and overall it was a success. I too omitted the scriptures, I knew I wouldn't have time for them. Next week, to save time I am going to not write the key words, but hold up the pictures and quickly see who knows about that prophet. The key words didn't do well in our junior primary anyway.
I taught the actions to the chorus to all the kids, had them sit during the verse and then stand up during the chorus as we did the "Jewish Folk song" actions from Pat Graham. It worked best in Junior, my senior primary has quite a few "stick-in-the-mud" kids. 🙂 Plus, it helped get them moving a little. I only got through 3 prophets so I am hoping to conserve as much time as possible to get through all the rest next week!
I use a method called whole brain teaching where I have the kids mirror words while using "gestures" or actions with their hands. This works for both senior and junior primary. Watch a video on it…it was created by Chris Biffle. Whole brain teaching– great method to use for kinesthetic learners.
I did this last week and it went well! I have sr. And jr. Combined which is challenging at times. I had my sunbeams come up at the beginning and "lead" everyone through the chorus with the roll/clap actions. Everyone caught on and started doing it. We sang that through a few times than played name the prophet. it was hard for jr. but the seniors did amazing and loved it. We got through 4 prophets and I'll do the next four this week. This time I'll bring pictures for jr. To hold while we learn the new verse and again write the key phrases up on the board.
For my review activity in a couple weeks I made the pat graham cutout faces and will have them review he verse and then follow that prophet in an action like pat taught in the video. Thank you! By the way for posting that it was so helpful and inspiring.