Come Follow Me: Matthew 13; Luke 8; 13 (March 18–24)

Hi everyone! I have some really fun FREE lesson helps to teach Matthew 13, Luke 8, and 13.  This week it's all about parables and these ideas are great for families and primary.  Today I'm going to take a minute to get real with you.  I don't do this really ever because I honestly like to be the behind the scenes person.  Every time I publish a new post or idea I have so much anxiety just pushing that publish button.  Not because I'm afraid that someone may not like my idea-it happens and I'm okay with that.  But its more about putting myself out there, talk about major introvert over here.  These Come Follow Me lessons have taken that worry to a whole new level.  I worry that I'm not teaching something quite right or maybe I don't know the gospel well enough and there are so many people that know so much more then me.  However I am so grateful for this new curriculum.  Its pushed me to study, to pray and then listen to the spirit as I work on these lessons for my family and primary class each week. I have been learning so much and I can see my own children's testimonies grow.  It has been such a blessing.  I also feel so much joy that some of these posts have helped others teach their families and class.  And I want to thank all of you that stop by, for your kind words, and just for taking a chance on me.  I'm sharing this because I know there are some of you that may have felt these same insecurities when it comes to teaching your own family.  Its easy to look at others and think they have it all together.  The truth is there is no wrong way to do this and you are doing great!  Last week I was planning and studying the wrong lesson and luckily caught my mistake in time to prep the right lesson.  I'm grateful for that extra week to study this lesson because I sure needed it.  This is one of those lessons that really stretched me and pretty much lead to the rambling above :)  Anyway I hope you find something that works for your family or primary class.  I know I learned a few things this week and I can't wait to teach my little ones about some of Christ's parables :)

This week we are covering 6 parables!  Its totally up to you if you want to do all of them or just 1 or 2.  Each parable has a couple of ideas.  There is so much so break it up or use just what works for you.  My plan is to use the parable of the sower one day, the wheat and tares the 2nd day, then combine the pearl of great price and hidden treasure on a day, and then the leaven and mustard seed the last day.  I pulled ideas from the Individual and family, primary, and even a couple of quotes from the Sunday school manual.

Each parable has one of these puppets.  You can add it to a Popsicle stick and hold it up while you read or tell the parable.  Sometimes its just nice to have a visual especially since little ones might not know what wheat or a pearl is. 

The Parable of the Sower
In the download I've also broken it up with a cover page for each parable with a list of ideas.  This one is the longest and some just have one idea or a link if I referenced another post.  You do not need to print these pages its just to help you out so you don't have to scroll through this post so much.

The first idea is to use these jumbo puppets to tell the story.  I did include color and black and white.  Hold them up with you read the parable or I thought it would be really cute to dress one child up as the sower and give them some seeds (maybe jellybeans!) Have them walk and drop a few seeds and then have another child bring the birds in and pretend to eat them.  Then keep moving to the stony ground, the thorns, and the good soil dropping seeds.  

These pictures have rectangles on the page and an additional one on the top-now I haven't tested this yet but hopefully it works :)  Cut along the bottom straight edge and around the top of the picture and the extra rectangle.  Tape the ends together to create a circle (like a crown) and have your little prop stand up.  Your sower can drop the seeds into the center of this circle.  Another option would be to just cut around the picture and glue it to a Popsicle stick and use as a puppet.  The thorns do look like grass hopefully a little like weeds.  The main reason is I didn't have the right clip art but also I ran with it because my kids don't really know what thorns are but they definitely know what weeds are. Its kind of the same idea where their seed is planted among the thorns or weeds and there is so much extra stuff that the little plant cant' grow.  Its a lot like when we allow all of the extra worldly stuff into our lives that that we can't grow.  I really love this talk by Elder Oaks. It really helped me understand this parable so much more and I am going to reference some of his example while teaching my older children.

I included a notes page.  This would be great to slide into a journal.  And I included a little recipe page for dirt cups!  These would be so fun to make and kids remember treats haha.  One additional idea I thought of would be to plant some jellybeans in your dirt to carry on with the theme.

Here's pin the seed in the dirt game.  The idea is just like pin the tail on the donkey but you are trying to plant your seed in the good soil.  The picture below shows the easy version of the game.  I also included another one for the kids that want more of a challenge. It has a lot more of everything on it and small good soil spots.  If you see a page that looks like a jumbled mess you've found it :)  There is also a page of seeds-print on brown paper or color them.  Write each child's name on their seed and add tape to the back.  Blindfold and have fun!

There are also 2 coloring pages with space to answer the question at the top of the page.  One can be done individually the other would be fun to do as a family.

You can also find smaller puppets for this parable in this post

Wheat and Tares:  I love how this parable is explained in the primary manual.  We are going to talk about good and bad choices.  If you played my choosing the right makes me happy game then you might recognize these scenario cards.  To play roll the dice and move the correct number of spaces.  Then pick a card, read it, and decide if its a wheat choice (good choice) or a tare choice (bad choice). I've also included a quote page (the quote if from the Sunday School manual).  We are going to use this quote for our discussion that there is wickedness around us and sometimes its hard to recognize.  The wheat and tares look a lot a like in the beginning and relate that to somethings in their lives that may seem okay at first but turn out to be not so good.  We actually had an experience with this not too long ago with a tv show we were watching.   It was a cute one that we really enjoyed watching together but one day they introduced a new plot line that we were not comfortable with. We decided together to stop watching the show.  It was a great teaching moment and an example I will be using when we go over this parable. 

mustard seed- This is one of those activities that I was hoping to have a sample for you but I didn't make it to the store.  I share mine as soon as we do it!  I'm hoping my extra images will help out with my explaniation.  I'm going to get some mustand seeds and we are going to glue one in the cirlce.  Then we are going to draw a tree in the empty space where it says after.  You can make your tree however you want.  Paint, construction paper, etc.  We have been loving directed drawing lately so that's what we are going to do.  I found one for a tree here. 

If you have't heard of directed drawings (I hadn't a few weeks ago) the idea is you and your kids draw a picture step by step together often with you modeling it.  I'm not very good at drawing so I usually show them the instructions and we draw each step at the same time. Even my 3 year old joins in.  The fun part is they all end up a little different and it gives those little ones that may not be that comfortable with drawing enough help that it really boosts their confidence in this new skill.  Anyway after we draw we either color it or outline it in sharpie and use watercolors.  If you are going to use watercolors I strongly suggest printing this page on cardstock.

leaven-This one I do not have any printables for you.  We are going to make homemade pizza and observe what happens when we add the yeast and what happens to the dough after its had some time to rise.  If you don't want to make pizza bread is another good options.  I added a link for bread in a bag that looks like a lot of fun.

Hidden treasure-We are going on a treasure hunt!  I've included some gems with pictures that make the gospel a treasure.  I also included some coins without pictures.  First you want to assemble your treasure box.  It's simple print the 2 pages for the treasure box-color or b&w.  Careful there are 2 colored lids-you only need one of these pages.  One has colored coins and the other has b&w coins. Its up to you which ones you want to use.  After you print your treasure box cut around the outer edges.  Staple the lid at the top on the top (on the blank white part) so your lid can open.  You will glue your treasure to the white part after you find it.  Cut all your gems and coins.  Hide them around the room and let your little ones hunt for them.  After all the of the treasure is found read the parable of the hidden treasure.  Talk about the pictures on the gems and how they are a treasure to you.  Pass out the coins and have everyone draw something about the gospel that is a treasure to them (they can copy some of the ideas you already discussed if they want to).  I've also included some mini treasure boxes and  coins to go with each.  You can lets your littles decorate their own box and treasure.

pearl of great price-We are going to "search" for the missing pearl.  You can play this 2 ways.  The first is to get a bead (pearl) and 3 cups. Hide the pearl under one of the cups and mix them up.  The other player has to guess what cup the pearl is under.  The second option is the same type of idea but I wanted to add a printable in case you didn't have a bead to use.  There are 5 colored squares and one pearl.  Lay out your 5 squares.  Have someone leave the room and hide the pearl under one of them.  Have the person come back and try and guess which square the pearl is under by lifting each square.  Let them continue guessing until the pearl is found.  Continue playing until everyone has had a turn. I also included a story from the Sunday School manual that goes with this parable. 

Okay that's it for this week!  I hope you found something that will work for your family or primary class.  As always if you have any questions or are having trouble accessing the download please let me know!

Download your Free Printables Here

 Adorable graphics from Melonheadz,   DSart ,  Chirp Graphics, Glitter Meets Glue,  Krista Wallden - Creative Clips, Mather's Music, Creating4 the Classroom, Educlips  and Fonts by Hello Literacy and Kimberly Geswein Fonts