Everyday object lessons

Submitted by Amanda Nelson

The lesson is about trust.  You will need a bunch of building blocks, the wooden kind, not Lego’s or anything that locks together.  You can tape labels  on the blocks that build character like, caring for others, responsibility, fairness, service, being a good friend, truthfulness, etc.  (This is not necessary, but helpful)  Then as a group, build a tower together until its as high as you can build it.  Then have one person try to knock it down.  Ask them to try and do it in one kick or push.  Then tell them that you need to build it again.  Once that is done you can explain that just like trust in a person, it builds over time, but it only takes one kick (lie or broken promise) to destroy it all.  All trust is broken.  It also takes a long time to rebuild that trust once it has been broken.

This was a lesson from a recent primary sharing time.  I don’t know the original source.  The topic was on family history but the lesson could be used for any topic where you want to encourage and show how helpful it is to use teamwork.

Have  a bag containing a wide variety of 20 items.  Show each one as you bring it out then put them back into the bag.  Then move on something else in your topic – this way the students will “forget” some of the items they have seen.

Then have the students write down as many items as they can remember – on their own.  After that, give instructions for students to work together and see if they get more items on the list.  This illustrates that working together makes it more fun, and you get more accomplished.