Primary Secretary

Opening or Closing Exercises

Opening or closing exercises consist of a song, a scripture by a child (the child’s own choice where possible), and a prayer by a child. Children should also be invited in advance to give talks. Although Primary does not hold a testimony meeting for children, children who give talks could bear testimony as they desire. Messages from the bishopric and Primary presidency and songs could be included.

Example of schedule:

Prelude or postlude music
Prayer song
Prayer by one of the children
Scripture by one of the children (child's choice)
Brief message by a member of the presidency
Song
Message by a member of the bishopric (as often as possible)
A song or two (as time allows)
Talks by children (invited in advance)
Quiet song

If closing exercises are held instead of opening exercises, leaders may adjust the order of this agenda. The last items in closing exercises could be a summary message given by a member of the presidency, a scripture, a song about prayer, and a closing prayer.

taken from the church's web site CLICK HERE

Another idea shared by Tessa Palmer

One other idea we've implemented is using a can that we've decorated and have a popsicle stick with each child's name on it. When we need a helper or someone to participate in singing time or sharing time all we have to do is draw a stick out. It has eliminated kids getting antsy or overly eager to help since they know it will be their turn when their stick is drawn.

Sample Primary Newsletter

Here is a newsletter I put together for our Primary, this helps you get an idea of what you might do! You can open it in a pdf file or click on the picture to the right and it will open a bigger picture of it.

Sample Primary Newsletter.pdf

Example of a newsletter

Here is an example of a newsletter I would like to submit for all to use if they want. By Shannon Young

Thanks Shannon!! This is done in Microsoft, you can use this as an example or you can use it as a template, just cut out her info and replace with yours!!

Newsletter.doc

Conducting idea

We found that having the conducting sheet on a clip board with a pencil hooked to it worked really well, we were never looking for a pencil to make notes, we could clip anything else that needed to be announced or we needed, right to the clip board, and never lose it. And things would not fall like in a folder.

STICKERS

We also kept the stickers which we handed out to the kids after they gave the prayer. Talk or Scripture for us, we also had stickers for those who had a birthday (along with the small birthday gift for them) or for new kids or visitors.

You can see them at this link

CLICK HERE

Ideas for contacting Primary children

Here are some ideas for some little things when you need to contact Primary Children

CLICK HERE

ROLL HOLDER

In one of the wards I was in, someone made a Roll Holder It hung on the coat rack outside the Primary Door it had a pocket for each class, it would hold the roll, pencil, flyers and anything else that the teacher might need for that day. It was great and it was all in one spot!

ASSIGNING TALKS AND PRAYERS AND SCRIPTURES

Another great thing we found that worked well in our Primary was the baskets of sticks. We used three baskets, one marked Scriptures, one marked Prayer and one marked Talks, then we put the names of all the kids in Primary, one set in each basket (we had a total of 6 baskets, 3 for JR and 3 for SR) I also color coded the ends of the sticks so we knew which basket they belonged in, then after one child gives a talk or prayer or the scripture they get to pick out of the basket who will be doing it for the next week. We then put the sticks in a bag (also marked with JR/prayer etc) to save and be put back in when the basket gets low or is empty. The kids LOVE doing it this way, the Secretary would also handout a reminder of what the child would be doing the next week!

Printable reminders click here