FHE: The Holy Ghost Helps Me
It's Halloween next week, so my boys (4, 2) were so excited to learn that this lesson was about a ghost! However, this ghost is the nicest, best ghost and our friend. The Holy Ghost. This lesson is based off the Sunbeam's Manual: The Holy Ghost Helps Me.
Prayer:
Introduction: Show a picture of the First Vision. "Point out Heavenly Father and Jesus and explain that they have physical bodies that look like ours. Explain that the Holy Ghost is like Heavenly Father and Jesus in many ways. He loves us and helps us. But he does not have a physical body. He is a spirit so he can quietly put ideas into our minds and give us feelings of comfort."
1) Comforter. I chose to put our first ghost on my four's favorite stuffed animal, who he always asks for when he's hurt or sad. Just as "Reeks" helps you when you're hurt or sad, the Holy Ghost can also help comfort us and help us feel better.
2) Know Right & Wrong. Inside the baggie I put a happy face and frowny face taped onto a popsicle stick. Each boy got to have one happy face and one frowny face. "Explain that the Holy Ghost helps us know the difference between between right and wrong by giving us a good, warm feelings when we do something right and a sad feeling when we do something wrong." We talked about things that the children do (specific examples, like when my four brought me flowers or when my two gives me a great big hug) and they would hold up the happy face, because it made them feel good. We focused on the good things they do and how the Holy Ghost can help know it's right. I also brought up the time I yelled yesterday and I asked my boys, guess how I felt afterward? I felt so so sad and yucky inside. The boys held up their frowny face.
3) Testifies of Heavenly Father & Jesus. "Explain that the Holy Ghost can help us know when something is true or real. Show the children a bag with an object in it. Tell the children that there is something in the bag, but do not show them the object. Ask, "Is there something in this bag?" Explain that even though the children cannot see the object in the bag, they know it is there because you told them it was there. Even though few people ever see Heavenly Father and Jesus, the Holy Ghost can help us know that Heavenly Father and Jesus are real and that they love us." I placed a small treat for each boy as the object in our bag.
4) Warns & Guides Us. I placed two blocks (one as a house and the other as a carriage), a tree, and a horse to use as objects as I briefly told the story of President Woodruff: "One night while President Woodruff, his wife, and their four children were on a journey, they stopped to sleep at a friend's house. Three of the children slept in the house while President Woodruff, his wife, and one child slept outside in the carriage. President Woodruff said: "I had been in bed but a short time when a voice said to me: 'Get up and move your carriage.' It was not thunder, lightning or an earthquake, but the still, small voice of the Spirit of God - The Holy Ghost ... I got up and moved my carriage and set it by the side of the house. As I was returning to bed the same Spirit said to me, 'Go and move your mules away from that oak tree.' ... I moved them to a young hickory grove and tied them up. I then went to bed. In thirty minutes a whirlwind caught the tree to which my mules had been fastened, broke it off near the ground, and carried it one hundred hards, sweeping away two fences in its course, and lad it where my carriage had stood. By obeying the revelation of the Spirit of God to me I saved my life and the lives of my wife and child, as well as my animals."
Testimony: Review the four ways the Holy Ghost helps us. Tell a story of when the Holy Ghost helped you.
Activity: Ghost Rockets from Growing a Jeweled Rose! My boys absolutely LOVED making these and watching them shoot into the air. They helped add ingredients and stood back as dad put the rockets into place. Here's what you need:
Prayer:
Introduction: Show a picture of the First Vision. "Point out Heavenly Father and Jesus and explain that they have physical bodies that look like ours. Explain that the Holy Ghost is like Heavenly Father and Jesus in many ways. He loves us and helps us. But he does not have a physical body. He is a spirit so he can quietly put ideas into our minds and give us feelings of comfort."
How the Holy Ghost Helps Us: Before the lesson, I made these little ghosts and wrote four different ways the Holy Ghost helps us on them (see below). I placed them in a gift bag and my boys took turns drawing an item out as we discussed how the Holy Ghost helps us.
- Comforter
- Know Right & Wrong
- Testifies of Heavenly Father & Jesus
- Warns & Guides Us
2) Know Right & Wrong. Inside the baggie I put a happy face and frowny face taped onto a popsicle stick. Each boy got to have one happy face and one frowny face. "Explain that the Holy Ghost helps us know the difference between between right and wrong by giving us a good, warm feelings when we do something right and a sad feeling when we do something wrong." We talked about things that the children do (specific examples, like when my four brought me flowers or when my two gives me a great big hug) and they would hold up the happy face, because it made them feel good. We focused on the good things they do and how the Holy Ghost can help know it's right. I also brought up the time I yelled yesterday and I asked my boys, guess how I felt afterward? I felt so so sad and yucky inside. The boys held up their frowny face.
3) Testifies of Heavenly Father & Jesus. "Explain that the Holy Ghost can help us know when something is true or real. Show the children a bag with an object in it. Tell the children that there is something in the bag, but do not show them the object. Ask, "Is there something in this bag?" Explain that even though the children cannot see the object in the bag, they know it is there because you told them it was there. Even though few people ever see Heavenly Father and Jesus, the Holy Ghost can help us know that Heavenly Father and Jesus are real and that they love us." I placed a small treat for each boy as the object in our bag.
4) Warns & Guides Us. I placed two blocks (one as a house and the other as a carriage), a tree, and a horse to use as objects as I briefly told the story of President Woodruff: "One night while President Woodruff, his wife, and their four children were on a journey, they stopped to sleep at a friend's house. Three of the children slept in the house while President Woodruff, his wife, and one child slept outside in the carriage. President Woodruff said: "I had been in bed but a short time when a voice said to me: 'Get up and move your carriage.' It was not thunder, lightning or an earthquake, but the still, small voice of the Spirit of God - The Holy Ghost ... I got up and moved my carriage and set it by the side of the house. As I was returning to bed the same Spirit said to me, 'Go and move your mules away from that oak tree.' ... I moved them to a young hickory grove and tied them up. I then went to bed. In thirty minutes a whirlwind caught the tree to which my mules had been fastened, broke it off near the ground, and carried it one hundred hards, sweeping away two fences in its course, and lad it where my carriage had stood. By obeying the revelation of the Spirit of God to me I saved my life and the lives of my wife and child, as well as my animals."
Testimony: Review the four ways the Holy Ghost helps us. Tell a story of when the Holy Ghost helped you.
Activity: Ghost Rockets from Growing a Jeweled Rose! My boys absolutely LOVED making these and watching them shoot into the air. They helped add ingredients and stood back as dad put the rockets into place. Here's what you need:
- Small container with a lid. I found a set of six at the Dollar Tree! These film canisters also work.
- Corn Starch
- Water
- Alka Seltzer Tablets
- Permanent Marker to draw ghost faces
1) Fill a container with 1-2 teaspoons of cornstarch.
2) Add just enough water and stir to make a paste. The paste should fill about 1/3 of the container.
3) Break ONE Alka Seltzer tablet into a few pieces and place the pieces in the container. Have the kids stand back.
4) Adult place the lid on the container and flip the container upside down (lid side on the ground) and wait for the ghost to shoot in the air! Two of our containers (remember they were from the Dollar Tree) cracked at the top and weren't able to shoot off, but the others we used multiple times. Here's a short clip of one of our ghosts shooting off...
