Primary Lesson #1 Supplement
ATTENTION ACTIVITY: Before class, write the following on the chalkboard, leaving out the dashes so it appears as one long string of letters:
DID-YOU-KNOW-THAT-THE-NEW-TESTAMENT-WAS-WRITTEN-LIKE-THIS
-LOWERCASE-LETTERS-AND-SPACES-BETWEEN-THE-WORDS-AND-
PUNCTUATION-WERE-NOT-ADDED-UNTIL-LATER-IT-WAS-NOT-UNTIL
-CENTURIES-LATER-THAT-CHAPTER-DIVISIONS-AND-VERSE-DIVISIONS
—AND-CHAPTER-HEADINGS-AND-FOOTNOTES-WERE-ADDED
Ask your students if they can read what it says. Discuss your gratitude for modern helps in understanding the scriptures.
ATTENTION ACTIVITY: Write the following on the board: KATA MAÓ¨Ó¨AOIN
Ask your students if they know what language this is or what it says. Explain that this is Greek–the language that the New Testament was written in–and that it is the title of Matthew’s Gospel (it says kata = ‘according to’ and Mattaion = ‘Matthew’). Share your gratitude to Matthew and the other New Testament writers for sharing their testimonies of Jesus Christ with us.
VISUAL AID Print out the image from here. This is the earliest known New Testament text—a tiny fragment from the Gospel of John. Express your gratitude for the countless numbers of people who, in various ways, preserved the scriptures throughout history for us.
ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY #2: If you choose to do this activity from the lesson, you may want to have your students play the telephone game to illustrate how a message can change over time.
STUDY AIDS: Use Matthew 26 as an example of the study aids available our scriptures:
–Have your students look at v7 and ask them what is unusual about the words “at meat.†Explain that they are in italics and that this means that these words were not part of the Greek text but were added by the translators to make the translation smoother.
–Now have your students look at footnote 4a. A footnote beginning with GR means that an alternative translation of the Greek word is given.
–Look at 8a. TG means ‘topical guide,’ where you can find a list of other scriptures on the same topic.
–Look at 7a. When another scripture reference is given, it is called a cross-reference and may contain ideas that help you better understand this verse.
Teaching your class how to use the study aids may be more fun if you write several verse references—including footnotes–on slips of paper and put them in a jar. Let your students pick them one at a time, look them up, and see what they can learn from the footnotes. A slightly more complicated version of this activity would be to create a Jeopardy game that uses the footnotes to find the ‘questions’ that go along with the ‘answers’ that you give.
Thank you for continuing to write these.
Your last one saved my bacon this morning–the Primary Pres called me 10 mins before I was to leave the house and asked if I would sub for Course 5 and, by the way, I wouldn’t have a book. So I looked up your supplement, printed off a couple of Friend pages, and everything went peachy. THANK YOU!!
Glad to be of service, Idahospud. Thanks for the feedback–I’d considered discontinuing these because I don’t think the teachers in my ward are using them.
Julie,
PLEASE don’t discontinue them. I consider them one of my greatest resources. As a single working mom it’s been a lifesaver so I don’t spend all my time having to search lds.org myself for a great idea. Thanks,
Second that – who cares if the teachers in your ward aren’t using them? There are those of us that love ’em, look forward to ’em, and wish you had done them for the Jr Primary curriculum, too. What I like is the new twist you always give, that tweaks/updates/brings down to earth the sometimes saccharine manual content. Keep it up, please. They’re utterly unique, could not be duplicated by searching elsewhere on the web.
Thanks for the feedback. I’ll keep doing them.
This is great! I have been in YW most of my life. This is my first time in Primary (if you can believe that…I have 8 kids of my own.) There are so many resources for YW, and I was happy to find this one for Primary. It is fabulous, and very much appreciated. Thanks!
We just got to lesson #1 in my ward, so I am a little late here, but I just wanted to join with the voices of thanks for doing these Julie. My husband and I use them every week, they are a lifesaver, we truly love them. Thank you so much for doing this.