All You Need For Your Primary's Nursery: Nursery Resources and Printables

All You Need For Your Primary's Nursery: Nursery Resources and Printables,

What an important part of Primary, Nursery is!!  I think it is important to review the purpose of nursery:

"The purpose of the nursery class is to help children learn the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and live it. The nursery class should help the children increase their understanding of and love for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, have positive experiences in a Church setting, and grow in feelings of self-worth." -Behold Your Little Ones: Nursery Manual (2008), 1–6

It's not a babysitting service, nor is it just play and treat time. But is is a class, a class that helps these 18 month old to 3 year old children learn and understand the love that their Heavenly Father and Savior has for them, through learning about His restored gospel. These children are fully capable and eager to learn these truths!

It's a great idea at the first of the year and as new nursery children are added into nursery that you give the parents a parent letter. The letter can be found here: Letter to Parents

Along with the letter I also like to give the parents a little questionnaire to fill out and turn back into the nursery leaders and a letter that explains the purpose and schedule to nursery. Click the Free Download below for these printables.

Nursery is now only fifty minutes long!  Nursery should include the following in its schedule: Lesson Time, Play Time, Snack Time and Music Time. There is learning that can be accomplished in all four of these areas. To find out more, please read the introduction in the nursery manual. You will be able to determine the order and time spent in each one of these areas.

Lesson Time:

My mom recently served as a nursery leader and wanted the nursery children to try to have their lessons correlate with the new, Come, Follow Me lessons. So she went through and made a schedule, doing the best she could. Some just don't really match up. She was so kind to let me share these with you. 

Play Time:

Some fun ideas for play time could include, puzzle play, reading books, play dough, felt boards, puppets, etc. At the end of play, encourage children to clean up. You could use the song, " Fun to Do". But use the words, 

Cleaning up toys is fun to do

Fun to do, to do, to do!

Cleaning up toys is fun to do,

To do, to do, to do!

Snack Time:

I've served in primary A LOT, so I've seen a lot of different things done in nursery for snack time. I have seen paper towels or coffee filters be used to place snacks on. I have seen little bathroom cups used for drinks, or sippy cups that are taken home each week by the leaders and washed. Make sure you only pour small amounts of water in the cups at a time, to prevent large spills.

As for snacks, be sensitive to any food allergies or concerns from parents. Snacks for nursery should come out of the primary budget. Some ideas of snacks could be, little goldfish crackers, pretzels, cheese (place in a little cooler for the day), sliced bananas, fruit snacks, etc.

Music Time:

There are so many great songs in the Children's Songbook! The music can help reinforce what was learned in the lesson. It can be songs that can help the children stretch and get their wiggles out. It can be split up. Do music before the lesson to get the children prepared for the lesson. Do music after the lesson, do music as you clean up, etc. You could also have music playing as the arrive in nursery. Teach the primary children the words as you sing it with them and teach them actions to some of the songs.

A fun song to sing with the primary children is "A Happy Family". Here are some printables you could print on card stock, cut out and paste on craft sticks to help them sing this song.

Here is a link to my old nursery post:

Nursery...Fun ideas and printables

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