USE FOR: COME FOLLOW ME, Primary and Home (family home evening), Activity Days, Sunday School, Bible Study
Little LESSON LIFESAVER Activity
10 Commandments Key-word Cake
OBJECTIVE: To teach the children/youth that keeping the Ten Commandments will bring happiness (like the cake that is lit).
ACTIVITY: 10 Commandments keyword cake
Talk about the ingredients that make a cake and compare it to the 10 Commandments, the “ingredients” God gave to Moses. Living the ten commandments will make your life sweet. It will also bring light to our life, just like the candles that light up a cake.
Tell the youth that obeying the commandments can be a “piece of cake,” or as easy as 1, 2, 3. Here’s how: (1) Read the scriptures daily to learn about the commandments of God. (2) Pray to know what you should do to keep the commandments. (3) Listen to the Spirit of the Holy Ghost to help you keep the commandments.
To Learn Commandment Keywords: Look up the scripture and write in the keywords to the 10 Commandments on the candles. Youth can make up their own keywords or use these (shown above, reading left to right): Love God, No graven images, No swearing, Keep the Sabbath holy, Obey parents, Do not kill, Be chaste, Do not steal, Do not lie, Do not envy (Exodus 20:3-17).
TO MAKE Print and cut out the 10 Commandments keyword cake for each child.
THOUGHT TREAT: 10 Commandment Cupcakes. Make 10 cupcakes with a candle on each and pretend to light candles. Talk about the Spirit of the Holy Ghost that lights our way when we obey the commandments. The Holy Ghost can also leave (pretend to blow out candles, if at church, or light them and blow them out at home) when we don’t obey. As we obey the commandments we build character and become more like Jesus.
SCRIPTURE CHALLENGE CARD: Help children Search and Ponder this scripture card by filling in the blanks. PRINT this 5 x 7 scripture card from the pdf included with the above activity. You can punch the two holes on the left and tie a ribbon to attach cards or use two metal rings to connect cards.
1st Time Moses Received the 10 Commandments (Exodus 31:18)
“And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.”
God then destroyed them as the Israelites were not ready to receive them.
2nd Time Moses Received the Commandments (Exodus 34:27-28)
“And he was there forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.”
LESSON 21
The Ten Commandments
“Lesson 21: The Ten Commandments,” Primary 6: Old Testament (1996), 90–94
Purpose
To teach the children that keeping the Ten Commandments helps us be happy.
Preparation
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Prayerfully study:
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Exodus 19—The Lord covenants with the people and appears on Mount Sinai.
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Exodus 20:1–22—The Ten Commandments are revealed.
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Exodus 24:12, 18—Moses stays on Mount Sinai for forty days.
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Exodus 31:18—The tablets are written by the finger of the Lord.
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Exodus 32:1–24, 30–32—Aaron makes a golden calf.
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Additional reading:
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Mosiah 12:34–36, 13:15–24—The Ten Commandments are given to the Nephites.
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Doctrine and Covenants 59:5–9—The Lord repeats some of the Ten Commandments to the Prophet Joseph Smith.
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Study the lesson and decide how you want to teach the children the scripture account (see “Preparing Your Lessons,” p. vi, and “Teaching from the Scriptures,” p. vii). Select the discussion questions and enrichment activities that will best help the children achieve the purpose of the lesson.
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Materials needed:
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A Bible for each child.
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A list of the ingredients in a cake for each child.
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Picture 6-24, Moses and the Ten Commandments.
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The chart of the Ten Commandments at the end of this lesson or from the meetinghouse library (65038).
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Suggested Lesson Development
Invite a child to give the opening prayer.
Enrichment Activities
You may use one or more of the following activities any time during the lesson or as a review, summary, or challenge.
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Display the chart of the Ten Commandments with a few of the words covered, and let the children take turns filling in the blanks. (Or you could make copies of this chart, with some of the words missing, for each child and let the children fill in the blanks on their own copies.) They could then take their copies home to remind them to obey the Ten Commandments.
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Briefly discuss what each commandment means and help the children learn them by playing a game. Give the children each a number or numbers, depending on the class size, from one to ten. Have them learn the commandment that corresponds to their number. Then call out various numbers. When each child’s number is called, have him or her say (or read from the chart) that commandment. After several turns give the children new numbers and play again.
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Notice that all of the Ten Commandments fit under the two great commandments that Jesus Christ gave in Matthew 22:37–40: to love God and to love our neighbors. Write Love God and Love Neighbors on the chalkboard. Let the children take turns reading each commandment from Exodus 20:3–17 or from the chart. Have them write on the chalkboard a few key words from each commandment under the appropriate heading. Discuss specific ways to live these commandments, and challenge the children to choose one specific way to show love for God and to show love for their neighbors this week.
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Place the wordstrip “Loss of Freedom—Unhappiness” on one wall of the classroom and the wordstrip “Freedom—Happiness” on the other. Explain that although Satan often makes it look like fun to break the commandments, all the choices we make have consequences. When people follow Satan’s plan, at first it seems to give them more freedom. But as they continue to make wrong choices, the consequences begin to bind them. For example, if people lie and cheat, they are not worthy to be in the presence of God. People who choose to keep the commandments may at first feel restricted. But as they continue to make right choices, their lives begin to open up to greater freedoms. For instance, if young people stay pure and morally clean, later they will have the privilege of going to the holy temple to receive all the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Have the children choose slips of paper with an action written on each paper, such as “don’t steal,” “control your temper,” “smoke and drink,” “lie,” “stay pure and clean,” and so on.
Depending on what their papers say, have the children stand by the appropriate wordstrip and read the action and tell what the consequence might be and why it brings us happiness and freedom or unhappiness and loss of freedom.
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Sing or read the words to “Keep the Commandments” (Children’s Songbook, p. 146) or “The Commandments” (Children’s Songbook, p. 112).
Conclusion
MORE LESSON IDEAS:
• Present Lesson 21 – Primary 6 Manual – Old Testament: The Ten Commandments. Review attention activity and discussion of commandments 1-10 (for which the above activity applies).