USE FOR: COME FOLLOW ME, Primary and Home (family home evening), Activity Days, Sunday School, Bible Study
POST-AND-PRESENT Activity
Accountability: I Am Responsible for My Choices
(Annabell’s Accountable Cow Farm)
OBJECTIVE: Help children learn the difference between right and wrong and learn to be responsible for their choices. We can be like the accountable cow (illustrated in this activity) who is “udder”-ly responsible and “udder”ly prepared to be baptized. Show a picture of a child being baptized. Talk about the different pastures the cows could go in. Inside the Peaceful Pasture, the cow can find safety, food, and comfort. Inside the Dry Desert, the cow would find neither safety, food nor comfort. We want to be part of Heavenly Father’s kingdom where we will find peace and happiness. As we choose the right, we can find our Peaceful Pasture.
TO MAKE:
1. Using cardstock, print or copy images that follow. If printing the color version, simply cut out images and laminate them. For the black-and-white version, color, cut out, and laminate.
2. Tape the top half of the barn on the board or a large poster, e.g., a green poster with the barn to the far left so that the green pasture is only on the right. Tape the bottom half of the barn on the board or poster to create a pocket leaving the top open to enclose cows.
3. Mount the cows and fence as follows on cardstock paper, laminate and cut out.
4. Place Peaceful Pasture fence on the right (symbolizing Choose the Right) and Dry Desert fence on the left. Place all cows in the barn pocket to draw from.
INTRODUCE GAME: Talk about objective above.
Tell children that we were sent to earth to learn to be responsible, to make the right choices. By the time we are eight years old, we are accountable or responsible for all our choices. We can be baptized at eight and be forgiven of our sins. At this time we receive the gift of the Holy Ghost to guide us in choosing the right. We can be more responsible now that we have the Holy Ghost to guide us. If we make mistakes after baptism, we need to repent and change the wrong choices to the right choices.
Let’s learn what it means to be accountable by placing cows where they belong in Annabell’s Accountable Cow Farm. We can learn to be responsible for our decisions and place the cow that made the right decisions in Peaceful Pasture, and the cows that made the wrong decisions in the Dry Desert. If the cow repents and changes his actions from wrong to right, he can move into the Peaceful Pasture.
TO PLAY:
1. Divide children into two teams.
2. Teams take turns pulling a cow out of the barn, reading the words on the cow.
3. If the cow made a responsible decision by choosing the right, place the cow in the Peaceful Pasture and collect 2 points. If the cow did not choose the right, place him in the Dry Desert and minus one point for your team.
4. New players can either take a new cow out of the barn, taking a chance on pulling out a cow that did not choose the right and losing a point. Or, they can choose a cow out of the Dry Dessert and tell how the cow can repent and make a responsible decision (choosing the right). They can then place the repentant cow in the Peaceful Pasture and collect 2 points.
5. The team with the most points wins after all the cows are out of the barn and the Dry Desert.
THOUGHT TREAT: Serve cow treats (ice cream, yogurt). Talk about how cows are responsible for providing milk, cheese, butter, and meat. They are responsible for helping us in this way. We too can be responsible to serve others and make the right choices.
SCRIPTURE TO MEMORIZE: Memorize the D&C 68:27 scripture (shown) that follows.
LESSON IDEAS:
PICTURE: Obtain a picture of a child being baptized.
QUESTION: Ask, “Why is it Important for Me to Be Baptized When I Am Eight Years Old?” and answer the question using the following sources to teach.
#1: The Lord has set the age of eight years as the time when we begin to be accountable and can be baptized (Doctrine and Covenants 20:71; 29:47; Primary 3—CTR B, lesson 27).
#2: Being accountable means that we can tell the difference between right and wrong. We are responsible for our choices and actions (Moroni 8:8-10; Primary 4—Book of Mormon, lesson 24).
#3: When we are accountable, we repent and correct our wrong choices (Alma 36:5-24; Primary 1—Sunbeam, lesson 29, Primary 3—CTR B, lesson 10).
MORE Gospel Fun ACTIVITIES:
CLICK HERE FOR THE NEXT ACTIVITY: Theme #2 Choose the Right: I Will Let Heavenly Father Help Me Choose the Right (CTR Tools Choose the Right Match Game)
CLICK HERE FOR THE INTRODUCTION and “Hop on Over to Family Home Evening” Chart.
CLICK HERE FOR THE Gospel Fun Activities TABLE OF CONTENTS.
