July Sharing Time Week 4 - Pioneer Examples

Update July 2015- Hi friends, thanks for finding me!  This lesson was posted in 2010 and is still one of my post popular posts.  I'm in the process of re-launching my blog and transferring over old PDF files and making them instant downloads.  I just finished this one, so jump over to camillepardo.com and you'll find my Pioneer Lesson with printables that actually work.  Check back for lots of great Primary ideas.  Thanks!

Here are my plans for a fun sharing time, tying in the theme with Pioneer Day.
First, I will explain to the children that Jesus Christ is a perfect example for us to follow because He always obeyed Heavenly Father and he showed love to everyone. We are celebrating Pioneer Day this week, the pioneers followed Jesus Christ's example. Today, we're going to try to be pioneers and get our covered wagon all the way to the Salt Lake Valley. To get there, we have to make smart decisions and have Jesus Christ as our example. Each time we make a good decision we will move closer to Salt Lake. There are some obstacles on our way too, but the pioneers will help us get through them.
I am using this link to make a 3D covered wagon. Print and assemble this covered wagon from the July 2001 Friend. Cute eh? I'm only putting together the wagon, not the oxen, but it's up to you. (Print it from the link though, not here, I shrunk them to show you so they would end up tiny!)

I'm using a piece a yarn that will stretch all the way across the primary room. I will loop the wagon through the yarn, and we will slide it along from one end of the room to the other. Don't tape it too high, I want the children to be able to reach it.
Cut and fold word strips and place in the wagon. One child at a time gets to come up and choose a paper, answer the question, then move the wagon forward. There will be 3 obstacles on our way, a blizzard, a mountain and a river. Each obstacle has a pioneer story to match, after we discuss the story and how the pioneers followed Christ's example of loving one another we will remove the obstacle and keep on walking.

Here are the obstacle matchups:

Snowflake: GAK picture 414 - Martin Handcart Company, Bitter Creek Wyoming 1856
Mountain: GAK picture 412 - Mary Fielding Smith and Joseph F. Smith crossing the plains
River: GAK picture 415 - Helping the handcart company across the Sweetwater River

(I will summarize the photo from the back of the picture and discuss who was following Christ's example.)

Here are the cutouts for the snow, river and mountain. To print, clicking on the image, then right clicking and saving to your computer. If the quality isn't good, email me and I'll send the pdf file.

Here are the word strips. Again, if you have trouble printing, just email me and I'll send over the word document. The decisions aren't difficult, but they have a right answer. Some children will need prompting from you and their teacher.

In closing, I will bear testimony that in following Christ's perfect example we can overcome obstacles and reach our ultimate goal - eternal life. We can be just like the pioneers and help others on their way.