Sharing Time

Maintaining reverence in sharing time can sometimes be challenging. Maybe one of these ideas might work for your primary:

ReverenceTag

A child stands in the front of primary with arms folded and watches for someone that is being reverent. They then tag that child and that child comes to the front. This can carry on till they’re all reverent or when you’re ready to start. 

Picture of the Saviour or Picture of Reverent Children

Hold a picture of the Saviour at the front of the room (whoever is free to do this) or a picture of children folding their arms, or hold both pictures. If not able to hold up, place them on the board/wall.Point to the picture as children come in or when they start to show signs of irreverence. Explain that we are in the Lord’s house & if He were sitting in our Primary, how would he want us to act, talk, etc. When we are in church we need to whisper & when someone is giving a lesson we need to listen, just like Christ would do. 

Ask Teachers to help maintain reverence

Encourage your teachers to be more active in helping to maintain reverence with their classes, especially if they’re coming into primary with them. They can talk to the children (after class) about being reverent as they walk through the hallway & while waiting to come into the primary room. If they see a child being irreverent, place their hand on child’s shoulder until they stop talking or make eye contact & whisper to them to be quiet or ‘shushing’ using your finger.

Reverence Jar (Mountfort used this idea which worked well)

A jar was placed at the front of the room and each Sunday if the children are reverent, leader would choose a child to come up and place a spoon of popcorn in the jar. If children were irreverent, it wouldn’t be filled. Incentive was a popcorn treat if the jar was filled. You can use other items to fill the jar instead of popcorn i.e. marbles, pebbles,etc. It doesn’t have to be a food treat as an incentive; it could be a pack of stickers or something they can use.

We are a very small ward but big in spirit!

To keep reverent children, I bought a glass jar from the dollar store and made a pretty label in the computer and called it the "Reverence Jar".  Beside the jar I displayed a colourful posterlisting all our Primary's rules such as:

* Keep your hands to yourself

* Whisper

* Be kind to each other etc.. etc

Every Sunday I remind the children that if they are reverent and follow the rules they all get to put a marble and when the jar fills up we are going to have an ice cream party. So, each Sunday at the end of sharing time I ask the children if they think they deserve to put their marble in the reverence jar...  One by one, I say"______ thank for being to reverent in Primary today".

They have been so reverent. They are just so excited to see how their jar is filling up. This has been a wonderful way to keep reverence in our Primary!

As a presidency we stood by the two doors entering into the primary room.

We greeted each child with a handshake as they entered. We quietly said hello and said things like, "You look so handsome today, I know Heavenly Father is glad you are folding your arms."or "Look how reverently you are coming to primary, Thank you." or "I know your teacher is going to be so happy to see how reverent you can be today." or "I appreciate how quietly you are walking this morning." or "Hi ____, I'm so glad you are coming to primary so reverently today...."  This way you can target the troublesome ones and give them a booster shot of reverence before they walk in. Another thing we noticed was that if we as a primary presidency were prepared, sitting at the front and folding our arms when it was time to start - or had one of us up front smiling and standing in front of the pulpit with our arms folded and MINIMIZED the franticness of the beginning - things went much smoother. We noticed that the children really feed off the energy, whether good or bad, that we are exhibiting.  As the music leader, I stand at the front of the room. Lately I have used Silent Simon Says.  I try to have the children hum or whisper sing reverently when the transitions are happening.  A member of our presidency sometimes sings in a quiet voice - stop - look and listen - and puts her hands on her head. When the children hear this they are to copy her - put their hands on their heads and sing quietly back - stop - look and listen. Then she sings - I can be reverent - and folds her arms. The children echo and copy her back.

Tiffany writes, "This is a reverence poem that we use at the beginning of sharing time. 

It's a way to get the children's attention,have them wiggle the wiggles out, and remind them of how we are to be reverent.  At the end of the poem we fold our arms and then put our hand over our heart. Throughout the rest of sharing time/singing time, if they need a reverence reminder, we simply fold our arms and put our hands over our hearts. This helps them to know that reverence really is love." Poem reads: “Get yourself up off your seat, raise your arms then stomp your feet. Reach down low & touch your toes, stand up straight & wiggle your nose. Cross your eyes & stick your tongue out, put your hand in your ears & wave them about. Now’s the time to twist & squirm so we can get ready to listen & learn. Shhh… Reverently sit down in your chair, fix your clothes & smooth your hair. It is time for primary now to start so place your hand over your heart. This shows our love to our Father above because we know that Reverence is Love”. This is probably a bit too long however you can shorten it or use parts of it or come up with something similar.

Marla writes, "There is a WONDERFUL article in the Ensign called "Giving children a chance to serve". 

So, we decided to try it.  We assigned about 7 older children to 7 younger energetic children.  It was so fun to watch the older children follow the young children to their seats and  sit by them. They kept them so quiet all Primary long. The teacher appreciated it and our Primary was so reverent. We even have a child that is older that is full of life and we asked him to sit by a Sunbeam and told him to help keep her reverent. Worked like a charm. We also had one greet all the children as they came in. He took it very serious and shook each hand and welcomed them with a big smile. It was wonderful. Then we had another child in charge of turning off and on the microphone and to control the volume throughout sharing time. He also took it serious and did a great job. Two children were assigned to pick up any garbage left behind.  We also had a child draw the scripture references on the chalk board. There was such a neat spirit in primary, I can't believe the difference it made, I can't begin to even explain the feeling we had in there,...... it was amazing!!! I even had some children come up to me after and ask when they were going to get a calling. We are going to have a child help lead the music this week, as well as have one play the prelude music. We are on week 3 and it is still wonderful!!!

Reverence problem with 100+ children.

We have a combined closing exercise in the chapel the last 15 minutes of Primary. I decided that instead of calling out the classes to dismiss them after Sharing time and after closing exercises - I made up signs from the computer with pictures of our prophets, the name of the teacher and the name of the class.Then when the music plays reverently the classes sit quietly and wait and watch for their sign to be held. The difference is amazing.  I have had numerous parents and teachers comment on the difference. It has really increased the presence of the Spirit.

MUSIC – Teaching a Reverent Song

(Doesn’t have to be this song, can be anyreverent song). I’ve been trying to come up with something to help the kids a) maintain reverence and b) refocus or redirect their attention.  Two weeks ago, the Primary President asked if I would teach the children "The Chapel Doors" and combine it with a reverence message she was giving.  As I thought about how to do this, I had what I hope was a burst of inspiration!  At any rate, it is working for us, so I thought I would pass along the idea.  I used the idea from www.christysclipart.com to teach "The Chapel Doors". We also took the picture of the chapel from the cut outs that are available from the Dist. center and laminated it and put it on a popsicle stick.  The PP talked to the children about reverence, and then I taught the song.  First thing, I taught them that whenever I held up the chapel that was their cue to say the following words with actions: SHH...finger on lips and a very quiet "shhh";  BE: right hand held in front with palm facing forward as in "stop";  STILL: Arms folded reverently.  We practiced that first, then added it into the song.  It went really well and the children loved it.  Then I told them that whenever someone held up the chapel picture, not just for the song, but anytime~ they should quietly say "Shhhh, be still" and do the actions.  This has helped so much!  We keep the chapel picture up front all the time, so if any of us need help with crowd control we just hold it up and the children respond!  It's awesome how something so simple can really make such a huge difference!  ~Valerie, Gilbert, AZ approx 60 Primary children