March Come Follow Me Sunday School Teaching Ideas and pamphlets

Here are some teaching ideas and the pamphlets for the March Come Follow Me Sunday School lessons!

You can find all of the pamphlets at the end of the post. 🙂

 This month we have 5 separate teaching packages that are really packed with great things in each lesson!  Or you can get the combo package with ALL 5 LESSONS HERE.

How can I use the words of living prophets and apostles to strengthen my faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ?

This teaching package/idea is pretty different than all of the others.  It is designed to help everyone really search for good quotes (words from living prophets and apostles) that can strengthen their faith in the Atonement, and then make a personal quote book of those quotes.

You can see here that the far left page is all title pages – so the quote books are quite small, one 8 1/2 x 11 page fits 9 title pages.  So you would just print that off, cut it up and let everyone choose their favorite page.

Then we gave you 2 options for interior pages.  A black and white one or one in color.  You would want to print off or copy several of those.  Maybe a full page or two for each person.

Then the far right page is the back page.

This lesson is about finding meaningful words about the Atonement from General Conferences, books, and any other source you could find.  I would either print off some good General Conference talks, or even better, find several Conference Ensigns and put them in a pile in the middle of the room.  I would also pull out some books from my personal library including the Relief Society manuals of the teachings of the prophets.  Then I would put a stack of sticky notes out.

I would instruct everyone that they are to find really good quotes about the Atonement and then when they find one they can write it in their booklet and mark the page and quote with a sticky note so that others can read it and decide if they want to put it in their own books.

The great thing about this is they will be searching and sharing with each other.  AND you will be showing them some great resources to find things on their own.

At the end have them cut up their pages, punch holes in the top left corner  of each page, attach their pages with a string or a binder ring.

One great use of this booklet is that they can keep them in their scripture bags and read the quotes during the Sacrament.

If you are interested in this teaching package, you can find it HERE.

Or you can find a combo pack of all the March lessons HERE.

 

What can the scriptures teach me about the Atonement of Jesus Christ?

I really, really like this lesson.  I feel like this lesson not only teaches about the Atonement, but it gives everyone a serious, in depth, experience in the scriptures.  This lesson is totally scripturally based and helps to develop the skill of interpreting symbols – which is critically important.

Also, one part of the lesson focuses on using the Topical Guide to learn more about the Atonement.  In my opinion, this is such a cool thing to write into a lesson plan!  The idea is to look over the sub-categories under “Jesus Christ”.  Most likely there will be numerous ones that those you are teaching won’t understand, which will invite really great learning opportunities!  And if you (as the teacher) don’t know either – that is a really great time to challenge everyone (and yourself) to research over the next week and come back and share what they have learned.  In fact, even if you do know, I would do that – don’t give them all the answers, but rather challenge them to find out.  THAT is teaching!

Another part of this lesson is interpreting symbols in the scriptures and pondering over what they teach you about Christ.  I LOVE that this is part of this lesson.  What a great skill to learn.  If I were teaching this part of the lesson I would do a lot of asking, and less telling.  Let them struggle through finding the interpretations.  Guide them and praise them along the way.  In fact, I would go in with a list of personal thoughts and help them get their own.  AND I would add their thoughts to my own paper and let them see that they are teaching me.  They will gain confidence from that.

One thing you can see in the package above, is we used the symbol of the olive tree.  This is something I often do when teaching about this topic.  Years and years ago I read an article by Truman G. Madsen called, “The Allegory of the Olive Tree – The Olive Press:  A Symbol of Christ” – you can find it HERE.   That was such a powerful talk for me and gives such a reverent perspective of the Atonement, using the olive press as a symbol.  I suggest you take a look at that talk and see if it gives you any teaching ideas.  There is also an a version that was put into the Ensign, you can find that HERE.

If you are interested in this package you can find it HERE.

Or you can find a combo pack of all the March lessons HERE.

How can the Book of Mormon help me strengthen my faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ?

This lesson is not just about the Atonement, but of the power (and need) of the Book of Mormon.  The scriptures included are about “why” we needed the Atonement which is sometimes hard to understand from the Bible scriptures.  The Book of Mormon teaches that doctrine with clarity.  If I were to teach a lesson about what happened during the Atonement, I would use the New Testament.  But if I were to teach why we needed it, I would (almost solely) use the Book of Mormon.  There may be a few Isaiah scriptures I would use, but Nephi, Jacob and Alma (and some others) teach it very clearly in the Book of Mormon.

I think if I were teaching this lesson I would start with that explanation and throughout the lesson write the doctrines we are learning on the board.  Then at the end I would step back and look at everything as a whole and ask how those doctrines may effect their daily lives.  How do those doctrines impact your testimony and gratitude for the Atonement?  What if you didn’t understand those?  And then really testify of the importance of the Book of Mormon and why it is such a “keystone”.

I love this quote by President Benson:

“It is not just that the Book of Mormon teaches us truth, though it indeed does that. It is not just that the Book of Mormon bears testimony of Christ, though it indeed does that, too. But there is something more. There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path. The scriptures are called “the words of life” (D&C 84:85), and nowhere is that more true than it is of the Book of Mormon. When you begin to hunger and thirst after those words, you will find life in greater and greater abundance.”

So, if I were teaching this lesson, I would probably have 2 goals:  to teach about the Atonement and to increase their love of the Book of Mormon.

If you are interested in this teaching package you can find it HERE.

Or you can find a combo pack of all the March lessons HERE.

 

How can relying on the Savior’s grace help me become a better teacher?

At first glance, the title of this may seem more of a lesson that a teacher would want, rather than a youth.  But that is not so.  This is very applicable to the youth.  These guys are in training and I think it is good to reinforce to them that our goal isn’t just to teach them, but to help them gain the skills to help them fulfill their life missions.

Here is a really good book from Elder Bednar’s brand new book “Power to Become“:

“As we thus prepare ourselves for this sacred service [of being a teacher], we become instruments in the hands of God to assist His children in finding answers to the questions of the soul – answers always contained in the fulness of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.”  (page 163)

I love that, “answers to the questions of the soul”.  What a privilege to be able to help others find that for themselves.

I have to admit that the phrase “ the Savior’s grace” is something I couldn’t fully wrap my mind around until I found Elder Bednar’s talk, In the Strength of the Lord (the pamphlet is at the end of the lesson).  I originally read the BYU devotional talk, and since then he gave a shorter version in General Conference.  The General Conference version is the one cited in the lesson, but I have also included the BYU devotional version in the pamphlets below – although it was too long to put in a pamphlet format.

When we made this teaching package I gave you options for both talks (the General Conference version or the BYU devotional version).  In the BYU one he had time to give some really amazing and impactful examples and stories that have, personally, made a huge impact on my life.  So, in the package we gave you some illustrations to use as you teach those stories as well as an illustrated note page to study the talk with.  There are questions with a picture and then you would search the talk to find the answer to that question.

If you are interested in this teaching package you can find it HERE.

Or you can find a combo pack of all the March lessons HERE.

How can I use comparisons to teach others about the Atonement?

This is a FUN lesson. I think this is fun because it is full of allegories and symbols, which taps into the creative sides of our brains.  This lesson teaches about the Atonement while helping those you are teaching further develop the skill of interpreting the scriptures and finding all sorts of hidden gems. So multiple things are happening, which is really great to have in a lesson outline.

One thing I like about the layout of this lesson is that it teaches about comparisons or likenesses and then you can dive into the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  So not only are you learning about that Parable, but you are learning skills that you can now use in every other parable.

The other thing is that the lesson uses a combination of scripture comparisons and stories used in General Conference.  I like this because you can help those you are teaching to start recognizing these stories used in General Conference and put some extra attention on them.  You could teach them to consider these questions: What did the speaker want you to gain from this story? What further teachings can you gain from pondering on this story?

You can find this teaching package HERE.

Or you can find a combo pack of all the March lessons HERE.

 

Here are all of the PDF files for the pamphlet formats of the General Conference talks.  You will need to print them back-to-back and then fold it over.  When you open the files the “front” page of the pamphlet will be in the lower right corner.  This is correct and will fold over correctly once you print it back-to-back.

In most printers, in order to print back-to-back, you will print one side and then lay the paper back into the paper tray JUST AS IT CAME OUT.  So you do not turn it in any way.

ss lesson 1 The Atonement Packer

ss lesson 2 He lives all glory to His name Scott

ss lesson 3 the book of mormon strengthening our faith in Jesus Christ Andersen

ss lesson 4 In the Strength of the Lord Bednar

ss lesson 4 In the Strength of the Lord BYU DEVOTIONAL VERSION Bednar (not a pamphlet)

ss lesson 4 Gospel Learning and Teaching McConkie

ss lesson5 the three stories in the 3 suggested conference talks (little Jim, the bending tree, and Jean Valjean)