Quarterly Activity: Follow the Prophet!

With “Follow the Prophet” as one of the songs we’re focusing on in Primary this year, I felt impressed that we should have a Quarterly Activity on the subject. The children were struggling to learn all the verses of the song, so I thought that bringing the song to life might help.

I work with an amazing group of women with marvelous ideas and sweet spirits, so the plan jelled quickly. We decided to focus on both modern and ancient prophets.

Our gathering activity was musical chairs to the tune of “Latter-day Prophets” – with a twist. As each child was out of the game, they were given a picture of a latter-day prophet to be used in the next activity, which was a quick telling of what each prophet was most known for. Once all of the children were “out,” they were invited one-by-one to put their picture on the chalkboard while my counselor told them a little about their prophet’s picture and added a printed note below each. The instruction would be used later in a matching game.

We then invited the children to walk in the footsteps of the prophets by following Jonah. I invited my son (because his favorite prophet is Jonah) to lead the other children to the back of the cultural hall, where we dressed him in a simple prophet costume and opened the door to the hallway, revealing an 8’ long whale for the children to crawl through to start their “Follow the Prophet” adventure.

As the children exited the whale, they found footprints with pictures of modern and ancient prophets leading them into one of the Primary classrooms. Upon entering, they found our recreation of the Garden of Eden and Adam’s prophet costume:  a garland of flowers and a child’s hoe. (Hey – it’s what we had on hand!) Once they identified who the prophet was, we sang that verse of the song. Meanwhile, one of the parents picked up all the footprints and arranged them through the hallway to the next room. “Adam” led the children this time.

In the next room, they found a large basket filled with a red prophet costume (a long piece of fabric with a hole cut for the head, and another piece of fabric for a belt, and a mop-head beard), the ten commandments, and a staff. It didn’t take them long to shout “Moses!” So after we dressed Moses, he led the children down the path of footprints to the next room.

This one was a little harder for the children to figure out. In it, we had a heart-shaped costume made of poster board (with a cord to hang over a child’s head) with the single word “Joyful” on it. We also scattered hearts around the room. They finally figured out it was Samuel’s room, so we dressed “Samuel” and followed the footprints to the next room.

The children figured out this prophet’s room quickly! It contained a simple prophet’s costume (robe and mop-head beard), an angel costume (from a Halloween clearance sale), and two poster board costumes:  a cloud and a city. We dressed Enoch and his support crew, then traveled to the next room via the moving footprint trail.

This room contained an egg crate with 12 plastic eggs with various faces, and a simple prophet’s costume (robe and beard). Abraham! Once Abraham was dressed, he led the group to the next room.

This room contained a large lion’s den (constructed from boxes, pillows and sheets); all it needed was a couple of lions and Daniel. We had simple lion costumes (poster board circles of a lion’s mane that the children held up to their faces) and another simple fabric costume for Daniel.

Then Daniel led the group on the footprint trail back into the cultural hall, where we invited them to sit for the final prophet presentation:  the building of Noah’s ark.

My music leader and I had served together in a Stake Relief Society presidency many years ago, and given a presentation in Ward conferences based on Noah’s Ark. A wonderfully talented and spiritual woman, she had built an ark out of wood that we put together piece by piece. Each piece was labeled with a principle of the gospel, on which we gave a short talk about how that principle would keep us safe throughout mortality. It was perfect for our use now, with a simplified explanation of each piece.

While we were out on our “Follow the Prophet” adventure, parents had hidden all the pieces of the ark around the cultural hall; so we sent the children off to find them. Once they had found all the pieces, we began constructing the ark.

The first or foundation piece of the ark was “The Gospel of Jesus Christ”. The next two rows had spiritual elements:  The Law of Obedience; A Personal Relationship with Christ; Keep the Commandments; Temple Covenants; Daily Family and Personal Prayers; and Read and Study the Scriptures. The top row focused on temporal elements:  Family Preparedness; Word of Wisdom; Tithing; Repentance; and being Meek and Humble.

The top part of the ark focused on the principles we should find in our homes:  Charity; Faith; Hope; Forgiveness; Service; Gratitude; and Love. The roof of the ark was “The Savior and Compassion for All.”

The point was that if we built our lives and our homes on the principles of the gospel (as they were seeing in the wooden ark), that they and their families would be protected, even when the hard times came. We then brought the “hard times” in the way of huge raindrops labeled Media, Immodesty, Drugs and Alcohol, Violence and Crime, Stealing, Lying and Materialism. As the raindrops fell, we placed “floodwaters” pieces in front of the ark labeled “The Flood of Iniquity” and “The Rising Tide of Evil” and pointed out that even though the rains of opposition brought floods of evil against us, we were safe in our ark.

Then out came a rainbow, labeled “Promises and Blessings from Christ.” The raindrops and floodwaters were removed, and a sun labeled “The Kingdom of God” was added atop the rainbow, along with a dove of “Peace.” We then invited a child to come dress as Noah (with a beard and umbrella), and sang the Noah verse and the last verse of “Follow the Prophet.”

Our final activity before our lunch was matching the latter-day prophets with what they were known for. I took all the pictures down from the board and let the children each choose one, then we invited them to re-match the picture with what they were known for. We then “tested” how well they had done by singing “Latter-day Prophets,” stopping each time a picture was in the wrong place and rearranging until we had them all correct.

Our simple lunch was based on a prophets theme, with various types of sandwiches cut into ark shapes, a “rainbow” of various fruits and vegetables, watermelon cut into the shape of a whale, rainbow-hued cupcakes, and rainbow-colored white chocolate lollipops shaped like Noah’s Ark.

Overall, it was a successful activity with a dual purpose:  the children now have a visual memory to help them remember all the verses of the songs about ancient and modern prophets!