Lehi’s Journey

We had four groups and divided the children into four groups as they arrived. The first group went into a room where they wrote on the brass plates (tin-foil covered pieces of cardboard). Then they had to go into another room pretending they were Nephi and his brothers and attempt to get the brass plates. Our Bishop was dressed up as Laban and sat “snoozing in a chair”. He would rouse whenever anyone would come near. We filmed the children and it was fun to see their reactions. The second section went into a tent in the cultural hall. There we read from the Book of Mormon about Lehi finding the Liahona on the ground in front of his tent and talked about the Liahona and what it was, etc. We opened the back door of the tent and found a Liahona (borrowed from the Seminary teacher and made from a plastic hampster cage and painted gold). We then went on a treasure hunt. The third group was read the story of Nephi and the broken bow. They then took turns shooting a homemade bow and arrow at a cardboard picture of a deer. The fourth group made paper ships after reading about Nephi building a ship to sail to the Promised Land. They then sailed their ships in water in a small wading pool. Afterward all the groups met in the Promised Land for milk, bread and honey. We felt the children learned a lot first hand and had a great time. Our creative secretary put the film together with narrative and we showed it to them for a sharing time activity, further reinforcing the things they learned.