I suppose I should start by introducing the presidency. Sister Mary Malungahu is our Primary President, I'm the first Counselor (Sister Jacinda Prattley), and Sister Anna Haenga is the 2nd Counselor. We are excited to serve Mountfort Ward in this way, and we have big plans for our primary. Here is our schedule for 2012:
Sacrament finishes at 10.10am and Primary starts at 10.20am. To give us time to set up the classroom and make it a welcoming environment for the children, we ask that parents remind their little ones to be reverent as they wait outside the primary (or nursery) doors. Note: for primary aged children, the corridor can be quite narrow when there are a lot of people transitioning classes, so the font room is a nice place out of the way where they may wait. Nursery children and parents are asked to wait outside the nursery doors.
Children attending nursery settle better when they are familiar with the routine. They cannot get used to a routine if they are constantly coming in half way through nursery time. It unsettles them, and unsettles the rest of the nursery. Parents please bring your children to nursery at 10.20am, and leave them with the teachers until 12.00pm. There is no need for you to stay in nursery beyond 10.30am. Your child will be fine. Go enjoy your own classes. Trust our nursery team to look after your precious babies and rest assured that they will come and get you if you are needed.
Our Primary Theme for 2012 is Choose the Right.
"Choose you this day whom ye will serve; . . . but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15).
Each month we have a mini-theme relating to Choosing the Right.
January's theme is "Agency is the gift to choose for ourselves". The children have been learning about choices and consequences, and how good choices make us and those around us happy. Bad choices bring undesirable consequences. They have learnt that even though they may not see the consequence of a choice straight away, there is always eventually, a consequence. We encourage families to talk with your children and help them recognise the consequences of their daily choices. Praise them when they make good choices. Teach them lovingly when they make not so good choices.
We will be implementing a Primary Spotlight in our February Sharing Times, where a child will be recognised for the good choices they made that week at home/school. This is where we need your help. One of the presidency will let you know if your child is the one being spotlighted the following Sunday. You then keep notes of the good choices your child did that week (without letting them know), and pass that info back to us. We will read out the notes in Sharing Time, and have the children see if they can guess who it is. We'll tell them if they can't guess, and congratulate the child for doing so well that week. The children love this kind of activity, and it makes them feel good to know that someone notices the things they do.
February's theme is "When we choose the right we are blessed". We have lots of teaching stories about the blessings that come from choosing the right - both from the scriptures and from modern day examples. If you wish to co-ordinate your family home evenings to any of the monthly themes, I'm sure the children would love the continuity and reinforcement of things they have learnt in primary.
If you wish to see our Sharing Time Manual, click HERE to see it at LDS.org. It also lists the monthly songs if you wish to listen to them or download them.
In March the theme will be "Living Prophets Teach Me to Choose the Right". We will speak a lot about the Prophet and the Apostles of the latter days, and also look back at the ones in the scriptures.
Feel free to leave comments or questions here on the blog, or contact the Primary Presidency if you have any concerns/feedback etc. We are here to serve and love your children, and we think 2012 is going to be a great one for Mountfort Ward Primary.
