The Parable of the Cake

Today’s seminary lesson was The Parable of the Cake. This lesson is an effective way to teach good scripture study habits, and a lesson students request year after year.

I'm always encouraged and even inspired at what the kids draw from this lesson.  Their insights are personal and insightful.  This year it took 10 cakes to have enough for all of the students (Christina, our incredible support specialist, helped me to bake that many) and it was worth every pan.

Materials needed: baked chocolate cake, 1 jar caramel ice cream topping, 1 large tub whipped topping and 1 cup candy bar toppings (broken candy bars, Heath bits, mini-M&M’s, etc.)

1. Explain that reading the scriptures is a lot like eating cake.

Ask your students for correlations between eating cake and scripture study. (They will give you great analogies: both are sweet, both are filling, both make a visible difference when a lot is consumed, both have a lot of variety/ingredients, both take work, etc.)

Have students silently read a selected chapter or block of scripture. After the students have finished reading, I suggest that one similarity between cake and scripture study is sometimes they’re both a bit dry. There is a reason we frost cake and there is a reason we are encouraged to do more than read the scriptures.

2. Explain to your students that they can eat the cake just like it is – after all they have read the scriptures – or they can add more layers to make it moister, better, more satisfying.

Show the class a jar of caramel and take a vote on who wants to eat the cake plain or who wants to add a layer of caramel to the cake. (After dozens of lessons, I’ve yet to have a class vote to eat the cake plain). Explain that caramel on the cake is like studying the scriptures rather than simply reading them. Studying makes the scriptures more filling and sustaining.

3. Have the students return to the chapter or block of scripture and study using the Topical Guide, Bible Dictionary, Guide to the Scriptures, maps, For the Strength of Youth pamphlet, General Conference talks, etc. While they are studying, poke holes in the cake with fork tines or a kabob stick and drizzle caramel over the cake and let it seep down into the holes.

After students have studied the scriptures for about ten minutes, allow them to share insights with the class. After the discussion, ask students if they want to eat the cake as it is (after all, they have studied the scriptures) or if they want to add another layer.

Show students a tub of whipped topping and ask for a vote. (Again, the vote has always gone for more toppings when I’ve taught this lesson.)

4. Explain that pondering and praying for understanding will add to reading and studying the scriptures.

Give students an opportunity to reflect and write in their journals what they have learned or questions that they may have from what they have read and studied. While students write in their journals, spread the whipped topping over the cake.

5. After students have written in their journals. Explain that they can eat the cake like it is – after all they have read, studied, and pondered the scriptures – or they can add another layer.

Show students the candy bar pieces and explain that teaching and testifying of what we have learned helps not only others, but it helps us to better retain the truth. It also gives the Holy Ghost an opportunity to confirm what we say and strengthens our understanding. 

Take a vote whether or not the students would like to go to the next layer.

Assign the students to teach each other or create a social media post on what they have learned. As students teach, sprinkle the candy bar bits on the cake.

6. Now that the cake is finished with a layer of caramel, whipped topping, and candy bar bits, explain that no matter how beautiful or satisfying it appears, it is of no use sitting there. It is not until the cake is eaten and inside of us that it makes a difference. It is the same with scripture study. We can learn, understand, and feel the truth of them, but until what we have learned influences our behavior and actions it is of little use to us.

Invite your students to apply what they have learned from their scripture study and record their goal in their journal or report to a friend.

Serve the cake!

(This lesson could easily be applied to other topics such as how to have a more united family or any topic that builds upon a foundation.)

Teaching Idea—Where Do I Stand?

This idea is not original* but I sure do love it and find it useful! It’s fun to use in classes, family home evening or any group activity. The first thing you need to do is to choose a subject matter and then choose five or six subtitles in the subject matter. Some examples include:

• Woodland animals: Deer, Squirrel, Wolf, Moose, Bear
• Continents: Asia, Africa, America, Antarctica, Oceania, Europe
• Founding Fathers: Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, John Adams, Sam Adams
• Vegetables: Broccoli, Potatoes, Corn, Lettuce, Green Beans, Peas
• Transportation: Subway, Car, Bicycle, Airplane, Ferry
• Scriptural Figures: Samson, Deborah, Jezebel, Gideon, Samuel
• Tools: Hammer, Nail, Pliers, Saw, Duct tape
• Character traits: Hard working, Kind, Stubborn, Selfish, Selfless
• Zoo animals: Lion, Elephant, Monkey, Giraffe, Rhino
  
  

You get the idea. These could include anything you wish to focus on or are studying.

Write each word in large letters on a piece of paper and hang around the room.
Ask the participants to stand next to the word that best describes them when they are at home.
When everyone has chosen a word to stand next to, ask them to tell why they placed themselves where they did to those standing with them.
After everyone has had a few moments to discuss it, ask a spokesman from each group to share their findings with the entire group.
Continue the activity by repeating steps 2-4 with other situations:

What are you most like when you are with your friends?
What are you most like when you are with your family?
What are you most like when you are at work (school)?
What are you most like when you are by yourself?
What are you most like with people you don't know?
What are you most like when you are shopping?
What are you most like when working on a hobby?

Benefits of this learning strategy are it gets people thinking, moving and talking. It also allows them to apply the subject matter they have been studying to themselves. It also gives a safe environment for people to learn to stand alone.

I still remember watching some of our scrapbook ladies laughing and maneuvering about a packed little room when we played this at our very first retreat. The beginning of some friendships that still exist were born that day. How can you not feel camaraderie when you’re standing next to someone who feels the same as you in situations?

*adapted from TRIBES

Teaching Idea--Right?

This is a quick, fun and easy interactive group activity. All you need is a variety of small prizes or wrapped candy for each participant. Everyone sits in a circle and is given a prize or piece of candy. As you tell the story, the group passes the prize they are holding in the direction that is emphasized. When a color is read in the story then all those wearing that color swap seats. When the story is finished, everyone keeps the prize they have in their hands.

When we played this activity at our last retreat, Deb and I included good prizes as well as some not so desired prizes. I remember Heather and Cali both hoping they didn’t get stuck with yet another X-X-L 2005 Scrappin’ Retreats t-shirt. And they both did. They donated them back to the pot and they’ll be there for the next round!

*To make the activity a learning experience, simply substitute a story with a moral (or a true story) that you wish to teach.

The Real Princess, Edmund Dulac

Once a very long time ago there lived a prince with two left feet. He was the only one left in the kingdom. All his brothers had left for another kingdom. That’s right, they left without a word. This prince wanted a princess—not any old princess left from any kingdom. He wanted the right princess in a yellow dress with brown eyes.

The blue prince travelled right around the world looking right and left for a princess with a pretty pink smile. He was right, there were plenty of women, green with envy at hoping to be rightfully chosen as his wife, but whether they were real princesses he had a hard time rightfully deciding. There was only one thing left to do—go right home and think about it.

That very evening, after he’d left the supper table, he went right to bed. He didn’t even sit to write a note to remind himself to look for a princess the next day; he just left everything and went right to sleep.

That night there was a terrible storm; there was thunder and lightning, right and left. The rain poured down. In the middle of the storm somebody knocked at the town gate and the old King himself sent someone to open it right away.

It was a princess who was left standing—purple from the cold. The water streamed right out of her hair and right down her clothes. It ran right in at the top of her shoes and right out at the heels, but she said that she was a real princess. The servant invited her to the castle.

“Well, we shall soon see if she is a real princess,” thought the old Queen. She went right into the guest bedroom and took all the bed clothes that were left on the bed and put them on the floor. Then, she laid a pea on the bedstead. She took twenty mattresses and piled them right on top of the pea, and then left twenty feather beds on top of the mattresses. This was where the princess slept that night. In the morning they asked her how she slept.

“Oh terribly bad!” said the princess. “I have hardly closed my eyes the whole night! Heaven knows what was left in the bed. I seemed to be lying upon some hard thing and my whole body is black and yellow this morning. It was right terrible!”

They saw at once that she must be a real princess when she had felt the pea they left through twenty mattresses and twenty white feather beds. Nobody but a real princess could have such a delicate skin—so peach and fair.

So the prince took her to be his rightful wife, for now he was sure that he had found a real princess and the pea was put right into the Museum and left for others to see, where it may still be seen if no one has stolen it right out from underneath the curator’s nose.

This is a true story. Right?

What story have you used with this activity?

Teaching Idea—Don’t Eat Pete!

How to play:

1. Make a grid. Fill in the table with symbols of whatever you are studying. (For example, if you’re studying the life of Peter in the Bible you can put various symbols representing his life: a fish because he was a fisherman, a sword and an ear because he cut off the soldier’s ear, a rock because his name means rock, keys because he was given the keys of the kingdom, etc. . .)

2. Put one small piece of candy in each square (m&m, runt, skittle, etc.)

3. Send one person out of the room.

4. Pick a square on the grid to be “Pete.”

5. Call the person back in the room but don’t tell him/her where “Pete” is.

6. The “it” person picks up candy one piece at a time. If the candy is not “Pete,” the person is allowed to eat it. If the candy is “Pete,” everyone yells “DON’T EAT PETE!” and that person’s turn is over.

The whole point is to put off finding Pete as long as possible so you can eat more candy. This game is great fun for people of all ages and gives repeated exposure and reinforcement to the subject matter you are attempting to teach.

The variations for this game are endless: multiplication tables or add/subtraction facts, spelling words, states and capitals, animals, colors, plants, history facts, presidents.

Where could you use this game?

Any other subject ideas?

Teaching Idea--Faster, Faster, Faster

Last week Ande and I (along with several extended family members) attended Comic Frenzy on her college campus. Oh ho. It was funny. The kids were quick, the ideas original and the humor very laughable. It wasn't stand-up comedy, but rather interactive comedy of eight or ten comedians (I have no idea if interactive comedy is the correct term, all I know is the program reminded me of Whose Line Is It Anyway? where everyone interacts).

One strategy the comedians used was to act out a skit in 45 seconds, then speed it up and act it out in 22 seconds, and then in 11 seconds and finally in 5. Predictably, it got funnier and funnier.

I thought the idea lent itself well to a learning activity for a family or in a classroom. Impromptu skits, rehearsed skits or actual stories may be used. The benefit of using actual stories is that since it is acted out repeatedly teaching is reinforced. Faster, faster, faster is a fun way to teach and learn a subject that involves everyone.

Teaching Idea—Penny

My sister, Lynn, sent this object lesson idea. I like it and have used it a couple of times the past few weeks.

1. Let students guess how many pennies they have seen in their lifetime.
2. Tell them the US Treasury says that on the average we see 1,000 pennies every year of our lives!
3. Give students a few minutes to draw the front and the back of a penny. (The vast majority of us cannot accurately draw a penny.)
4. Hand students a penny to compare to their drawings.

One application is that even though we have seen thousands and thousands of pennies we still can’t draw it accurately. So even if we have “heard all this information before” chances are we only retained a small portion of the information and can still learn at least one thing today.

What other applications to do you see for this object lesson? I'd love to hear what you'd do with it.

How close was your guess on the number of pennies you've seen?

Teaching Idea--See How They Run

I'm always on the lookout for a fun and quick interaction activity. This one fills the bill plus it is an interesting game that can be used as a nature activity, a fun way to mix people up or a new way to create teams (i.e., "anybody slower than 30 miles an hour on one team, anybody over on another")

The following animals are listed with their approximate sprinting speeds. (Which, by the way, did you know that theoretically elephants can’t run they just walk really fast. I think they have the funniest waddle lope.)

Directions: Write names of animals on slips of paper for each participant. Distribute the papers (but do not allow participants to know the animal’s speed.) Have the participants try to arrange themselves in order of increasing speeds forming a straight line. After the line is complete, read the speeds aloud and let the line rearrange themselves in the proper order.

Animal MPH

Tortoise 1
Ant 1.5
Black Racer Snake 2
Eel 3
Beaver 4
Gorilla 8
Green Sea Turtle 11
Grasshopper 11
Common Bat 12
Dolphin 13
Honey Bee 14
Grizzly Bear 15
White Tailed Deer 15
Blue Jay 15
African Elephant 16
Trout 17
Blue Shark 17
House Cat 25
Giraffe 28
Greyhound 31
Bumblebee 31
Flying Fish 32
Kangaroo 34
Ostrich 35
Horse 37
Great Horned Owl 37
Swordfish 38
Lion 40
Jackrabbit 42
Wild Turkey 47
Dragonfly 52
Pronghorn Antelope 55
Cheetah 59
Canvasback Duck 73
Golden Eagle 86
Peregrine Falcon 92