General Conference with Preschoolers: Fall Edition

Woo-Hoo! Conference is this week! What a special opportunity to hear from God’s servants and to get inspiration and uplift as we listen to their messages.

That listening part isn’t always easy for us with little ones (right?). We try to find things that are quiet, like coloring, that can keep them busy, quiet, and hopefully listening at least a little bit. But those activities only last so long.

That is why we are back with more tips and ideas to make conference enjoyable and memorable for you and your little pumpkins.

Conference tip #1: Help them become familiar with the Apostles and Prophet. Try one of these activities or come up with some of your own.

Apostle Treasure Chest:

When a new speaker comes on, the kiddos can reach their hand in treasure chest to try to find the speaker, the right “gold” treasure piece . If you have multiple children they can take turns trying to be the lucky one to find the apostle. When they find the right one, tell them the name of the apostle.

Items needed:

• 15 Glass baby food jar lids or if you don’t have lids you could use circle cut outs of cardstock. Gold or silver would make it look more like coins, but any color would do.
• Empty wipes case.
• Print out of all the apostle’s pictures. This one from The Friend is great!
• We also recommend that you have this one from the Ensign ready to refer to so you can help them identify the general officers or other people speaking who are not in the 12.
• Gold spray paint
• Glue

Spray paint both the baby wipes case and the lids with gold spray paint. Be sure to do this far enough in advance to let the fumes air out. If time is short, or you don’t want to spray paint, they can still imagine it is a treasure box and will enjoy it the same.

Next glue pictures of the apostles onto the baby food lids.

Place the “gold” into the “treasure box” and you are ready to go!

Fishing for Apostles:

This activity can be used similarly to Apostle Treasure Chest above.  You will let the children fish for the correct apostle as they begin to speak, or you could allow them to play freely with it.

Items Needed:

• One or more short smooth sticks or dowels
• String
• One or more magnet(s)
• Paperclips
• Fish shapes cut out of paper.
• Glue (hot glue works well)
• Print out of the apostles. Either one of the links from above work. You can also find them Here (The Friend) or Here (Ensign). Alternatively, if you chose to make an Apostle Treasure Chest, you can simply reuse your gold coins made from glass baby food jar lids as your fish since they are made of metal and will stick to the magnet!

Make the “fishing poles” by first gluing a length of string to the end of your stick. You want the string short enough that it won’t drag on the ground for your child and long enough to make the fishing fun. When that is done, glue a magnet on the other end of the string.

Next, glue the pictures of the apostles onto the fish and add a paperclip to the completed fish.

Spread the fish out or put them onto a pile and let them catch the fish by putting the magnet end of the string near the paperclip.

Memory game:

Items needed:

• Two copies of each of the apostles’ pictures (link below)

Make a double copy of the apostles onto thick paper and make a memory game. The Friend version will work nicely for this game. After you have a double copy of each apostle cut out, place 3-6 pairs at a time mixed up and face down for a game of matching.

They Said:

Items needed:

• Painter’s tape
• Pictures of the apostles 
• Brown Kraft Paper

Use painter’s tape to put a big stretch of brown Kraft Paper up. Brown package wrapping paper from the dollar store works well for this too. Put the apostle’s pictures up, spaced out along the picture, and write something the speaker talked about during their talk. Kids can help with this process by giving you suggestions of what to write or drawing a picture that goes with what you write down. Of course, you will want to remind them to keep their writing on the paper. You might want to only use pencils for writing in case they press to hard and rip the paper or run off the paper accidentally while they are drawing.

Conference tip #2: Reward good behavior.  “Catch” your kids being great. The idea below is one fun and yummy way to do that.

Ice Cream Sundae Reward:

You could stretch this activity over one session or multiple sessions if you think your children will stay patient long enough. Set out an empty basket before conference and let your children know that you will be having an icecream sundae when conference is over. Let them know that every so often you are going to try to “catch” them being good (explain the behaviors you are looking for at your house). Each time they are “caught,” bring out another topping for the ice cream sundae reward. You will want to catch them frequent enough to keep it rewarding for your child, but not so frequent that you run out of new toppings to give.

Toppings could be anything, but here are a few ideas: chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, strawberry sauce, maraschino cherries jar, sprinkles, gummy bears, mini chocolate chips, crushed oreos, mini marshmallows, bananas or a special breakfast cereal.

After conference is over, bring out the ice cream and whipped cream to create the ice cream sundaes! Talk about all the specific things that your children did that were great during conference while you enjoy your sundaes.

Conference Tip #3: Try quiet centers. Centers keep activities new and the children interested. You can use this for one session or all the sessions.

Learning center activities encourage kids to learn through hands-on experimentation and play. Set up several spots around the room with a different activity. If you have multiple children, you can start each at a different activity. Be careful to keep the activities appropriate for your group and avoid choking hazards if applicable. Try some of these center ideas. Rotate to a new station after every speaker.

1. Brown Pipe Cleaner “Trees” and Button “Leaves”

Set out brown pipe cleaners twisted together to form a tree base with branches on top and a box of buttons for kids to lace onto pipe cleaners to use as leaves.

2.  Pie Pumpkin Hammering

Invite your child to hammer wooden golf tees into a pumpkin using a dollar store mallet, toy hammer or spoon.

3.  Rubber Band Pumpkin

Allow your child to wrap rubber bands around a small pumpkin.

4.  Washi Tape Pumpkin

Draw a simple outline of a pumpkin on an orange paper and set out washi tape for your child to decorate inside the pumpkin shape.

5.  Noodle Jewelry

Set out ziti pasta (or any pasta with holes) and pipe cleaners for your child to lace decorative bracelets. Optional, you can dye the pasta fall colors by shaking approximately ½ pound of pasta in a gallon zip top plastic bag with about 20 drops of food coloring and teaspoon of vinegar and then setting it out to dry overnight on paper towels or a cookie sheet.

6.  Yarn Wrapping

Give your child yarn to wrap around a safe stick or a cardboard shape (such as a pumpkin) cut from a box.

7.  Playdough and cookie cutters

Store bought playdough is an awesome choice or we love making pumpkin spice playdough. Simply mix 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt and 4 teaspoons cream of tartar. Add 4 tablespoons oil, 2 cups water and 2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice. Cook over medium heat, stirring continuously, until the dough holds together and forms a ball. Knead and let cool. Keep in a zip top bag. The smell is festively delightful.

8.  Chickpea Sensory Box

Create a simple sensory box with bags of DRIED chickpeas. To color the chickpeas (optional), pour a bag of chickpeas into a zip top bag and add a few squirts of tempera paint – enough to coat the peas but not make a wet mess. Shake the bag, then pour the peas out on paper towels or a foil lined cookie sheet to dry for a couple hours. Make as many colors as desired. Pour dried chickpeas in a plastic bin and add scoopings cups.

9.  Small Water Bottle Pumpkin

If you have a small, plastic, empty, water bottle, you can recycle it into a pumpkin decoration by inviting your child to tear and crumble pieces of orange construction paper and stuff it into the bottle. A green pipe cleaner around the lid makes a great stem!

10.  Scrap Fabric Clothesline

String up a twine or string clothesline between two chairs. Set out scraps of fabric and clothespins for your child to attach to the clothesline.

Tip #4: Quiet toys are nice too. Choose this activity for a single session, or choose it for all the sessions if it works well for your family.

Sometimes we want to do more and be creative, but the end goal is just to get conference on TV, right? Sometimes simply setting out quite toys your little one enjoys works well enough to help everyone feel the blessings of conference.

If you need a new quiet toy or two to add to your stash, check out some of our favorites.

Magnetic Building Tiles

Marble Run

Large Building Blocks

Play Sink 

We would love to hear your General Conference tips too! Comment below.

Enjoy your conference mammas!

P.S. If you would like more tips, check out our General Conference with Preschoolers: Easter Edition 

P.P.S. Love what you saw in this blog post? Our online preschool curriculum is loaded with fun ideas like these to help you create a home of faith and learning. Learn more here. 

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