Category: Mini Lessons

A mini lesson is a short lesson segment that is based on a specific lesson or topic. It is not like a teaching technique which is a general teaching method that can be used in many situations. They are not object lessons which rely on an object to teach a gospel principle and are usually lesson openers or closers.
Mini lessons are content specific and meant to be a part of the doctrinal teaching, or meat, of your lesson. A mini lesson usually takes between 5-30 minutes to present. I recommend that you plan your lesson time to include several mini lessons. The change in subject and activity will help keep students engaged.

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Ezra 1-6The Persian King Cyrus released the Israelites from captivity in Babylon and allowed them to return to Jerusalem to re-build the Temple.They face many obstacles as they were re-building of the Temple, at one point, even stopping the process due...
Scripture References: Ezra 1, Ezra 2, Ezra 3, Ezra 4, Ezra 5, Ezra 6
This week is a fun activity that my family did when I was growing up and it just stuck with me and I thought it would be PERFECT for this week's sharing time. So after a phone call and a few smooches to my boys we've got the Friend article and an aweso...
Scripture References: 1 Nephi 11
Lesson from the manualSo for the last few weeks my kids were having a hard time being reverent during the lessons. And I think they were expecting a super handout every week. So I decided to use this lesson as a teaching opportunity. I didn't bring the...
Scripture References: Ephesians 6
This was a fun lesson to do. I used the idea that our life here on earth is part of the journey to living with Heavenly Father and our families forever. So for our journey we were going to be taking a plane ride. I had the room set up with the cha...
Becky Belnap: #DandC88 : 1-40. I wanted to teach the principle that "he who is not able to abide the law of the celestial kingdom cannot abide a celestial glory." I twisted it into "he who is not able to abide the law of the DONUT kingdom cannot abi...
Scripture References: D&C 88
Amy Roskelley Huish: Teaching DandC84:1-42 next week and using excerpts from President Hinkley's 1989 talk titled "Magnify your calling". I am introducing the lesson using my binoculars. The students will have to use them to decipher clues in a tin...
Scripture References: D&C 84
Gospel Topics:
In December 1830 the Saints were commanded to move to Ohio(see D&C 37:3), and in January 1831 they were 

promised that they would be “endowed with power from on high” if they would obey (D&C 38:32).

Those who gathered in Ohio were greatly blessed. Continuous revelations led the Saints to deeper understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In addition, they received the blessings that came from building a temple and preaching the gospel. While the Church grew in numbers and spiritual strength in Ohio, severe opposition also increased against the Church and its leaders. 

The Prophet Joseph Smith lived in Kirtland from January 1831 to January 1838.

Explain that in January 1831, the Prophet Joseph Smith and his wife,Emma, as well as Sidney Rigdon and Edward Partridge, left New York for Ohio. Most of the New York Saints followed during the next five months.



I made up four Mini-lessons- and had them rotate from station to station


At the Ohio lesson

At the Ohio lesson

The Law of the Church

Sir Isaac Newton is well known for his three laws of motion. The first law of motion, the law of inertia, states that objects at rest will remain at rest, and objects in motion will remain in motion, unless acted on by an outside force. Inertia, a resistance to change, depends on both mass and friction. In this activity you will observe the inertia of a penny at rest.

I found this activity online...they had to put the index card on the cup with a penny on top of the card. Then flip the 
card out having the penny fall into the cup. 

Using their scriptures and journals answer some questions about the Law of the Church (D&C 42)

                                             At the Ohio lesson

D&C 38:32 and 88: 119 the promised to endow the saints with power from on high and gave them commandments.
I had a Kirkland Ohio Temple fact sheet for them to read and questions for them to answer
They were to then build a edible temple out of marshmallows, graham crackers and frosting

At the Ohio lesson

At the Ohio lesson
D&C 42: 6-7 the Lord gave them commandments about missionary work
Once the Kirtland Temple had been dedicated and the keys for the gathering of Israel had been restored, members of the 

Church began to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in more places.


Using their scriptures: Map 3 in the Church History Maps section (“The New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio Area of the USA”).
 they found that:
Kirtland was an ideal location to begin to send missionaries throughout the world. Kirtland was near several main routes of transportation in the United States. From Kirtland, missionaries only had to travel short distances to access steamboats on

America’s major rivers and Lake Erie. They also had access to a national road system to the south and a canal system to the north. Because of this,Kirtland was the point of departure for missions to Canada, other parts of the United States, and Great Britain.

Because of missionary work during this time, the membership of the Church throughout the world increased by thousands.In 1837, 
Elders Heber C. Kimball and Orson Hyde were called along with five others on a mission to Great Britain, where they baptized around 2,000 people. By 1838, when the Saints left Kirtland because of persecution, there were about 2,000 members of the Church living in
Kirtland and nearly 18,000 worldwide

Mini-lesson 4—Other Significant Revelations and Events       

Read D&C 42:61

Joseph Smith arrived in Ohio, the Lord told him that he would “receive revelation upon revelation” if he would ask God.

-Turn to the chronological order of contents of the Doctrine and Covenants (located after the introduction).


Determine the location where most of the revelations recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants were received. 


Locate D&C 76; 89; 107; 137. Read the section introduction and skim the section summary located before the first verse.

In your journal write why each of these sections is significant.



Scripture References: D&C 37, D&C 38, D&C 42
This idea came from a Pinterest post by Erin Guinup. She didn't post a link to a website, but posted a picture of her chalkboard from doing this activity that you can see at right. You can see her pin on my Seminary Pinterest page. Basically, you start with a topic. Each student is given […]
Scripture References: 1 Nephi 16, Acts 14, Hebrews 11, John 7, Mark 7, Mosiah 1
I've posted both the full lesson and the object lesson part here in case Seminary Mom's (rather long) lesson doesn't fit with the message you're trying to get across in your lesson: The Object Lesson I brought out a muffin tray with muffin liners, but no actual muffins inside the liners. I explained I'd planned […]
Scripture References: 3 Nephi 26
Seminary Mom likes to split her classes into groups for gospel learning. Here's how she taught 3 Nephi 11 over the course of two days, while splitting into groups for researching the scripture topic: Today was a special day as we began our study of 3 Nephi 11, the crowning moment in the Book of […]
Scripture References: 3 Nephi 11
Gospel Topics:
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