News on Primary Class/Sharing Time Changes
The Primary General Board came to speak to this area this past weekend. While I am not in the Primary Presidency, our Primary President updated us on some changes to the Primary program.
- No more Sharing Time lessons in the Friend. From now on, sharing time lessons will not be published in the Friend. Lessons will be found in the Sacrament Meeting Presentation booklet, or you can use the lesson online.
- No more Class Sharing Time Presentations. All Sharing Time lessons will be given by the Primary Presidency only.
- Shorter Sharing Time = Longer Music Time Sharing time is now 15 minutes, and music time will be 20 minutes to allow music leaders more time to teach the songs for the Sacrament Meeting Presentations.
- Class Name Changes It used to be that Primary classes were named for the age you'd be turning during the upcoming year. For example, if you were going to turn 8 during 2010, you'd be in CTR 8. Now, classes will be named for the age all children in the class are on January 1. So if you are 7, you're in CTR 7. That means that all class names will move up with children this year -- CTR 5s will be CTR 5s next year, too, but after that they'll be CTR 6s.... Hope that made sense.
Please comment below if you have more information on the changes!
You don't trust me, eh? :)
Our primary president stated the same thing, but in the April issue of The Friend, there is a sharing time section in there. what's the deal?
The Church's FAQ (linked to above) says "Starting with the January 2010 issue of the Friend magazine, the sharing time ideas for leaders will no longer be included. These ideas are incorporated into the outline for sharing time. The sharing time for children will still be in the magazine. "
I couldn't tell you what the difference between "sharing time for children" and "sharing time for leaders" is, however. Maybe those lessons are like home study Primary lessons or something. They'd make good real sharing times or FHE lessons, imo.
If a child is 3 years old and currently in the Sunbeam class but will turn 4 in Dec. of this year 2009, what is the name of the class that they will be in as of January 2010?
Hey Jenny, it's your cousin Cristina. Just wanted you to know I love your website and use it all the time! I was just looking for a talk for Natalie to give in sharing time on Sunday. Thanks for all your hard work!!
My wife was recently called to help with our ward's sunbeam class. that's all fine - she's been a Primary President multiple times but it's been quite a few years since she last served there. Yesterday she told me, "As of this past Sunday" (the first Sunday in June), Primary children must be picked-up from the class by one of their parents and not by an older sibling. Then she asked me if I could locate on-line the direction published discussing this subject so she could help the parents of her students better understand the new rule? I've tried and failed, so I'm writing to see if anyone knows something about the issue. Thank you so very much.
I'm glad that they aren't going to have the Primary teachers teach Sharing Time anymore!! I was actually thinking about this just last night... "I need to find that list so I can see when my class (actually I) have to teach!" I'm very happy to hear that I don't have to do it! :)
Great website! I'm glad I found it! I'll show it to all of my friends!
I didn't realize this change was church wide. We also changed this past Sunday, too.
The instruction that came down to us was confusing. First they said all Junior Primary children would be picked up in their rooms and passed out handouts with classroom numbers and ages. I happened to be subbing in Primary for CTR 7 unexpectedly, and waited with my class. After about 10 minutes, the Primary secretary came around after a little while saying that the new rule only applied to kids aged 5 and younger.
I'm not serving in the Primary right now and don't know the direction. I will ask Sheena over at http://littleldsideas.blogspot.com/ to see if she knows more.
Hi everyone,
I just had a couple of comments to make...the Sharing Time used to be 40 min in the handbook. In the 2009 My Eternal Family Outline booklet - it said 30 minutes for sharing time and half of that was for music. So really they didn't cut it down for next year, they only added 5 minutes for more music....I'm surprised they didn't make it longer since class time rarely takes up all 40 minutes...?
Also, they are encouraging us to "supplement the ideas provided here with some of your own". They are not providing class ideas for all weeks. Some of the weekly themes or ideas are for 2 weeks combined. It actually says "this booklet provides complete lessons for some of the weeks in the year. Ideas, but not complete lessons are included for the other weeks."
And last...they have done away with class presentations, but they say this on lds.org..."Starting January 2010, there will be no class presentations. However, “occasionally you [the Primary presidency] may invite teachers and their classes to help you with parts of the gospel instruction”. So it doesn't have to be Primary Presidency only.
love this site! and fyi - lds.org has also updated the FAQ's on the Primary page answering all sorts of questions like these...and others.
Thanks!!! Kerry
Great clarifications. Regarding the lack of full sharing time lessons, one of my next projects will be to index the helps in the friend and list them by topic for leaders. That way we can all have access to the best "official" helps. It will rule. If any of you are interested in helping, let me know. The are between 500 and 2000 to index by my guess. I'm fast, but not THAT fast!
do we know WHY they have made the changes to the class names and why there are no more class presentations?
Well, the Primary class names have always been confusing to me, and I was raised in the Church.... I personally think (**CHURCH POLICY ACCORDING TO JENNY SPECULATION ALERT**) the reason for the class name change was the difficulty in translating the instructions for each class into a foreign language. I think it's just easier to say on January 1: "Today you are 7, go to CTR 7" rather than "Today you are 7, but you'll be going to CTR 8. Why? Because you're turning 8 this year."
As for class presentations, (**MORE SPECULATION**) I expect it's a training/stewardship issue. Primary leaders are trained to follow the "rules" like get your lessons from the Friend, how to supplement appropriately, how long to take, etc., where class teachers may not be. In many of the wards in which I've served, newer members who may never have attended Primary are assigned to be class teachers. There are many reasons for this (encourage attendance, easy lessons to teach, strengthen knowledge of gospel principles...), but it also means these less-experienced Primary teachers may not have the training or experience the Primary General Presidency would prefer them to have for teaching these types of lessons.
From a strictly stewardship perspective, a classroom teacher has the stewardship and inspiration to teach those in his/her classroom, not the entire Primary. Primary leaders -- on the other hand -- do have stewardship over the entire Primary.
Further, requiring a class teacher to be responsible for a Sharing Time lesson takes her/him away from weekly lesson time and messes with the curriculum. Preparing for the lesson requires the teachers to skip lessons in their manuals or double up lesson preparation, which could cause a gap in learning for the student. And there's always the time/money/effort factor.
Personally, again I think it's great; I DESPISED giving the Sharing Time lesson when I taught Primary. If it bugs you, just give it a few years and another Primary General President will just change the whole thing anyway! :D
To clarify, Primary class members may still be used in presentations. It's just the Primary presidency who'll be leading the lesson rather than the Sunday teachers.
Jenny,
With the name changes in primary, does that mean that the 7 year olds (used to be 8) are now taught out of the 4-7 book, not the 8-11?
Thanks for all you do.
Linda
The explanation of the Primary curriculum is at the Primary FAQ here:
http://lds.org/pa/display/0,17884,7701-1,00.html
Just scroll down to the table.
CTR 7 is still in the CTR A manual. The curriculum changes after children are baptized to a scriptural Rather than conceptual emphasis.
CTR 8 should have been taught out of the CTR A-B manuals, too, or at least that's what we did when I taught that class.
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Have you confirmed these changes with the Church? In my review of the 2010 Outline for Sharing Time, I could not find any of the changes that you have stated, other than we are to use the booklet to prepare to teach a 15-minute lesson. I could not find anything in the booklet that stated no more class Sharing Time Presentations and that all Sharing time lessons will be given by the Primary Presidency only. Perhaps you could post the actual written notifications of these changes.