How a 4 year old should give a talk in Primary - Course 101

Or better titled, "How to command the attention of every child in Primary and make them laugh"

(no this has nothing to do with speaking in church, I just crack up when she puts these shoes on)

Chloee was asked to give a talk in Primary.  In our church, Primary is where the young children from 3 - 11 meet.  The first 40 minutes is class time.  They are divided by age and a gospel lesson is taught to them in an age appropriate way.

The next 40 minutes or so is called Sharing time.  Again, they are seated with their age group classes.  Each week one class is asked to do the scripture, theme, a talk and then the closing prayer.  As the children get older the talks kind of mature with them. After the talk, then they have music time and then another fun lesson from one of the leaders.

This was Chloee's first talk, so I wrote a very simple version of Easter, dug out my stack of pictures that corresponded to points in the story and then we practiced how it could go down.  I would read the words, she would hold the pictures.  Same way we did it when the boys were just little.

The talk as rehearsed:

Easter is more than a cute Rabbit bringing baskets of treats and eggs.

Easter is really all about Jesus and how he loved us so much that he spent an entire weekend showing us.
(hold up picture of Jesus)



First he had a special dinner with his apostles. He taught us about the Sacrament so we could always remember Him.
(hold up picture of last supper)

Then He went to a sacred garden and carried out the Atonement. The Atonement means he suffered and paid the price for all our sins, mistakes, disappointments, frustrations and sad feelings.
(hold up picture of Christ in Gethsemane)
He did this so we could be forgiven of our mistakes and so that He would know how to help us when we are sad or scared.

The next day, some unkind people who did not understand Jesus and were afraid of him, nailed his body to a cross.. This is called crucified. They crucified Jesus. He died on the cross.
(hold up picture of Jesus on the cross)

When He died, His spirit left His body and went to the Spirit world. His family and friends took his body to a tomb to be buried.
(hold up picture of the tomb)

Three days later on Easter Sunday morning, His friend Mary came back to the tomb to visit His body, but the tomb was empty. His body was not there.
(hold up picture of Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene)

Instead Jesus had been resurrected. That means that His body and spirit were reunited together again and that He will live forever now.
He showed his friends the nail prints in His hands so that they would know it was really Him.
(hold up picture of resurrected Savior showing the prints in his palms)

Because Jesus did all of this. The Atonement, being crucified, dying and then being resurrected, we can now repent and be forgiven of our mistakes, and be resurrected too. We can live with our families and Jesus and our Heavenly Father forever.


Because of Easter and all that Jesus did, I can see my Mommy again and be with her. That makes me happy.
(hold up picture of Chloee and Mommy)


I am thankful to Jesus Christ for his example and sacrifice for me.
I hope everyone can remember the true meaning of Easter and remember to thank our Savior Jesus Christ.

Then as we do in our church, we end our prayers, talks and testimonies in the name of Jesus Christ.

We practiced it, we talked about it, we had it down to a science.


How her talk REALLY went -
She stepped up on the stool, reached for  the microphone, pulled it down to her mouth and then as I made my way to stand next to her, she told me she was going to do it herself.
I handed her the first picture, and she handed it back again telling me she would do it herself.
She leaned right into the microphone and said,

"Easter is fun."

I tried to re-direct, reminding her how we had practiced.  She motioned for me to sit down, that she would do it.   Again, she leaned into the microphone and announced that "Easter is fun"

I tried again to assist her.  She told me I could hold the pictures and she would talk.  I held a picture, she leaned into the microphone and then decided that she didn't need help at all.  This back and forth went on and on for what felt like 10 minutes, I am sure it was more like 3.  I even looked at the Primary leader because at this point, the entire room was giggling and laughing.  I am sure that if we didn't rein something in, the reverence would never come back.  She offered to help Chloee, and girl insisted she would do it herself.

I was at a loss.  She didn't really know what to say but she had the spotlight, the crowd was laughing, and I think she was enjoying herself.

Some more re-direction and she finally decided she would hold the picture so I whispered in her ear what to say and basically scaled it waaaaay down.  But as soon as I would whisper the word, or phrase, she would say,  " No, no no, I will do it."  Then look at the picture and then ask me what to say.  As soon as I gave her what to say, it was back to the "No, no no, I will do it."  THIS went on for a little while before she got to the point where she held the picture, looked at it, I gave her a word or two, she repeated it and then we moved on. 

Thankfully, within about 10-12 minutes (at least it felt that way), it was over.  She reluctantly let go of the microphone and stepped away from the spotlight.  I retreated to the back of the room where I am pretty sure Splenda, Luke, and Karalee were peeing their pants in laughter.  Flat Daddy's expression never changed.  Guess he can hold it in better than the rest of us.

We waved goodbye to Chloee, told her what a good job she had done and then went to the hall where we all busted up laughing.

Seriously, how funny!  I WILL DO IT MYSELF!  I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT TO DO, BUT I WILL DO IT!  Strong willed? Independent?  Loves the spotlight?  Personally, I can see that she is a quick learner and once she sees how things are to be done, she is ready to do them the right way.  She sees the adults and older kids talking in the microphone by themselves and I think she was ready to do likewise.  Next time, we'll just have her memorize her talk and perhaps she can do a shadow puppet show or an interpretive dance as an object lesson instead of pictures.

And really, I think she was working the crowd like a pro.

For the follow up course?
How to take as many pieces of the sacrament bread and not get caught until you've touched them all.
(this is an advanced course as it requires the basic fundamentals of how to be sneaky and cute at the same time)

More gratuitous cute photos