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Each year I design a set of Scripture Mastery images that we use on our posters, clip-art and stickers.  This year we added a new product, New Testament Scripture Mastery Shrink Charms - with the New Testament SM designs.  This shrink plastic product has all 25 designs on one sheet that you cut out, hole punch and bake to make sturdy little charms that you can use in a number of ways.

• Give a key ring, zipper pull, chain bracelet or necklace to students and as they “master” each verse, they earn a charm to add to their key ring.
• Life applications - students earn charms as they can share with the class how a scripture mastery verse applied to some aspect of their lives.
• Use for games!
• CRANIUM - Use a Cranium game board and die to play.  Instead of using the cards, use the charms- players choose a charm from a can, or have them laid flat, face down on a table.  The team member must use a variety of ways to get their team to guess what the verse is, such as charades, drawing a picture, modeling clay etc. - the same idea can be used for Pictionary etc.
• MEMORY - Use two sets laid flat on the table top and have students try to find pairs.  When they make a match they recite the verse to earn the charm.
• BUTTON BUTTON - like the old childhood game, lace one set of charms onto a long length of yarn and tie the ends together - students sit cross-legged on the floor in a circle and hold on to the yarn - pass along the charms while music is playing - whenever the music stops they must stop passing the charms.  Teacher has a can with another set of charms in it, and pulls one out.  Whoever has the mate to it has to recite the verse or give an life application etc.  For fun, add a button to the yarn, and whoever has the button when the music stops must leave the circle
• BURIED TREASURE - fill two plastic tubs with sand or wheat and hide a set of charms in each tub.  Place the tubs on a table at one end of the room.  A timer calls out every 15 seconds and have two teams send one member at a time down to dig for buried treasure.  Each 15 seconds the digger stops and another student runs down to dig.  Have a grid with five rows and five columns on a piece of cardboard.  Put a keyword in each square.  When the diggers turn is up he/she takes all the charms they unearthed and places them on the matching square.  They only have 15 seconds to correctly place them or they have to throw their charms back in the tub.  The team with the most charms at the end of a certain length of time, or the team that gets all the charms correctly placed on the grid first, wins!
• BINGO - make up BINGO cards with keywords scattered on each square.  Pull out charms from a can and players place candies on their BINGO cards to form horizontal, vertical or diagonal lines to earn a BINGO.  When someone gets a BINGO they must choose one of the verses in their bingo line to recite correctly to actually win.

TELL US HOW YOU USE THE CHARMS!

~Debra

Scripture Mastery (SM) is the one area of a seminary teacher’s responsibility that is not covered very well in the teacher manuals. However, Latter-dayVillage.com carries many different SM teaching resources to help you turn students into scripture masters. If done correctly, this one single area of seminary instruction can become the most lasting memory imprint from your teacher efforts. Many of us still remember the scriptures we memorized even 40-50 years ago; in fact for this write, knowing the SM verses was a powerful missionary tool. I was able to quote prophetic scripture on the door, the street corner, and in our investigator’s homes. In every member missionary situation, having an instant library of God’s Word available to use, will benefit students and teacher alike.

In the next few Seminary News Flashes, we will focus on one of our SM resources, as well as listing much of what we offer. This Flash our attention turns to Scripture Mastery Resources! from Ken Alford. Bro. Alford, a long time seminary teacher has just joined the BYU Dept. of Religion faculty after retiring from military service. His resource packets are designed for quick duplication with using a copy machine; his CD’s are packed with images and activities proven to help with SM passage familiarization and memorization.

New Testament. Volume 1 - The activities in this basic New Testament packet include:

• Games
• Handouts
• Inspiring Quotations (called “Glue Quotes” or “Glue-Ins” each one refers to a specific scripture and they’re all just the right size to glue into scriptures or journals)
• Memory aids
• Instructions and Ideas
• Many, many other features, too many to list in this space. Click here to see the entire product description.

New Testament. Volume 2 - This second activity packet does not duplicate first packet resources, but adds a wide range of New Testament teaching resources:

• Jewish Holiday information (through 2005)
• Scripture Mastery Anagrams activity
• New Testament Tidbits (lesson “attention getters”)
• “Who Wants to be a Zillionaire” New Testament game (complete with speed round questions, lifelines, and game questions)
• Table of Contents (with all packet pages numbered)
• Scripture Mastery Logic Puzzle (and solution)
• As with the previous packet, there is to much to list here. See
  the product page for a complete list of New Testament teaching aids.

ALL 100 Scripture Mastery CD - On this CD, designed for all four years (good scripture mastery involves reviewing previous year’ memorization),  you receive:

• 400 SCRIPTURE MASTERY PICTURES
  • 100 pictures with keywords and scripture references
  • 100 pictures with references but no keywords
  • 100 pictures with keywords but no references
  • 100 pictures without keywords or references
  • These beautiful pictures can be used in handouts, activities, talks, games, flash cards, etc.
• 100 scripture mastery computer jigsaw puzzles
• 48 computer screensavers
• 100 computer background pictures
• 4 computer slideshows
• 4 scripture mastery guides

Picture Clues - The Picture Clues packet provides match the Picture Bingo clues from the Seminary Scripture Mastery Resource Volume 1 packets. Each Picture Clues packet contains:

• 4 Student Handout pages, which each contains all 25 scripture references, keywords, and picture clues from one Seminary year.
• 100 full-size picture clues (8-1/2 by 11 inches). These images are perfect for game/chase clues or classroom visual aids.

All Seminary Scripture Mastery Resources! - The activities in this packet cover the Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, Old Testament, New Testament at the same time! Review and preview all four Seminary years during the same activity.

• 100 new pages!
• New Games and Activities
• Ideas and Instructions
• Crossed Words Game
• Seminary Mumble Game
• Scripture Mastery Cover-Ups and a whole
  list of other useful Games & Activities.

Grettle Payne, one of our long-time seminary authors, recently discovered a hidden treasure in a storage unit she was cleaning out.  Some time ago we converted most of Grettle’s out of print seminary scripture mastery titles to PDF eBook format; those downloads have been selling very well. What she found was several hundred copies of her books, some even that she was sure were all sold out.

We are now offering two of those books as an exclusive sell out; hard copies of these two volumes are now available until they run out.

Scripture Mastery for Everyone, New Testament Print Edition regular $13.00, now only $10.00, save: 23% off until supplies are gone.

Scripture Mastery for Everyone, Old Testament Print Edition regular $13.00  now only $10.00, save: 23% off until supplies are gone.

We will continue to sell the download versions of these books; they are cheaper and have no shipping charges, but for those who prefer hard copy versions, now is your chance. Order now while we still have these in stock!

There are so many great themes this year for New Testament study in Seminary!  We’ve had product lines for two great NT themes for over a month, and now we have added a new one!

“LET YOUR LIGHT SO SHINE” from Matthew 5:16 is one of my favorite scripture references and happens to be one of the Seminary Scripture Mastery Verses this year!

I tried my hand at designing a logo for this theme.  I wanted to use a lighthouse, but I also included a number of other “light” symbols.  You can see stars in the black night sky, and there are sun icons as well as two eyes in the borders of the image.  I also used arrows because the light points the way we should go.  I wanted to depict the contrast between darkness and light in the design, so I used a black sky.

Once when I was teaching the Primary song “I Am Like a Star” I had a neat discussion with the children.  I turned off the lights and turned on a flashlight that had a star cutout on the end.  I asked them why they could see the little flashlight glowing, and they said it was because it was dark.  I reminded them that we only see stars at night because it is so dark.  Even a little star shines bright in that black sky.  We sang the song and I asked them to listen for what it was that helped us shine like a star.  The words go like this:

I am like a star shining brightly
Shining for the whole world to see
I can do and say happy things each day
For I know Heav’nly Father loves me.

The reason we can shine like a star is because we know Heavenly Father loves us.  In this world of darkness, we shine like stars because of that special knowledge.  Those who do not have that knowledge can see the light shining from us and are attracted to it.  We can share that light with others by helping them learn that they too are children of God, and beloved by Heavenly Father.

I had that in mind the whole time I was designing this logo.  Also, I am an actress, and by nature, I have no problem expressing myself in public - but sometimes I’ve been accused of being a show off or big mouth (that was way back when I was a kid, but I still remember and feel self-conscious about it) so this scripture always brought me a sense of vindication and relief that expressing myself wasn’t such a bad thing.  I’ve taught drama classes for kids many times, and directed a number of children’s shows and youth plays.  I love getting to the end - the big performance - and watching the children who initially were shy and afraid shining like stars on that stage.  It tickles me to no end when one of my most resistant students ends up stealing a scene once they understand how great it is to hear the audience responding to them.  I’ve seen many a little life turn around from such an experience, and I love it!

I don’t know what it is about letting your light shine that makes it glow all the brighter - but perhaps it is like the parable - if someone had a candle and put it under a bushel, it would eventually go out, wouldn’t it - for lack of oxygen?  When you remove the bushel, and let it shine for all those around, the flame will actually increase, won’t it, when it gets that exposure to fresh air?  Yes, it surely seems to me that when we let our light shine it gets brighter - from my experience with performing, and also with sharing testimony.  As we share our testimony, it grows.

So there is a super metaphor in this scripture/theme.  But it didn’t stop there.  I also looked up “light” in the online scriptures - narrowing it to the New Testament.  There were MANY references and they were all interesting and powerful.  Of course the Savior is the “light of the world!”  to mention just one.

I created several products with this logo so far:

• Poster
• T-shirt
• Mug
• Totebag
• Keychain
  
• Sticker

SEE ALSO OUR OTHER NT THEME PRODUCTS

• Armor of God
• Fishers of Men

I recently read an interesting blog post about BYU football (I am kinda nuts about football, mostly college football, primarily BYU or Wyoming football [OK I confess, I also cheer for anyone playing the U of U]). But at least I immediately recognized the article as having an application for seminary teachers. The writer, Dick Harmon, sports columnist for the Deseret News, is a longtime friend of mine, from when we both lived in the same Orem, UT ward. We both had very young families, were very interested in sports (he professionally) and so we hit if off as friends. I later wrote a weekly college football prognostication column for the Provo Daily Herald where Dick was the sports editor. I used a home-written computer program to predict college football games and spent many Saturday nights in the Herald office watching the college football statistics come across the sports wire. I also did some stringing for the Herald, covering high school basketball games in Utah County. But I digress.

As I read Dick’s blog about BYU football coach Bronco Mendenhall and his use of memory techniques (found here http://deseretnews.com/blogs/monthly/1,5553,19,00.html?bD=20080809&sc=dmn),

I could not help but think how the same principles applied to teaching seminary.

Dick had noted behavioral scientist Paul Gustavson comment on Coach Mendenhall’s technique for impressing principles on the minds of his football players. He wrote;

“Dick,

Research indicates that the three strongest facilitators of long term memory are:

1. Emotional experiences (e.g. running to the top of the Y and then Bronco talking about goals. Like the first year he said that the view from the top is different from the view from the bottom. Being in LaVell Edward stadium watching the last 12 home victories etc., many that you have written about)
2. Music The use of music is powerful. Many of our children learn their alphabet by singing the ABC song. At Bronco’s fireside the team sings the Sons of Helaman song (I know that it goes by another name) the Haka is a war chant (type of song).
3. A metaphor is the third strongest facilitator of long term memory. Christ taught in parables and all parables are metaphors. Bronco uses lots of metaphors such as being flag bearers and the flag with everyone’s signature on it.
   

I believe that this coin and its symbolism/metaphor is about being a flag bearers and who they represent. I believe that the coin was to be given at a significant emotional experience point (run up the mountain to begin camp. I don’t know if it was at the top of the “Y” or somewhere else that he told me that he was going to give this to the players. I think that they might be like dog tags that members of the services have signifying who they are and who they represent.

Hope this background helps. Bronco does the best job of any leader that I know leveraging these three facilitators of long term memory. “

So how can these three facilitators be applied in a seminary setting and will they be effective. Since it has been a couple of years since I taught seminary, here are my thoughts organized around what I should have done better then or what I might do better if the opportunity ever comes again.

1. Spiritual experiences. Make sure students and teacher have daily spiritual experiences. Follow the spirit in preparing and leading your learning discussions. Share you r testimony frequently and personalize your students learning environment by using spiritual experiences from your own life or theirs. If you are in tune, spiritual experiences will happen; those will tend to stay with your students longer than anything else. Leverage them; get your students to record their thoughts and impressions in student journals.
2. Music – use soothing prelude music to set a proper learning atmosphere. Sing hymns frequently, even if acapella, especially those that directly correlate to a scripture passage. Use music to teach and practice scripture mastery; if you get those verses into memory with music, they do not leave nearly so fast.
3. Metaphors. Use object lessons to bind learning to specific memories in your students minds. As a fifty-something, I still remember object lessons learned in my first 9^th grade seminary class. Yearly themes can be metaphors you reinforce with every lesson. Objects students take home become a visible library of learning and application.

So there you have it; football and seminary. I hope my observation makes some sense for you as you guide your young charges through their spiritual discovery of the New Testament.

We’ve gotten a few requests for the artwork for  the New Testament Scripture Mastery Poster/Stickers/Clipart without the scripture reference included - to use as image clues once students have become familiar with the the verses - for games and quizzes.

NTSMIC

So I created a new add-on product with just the images and added it to our store for instant download.  I called it New Testament Scripture Mastery Image Clues.  It has each image as a full page png file that can be inserted into any document, and then I created a pdf file with a set of full page posters that are ready to print, as well as a pdf set of half-page flashcards.  I made flashcards with just the reference and flashcards with just the image, so you can play matching games.  It sells for only $2.99 (remember, though we have products in the store for under $5.95 - our cart minimum is $5.95, so you will have to bring the total up that far on a purchase - and we have lots of low cost items to choose from).

This product uses the same artwork as our:

• NTSM Posters
• NTSM Stickers
• NTSM Clipart
• NTSM Shrink Charms

Happy Scripture Chasing!

Debra

Long-time seminary teachers who attended the annual CES symposium at BYU each year are probably familiar with The Scripture Connection series, written by Dennis A. Wright, Associate Dean of Religious Instruction at BYU. His comprehensive teaching resource, The Scripture Connection, was an annual symposium best-seller at the BYU Bookstore. We are proud to announce that Latter-dayVillage.com is now the exclusive source for this wonderful teacher’s aide.

A limited number of printed copies of the New Testament version are now available for sale in our online store. We also have a much smaller of printed DC copies now available. When all printed copies are sold, we will release downloadable PDF versions of each book. Buy now to get your Scripture Connection books as we anticipate a quick sellout!

The Plan of Salvation is a fundamental doctrine that answers life’s most basic questions - it is taught at all levels of gospel instruction - by the missionaries, primary teachers, in Sunday School, Seminary and in our homes.  I have been wanting to have a felt Plan of Salvation product for a long time because of the durability of felt - for this set, I knew, would be used over and over again by anyone who had it.  I have invited several artists to take this on.  I designed a set myself that I wasn’t satisfied with.  Now, thanks to LDS illustrator, Scott Jarrard, we finally have a beautiful felt product - the Plan of Happiness Felt Storyboard.  The set comes with a beautiful galactic star field background upon which 20 colorful cut out figures can be laid out.  The set includes figures for both a girl and a boy in three phases of existence -

• Pre-mortal life
• Mortality
• Resurrected

This set includes a digital download so you can print out the story, a girls journal, a boys journal and wallet cards with the plan image on one side and scripture references on the other.

The process used for printing on felt is dye sublimation.  The dye is printed on special paper and then laid face down on the felt where it is pressure heated to the point where the dye evaporates and infuses itself into the felt.  It is not ink laying on top of felt, it has become a part of the felt, and the colors are brilliant, washable and colorfast and will last generations.

There are two options with the background - it can come unmounted, or for $5 more, it can come pre-mounted on stiff corrugated plastic.

Make this foundational doctrine clear and simple to understand and remember with this beautiful felt set!

~Debra

We are now adding the last set of seminary lesson plans from MarGene Von Forell. If you are unfamiliar with MarGene and her lesson plans, visit her bio page here. MarGene’s years of teaching experience, coupled with her vast collection of quotes, stories, games, and activities, provide seminary teachers with many valuable teaching tools.

Coordinated with the current teacher’s manual, she adds additional teaching opportunities to any lesson. Where applicable, she includes resources collected by her father, a career full-time Seminary/Institute teacher (now retired). Every teacher should read her MarGene Von Forell’s New Testament Summer Preparation Outline and New Testament’s First Lesson; get the year started off right with the correct preparation, classroom organization, and student management strategies.

We intend of completing the addition of MarGene’s New Testament lessons by the end of October. Watch the New Articles list to see where we are.

We now have an ALL NEW version of the highly popular Scripture Rock series for the New Testament. Set to more modern, rock oriented music, this product can also help your students quickly and permanently memorize (every tried get a tune out of your head, music REALLY helps with memorization) the mastery verses.

LDS Scripture Rock New Testament comes in two varieties

1. Regular CD. The CD contains 25 tracks of the scriptures set to rock/modern music.
2. Karaoke DVD/CD. This set includes the music CD and a bonus karaoke-style playable DVD with background picture & scrolling text so you can sing the lyrics to the music. A real winner.

Both of the LDS Scripture Rock products have volume discounts, for more savings.

ALL of our Music Products have playable music clips on their product page; just click the links toward the page bottom and the sample will open and play on your computer. This lets you sample the music style and content to help choose the best approach for your class. But order NOW so you can get a head start and have all 25 passages memorized before the school year starts. This is a tremendous advantage you will have; you can play Stump the Teacher or SM Stump the Chump.