The structure that worked for me was this:
First, the lesson, usually by telling it, using pictures or having the kids act out the story. Some of the kids had the scripture videos, so they knew the story from that. Looking back, a lot of the first part of the lesson was also the “show and tell”, but I didn’t care, because one of my goals was that they enjoyed primary.

Next, the game or other activity. Sometimes it was boys against the girls, sometimes randomly split by where they sat. Usually it was something like Jeopardy, or some other memory game, where all of the answers came from the lesson. One of the funnest was a bean bag toss. The incentive to pay attention to the lesson, then, was to win the game. Sometimes it wasn’t a game, but they drew pictures or colored ones I brought.

Finally, the treat. I know, the guidance is (or at least was) that treats were only for special occasions. But the class decided that anytime they could get through a whole lesson was a special occasion, so that’s how we justified it. The other rule was that there was no treat if one of the more popular kids teased or picked on the “nerdier” ones. One of the reasons I hated primary was that I was usually the smallest and youngest one, and got picked on a lot. It wasn’t going to happen when I was in charge.

The kids learned the structure pretty fast. If we didn’t finish the lesson part, no game, no treat. If we didn’t finish the lesson and the game, no treat. Sometimes I bent the rules, especially if we were having fun during the activity. But more often than not, if we ran out of time, the treat went back home with me, so they knew I stuck to the rules. The rule on picking on the other kids was absolute. Peer pressure worked tremendously well for me in that case–nobody wanted to be the reason they didn’t get the treats.

It’s almost a shame that I enjoyed teaching primary that year a lot more than I ever did when I was the student.

I love working in Primary. (I don’t have a Primary calling right now, and that makes me sad, although EQ and SS are fun).

I think a main key is not being afraid to laugh at yourself. Or to get involved in the activity. If you’re hopping on one foot, the kids will, too. If you’re excited, they’ll be excited too.

Preparation helps, and so does using your creativity to do things that are a little different. Recently, I’ve done Jeopardy a few times with the kids. It’s not hard. You just need a chalkboard and a set of questions; you can make up the questions yourself. Categorize them (Prophets; Restoration; Book of Mormon; etc) and line them up in difficulty; the kids love it.

Also, I second (third? fourth?) the many people who have talked about getting kids moving. That’s not hard, either. You’re reading about Nephi and the Brass Plates? Have each kid grab her scriptures, and go on a journey through the hallway and back to the primary room. And so forth.

The kids can tell if you’ve spent time and effort trying to put together something they’ll enjoy, versus if you’re just reading out of the book. Time spent preparing, or just brainstorming ideas, is time well spent.

Deborah used these methods when she taught sunbeams in our ward, and I was in the Primary Presidency. She was like a magic elixer. Once those 3 year olds had a predictable class time, they were P-E-R-F-E-C-T. And she had some tough kids.

Thanks, Julie, for this post. Jacob HATES primary, and I always feel like I’m torturing when I make him go. His biggest complaint? “It’s BORING!” I sat in once, and you know what? He was right. Total snooze-a-thon. Even I felt like wriggling in my chair.

The best sharing time I’ve ever seen was when a woman brought in ingredients to a recipe for sugar cookies. The older kids read the ingredients, the younger kids added them (she had them add the wrong things), stirred, etc. Everybody was totally captivated. Then she talked about how when we don’t follow God’s laws, things can turn out wrong. Then she handed out real cookies, of course, which I know not everybody thinks is a great idea, but the kids sure loved the whole thing, from beginning to end.

I’ve always said the best people need to be in primary. It’s such a challenging calling, and so important. Again, thanks for the tips.

Just a few other ideas that have worked for me both in Primary and in Young Women.

(1) Get to know the children or youth individually. A little out-of-class interaction and acquaintance with parents and family circumstances can go a long way. When I worked in Young Women, every month I’d spend some one-on-one time with a different girl in my class–I rotated through them all in turn. Obviously, this isn’t possible for everyone or in all circumstances, but forging connections and expanding relationships outside of class can help make what goes on inside class more meaningful.

(2) Be flexibile. Sometimes that means modifying, or jettisoning entirely, plans you’ve worked hard on. In a talk on gospel teaching in November 1999, Elder Oaks said, “One who understands that principle will not look upon his or her calling as ‘giving or presenting a lesson,’ because that definition views teaching from the standpoint of the teacher, not the student.” That made a deep impression on me and has helped me be a more flexible teacher, willing to go where the students need to go instead of grim-facedly “getting through the material.”

(3) Laugh at what can be laughed at. Not all misbehavior can, and of course clear limits are necessary, but a good sense of humor, mostly about yourself, is essential to life in Primary or Mutual. Just as “children smell fear and lack of preparation” youth smell taking yourself too seriously.

That worked really, really well with my little sister. Apparently they’re not going to mention it at Seminary graduation, but they did do it in one of the classes a few weeks ago — of the graduating seniors, she has (by far) the best Consecutive Reading record. I was shocked — she’s read her scriptures every day, at least a few verses a day, for over 800 days straight. It was because they kept asking — no pressure or anything, just asking and writing it down. I think they got one point for reading the previous day, and one point for showing up to Seminary on time (they trade their points in for things: none of the kids have turned in their points for the biggest single prize, a free day off of Seminary; they prefer the candy bars.)

Incidentally, behavior problems might be the teacher’s fault — but they might not. If your child has gone through 8 teachers in a few months and all the other kids whine when she’s put into their class for the year, it might just be her behavior. Any given teacher in Primary is in charge of your child for approximately 40 minutes one day a week, and most of them are neither professionals nor very familiar with you or your child. Parents have the initiative in this situation.

Another thing that I think is effective with youth or anyone is asking at the end of a lesson what they’ll remember from it, and turning that into a simple challenge. I’ve found that when I don’t do this, I get bizarre responses the following week when I ask at the beginning, “What was our lesson about last week?” It’s very easy for kids to latch onto one funny story or offhand comment and forget the rest. When I do ask what they’ve learned at the end of a lesson, I find that it’s much more likely they’ll remember that the following week, and maybe even complete the challenge.

Also, having a challenge that’s the same each week, especially for older kids–in the vein of the “routine” somebody mentioned–is good. I ask my 12-year-olds each week whether they read their scriptures that week, where they are in the scriptures, if they’re understanding it, etc. They’re actually honest with me, or it seems so–many times they’ll say, “No, I forgot,” or “I only did it 3 times,” or whatever. I do this mainly because as a seminary student in high school, the knowledge that I’d need to report my progress to my teacher–she asked us about it each morning–was what got me reading the scriptures at all.