Campfire

Since we are close to Pioneer Day, I figured we'd do something a little more exciting, so I coordinated with the presidency to incorporate their sharing time.  We removed all the chairs for the kids, left a ring for the teachers on the outside, and built two "campfires" in the primary room, since we have so many kids we couldn't fit all of them around one.  I brought in some wood and made the campfire rings on some towels so it wouldn't make a mess, then got a bunch of red, yellow, and orange tissue paper and placed that in the middle to make the "fire".  You could also enhance this by putting a flashlight or LED candle underneath, but it was too bright in our classroom for this to really work.

This "campfire" I made using rolled up cardboard instead of logs, less messy and the kids don't pick the bark off and throw it at each other!

We then gathered the kids around the fire, and we went back and forth between telling stories that related to the sharing time theme and pioneer stories, and then singing songs in between.  We also would periodically ask the kids questions about the stories and if they answered correctly we handed out marshmellows.  They were pretty attentive.  Great to mix it up and enjoyed having the kids settle down and bit and listen to some good stories.