Thursday, August 28, 2014

Plan of Salvation - Hula Hoops

Pardon the photo quality as I explain how I used hula-hoops to teach the Plan of Salvation/ Plan of Happiness on our first day of Seminary.
I lined up a few students at the front of the classroom and gave them hula hoops to replicate the pattern below. In between each person who was holding a hula hoop (circle), I placed another person to represent the lines in the design.
The people represented: (left to right) Pre-Mortal Life (holding a hula hoop), Birth, This life (holding a hula hoop), Death, Paradise/Spirit Prison (holding a hula hoop), Judgement and Final Judgement (two people standing side by side), and finally, 3 people holding 3 smaller hula hoops representing Celestial, Terrestrial, and Telestial. We did not have a hula hoop for outer darkness, it was just "out there where we don't want to go"
When I lined them up. at first, I did not tell them what they were representing. I asked them what they thought the circles and formation meant and how it may relate to Seminary, life, the gospel, etc.
After some discussion and interesting answers, I then explained what each of them represented and brought out this pillowcase printed with the design they were representing.
I had a pillowcase printed with this design for each student to have as a daily reminder that we are here on earth as one phase of our journey and that there is so much more than this life.
With this knowledge, does it help us make wise decisions, etc?
It was very effective.
I cannot take any credit for the design and I wish I knew who to give original credit to. I just thought up  a way to re-enact it using hula hoops.
I have seen this design on several sites printed on T-shirts. I kept checking to see if it was copyrighted or who may have had the original idea, If you know please share so I can give credit to the right person(s).
UPDATED NOTE: THE BLESSING OF POSTING THIS IS THAT NOW I KNOW WHO TO GIVE CREDIT TO AND NOW YOU CAN PURCHASE A T-SHIRT DIRECTLY FROM THE CREATOR OF THIS BRILLIANT LOGO, Mark at LDS HAPPINESS. CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION.
I decided to have pillowcases printed rather than T-shirts for several reasons. One was practical-I could not get the T-shirt sizeof each of my students before Seminary started. The other was that a pillowcase would be seen daily and be a reminder that "*you are here"- where are you going, what do you need to do to get there?


 We have not seen the last of these hula hoops for this Seminary year.
I am certain they will show up during a learning activity or game.
I may bring them to class when we are doing a review and ask the students to 
re-enact and re-teach the Plan of Salvation/Plan of Happiness

I hope this is clear and easy to understand.
After teaching this doctrine for many years, I must say this was my favorite and quite possibly the most effective and  interactive/visual method to teach and internalize the Plan of Salvation.
Happy Back To Seminary!


3 comments:

  1. https://lds-happiness.squarespace.com/ This is were I got the book marks for my class! Love the hula hoop idea! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Shauna,
    I'm the creator of the Plan of Happiness graphic, which we explain and sell on shirts, bookmarks, stickers, decals and other goodies at lds-happiness.com. My business partner and I love the clever pillowcase idea!

    I appreciate that you want to respect our copyright. It would be great if you give us credit and a link back to our website somewhere in your blog post.

    More than anything, we are thrilled to see seminary teachers like you using this simple design to teach powerful, eternal truths about Heavenly Father's love and plans for us. We wish you a great year in seminary!

    Please feel free to send me an email directly.

    Mark Thayer
    Owner, Oh My Words
    info@lds-happiness.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. How did you have the printing done on the t-shirt?

    ReplyDelete