What’s the perfect recipe for loving as Jesus does? During the month of March, I’ll be using this Love One Another Recipe of Love activity to introduce Love One Another in Junior and Senior primary!
*See all Love One Another Singing Time Ideas here!*
Aside from music, one of my favorite hobbies is baking. I learned to bake from my mom, who let me crack eggs into the bowl and occasionally leave some shells. Many kids love helping out in the kitchen, so I figured, “Why not bring baking to primary?!”
This simple activity combines baking with learning about the Savior to teach different attributes of Christlike love in primary. With little to no mess, this non-edible Recipe of Love activity can be a great way to introduce Love One Another this year.
Love One Another Recipe of Love
The idea behind this activity is simple, but can becomes as complex as you want to fit the needs of your primary. I started by thinking of some attributes of the Savior. These are the “ingredients” for your recipe. Here are some attributes that I thought of. Feel free to add your own to the mix!
- Kindness
- Love
- Gentleness
- Patience
- Forgiveness
For each of these attributes that I selected, I found one simple item in my house to represent that attribute. I’ve included some easy examples of items to use:
- Kindness – I used a teddy bear or fuzzy blanket
- Love – For this attribute, I made a heart using colored construction paper
- Gentleness – For this attribute, I found a bottle of lotion
- Patience – I decided to use one of my watches to represent this item – you could also bring an alarm clock or a stopwatch.
- Forgiveness – Scriptures or construction paper with “I’m Sorry” written on the page.
Once you have all these items ready to go, grab a mixing bowl and a spatula to bring to primary. Introduce this activity by placing all these items on the table and explaining to the children that you are going to make the recipe for “Love.” You might ask them what they think Christlike love looks like.
After identifying and sharing a bit about each ingredient, place them into the bowl and invite a few children to “stir” the ingredients together. Allow the children to offer some more ideas of items that might go into the “recipe of love.”
After creating your recipe, begin teaching “Love One Another” using this Love One Another flip chart. This fun object lesson will be a great way for children to remember this song as they practice it. Since this recipe is not edible, I recommend bringing in a small treat for kids to enjoy after singing time.
For another fun hands on singing time, see our An Angel Came to Joseph Smith Sensory bin for some really fun ideas!
Activity Instructions:
- Choose 2-5 attributes of Jesus Christ
- Find an item to represent each of those attributes, as well as a mixing bowl and spoon.
- At the beginning of primary, introduce the activity by placing all these items on the table.
- For each ingredient, ask how that ingredient can help us become like Christ.
- Once all ingredients are in the mixing bowl, invite a few children to come mix the ingredients.
- Teach the words to Love One Another
This can be a great introduction activity because it allows the children to use their imagination, as well as see some concrete examples of what love looks like. You might offer a discussion about what it means to “love one another” and ask the children how they show their love to others. This is a great time to bear your testimony!
Extension Ideas:
- Use a simple recipe for non-bake treats and label each ingredient with one of the attributes of Christ. This way, kids will actually be able to eat what you make!
- Instead of using this as an introduction activity, it can be used as a review activity. After each run-through of the song, add another ingredient to the mixing bowl!
- After adding in the ingredients, talk about things that can make your recipe “bitter” – “What if we added in anger? Would the recipe still taste good?”
- Hide the ingredients around the room. Have the children hide-and-seek for the ingredients and add them into the mixing bowl.
- You could pair this cute Love One Another Story from the Friend on the church website! It’s a cute example of how we can show love to each other.
After introducing Love One Another, pop over to this post to see how to Teach Love One Another with a Hand Bells chart.
