I love watching the kids line up, reciting the verses in their head, waiting their turn to pass them off. I love even more, seeing them succeed and giving them high fives. I believe that memorization helps the children gain confidence and also love for those scriptures. It always feels good to be able to answer “Yes” when someone asks, “Who knows the ___ Article of Faith?” or to be able to find a book in the scriptures quickly, etc.

Right after Tyler (4) had memorized the 3rd Article of Faith, we watched General Conference. I was so surprised at how many speakers referenced the Articles of Faith and quoted all or portions of them. He was so excited and perked up each time. (I later counted 5 direct references to Articles of Faith in General Conference by Elders Hales, Packer, Perry, Corbridge and Christofferson, and 3 more partial references by Eyring, Scott and Perry.) Tyler notices them in sacrament meeting, too. It’s awesome!

After church, the children come up to the members of our primary presidency (spaced out in the Primary room) to pass off an Article of Faith. Each time they do, we initial their pass-off sheet, and they take it to our secretary who marks them on our master chart and lets them choose a piece of candy from our treat jar (or something from our non-candy jar). (We throw away the pass off sheets each week so it’s quick and easy.) I bought a huge bag of candy from Costco for this. The Twizzlers are always the last to go.

We are very particular with the kids, making sure they recite the verses word-for-word. We are positive in how we do this, and encourage them to retry over and over until they get it just right.

Individuals

After a child passes off all 13, we recognize them in front of the whole Primary. I filled this jar with CTR rings ($1 each now - ouch!) and added a green ribbon. We let them take out a ring,  sometimes ask them to share their favorite Article of Faith with the Primary (if there is time and they aren’t nervous in front of a group), and always praise them for their hard work!

I made an Excel file for Junior and another for Senior. Names on the left, Articles of Faith across the middle, and an “Award” column far right. When a child has earned the award, we circle that space. Once s/he receives the ring, we mark it with an X.

I also made a private online Google Doc for all the parents to access so they can view the progress of their child(ren) and know which articles they are working on.

We also keep reminding the kids and parents to mark these off in their Faith in God books as well.

In an effort to bring about a team-effort-feel, I created this “Articles of Faith Touchdown” board to track the progress of our entire Primary on memorizing Articles of Faith. Each yard equals one Article of Faith. Each time they reach 100 memorizations, I put a football in the end zone. Senior Primary (brown football) was up to 333 memorizations when I took this picture, and Junior was on their way to their first touchdown.

As part of opening exercises each week, I come to the front and announce how many were passed off the previous week. I have the kids help me count as I move the football. I like this as a fun way to remind the kids about it each week rather than feeling like I’m nagging them. They were mesmerized when I introduced the board.

To make the footballs invisibly move, I used .8mm clear stretch cord. Jon drilled 4 tiny holes for me (I believe with a 1/16 bit), and then tied some good boy scout knots for me in the back.

I am super excited about how the board turned out. I bought the green foam board from Hobby Lobby for $5 (price before using a coupon), measured like crazy, and cut vinyl lines, letters and labels with my Silhouette Cameo. I did the long lines in 2 pieces, and used transfer paper for each group of 4 little lines. I bought the CTR logo ($0.99, but was free with a coupon). It took a long time to put together, but it was worth it.

As of this post, over half of senior primary has memorized all 13 Articles of Faith, and 3 children in junior primary have. Junior Primary is up to 121 memorizations, and Senior Primary 440, so that’s 561 all together! Go team!

To keep the children who’ve passed off all 13 motivated and progressing, I gave them an additional challenge of 7 bonus items to memorize: books in the Book of Mormon, New Testament, Old Testament, contents of the D&C and Pearl of Great Price, Latter-day Prophets and Modern day Prophets. When they complete all 7 bonus items, we bring them up in front of the Primary again for recognition, this time wearing a graduation cap (I have two to choose from - mine and Jon’s from high school - red or blue).

When some of these children had finished the 13 Articles of Faith, they told me they missed staying after Primary to recite verses and get treats. I originally gave out these laminated cards as a “Perpetual Sharing Fund” intending for kids to turn them in when they finished, but several lost theirs, and it took a lot of work to make them, so now, we give them a one-page printout instead.

As I mentioned, we also awarded the first class to memorize all 13 Articles of Faith. Valiant 10 worked hard and won the prize! That was awesome. Motivation in the Primary seemed to drop after they won, and I tried to revive the momentum by offering the next class to finish all 13 a “runner’s up” (smaller) bag of gummy bears. It didn’t seem to do the trick, so while that is still the offer, I added this:

As we began this, I assumed that the children in our primary who have special challenges would be the ones who wouldn’t pass them off. On the contrary, all of our children with those challenges (Down Syndrome, Autism, stutter, etc.) have passed off several articles. One of our loving Primary teachers takes one of our boys with autism to the cultural hall during part of sharing time (since he struggles to stay in the room with all the noise), and works with him on Articles of Faith. That boy recently passed off all 13 Articles of Faith! Our little 7-year old girl with Down Syndrome sang the songs along with her iPad. Our CTR 4 class has all passed off the first two (and my Tyler only has one more to go for all 13). Our 5-year old, who memorized all 13 on his own, has now started passing them off in German as well. Wow! Many neat things have come about through doing this.

My challenge has been to get all of the kids (and parents) motivated. We offer to help the kids right after church, which a few have taken us up on. I’ll be making a CD of the songs for the Primary program, and on that, I’m adding the Articles of Faith songs and songs for the 7 bonus items, too. We also reach out individually to the kids who aren’t progressing, to offer encouraging words.

When they reach a touchdown, we have a little celebration during Primary. For our first one, I made mini CTR cookies (individually wrapped), which we sent with the teachers for Junior to hand out at the end of church, and which we handed to senior at the end of Primary. This was a huge hit! Other plans include little mints, super cheap bubbles, etc.

After the announcement of our touchdown, we passed out pom poms (which I bought from Oriental Trading) and chose the first two kids to pass off all 13 Articles of Faith to take turns leading the kids in “Do As I’m Doing”. They loved it, and it really helped it feel like a celebration!

Team Effort

Results

Here are my Silhouette files for it, if you’re making one:

End Zone Text (purchase and add to this a CTR logo - mine is 3.037” high and 3” wide)

Long Field Lines

Short Field Lines

Field Numbers and Lines