The name for the Primary class for 9-year-old girls, from 1959 to 1968 was – you know it – “Gaynotes.” As with all Primary classes in those pre-Correlation days, the class plan included far more than a lesson manual.There were class officers, class songs, class parties, the first year awards for the wonderful bandlo, a New Testament printed especially for this class, red pencils for scripture marking, and a sense that the girls were growing up, entering, as they were, their first girls’-only church class, maturing, as they thought, from mere childhood when they had mingled with the little boys.
This post outlines the lessons for the Gaynote year, together with some of the frills that made Primary so much fun.
The Gaynote Code
“I will bring the light of the gospel into my home by greeting the day with a song.”
The Bandlo
Home emblem: Awarded for learning three ways in which a girl can bring the light of the gospel into her home.
Note emblem: Class symbol, awarded after a girl practices for one week being cheerful in the home.
1-4: Awarded for memorizing the first four Articles of Faith.
Jewels:
Under the home emblem, for memorizing the names of the books of the New Testament.
Diagonal line, right side: Awarded for memorizing at least 12 assigned verses from the New Testament.
Diagonal line, left side: Awarded for attending three out of four Primary classes each month.
On note emblem: Awarded for attending Primary at least 43 times during the year.
In window of home: Awarded for completing cross-stitch summer project.
Praying girl: The round circle on the drawing designates the placement of a picture of a girl praying set under glass, awarded for opening or closing a class meeting with prayer, using prayer language.
Class Officers
Hostess: Leads girls to classroom; calls class to order; watches prayer chart to see that each girl has equal turns to pray; leads class in repeating the code; helps clean up room after class; assists teacher as requested.
Co-hostess: Takes the place of the absent hostess; keeps roll under teacher’s supervision; telephones or mails cards, or visits, girls who are absent; runs errands for teacher; helps to clean up the room after class.
LESSON SCHEDULE
1. Let’s Get Acquainted
Purpose: To help the girls become acquainted with the plans for the year.
2. The Gaynote Code
Purpose: to inspire the girls to bring the light of the gospel into their homes.
3. The Gaynote Emblem
Purpose: To help the girls to be Gaynotes.
4. The New Testament
Purpose: To give the girls a desire to know and love the New Testament.
5. Prayer
Purpose: To teach the girls how to open and close a meeting with prayer.
6. Our Articles of Faith
Purpose: To give the girls a desire to study the Articles of Faith.
7. Framing the Articles of Faith Card
Purpose: To inspire the girls to memorize the Articles of Faith.
8. A Gay Day with Gay Notes
Purpose: To teach the girls that in singing we get a feeling from the music and a message from the words.
9. Planning the Parent Demonstration
Purpose: To plan a demonstration that will acquaint parents with the Gaynote program.
10. Preparing the Parent Demonstration
Purpose: To prepare the parent demonstration.
11. First Article of Faith – God, the Father
Purpose: To teach the girls that God, the Eternal Father, is a personal God.
12. First Article of Faith – Jesus Christ
Purpose: To teach that Jesus is a God, the Son of our Eternal Father.
13. Preparing the Christmas Gift
Purpose: To help the girls plan and prepare their family Christmas gift.
14. Presenting the Christmas Gift
Purpose: To inspire the girls to share a priceless gift with their families.
15. Primary Christmas Party, or A Christmas Kindness
(To be either a whole-Primary party, or letters written by the girls to the bishopric, Primary presidency, or others in the ward.)
16. First Article of Faith – Godhead
Purpose: To help the girls to understand that the Godhead is made up of three separate Personages.
17. Preparing for the Daddy Date
Purpose: To create interest in and prepare for the Daddy-date party.
18. Prayer Language
Purpose: To teach the girls to use correct language when they pray.
19. Second Article of Faith – Free Agency
Purpose: To help each girl to know that our Heavenly Father gave us free agency – the right to choose.
20. Second Article of Faith – Punishment for Sins
Purpose: To teach each girl that she will be punished for her own wrong-doings.
21. Second Article of Faith – Adam’s Transgression
Purpose: To teach the girls that they are here on earth to prove whether they will follow Jesus and resist Satan.
22. Third Article of Faith – Atonement
Purpose: To show the girls that because Christ loved us enough to die for us, we will all be resurrected.
23. Third Article of Faith – Obedience
Purpose: To teach the girls that to live with heavenly Father they must obey the laws and ordinances of the gospel.
24. A Gay Day with Games
Purpose: To share a happy experience in [scripture] memorization.
25. Easter
Purpose: To help the girls to realize the true significance of the Easter story.
26. Fourth Article of Faith – Faith
Purpose: To teach the girls that if they have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they will receive great blessings from God.
27. Fourth Article of Faith – Repentance
Purpose: to help the girls to know they must repent and be forgiven to enter the kingdom of God.
Fourth Article of Faith – Baptism
Purpose: To teach the girls that baptism by immersion is necessary for everyone to live again with Heavenly Father.
29. Fourth Article of Faith – Gift of the Holy Ghost
Purpose: To help the girls to understand that through the gift of the Holy Ghost they can again live with Heavenly Father.
30-31. Primary Sunday Service Practice
32. Love at Home
Purpose: To help each girl to know that by being a good Gaynote she will bring the light of the gospel into her home.
33. Pray with Faith
Purpose: To make prayer more meaningful in the life of each girl.
34. Gay Day Inventory
Purpose: To take inventory in order to give girls an opportunity to achieve and receive awards on their bandlos.
35. Summer Secrets
Purpose: To create interest in the summer lessons and activity.
36. The Gaynote Sampler
Purpose: To create interest in the Gaynote Sampler [the summer cross-stitch project].
37. Dress Up Your Manners
Purpose: To teach girls good manners to be used especially at the Home Builder Holiday.
38. Stitch and Make Invitations
Purpose: To make invitations for the Home Builder Holiday and to work on samplers.
39. Early-Morning Breakfast Gay Day
Purpose: To share the thrill of an early morning meal together.
40. Stitch and Dance Gay Day
Purpose: To continue our handiwork and to have a gay time learning a dance.
41. Stitch and Dance Gay Day
Purpose: To finish embroidering the sampler and to share a period of dancing together.
42. A Gay Day in the Kitchen
Purpose: To help the girls learn to enjoy preparing food.
43. Completing the Sampler
Purpose: To help the girls complete their samplers.
44. Review and Practice
Purpose: To check graduation requirements and awards earned. To practice for the Home Builder Holiday.
45. Final Preparation and Practice
Purpose: To make final preparation for the Home Builder Holiday.
Home Builder Holiday: A party with the girls, teachers, and mothers, advancing the Gaynotes to their next Primary class, and welcoming a new class of younger girls into the Homebuilder program.
Gaynote Class Song
My Code
The first thing in the morning and all day long
I shall be a Gaynote and sing a happy song;
I shall greet the new day and all it brings
With a cheerful face and a heart that sings.
Scripture Verses to Be Memorized by Gaynotes:
James 1:5: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
Matthew 18:20: For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
John 7:17: If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.
I Corinthians 8:6: But to us there is but one God, the Father …
Luke 2:10-11: … Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
I John 5:7: For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the holy Ghost: and these three are one.
Matthew 6:9:13: … Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
Colossians 2:6: As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.
Galatians 6:7: Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
II Corinthians 5:10: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
I Corinthians 15:22: For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Matthew 7:21: Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Luke 17:4: And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turns again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.
Matthew 3:16: And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him.
John 3:5: Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Ephesians 6:1: Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
I John 5:14: And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.
Books of the New Testament (memorization aid, sung to tune of “Praise to the Man”)
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, the Acts and the Romans,
First and Second Corinthians,
Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians,
First and Second Thessalonians.(Chorus:) Timothy, Timothy, Titus, Philemon,
To the Hebrews, Epistle of James,
Peter, Peter, John, John, John, Jude, Revelation,
These are the Books of the New Testament.
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