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Thankful Inside the Fish

Jonah ran from the Lord, landed inside a great fish, and prayed a prayer full of thanksgiving (Jonah 2:9). Then the Lord gave him, and the whole city of Nineveh, a second chance. It’s Thanksgiving week, so your family will sail a couch-cushion ship, learn that the Lord tells His plans to His prophets (Amos 3:7), make thankful place cards for the holiday table, and give second chances to each other.

  • Week 48
  • 📅 Nov 23–29, 2026
  • 📖 Amos; Obadiah; Jonah
Start with Monday
Come, Follow Me manualOld Testament 2026, week 48

What your kids learn in class

Stories, verses and games for the week come from each child’s own Primary or youth lesson, so home matches Sunday.

Daily sparks

Five to ten minutes a day, Monday to Sunday. Grown-ups lead; kids act, play and answer. Where a step says to tap something, that’s in the Gospel Sparks app; on the web, use the “Play along” links.

Monday · 10 min · Story

All Aboard the Couch Ship!

🌊 Hold on! The storm is coming!Rock the ship!Who’s inside the great fish?Count to three… BLEH!

📖 Read together: Jonah 1–3 ↗

  1. Build a ship out of couch cushions and have everyone climb aboard. Open the story scenes and read each screen together.
  2. During the storm, rock the ship and make wind and wave noises. Have the “sailors” bail out water with cups.
  3. When Jonah goes into the sea, have two grown-ups hold a big blanket up like a tent over one child (never wrapped or covered). That’s the inside of the great fish! Count three “days” out loud, slowly.
  4. Have the child inside the fish fold their arms and whisper a thank-you prayer. Then everyone yells “BLEH!” as the fish spits Jonah out onto the carpet “beach.”
  5. SAY“Jonah got a second chance, and so did Nineveh. The Lord gives us second chances too.”

🎭 Play along: the story scenes (from the CTR 8 lesson; pick your kid’s class above for theirs)

Talk about it
  • Why do you think Jonah ran away?
  • What did Jonah do when he was inside the fish?
  • How did the Lord show love to Jonah and to Nineveh?
🧸 Little ones (2–5)Let your little one be the great fish: they open wide and “gulp” Jonah by helping lift the blanket tent up high.
📚 Big kids (10–13)Have your 10–13-year-old play the ship’s captain and read the captain’s line in Jonah 1:6 in their best captain voice.
🧑 Teens (14–18)Ask your teen to read Jonah 1:3–5 and count how many times Jonah goes “down” (to Joppa, into the ship, into the sides of the ship). Talk about how running from something the Lord asks usually feels like a slow slide down, not one big leap.
☕️ For grown-upsIn Jonah 1 the pagan sailors pray, try hard to save Jonah’s life and end up fearing the Lord, while the prophet sleeps below deck. Sometimes people outside our faith show more goodness than we do in the moment; Jonah’s story leaves room for that humility.

Sticker for today: 🐋

Tuesday · 7 min · Verse

The Secret Plan

🤫 Shh! The prophet knows the secret plan!Heavenly Father tells His prophets His plans first.Then the prophets tell us!Amos 3:7

📖 Read together: Amos 3:7 ↗

  1. Before you start, write a fun secret plan on a slip of paper, like “Popcorn after dinner!” or “Dance party at 7:00!” Fold it up.
  2. Choose one child to be the family “prophet.” Whisper the secret plan only to them.
  3. Have the prophet stand on a chair (carefully!) and announce the plan to everyone. Then make it really happen.
  4. Open the key verse screen and read Amos 3:7 together. Say: “Heavenly Father tells His prophets what He is going to do, so they can tell us.”
  5. Talk about something the living prophet has taught recently and how your family can follow it.

📖 Play along: the key verse (from the CTR 8 lesson; pick your kid’s class above for theirs)

Talk about it
  • How did you know about the secret plan?
  • Why is it a blessing to have a prophet today?
🧸 Little ones (2–5)Let your little one hold the folded secret plan and hand it to the prophet, then shout “Hooray!” when it’s announced.
📚 Big kids (10–13)Ask your 10–13-year-old to find a short message from the living prophet on the Gospel Library app and share one sentence of it at dinner.
🧑 Teens (14–18)Let your teen pick a recent general conference talk from a member of the First Presidency or the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, read or listen to five minutes of it, and teach the family one invitation from it in two minutes. Then ask what would change at school if they really did it.
☕️ For grown-upsAmos wasn’t a professional prophet; he called himself a herdman who tended fruit trees (Amos 7:14–15). The Lord often speaks through ordinary people, which is worth remembering when His counsel comes from someone who doesn’t impress us.

Sticker for today: 📣

Wednesday · 10 min · Activity

Thankful Place Cards

📝 Make a thank-you card for every chair!Write their name.Inside: why you’re thankful for them.

📖 Read together: Jonah 2:9 ↗

  1. Read Jonah 2:9 together. Say: “Jonah was stuck in a fish, and he still thanked the Lord! Let’s get our thanks ready for Thanksgiving.”
  2. Fold pieces of paper in half to make a place card for each person coming to your Thanksgiving table.
  3. Have your kids write or draw each person’s name on the front and one thing they’re thankful for about that person inside.
  4. Make one extra card that says “Thank You, Heavenly Father!” and draw blessings on it for the middle of the table.
  5. Tuck the cards away as a surprise for Thursday.
Talk about it
  • What’s something hard that you can still be thankful in, like Jonah?
  • Who are you most excited to see this Thanksgiving?
🧸 Little ones (2–5)Your little one can decorate the cards with stickers or handprint turkeys while you write their words for them.
📚 Big kids (10–13)Have your 10–13-year-old write a short thank-you prayer for the family to use before the Thanksgiving meal.
🧑 Teens (14–18)Have your teen read Jonah 2 and notice that Jonah gives thanks before he’s out of the fish (verse 9). Challenge them to write their place card for the family member they find hardest to get along with right now.
☕️ For grown-upsJonah’s prayer echoes the Psalms again and again (compare Jonah 2:3 with Psalm 42:7); he prayed with words he had stored up. The scriptures you learn now become the prayers you’ll have in your own dark places later.

Sticker for today: 🦃

Thursday · 10 min · Game

Thanksgiving Table Game

🥧 Happy Thanksgiving! Who can guess Great Fish?Open your thankful card.Then play Forehead Guess with everyone!
  1. Set out the place cards from yesterday and let each person open theirs.
  2. Before the meal, invite the child who wrote the prayer (or anyone) to give thanks to Heavenly Father.
  3. After dessert, bring out Forehead Guess with this week’s Jonah words. Let cousins, grandparents and guests play too.
  4. End by going around the table: everyone names one blessing they didn’t notice until this week.

🤔 Play along: Forehead Guess (from the CTR 8 lesson; pick your kid’s class above for theirs)

Talk about it
  • What’s one blessing you didn’t notice until this week?
  • Which part of the Jonah story is your favorite to act out?
🧸 Little ones (2–5)Your little one can be Grandma or Grandpa’s helper, whispering clues and cheering when they guess.
📚 Big kids (10–13)Let your 10–13-year-old explain the Jonah story to any guest who doesn’t know it, in under one minute.
🧑 Teens (14–18)Ask your teen to interview one older guest at the table: “What’s a hard time you were thankful through?” and share the best answer during dessert.
☕️ For grown-upsHoliday tables can be tender places: someone missing, someone struggling. Jonah’s thanks was said from inside the problem, not after it was solved; give yourself permission to feel grateful and sad at the same time.

Sticker for today: 🥧

Friday · 10 min · Service

Second-Chance Friday

🔁 Give someone a second chance today!Say sorry or forgive fast.Share a thank-you treat!

📖 Read together: Jonah 3:10; 4:2 ↗

  1. Read Jonah 4:2 together. Say: “Jonah knew the Lord is kind, slow to anger and full of mercy. He gives everyone a second chance.”
  2. Ask: “Is there anyone we’ve been grumpy with, like Jonah was grumpy about Nineveh?” Make it right with a hug, a note or a sorry.
  3. Choose someone who serves your family (a Primary teacher, a neighbor, a delivery driver) and share leftover Thanksgiving treats (ask about allergies first) or a thank-you note with them.
  4. SAY“Being thankful and giving second chances makes our hearts big, not small like grumpy Jonah’s.”
Talk about it
  • How does it feel when someone forgives you quickly?
  • Why do you think Jonah was upset when Nineveh was forgiven?
🧸 Little ones (2–5)Let your little one carry the treat to the door and say “Thank you!” with you.
📚 Big kids (10–13)Ask your 10–13-year-old to think of one friend at school who could use a second chance, and quietly give it to them next week.
🧑 Teens (14–18)Have your teen read Jonah 4 and notice the book ends with a question from the Lord that Jonah never answers (verse 11). Ask how they would answer it, and who their “Nineveh” is: someone they’d secretly rather not see get a second chance.
☕️ For grown-upsJonah was angry not because God was harsh but because He was merciful to people Jonah thought didn’t deserve it (Jonah 4:1–2). It’s worth asking whose repentance you’ve quietly refused to believe in, including your own.

Sticker for today: 💝

Saturday · 8 min · Game

Hungry for Words

🍽️ An empty plate… fill it with God’s words!Quiz time!How much do you remember about Jonah?

📖 Read together: Amos 8:11; Obadiah 1:21 ↗

  1. Set out an empty plate. Read Amos 8:11 and say: “Amos said people would be hungry, not for bread, but for the words of the Lord.”
  2. Pile the plate with scriptures, a Children’s Songbook or a picture of the temple. Say: “Heavenly Father has filled our plate again through prophets and the restored gospel!”
  3. Play the quiz together to warm up for Primary tomorrow.
  4. Lay out Sunday clothes, and put the scriptures by the door so they’re ready.

🏆 Play along: Scripture Showdown (from the CTR 8 lesson; pick your kid’s class above for theirs)

Talk about it
  • What would it be like to have no scriptures and no prophets?
  • What is one thing you want to learn more about tomorrow?
🧸 Little ones (2–5)Let your little one fill the empty plate by carrying the scriptures and songbook to it.
📚 Big kids (10–13)Have your 10–13-year-old read Obadiah 1:21 and explain how doing temple and family history work can make us “saviours … on mount Zion.”
🧑 Teens (14–18)Have your teen read Obadiah 1:21 and do one real piece of family history this week: find a relative on FamilySearch who still needs temple ordinances, or index a batch of records. If they have a temple recommend, help them plan a trip to do baptisms for that name.
☕️ For grown-upsAmos 8:11–12 describes people running from sea to sea looking for the word of the Lord and not finding it. We have the opposite problem, with the scriptures on every phone; the risk now is less a famine than a full plate we never eat from.

Sticker for today: 📖

Sunday · 6 min · Sabbath

Three Days, Then Out!

🙏 Tell us your favorite part of Primary!Lights off. Quiet minute.Lights on. Share one thank-you.

📖 Read together: Jonah 2:1–2, 9 ↗

  1. Ask: “What did you learn in Primary today? What was your favorite part?”
  2. Read Jonah 2:2 together. Say: “Jonah prayed from the darkest place, and the Lord heard him. He hears us anywhere too.”
  3. Turn off the lights and sit together for a quiet minute. Have each person think of one thing they’re thankful for this Thanksgiving week.
  4. Turn the lights back on, and invite anyone who wants to share their thank-you, or a testimony, to go first. You finish by sharing yours.
Talk about it
  • What did you learn in Primary today?
  • Where is a place you could pray when you need help?
🧸 Little ones (2–5)Hold your little one on your lap in the dark and whisper a thank-you together.
📚 Big kids (10–13)Invite your 10–13-year-old to share a time they felt a prayer was heard, or to offer the closing prayer.
🧑 Teens (14–18)Invite your teen to share, if they’re willing, a time a prayer felt answered, or a time it felt like it wasn’t. Both are honest answers; thank them for either one.
☕️ For grown-upsJonah 2:2 says he cried “out of the belly of hell” and was heard. Your kids need to know that prayer works from the bottom too, and they’ll believe it most when they hear that yours has.

Sticker for today: 🌅

Family challenge

Thanks Like Jonah

Every day this week, before bed, each person says one thank-you out loud, even on a hard day, just like Jonah did inside the fish. On Thanksgiving, add up how many thank-yous your family said all week.

Parent Corner

Jonah is usually told as a fish story, but the fish is only the middle. The real drama is between a merciful God and a prophet who resents that mercy. Jonah runs because he already knows what the Lord is like, a “gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness” (Jonah 4:2), and he would rather Nineveh, Israel’s brutal enemy, not get the benefit. The Lord answers Jonah the way He often answers us: patiently, with a storm, a fish, a plant, a worm and finally a question. Amos adds that the Lord reveals His purposes to His prophets (Amos 3:7), and Obadiah glimpses “saviours … on mount Zion” (Obadiah 1:21). The thread through all three books is that the Lord wants to save, and He invites us to join Him instead of sitting outside the city waiting to see what happens (Jonah 4:5).

  • Ponder: Is there a person or group whose change you’d find hard to celebrate? What would it take for you to rejoice if the Lord forgave them?
  • Try this: Read all four short chapters of Jonah in one sitting this week (about ten minutes). Then write your own answer to the question the Lord asks in Jonah 4:11.

From general conference

“Having prophets is a sign of God’s love for His children. They make known the promises and the true nature of God and of Jesus Christ to Their people.”

— Elder Ulisses Soares, “Prophets Speak by the Power of the Holy Spirit,” April 2018

Share on Tuesday after the Secret Plan and Amos 3:7, as a reason prophets matter to your family.

Read the talk ↗

Dinner-table questions

  • If you were swallowed by a great fish, what would you want to have in your pocket?
  • What’s the best second chance anyone ever gave you?
  • What are three things you’re thankful for that start with the letter T?
  • Why do you think Heavenly Father speaks through prophets instead of just yelling from the sky?
  • Who is someone who might feel like Nineveh and need our kindness?

Sources

Scripture quotations are from the King James Version, the Bible used by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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