Learning and Living the Gospel
CHURCH: Church suggested Activities. PRAYER RUG: Talk about the importance of prayer. Make a prayer rug. Many carpet stores will give you their old carpet samples. You can use paint to stamp the rug with the word prayer. You could have the children bring strips of cloth and make braded rag rugs http://www.netw.com/~rafter4/article.htm Just be creative, any kind of rug will work. The children can take their rugs home and place them by their beds to remind them to say their prayers. You could even make a prayer pillow to go on their bed and tell them that they should not put their head on the pillow until they have said their prayers. PATRIARCHAL BLESSING LESSON: Teach the children what a Patriarchal Blessing is. Explain what it is for, what age they can get one, that they need to live worthy to get a recommend from the Bishop. Read a few sections from your blessing that you feel is appropriate for the girls. Bear your testimony of Patriarchal Blessings and that they should look forward to the day that they get their own. It would be wonderful to have the stake Patriarch come and talk to them for a few minutes. They will have a wonderful spiritual experience and go away excited to get their own blessing. ACTING OUT SCRIPTURE STORIES: Have the children bring their scriptures. Read a scripture story together allowing each child to read. Talk about the story and then let them put on a little play to act out the story. We did Samuel the Lamanite and everyone threw marshmallows (instead of arrows) at "Samuel" while he was on the wall. It was a blast. MISSIONARY LESSON: Ask the missionaries,or a return missionary, to come and tell the children what is is like serving a mission and what they should do to prepare for a mission. Challenge the children to fellowship someone in their school. You could even give them each a Book of Mormon and challenge them to give it to someone. Follow through on the challenge that you make and have them share their experiences at the next meeting. MUSIC DISCUSSION: Talk about how music can invite the spirit of the Holy Ghost or drive the spirit away. Have the girls bring a tape or CD of their favorite song. Play the songs, let them dance to the music. Talk about the feelings they get when they listen to different types of music. Have the girls then tell you their favorite church song. Play or sing the church songs and notice the different feelings from the other music. Once the children realize how powerful music can be, challenge them to be aware of what they are listening to and to turn it off if it does not invite the spirit. WRITE TESTIMONY: Help the children to write down their testimony. You could have them earn money to buy a missionary copy of the Book of Mormon and place their testimony in the book. They could then give the book to a friend or you could send the books to a missionary who is serving from your ward and they can give them away. TESTIMONY LESSON: Talk about testimonies. What they are, what is appropriate to say when you are bearing your testimony. Read some scriptures about testimonies. Bear your testimony and create a comfortable, spiritual environment for the girls to each bear their testimony to each other. Challenge them to bear their testimonies at the next testimony meeting. SCRIPTURE CHARADES: Allow each child to act out their favorite scripture story while the other children try to guess what or who it is. There is no need for teams or competition. It is just a fun activity that will review the scriptures. It might be a good idea to send a little note prior to the activity and explain what you will be doing so they can come up with ideas before they come. This will make them feel more confident and everyone will have a great time. Bear your testimony of the importance of scripture study and challenge them to study the scriptures every day. SCRAPBOOK: Take pictures of the girls at each Achievement Days activity and make an Achievement Days scrapbook. JOURNAL JAR: To make a "journal jar." Place several pieces of paper inside the jar with questions written on them. Each day the child chooses a question to write in her journal. IE: What is my favorite room in my house? Why? What is my favorite Christmas Memory? Who is my best friend? Why? Etc...click here for a printable list of questions. GRANDPARENT STORIES: Find out what the girl's grandfathers and/or grandmothers did for a living. NAME SEARCH: Have the children bring a name of an ancestor and look on www.familysearch.com to see if you can locate that person. Have them fill out a 4 generation sheet. See if they can learn what countries these ancestors came from. JOURNAL: Make a journal using a three hole file folder and notebook paper. Decorate the folder with pictures or colored stickers and talk about what are good things to write about. SURNAMES AND WHAT THEY MEAN: Several hundred years ago people did not have surnames. Talk about the history of surnames - where they came from and what they meant. ( Surnames usually indicate a place , profession or a physical attribute.) Ask the children to match a list of their surnames to a list of their meanings. This may give them an insight into the lives of their ancestors. Ask the children to " invent" a new surname. PERSONAL HISTORIES: Have the ward family history specialists come and discuss the importance of keeping a personal history and recording history. The girls can make a pedigree chart. Have the girls start a scrapbook, or work on an existing one. Teach them to label with important details (dates, names, etc.). LIFE STORIES: Show the children how to write a simple life history. Have them bring with them important dates of their birth, baptism, when they have moved etc... Explain that they need to include interesting events and stories. Explain that they should include every day things like what a school day is like or a typical summer day or what books they are reading... Help them to write it and then share it with the rest of the group and take it home and put it in their journal. ANCESTOR STORYTELLING NIGHT: Have the children bring a story about one of their ancestors. Create a cozy setting around a fireplace or bowl of popcorn and share the stories. PICTURE JOURNAL: Have the girls cut out pictures of things that they like. They can bring magazines, newspapers, or other pictures that they have. Make a page for each subject IE: Favorite, movie, food, activity, school subject etc... Be creative. You can put them in sheet protectors and little notebooks for them to take home. DRUG EDUCATION:: to the local police station and have an officer talk to them about drugs. MODESTY POSTERS: We made posters about modesty and immodesty. We had several magazines and clothing ads. We let the girls go through them and cut out modest and immodest clothing. Then had them glue them onto poster board. Modest on one side and immodest on the other. Then they could compare and talk about modesty and why it is important. NEWSPAPER FASHION SHOW: The girls will be divided into groups of 4. Each group will have 3 designers and 1 model. The objective is to design a modest outfit using only tape and newspapers. Each group will have a different theme (ie. prom dress, beach wear, etc). When they are done designing and creating their outfits, they will fashion them and explain why they feel it is modest. We've done this before with the Young Women and it's a HOOT! You will be surprised with the creativity of these girls! Lori W. Colorado BAPTISMS FOR DEAD LESSON: The First counselor in the bishopric met with us one night and discussed preparation to attend the temple to do baptisms when they turn twelve. The reasons for the work were discussed and he reviewed the questions they would be asked by the bishop to be able to enter the temple to do the work. They were all ears and full of questions. At the end each girl received a picture of the Orlando temple for her room or for her Achievement Day Book. This night was a big hit with the girls. A LESSON ON THE LAW OF CONSECRATION: Have ready a bag of candy for each girl. The contents must be exact. Then play some game in which the bags move around from person to person. For example pass the bag until the music stops...hum if you must. When the bag stops then have the girl hand it to the girl next to her. You can make up your own ideas of how to move the bags. After the girls are really watering in their thoughts for the bag have them return the bags to the Leader/Bishop. Each girl has to have a family for this game which may be her own or you may make up a family for each girl. When the bishop gets the candy he meets it back to the girl according to need. One child has six siblings and one child has one. Therefore the amount is different but sufficient for her needs. It is a good time to expound on this principal. SCRIPTURES: I can learn more about Jesus and his commmandments by reading the scriptures NATURE BAG: We talked about the creation and then went on a short nature walk (there is a park across the street from our church building). The girls collected flowers, leaves, acorns, etc. in paper lunch bags. Then we went back to the church and put the things they had collected inside a folded sheet of wax paper. We ironed around the edge to melt the wax and to seal the things inside. Then they took decorative scissors and went around the three edges. They look really pretty and we are going to use them as decorations for our upcoming "Garden Party" Mother-Daughter Award night. The girls loved it, and the things looked really pretty all mixed up inside the semi-clear wax paper packets. In retrospect, I would use double sided scotch tape to seal the packets, however, as some of the packets started to come apart where they were ironed together GIANT TICK-TACK-TOE!: This is a great way to review any gospel topic so you will have to come up with the questions that you want to ask. (See Articles of Faith Page for this game to review the Articles of Faith.)
1. Using tape or rope, mark off giant tick-tack-toe squares on the floor.
2. Draw a large X or O on each piece of cardboard (five of each letter). These are the team cards.
3. Divide the players into two teams. One team will use X’s; the other, O’s.
4. A nonplayer asks the gospel questions.
Rules: The first player to raise his hand and answer a question correctly takes a team card and stands in whatever ticktacktoe square he wishes. The opposing team gets the first opportunity to answer the next question. If any player answers a question incorrectly, the other team has a chance to give the correct answer. If neither team answers correctly after two tries apiece, the nonplayer gives the answer and asks a new question. Each time a player answers a question correctly, he takes a team card and stands on the unoccupied square of his choice. If there are not enough players, a team card is placed in the chosen square. Have fun !!BISHOP'S STOREHOUSE: Go to your area Bishop's Storehouse / cannery & have a canning night. I took my 10-11 year old girls & had a blast! It was one of their favorite activities of the year. We toured the whole facility to see everything that goes on there and talked a little about the church programs and then we canned enough of 4 different items that each girl could go home with 2-3 cans of each one. Just call your ward cannery specialist to get the phone #. Many areas will have a canning machine that you can bring to your home if you prefer to do it that way. DAILY PRAYER: After we scheduled an orientation for the parents and children, then next month's activity days were devoted to go over a few of the basic requirements. For the first one we had the Missionary Sisters come and go over the discussion which teaches the proper order of prayer, then when the Sisters were finished with their presentation we made a puppet show of Daniel and the Lions' den that the children could present for Family Home Evening. SCRIPTURE COOKIES: This recipe is for oatmeal raisin cookies. Have the girls figure out the ingredients by looking up scriptures. A few of them are a little tricky, so you will probably have to help them out. Then, make the cookies as a group by letting the girls help out by adding the ingredients. This could also fit under the Serving Others or Developing Talents categories, too. Let them eat some and/or use this as a service project by taking some to the members of the bishopric, primary presidency, elderly, or whomever. One of the objects of the activity could also be that just as each ingredients in a recipe is needed for it to be successful, the scriptures are a necessary ingredient in each of our lives. Feast on them!
Tip: Make sure you have something for the kids to do like practice articles of faith or fill out a pedigree chart while the cookies are baking so they don't get rowdy.
Recipe:
1 1/2 cups Judges 5:25 (butter)
1 1/2 cups Jeremiah 6:20 (sugar)
1 1/2 cups brown Proverbs 13:19, packed (brown sugar)
3 Isaiah 10:14 (eggs)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 3/4 cups Exodus 29:2 (flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons D&C 101:39(salt)
1 teaspoon Matthew 13:33 (baking soda)
4 1/2 cups D&C 89:17 (oats)
3/4 cup Samuel 30:12 (raisins)
3/4 cup Numbers 17:8 (almonds--can use any nut)
Cream Judges 5:25, Jeremiah 6:20, Proverbs 13:19 in a large bowl until smooth.
Beat in Isaiah 10:14 and vanilla until light and fluffy. In a medium bowl combine Exodus 29:2, D&C 101:39, and Matthew 13:33.
Gradually stir Exodus mixture into Isaiah mixture until blended.
Stir in D&C 89:17, Numbers 17:8, and Samuel 30:12.
Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheets.
Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes until edges are lightly browned.
Remove from baking sheets and cool completely on wire racks.PRAYER DOLLS: We took scraps of fabric and made prayer (rag) dolls. These dolls sit on thier pillows and remind them to say their prayers every morning and night. The entire activity took 1 hour and each girl (I had 14 with just one adult) was able to complete her doll. We then spent the remaing 30 minutes discussing prayer.click here for a pattern SACRAMENT BREAD: In our ward the RS is always trying to find someone to bring the bread for the sacrament. My daughter who is 9 actually volunteered us to bring it so we are going to learn how to make bread and then freeze it and bring homeade bread each week for 1 month. For the other activity of the month we are going to learn about the sacrament and put together a FHE lesson that the girls can share with their families. I am hoping that the girls will learn to appreciate the sacrament and will definately be more in tune as the bread is passed that they helped make. This activity can go under sharing Talents by learning to make bread but also learning about the Gospel by fulfilling one of their requirements. STARTER JOURNAL: I bought a simple journal for each girl( a dollar each at the dollar store) I had a sister who keeps a journal well, come in and explain what a journal is and is not. We also made a bookmark for our journals with cardstock, stickers and clear con-tac paper. Unfortunately, only one of our six girls showed up for this activity, but she started her journal. GOLD LEAFING TEMPLES: We have done the gold leafing pictures of the temples. You print a copy of the temple in black ink on the computer on a transparency - the size you want the picture - a 5x7 is nice for the girls or boys - you purchase gold leafing at the craft store and spray the back of the transparency in the spray glue and lay the gold leafing on the glue - carefully covering it - if you aren't use to using the gold leafing it can be very messy - then frame it - they are very beautiful and are nice for their rooms. Toni - Decatur Branch - Fort Wayne Indiana PREPARING FOR YW & PRIESTHOOD: After being released as the Beehive advisor and put in the Activity days program I realized the need for the 11 year old girls to know the YW. theme that we recited each week. I made a poster like the cute ones used to teach primary songs and we memorized the theme in one day! IMPORTANCE OF READING SCRIPTURES AND LISTENING TO LEADERS: We separated our group of girls into two groups and told them that they were going to make cupcakes. We put the groups in separate rooms. One group we gave the instructions( cake box) for making the cupcakes as well as the ingredients. The other group we just gave them the ingredients, but no instruction. They had to "guess" how many eggs, oil and water to put in the mix. Then we put them in the oven to bake. While baking, we taught a lesson on the importance of reading scriptures, how they are a guideline and an "instruction book" to help us through our lives. We talked about the importance of heeding counsel from our prophet and church leaders, and what the consequences- both bad and good would be from listening or not listening. It was a great success. The group who did not have the instructions for the cupcakes- initially their cupcakes appeared fluffy, but after sitting outside the oven for a minute, they promptly fell like a crater, caving in the middle, due to too much oil and not enough water. The girls loved the activity and there were plenty of the "good" cupcakes for all to enjoy. PRAYER BEAR: Have a lesson about the importance of prayer. Make a simple stuffed bear and call it their Prayer Bear. Have them put the bear on their pillow each day to remind them to say their prayers. "SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND" I SPY BOTTLE: "SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND" I SPY BOTTLE: I put this together for a Stake Primary Board Meeting so the activity leaders can take this back to their girls to do. “Seek and Ye Shall Find”
1. Genesis 41:42 (Gold Ring) - wedding supply
2. St. Matthew 7:6 (3 Pigs) - fun-fetti confetti foil pieces
3. Genesis 8:11 (Dove) - wedding supply
4. 3 Nephi 11:14 (Nail) - roofing nail - hardware store
5. St. Matthew 13:46 (Pearl) - Christmas strand of pearl garland
6. Isaiah 11:7 (Drinking Straw) - cut into thirds
7. D&C 76:70 (Gold Sun) - fun-fetti confetti foil piece
8. D&C 76:71 (Silver Moon) - fun-fetti confetti foil piece
9. D&C 76:81 (Teal Star) - fun-fetti confetti foil piece - this and the ones above can be wood cutouts spray painted as well.
10. Proverbs 31:10 (Ruby – Red Bead) - multi-facetted - craft store
11. Isaiah 5:28 (26-30) (Pasta Wheel) - grocery store
12. St. Luke 2:12 (Baby) - Party City
13. Ether 2:3 (Honey Bee) - craft store - can make or purchase bee buttons
14. St. Mathew 5:15 (Birthday Candle) -
15. D&C 88:67 (Wiggle Eyes) - craft store - the bigger, the better! About 3/8"
16. Ether 3:1 (Clear Flat Glass Stones) - craft store
17. Jonah 1, 2 (3 Sea Shells) - craft store
18. St. Matthew 5:8 (Red Heart) - large sequin or wood piece painted - craft store
19. D&C 49: 23 (Kazoo) - Party city - cheap pkg.
20. St. Mark 16:1 (Cinnamon Stick) - costco - big bottle @ Christmas time
There is the listing of items and where I got the supplies. The best bottles are the Gatorade individual size - 20 oz. Cleaned, of course. Layer these objects with wildbirdseed - the kind with the black sunflowers in the mix. Leave about an inch from the opening for space. Squeeze hot glue onto the threads on the lid and twist onto the filled bottle. Believe me! It isn't going to open again!!!!!!! I printed the scripture referrence and the items on cardstock and lamenated the cards to place with a ribbon around the neck of the bottle. You can delete everything after the parenthesied item. This project can nickle and dime you. If you can do this with another group, it's the best to make this go a long way. OR - look up your own scriptures and find symbols that correlate with items that are readily available around your house. It's addicting to try and find all the items in the bottle. It's really quite fun!!! ~Lorena BrownNOT JUST A SUNDAY: This activity worked wonders with my kids for FHE. I read the idea somewhere on the web and added to it but have been unable to find the original idea anywhere.
You start with all of the ingredents for a Ice Cream Sunday. I then put labels on each ingredient. The Vanilla Ice Cream represented "Your Spirit". Chocolate = Kindness, Carmel = Honesty, Fudge = Speak Kindly, Carmel = Reading Scriptures,Bananna = Attending Church, Marshmello = Obeying Parents ,Cherry = Praying. YOu can think up your own but this is a example.
I started by sitting all the kids down at a counter or table I then hide all my ingredents under the counter. I stood at the other end and then put a large bowl in the middle and enough spoons for each child. I first pulled out the Ice Cream and told them that this was there spirit and how clean and good it was. I then scooped some ice cream into the bowl. Then I asked them what kind of things they can do to improve there spirit. They always guess at least a few of my ingredients. We talk about each and add them to our spirit. Once we have them all added there is a delicious looking Sunday and I ask all the kids if they want to taste how good there spirit now is. They all take a taste and MMMMMmmm it is soo good what a good sprit they have made... now we move into the second part of the lesson.
I then ask the girls what kinds of things can ruin our spirits. And under the counter I also have the sins that can ruin our spirit. ketsup = Lying, Mustard = Cruelness, Oil = Gossip, Dirt = Lazyness, DogFood = Stealing. We talk about and add these things to the Sunday. I then ask the girls if they want a taste? Of course they don't and we talk about what these sins have now done to our spirit. We talk about how how these few things can ruin a spirit but also talk about how these things can be cleaned away through repentence if we ask for forgivness from our Heavenly Father.TITHING PIGGY BANKS: We ordered ready-to-paint piggy banks from Oriental Trading Co. The girls had a great time painting and decorating them as we talked about the importance of tithing. SOCK PUPPET SCRIPTURE STORIES: We made sock puppets for a chosen scripture story and then performed our little puppet show for the kids in nursery during Enrichment Night. TEMPLE TRIP : We are blessed to have a new Temple nearby so we took the girls there and let them enjoy the beauty of the temple grounds. We took pictures of them individually as well as a group. While driving home we discussed the sacredness and importance of temples in our church. later the leaders mounted the photos on cardstock with a professional picture of the temple and gave them out. The girls could also do their own page as a scrapbook night that could also be under the talent catagory. A CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR JESUS CHRIST: On a December Activity Day have the children cut small strips of different colored copy paper and put them in a ziploc sandwich bag. Then have the children decorate a clear plastic ball ornament with a ribbon or a little bit of glitter glue. You don't want the ball covered because you want to be able to see inside of it. (The ornaments are available from Oriental Trading company for .59 cents each.) Tell the children to write something on a strip of paper at the end of each day that they are thankful for or a good work that they did or promise to do and put it inside the plastic ball ornament. They could also write down a reason why the love the Savior. Then on Christmas morning they can hang the ornament on the tree as a gift to the Savior. The ornament could be put on the tree earlier in the month so that the family can watch it fill up as the days draw near to Christmas. PEDIGREE FOR A PEDICURE: Our Young Women did a great activity that would work for activity days too.
They had a lesson about family history and filled out a pedigree chart at home with their parents.
The next week whoever had their charts filled out recieved a pedicure by the leaders.
We filled up large diposable tins with warm water and soap (with marbles on bottom to massage feet optional) and let them soak a few min, then filed and painted their toes. The girls enjoyed it and it was alot of the fun for everyone.JOURNAL JAR: Give each girl a journal and a jar. Have the girls think of some things they could write about in there journals. Have them write the things down on a peice of paper and put them in the jar. Every night they will take one of the papers out and write about what it says MAKE YOUR OWN CARD : I had my girls make a card they put stamps and other things on it. THen they gave it to either their parents, grandparents, or teachers.
We also had a lesson about what you can do to learn and live the Gospel. THey also got to pass off the Learning and Living the Gospel In there Faith and God books