YOUR
IDEAS
LESSON IDEAS
I would like to share an idea
with you that was very powerful for my girls. The lesson was #21...
Setting an Example (Manual 1). I went with the
whole "you are always being watched" take on the lesson. I told the
girls that they always needed to be making right choices because they never
knew who was watching. At the end of class I told them that I had some
special guests. I had pre-arranged to have 6 primary girls out in the
hall with a little poem that I had written for each of my Mia Maids.
The poems were basic..."Brittany, I'm watching and I want to be like you....if
I could do gymnastics and dance the way you do." or "Kristin, I'm watching
and I want to be like you...you always smile and you're so kind, I want to
be that way, too." or "Jessica, I'm watching and if I could only be...half
the loving sister that you've always been to me." Anyway...you get
the point. As these little girls came in they walked up one by one
and stood in front of the girls who's poem they had. They read the
poem to the girl and then handed them the poem and a handout that I had made.
It just said "Set a righteous example, someone is watching you."
I attached a cheap pair of sunglasses to the handout. Can I just tell
you how powerful this was? The girls were truly touched and their wasn't
a dry eye. I then bore my testimony that I would be proud to
have my daughter grow up to be like any one of them. (my daughter was
one that read a poem, she is 10) Anyway, I hope that this could be
useful to someone. --Jan
Creative Dating
Get a camcorder. Look up three
random words in the dictionary or scriptures. Break into small groups.
Using the three groups each group makes up a short skit. After 5 min.
or so of preparation, present the skits, taping them, and then watch them,
eating popcorn and other "movie theater" treats.
Activities
Olympic Theme Activity or Camp
Video Road Rally
We recently gave a fireside on "Reverence" (and getting the most out of your meetings)
We based it on "Vote for PEDRO". (We just told them it was on "Vote for PEDRO", passed out badges, and said nothing else about it....other than they had to come)
Fun and spiritual at the same time!
We showed relevant Napoleon Dynamite clips, got the kids brainstorming, wore "Vote for PEDRO" badges, had handouts, etc. Had a great time!!!
Elaborate on each letter with stories, etc.
-Shari Sullivan
We recently did an activity
with our Young Women that we called "F.L.I.R.T." Night. It stood for
Fashion and Language In Righteous Times. We had a panel of five boys
(ages 15-21) come and talk about modesty, language, dating etc. Then
the Miamaids put on a fashion show, modeling modest clothing for different
occassions (sports, dance, proms, wedding, etc. We
decorated the room with some Mormon Ad posters,
quotes from prophets, and dance/wedding pictures from the girls and leaders.
We also gave all the girls Big Hunk candy bars and we put a thing on it that
said "To catch a Big Hunk, be the right kind of FLIRT!" It was a great
night!
Katie, Bountiful, Utah
Hi... I am the Beehive Class President in
my ward, and I have a great idea for a value activity that hopefully others
can use! I combined ideas given to me by friends, and websites like yours
to create a fun activity that was enjoyed by everyone.
About a week before the activity is to
take place, ask 7 girls from your class to prepare a 3-5 minute presentation
on a specific value. If there aren't 7 girls in your class, you may need to
assign two values to a girl, or even ask leaders and others to help. Also,
ask each girl in your class to bring a pair of flip-flop sandals. (If a girl
is unable to get a pair, make sure she knows that you can get her one.)
At the activity, have each girl give her
value presentation, going through all 7 values. After each value has been
presented, you will show the girls the craft you will be making.
Beforehand, you will have purchased fabrics
in each of the value colors. (I liked the look of print fabrics, with a base
color of the value you are looking for.) Rip LOTS of 3 1/2 inch-long strips
of each color, and have them ready for the girls to use at the actvity.
Then, you can tie a strip around the thong
part of the flip-flops, going in order of the values, until the entire thong
is covered in cloth. When you are finished, you have an adorable pair of
shoes and a better understanding of the YW values. You may want to have cookies
frosted in the value colors at the end for a light refreshment.
Our class really enjoyed this activity,
and the younger girls really learned a lot. I hope that other people can use
this activity and adapt it to their own needs to make a really successful
activity.
--DH
We just had a great activity.
We told the girls that we were having a slumber party and that they had better
be prepared to stay up all night and we were going to do something that they
would remember the rest of their lives. We had set up the leaders living
room with a time line of the Book of Mormon pictures, maps, and the books
on how they are set in the BofM...large, small etc. We set up sheets to separate
this room from the rest of the house. The Girls came in her back door and
we told them that by the end of the night they will be able to say they read
the whole BofM. We read them Moroni's Promise and told them to say in the
kitchen until they felt that they could come and join in and add to the Spirit.
Slowly they entered and we prayed, sang
and began to read. We had things throughout the night to break up the reading.
Lehi's dream we set up down the hall and the tree of life was in a bedroom
where we read for a short time. We would divide the girls up into groups and
they would read their parts and share with us the story and scriptures that
were important to them. We watched some animated BofM.
It ended up being an excellent night and
several of the girls said how grateful they were for the experience. That
they had been wondering where to start. It really helped them to start their
personal scripture study!!!
We made shirts that had "I Survived the
BofM lock-in 2002" on back.
On Tuesday we read children's
books onto tape to give to the kindergarten. I was a little worried that
I wouldn't be able to get the girls excited about it but it was a real success.
I had done a little research about storytelling and we did a few storytelling
exercises first then split into groups of two or three. Each group found
a quiet room and took a tape recorder. Their goal was to read two books each
and then we could sign off one of the knowledge goals in their personal progress.
The girls were so good. They had a lot of fun reading and then we listened
to the finished products. There was lots of laughter and the activity held
everyone's attention to the end.
-Dana
Candy Shop Pizza
1 & 1/2 tubes refrigerated chocolate
chip cookie dough
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chunky or creamy peanut butter
1 cup coarsely chopped assorted candy bars:
Nestle Crunch, Butterfinger, Baby Ruth, Goobers, Raisinets, and/or Buncha
Crunch.
Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease large
baking sheet or pizza pan. Place cookie dough onto prepared pan and spread
out to edges of pizza pan. Bake for 35 minutes, or until golden brown. Immediately
sprinkle chocolate chips over hot crust; drop peanut butter by spoonfuls
onto chips. Let stand for 5 minutes or until morsels are shiny. Gently spread
chocolate and peanut butter (together) evenly over cookie crust. Sprinkle
candy in single layer over pizza. Cut into wedges; serve warm or at room
temperature. Makes 12 servings. (I used baking sheets, but I wished later
that I had used pizza pans, just for the pizza "look". Also, when I was at
the store, I bought a big bag of Halloween candy with the small sized bars
of Butterfinger, Baby Ruth, and 100 Grand. I then added some bite-sized Reese's
cups.)
We made this at Mutual. I had a team of
girls spreading the dough, a team breaking up the candy bars, and another
team placing the "toppings" on the "pizzas". It was fun for everyone, and
folks came from all over the building to see what smelled so scrumptious!
Hope y'all enjoy it as much as we did!
--Leanne in Georgia
I am a beehive in my ward, and
for one of our joint YW/YM activities we had a "drive-in movie". For about
20 minutes before we started the movie we separated into groups of about
3 or 4, and were given a cardboard box, markers, glue. construction paper,
etc. With these supplies we were to make a "car" to go to the "drive-in movie"
in. In my group we made wheels out of the construction paper and we made
a license plate with the markers and we even made seats inside the cardboard
box! Then all the groups gathered together and we all watched a movie in
our "cars"! Also in the room where we were watching the movie there was a
table set up with popcorn, licorice straws, soda, all kinds of movie-ish
things. It was so much fun!! I would highly recommend this if you are
planning a YW/YM joint activity.
-Chelsy Christensen
GOALS
Objective: To point out the
importance of planning small, consecutive goals in order to achieve a long-range
goal.
Materials Needed: Dominoes.
Procedure: Line up three rows
of dominoes, the first with a small gap in the middle so that the shole row
will not fall down. the second row should have a domino off center to keep
a chain reaction from occurring. The third row should be straight with all
the dominoes close enough to ensure the successive fall of all of them.
Start the lesson with a brief
discussion about planning goals. Explain that in order to achieve a long-range
goal, we must have several small, well-planned goals to keep on course to
our ultimate goals. Knock down the row of dominoes with the gap in the middle.
Point out that if we skip a vital step in our progressive goals, we will
not succeed.
Knock down the second row
with the off centered domino. Use this to point out that if we don't stay
on course with our goals, we will not achieve our desired results.
To illustrate success through
strictly followed, well planned goals, knock down the third row, which will
completely fall down. This lesson becomes more meaningful if you give an
example of a long-range goal and actually plan out the key steps that will
hekp you achieve it.
-Kimberly Thurston
Using YW values/"scout
values" (if is a combined YM/YW activity) Write each value on a slip of paper.
Break into small groups. Hand out a bag to each group of random items.
Give 5 minutes or so of preparation. Take turns presenting skits, and
at the end, let groups guess what the value is.
Put one less chair in a circle
for each who are present (leave one out, just like in musical chairs). Put
slips of paper with chips, drink, sandwich, or cookies. Have each person
pick out one slip of paper. After everyone has a slip, pick someone
to be "it". The "it" calls out one of the groups (chips, drink, sandwich,
or cookies). Whoever picked out a slip of paper with that category on it,
runs to change seats with someone who has the same category. Whoever
is left with out a chair, is "it". You also can call out, “the lunch basket
tipped over” and all change seats.
GAMES
The M&M
Get-to-know-you Game
Preparation: Poster and one
bag M&M's for each girl.
To make poster: Draw M&M's
down one side of the poster, each one a different color. On the other side
of the poster write a topic that the girls can discuss. For instance, blue
M&M = school. Some other topics might be family, pets, hobbies, food,
etc.
For a large group, divide
girls into groups of three. Give each girl a bag of M&M's. Have them sit
in a circle and, in turn, pull out an M&M and say one thing about the
corresponding topic as on the poster. When the time is up, you can have them
introduce each other, based on the things they learned.
For a small group of girls,
I suppose you'd just be in one circle.
We played a great
Bingo game. We made a piece of paper that had 25 squares. Each square was
for a name. Each person went around the room and got everyone's name. Correct
spelling!!! We all sat down after 10 min. We were in a circle. We went around
the circle and said who we were. You got to cross off the name and whoever
got bingo got a mini candy bar. WE HAD A BLAST!!!!
-Shay in Nebraska
We played a fun
game at our youth conference. It's probably pretty common but this is how
it was done. The youth were broken up by ages. (leaders were all lumped together!)
Each age and the leaders were assigned an animal noise to make. We had to
quack like a duck. (Others neigh, oink etc...) We were all in the gym. We
had to close our eyes and begin to make the animal noise our group was assigned.
We had to walk around listening (eyes closed) and making the sound and link
arms with those who made the same sound and try to get us all gathered together
in one group. We had about 300 people. I kept my eyes closed but I bet this
looked really funny as well as sounding funny.
Another
thing we did was make a human chair. We made a big oval in the gym everyone
standing close together and we all sat down on the count of three on each
others knees. Once the circle was stable we tried to walk together while we
were still sitting. This only works if EVERYONE is doing what they are supposed
to. One weak link can bring down the whole circle.
At camp
one year we played a simple game to help the girls work together. We broke
into groups of 4 or 5 and gave them each a golf ball and asked them to toss
(not too high and not too low) a golf ball up until they were doing it all
together and all the same height. This is not easy to do. They had to talk
and plan to get it right.
We also
had them help each other memorize a scripture. We talked about everyone's
abilities and how some people are good at some things and others are good
at other things. They tried different strategies to get everyone in the group
to be able to say the scripture.
Another
group we had was supposed to fill a bucket with water, only we had drilled
several holes in the bucket they were using to transfer the water to the other
bucket. They had to communicate and work together to try to plug the holes
in the bucket with all their fingers to transport the water.
I think
we did the old stand by human knot too. In a circle everyone grabs someone's
hands and then they try to untangle themselves and become a circle again.
-Sheri
I made a game
I call gospel jeopardy. It is a poster board with five categories printed
across the top such as Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, D&C
and Articles of Faith. Underneath each heading I have 100, 200, 300,
400, and 500. Underneath each point card is a question relating to
that category. The person who turn it is says, "Book of Mormon for
100." I then lift up the point card and read the question underneath.
If the person answers correctly, they receive the points. If the answer
is incorrect the other players get a chance to answer and receive the points.
It is one of our favorite family night games. You can use it for anything
just by changing the category cards. I have used it for Young Women
with categories such as Values/Colors/Scriptures, etc. I have also
used it for Conference questions.
I also made a little flip
chart called Who Wants to be a Mormonaire? I laminated the front and
back covers and comb bound the booklets. I have a fastest finger question
such as Name Lehi's sons eldest to youngest. The person who gets done
first is the first contestant. I only have one child so I made up two
booklets of questions. One for him and one for my husband. That
has also been a favorite of our family's.
Lainie Adams
Send me YOUR ideas!
Please let me know if I may use your name...