Lesson 34 ~ Manual 1

Lesson 34 Worthy Thoughts

I actually get to teach this lesson so there will be a second post with my quotes and printable things that I used for the lesson. 

This lesson is mostly a talk from Boyd K Packer which is amazing. What an important lesson especially for today's youth when they always seem to have their earbuds in. 

I am going to start off my lesson with the object lesson I found on Sugardoodle by Sue Curtis "Don't think about M&M's"

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I think it makes a great point that what we listen to does fill our minds even if we don't want it to. 

I also thought I would explain what garnish means. 

garnish

verb

garnish the dish with chopped parsley: decorate, adorn, ornament, trim, dress, embellish; enhance, grace, beautify, prettify, add the finishing touch to.

noun

keep a few sprigs for a garnish: decoration, adornment, trim, trimming, ornament, ornamentation, embellishment, enhancement, finishing touch; Cooking chiffonade.

and see if they could make a connection with the scripture  “Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly” (D&C 121:45)

Also on my table I will have some things that "garnish". 

The rest of the lesson is the talk from Boyd K Packer that I will divide up for reading and attached to that I will put two candy eyeballs which works great since the Halloween candy is already coming out. 

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To make it not quite so long a reading I will show THIS video which is the first part about the irrigation and water. 

After they have read through and answered the questions following I thought that THIS object lesson was a great way to reinforce how much we are influenced by what we hear. 

Or I read somewhere that someone used their phone ringtones and played a few and asked the girls how they felt when she  played them to show how we're influenced by music. 

While I was reading through this lesson IPod's kept coming to my mind and then I remembered seeing an IPod Valentine on line. 

I will put a quote about music in the screen and on the back the scripture "Let virtue garnish thy thoughts" 

Instructions to make these can be found HERE

I am also considering having the girls bring their IPods and maybe do a little cleaning on their playlists. 

Have a great lesson!!

***added 9/10/12

I also added another object lesson about garnish. After we read the definition of garnish I pulled out two glasses. The first I dipped in hot fudge and then sprinkles. I then filled the glass with milk and added a small doughnut which I'd made a slit in to the rim of the glass and finished with a cute stripy straw. The second glass I dipped  the rim in maple syrup that had dirt in it and then in paper scraps. I then added the milk and added a brown banana slice to the rim and a chewed up straw. We talked about how both glasses were ganished but what the garnish was made a difference. Just like our thoughts should be garnished with virtue not garbage. 

Where's mom when I need her activity

The beehives were in charge of our last Joint activity (w/ the YM) and they decided on a skills night. 

We had three different classes, Laundry, Money, and Cooking. 

When they arrived we divided them into three groups by having them choose a Hershey Kiss off of a platter. On the bottom of the kiss was a colored dot to show which group they would be in. 

I used the garage sale dots you can find in the office section of most grocery stores. 

The classes lasted 15min each w/ 5 min for rotation.

Money Class

In this class they learned the importance of budgeting and played a little Price Is Right. 

 Cooking Class

In our cooking class each rotation made something different. The first rotation made no bake cookies, the second rotation made corn bread & honey butter, and the third made chili. 

(If you would like the recipes we used feel free to email me and I would be happy to share)

For this class I chose recipes that were fairly basic and simple to make. 

Laundry Class

In this class they learned to sort their laundry, which settings you use to wash, basic ironing and sewing on a button. They had a relay where they had to sort clothes, iron a tea towel, & sew a button on a piece of cloth. 

After they had rotated to all classes we got together to enjoy our chili, cornbread & honey butter, and our no bake cookies. 

I think everyone had a good time and hopefully learned something new.

added 1/14/13

Recipes used for this activity

No Bake Cookies

• 
  1 3/4 cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter
• 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

• 1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
• 3 cups quick-cooking oats
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, milk, butter, and cocoa. Bring to a boil, and cook for 1 1/2 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in peanut butter, oats, and vanilla. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto wax paper. Let cool until hardened 

Sweet Corn Bread

2 pkgs Jiffy cornbread mix

2pkgs Jiffy yellow cake mix

(add ingredients on back of box for each box and follow baking instructions)

Honey butter

2 sticks real butter, (close to room temp- works best when slightly chilled still.)
2/3 C honey
¾ C powdered sugar

(If your butter is too soft, you’ll end up with a gooey mess, so I just leave it out on the counter for about 20 minutes or so before beating and it turns out nice and fluffy)

Just place it all in a bowl and beat with an electric hand-mixer for 2-3 minutes on medium-high speed.  Serve at room temp.

Chili

1 lb of ground beef

1 pkg chili seasoning

2 cans tomato soup

2 cans red kidney beans

chopped onion

Brown ground beef in large pot with onion and drain, add seasoning, soups, and beans. Add water as needed. simmer for 15 min. (we doubled the recipe to feed everyone)

Lesson 29/Manual 1

The Second Coming

This lesson is to help the YW understand that they are a Royal generation. So of course crowns and tiaras were the first thing that hit my brain. 

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I've seen and used these little tiaras in the party favor section at Party City that would be perfect to add to the quotes and scriptures for this lesson, they were about $ .35 each. They also had some full size tiaras that would make a fun handout. 

I found a great object lesson on Sugardoodle that would make a great impact if you can find someone who can pull it off. HERE is the link for it.

After you have someone do this I would show the video of the ten virgins from the church website. HERE is the link to it. 

They may be the royal generation (as we are) but that doesn't mean that they don't have to put in the effort to be worthy to be that royal generation. 

I found some cute crown things that would make fun handouts to attach D&C 87:8 to.

These are some super cute cupcakes that would be perfect

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Or you could do cookies

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Or instead of buying a tiara you could make your own crown for the girls to make it personal.

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It looks like they used some cute paper and added lace and ribbon rosettes and ribbon trim. You could also use cupcake papers for the fringe and flowers. 

I found a tutorial to make cupcake paper flowers on Martha Stewart

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I hope this inspires you and as always read the additional talks on the sidebar of the lesson for added inspiration.

Have a great lesson!

Lesson 35/Manual 1

Living Righteously Amid Pressures

My first thought on this lesson was to use the example of diamonds. How because of the pressure they're exposed to they become beautiful things. And I think this would be a fun way to go with this lesson.

But as I was going through the extra resources I came across a Mormon Message from Brother Holland and my whole way of seeing this lesson changed. 

This is the link for the Mormon Message

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/mormon-messages-for-youth?lang=eng&id=2012-07-007-stay-within-the-lines#2012-07-007-stay-within-the-lines

You need to watch this first or the rest of my ideas may not make much sense.

Of course you should preface showing this video that although Brother Holland was speaking to the young men it also very much applies to them. I would have them listen and when he says young men or  men to replace it with young women and girls. 

I can see an analogy of playing in a game and all those people yelling on the sidelines so many distracting things. How if we listen to the distractions we can step out of bounds which will effect our standing in the game.  I love how he says we need to stay in the game, we need to decide if we are playing on the Lords team. 

So from this video I would print out these sports fields and courts and display them around the room. 

Basketball court

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 Soccer field

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Football field

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 Tennis court

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Maybe see if they can identify which sport is played on which field. I would also go over some reasons why there our boundaries for these sports. Some reasons might be to keep the players safe, so that the players know what is expected of them, and what their goal is. 

Daniel is the main example in this lesson of someone who withstood the influences of those around them and lived his life as he knew he should. He was a great player on the Lords team.

You could attach any kind of sports themed thing to their quotes and stories

I've seen these foil covered chocolates at Party Supply stores

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 And I've also seen these sucker molds at either Michaels or Hobby Lobby. Actually you could do chocolate covered oreos and pipe baseball or basketball markings on them or sugar cookies for that matter.

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As a handout I would take my favorite quote from the Mormon Message and attach it to a whistle. 

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I've made a Righteous living amid pressures sheet from the lesson if you'd like to use it. 

you can download it HERE

Have a great lesson!!

lesson 33/manual 1

Avoiding Degrading Media Influences 

What a great lesson and a very important one. With all the media that we're exposed to today we have to be very careful what we allow into our minds. 

A few of the stories that I used in the previous lesson would also work great in this one.  One of Satans greatest tools is "just a little isn't a big deal".  

One of the first things that came to my mind while I was reading through this lesson was the Mr. Yuk stickers from when I was a kid. Does anyone else remember those?

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And if you're not really familiar with Mr. Yuk you can always use the skull and cross bones. 

I would bring some of those things listed in the lesson like rat poison, bleach, etc. and have them on my table. 

I love the line by Bishop H. Burke Peterson "we must not feed ourselves on a diet of trash"

I would have a place setting on the table (plate, fork, spoon, glass, placemat, napkin) and on my plate I would place trash. I would also print out this line and put it like a place card by the plate. 

For the treat I would attach to the quotes and stories for the girls to do during the lesson I would attach a those mini trash can candies. 

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If you can't find these you could always get empty ones and fill with your own treats. 

you can buy these here

or you could use this toxic waste candy 

which you can buy here

I also found a great object lesson to go along with the egg one that the manual has on Mormon Share

it goes like this:

Ask the class if the would like some popcorn. After someone volunteers take out a peice of popcorn chew it up and spit it back into the bag. Shake it up then offer it to the person who wanted it. (they should no longer want it.) Then simply say, "What, it is only one little piece." Small things can contaminate something that is otherwise good, like a movie, book, song or tv show.

I would do this object lesson at the end of the lesson and then hand out these popcorn treats for the hand out with the guidelines for evaluating media. 

There are some great popcorn recipes out there

I found this on Pinterest but the link was a server error.

And I've see these popcorn containers at Target in their dollar bins. 

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How cute would that be filled with candied popcorn and wrapped up in cellophane with a cute bow. 

I've also seen popcorn bags at the dollar store which would be cute as well. 

I've created a tag to go with this popcorn hand out. 

you can download it here

As always if you are unable to download the printable please contact me by email and I would be happy to send you the file directly. My email can be found on the side bar. 

Have a great lesson!

lesson 32/ Manual 1

Lesson 32 ~ Personal Purity through Self discipline

Brother Holland's talk on Personal Purity covers the "why's" and would be a great addition to this lesson. I know it always helped me understand a principle when I knew the why behind it.

I would begin my lesson with this video. 

HERE is the link to YouTube for the video. 

This is the video that they shared at our girls camp and i LOVED it!!! So cute and makes such a good point. 

You can then do the same thing for the girls so they get a first hand experience of what it feels like to wait for something better. Then at the end of the lesson have the cupcake wrapped in a box like in the video. Also attach a quote from the lesson or use  "when we exercise self control, we will receive "sweet" rewards".

And so my theme for the lesson would be cupcakes. 

You can find the cupcake boxes at either Hobby Lobby or I believe Michael's or you can find them online 

This one can be found here

And this one can be found here

I love this Mormon add. How many times do we rationalize things so that we don't feel guilty. 

This Mormon ad reminds me of a story I've heard but can't give credit for because I can't remember where exactly I heard it. Anyway the story goes that there was a family, and in this family there were some teens. One day they wanted to go see this movie and their dad asked them what it was about and if it was appropriate. They told him about the movie, how the best actors were in this movie and how the plot was amazing and that there was maybe a little of "this" (swearing) and a little of "that" (sex) in the movie and that it wasn't that big of a deal. So they dad said well let me think about it and I'll get back to you. Well to teach his children an important lesson he made a batch of brownies. He followed the recipe but added just a little bit of dog poo in it. He then met with his kid again and said that if they would eat this brownie he would let them see the movie. He told them about how he used the best chocolate in it and that it was baked perfectly but it may have a little bit of dog poo in it. 

What a great illustration of how just a little of anything inappropriate can ruin some thing and that you would never put something like that in your body. 

I would also put cupcakes on my quotes and stories I would have the girls read. I've seen cupcake shaped lip gloss in the $ section at Michael's that would be cute as well. 

Have a great lesson

Lesson 31/Manual 1

Group Activities: A basis for wise dating

Oh the joys of dating. There were some good ideas out there on where to go with this lesson. My favorite and the one I'm going to base this lesson on was "Try all the flavors before you decide on your favorite" which I found here.

Of course I plan so much better when I have a theme within my lesson. So ice cream it is!!

How do we know what we like in a guy if we only date one? We need to have lots of different experiences with dating and the best way to experience more than one guy is to group date. We may realize we like our ice cream a little nutty and are kind of bored with plain vanilla. : )

I loved this quote from Robert. D. Hales: “Friends are people who make it easier to live the gospel of Jesus Christ.”¹ Date young men who make you want to be a better person. “Be your best self” so you can be a good influence to those you date. 

Those are the kind of people you want to date, friends. 

This came from a great talk by the YW general pres. on advice to YW on dating. Would be a great 

addition to the lesson. 

Something else that I would address in this lesson is "hanging out" and how that is different from dating  

but that we still need to be careful and sometimes avoid it. This talk by Brad Wilcox would be a great 

reference for teaching this.

Ok for a little treat to go with my quotes and scriptures you could do those ice cream cone pop up toys. 

You push that button on the side and the ice cream pops off, do you remember those?  I bet you could 

find something like this at the dollar store.

or if you're feeling really creative you could do these cake pop ice cream cones. Make cake pops and cut the tips off of sugar cones, dip your cake ball in pink chocolate melts let set, drizzle chocolate melts over top and add a pink or red candy "cherry" on top. 

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Or you could make ice cream cone suckers. I found this mold on Amazon for $1.70

some brown chocolate melts for the cone and any or many color melts for the ice cream. Cute!!

For a hand out I would do the cupcakes in a cone. 

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Here are instructions on how to make them by Betty Crocker.

Maybe even make them a Neapolitan ice cream cupcake by mixing three different batters

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Then of course you want to package them up cute. I loved the dipped cones as well as the cute bow. 

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I've made a tag you can attach to these cute cones as well as a group date idea sheet. 

download this tag here

download this sheet here

And just for something fun I found this cute "dating application" you could give to each of your girls. And in all seriousness these are some legitimate questions you should be asking. 

here's the application

*Also please let me know if you aren't able to download my printables and I will email you a copy directly. Be sure you email me by Saturday night before your lesson so I can get it to you in time, I have early church. : ) My email is on my side bar. 

Have a great lesson!