Missing

Where the heck have I been?????? Well to tell you the truth up to my eyeballs in planning. Since I've been put in as YW president my time to go through the lessons and come up with ideas has been severley cut. So I apologize to those who come back to my blog looking for lesson helps and find nothing more has been posted. 

I've been thinking as well that it may be the end to my lesson help posts because of the new ciriculum starting in January. If you haven't seen what will be changing be sure to visit the churches web site for LOTS of details. 

I am actually really excited for the change. I feel it is so much more personal for the girls and they wil feel more invested in the lessons because they are the ones helping to decide what will be taught. 

So, because we will all be teaching different things and because it's suppose to be a more personal lesson, this is the end of lesson helps. Of course there is still Sugardoodle which is an A.M.A.Z.I.N.G 

resource so be sure to go there for additonal help. 

Now this isn't to say that this is the end of this blog for me. I have LOTS of activities in the works and will be posting those as they happen or as I have time before to show you what I'm up to. 

Here's a peek at what I've go going on.

Our night of Excellence is coming up next week and this is the invite we gave each of the girls. 

We rolled these up and tied them with twine and put them in plastic bottles (which we found at Oriental Trading) with a little sand. 

more details to come

 I am also in charge of the Youth Leadership training/planning in our ward. This is the invite I did for each class presidency member which I also stuck on a plastic fork. A little more memorable than just a piece of paper.

The theme came from Sister In Zion as well as the training outline. 

also coming up the Laurels are in charge of the joint activity this month and they chose to do a Murder Mystery dinner. They are very excited about this and I know it will be a lot of fun. 

The YW are also in charge of our ward Christmas party this year and we have a fun one planned. 

We are doing "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" which will be a narrators play where everyone is encouraged to participate. 

So as you can see I have a lot on my plate and will have a lot of fun things to share so please be patient with me and I promise to try to keep you updated as these activities happen. 

Thank you to all those who leave me such sweet comments, they all mean so much.

Temple Marriage Activity

 This one of my favorite activities we've done so far. This came about because we had to skip the temple marriage lesson in the manual due to our stake leaders coming to teach that Sunday. As a presidency we all felt this was one of the MOST important lessons in the manual and we either needed to fit it in with the Sunday lessons or address it another way.

  Years ago I had found this idea through someone else serving in YW's and new it would be perfect for teaching the importance of a temple marriage. I'm sorry I can't give credit to the person who did this originally. This was also an activity we invited the mothers to as well.

Our invitations were wedding announcements, worded like an announcement, fancy font, etc. (sorry I didn't take a picture of ours) We went with a yellow and pink color scheme because we wanted to keep the yellow from our Arise and Shine theme for the year.

The basic outline of the evening was that we would divide into three groups. We would have three rooms set up to rotate to. One room was set up for the girls to try on wedding dresses and have their pictures taken. We send around a sign up sheet in Relief Society and Primary for anyone willing to loan us their wedding dress for the evening and had a great response. I think we had about 10 different dresses for the girls to choose from. We also are lucky enough to have someone who takes really good pictures.

Another room we had someone in the ward who was married in the temple, has had their children marry in the temple and has grandchildren speak. She spoke about how making the choice to married in the temple has influenced her children and the way she lives her life. She decorated her room to look "homey", while she spoke she turned the room lights off and only had on a lamp. She brought in one of the armchairs from the foyer and had lots of family pictures on the table.

The last room was the reception area and in here we had a women who was recently married in the temple speak about the decisions she made to make it to the temple and how making decisions young that the temple is your goal influenced how she lived her life. 

We also had all the YW leaders bring their wedding pictures and any other memorabilia they had to display. The girls LOVED to look at how different their leaders looked "back then". 

After all the classes we met back in the reception area for cake and a sweets bar. 

Isn't this cake amazing. One of our yw's mothers does cake decorating, lucky us!!

And of course we had to have our tables look like they might at a wedding reception

We got really great feed back from the girls about this night, as well as from their mothers. I hope they each made a greater resolve to live worthy to be married in the temple. 

Lesson 39/Manual 1

Lesson 39  Drug Abuse

If I have a theme for the lesson it really helps me with what kind of direction I go and gives me ideas for handouts. 

My sister taught this lesson a few weeks ago and passed on a great idea. She found some research that had been done on spiders. What they found was pretty amazing. 

They filled a fly with a certain drug like LSD and then waited to see what kind of web they spun. The results spoke for themselves. HERE is a link to one of the sites that had the results. You can also Google "spiders on drugs" to find some more. 

The spider results would be perfect to present at the beginning of Consequences of Drug Abuse

So with that I would use a spider theme with my lesson and since Halloween decor is coming out you shouldn't have any trouble finding spiders. I found a box of 150 spiders in the dollar bins at Target that would be perfect to attach to quotes or scriptures for the girls to read in class. 

I would also use a spider web table runner that I found at HomeGoods or you can make your own. 

HERE are instructions for the how to.

This arrangement would be really fun to have on the table as well.

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And these would be the perfect handout. I've seen them at Michaels and Joanns and you can also find them on Amazon HERE. They are little spider web treat boxes & spider cellophane bags which you could fill with anything. 

Here are a few printables for the lesson as well.

download HERE

download HERE

download HERE

If you are unable to download any of these email me (email can be found on the sidebar)

and I'll be happy to send them to you directly.

Have a great lesson!!

*** added 9/13/12

As I was putting some of my kids books away one that came into my hands was "The Spider & the Fly". This lesson then popped in my head and I knew it would be a perfect way to show them how Satan uses subtle ways to get us into his web. How he uses a little flattery and how if we listen we'll keep coming back. If you haven't read this book you really should. 

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!!