Friday, October 11, 2013

Its Great to Be 12 PARTY



We had a few children turning 12 in the month that we became Activity day leaders. We decided to throw a fun "its great to be 12" party including Party games that would help revise some of the things we learn up to the age of 12.  It was  fun night for all.

Some of the games we played:
Gospel Charades/ Pictionary : two teams compete against each other to act/sculpt or draw words or themes from AOF or Family Proclamation

I love to see the temple (Version of Pin the tale on the donkey) : Large temple Picture - Pin in a picture of a child ----- aim to pin the child to the door of the temple -" Im going there someday"

AOF Balloon and Picture Match: Balloons Placed on wall numbered 1-13.  Child takes turn at using slappy hand to "grab" a balloon... they then have to match the balloon to the correct picture on the other wall of the matching AOF - We used some LDS clipart pictures for this. (some were pretty tricky) If the child could not match in time limit, the other team had a turn.... whoever matched first got the point.

We handed out goody bags and hooters, decorated with streamers and had a lovely cake decorated for our 12 year olds.

Christmas Story Bracelets

Last Christmas we wanted to help our Faith in God children remember the true meaning of Christmas and provide a way for them to share the story with their families.
I found this cute post on this webpage.... http://adventuresinmommydom.org/christmas-story-bracelet/ and this one http://littlewondersdays.blogspot.co.nz/2011/12/christmas-story-bracelet.html
about Christmas Story Bracelets and decided it would be a lovely way to make a memorable Christmas treasure in our hour and half activity.
The bracelets could be made on Pipe cleaners or on bead wire..I liked the bead wire better because I wanted it to be a treasure, I did purchase more expensive beads, but they could be made with cheaper beads...(the story is just the same)

Here is the story and the link to the original post....  I wish I had pictures of our finished bracelets....they were pretty stunning and the kids loved them. I did suggest to our boys that they could make them into a long bookmark instead of a bracelet, but they were happy to keep them as is.
Story of the beads:  (I printed this out nicely and laminated for the kids to take home)


White bead- An angel appears to Mary.

Blue bead- The angel tells Mary she is going to have a baby boy and to name him Jesus.

Light brown bead (grey would be fine too)- Mary and Joseph rode a donkey to Bethlehem to be taxed.

Dark brown bead- When they arrived in Bethlehem, there was no room in the Inn.  Mary and Joseph had to sleep in the Stable.

Purple bell- baby Jesus is born.  Purple represents royalty and the bell reminds us to tell the Good News.

Clear star bead- A very bright star appears in the sky.

White bead- An angel appears to shepherds keeping watch in the field and tells them Jesus has been born.

2 Clear beads- The shepherds go to see Jesus.

Clear star bead- Wise men see the very bright star and travel to see Jesus.

Gold, Purple, and Red beads- Represent the wise men and their gifts.


Wednesday, September 18, 2013

BuBbLE bUBbLe tOiL AND tROuBLe! LOTIONS And Potions Night - halloween!

SEE THO BOTTOM OF THE POST FOR HOW THE ACTIVITY TURNED OUT!!!

Because October is Halloween month and I know our ward is planning a more traditional Halloween activity, I thought it might be fun to have a fun experimentation night.
To mark off one of the activities in the developing talents part of the Faith in God Booklet - "Make and item from wood, metal, fabric or OTHER material .......We are going to make our own soaps, lotions and potions!

After the success of cooking activity, I think this one will go down a treat with the kids.

I have found a few great, easy recipes to make soap, lotion, maybe lip gloss, and maybe even homemade laundry powder to take home for the family to try.

I will list the recipes I may use, and add to the blog after to show our results and the recipes we actually use on the night.

POSSIBLE recipes :

http://yourmarriagerestored.blogspot.co.nz/2011/05/natural-is-best.html

http://www.discountqueens.com/diy-body-wash-turn-1-bar-soap-luxurious-body-wash/

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/easy-soap-making-recipes-for-kids.html

http://www.deliacreates.com/2011/01/homemade-beeswax-lip-gloss.html

http://www.my-creativeway.com/2012/11/diy-lip-gloss-kids-craft.html?m=1


http://mothersbrains.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/cheap-tuesdays-diy-laundry-powder.html

http://www.mariasself.com/2013/08/diy-toilet-bombs-deodorize-kill.html

http://www.marthastewart.com/270270/homemade-bath-salts

http://www.nurseryofthenation.com/2011/11/how-to-make-homemade-lotion-bars.html

I have a whole box of cool chocolate moulds which I may use for the soaps and then we could possible use them to make care packages for our missionaries for the next months activity.


HOW IT ACTUALLY WENT DOWN!!
So two weeks ago I got called to be YW President, and at the time I was asked to continue on with my planned Faith in God activity for OCT.   The above plan had to be changed a little to fit in with all the crazy business with my new calling, so as we do we adjusted the sails a little and tried something a little simpler but just as much fun and still in keeping with the theme:

We did FUN science experiments instead of Lotions and potions.
We started the night with a Sensory Relay.... kids blindfolded and reaching hands into a bowl of goodness knows what.......and then running back to their answer cards to write down what they thought was in the bowl before coming back for more...... This was a fun activity.... We checked all the answers against each other at the end.... Some very interesting answers...LOL    We used - Chocolate Pudding, slime, noodles with dates in it, mini canned corn,(they smelt awful, baked beans and green olives.

We made, Fizzing lava bombs, fizzing bath salts, lava lamps and Bouncy Balls.

Will add the recipes we used later: But here are some pics of our fizzing lava bombs:

















Thursday, August 22, 2013

Mission Prep - Planting our testimonies

In the faith in God Booklet it asks the children to write their testimonies in the book. To prepare them to do so this activity will identify what a testimony is and what we can do to help it grow.

The Plan : Start the night with a mini lesson about how faith is like a seed, that needs to be nurtured and cared for. It starts out small but with faith, prayer, study etc it can grow and can be shared with others to help their testimonies grow too (just as a tiny seed with water, sun, etc can grow to a plant that shares too -fruit, seeds etc)
Activity - Paint plant pots and plant a seed - maybe a sunflower (many seeds come from sunflower once its grown and it stands tall for all to see)
Have the children write their testimonies on little cards - maybe of flowers - and then "plant" them in Book of Mormons, and on the ward notice board to be shared with our ward family.

We can use this message to create the lesson behind this activity. http://www.lds.org/new-era/2013/02/growing-your-testimony?lang=eng















Tonight we had a lesson about how our testimonies are like a little seed, to grow they must be nurtured. We decorated pots with parts of our testimonies on them and planted sunflowers for us to look after. We also shared our testimonies on our own homemade pass-along cards and flowers which decorated our ward notice board so our testimonies can be shared with others. Special nite too because Elise moves up to YW and we had a Saul attend for the very first time!

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

MISSION PREP: KIDS CAN COOK

For this activity we wanted the children to gain some confidence in the kitchen, a skill for missions, family and life in general.
I sent out an email to all of the parents asking them to send me their childs favourite recipes to make or eat.  I took the recipes and some easy extras of my own and made up a simple cook book.  The plan, to choose several of the recipes for the kids to make on Activity night, and to have each child decorate their own copy of the book to take home and use.
We had some fabulous recipes submitted:
The Plan for the night was to group the children into 3 groups.  Each group would be responsible for making 2 recipes from the book so that at the end of the night we would have 6 dishes to sample. While the foods bake, the kids cleaned up the mess and then went out to colour and personalize their books.  When the food was ready we could all partake..... and each child was asked to bring a container so that they could take extra home for lunch the next day.

Preparation was the key for this activity:  Because of space, time etc:  I pre measured all the ingrediants an put them into zip lock bags and grouped all items for each recipe:
We had one adult with each group.

The kids did a fantastic job and were so proud of the results.   The key too, Having simple recipes with only a few ingrediants:   They all wanted to go home and try cooking for their families: AWESOME
 

 

 

 
 

 

Tace’s chicken nuggets,
Chicken, eggs, flour, bread crumbs, and seasonings
Dip diced chicken into flour, then eggs and cover in breadcrumbs and seasoning.
Cook in oven for about 30 mins on gas mark 6 or 200’C


Tace’s Poppy Seed Chicken
1 to 2  (or more if you have a bigger family) pieces of chicken diced and cooked in a frying pan or however you want to cook it.
Mix chicken with a pot of sour cream (125/150g pot) and can of Campbell's condensed soup
Alternative is half sour cream and half Philadelphia  with the soup
Put in a shallow dish, cover with crunched up ritz crackers, about a packet or as much as you like, sprinkle with poppy seeds (if you have them...I never do) and pop in oven
About 30-40 mins or until heated through on gas mark 3-4 ( abt 170’C)

Serve with mash potatoes or whatever you like.

Gabriel’s Bourekas (Puff pastry with Cream cheese filling)
Ingrediants:
4-5 sheets of puff pastry, 250grams cream cheese, 1 egg, ½ c flour,  ½ teaspoon salt,  sesame or poppy seeds for topping (optional), extra egg.
Method:
Preheat oven to 190’C, In a mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, 1 egg, flour and salt….mix till smooth.
Divided puff pastry  sheets into 9 squares, place a teaspoon of filling in each square, and fold in half to form rectangle pastries. Pinch the edges together with fork to seal the filling inside.
Brush pastries with egg and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds and bake for 20-30 mins  or until golden.
Gabriel’s Russian Potato Salad
Ingrediants:
4 eggs, 4 medium sized potatoes, 1 can of peas and carrots drained (or use fresh or frozen), 3-4 tablespoons mayonnaise, 1 teaspoon of mustard, salt and pepper.
Method:
Place the eggs  in a small saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium and boil  for 7 minutes. Peel eggs.
In another pot, Boil potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to boil. Boil until tender, drain. Let stand until cool enough to handle.
Peel potatoes and cut into small cubes.
In a large bowl put the potatoes and cut eggs, peas and carrots, mayonnaise, and mustard and mix well.
Taste and add a little salt and pepper.

Baked Crispy Potato Fritters
2 large potatoes (Peeled), 50grams melted butter, ½ teaspoon salt, pinch of pepper.
Boil Potatoes for exactly 10 minutes until just getting soft. Drain and let them cool.
Turn oven to 180’c, Grate cooled potato and mix with melted butter, salt and pepper.   Spoon into a 12 hole muffin tray, cook for 30-35 minutes until crisp and golden (or you could cook them in frying pan) Carefully tip out onto Paper towels and cool a bit.  Eat warm  as they are or serve with salsa or sauce.
Fritters can be – RE heated.
Breeana’s Marshmallow Ricebubble bars
100grams butter or Margirine, 1 packet (300grms) Marshmallows, 4 cups of rices bubbles , ½ cup choc chips
Melt Marshmellows and butter in a large pan over a medium heat until smooth.
Add rice bubbles and chocolate chips, Mix well.
Tip into a greased cake tin, wet your hands and press mixture flat.  Chill in the fridge and then cut into squares.
Breeana’s Mac and Cheese
1 onion (chopped finely), 1 cup of grated cheese, 2 cups of macaroni, ½ cup of milk, salt, pepper, 2 pinches of nutmeg, parley (optional), bacon chopped (optional)
Cook Onion and Macaroni in a saucepan of water with a bit of salt (follow packet instructions for pasta, should take about 10mins.
Drain off water, if you are using bacon, cook bacon in the pan with a little butter, then  place Macaroni and onion back into saucepan,  Stir the cheese and milk  though the macaroni. Add salt, pepper, and nutmeg.   Stir in chopped parsley if using.
Grate some extra cheese on top to serve.
Hannah’s Spaghetti Bolognese
2 teaspoons oil, 1 onion chopped, 500grms of mince, 425gram can of tomato pasta sauce, 400grms of spaghetti pasta,  1 clove of garlic, parsley, grated cheese. ADD vegetables that you like, mushrooms, grated carrot, pumpkin etc.
Heat oil in the pan and add the onion and garlic and cook for about 3 minutes. Add mince beef and cook, stirring until brown.
Add the tomato sauce, and leave to cook for about 10 minutes on a medium heat. Add any chopped and grated vegetables that you want to use.
While the meat and sauce is simmering, cook the spaghetti in a large saucepan of boiling water for 10mins, or until it is soft.
Drain the spaghetti in a colander and pile into serving bowls.  Top with the meat sauce and then some grated cheese.

Aaleah’s Coconut Macaroons
Easy Coconut Macaroons
INGREDIENTS:
  • 3 cups shredded coconut
  • 1 cup sweetened condensed milk
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
PREPARATION:
Generously grease baking sheets. Combine all ingredients; stir until well blended. Drop by teaspoonfuls, 1 inch apart, on prepared baking sheets. Press down with the back of spoon to even thickness. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes, or until macaroons are golden brown. Cool 5 minutes; remove from baking sheet. Makes about 36 coconut macaroons.

Mini Pototo top pies.
Use Hannahs spaghetti Bolognese meat recipe (without pasta) or leftover meat from any other dinner….then add…
4 large potatoes, peeled and chopped,  1/3 cup milk, 2 Tbls butter, 1 cup of grated cheese, few sheets of puff pastry.
Cook  the potatoes in a large saucepan of boiling water for 8 minutes, or until they are soft.  Drain the potatoes and them place them back into pot.  Add the milk, butter, half the cheese, and mash with potato masher until smooth.
Grease muffin tins, then lay squares of pastry into the trays.  Spoon in meat, top with mashed potato and then sprinkle with cheese. 
Bake in 180”c oven for 20 minutes or until pastry in golden brown.


Tasty chicken Wings
10 or more chicken wings, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 4 tablespoons of soy sauce, ¼ teaspoon finely grated ginger, 2 tablespoons honey, 1 tablespoon tomato sauce.
Mix lemon juice, soy sauce,  and ginger in a large flat baking dish. Add chicken wings turning each till coated in sauce.  Cover dish with tin foil and put in fridge for a few hours to marinate. Drain the wings and save the sauce.  In a cup mix honey, tomato sauce, and left over sauce mix.  Pour the sauce back over the wings, put into oven and back for about 20 minutes or until cooked.  Serve hot or cold .

2 ingredient Pancakes
2 small ripe banana’s, 3 eggs lightly beaten
Mash banana’s with a fork, whisk eggs and add to bananas-  Heat a pan to a medium heat.  Add spoonfuls of batter into pan, cook till brown on one side then flip to cook other side.
Serve hot or cold with breakfast, lunch or for afternoon tea.

Baked Bean and Bacon Muffins (from food in a minute)

1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped, 3-4 rashers bacon, diced, 3 cups self-raising flour, 2 tsp dry mustard, 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper,2-3 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley, 1 1/2 cups grated tasty cheese,  420g can Baked BeaNZ, 2 eggs, 1 1/4 cups milk, 100g butter, melted.
Method
1. Cook the onion and bacon in a dash of oil in a frying pan until softened and cooked. Cool.
2. Sift the self-rising flour, mustard, salt and pepper into a large bowl. Stir in the parsley and 1 cup of the grated cheese. Make a well or hole in the centre.
3. Mix the onion mixture, Baked BeaNZ , eggs and milk together and pour into the dry ingredients. Stir gently to mix, adding the melted butter as you stir. Do not over-mix as the muffins will peak.
4. Divide the mixture evenly among 12 well-greased muffin tins and sprinkle the tops with a little of the remaining grated cheese.  5. Bake at 220°C for 15 minutes until well risen and golden. Cool in the tins for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a cake rake. Serve warm.      Note: You can cook the onion and bacon in the microwave without the oil if wished. Place on a plate and cover. Cook on high power for 2 minutes. Cool.


Delicious Lemonade
Ingredients:
1/3 c lemon juice
The rind of one lemon, finely chopped, use the finest part on your grater to do this
1/2 c sugar
4 glasses cold water

Method:
1. Mix the lemon juice, sugar and lemon rind in a medium saucepan
2. Add cold water, then bring to the boil over a medium heat. You can add a bit more lemon juice and sugar if needed at this stage for taste
3. Stir the mixture, then turn off. Let the mixture cool
4. Pour lemonade into a jug over ice and enjoy!
Cheese Roll-ups
200g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting, 50g butter, softened, 1 tsp paprika, 100-125ml milk, 1 cup  grated cheese
Heat oven to 200 C. Put the flour and butter in a bowl and rub them together with your fingers.. Now stir in the paprika and mix again.
Add 100ml milk and mix with a fork until you get a soft dough. Add a splash more milk if the dough is dry. You can always add more milk if required. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough like pastry to about 0.5cm thick. Try to keep a rectangular shape.
sprinkle the grated cheese on top, then roll up like a sausage along the long side. Cut into 12 thick rings using a table knife.
Line the baking tray with baking paper. Place the roll-ups on the tray, cut-side down, almost touching each other, making sure that you can see the spiral. put them in the oven and bake for 20-25 mins until golden and melty. then leave to cool. The cheese roll-ups will keep for up to 3 days in an airtight container.



Description: http://www.foodinaminute.co.nz/extension/fiam/design/fiam2/images/printable_recipe/spacer.gif
Description: http://www.foodinaminute.co.nz/extension/fiam/design/fiam2/images/printable_recipe/spacer.gif

Friday, July 19, 2013

Mission prep : FINDING our treasure - scavenger Hunt

For our next activity I wanted to focus on learning our Articles of Faith - Helping the children to learn and know what the AOF mean to them, as learning the Articles of Faith can help us effectively teach others about what we believe.
I wanted to do an Articles of Faith scavenger hunt and on my search for ideas found this AMAZING scavenger hunt already done...ready to print.  So why invent the wheel.
I will change a few things but will use this as a guide.
http://littleldsideas.blogspot.co.nz/2010/04/articles-of-faith-scaveenger-hunt.html

For our scavenger Hunt I used the activities in the link above but we only used two rooms for the whole activity and the hall way of the chapel.  We placed the different activities in random places in the rooms and hall... each activity in a brown paper bag... one for each of the two teams.
I made a treasure map for each team that marked each activity with an x on the map with a clue from the room eg: Notice board, that indicated the exact location.  Each team started at opposite ends of the map....... and at each activity they worked out which article faith it represented///then marked the number on the map.  The kids had great time figuring out the puzzles and it really helped them become familier with their Articles of Faith.  At the end, we checked that they all had the right numbers on their maps and ended up with a treasure of gold wrapped sweets.
We really did discover that our AOF are a treasure, that we can share with everyone.

* Note: In the two weeks since our activity the majority of our FIG children have learnt an extra 5 + AOF..... they were really motivated to learn them after this activity.

Sunday, June 30, 2013

I hope they call me on a mission - Celestial Airlines flight.

http://sevenofusalways.blogspot.co.nz/2013/06/hope-they-call-me-on-mission-part-1.html
So this is an update on the activity we had - The first of  the "Hope they call me on a mission series"

I am a little frustrated with myself.....  forgot to take photos of the night.(well I started and then got distracted) So I only have a couple of how we started to set up the night.  So this photo is of our check in point - Each child was welcomed by an air-hostess, given a passport and boarding pass...(all shown on my previous post) and then directed to wait in the departure lounge.  The departure lounge was decorated with flags from other countries, a map of the world, other pictures related to our amazing race quiz and the supper table which was filled with international foods, mainly Japanese and treats from Brazil. (I so wish I had a photo)
We started our flight with a prayer - because all traveling should start with a prayer...Right!
I explained the night as shown in my previous post, and talked a little about the Faith in God Programme and how our journey through life, and through this programme requires a team effort.... us, our parents, our primary leaders and Heavenly Father.  Explaining that tonight they would be working as a team with their parents on this journey too.  We also talked a little about how Heavenly Father loves all of his children all over the world, and wants them all to know of his gospel, and one way we can prepare to share is to learn about other cultures and languages.

We divided the room into two flights.... an air-hostess was going to take each group into the hallway, line them up - arms out (like wings) and we flew around the block of classrooms to end up at the country we would be visiting ------one room was Brazil, one was Japan.  Each group spent 20 mins at their first destination and then flew in the same way to the next (swap).
IN BRAZIL - My other lovely Activity day leader is from Brazil, so along with her son, they set up a matching game of words in Portuguese that related to the gospel.  The kids and their parents had to look at the words in english and portuguese and see if they could match them - some were very easy to match... others not so.  With each match they learnt how to pronounce them correctly.  She also told them a little about where they were born and the temples in that area.   Each child got to take home their own matching game of words with pictures. - I will try and attach the picture files for you if you would like to use them also.

The next destination was JAPAN - One of the fathers of the boys served a mission in Japan, so he shared a little about the culture, his experiences, some basic greetings, a prayer and taught them how to make a simple piece of origami.

After each group had visited those two countries we all flew back to the "depature lounge" where parents and children were put into teams and given an amazing race quiz.  All questions related to things they had "seen or heard" at the two countries just visited and some things related to decorations in the departure lounge.  We had a world map with each of the 26 missionaries serving from our stake on it, a poster with country flags, faith in God books, article of faith posters etc.  They had 10 minutes to find as many answers from any of the rooms.... we then calculated the points... highest points recieved a trophy and treat.

We ended the night with a variety of foods from the countries visited including sushi, and a sweet treat from Brazil "brigadeiro".
The following link is to show an example of the questions we had in our quiz.... (yes there are double ups... I was working on it late at night..LOL)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11taNDUGRB_D5s5mpEFOnPtuZdNNAB1zCTHLqQ4kvOM4/edit?usp=sharing


Saturday, June 22, 2013

Hope they call me on a mission - Part 1

This coming week we are planning the big launch of our  "Hope they call me on a mission" series of activities.  We have invited at least one parent to come along with each child.... so its a big deal.

Each of the children have recieved an invite like the one below... a plane ticket for Celestial Airlines.
The tickets really had the kids excited because the ticket really does not give too much away.

On the night each child will recieve a boarding ticket as they arrive and be led into our departure lounge (the primary room).  In here they will be welcomed and the night will be explained.'

They will each recieve a passport to be stamped along the way.  (The passport will be a little book that will have several pages... one for each activity they complete over the next few activities.  I think we might  keep these passports, and hand out each activity, just so they dont get lost)  The passport of activities can also relate to activities in the Faith in God Booklet, so these can be signed off each time too.  (see the original post about the Mission series for list of other activities we will be doing)

This first activity the children will be split into 3 groups and will arrive at  3 different destinations (rotating through the classes)
The aim of tonights activity is to highlight that we all have a mission here on earth, (full time mission or not) and that part of that mission is to gain as much knowledge of the gospel and the world around us so that we can teach and serve others in this life and the next.  Our role is to find ways to learn and grow each day.
We are going to start our activity by talking a little about Elder Bednars talk: http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=c090ba12dc825110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=21bc9fbee98db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD
Explaining that one of the primary purposes of mortality is to learn -  Tonights activity is starting us on a journey of discovering a little about other people and cultures in the world, and how important it is to know that gaining intelligence is not about being a genius or to know everything,  but that all our learning or knowledge gained is used for righteous purposes.  Tonight we will be visiting 3 countries and learning a little about the language, culture and the gospel in that country. (you will notice the 3rd country really isnt a country but rather I am going to take the opportunity while we have the parents to go over the faith in God booklet and ways we and they can help their children Learn and grow ) We are so blessed to have amazing parents in our ward who are willing to share the languages.... this night we will be visiting Brazil, Japan  and our Faith in GOD pitstop.
Each group will learn, play games and eat special foods from that country while they are visiting  and then travel on to the next one.
At the end we will all come together and play a couple of games that relate to some of the things they have learnt..... matching temples, basic greetings etc....

Will post an update after the activity to fill in just how it went and what we actually did on the night....as its likely to change as we go...LOL

Passport covers:




Related posts :  http://sevenofusalways.blogspot.co.nz/2013/06/i-hope-they-call-me-on-mission-series.html

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Follow our Fav ideas on PINTEREST

My activity days Pinterest page is growing rapidly - so many people with such amazing ideas -  You can follow my Activity days board here :http://pinterest.com/CathieW/primary-activity-days/

" I hope they call me on a mission" Series

With so many great things happening with missionary work in the Church in recent times, and with the excitement surrounding so many of our own stake members heading out on missions, we thought it would be great to run a series of Activities based on Preparing for missions.
Some of the things we may cover over the next few activities are......(will add to the list as we think of more)
  • A cultural night - learning about other countries, food, language - we have a very multi-cultural ward so we are inviting a few parents to teach the children some basic words/phrases related to sharing the messages of the gospel in another language.
  • I Believe - A fun night of games to revise, learn the Articles of Faith, and know what they mean to us
  • Looking my best-   On this night we might try our hands at learning some self reliance skills like ironing, polishing shoes, sewing buttons, packing a suitcase etc - Maybe in a relay form would make it more fun.
  • My body is a temple - Health and wellness night - a short lesson about importance of keeping our minds and bodies healthy and strong - possible zumba night, and or healthy cooking night.
  • Preparing to teach - invite the ward missionaries, role play ways we can share the gospel, have the children write testimonies into Book of Mormons for missionaries to share.
  • Care Packages- making care packages, writing letters to missionaries from our ward/stake.
I found this webpage that has great ideas that we may be able to base some of our activities on on
http://lds.about.com/od/programs3foldmission/tp/prepare_lds_mission.htm

Monday, May 27, 2013

Activity days - Building Love and Trust- obstacle course.

One part of Faith In God is helping the children to understand the Family Proclamation.  We have taken parts of the proclamation to use as a theme for some activities.
Theme: Based On family proclamation "...... love and care
for each other" We can learn now to be kind and care for each other.

We started the night by having a 5 minute mini lesson introducing the part of the proclamation that talks about how "husbands and wives should love and care for each other".  We talked about ways we know people love and care for us and how we can show others the same.  Things like kindness, friendship, trust, helping etc. We also talked about how Heavenly Father has given us guidelines to help us have great relationships with family and friends .... that lead us to our next activity.
For our main activity we partnered the children up -(we purposly separated best buddies so that the kids could work on developing new relationships within our primary)
Before the activity we set up a complicated obstacle course using the furniture in the primary rooms, ropes, ladders, gates, flags etc. We added printed road signs etc to give direction. The obstacle course ran thru two rooms, the hall way, thru doors and into the outside courtyards.
We gave each pair one blindfold, and then took the unblindfolded children for a walk through the course, to explain how we would like them to direct their partners through the obstacles.  We emphasized talking to our partners, gently guiding them, and not allowing them to fall.  Each partner had a turn navigating and going blind.  After the first round they were able to discuss things that made it hard and things that really helped.  We then let them try again.
All the children had a fun night, and made new friends along the way.
http://www.printablesigns.net/category/traffic
'
We also used this FHE idea as a basis for our lesson : http://ptskjohnson.blogspot.co.nz/2012/03/liahona-family-home-evening.html




Partners helped each other thru various obstacles blindfolded, navigating surprises in the course together learning trust, kindness, and working together.
We finished the night with some traffic light jelly cups and popcorn balls.
http://www.healthyfoodguide.com.au/recipes/2011/january/traffic-light-jelly-cups

Treats - Popcorn balls . Traffic light jelly cups

Activity days - Is it right on a SUNDAE?

We had such a fun time at this activity.  The theme : Is it ok on a Sundae?  
We started our actity with this great FHE lesson : http://chocolateonmycranium.blogspot.co.nz/2008/08/keeping-sabbath-day-holy-fhe.html

Following a short version of the FHE lesson above we made Sunday Cans -All of things we CAN do on a Sunday
 .
http://mormonmomplanner.blogspot.co.nz/2013/05/sunday-cans.html

We ended the night of course by making some very creative and very delicous Ice-cream Sundaes.

activity days - Follow the Prophet

In the Faith In God booklet, one of the activties in the "learning and living the gospel "section is to "Read a recent conference address given by the prophet. Decide what you can do to follow the prophet, and do it".  For our April activity we invited the children to listen to the messages in General Conference and come prepared to share their favourite message with the rest of the children.
The children all did an amazing job sharing their testimonies of what they learnt from the messages of General conference.  Not only were their testimonies strenthened but I know mine was also.
We followed this up by doing an exercise in following instructions - We made origami hearts for the Mothers for mothers day.
It proved a very worthwhile activity - teaching us all that when we are not listening to the instructions given things do not always go well..LOL
The children proved in the end to be great FOLLOWERS and we made over 80 hearts on the night which we made into pen toppers by adding a springy pipecleaner to the back of the hearts. (the mothers loved them)
We followed this pattern:
http://www.origami-instructions.com/simple-origami-heart.html

Activity days - Building on a SURE foundation

We had a great time tonight learning about building on a SURE foundation (Helaman 5:12) and acting out the three little pigs story ..(we have some fantastic actors in our primary) We also worked on building some structures made of straws..... with a lot of trial and error we had some great success. Check out the photos to see what our children got up to. Some of the children took some straw kits home, to share what they learnt for an up coming FHE.

We always start our activity day with a small FHE style lesson.   Tonight we read the scripture in Helaman 5: 12.  We discussed some of the things that help us build a strong foundation - Our testimonies of Jesus Christ, prayer, scriptures study, good friends etc... then we talked a little about the things that might try to knock us about.   We then acted out the story of the little pigs, using the story to highlight how important it is to work and build a strong foundation so that the huffing and puffing (big bad wolf) of the world cannot not shake us.  The kids had  a fabulous time acting out thier roles.  We found  a great printable of  the story, and gave each child a role (they were all given the picture of their character)  - 3 little pigs, the 3 houses and the big bad wolf.   I was the narrater and just made the story us as we went along.   The "house" children did a great job of sheilding their little pigs, and then dramatising either their fall or their steadfastness.
The printable we used were similer to these

http://primitivepursuits.blogspot.co.nz/2011/03/three-little-pigs-handmade-buttons.html
Our main activity for the night was to have the children construct structures in a team and indivually using only straws cut into several lengths and a few types of connecters.  We used play-dough, blu-tac and pipe-cleaners as connecters.  The had different challenges to complete.....  the tallest structure, the widest and a pyramid.  We had  a lot of trial and error, but all met the challenges in the end, learning how important it was to have a strong foundation to start.


http://sycamorestirrings.blogspot.co.nz/2008/07/straw-shapes-activity-tutorial.html  This is the blog I found the idea for the pipecleaner connectors.