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.