Saturday, July 1, 2017

Activity Day Lesson- Candy Land Article's of Faith Game

One of the things that I struggle with in trying to teach my girls is the articles of faith! I remember when I was in "achievement day" many years ago and felt like our leader just drilled them into our heads and we just practiced them over and over. Effective but super un-fun! So I try to think of fun games to help the girls learn their articles of faith. I used an old card board box and cut out colorful squares about 2 x 2 inches using construction paper and made a path on the cardboard to create the candy land game board. I then printed and cut out some candy land pictures and pasted them all over so that it brought in the "candy land" element. 
I also used 2 paper plates to create a color spin wheel to determine how each pawn will move up on the game board. I controlled the spinner which sped up the game and kept it moving and ultimately kept their attention. I then made all of these article of faith trivia cards that the girls had to answer correctly to move their pawn. If you have a small group, you could let them each play the game. We have a very large group, so we broke them into two teams and then each turn there was one "designated" spokes person every one taking turns. I didn't do this on purpose but it ended up being a really cool experience to watch the girls who knew the articles of faith whisper it to the "spokes person" who then had to recite it to me in order to answer correctly. While it would have been easy to just let the girls who have all their articles of faith memorized just answer every time for their group, it would would have lost the other girls' attention and wouldn't have taught anyone anything. This way the girls who weren't as well versed with their articles of faith had a chance to hear them and repeat them back and actually learn bits and pieces of them! 
Our activity lasts just and hour and this game really went well with our group of 15-20 girls! I felt like everyone was able to actively participate even if they weren't confident in their memorization which was great! It was also fun and bonus the cards we used could easily be used for many different games!! At the end of the lesson I had nearly every girl pass of an article of faith as well! 








Monday, June 8, 2015

Developing Talents-Gardening with Mason Jar Printable Tags

Lesson: Gardening
-Developing Talents

Scripture: 
“If ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life” (Alma 32:41).

Song: 
 The Prophet Said to Plant a Garden 

Lesson:

My Garden—A Harvest of Peace for the Soul

1986 Personal Article Contest Winner
Grandma was seventy-seven when Grandpa died. It was in the spring after a long winter of cancer and cold weather. After the funeral each of her four children came, one at a time, and sat beside her and said, “Mother, now that you’re alone, come and stay with us awhile; we would love to have you.” And to each of them, she answered, “No, I can’t. I can’t leave my garden that long.”
Grandma had already planted peas and carrots and radishes, and without her care and attention, even for a few days, they would die.
Several years ago my father was killed in a farm accident. It was August, harvest time for much of Mother’s garden. We knew that most of her nights were aching and sleepless, and many times I would go to her bedroom at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning to see if she was asleep only to find her bed empty. I would find her on her knees in the garden, working up and down the long rows, pulling onions and carrots or digging potatoes.
My family’s roots are deep in the soil. As a child, daily I heard my father, a farmer, pray over his stewardship and petition the Lord for blessings on our crops and land as we knelt around the kitchen table in family prayer. From a very young age I realized that the wind, the rain, the late frost in the spring are of elemental concern to those whose livelihood is dependent upon the cycle of planting, tending, and harvesting a crop.
For my grandmother and mother, the elements were also of vital concern, for even before the Church’s emphasis on having a year’s supply, they had a food storage program. Their gardens provided the family’s root cellar with potatoes, carrots, and squash, and the cupboards with jars of tomatoes, beans, peaches, cherries, and picked beets—the family’s sustenance during the long winter months.
For the generations of our family, however, a garden has provided something even more essential and life-giving than potatoes and peaches. We till the soil and dress and weed it, and it rewards us not only with fresh fruit and vegetables to eat and put by, but with binding family traditions, cohesiveness, and communication, with moral nourishment to cope with daily life.
For several years after Grandpa’s death, Grandma repeatedly denied the pleas of her children to come live with them because she was committed to her garden. Though it grew smaller each year and certainly didn’t remain a great factor in keeping her pantry full, it did keep her in her own home, taking care of herself and her house, basically independent from social and familial assistance.
Grandma loved company, and a day spent with her was most likely spent in her garden or talking about it. In the winter the conversation was sure to be about the severity of the weather. Was it cold enough to kill flower bulbs left in the ground? Would it damage the fruit trees? Would the snow pack in the mountains provide water all summer long? In the early spring her south-facing windows were lined with pots and tubs and cartons full of seedlings to be transplanted outdoors when the weather was warm enough.
In the summer and fall, part of every visit to Grandma was spent with her in the garden watering and weeding, learning from her vast knowledge of plants, gleaning from her years of experience as a gardener. The conversation would often drift to her and Grandpa’s early days together or the time when my father was a boy. Her stories were never boring or preachy, and I came to appreciate the heritage she passed on to me.
Gardening at Grandma’s was fun, but gardening at home was work. Being sent to the garden alone to face long rows of tiny, spindly; carrots to thin or peas to pick was torture. The only compensation was being able to listen without adult comment to the transistor radio I hooked onto my belt. That kind of gardening—the hot hours spent alone on long rows—was of a different variety, however, than the early morning hours spent with Mother and Daddy.
Sometimes there was so much farm work to do that the only time left to take care of the garden was early morning. Those times the whole family, or at least everyone over six years old, would pitch in to get the garden done before breakfast.
On those mornings, Mom would wake us very early, so early the sun was only a pink fringe of light on the horizon. Warning us not to waken the little children and baby with our groans, she would coax us up and get us out-of-doors while the grass was still shining silver with dew and our shadows were long and thin. We collected our hoes from where they were leaning against the side of the shed and, still sleepy, we walked silently to the garden.
There is magic in very early morning air, a magic that creates an aura of reverence for the earth and life and those who share it with you. Perhaps that is why, on those early mornings, I talked to my parents and listened to them talk to me. My radio was left in the house, the disc jockeys left asleep somewhere.
I don’t remember what we talked about on those early mornings, and I’m sure the conversation wasn’t important to me at the time. But I do remember picking corn, hilling up potatoes, and thinning lettuce, unconsciously learning about gardening, about loving the earth and reaping what you sow, by doing it with my parents.
After breakfast, when the rest of the family had gone out to the fields, Mother and I would sit in the shade of the porch and snap beans or husk corn and talk. Maybe she would sing, old songs about mares and does eating oats, songs I’d never heard and thought silly. Sometimes we’d argue about the length of my skirts or when I could start wearing lipstick and nylons. The tasks were important, but not as important as the time I spent with Mother listening to her stories, laughing with her, digesting her values and knowledge and storing them for the time in the future when I would discard them or use them and find them invaluable.
Occasionally Mother would tell me stories about when she was a girl and saved aluminum gum wrappers for the war effort, or when she took mustard sandwiches to school and had only one Sunday dress in her closet. I knew it was supposed to make me appreciate all the clothes in my own closet, but I really didn’t believe that anyone had ever had only one dress.
Thriftiness was a way of life for Mother—something she did without thinking and practiced without preaching. The garden and orchard were an extension of her thriftiness. So were the forays she led us on as we gleaned from neighboring fields of asparagus, strawberries, potatoes, and grapes that had already been harvested. Waste not, want not was her motto, a principle impossible not to inculcate into my own credo as I lived and worked with her every day.
The thing I liked the least in the garden and the one my mother was the most dedicated to was the ritual of the raspberries. The picking of raspberries had rules that not even the Fourth of July celebration could alter. They had to be picked every other day, and the bushes had to be picked perfectly clean, lest the berries left got too ripe and had to be thrown away at the next picking.
If the day the raspberries were to be picked fell on the Fourth of July, it was the celebration’s loss, not the raspberries’. Mother would get up early, make her salad and fried chicken for the community picnic, go watch the parade, take the salad to the park, and be home by 1:00 P.M. to pick the raspberries. To her credit, she never made me skip the celebration to help her.
I never could understand Mother’s obsession with gardening and the elimination of weeds in particular. It drove me crazy as a child. She seemed bent on wiping out every weed on earth all by herself. It didn’t matter what the occasion—we could be all dressed up hurrying to get to piano lessons, or going to a movie in town, or walking through the garden with Sunday afternoon company—the sight of a single weed would stop her dead in her tracks. No one continued until Mother had rid that small spot of earth of its thistle.
As each of her children grew up and left the nest to set up homes of their own, Mother encouraged us to have a garden. She did everything she could to make having our first garden as painless as possible. She helped with the hard work of preparing the soil, the tedious work of thinning crowded inch-high radishes, the ugly work of killing potato bugs and squashing tomato worms, and she rejoiced with us when we picked our first tomato. Perhaps she was so eager for us to establish our gardens because she knew so well the reasons for having a garden.
After her fifth baby was born, Mother became deeply depressed. She became more and more melancholy. A doctor told her she had an ulcer and gave her sugar pills in hope of helping her, but she discovered his deception and only became more angry and depressed.
Then she went to the physician who had been her family doctor when she was a child. Now old and wise, he sat her down beside him and talked with her. After listening to her troubles for a long time, he kindly asked her two questions: Did she have a job in the Church, and did she have a garden? She said yes, she had a church calling, and no, she did not have a garden. She didn’t see how she could manage one. He said, “Melba, spring is here. Plant your garden. Work in it every day, and if you wake up at 4:00 in the morning and can’t sleep—go out and work in it; make it the best garden you’ve ever had.” And so began her healing and her continued fascination with gardening.
Two years after Daddy died, Mother gave up her garden, except for a few tomatoes and her beloved raspberries. Her heroic efforts to keep the family farm going left no time for gardening, in the very early morning or otherwise.
Last year Grandma fell and broke her hip and became confined to a bed and a wheelchair. She, too, finally gave up her garden. But I, who hated weeding and transplanting and thinning as a child, find that I carry the love of gardening in my soul.
My first garden was at Utah State University. My husband, Stan, took a vegetable crops class, and the professor so deliciously described each of his subjects that Stan came home eager to raise his own broccoli, eggplant, and Golden Jubilee sweet corn. Our acreage was tiny—a 10-by-15-foot plot provided to students who wanted to reduce their food bill by growing their own. We tried growing everything but didn’t have much success with most of it in the high, thin mountain air of northern Utah. But we had a great time, and Mother was so thrilled when I told her of our efforts that she brought Walla Walla sweet onion sets all the way from Washington for us to try.
Today Mother is still bringing me starts of this and shoots of that to try in my garden. So were my friends and other relatives, until Stan finally raised his hands and said, “Stop! There isn’t one more inch of space in this city yard for another iris root or new tomato variety!”
And as I walk through my garden, I see it really is crowded—crowded with memories and tradition. On one side of the gate is a common lilac, a start from the start Mother brought with her from Idaho as a new bride, and on the other side is a double French lilac—from my mother-in-law’s yard. From her garden also I have poppies and rhubarb and juniper tams.
In the shade of our patio deck I have hosta and old-fashioned violets from Grandma’s garden. In a corner of the yard are dahlias, evoking memories of a dear friend who passed starts on to me when she moved to New York. Along a wall are gladiolas, the passion of my other grandma, who died when I was a baby but who I curiously wonder about each spring and fall as I plant and retrieve my bulbs. And always faithfully reappearing each spring among the nooks and crannies of a rock garden are my chrysanthemums—brought in their foil-wrapped pots from my father’s graveside after his funeral. They are the last color I see in the fall, the last flowers to bend their heads to the autumn frost.
I know and love each plant—its origin, its eccentricities, its special needs. Each has a story to tell—a part of my life story. This evening as I pass through my garden, we are in a hurry. My son has his first soccer game tonight and we’re all headed for the playing field. It is a lovely time of day, beginning to cool off; the bees are headed for their hives, the air is sweet with columbine and peonies, and I spy a Canadian thistle trying to hide behind a lupine. As my seven-year-old impatiently tugs at my sleeve, saying, “Come on, Mom, we’ll be late; Ican’t be late for the first game,” I bend down to ferret out the hapless thistle.
[photo] Photography by Marty Mayo, styling by Craig Soffe
Activity:
print out one of each of these hands outs for your girls. I went over the How to grow your vegetable garden handout with the girls. The rose matching game they completed at the end of the lesson (time willing). I then took them out to my own rose garden and showed them the proper way to prune roses. They each pruned and then cut their own fresh roses which they took home in mason jars. I made the "be like a flower" printable and cut/laminated them before the lesson and tied them with twine to their rose mason jars. 


KEY:



Sunday, June 7, 2015

Learning About the Articles of Faith Jeopardy Game


Learning About the Articles of Faith Jeopardy game 
-Learning and Living the Gospel
Lesson:
The Articles of Faith 
By Karen Lofgreen 
I Believe in the Articles of Faith 
All things are possible to him that believeth (Mark 9:23). 
The Articles of Faith 
Have you ever wondered what you would say if someone asked you what you believed as a member of the Church? The scriptures tell us about the beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Articles of Faith are part of the scriptures. They are found in the Pearl of Great Price. Our prophets have told us how important it is that we read the scriptures and that we understand what they say.  
President Thomas S. Monson told a story about a man from the east who was traveling by bus to San Francisco. In Salt Lake City a Primary girl got on the bus and sat next to the man. As they started talking, he asked her if she was a Mormon. She answered yes. He asked her what Mormons believe. It was a big question for such a young girl. What would you have said? Imagine the look on the man’s face as she recited and explained the Articles of Faith. He couldn’t believe it!  
After she got off the bus, the man thought about her courage and knowledge. As soon as he arrived in San Francisco, he looked in the telephone directory for the Church’s phone number, then called the local mission president and asked questions about the Church. The mission president sent missionaries to see him, and later the man’s entire family was baptized—all because a Primary girl knew and understood the Articles of Faith and had the courage to share them. (See Ensign, April 1994, pages 67–68.)  
Where did the Articles of Faith come from? In March 1842 the Prophet Joseph Smith received a letter from Mr. Wentworth, a newspaper publisher in Chicago, Illinois, asking questions about the Church. As Joseph answered the letter, he was inspired to write thirteen statements that contain many of the beliefs of the Church. These statements became our Articles of Faith.  
Later, in 1880, members at the October general conference of the Church voted to accept the Articles of Faith as scripture.  
Articles of Faith 
What are the Articles of Faith?  
Thirteen statements of LDS beliefs.  
Who wrote the Articles of Faith?  
Joseph Smith  
Why were the Articles of Faith written?  
To answer questions about LDS beliefs.  
Where do we find the Articles of Faith?  
In the Pearl of Great Price.  
When did the Articles of Faith become scripture?  
At general conference, October 1880.  
How did the Articles of Faith become scripture?  
Church members voted for them.  
Sharing Time Ideas 
1. Make a mural that shows how the Articles of Faith came to be. Divide a long roll of large paper into six sections. In each section, write one of the following questions: What are the Articles of Faith? Who wrote the Articles of Faith? Why do we have the Articles of Faith? Where can we find the Articles of Faith? When did the Articles of Faith become scripture? How did the Articles of Faith become scripture? Using the activity on pages 36–37 as a guide, divide the children into six groups and have each group draw the answer to one of the questions and explain it to the other groups. It is suggested that each group have a mixture of ages for learning and variety. 
2. Invite the missionaries to testify about the Articles of Faith. If they have missionary cards with the Articles of Faith on them, ask them to share an experience they had when they used their cards. Children could participate in a missionary discussion about the Articles of Faith, with the missionaries serving as discussion leaders. 
3. Sing “Faith” (Children’s Songbook, page 96). Focus on the words that talk about what faith is (knowing that the sun will rise, that the Lord will hear my prayers, that I will know in my heart when I do what is right, that I lived with God before I came to this earth, etc.). Use pictures and help children to discuss their feelings when they think of the word faith and when they know that something is true. 
4. Dramatize the Articles of Faith story. The first week, have children write the script, which should include people asking questions about Mormon beliefs; Mr. Wentworth writing his letter to Joseph Smith; Joseph Smith pondering, then writing his reply; and the Articles of Faith becoming scripture. The second week, provide simple props and have them act out their script. 
5. Using the Sharing Time activity on pages 36–37 as a guide, divide the older children into groups and assign each group one or more of the what, who, why, where, when, and how questions to write about and/or illustrate as a column in Mr. Wentworth’s newspaper. 

Activity:
Print out all four of these images for your Jeopardy Game they are in order top to bottom left to right 100-700 points. write the points down on each before cutting them up so you don't get confused I used markers and used a different color for each category.




Word Scramble  

Cut these out and place each one entire article in a plastic bag. Label the bags 100-700 the girls will earn points by unscrambling the articles and putting the pieces of paper in correct order.  
4. We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.   
6.We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.  
7.We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth.  
8.We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.  
9.We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.   
11.We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.  
12.We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.  
13.We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul-We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured 
many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things. 
Jeopardy Game Instructions and Answers 
The answers are as follows: 
True or False 
100) false 
200) false 
300) true 
400) false 
500) false 
600) true 
700) false 
Fill In The Blanks 
100) eternal 
200) magistrates 
300) sins 
400) saved 
500) translated 
600) yet 
700) virtuous  
Define A Word 
100) reign 
200) immersion 
300) Zion 
400) repentance 
500) believe 
600) apostles 
700) benevolent  
Unscramble 
(Make sure they put the Article Of Faith In The Correct Order) 
Name that Number
100) 7 
200) 5 
300) 3 
400) 11 
500) 10 
600) 6 
700) 13  
General Questions 
100) Joseph Smith 
200) 13 
300) Church Members Voted Them In 
400) October 1880 
500) To answer questions about LDS beliefs 
600) The Pearl Of Great Price 
700) 13 brief statements of some of the beliefs of the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints  
Name that Number 
100)4 
200) 2 
300) 13 
400) 6 
500) 5 
600) 12 
700) 7  

Layout:

Here is what your game should look like once you lay it all out. I taped mine to the wall so it was visible to the whole room. Note: scramble is supposed to be little zip lock baggies filled with the cut up articles of faith.

And now for the rules. I separated all of the kids in to two separate groups. Try to make them as even as possible age and maturity wise. Then I explained to them how were going to play. I set two chairs in the center of the room in the back, the team mates sat on either side of these chairs. The person representing the team sat in the chair. (We traded of people each questions) Then in the front of the room on a table we sat a buzzer. The first team got to pick the question. I then read what was on the back. The two teams could talk and tell the person representing them what the answer was. That person would then run to the front and hit the buzzer. The first team to hit the buzzer got to go. If they answered correctly they received the points and chose the next question. If they got it wrong, the question went to the other team. If that team got it right, they got the points. If they got it wrong, we dropped the points to half and the teams could use their scriptures to find the answer. The first team to hit the buzzer could answer. If no one got it this round we dropped the question.  
It is important to explain to everyone that once the person representing the team left their chair to hit the buzzer the team could no longer help them. So it was important they knew the answer before they took of running. Because if they got it wrong, they got negative points and the other team had a chance to steal them.  
As far as the Unscramble column goes, the two people representing both of the teams came up and I handed them the bags. They ran back to their teams and unscrambled the article and then ran back up to hit the buzzer. I then went and checked to see if it was correct.  
And that was that. If I'm missing anything please let me know so I can answer your questions!!!  
We had a fun night, and I think all the kids really enjoyed it. This activity lasted 1 hour and 1/2 for us! Which was just right!

For the sake of time I only did 6 categories instead of the original 7. Even with only 6 categories we ran out of time to finish. So make sure you make the lesson part quick if possible!

I have just made a few modifications. 

Saturday, June 6, 2015

Serving Others- Project Linus

Activity Day Lesson:
-Serving Others


Story:

Finding Joy by Serving Others
Sister JoAnn Randall
My dear brothers and sisters: We are happy as a couple to be able to speak to you today about how welfare principles have influenced our family through service.

It was with awe that our children first heard the story about a family who gave away their entire Christmas—tree, food, and gifts. It all began when their neighbor’s home burned early on the morning of Christmas Eve. When the children heard of their friends’ situation, a family meeting was called and they all agreed, without exception, that they would share their Christmas.

The day’s activities soon centered around switching name tags on gifts and boxing up Christmas goodies, turkey and all. And at the last minute, they even took the tree! When they gathered back home after delivering their project in secret, they had feelings of excitement and love. (See Leon R. Hartshorn, Memorable Christmas Stories, p. 41.)

Questions came from our children: “Wasn’t it hard for the first family to give?” “Wasn’t it difficult for the other family to receive?”

A short time later we had our own opportunity to be receivers of service. After living in a community for only one month, it became necessary for me to stay completely down for two months while expecting our eighth baby. Our first reaction was that we could handle this challenge all alone. The children were used to helping and had regular jobs around the house. However, we soon recognized that despite careful planning and added responsibilities, we needed help.

Even after years of teaching and hearing lessons on serving others and accepting service, we found that to actually let someone help us was difficult to do. But, as we allowed them to help us, we soon found our hearts full of thanks for their thoughtfulness.

A retired couple came by and picked up the youngest children for a morning outing. Our bishop organized a sacrament meeting and brought it in our home. Several busy sisters came by regularly just to chat, because they knew that I enjoyed adult company. A couple prepared and brought in a candlelight dinner to share with us for a date night. A batch of white shirts disappeared and then reappeared, freshly ironed.

The phrase “Call me if I can do anything” took on new meaning. We learned that you will rarely take someone up on such an offer. Instead, we witnessed people who came by saying, “Is it the kitchen you want cleaned, or would you rather have me vacuum?” Many were good examples to us as they not only thought of helpful things to do, but did them.

Another thought came forcefully to mind. Any time service was rendered they could probably have been doing the same thing for their own family at home. Yet a large family brought a canister of homemade ice cream to us. A lovely lady made our daughter’s eighth grade graduation dress. A sweet friend brought fresh loaves of homemade bread by the armsful each week, insisting that our family was used to homemade, not store-bought, bread. One of our grandmas left her home and came to stay with us for two weeks.

A line from my journal says: “If only I can remember the same gift of kindness to others when I am well.” Service had become a living principle, and we felt an overwhelming desire to be able to serve others.

Then we could truly answer our children’s questions. “Is it hard to give?” Yes. It’s a sacrifice on someone’s part. “Is it difficult to receive?” Yes. But we love those who serve us and those we may serve.

Maybe we don’t know a widow whose home needs paint or a new neighbor on our street. But promptings will come, encouraging us to do something good for someone. When we lived in Idaho, we enjoyed doing little things for “Uncle Joe,” the ward’s favorite pioneer. After we moved, we remembered him occasionally and thought that we really should write a letter to brighten “Uncle Joe’s” day. The idea began pressing on my mind, and finally we mailed a note to him. But it was too late. Only one day later we received word that “Uncle Joe” had passed away. An opportunity for service had slipped by because we had ignored a first impulse.

Among our keepsakes is a thank-you note from a sister in our former ward. Our sons were only three and five when their dad followed a prompting to take them with him to an early morning roofing project on this sister’s home. She went out of her way to recognize these little boys, to thank them. They tasted of the joy of helping someone in need.

The spirit spreads, so when our daughter came home with an enthusiastic plan about leaving some food on a needy family’s doorstep, we were ready to act.

Family service projects don’t have to be spectacular or even original. We have found that participating as a family in a welfare farm assignment can be as enjoyable as any recreational outing.

Activity: 
We made several of these no sew fleece blankets for Project Linus to drop off at our local chapter:
http://www.projectlinus.org/patterns/pdf/NoSewFB.pdf

Scripture Service Chain

You can make this chain and read a new scripture about service each day for an entire month
You will need:
scissors
glue/Tape

print the following images(one set for each girl)
They will take these scripture chains home with them and can read one each day for an entire month