Thursday, November 17, 2011

Turkeys!


For YW's last night we made these cute little turkey decorations for Thanksgiving. They were a little bit fussy to assemble, but they were so much fun.

Each turkey has:
2 double stuffed oreos
2 rollos
1 mini oreo (between the rollos for the hat brim)
6 candy corns
1 butterscotch nose
2 marshmallows
frosting (to use like glue to stick stuff together)
chocolate frosting (for the eyes)
1 candy pumpkin
1 graham cracker square
orange gel for the feet
1 toothpick (to attach the rollo head)

This one was very fun, but a little messy. Happy Thanksgiving!

Monday, November 7, 2011

Sculpting a Masterpiece (ice cream scuplting activity)



In this activity we had a lesson about "Sculpting our Lives" and then we let the girls carve ice cream and eat it for their treat.  This lesson was largely written with the help of our Beehive Advisor. We wanted to focus on sculpting our lives in a positive way, so this is the gist of the lesson:

ENVISION END RESULT
Artist should envision what they are trying to achieve before they start their project. Likewise, we need to recognize that we are daughters of our Heavenly Father and have the end destination in mind. We need to envision what kind of women we want to be.
GATHER MATERIALS AND TOOLS
Artists choose their medium- stone, wood, clay, etc. and also gathers the appropriate tools, chisels, paintbrushes, hammers. We need to gather our tools- namely scriptures, prayer, family, leaders, journals, temples, good friends, etc.
MAKE A PLAN
Artists sketches out design, or makes a plan for how his project will be completed. We need to set goals for ourselves in the same manner.
REMOVE UNNECESSARY PARTS
When an artist sculpts, he goes through the process of removing part of the extra material to reveal his vision underneath and to mold what is left into the desired shape. For us, we need to be utilizing the atonement and repenting frequently, in essence, removing the parts of us that prevent us from being who we should be. 
KEEP PARTS THAT GIVE WORTH AND BEAUTY
After an artist is done removing the unnecessary parts what he has left is his beautiful masterpiece. Likewise, when we have removed sin and reshaped our lives in a positive way what is left is our good qualities and talents.

(We also had quotes from our prophets that went with each section)

2011 FHE Theme


This year for FHE we decided to pick a theme that we will talk about all year long. We chose something that is adaptable to a lot of lessons, so that we don't run out of ideas. My sister in law put together this frame with our 2011 theme and it hangs prominently in our kitchen, where it is easy to refer to. It has been wonderful to be able to point to the frame and remind them to work on whatever behavior needs to be modified at any given moment. So far we have had these lessons:

BE smart...
*We have discussed trying hard and working hard at school. (this was a great back to school lesson)
BE grateful...
*Started the month long Gratitude Project (see previous post)
*lesson on table manners and being grateful for food
BE positive...
*listed all things were grateful for and talked about looking for happy (or positive) moments inour day instead of sad (negative ones)
BE involved...
*talked about being part of a group or team and being part of a family. Because we are part of a family, we ALL need to be involved in taking care of each other and the house. Ended by cleaning the house together.
BE still...
*lesson on prayer and listening for the Holy Ghost. (Sometimes you have to be still to hear the Holy Ghost)
*how to sit in church and school (no wiggles!)
BE prayerful...
*who, what when, where, why and how's of prayer
BE humble...
*coincided nicely with the prayerful lesson
*being good sports
BE true...
*importance of honesty- Boy Who Cried Wolf story
BE clean...
*lesson on keeping our bodies clean (ended with bubble baths)
*lesson on our bodies being temples

(I will be adding more lesson ideas as we come up with them...)

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Music Game

If you love the game Cranium then you might like this spin off. Think Cranium and Name that Tune combined and you'll have a pretty good idea what this game is like. Every song in this game comes from either the Hymn Book or the Children's songbook. (It is a church activity after all.) 
We divided the YM and YW into 2 teams. (This would be a fun FHE activity too!)They took turns drawing cards. The cards had different questions on them. Some cards are for your team alone, others are group cards, where you try to beat the other team to the answer, winner taking the points for their team. The cards listed the song when necessary and how many points each question was worth, with  harder questions being worth more points. I put together a list of songs and a CD to play for the appropriate cards, although you could just as easily have someone sitting at the piano ready to play.

The Categories are as follows:
CHARADES (they have to act out the song title)
LEARN TO LISTEN (they have to listen to the instrumental and name the title)
SING IT OUT (they listen to a song and when the music stops they have to keep singing and finish the line)
CHORUS LINE (the whole team has to correctly sing the CHORUS of the song)
NOT A CHORUS LINE (the whole team has to correctly sing the 1ST VERSE)
HUM (one person from your team hums the song while the others have to guess the title)

Music Activity Document
CD Playlist

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Gratitude Project


For the month of November  we are going to be doing "The Gratitude Project". Basically it goes like this:

STEP 1: Every day write one thing that you are grateful for.


As you start to write, you could ask yourself, “How did God bless me today?” If you do that long enough and with faith, you will find yourself remembering blessings. And sometimes, you will have gifts brought to your mind which you failed to notice during the day, but which you will then know were a touch of God’s hand in your life.”

President Eyring Ensign, 1989

STEP 2: Think about how you will act upon this gratitude. Write it down and do it.


...to express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven.”

President Monson, Oct. 2010 Conference


STEP 3: Bring your booklet to all meetings this month to receive a special treat each time.


Each girl and leader is receiving a small booklet to write in. I made the booklets out of unlined index cards, one for each day they are writing. I also made a set for my family so they can do it too. I ran them through my printer. Each day looks something like this:


I saw the hand of the Lord in my life today. It made me realize that I am grateful for:







Because I am grateful for this I will...






November 1

Hopefully this will be a good experience and we will all learn to "live with gratitude in our hearts." 
*Along with this activity we are decorating our own cards and stationary with stamps, then we will be writing letters to people we are thankful for. 

You can view the document on the following link:
Gratitude Booklet


**This booklet has recently been updated!** To print the newer version, follow this link: Gratitude Journal

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Babysitting Kits

Last month we had an activity where we talked about Babysitting Basics and then we assembled babysitting kits for the Beehives to take with them as they went out babysitting.


This was our course "textbook" if you will. 
Each card has some important information and tips for the girls and it fits inside their kit.
 Here is the list of topics that we covered on each card:
BEFORE THEY LEAVE (Info to gather)
COMMON HOUSEHOLD DANGERS
SOOTHING A BABY
IMPORTANT PHONE #'s
POSITIVE DISCIPLINE
GREAT TIPS
MUSIC
ACTIVITY IDEAS
RECIPE FOR HOMEMADE PLAYDOUGH

We then gathered a bunch of materials for the girls to put into their own babysitting kit. 
The contents are:
bubbles
crayons
card game
sidewalk chalk
coloring sheets and puzzles
puzzle
pencil
Most of these items were things that we already had around the house and donated to the project.

 Everything fit into this great bag we found at the $1 Store.

We also covered how to diaper a child and had the girls practice on stuffed animals.
Here's the evidence:

(I got the biggest giggle out of the girl who diapered poor Ratatoille here. You can't even see his arms!)

You can see the booklet pages (in no particular order) at the following link: