Volleyball Night: Taking responsibility for your own physical well-being

We had so much fun playing volleyball tonight with the 8-11 year old girls in our ward for Activity Days. For those of you who don't know, Activity Days is a wonderful organization set up by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where girls 8-11 years old meet twice a month to learn about the gospel, develop talents, serve others, and come closer to one another and God. 

Tonight we set up the volleyball net, bought a brand-spanking new ball (pretty tough on our tender arms!) and let the game begin! Our girls have been dying to play volleyball so we finally decided we should go for it and what a success. We spent the first few minutes just warming up, passing the ball back and forth while waiting for all the girls to show up. Once we had everyone we began with a small lesson and a BIG challenge!

"Developing Talents Activity #9":

"Plan a physical fitness program for yourself that may include learning to play a sport or game. Participate in the program for one month." Even adults have a hard time with this! 

I gave the girls about 5 minutes to think of their own personal exercise routine goal that they would like to work on for at least 30 minutes every day for a month. Some of the girls chose badminton, swimming, jogging, or other activities. When they'd thought of their ideas, and a few of them had shared, I passed out these butterfly trackers (idea altered from GospelGrabBag.com) to help them record their progress since a month is a long time:

Every day they exercise, they can cross off one of the spots. My partner and I will help remind the girls at our next activity of their goal and we've asked the parents to be supportive, encouraging, and good reminders at home too... because really a month can be a long time. In 4 weeks, we'll have the girls bring back their completed butterflies with them to our activity and get their Faith in God booklet signed off. 

Here's the kicker... I'm doing it too. In 4 weeks, I will bring back my Faith in God book and have the girls sign it off for me :) Hello, lots and lots of pilates. 

Keeping our bodies healthy and active is very important. Elder Jorg Klebingat gave a wonderful talk in General Conference April 2015 titled "Approaching the Throne of God with Confidence". He shared this message which I, in turn, shared with the girls, focusing on #2:

6 Practices to Get Rid of Evil Voices:

1) Take responsibility for your own spiritual well-being

2) Take responsibility for your own physical well-being

3) Embrace voluntary, whole-hearted obedience

4) Become really, really good at repenting thoroughly and quickly

5) Become really, really good at forgiving others

6) Accept trials as a part of this mortal journey

After the girls finished with the butterflies, we took them onto the court and I had two of our more experienced volleyball players teach the others how to serve, bump, set, and spike. We spent the rest of the evening playing volleyball and finishing it off with some very yummy and healthy smoothies. 

What active sport do you love to do? I challenge you, too, to plan a physical fitness routine around that activity and to do it for at least 30 minutes every day for a month. Tell us about your experience in the comments!

Activity Days: Service through the Sacrament Bread

     This week we decided to do an activity that would fit into any of the Faith in God categories: Learning and Living the Gospel, Service, and Building Talents. We decided to make homemade bread and use it for the Sacrament on Sunday: Service, learning a new talent, and learning more about the gospel through the Sacrament.

      I love having guests come and teach their unique individual skills and talents to our girls because we all have something very different to offer. This week Emily Flanigan was sweet enough to come and share her talent with our girls. She taught us how to make yummy French bread from scratch. She had prepared her bread recipe and had let it rise before the activity began.

      We began our activity by talking about how we have such a great opportunity to serve by making Sacrament bread. Emily had the girls help her with every step of the process: pre-heating the oven, oiling the pan, separating the dough, twisting it into French bread, and putting it into the oven. The girls had a blast taking turns to do their part in making the bread.

       While the oven preheated and the bread baked, we had a short lesson about the Sacrament. We started off by separating the girls into two teams, giving each a paper and a pencil. We talked about what ingredients go into bread and what those ingredients do. Each team spent 5-10 minutes coming up with their own comparisons for how what the ingredients do in the bread can be likened to the gospel:

Yeast .....................Makes the bread rise................. Christ rose from the dead and has made it possible for us to all rise from the dead one day.
Warm water/milk ...................Bonds the bread/ingredients ................... when we partake of the sacrament each Sunday, we are bonded with Christ
Oil................... Keeps the bread from sticking to the pan ..................... the gospel keeps us from falling to temptation.
Salt................ Adds flavor.......... The Gospel adds flavor to our lives
Sugar...............Makes the yeast work.....................we make the Atonement work when we repent
Flour..................Gives body and substance to the bread ........... Christ sacrificed his body so we could be made whole.

       The girls then shared what they had come up with with each other and some of their ideas were really good! They are very smart. While the bread baked, we went into the hall and talked about the Last Supper when Christ instituted the Sacrament and how one of his last commandments to his apostles before Judas betrayed Him was to love one another. That's obviously a pretty important commandment for Christ to remind His apostles of it at the Last Supper.
        We can show our love by the service we are giving by making the bread for the Sacrament. And just like each ingredient affects the outcome of the bread, so do the promises we make when we partake of the Sacrament make a change/affect in the outcome of who we are.
        We made two loaves of bread so when it finished cooking, we all got to eat a piece of our creation and then save one loaf to take with us on Sunday to use for the Sacrament bread.

         It was a great activity and thanks to our guest teacher, Emily Flanigan, for her expertise and yummy recipe!

Activity Days: Mother Daughter Tea Party Etiquette Night

      

       Twice a year we try to do a Mother/Daughter and Daddy/Daughter activity. We had a really fun 50's night back in October so June was prime time for the Mother/Daughter activity. We threw a Tea Party for the girls and their moms (or sisters, aunts, and even dads) and had a Tea Party/Etiquette Night.

       It was something different that let the girls play, eat yummy food, and learn something about becoming a lady since 11 - 16 years old is the time to learn those things! Anyway here's what we did:

Decorations:
       We really wanted to change the Primary Room into a fancy tea party or maybe even travel to Alice in Wonderland for a bit. Outside of the Primary Room door we had this sign posted so that all of the girls knew which room to go to. In our ward, we split the activity day girls into two groups so it was helpful to have this and let everyone know where the combined class was at.

      When the girls walked in we had a Welcome sign hanging from the chalkboard made out of doilies, ribbon, and scrapbook paper. You can't see the letters as easily in this photo, but it was super cute in real life.

      We decorated each table with a colored table cloth, a doily made table runner, and tissue paper flowers. The tissue paper flowers added a TON to the tables and were super easy to make. We found the idea and directions here at Fiskars.com.

Activity:

       When the girls and their moms all arrived, we started our activity by testing everyone's (girls' and moms') knowledge of etiquette. I asked everyone to rearrange the place setting in front of them to match what they thought was an appropriate and technically "etiquette" or "proper" place setting. It was really fun to watch the girls move their cups to the top left of their plates, and fidget with the utensils, etc. Even some of the moms didn't know! 

        After everyone had their place settings scrambled, I showed them a copy of what is considered a "proper"place setting (found on The Hill Family blog) and had them try to match their place settings to the photo below. Make sure to let the girls know that there are different ways of setting a table nicely, but this is considered the "etiquette/proper" way to do it. 

       We talked about why it's important to have etiquette to show others that we love, respect, and are grateful for them. Next I had one of our girls read the below handout to give the girls an idea of how they should act when at the dinner table. After reading about proper etiquette, we divided the girls and their moms into two groups. Group #1 took Manners 1-9 off of the handout and Group #2 took Manners 10-18. Each group had 7-10 minutes to come up with a skit to teach their assigned manners to the other girls. When they were ready, we had them perform their skits for the rest of the class. The girls had so much fun coming up with funny skits!

       When the skits were over, we let the girls know that now that they knew how to eat properly, we were going to have them "practice". (While they came up with their skits, we'd set up one long table and decorated it with all of the food.) The girls practiced their etiquette and being polite while they gathered their food and ate their snacks. It was a super fun activity!

For food ideas, check out below: 

Food:

We ended up having a ton of food to eat too. Even though we didn't turn this into a "dinner", the girls still ate a lot and this would be a really fun activity to have around dinner time. 

• Cucumber Sandwiches - I absolutely LOVE this recipe I found from Kitchen Joy blog. It's super easy and super delicious!
• Fruit Kabobs - great dish to prepare ahead of time and bring
• Cookies of all sorts!
• Sparkling Lemonade
• Vegetable dishes are nice to have too. 

What's your favorite food to eat at a Tea Party?

My Body Is A Temple

Out of all of the temples in the world, which is your favorite?

Washington, D.C. Temple

Timpanogos Temple (American Fork, UT)

From the East Coast to the West Coast, and all around the world, the temples of God look very different, but they are nonetheless stunning and beautiful. Out of all of the temples in the world, which temple is Heavenly Father's favorite? (I had one girl tell me Salt Lake City haha). The real answer, however, is yours. Your temple is Heavenly Father's favorite. He loves it so much that He sent His son to die for it. 

This is how I began our lesson and activity to teach our activity day girls that their temples are the most important. I'd set out 10 different temples for the girls to look at as we had our little discussion. If the girls have never heard that their bodies are temples, read 1 Cor. 6:19-20. I then hung another photo of a temple on the board that I found from kugalls.blogspot.co.uk:

I had the girls read the quote on the photo from Thomas S. Monson and then I reread it changing a few of the words so that they could see how the physical temples of God and our temples of flesh and bone are the same. "Your temple is more than flesh and bone.  You are filled with faith and fasting. You are built of trials and testimonies. You are sanctified (or saved) by sacrifice and service." We talked about how if our bodies are temples, then we should be taking the best care of them as possible. 

I had three girls prepare how to share how they keep one of the following three items:

1. Healthy Body (Exercise, Sleep, Playing Outside)
2. Healthy Mind (Doing Math, Reading, Reading Books)
3. Healthy Spirit (Reading the Scriptures, Going to Church, etc).

For our particular class, it was pretty energized and hard to teach all the aspects of this lesson so if you have an energetic class, I'd suggest either teaching about the temple or talking about keeping your body, mind, and spirit healthy and going into a little more depth on them. After the lesson, I had the whole class follow me outside for our activity...

A RELAY RACE!

The girls were all pretty stoked to get to do the relay race. We only had three segments, but they loved it and it was perfect timing! 

1. 4-legged race. The girls had been broken up into three teams of three so we had a four-legged race. I mapped out a course on a hill next to the church and had the girls run it as best they could and back. Very simple leg of the race to put together. Items needed: Cloth strips to wrap around their ankles
   
2. Egg walk. I forgot my eggs at home so we ended up using small pom pom balls, which I think made this leg of the race more challenging. The teams lined up at point A, each with a spoon between their lips. When I said "Go", the first member of each team started walking the course (touching pieces of tape high and low at certain occasions), spoon between their lips and the pom pom ball bouncing on the spoon. When the girls dropped the pom pom, we just let them pick it back up and put it back on their spoon. When they reached point B, they had to turn around and retrace their steps to pass the pom pom off to the next member of their team.
   
3. From the starting point of the last leg of the race, the girls all had to crab walk to the next section and line up single file in their teams. One member from each team would pick up their teams ball and try to shoot it into a bucket placed about 6 feet away from them on the ground. The first team member had to make the shot before the ball could be passed off to the next team member. Once all three team members had made the shot, they all had to run to the next point and do 10 jumping jacks, 10 push ups, and 10 crunchies. 

After we finished the race, we ate sliced Watermelon, which was a perfect treat for the hot day outside. When the girls had finished eating, they asked if we could do more relay races so we made some up on the spot to have them go do. It was a great way to focus on the "fitness" part of taking care of our bodies and to let them run off some of their energy!

Do you have any relay race idea winners? I'd love to hear about them in the comments below!!

Kim

Activity Days: The Gospel Game Show

This last week for activity days my partner wasn't able to make it so I was on my own to create a fun, gospel-oriented activity for the 8-9 year olds in my ward. I've wanted to start doing activities where the girls are able to get up and move around more than they are able to do if the activity is just a coloring activity (although depending on your girls' personalities, those can be great lessons too).

I was scrolling through Facebook one day when I saw an article appear from Utah Valley 360 titled, "Dieter or Dumbledore?" Being the HUGE Harry Potter fan that I am, I obviously had to click on the link and test my knowledge of Dieter F. Uchtdorf and Dumbledore...and let me tell you, this quiz is not easy! But from it sparked the idea to have a "Gospel Game Show" for activity days, and the girls loved it!

I had 5 girls show up to the activity, which actually turned out perfect so that they could each have a turn at all of the activities, but I think if I'd had our full class of 8, then the activity would have taken a little longer and maybe been a little more competitive.

Here's what I used for the activity:

• "Who Said It? Dieter or Dumbledore?" Power Point
• Four Signs: Two that read "Dieter" and two that read "Dumbledore"
• A package of Oreos or other small cookies
• Two sets of Book of Mormons with a bookmark at Mosiah 18:9
• A bag of Skittles, Jelly Beans, Candy Corn, or other small candy your girls like. 
• Eight plastic spoons (or enough for each girl to have one)
• Two paper bowls (more if you'd like multiple groups to be playing at once.
• Jar of Pictionary words
• Chalk
• 8 plastic medals (or enough for each girl to have one)

We started off by having a little discussion about helping others.

Discussion:

What is our main purpose here on the earth? (To return to live with our Heavenly Father again). That's my purpose; who else's purpose is that? (Have the girls raise their hands). That's your purpose (say it again and point to each girl in your class as you say "That's your purpose, too"). We all have that same purpose in this life. 

Read Mosiah 18:9 to the girls, or have one of them read it until "even until death.":

          "Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death..."

Who's ever heard this scripture before? This scripture is very special because this is a promise we made when we were baptized. We promised Heavenly Father that we would keep His commandments and to love and serve others including mourning with those that mourn and comforting those that stand in need of comfort. How have you ever kept this promise in the past? (Let the girls answer how they have comforted friends, family members, etc.). So we all have the same purpose in this life, and we have all promised to help each other through it.

Well today  we will be having a "Gospel Game Show!" and it's your job to help your team win!

Activity:
Let the girls choose their teams or assign them teams, but make sure you have the 8 and 9 year olds mixed up so the activities are more fair.

Who Said It? Dieter or Dumbledore
The first challenge was completing Dieter or Dumbledore. At the first the girls had a hard time focusing, but then they really got into it. I gave each team one sign that read "Dieter" and one sign that read "Dumbledore". I read the quote allowed, gave the girls 10 seconds to deliberate, and when the timer reached 0 each team held up a sign with their answer. Whichever team (or both) that got it right, received one point. This was a fun activity even for those girls who weren't as familiar with Harry Potter or Pres. Uchtdorf.

I made a power point presentation using the fun quiz from Utah Valley 360. I added a manual timer to each slide to help the girls see how much time they have. (Sorry I can't post it here, but you should be able to just use the one from Utah Valley 360). 

Feasting on the Word
This next activity allowed the girls to move around a bit more... and they all got really excited when they saw it involved Chocolate Chip cookies. I explained that as we are helping each other come closer to Christ, that doesn't just mean just helping them when their sad, but it means sharing the gospel and "feasting on the words of Christ" or the scriptures so we were physically going to feast for this next activity.

This is a common minute to win it game, but it is so much fun! Have each girl take one cookie and place it on her forehead. The girls then have to squint and scrunch their faces to move the cookie from the forehead, across their eye and cheek, and into their mouths. They aren't allowed to touch it and if it falls off they have to start over.

The first girl to eat her cookie wins her team 3 points. Second place gets her team 2 points. Third place gets her team 1 point.

I made sure to mention to my girls subtly that "they could not touch their own cookie and would have to start over if it fell." I did this just to ensure that if none of my girls could actually get the cookie in their mouths, then I could reiterate that they can't touch their own cookie, but they are one a team and should help each other.

Feasting on the Real Word
Now that they have physically feasted, they are going to have to spiritually feast. Each team must memorize and present the scripture above, Mosiah 18:9 (just the first half unless you'd like them to do more). I let my girls decide in their teams how they wanted to memorize it: all memorize everything, memorize every other word, memorize lines, etc. Both of my teams decided to have each girl memorize one or two lines to present. I was very impressed at how quickly they were able to memorize it and how much they got into it. I helped some of the younger girls who were having a harder time and then we presented the scriptures to the other teams. To make it more exciting, I filmed the girls reciting the scriptures and they all did amazing! 

Pass Off
This last activity included candy, team work, and skill. Only two people from a team go at once -- if you'd like to move it along quicker and you have more girls, then you can use more bowls and candy to create more games at once, but I just had the one going since I only had 5 girls.

Sit each girl down on opposite sides of a table, one bowl in front of each, and the end of the spoon in between each of the girls lips. Fill one bowl with your Skittles, Jelly Beans, or other candy of choice. The girl in front of the full bowl of candy, scoops up a spoonful (using her lips to hold the spoon), dumps her spoonful into her teammates spoon who then dumps the candy into her own bowl. Give each team 1:00 minute. Whichever team ends up having successfully transferred the most pieces of candy gets a point.

You can play this as many times as you want and either tally all the scores for a final score or even give out points based on a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd level, that's up to you!

NOTE: This game can get kind of crazy so having a candy that won't melt is a good idea.

Pictionary
We ended up not having time to play this, but I always bring this with me to the activities in case it ends early and the girls want something fun to do. So if the Game Show ends, feel free to pull this out and turn the wonderful game of Pictionary into a competition. I found some great words to use on Cook and Craft Me Crazy.

Before we had our closing prayer, I gave each girl a gold medal because it doesn't matter who got the most points. Everyone did a great job in helping their team to the best that they could do.

Do you have any activity days activities that your girls have just loved? We'd love to hear about them in the comments!