Getting to know each other/Getting to know Christ

This is a fun night with Candy... and a great scriptural application. It can also be shared by the girls as an FHE to fulfill a requirement.

Activity Flow

Invite the girls to bring scriptures with them.

Welcome: We are going to learn some fun things about each other tonight! 

What are some ways people get to know each other? (write on board for later)

• talking together
• spending time together
• read about them
• observe/watch the other person

Tonight we will get to know each other better by talking together. 

(Have chairs set up in groups of two around the room. Start with 14 chairs, and add more if needed. One of each pair of chairs will have a sticky note on it.) 

Have the girls go sit in the chairs. Tell them if their chair has a sticky note on it, they have to “stick” to their chair. Meaning they don’t move when it is time to switch. The other people scoot over to a new partner each time we switch.

When all the people have switched to a new partner and been across from each other we stop. All the people the didn’t move form one group in one group of chair. All the people that DID move form one group in the other set of chairs, and again we switch with one group staying still, and the other group moving. When everyone has done that, then the group that stayed still separates from the the group that moved, and we do it one more time only this time with smallest groups everyone is a partner, and takes a turn.

Everyone is going to get one of these: show packet and question guide

When you’re with a partner, you will pull out an m and m and tell your partner something about yourself based on the color you pull out. Then your partner will pull an m and m and tell you something about themselves. Then we switch to new partners. We will just go in order because it’s easier to keep straight, and we will all switch at the same time. (explain switching as appropriate)

Take a minute and look at what you will need to tell for each color, and think of what you could share. Everybody ready? 

Once everyone has shared, have the girls come back together. I like getting to know more about others, don’t you? Segue into lesson below. After discussion, pass out pictures of Christ and have them look up the scriptures with a partner and discuss them. Keep your cards and do this as an FHE with your family!

The lesson materials and facts are here in this downloadable handout: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mW3UCFKHf8LHM-O4aOWtHAwqgEL4-3Mu/view?usp=sharing

Picture of Christ in file is from lds.org media library.

Hold to the Rod

This activity was really fun. I brought my pancake griddle to the church, plugged it in, placed a jelly roll pan with an inch of water on top of the hot griddle, and then set bowls of white chocolate melts inside it. This makeshift "double boiler" let me melt enough chocolate to have 6 bowls full to divide among 12 girls. Working with a partner-- and taking turns-- each girl was able to make about 8 pretzel rods to take home. And they had a lot of fun doing it!

For this activity you will need:

• White chocolate candy melts
• Pretzel rods
• A variety of different sprinkles (you could ask parents to send a jar of sprinkles if they felt so inclined)
• Waxed paper for each girl
• Sturdy bowl and spoon for holding/melting the chocolate
• Pretzel rod bags (available at Walmart) to carry home the pretzel rods

Lesson on the Iron Rod

What is a dream? (let the girls share answers)

What is a VISION, and how is it different from a dream? (let the girls share)

Many prophets receive visions from God. Sometimes even people who are not prophets have a vision. A vision is a dream with a meaning. Sometimes people who have the dreams do not know what they mean. God sends a messenger; sometimes the Holy Ghost, or an angel, or a prophet, to explain what the vision means.  A vision tells a story, then a messenger explains what the story means. Because it is a story it is easier to remember.

Lehi and Nephi, and many people who read the Book of Mormon, love the vision of the tree of life. It explains many things about our life on earth and how to return to God, and tells us a story that is easy to remember.

Lehi and Nephi both saw a VISION of the iron rod. 

Does anyone know what else they saw in this vision? (They also saw a beautiful tree, a great and spacious building, a river, and mists of darkness.)

Tell, or let one of the girls tell, the vision of the tree of life.

Talk about what the tree, iron rod, and mists of darkness represent.

Lehi's vision, the tree of life.

The tree is the love of God and eternal life

The rod leads to the tree

There are mists of darkness and a treacherous river between us and the tree.

The rod of iron will get us to the tree if we hold to it.

The rod of iron represents the scriptures.

The river and the mists of darkness are temptations, trials and other dangers in life.

The tree is heaven, eternal families and being with God. It brings us true joy.

Let’s focus on the iron rod. 

What does it mean to hold to the iron rod? Do we hold our scriptures wherever we go? Do we find an iron pole and hold on to it?

No, to hold to the rod means to:

1) read our scriptures/learn the word of God

2) hold on to what we learn in our hearts

So to hold to the rod, we learn about the commandments and we keep the commandments.

To hold to the rod we learn about Jesus and try to be like him.

To hold to the rod we learn about the gospel plan and live it.

If people try to tempt us to do things that are not right, like lie, or steal, or be mean, or even something like drink coffee... we think about what we have learned in the scriptures and hold on to what we know is right. We make a good choice, and we know that we choose things because they are right and will lead us to God.

That is what it means to hold to the iron rod. 

It's not just to hold our scriptures. Not just to read our scriptures. 

It is to LEARN from the word of God, and let that learning help us make good choices.

It starts with the learning. We can't make good choices if we don't know right from wrong.

So how can we learn the word of God? Reading our scriptures is one way. Can you think of other ways?

Listen in primary and FHE

Listen to parents

Read the friend magazine

Listen to conference

Listen to scripture stories on lds.org

Like many other things in life, God has asked us to do something for Him-- he asks us to read our scriptures, and learn his word. But really, if we do it, it turns out to be very good for US.

When we hold to the iron rod it lead us to eternal life, and fruit of the tree is very sweet and delicious.

Now I was thinking about how God uses visions… he tells a story to make it easier to remember his message. And I was thinking I wanted to do something fun to help you remember the iron rod. So I got…

Pretzel Rods! They are straight, and we are definitely going to be holding on to them tonight!

You know what else? I was thinking of the tree in Lehi's vision how it was covered in WHITE fruit (show the white candy melts) and how the fruit was delicious to taste.

And then I thought of all the different ways (show the different sprinkles) there are for us to hold to the word of God/the iron rod: and I wanted you to understand how sweet and delicious it can be to choose the right because we love God.

And that all came together in this: we're going to make dipped pretzel rods and kind of go crazy with different sprinkles. There are so many ways that we can hold to the iron rod, so all our rods are going to look different and unique-- but all will be delicious!

When you share them with your family, tell them about Lehi's vision, and the true way to hold to the iron rod! You can also tell them that Alma says when our testimony grows, the word of God is delicious to us! (See Alma 32:28)

Love Your Scriptures-- Valentines Day Lesson for 8-11 year olds! :)

To see/download the lesson plan which includes the 2 inch punch tag for box, scripture list and a template to create a box, click here.

I like to explore how many different kinds of love there are when Valentine's Day rolls around. Romantic love is only one of hundreds of kind of love in the world. This year I decided to talk about the love we can have for God's word, our scriptures.

Nothing (or hardly anything!) can equal the girls' love of CANDY, so we put these two things together.

The lesson talks about how sweet God's word can be to our spirit. It also acknowledges that reading the scriptures can be a difficult task for an 8 year old girl. But like many daunting things, practice really helps! The scriptures I chose are short, and hopefully easy to read and understand, even for an 8 year old.

We did take some time in our lesson to talk about how to find scriptures: they are online, can be downloaded in apps for phones, Kindles and iPads, and many of the girls received paper sets of scriptures at baptism. Some know how to use their scriptures really well, and some were astounded to know there was an index where you could look up where to find 2 Timothy.

The wedding favor boxes I found at Walmart made the creation of the box and scripture treasure sets much easier. I had originally planned to have the girls cut out and fold a template, but this was a lot faster. The fact that the boxes were sparkly was just a bonus!

The lesson plan includes 36 scriptures, so I recommend buying the big bags of Lifesavers. I bought 2, we had about 12 girls come, and had very few Lifesavers left over. 12x36= a LOT of Lifesavers.

2 ingredient biscuits

First off, I want to say I have always been skeptical of 2 ingredient biscuits. How good could they be? Surprisingly: VERY GOOD!

That was the nicest thing about this whole activity from a planning point of view is that the biscuits, though simple and fast, were delicious!

Our activities, at just one hour long, are simply not long enough to allow 16 girls to bake any sort of yeast bread, no matter how fast of a recipe. So the "bake bread for the sacrament" type activities have always seemed stressful and undoable to me.

This was my compromise. Let the girls cook a bread based food, and talk about the sacrament during the baking time. It worked out great (thanks to how quickly biscuits bake) and everyone got to be the cook. Even better, all the girls enjoyed the experience so much they were clamoring for all the details so they could bake bread at home.

I didn't do recipe cards because... 2 ingredients. But I should have because there are also details like how much time to bake it and the oven temperature that would be necessary to recreate the baking at home.

I have a kitchen scale (from Amazon.com, the Ozeri brand). It cost less than $20, I use it ALL THE TIME for anything with flour because it just is quick and easy and measures so accurately. So when I say the recipe is a 1:1 ratio... this really works best if you have a scale. Because 6 ounces of flour is not really easy to measure any other way.

Our ratio: 6 ounces of King Arthur brand self rising flour (I splurged on the "good" flour, and I do think it made a difference)
6 ounces of heavy whipping cream (just liquid, poured from the container, not whipped)

Mix together, first with fork, then dump it out and work the dough together. Roll it out, cut it with a biscuit cutter, place on parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 450 degrees for 8-10 minutes, till golden. Watch the first batch as oven temperatures/cooking times WILL vary! :)

Another mistake I made: I brought my scales and we measured 6 ounces of flour, BUT... do the girls have scales at home? No, they don't. So.... how much is 6 ounces of flour? It's approximately 1 and 1/3 cup.

I really like the scale better, but I know not everyone has one, so I wanted to include that info. I also wanted to include, the recipe is great because you can make it bigger or smaller quite easily. 2 ounces of self rising flour, 2 ounces of cream for just four biscuits. Or  10 ounces of self rising flour and 10 ounces of cream for about 12 biscuits. So simple!

We baked at the church. In addition to the cream and flour I brought butter, strawberry jam, and honey. I also asked the girls to bring aprons and rolling pins. I  brought my kitchen scale, mixing bowls, sturdy forks (for mixing with), freezer paper and masking tape (to create a clean work surface for each girl on the church tables), parchment paper to line the baking trays (the girls could write their names on it in pencil, and it kept very clear whose biscuits were whose-- and ALL the girls were very much wanting THEIR biscuits, so that was important), paper plates, and a few biscuit cutters (we used the cups at the church as acceptable biscuit cutters since I don't have multiple biscuit cutters in the same size).

That's one thing about cooking activities: they take a lot of stuff. They also take a lot of leaders, to help set up, to supervise, to get things in and out of the oven while the other leader is teaching, to help clean up. I wouldn't try this for 16 girls with less than 3 leaders!

I'm going to just copy and paste the activity/lesson plan I used below.

2 Ingredient Biscuits

A simple cooking class and a gospel lesson

For the simple cooking class (16 girls)

If we can, use the part of the YW room that connects to the kitchen. Give the spiritual lesson while the biscuits are baking. (Leader stay in kitchen to keep an eye on the biscuits!)

1. Divide girls into pairs/partners, pairing girls who know a lot with girls who don’t know much 

2. For each pair (supplies and ingredients)

• 6 oz (measured by scale) King Arthur self rising flour
• 6 oz heavy whipping cream (measured by measuring cup)
• large square of freezer paper taped to table (clean work surface and easier clean up)
• small square of parchment paper (with the girls names on it in pencil)
• biscuit cutter (cups???)
• fork to mix biscuit dough
• extra bowl with flour for dipping hands/biscuit cutters
• bowl to mix dough

3. Tools/supplies to share

• scale 
• rolling pin
• baking sheets

=> Start oven heating at 6:45 at 450 degrees.

=> Set up 5 long tables in gym

1 table has scales, flour, cream, rolling pins to share

4 tables are work tables with freezer paper work stations, biscuit cutters, fork, mixing bowl

Cooking class instructions:

A 1:1 recipe (you can make it larger or smaller as needed, just keep the amount of ingredients the same.) 1 part self rising flour, 1 part cream.

If you try this recipe at home (and i hope you will!) please remember that self rising flour is not the same as regular flour. It is regular flour with other ingredients mixed in (show on the bag the words, and extra ingredients). 

Measure VERY carefully. It works best if you measure with exactness. In some kinds of cooking you can estimate, or be artistic… but in baking, when you are combining flour and liquid, you have to be precise.

Mix as much as you can with the fork in the bowl. The dump it out on your paper. Use a little flour on your hands and press the dough together, trying to mix all the flour in.

Roll/pat out your dough till it is 3/4 inch thick. Try to keep it even… no thin or fat edges or middles. 

Push the biscuit cutter in some extra flour, then straight down and straight up from your dough. The biscuits will rise better if you don’t twist the cutter. 

Squeeze your left over dough together and re-roll it. Cut it again. Your last small bit of dough will be a lumpy biscuit! :)

As the biscuits are baking:

Our biscuits tonight had just two ingredients… what were they? (self rising flour and cream)

I know something that we do every Sunday that takes just two ingredients: bread and water. Do you know what it is? (the sacrament)

As you will soon see, our flour and cream become something much more when they are mixed together and baked. Much more delicious. Much more nourishing.

If the sacrament was JUST bread and water, it would not be that exciting or important. But because it is an ordinance, the bread and water, blessed by priesthood power, become much more. Here is part of the sacrament prayer: “we ask thee …. to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it.” The sacrament is to bless our SOUL. We put the bread in our mouth and it goes down to our stomach, but it is not food for our body. It is supposed to be nourishment and a blessing to our SOUL. How can this happen?

While our biscuits bake, let’s talk about how the sacrament can go from being a tiny snack of one bite of bread and one sip of water and become instead something beautiful for our soul.

In our Faith in God book on page 3, it says “When I take the sacrament, I renew my [baptismal] covenant to take upon me the name of Jesus Christ, to always remember Him and to obey his commandments. When I do this, I can feel the Holy Ghost guiding me.”

Here is the beginning part. Do you see that “r” word in the first line? What is it? (renew). What does “renew” mean? It means, “make new” it means “begin again.” It means that baptism was our first promise to Christ to walk in his ways, but each week, we make that promise and that choice again. As we do so we acknowledge that we have not perfectly kept all the commandments. We accept that we need to repent, and that through Christ we can have forgiveness for our sins. We become clean again as we promise to walk in his way and do our best for the coming week. 

Then there is another “r” word… remember. We promise to always remember him. This means we always remember our promise to him, and keep his commandments. It means we always remember that he loves us and wants us to make the right choice. It means we let our actions show that we remember him. How can we show, with our actions, that we remember Christ? (keep the commandments, serve others, be kind, etc.)

Just as when we are baptized, we receive a special gift if we make and keep our covenant. What is that gift? (the Holy Ghost). What does the Holy Ghost do? (guides, protects and comforts us).

Understanding these things, thinking about these things, is what allows the sacrament to sanctify our souls. Thinking of Christ and his love for us always nourishes our soul. 

Now, let’s let the biscuits nourish our bodies! Let’s have a prayer first, and then we will eat!

 To bring from home:

• apron
• 8 forks
• 8 bowls to mix in 
• 4 small bowls for extra flour (1 per table)
• 8 biscuit cutters
• 2 rolling pins
• 2 scales
• 3 cream
• 2 bags self rising flour
• freezer paper
• pencils
• masking tape
• parchment paper
• 4 large baking sheets with rims (2 large pizza pans, new rectangular pan, stoneware pan)
• strawberry jam (3 jars)
• butter
• honey
• liquid measuring cup
• faith in god books
• paper plates

Temple Cross stitch

This was a fun activity, but it was only possible because of things I was able to find really cheaply on the internet. The cost per girl with frame, hoop and supplies was about $5, and it would have been even higher had I not found bargains on both the frames and the hoops!

You could ask parents to provide the hoop, and that would cut out about half the cost if they were able to do so. I did not let the girls keep the hoops, but kept them for future activities.

Of course, this project did take three activity nights to complete so that $5 cost was more reasonable than if it were just for one night!

For this activity you will need:

• navy or black cross stitch fabric (white thread on traditional white fabric = NO)
• 4 inch cross stitch hoop for each girl
• needle and thread for each girl
• a frame for each girl
• a pattern for each girl
• scissors to share

This is a deliberately SMALL project, yet still took THREE activities to complete. Even then, some girls ended up taking theirs home to finish.

=> I hate to have an unfinished project go home, as chances are A) it will not be completed, and B) and materials you might want back (like the hoop), will not be returned.

With that in mind, as part of our third night working on this I had a paper version the girls could complete, using sky blue card stock and white gel pens (and one gold gel pen to share!). They drew x's on the paper in the same pattern as the stitching, so they had an easily completed temple to put in their frame, even if their stitching wasn't completed. 

This was nice as it gave everyone a finished project. Some of the girls were so far from completing the stitching that I think they were sad! The simple paper temple gave them a much needed positive boost, and I would recommend it if you have girls who are struggling. 

So you could do a VERY simple, one night project with just the paper and gel pens, or you could do the actual cross stitching for a more challenging project.

We had a lesson on the temple, and a lesson on how to do cross stitch before we got started actually working on our temples, so really the activity time stitching was about 2 and 1/2 hours all together.

The linked file contains everything you need for this activity:

• Temple Lesson based on the Faith In God book
• Cross stitch lesson
• Cross stitch pattern
• Supply list
• Print out for the paper temple "cross stitch"

Temple Cross Stitch file:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9ltWADMnsx7MXczZGZ3Y2ltX0k/view?usp=sharing

Edible Nativity

Above is the 2017 version, because we did this again it was so much fun last time!

We used marshmallow fluff for the frosting this year, and it worked pretty well. Also gum drops instead of spice drops (a big flavor improvement!). 

Isn't this adorable????

I got the idea from a Pinterest post: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/458241330819541693/

I changed a few things, but not a lot.

I have a PDF file that includes instructions for building the nativity, supply list, some pro tips (i.e., if I do this AGAIN, next time I will know to.... lol!), a spiritual lesson, and a nativity picture that the girls can color/keep after they eat their nativity.

Get that file here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9ltWADMnsx7S091QzI3TGJnQ3M/view?usp=sharing

This activity was a ton of fun, and I was able to fit the lesson and building of the nativity into an hour.

Mind you-- I had seventeen girls in attendance (SEVENTEEN!!!!), but also had 7 adults on hand to help. The ratio of 1 adult to 2-3 girls was just about right. The older girls did a lot on their own, but everyone needed help at some point.

If you have a 90 minute activity, GREAT. The longer these set before being moved, the better. I would advise having a Christmas video on hand to watch and some Christmas (spiritual) sing along music available to fill extra time. The girls can also color the nativity picture if extra time is available.

I sent the picture home. No one had time to color!

Royal icing is a MUST. I tried this with buttercream, and it was huge fail. Store bought canned icing would definitely NOT work. You will need powdered sugar, meringue powder, water, and a good strong mixer to make Royal icing. It does not take long to make, but does need to be kept covered as it starts to harden/dry very quickly.

Manners Can Be Fun!

There is a great book called "Manners Can be Fun" by Munro Leaf.
https://www.amazon.com/Manners-Can-Fun-Munro-Leaf/dp/0789310619/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479584363&sr=8-1&keywords=manners+can+be+fun

This is a simple, but fun, book about various kinds of manners, including: being a guest, sharing, treating others' possessions with respect, and more.

It does not have a lot in it on table manners, but is a good primer to talk about manners in general. Manners are treating other people in a civil way. Manners help us get along with others.

In the Faith in God booklet, under Serving Others there is a requirement that says: Learn about and practice good manners and courtesy.

So our activity was fairly simple (and delicious!)

First we had a short, interactive conversation about how manners are different in different places. In America, burping at the table is considered rude. In China it is polite! In America we shake hands to say hello, or greet a new person. In Japan or China you might bow. In Argentina you might give a kiss on the cheek or a hug. If you kissed a new acquaintance in Japan you would be considered very impolite, while in Argentina this would be expected.

Good manners include accepting that not everyone always displays good manners. We MODEL good manners, and parents and teachers TEACH good manners.

I read the Munro Leaf book to the girls, and we talked briefly about a few of the ideas in the book.

Then we got to the hands on part of the activity:

I brought apple slices, crispy m&ms (because they are round and roll), a plate of chips and a cup of salsa, and a plate of cookies.

We practiced some practical, every day table manners/sharing food manners.

The apple slices provided an excellent way to practice knife and fork skills. I demonstrated proper knife and fork skills, explaining as I went, then let the girls try it. They speared the apple with the fork, sliced off a bite sized portion, laid down the knife, switched their fork to the other hand and ate their bite sized piece. They got to practice this several times.

We used the Crispy m&ms to practice NOT using our fingers to put things on our forks, but instead using our utensils properly to capture challenging foods.

The chips and dip were used to discuss two different things:
1. How many people are sharing a certain food? Adjust the portion you take to make sure there is enough for everyone. If you grab a HUGE handful of chips there might not be enough for others to get even ONE chip. It is better to go back for seconds than take to big of a first portion.

2. Food sharing to be careful of germs.

• Take the chips you touch. Be careful not to touch a lot of chips!
• Either put a small portion of dip on your plate, or ONLY dip your chip in the dip ONE time. No double dipping!

The girls really enjoyed practicing (and eating) good manners!

I also used this printable that I found on Pinterest, and made one for each of the girls:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/458241330816095772/