Friday, February 17, 2017

Tithing and Budget Game - Awesome St Patrick's Day Activity - Personal Development Tithing Activity


For this activity, you'll need about 10 minutes before the activity to cut and glue the "clover cards" and 2 dice.

 The idea is that every time a participant rolls a 7, they can choose a "clover card".  You can choose to have these clover cards just on the table (as shown below) or if you want to make it a bit more fun, you can hide them around the room and they have to "work" for them. However- there are 42 clover cards... so if you make them work for the cards, you man want to hide them in bunches or else it would take a super long time to get them all.  Also if you hide them, you'll want to make sure they find them all.... the amount of credits/debits works out so there's just a bit of savings left (which they can trade in to the leader for a prize). If it's taking too long for them to get all 
 the cards, you can say that if they roll a 7, 8 or 9 then they can choose a clover card to speed things up a bit. 

The clover card will either have a yellow coin or a green expense. I tried using expenses that most typical 8-12 year olds would use in any given week (for example: toothbrush and paste - $5,  toilet paper - $10, dinner - $20). When they choose a coin card, they'll place it on the credit page. When they choose an expense card, they'll place it on the debit page (apparently this is banking use of the terms credit/debit and not accounting... either way it introduces them to some financial terms :).




Once all the clover cards have been found, it's time to budget (well, kind of). Have them count up all the coins. It should total $300 (this is important because I made the coins so they can pay for tithing, pay for the expenses and still have some left over). 

Then teach them how to figure out 10% - To find 10% all we need to do is move/shift the decimal one place to the left. Thus 10% of 300 = 30. Now would also be a good time to read 3 Nephi 24:10-11. I put it on a table tent with the name of the game on the other side.  



Next, have them match each expense with a coin as if they are paying for it. For example, place it to the side once a "$5" coin is matched with a "$5" expense. 
Once everything is paid for, they should have some savings. I figured they could be rewarded for their savings with a surprise.... maybe chocolate gold coin or something.  



To end the lesson, I would share this story from "The Blessings of Tithing" by Henry B. Eyring.


By Fabiano dos Santos da Silva

I met the missionaries when I was 17. At that time my older brother and I lived together. Our mother had passed away the year before, and life was difficult. When the missionaries taught me, I could see that this Church was the church I had always sought. But the influence of my friends prevented me from going to church on Sundays.
One time I went to a Church activity during the week. Seeing all the young people laughing and playing brought me great joy. The missionaries, with the youth, took that opportunity to teach me a gospel lesson, and I felt so good I resolved to be baptized.
But even after I joined the Church, I faced challenges. I was the only member of the Church in that part of town and lived far away from the meetinghouse. My nonmember friends no longer wanted anything to do with me. When I felt alone, I prayed and felt the love of the Lord.
Each month, I received a small allotment of money from a fund my mother left. It was difficult to sustain myself with so little money. But I determined to be obedient. I paid tithing and also had to pay for transportation to seminary and Sunday meetings. I didn’t understand how, but at the end of the month, I found that there had been enough money to do it all.
I know that I have been blessed by paying tithing. Obeying this commandment helped me gain a stronger testimony, serve a mission, and recognize blessings so I can strengthen new members who are facing challenges.

You can get my files for this activity <HERE>

Thursday, February 2, 2017

Aim For Virtue- Preparing for Young Women


In the Faith In God book under Preparing for Young Women, there's the following requirement: After studying the thirteenth article of faith, make a list of things that are uplifting and virtuous. Discuss with a parent or leader how you can seek after these things.

I wanted to make a Valentine's activity around this requirement since the thirteenth Article of Faith mentions love and being uplifting and virtuous. For this activity you'll also need either a Nerf gun or bow and arrow about 15 mins to cut out hearts and make scripture cards and candy (candy is optional).

1. Thirteenth Article of Faith Race

For the first part of the activity, divide the group into two groups and have in an envelope these slips of paper with the 13th Article of Faith written on them. The first group to get it in order, wins. I think this is an awesome way for the participants to familiarize themselves with the 13th Article of Faith. 



2. Scripture Word Guess

For the next part of the activity, I made 15 scriptures "cards" - The first side has the scripture with a missing word and the other side has the missing word. Choose a volunteer to go first (you could keep the teams from before and let the two teams compete to see who can guess the most words. If they guess the wrong word, the other team could steal). Here's how I put them together:




3. Aim for Virtue and Love

I think this part will be the most fun. The girls can be little Valentine cupids and with a Nerf gun or bow and arrow (dollar store normally has both of these) and "Aim for Virtue and Love" by trying to hit one of these 32 hearts with qualities/traits written on them. If you still have the two teams you could ask for a volunteer from each team and give them each a gun. The girl that hits the most hearts in 1 minute, wins a point for their team. OR- If they are taking individual turns, they can get a candy for each heart that they hit. There are also 15 smaller black hearts that if they end up hitting maybe they are deducted a point or have to swallow a yucky jelly bean or something.

*** I edited the hearts to be bigger and easier to cut out since the ones shown here***


 At the end of this activity, I would encourage each girl to choose a virtue they would like to work on (maybe they can pick a virtue heart from the wall and bring it home with them). Ask them to go home and discuss with their parent ways they can be better.

Article Of Faith Mastery Cards, Trackers and Article of Faith Posters

We were wanting to keep better track of which primary kids were passing off their Articles Of Faith.... so I made this Pass Off Tracking Sheet. Whether you are the activity days leader, in the primary presidency or a primary teacher, this could be used to help keep track of what's been pass off  :)



UPDATE!!
These files are new and improved!! Now comes in 3 different color schemes and sizes found HERE