Stand As A Witness Of God - Preparing for Young Womens

One of the memories I have from becoming a Young Women, was how intimidated I was by the Young Women theme. When everyone stood up and recited it on that first Sunday, I remember thinking how embarrassing it would be if I didn't memorize it too, and quick!

In the Faith In God book, one of the requirements is "Talk with the beehive class presidency or a member of the Young Women presidency about the purpose and importance of the Young Women program." 

 On the cover of the Personal Progress book it says "Standing As A Witness Of God", and I wanted to make that theme very clear throughout this activity. As the requirement says, you can invite the beehive class presidency (or I think just one beehive would still be great) to the activity to talk about the purpose and importance of the Young Women program. 

There are 5 tournament stations (Matching, Searching, Solving, Arranging, Questioning). The idea is that there are at least two girls at each station. If you have a lot of girls, then you can put your girls in pairs and have four at each station, so there's two that get to work together. They have a scorecard, and the girl with the most points at the end, WINS! Each station has a table tent with the station name, and instructions on the back for the girls to know what to do. 

1. Matching - Take turns matching each value with its definition. For each match you get, you get 2 points. Don't worry, there's a cheat sheet just in case you need one :)

2. Searching - Race the other team in searching the scripture on each value. Place all the cards face down, and when everyone is ready, you can turn one over.  The first person to the scripture gets to read the scripture to everyone, and wins. They also get to choose the next card to turn over. 2 points for every time to win the scripture search.

3. Solving - Just like working on our Personal Progress can help us to become more like our Heavenly Father, use the key to solve this riddle and find out the Young Women Motto! 5 points for solving the riddle. 

4. Arranging - Put the YW theme in the correct order. Have two of these word scrambles printed. The two teams can race each other and the first team to put the theme in the correct order, wins! 

5. Answering - I didn't have a copy of a personal progress book at my home, but this station is for the girls to get a look a personal progress book, and ask questions about Young Women's. If you can have a beehive come, they can sit at this station and answer any questions the girls might have as they look through a Personal Progress book. 1 point for every question the girls ask. 

Scorecard:

 At the end of the activity, give the girls this handout to put in their scriptures so they have easy access to the theme, especially for those first few months on Sunday when they it :)

My Gospel Standards Game - Faith In God Award

I noticed recently that on the back cover on both the Faith In God for girls and boys is the "My Gospel Standards". I'm guessing that means they are pretty darn important so I wanted to come up with something that would make it fun for the girls to learn and go over them. Maybe I've been playing a little too much Bunco lately, but this "Rolling a seven shows the way to heaven" came to mind. It' gets pretty darn exciting when we roll a Bunco, so i'm hoping this will be too. All you need for this activity are 2 dice, scissors, glue, tape and about 10 to get it ready.  

 Post each "My Gospel Standard" on the walls around a room (there are 13 total), preferably in a room with a big table that everyone can fit around. Then have the "answer cards" on the table... with the front side faced up. Have the girls take turns rolling the dice, trying to roll 7. When someone does roll a seven, they can choose a Gospel Standard from the wall around the room. First they have to figure out the missing word, then look at the clues on the table to figure out which scripture/quote goes with the Gospel Standard. When they think they have chosen the right clue, they can turn the card over to see if they picked the right clue, and the right word. 

Standard Card

Answer Card

Front                                                      Back

 To get the answer cards to be front/back:

And then at the end of the activity you can give each of the girls one of these handouts to put in their scriptures :)

Good Morning - Developing Talents

In the Faith In God book, one of the requirements is to list five things you can do to help around your home. Discuss the importance of obeying and honoring your parents and learning how to work.

This activity has 3 parts:

Hide and Seek Activity

Good Morning Chart

Make Pancakes

Hide and Seek Activity

For the activity you can talk to the girls about how they can help around the home. To introduce this somewhat un-fun topic in hopefully a fun way, play a game of hide and seek. Write down on pieces of paper different chores and hide them around the room before the girls get to the activity. When the girls arrive, have them find the pieces of paper. Once they are all found, have the girls read aloud the papers that they found. 

Good Morning Chart

I don't know about your home, but mornings in my home can be rough. I think one of the best ways these girls can learn to obey and honor their parents (and maybe help their sanity) is by learning a good morning routine! Hence, the Good Morning chart. The whole point of this chart is to have it done before they go to school, without anyone coaxing or asking them. Have each girl come up with one thing they are going to do every morning to help the family out that they will include on their "Good Morning Cards". After you have each girl share what they came up with, have them write it down on their cards and then cut their cards up so they are ready to start the next day. 

 Each morning, once they have marked off "say prayer, make bed, brush teeth & hair, read scriptures, personal choice", then they tape the piece of paper onto the chart. Once they have completed their whole morning routine for about a month and their chart is completed, they can return it to a leader for a treat :). 

Make Pancakes

And then, to go along with our morning theme and learning to do work, have the girls make pancakes without any help from the leader. Let them figure out how much water goes with the batter, and prepare any toppings. You can also have them set a table and then do the dishes :)

Good Samaritan Christmas Activity - Serving Others

In the Faith In God Book, this is one of the activities:

Read and discuss the parable of the good Samaritan (see Luke 10:30–37). Plan and complete a service project that helps a family member or neighbor. After completing the project, discuss how it helped your faith grow stronger.

30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.  31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.  33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, 34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. 36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? 37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.

This actually makes for a really great skit.You'll need a few young, aspiring actresses and the following (this is what we used, but you can be creative and use whatever comes to mind!):

1. Traveler - Suitcase and fake money

2. Thieves - Black hat and sunglasses. I had a blow-up bat that we used to "wound" the traveler. 

3. Priest - A necklace with a cross on it. I made ours out of foam and yarn but paper would work just fine too. 

4. Levite - Kitchen towel as head cover and material to tie down

5. Good Samaritan - Kitchen towel as head cover and material to tie down 

6. Innkeeper - just any work badge with "Innkeeper" written on a piece of paper and taped over. 

Other props: Bandage, bottle labelled "Oil and Wine", and two road signs made out of green construction paper.. one for Jericho and the other for Jerusalem. 

The skit doesn't take much time... maybe about 15 minutes. After the skit, you can spend the rest of the time brainstorming on a way that we can listen to Jesus and "do thou likewise" for the next activity days. Or if time permits, you can use the rest of the time actually doing the service... like maybe delivering cookies, making a craft or filling out Christmas cards for members in the ward. You can have the girls bake cookies and bring them to the activity but not let them know what you'll be doing with them until after the skit!

Christmas Cards

Thanksgiving Minute To Win It

Minute to Win It - Thanksgiving style! Hopefully this is a fun way to celebrate Thanksgiving and get the girls to think about what we can be thankful for! This does take some prep work... paper cutting and taping. However, if you don't want to play all 6 games, you can choose which ones of these you want to do.... maybe based on the materials you already have without having to go to a store!





1. Coco Dunk - Place the “Candy Wrappers” on the Treasures and/or the Reese’s. Allow each participant to choose 6 pieces of candy. Since the candy is labeled, they get to choose what they are thankful for. The participant must place the spoon in their mouth and then once the timer has started, they pick the candy up with their spoon. The person who can “dump” the most candy in a cup and then remove it from the cup within a minute, wins.

 


2. Suck It Up - Allow each participant to choose about 10 pieces of paper (each with something to be thankful for). Have pieces of paper and a straw on one table and then a cup about 10 feet away on another table.  Using the straw, the participant must suck the paper from the first table to their cup. The person who can get the most papers in the cup in a minute, wins.

3. Hit It - Line the participants and elastic bands up about 10 feet away from empty water bottles. The person to hit the most bottles and knock them down in one minute wins!

4. Trunk Junk - Tape the elastic band or belt onto the Kleenex box onto the opposite side of the opening. Fold the trunk junk papers into accordions, and place into box. These papers have things that perhaps we wouldn't be so grateful for... and would want to "get them out of our trunk". Participant ties the box around their waist, with the back to their back and jumps to get the paper out of the box. The person to get the most out in a minute, wins.

5. Hot Balloon - Each participant must keep 2 balloons in the air for an entire minute. Perhaps you can ask each participant to choose two things that they are grateful for, and each balloon represents one of them.

6. Oreo Face - The first person to get an Oreo from their forehead to their mouth without using any hands in a minute, wins. My "thanksgiving" tie-in here is simple... I'm just grateful for yummy Oreo's!!

There's points awarded for each activity (written on the activity card) and once everyone has had a turn with each activity, you can award the first, second and third place champion!

I tried picking games where the items would be commonly found in any home. Hopefully the only things that would need to be specially purchased are the Treasures, Reese's and Oreo's (although those are also commonly found in my home!)

Activity Days Faith In God "Witches Brew" Covenant Path

Since the program changed in 2020, I updated this activity to be "stay on the covenant path" since there's no Faith In God award anymore! Just a couple things were tweaked but this still makes an awesome activity!!

This "Faith In God Treasure Hunt" was so popular, that I wanted to so something similar for Halloween: Faith In God Witches Brew.

Synopsis: Invite the girls to dress up like witches for this activity. Then when they arrive, they are given a recipe but without the ingredients. They must hunt down hidden clue cards that give them the correct ingredients, just like we must work for our Faith In God award. Once they have found all the ingredients, they can make the cookies!

So I figured that the girls could learn about how to get their Faith In God award by making "Swig" cookies (if you live in Utah, you probably know how fantastic these sugar cookies are). So the idea is that the ingredients to the "Witches Brew" come together to make the Faith In God Award, similar to how ingredients make cookies. 

 Once  the girls arrive, give them this print-out that they can fold in half, so on either side of their half sheet they have a recipe: 

On the first side, they have the "ingredients" to the Faith In God award, which hopefully

 by the end of the lesson they will be more familiar with.

Then on the other side, they have ingredients to the "Swig" cookie. But just like witches have to hunt down ingredients for their "brews", the girls must hunt down and fill out the correct recipe for the cookies. Each Faith In God requirement is assigned a different food ingredient, with a clue to tie them together. For example:

Pray Daily = You "butter" pray, every day = 1 C Butter 

Write Your Testimony = Write your testimony down so it won't spoil, that will help your lamp stay full of oil = 3/4 C Vegetable Oil. 

These clue cards can be hidden around a church building, around a back yard... anywhere. The girls, while in their witches costumes, have to go around and fill out the recipe by finding the clue cards. Once all the girls have found all the clue cards and have their "Swig" Cookie Recipe all filled out, then everyone can come together to make the cookies. While the cookies are baking, you can go over the Faith In God award requirements and ask the girls if they have any questions about getting their award. 

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