HUMAN HUNGRY HIPPOS/ Combined Youth

After seeing all the posts about Human Hungry Hippo's we couldnt pass up the opportunity to try it for ourselves.
Such a FUN activity and another easy one to organize.

We collected 4 Large Banana Boxes, 100 Coloured balloons, and 4 skateboards.
Teams were arranged and sent to the 4 corners of the gym .
Each team was given one box and one skateboard  and all Balloons were put into the center of the hall.
On the whistle each team sent two players in as Hippos....  One on skateboard and one holding their feet in wheelbarrow style  (we had thought about using the rope like we had seen on other pages, however glad we chose this option as it eliminated any injuries we could just see happening with the other methods)
Scrambling to collect as many balloons in their box and drag them back to the team, where two new team members set off to get more.

We chose ONE colour Balloon that only had a few of its colour as the BONUS balloon - Each Bonus Balloon scored 50 points compared to 10 points for every other balloon.
Teams played until all balloons were collected.........  I think we played about 4 or 5 rounds in an hour.  SUPER FUN.

RS/YW Service Auction

In our Ward to encourage strong relationships between our Young Women and Relief Society, we hold a combined activity on every 5th week of a month.  This works out to be about 4 activities a year.
We have had great experiences sharing these activities.

Our service Auction is a winner every time:

Each year we hold one "SERVICE AUCTION", we have done this twice now as a combined group and it is always a fun night for all, and gives us all the opportunity to learn about talents and needs of others.
How we run the night:  The YW and RS each get a questionaire (the YW is slightly different to the RS one) For each question you are awarded points  EG: Did you read your scriptures today = 5pts, have you visited the temple in the last two months =10pts, have you told someone you loved them today = 5pts.........  there are about 30 questions related to positive things we should be doing in our lives.  Each point turns in to Service dollars which you get given to use in the Auction itself.

As Sisters walk into the room they are invited to fill out service coupons with a service they are willing to offer.  These get put on a board at the front of the room and sister take a look through them all to see what they might like to bid on.
Each of the vouchers has an expiry date on them so that that coupons are redeemed quickly.  Ussually we give a month or two.

Some services offered:  Movie night, picnic lunch, Pot of soup and homemade bread, babysitting, cake decorating, high tea, sewing, homemade jewelery, massages, baking, loan of kyaks for a day, facials, style makeovers.

The Auctioneer Presents each service and asks for an opening bid, and then the bidding starts.   As each service is won, the winner pays with service dollars and the item won is recorded so that RS can follow up that services are performed later on.

This is always a fun activity for both RS and YW, and the YW are always keen to offer services and of course to receive them!

Ultimate Cook Off - Combined Youth Night.

Our Ward Youth decided they would like to invite another wards youth to join us for a night of cooking fun, so we created an Ultimate Cook-off.

We were catering for about 60 youth and we had a simple plan that was fairly easy to implement. 

The Plan: 

-The Youth would be divided into 6 groups (made up of ages etc and mixed from both wards)

- Each ward would provide at least 3 sets of each of the following : Electric frying pan, rice cooker, cutting boards, knives and other utensils, and bowls so that each group had the basic tools for them to cook.

- Each ward asked to supply 3 mystery bags of food each with one fruit, one meat, and one "interesting" ingrediant.  (Items could be canned or fresh) 

- We set up in the cultural Hall as the kitchen space at the chapel is not made for cooking.  We used one Long table per group.  Each table had an extension power cord and a multi plug connected to a power point. 

-PANTRY ITEMS- Because this challenge was about making do with what you have we provided basic pantry items for ALL teams to share:  Set up on one table, teams could take what they NEEDED to use.  Our items: OIL, Soy Sauce, Tomato Paste, Fresh herbs, variety of fresh Vege, cocoa powder, flour, baking powder, egg, Onions used in challenge, garlic, Milk powder, Butter and sugar. 

On the night to organize groups we gave out small wooden coloured craft pegs (we had 10 of each colour)  The peg represented which group/table you were assigned to.   This worked out to be a great way of dividing the youth and each team worked really well. 

THE SKILLS test :  (To win an advantage)   We started the night by letting the teams choose one player to represent their team in a round of elimination challenges.  

1: All 6 teams sent one player up to the front table to slice 1 whole onion finely each. Last two teams eliminated from challenge.

2: 4 remaining teams send a player each to separate egg white/ egg yolk.  Last team eliminated

3: 3 teams race to peel and orange with a knife - Last team eliminated

4: Last two teams compete by Eating 3 Large pickles each - First one WINS the advantage for their team. 

THE ADVANTAGE: This team got to choose between cooking in the hall with everyone else OR have the sole use of the kitchen AND they got to choose their mystery bag and give the other bags to all other teams AND choose to SWAP one mystery bag ITEM with another team. 

THE RULES: 

- 50 MINS to cook two dishes.  ONE MAIN and ONE dessert. 

-ONE of the dishes must contain RICE

- MUST use ALL 3 mystery bag ingredients in some way in one or both dishes

- Can use Pantry items
- Can only cook using electric Frying pan and Rice cooker.

Some of the Mystery Bag ingredients : Canned Pineapple, Canned Corn Beef, Jalepno Peppers, Tuscan seasoning, kiwifruit, beef strips, Spam, grapefruit, canned corn, canned mandarins, persimons, sausages, hot sauce.

The Youth had a great time and came up with some fantastic meals.   We had the two Bishops judge the food on presentation, taste and how well they used their mystery bag ingredients.

                       http://www.mormonnewsroom.org.nz/article/auckland-youth-cook-for-fun