Speed Friend-shipping! YW and FIG activity

One of the challenges of working with any group of children or youth is that it's often hard to help them get to know each other.  We had a fun friend-shipping activity that really helped break the ice a little and helped the girls see that they had lots of common ground and really did like each other!

We started by setting up the room to have two rows of chairs facing each other.  Small jars of questions were placed spaced out between the rows.   The questions were simple get to know you questions like "what is your favourite book to read", "What is your favourite subject at school and why"....  (no questions that could be answered with one word answers)

We had all the girls take a seat and gave them 1 minute to ask as many questions as possible of the person sitting opposite them (they could use our questions or some of their own).  When the 1 minute  was up everyone in one row moved down a seat.... and it continued until each girl had spoken to each other.

We finished by forming our chairs into a giant circle and asking the girls to share if they had found anyone that had something in common with them.... they found so many commonalities which surprised them and us!  

We then gave each girl a sticky note with someone elses name on it, placed it on their forehead with the instruction not to look at it and played a quick game of headbandz..... the clues to find out who was on your head came from everything the room had learnt about that named person.

We had a lot of laughs and really learnt so much about each other.

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

Put your HEART into Personal Progress - Motivator

Being February and Valentines month I wanted to throw in a "heart felt" motivator to encourage Personal Progress participation.  I am sewing little Hanging hearts to go along with the card to hang on a door or mirror (pretty hearts with ribbon and lace) to remind the girls to find time each day to allow personal Progress to touch their hearts.

Tangled the Movie and Young Women - Daughters of a King

Our Young Women are just a "little obsessed" with Disney Princess Movies - especially Tangled and Frozen.  The girls asked if we could have a movie night to watch one of them together - and so we are watching Tangled (Frozen is still out in the cinema's - so we will wait on that one)  
Tangled also is the perfect movie to remind the YW that we are all indeed daughters of a King.... (perfect to go along with our current Come Follow Me lessons in Jan and Feb)

I found the FHE lesson for Tangled on Sugardoodle.net and have adapted the story to share tonight at our movie night........ along with this handout with the wonderful quote from President Hinkley.

I am printing the above pic on cardboard - and cutting out around the book shape.  I will crease in the book center and then add a small peice of red ribbon as the bookmark.

Divine Nature #3 Handout - CFM - What is Zion?

As part of our lesson " What is Zion?" https://www.lds.org/youth/learn/yw/building-up-the-church/zion?lang=eng One of the suggestions to help the Young Women establish Zion in their homes is to have them work of Personal Progress Value - Divine Nature #3.
Because this is a two week Value experience I wanted to make a handout that helps them keep track of the days, along the top the numbers 1-14..... as each days task is completed it can be marked off.... or hole punched.   I am thinking of Laminating each card and giving the YW tiny wooden pegs to clip in each number.