My mom came up with this idea, so I will take zero credit for it. But I have to say, it's adorable. She did this a lot on week 5 or when someone couldn't come at the last minute and they didn't have a back up planned. It takes a little prep work, but it's a good result.
You need to break your primary into groups. Four or five will probably work best. You have two different sets of cards, they need to look different, either in color or size or something. One set of cards is going to have an adjective on it. It could say "goofy," for example (Other ones could be funny, wise, good, etc.). The other set has a noun on it. These might say, "Bishop (insert your Bishop or Branch Presidents name here)" or "Resurrection" or "Baptism."(she used names of people in the primary or bishopric, aspects of the gospel, or things they discussed in primary) Each group gets several cards with a noun on them to choose from. You choose one card on it from the adjective pile. So for example, lets say you chose the "goofy" card. Each group chooses which noun card they have that would best be described by that word. After each group chooses which card they want to use, whoever chose the adjective card gets to choose a winner. Whichever group gets rid of all their noun cards first, wins. If you want the game to go faster, you can have the person who chose the adjective card choose two winners, the best one that fits with the word and the funniest one.
For the cards, you could put the words on monkeys, elephants, or something else. I personally like the idea of using CTR shields. You can do large ones for the adjective cards and smaller ones for the noun cards. On the back you would have your word. If you wrote someones name you could put a picture of them for the kids that can't read. It may make it more fun for them.
Here is a link to a couple cute CTR shield print outs.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Monday, March 25, 2013
5 Easter Sunday Sharing Time Ideas
This Sunday is Easter!! I can't believe it is already here, I have literally done nothing to prepare yet. This week also happens to be week 5 of March, so we get to be super creative. I've been thinking about some fun things to do this week involving Easter. I've listed a few ideas below. You can even combine a couple ideas and do one half an Easter egg hunt and the other half a craft or whatever you feel like. Feel free to comment if you have a fun idea you would like to pass along.
1. Easter Egg Hunt- This was actually a tradition in our branch up until the last year or two. The presidency would fill the eggs with candy and hide them outside in the bushes and grass and would let the kids find them. You can even color code the eggs for age group. For example tell the older kids they are only allowed to grab the pastel colored eggs, or the green and blue eggs, etc. This way the little kids get to find eggs to and it's all equal. If you don't want to fill them with candy, you can fill them with little prizes like erasers, stickers, rings, etc.
2. Movie with snacks- Bring a big blanket and provide popcorn and juice while they watch a movie. You could do something like Veggie Tales or maybe a movie about Easter. Turn the lights off to make it extra fun.
3. Make a Paper Plate Tombstone Craft- I found the idea here. These are seriously so cute, and they look so EASY. We don't get to do this sort of thing in Sharing Time very often, it is nice to branch out a bit and do something different. It's worth a click over. :) I found another craft here that is similar, but you don't use a paper plate. One less thing to buy :)
4. Play Matching Game - Primary Style - My mom made this game for her primary years ago, and her kids loved it. I have a full explanation of the game here.
5. Easter Trivia - I found this game from Martha Stewart that looks so adorable. You blow up balloons and stick a piece of paper with a question on it inside the balloon. Each child gets to pop a balloon and has to answer the question. All you have to do is make the questions about Easter and make sure you have enough balloons!
Have a Happy Easter everyone! I have a lot to get done before Sunday, I hope everyone else planned better then I did!
1. Easter Egg Hunt- This was actually a tradition in our branch up until the last year or two. The presidency would fill the eggs with candy and hide them outside in the bushes and grass and would let the kids find them. You can even color code the eggs for age group. For example tell the older kids they are only allowed to grab the pastel colored eggs, or the green and blue eggs, etc. This way the little kids get to find eggs to and it's all equal. If you don't want to fill them with candy, you can fill them with little prizes like erasers, stickers, rings, etc.
2. Movie with snacks- Bring a big blanket and provide popcorn and juice while they watch a movie. You could do something like Veggie Tales or maybe a movie about Easter. Turn the lights off to make it extra fun.
3. Make a Paper Plate Tombstone Craft- I found the idea here. These are seriously so cute, and they look so EASY. We don't get to do this sort of thing in Sharing Time very often, it is nice to branch out a bit and do something different. It's worth a click over. :) I found another craft here that is similar, but you don't use a paper plate. One less thing to buy :)
4. Play Matching Game - Primary Style - My mom made this game for her primary years ago, and her kids loved it. I have a full explanation of the game here.
5. Easter Trivia - I found this game from Martha Stewart that looks so adorable. You blow up balloons and stick a piece of paper with a question on it inside the balloon. Each child gets to pop a balloon and has to answer the question. All you have to do is make the questions about Easter and make sure you have enough balloons!
Have a Happy Easter everyone! I have a lot to get done before Sunday, I hope everyone else planned better then I did!
Thursday, March 21, 2013
March 2013 Week 4 Sharing Time: Jesus Christ is our Savior
I've had a hard time thinking of what to do this week for Sharing Time. The topic of Christ being our savior is so important and well discussed, there is so much you can do with it. I finally decided to focus on why he was chosen to be the savior and what that means for us. The following isn't really applicable to the lesson, but I found it while looking for inspiration and I really felt the spirit while reading it, and thought it was worth sharing. If nothing else, it'll help to set the spirit while you prepare and ponder your lesson.
'A man died and was resurrected and waiting in a room to be interviewed. Another man was ahead of him. The door opened, the man entered, and the door closed. The man on the outside could hear the conversation on the other side of the door. The interviewer began: “I want you to tell me what you know about Jesus Christ.”
“Well, He was born of Mary in Bethlehem; he lived thirty-three years, spending the last three organizing his church, choosing his Apostles, and giving the gospel to direct our lives.”
The interviewer stopped him and said: “Yes, yes, that’s all true, but I want you to tell me what you know about Jesus Christ.”
“Well, he suffered and died so that we could have eternal life. Three days later he was resurrected so that we might return to Heavenly Father.”
“Yes, yes, that is true, but I want you to tell me what you know about Jesus Christ.” The man, a little perplexed, again began: “Well, he restored the gospel in its fulness to the earth through Joseph Smith, reorganized his church, gave us temples so we could do work to save our dead. He gave us personal ordinances for our salvation and exaltation.”
The interviewer again stopped him and said, “All of what you have said to me is true.” The man was then invited to leave the room. After he left the door opened and the second man entered. As he approached the interviewer he fell upon his knees and cried, “My Lord, my God.”'
I am going to begin by reading a story to them from this months Friend magazine.
Next I want to ask how Christ saved us? I don't want to spend a lot of time on this area, maybe 3 minutes tops. I want them to know that he suffered and died for us.
I then want to ask if anyone knows why Christ was one who did this for us? The answer is because he was the only one who would be able to come down to Earth and live a perfect life. I also want to emphasize that he was willing to do this because he loves us very much. That we are his brothers and sisters.
What does this mean for us? What does it mean that he atoned for our sins? Or that he died for us? Or that he saved us? Why does that matter? This gets to be a bit more discussion. This is why we are able to repent. This is how we are able to live with our Heavenly Father again. We don't believe that everyone will return back to Heavenly Father just because of this, we believe we have to choose to use it. We have to choose to repent when we have done something wrong. We have to try our best to choose the right, but we're not always going to make the right choices. That's why we have the atonement. That's why Christ suffered and died for our sins, it's so that we can repent and live with our Heavenly Father again.
Now for the activity or more fun part. I have a couple different ideas. A few weeks back someone commented saying that the teachers in her area don't like to break into groups, so she doesn't like to do that. It's unfortunate that sometimes you have to feel that way, but I do understand. You don't want the children to pick up on any resentment any of the teachers may have, so I can totally understand not wanting to break into groups. So I'm going to try from now on to come up with an activity that doesn't involve groups every week, so some weeks may have two ideas.
1. Bring candy (or stickers, rings, prizes etc), and lots of it!
a. Pass out candy as they help with the lesson. The outline lists five scripture stories as reference for the activity part of this Sharing Time. One by one, ask if anyone knows who this or the story about him. For example, "Can anyone tell me who Alma the Younger is and what he did?" If someone does (which I'm hoping they know who at least one or two of them are), ask them to briefly tell us about that person. If they don't, you can tell them the story of that person. If they're short, you could even just read the story to them. You just may not want to be up there reading 20+ versus ;). Although, each story has a few versus that I think would be good to read to really help the children understand what the person was feeling, and what they were going through. I've listed those below.
b. Give one child a piece of candy, as they listen to each story and hear a word that describes how someone felt (i.e., sad, joy, cheerful, awful etc.), pass the candy to the person to the right (or behind or in front if they're at the end). When the story is done (and you've added whatever you need to to it), whoever has the candy gets to keep it. Do this for all of them. Make sure you give candy to everyone else before they leave. You don't want any sad kids. :)
2. Break the children into five groups and have each group read a story. Have them prepare a short version of the story to read in front of everyone else. While it's being read everyone else in the group acts out the story silently. Be careful with time, every time I get them to break into groups I do something like this I end up being a little short on time. I would say have them start presenting with about 10 minutes left so that they all get a turn and you have time to close up.
Scriptures in Each Story Worth Emphasizing
Alma the Younger - Alma 6:10; 12-13; 20; 24 Compare the words he uses in the first few to the last couple. He used such strong and descriptive words for both his anguish in the beginning and his joy after repenting.
Enos - Enos 1:4; 8 He prayed to Heavenly Father to repent and was made hole by his faith.
Zeezrom - Alma 15:5; 11 This man was healed physically because of his faith. We can draw a comparison there and also in his feelings and temperament.
Lamoni's Father - Alma 22:14; 23-24 This is a great story of how one man was able to convert so many. That he believed in Heavenly Father and was able to have a huge impact on others.
The Man Brought to Jesus - Luke 5: 20; 24-25 This is a great one because it's a story involving Christ. I think it's important to emphasize that faith is important to have. Without it, this man would not have been able to be healed or his sins forgiven.
Close with your testimony of the Savior. I added some links below to some coloring activities if you want to send them home with anything to do that night or if you have time at the end.
Mary by Christ's Tomb Dot-to-Dot
Christ with a Child Coloring Page
'A man died and was resurrected and waiting in a room to be interviewed. Another man was ahead of him. The door opened, the man entered, and the door closed. The man on the outside could hear the conversation on the other side of the door. The interviewer began: “I want you to tell me what you know about Jesus Christ.”
“Well, He was born of Mary in Bethlehem; he lived thirty-three years, spending the last three organizing his church, choosing his Apostles, and giving the gospel to direct our lives.”
The interviewer stopped him and said: “Yes, yes, that’s all true, but I want you to tell me what you know about Jesus Christ.”
“Well, he suffered and died so that we could have eternal life. Three days later he was resurrected so that we might return to Heavenly Father.”
“Yes, yes, that is true, but I want you to tell me what you know about Jesus Christ.” The man, a little perplexed, again began: “Well, he restored the gospel in its fulness to the earth through Joseph Smith, reorganized his church, gave us temples so we could do work to save our dead. He gave us personal ordinances for our salvation and exaltation.”
The interviewer again stopped him and said, “All of what you have said to me is true.” The man was then invited to leave the room. After he left the door opened and the second man entered. As he approached the interviewer he fell upon his knees and cried, “My Lord, my God.”'
I am going to begin by reading a story to them from this months Friend magazine.
Once when Elder LeGrand R. Curtis Jr. of the Seventy was a child, he and his sister were playing in a small boat on a river. At first their adventure was fun, but as the boat drifted farther from the shore, they realized they were floating toward dangerous waters downstream.
The children began calling for help. Their father heard them and raced to the boat to rescue them. He saved them, which was something they could not do for themselves. He did this because he loved them.
Next I want to ask how Christ saved us? I don't want to spend a lot of time on this area, maybe 3 minutes tops. I want them to know that he suffered and died for us.
I then want to ask if anyone knows why Christ was one who did this for us? The answer is because he was the only one who would be able to come down to Earth and live a perfect life. I also want to emphasize that he was willing to do this because he loves us very much. That we are his brothers and sisters.
What does this mean for us? What does it mean that he atoned for our sins? Or that he died for us? Or that he saved us? Why does that matter? This gets to be a bit more discussion. This is why we are able to repent. This is how we are able to live with our Heavenly Father again. We don't believe that everyone will return back to Heavenly Father just because of this, we believe we have to choose to use it. We have to choose to repent when we have done something wrong. We have to try our best to choose the right, but we're not always going to make the right choices. That's why we have the atonement. That's why Christ suffered and died for our sins, it's so that we can repent and live with our Heavenly Father again.
Now for the activity or more fun part. I have a couple different ideas. A few weeks back someone commented saying that the teachers in her area don't like to break into groups, so she doesn't like to do that. It's unfortunate that sometimes you have to feel that way, but I do understand. You don't want the children to pick up on any resentment any of the teachers may have, so I can totally understand not wanting to break into groups. So I'm going to try from now on to come up with an activity that doesn't involve groups every week, so some weeks may have two ideas.
1. Bring candy (or stickers, rings, prizes etc), and lots of it!
a. Pass out candy as they help with the lesson. The outline lists five scripture stories as reference for the activity part of this Sharing Time. One by one, ask if anyone knows who this or the story about him. For example, "Can anyone tell me who Alma the Younger is and what he did?" If someone does (which I'm hoping they know who at least one or two of them are), ask them to briefly tell us about that person. If they don't, you can tell them the story of that person. If they're short, you could even just read the story to them. You just may not want to be up there reading 20+ versus ;). Although, each story has a few versus that I think would be good to read to really help the children understand what the person was feeling, and what they were going through. I've listed those below.
b. Give one child a piece of candy, as they listen to each story and hear a word that describes how someone felt (i.e., sad, joy, cheerful, awful etc.), pass the candy to the person to the right (or behind or in front if they're at the end). When the story is done (and you've added whatever you need to to it), whoever has the candy gets to keep it. Do this for all of them. Make sure you give candy to everyone else before they leave. You don't want any sad kids. :)
2. Break the children into five groups and have each group read a story. Have them prepare a short version of the story to read in front of everyone else. While it's being read everyone else in the group acts out the story silently. Be careful with time, every time I get them to break into groups I do something like this I end up being a little short on time. I would say have them start presenting with about 10 minutes left so that they all get a turn and you have time to close up.
Scriptures in Each Story Worth Emphasizing
Alma the Younger - Alma 6:10; 12-13; 20; 24 Compare the words he uses in the first few to the last couple. He used such strong and descriptive words for both his anguish in the beginning and his joy after repenting.
Enos - Enos 1:4; 8 He prayed to Heavenly Father to repent and was made hole by his faith.
Zeezrom - Alma 15:5; 11 This man was healed physically because of his faith. We can draw a comparison there and also in his feelings and temperament.
Lamoni's Father - Alma 22:14; 23-24 This is a great story of how one man was able to convert so many. That he believed in Heavenly Father and was able to have a huge impact on others.
The Man Brought to Jesus - Luke 5: 20; 24-25 This is a great one because it's a story involving Christ. I think it's important to emphasize that faith is important to have. Without it, this man would not have been able to be healed or his sins forgiven.
Close with your testimony of the Savior. I added some links below to some coloring activities if you want to send them home with anything to do that night or if you have time at the end.
Mary by Christ's Tomb Dot-to-Dot
Christ with a Child Coloring Page
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
30 Day Shred Update
So I am supposed to be about 20 days through the 30 Day Shred by now. If you have been following along you would have seen that I haven't lost any weight pounds wise, but I have seen improvement inches wise. My results are still pretty consistent with my last post that you can find HERE.
About day 12 the top of my knee started really bothering me. It would hurt mostly during the jump rope part and afterwards when I went to sit down. I used to run in high school and got a knee injury that I still have issues with today, but this was a little different. Just in case, I decided to ice it and wrap it up like I used to in my running days. I gave it a few more tries, and if it hurt I just would do a different cardio move that didn't bother me so much. I was planning on doing this for the rest of the 30 days. Well about day 15 my son caught croup. For the past 5 days he hasn't let me put him down, so I haven't been able to do the shred like I've wanted too. I took this opportunity to rest my knee and try and recover. I have done her Yoga Meltdown about three times in the past 5 days to be easy on my knee and still get some exercise in. Plus my son thinks the poses are funny, so I get a bit more time this way. ;)
So instead of being on day 20 I'm kind of paused on day 15. :/ I'm honestly really bummed about this and it's been pretty hard on me. I have actually cried a few times because I want to work out and haven't been able too. Yes, I cried because I wanted to work out. Sounds crazy huh? Well, that's the biggest change I've noticed during this process. It's changed my attitude towards working out. I originally wanted to see what kind of results you could get just doing the shred, so I wasn't trying to alter my diet or anything for the 30 days. I have found that I am actually having a hard time with this because I want to eat better. I want to make a salad instead of going out. I know this sounds crazy, but this is just what I've found. It's really helped me to be motivated to make positive changes in my life.
So I am adding on a week to the shred results. I was originally going to post up my results on March 22, so I am now going to post them March 29th. I am really hoping to see some major improvements, despite my set backs. If not, at least I've gotten a little healthier and stronger for other work out programs, which I do intend on trying.
SO stay tuned and come back in two weeks to check out the results! I'm excited about this!
About day 12 the top of my knee started really bothering me. It would hurt mostly during the jump rope part and afterwards when I went to sit down. I used to run in high school and got a knee injury that I still have issues with today, but this was a little different. Just in case, I decided to ice it and wrap it up like I used to in my running days. I gave it a few more tries, and if it hurt I just would do a different cardio move that didn't bother me so much. I was planning on doing this for the rest of the 30 days. Well about day 15 my son caught croup. For the past 5 days he hasn't let me put him down, so I haven't been able to do the shred like I've wanted too. I took this opportunity to rest my knee and try and recover. I have done her Yoga Meltdown about three times in the past 5 days to be easy on my knee and still get some exercise in. Plus my son thinks the poses are funny, so I get a bit more time this way. ;)
So instead of being on day 20 I'm kind of paused on day 15. :/ I'm honestly really bummed about this and it's been pretty hard on me. I have actually cried a few times because I want to work out and haven't been able too. Yes, I cried because I wanted to work out. Sounds crazy huh? Well, that's the biggest change I've noticed during this process. It's changed my attitude towards working out. I originally wanted to see what kind of results you could get just doing the shred, so I wasn't trying to alter my diet or anything for the 30 days. I have found that I am actually having a hard time with this because I want to eat better. I want to make a salad instead of going out. I know this sounds crazy, but this is just what I've found. It's really helped me to be motivated to make positive changes in my life.
So I am adding on a week to the shred results. I was originally going to post up my results on March 22, so I am now going to post them March 29th. I am really hoping to see some major improvements, despite my set backs. If not, at least I've gotten a little healthier and stronger for other work out programs, which I do intend on trying.
SO stay tuned and come back in two weeks to check out the results! I'm excited about this!
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