February 2013 Week 3 Sharing Time: I have been sent to earth to gain a body

I am so happy to be back posting again. This has been such a great outlet for me these past few months. I have a lot of ideas of different things to start up on the blog in the next few weeks, so stay tuned.
Now for this weeks Sharing Time. This week is about coming to Earth to gain a body and to be tested. This is a great opportunity to build a strong foundation for our youth, to help them understand the purpose of being sent here.
I have a couple different ideas for activities to mix it up a bit.
To begin have an older child look up and read Abraham 3:25. After they finish ask them to explain what it means to everyone. If they need help, see if another child can help, if not, either you or a teacher can pitch in. There shouldn't be too much issue though, its pretty self explanatory. Abraham 3:25 tells us that we came to Earth to be tested. We also came to Earth to get a body. 

Have another child read D&C 29:39. This scripture tells us that the devil tempts us so we can know the bitter from the sweet. We talked about this last week with the joy & pain, happiness and sadness, health & sickness, etc. These week we want to focus on our bodies and how we can make good decisions with them. This leads us to our activity.

One idea I had was to play "Pin the CTR Shield on the Child!" Get a poster board and draw a person on it and make sure to bring a piece of fabric or a bandana to cover eyes with. If a child puts the CTR shield on a body part, (i.e. feet, ears, hands, etc) they have to tell everyone how that body part can help us make good choices. For example, our hands can serve others, hold our scriptures so we can read them, stop a fight, give hugs, etc. If they get an area that is not a body part or a body part listed, (the blank poster area or you could even do the stomach or other areas that would be hard to answer those questions for) they get to pick a body part that hasn't been done. I really love this idea because its different and will keep their attention. 

The second idea I had was to divide the children in four or five different groups. Print out my guy linked below and cut him out. Assign each group a different body part. Get some manila folders and label it a top secret mission. Inside put a different body part to the guy along with the message of what to do. Each groups mission is to identify what choices each body part helps us make.Have them color the body part they were given so that when it's assembled it will create a fun looking guy. They can be as crazy or not crazy with this as they want. Let each group complete their mission in front of everyone else by sharing what they can do with that body part to choose the right. Have them attach the body part to the torso after they've presented. Close with your testimony. This is a fun activity that will hopefully have them thinking outside the box. 

Here is a link  to my person assembly coloring page.


CTR Shields can be found here with a few different options to print. 

Have fun with it everyone and don't forget to follow the blog for (hopefully) weekly primary updates along with recipes, crafts and more!

Angry Birds Toss Game

I work with the children aged 3-11 at my church, and for Labor Day we had a big party for everyone. Myself and the two other ladies I work closely with decided we wanted to have a lot of fun activities for the kids. We had a moon bounce there for the kids but we also wanted a couple other activities to try and break up the crowds. So, naturally, I got on Pinterest and started looking. I love when I can find a way to justify my Pinterest addiction. ;) Anyways, I found a few ideas for the Angry Birds Toss game. All of the ones I've found do not link back to a blog to show you how to do it. It's fairly simple, but I figured I would try and do a walk through to answer any kind of questions, plus I did mine a bit differently, of course. 

First I used empty Ravioli cans. I washed them out and peeled the wrapper off. I used construction paper instead of paint, because I chose to do this at about 1:00AM (one of the many joys of motherhood, nothing is done on your ideal schedule, ha!) and I didn't have any paint that would work. So I measured how tall it needed to be and I used my paper cut to make it that tall. When I peeled the label off the can it had a bit of a sticky residue, I chose to use this to my advantage. I stuck the end of the construction paper on it, and painted Mod Podge around the can one little bit at a time. Once I painted the Mod Podge on there, I would pull the construction paper tightly against the can. I did the the whole way around the can and trimmed the excess off with a scissors. I did overlap them a little bit, but you don't have to.

Once this was done a cut the eyes out placed them on with Mod Podge. I just used a sharpie for the pupil. I used a lighter green for the nose. I wanted that to overlap the eyes a bit, which is why I chose to do the eyes first. Then for the mouth I just kind of faked it. I tried to do them all differently. I would suggest if you are going to do one with teeth to glue the teeth on the back of the nose and then apply the nose. The mustache I would suggest to do in a similar fashion. All the black on them I used the sharpie for. 

For the ball I wanted to use a plain red one and draw a face on it, since the red bird seems to be the most famous. But you would not believe how hard it is to find a plain red ball! I ended up with a yellow one on clearance at Walmart for about .75. I was lucky that the characters in this game are really easy to draw, because I am certainly not an artist!


When I brought it to the activity I was nervous about how they would react, after all, I was competing with a moon bounce. But I think the kids really liked it, I'm not saying the kids chose this over the moon bounce, because really, I didn't expect that. But they did have fun while they were taking a break from bouncing, or while we were giving the littler kids a turn. They enjoyed trying to knock them over and rearranging them differently, putting it closer to the edge or further away. I found that the little kids liked it and the older ones around 9 or 10 did also. I was really happy with how it turned out, and it wasn't hard to make. 

Until next time,

BBNO