Our class presidency (we only have one for all of our YW) decided to have a back to school activity where we have two teams compete in the following:

LABEL MAP

We will have blank maps printed out (one for each team) and the two teams will have to compete to see who gets all fifty states labeled correctly first.

CEREAL EATING

We will have bowls of cereal for each YW. Each YW will be blindfolded and have to eat it that way. This represents how sleepy they are in the morning when school starts.

OBSTACLE COURSE (Relay)

We will have two obstacle courses set up with chairs that the YW have to navigate around (one from each team at a time). They will be wearing a backpack with books in it and carry their jacket and purse and have to keep a pen/pencil behind their ear as they go through it and back and give the stuff to the next person in line.

RELAY

We will have two notebooks, pencil sharpeners and pencils sitting on a table. There will be a garbage can at a distance from the table. One person from each team will run down, sit at the table, sharpen their pencil, write their name and the date at the top of the page, tear out the page, crumple the page and make a basket with the paper. Then run back and tag the next person in line.

TIE BREAKER

If we need a tie breaker we will do the shoe game. In this game everybody puts their shoes in a big pile in the middle. The shoes are mixed up and then the teams must race to get all their shoes back on their team first.

PRIZES

We will have notebooks and pens for each player on the winning team.

Before the games, we will have a speaker talk about the importance of education. This can be an activity with an emphasis on the KNOWLEDGE value or an emphasis on For the Strength of Youth, EDUCATION or both. :)

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Egg Relay Game Party Supplies

VIDEO PRESENTATION: The Whole Armor of God. 

SCRIPTURES: Ephesians 6:13-17.

OBJECT LESSON

OUTSIDE GAMES (We had the youth divide into two equal teams with AP & YW on each team. We kept score, but you don't have to! Winners got their treat first as the losers cleaned up.)

 

1. Loins girt with truth:  Teams stand in a line single file line and send the person first in line to run 20 feet or so to a chair, put on an apron (to gird their loins), tie it, run around the chair, untie it, put it back on the chair and run back and tag the next person in line.  The first team to have everyone on their team complete the task wins.
2. Breastplate of righteousness:  Same as the first game except use a large men's button up shirt instead of an apron.  They have to have at least two buttons buttoned, run around the chair, unbutton it and place it on the chair before they can race back and tag the next person in line.  The first team to have everyone on their team complete the task wins.
3. Feet shod:  Each team sits down in a circle and takes off one shoe and puts it in the middle of the circle.  Then blindfolded them and mix up the shoes.  They have to find their correct shoe and put it back on while blindfolded.  The first team to complete this wins.
4. Helmet of salvation:  Each team lines up single-file and a hat is given to the first person in line.  They have to put the hat on their head and then without turning around, take off the hat and pass it back to the person behind them.  Then that person has to put the hat on, take if off and pass it back and so on.  When it gets to the end of the line, the person puts the hat on, takes it off and then passes it forward until it gets all the way back to the beginning of the line.  The first team to complete this wins.
5. Sword of the Spirit:  Purchase H20 Blasters 26 inch water blaster tubes from Dollar Tree (they usually sell them in the spring and summer).  You can just use squirt guns if you can't find these.  Put a large bucket or ice chest full of water between two team lines.  Make a poster for each team that says "Quench the Fiery Darts." Cut out several circles about 4" in diameter and tape yellow tissue paper to the back of the poster so that the tissue paper completely covers the holes.  On the front of the poster use yellow, orange and red markers (if you don't use permanent markers, the ink runs and it adds to the effect!) to draw flames coming from each hole so that they looked like yellow fire balls or something.  Tape the posters to a wall and let the teams "quench all the darts" by squirting the tissue paper until it disintegrates and there's a hole blown through the tissue.  The first person in line gets to fill their blaster and spray the poster until they run out of water. Then they pass it to the next person in line.  They continue to pass it through the line, starting over if needed until all their fiery darts have been quenched.  The first team to get all their fiery darts quenched wins.
6. Shield of faith:  At this point the losing team is given large oval styrofoam plates (Hefty brand, bought at Wal-Mart).  These are their shields.  They had to stand back to back in a tight circle facing outward.  The winning team is given one water balloon each and formed a circle facing the other team.  Upon your word, they get to throw their water balloons and the other team can try to protect themselves with their shields.  If the shield holders got wet at all, anywhere on their bodies, they are out and you count how many are remaining that do not get wet.  Then the teams just switch, and balloon throwers become shield holders.
   
   The team that has the most remaining dry people wins.
   
   *Note: This did not work quite as well as I had planned because we only had 7 people on each team, so the teams were very close to each other in order to form a complete circle and every single one of them in the middle got completely drenched!  It would probably work better if there were many more people on each team.  They didn't seem to mind though, it was fun for them to get wet.  After it was over, I thought of a different way we could have done it.  I thought the winning team could have been given their one water balloon and then formed two lines several feet apart and then had the losing team with their shields run through in a single file line and try to not get wet as the other team threw the balloons at them.  I don't know how well that would have worked either, but it's an idea. 

Posted by Becky, 1st Counselor in the YW presidency of the Cold Water Ward, Avondale, AZ.

This week we played life-sized Battleship in mutual. This is what we did:

1. We prepared questions for the game. You can download ours here or do your own! We used For the Strength of Youth, but you could do this as a conference review, scripture mastery, etc.
2. We filled some socks with flour and put rubber bands around the openings to keep them closed.
3. We set up a volleyball net out on the field by our church. We covered the net with sheets so that you couldn't see from one side to the other.
4. We had the youth divide into two even teams.
5. We had the youth lay down on their side of the net and pretend to be battleships (they were told they couldn't move around at all).
6. We had leaders be judges to see who raised their hand first and to make sure the youth didn't move around, etc.
7. We had one leader assigned to read the questions.

Game Play:

1. For the Strength of Youth books were distributed to all youth (open-book game).
2. A question was read and anybody could raise their hand to answer. The first hand in the air got to answer.
3. The first team to guess the correct answer got to toss a flour sock over the net in hopes of "sinking a battleship."
4. If you were hit, you were sunk and had to sit out for the remainder of the game. You could still raise your hand with answers and help your team.
5. The first team to sink all of the other team's ships won the game. We let our winners have their refreshments first (while the losing team helped clean up) but you could do prizes!

What You Need:

1. BOARD GAMES - One board game for every 4 or so youth (make sure they are games that can be played with 4 players.
2. Bowl of commands like: everyone wearing red swap places, everyone wearing flip-flops swap places, Beehives swap places, etc.

What You Do:

1. Set up the board games on tables around the Cultural Hall. 
2. Have youth draw to see who's at what table (or just let them choose to start with). 
3. Have them begin playing the games!
4. Have a timer and every 5 minutes have everybody STOP playing. 
5. Draw a command out of a bowl and follow the instructions.
6. Enjoy!

Some of Our Favorite Games For This Activity:

1. Ticket To Ride
2. Scrabble
3. Sorry!
4. Yahtzee
5. Monopoly Junior
6. Life

Hint:

It's good to have an adult who stays at each table who is familiar with all of the rules.

Have a speaker come talk to the youth about choice & accountability and then do a Mystery Meal. This is a meal where you give each of the youth a menu and they select everything they want for each course - but the menu items are obscure so the youth aren't quite sure what they are getting.

You can set up the menu so that items are listed by type (appetizer, main course, dessert) or you can just let them select whatever for each course not knowing if they'll get ice cream for a main course. You can also have the eating utensils on the menu or not. It's up to you. Here are some examples I found online (feel free to make up your own!):

A Sleep Relative = A NapKin
Shovel = Spoon
Hay Stacker, That Thing in the Road or Neptune's Trident = Fork
Chip off the Old Block = Toothpick
Dipper = Ladle
Flipper = Spatula
Greaser = Knife

Eve's Temptation = Apple Juice
Farmer's Friend = Water
Pucker Power = Lemonade

Polly's Delight = Crackers

A Wedding Tradition = Rice

Smiles Galore = Cheese

Cup of Cure = Chicken Noodle Soup

Hole-in-One = Olives

Tubular = Pasta

Chicken in a Basket = Deviled Eggs

A Small Raise = Bread

KP's Agony = Potatoes

Son of Noah = Ham

Roly Poly = Grapes

Bumps on a Log = Corn on the Cob

Yuck & Yum = Broccoli & Cheese

What's up Doc? = Carrots

Peter Rabbit's Favorite = Salad

Vegas Mormon = Cantaloupe

Foreign Money = French Bread

Mr. Wiggles = Gummy Worms

Batter Up = Cake

Don't Have a Cow = Ice Cream

George's Delight = Cherry Dessert

Tall, Dark & Handsome = Chocolate Cake

Have people from your ward who served missions set up a display with their mission memories: pictures, cultural clothing, art pieces; anything that they brought home from their mission that shows the place they served. Also, have them bring some food from the country or area for the girls to sample.

Allow the girls about 10 minutes to look at the displays, then have each person give a 5 minute talk about where they served, what they learned about the people, culture, and of course, their testimony about serving. After the presentations, have a Q&A session with the presenters. Follow that with food sampling.

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Missionary: Impossible LDS Game

This is a HUGE activity. You may want to combine with another ward or two if you have a small youth group. It is a carnival setting with two types of games: the usual carnival type, where kids win candy and little prizes, and church games. In a nutshell, you allow the kids to play the games for about half an hour. As they collect candy and prizes, they will put them in a brown paper lunch sack (with their names on it). After awhile, a leader will start quietly pulling kids out of the carnival and taking them to the R.S. room. They have to leave their bags of candy outside. After all the kids are gathered, talk about the games, and how this "game of life" is like real life.

Here's how it goes: set up a carnival in the gym with things like hoop shoot, bean bag throw, ring toss, you know... fun carnival games- and lots of them. The kids will win candy and silly prizes for playing the games. Make sure that the adults who man these booths are loud, outrageous, and will literally pull the kids to their game. They can even make wagers with the kids for candies or prizes they have won. They need to be over the top! They also should be luring the kids to their carnival games, even taking them away from the "church" games, making fun of them for being at the "church" games, etc.

Around the carnival games, set up the "church" games. These need to be basic- a table and chair with someone quiet attending the game. The person manning the table will not ask the kids to come play. They will wait for the kids to come to them. Games will be things like Seek, name that prophet, name that hymn, Celestial Pursuit, scripture chase, etc. They might even have to wait a minute for another person to come play the game with them. Do not let the kids try to coerce others to come play these games. Just wait patiently. The kids will get nothing for playing these games. Just a smile from the attendant.

When the kids are all in the R.S. room, and their candy has been taken away (they'll get it back later, which is why their names need to be on the bags), have someone give a talk about how life is like a carnival: all loud, full of fun and games, with people willing to grab them and try to get them to play - leading them away from the "church," getting them to give away what they have for more and more of what they think they want. Tell the kids that they will collect a lot of things in life (money, cars, homes, "toys") but in the end, they can't take it with them. The church is always there, waiting for them to be part of it. The church won't force you, coerce you, or give you things to make you come to it. The church is always "in the world, but not of the world," and you'll find it amidst the crazy carnival of life, quietly waiting for you to take advantage of what it offers. In the end, it's the blessings we get from our membership in the church, our testimonies, our families, and our relationship with the Savior that we take with us.

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Carnival Games

This week our youth will go on a nearby hike to the beautiful wind caves in Logan Canyon in northern Utah. This is a combined AP/YW activity that was planned in BYC. The young men took charge of determining where to hike and will have one of their leaders speak a little on the creation before we go. The YW are in charge of water and snacks. We will meet at the church for opening exercises and then head out for the hike.

Thanks to the article a few days ago, I checked and found a geocache right on the trail we will be hiking. We will be sure to check it out on our way. I think this is a great way to socialize, get some physical activity and enjoy this beautiful world!

We did this as an activity days group, but it would be fun with YW too!

In a nutshell, geocaching uses a GPS or GPS enabled phone to locate "treasure" that has been specifically hidden for this activity.



Where I live, the geocache trail is in a large park. We got the co-ordinates from THIS WEBSITE. You start with one set of coordinates, then you find the hidden object that contains the next set of coordinates. I believe we had to find 4 sets of coordinates before finding the treasure. There may not be a geocache in all areas.

The coordinates and treasure can be hidden in all sorts of ways. We found one set of coordinates rolled into an old film container and hung in a pine tree. One was in a water proof plastic pouch that was magnetically held on a metal box. The treasure, or cache, was in a big coffee can, hidden in a rocky outcropping.



Inside the cache were all sorts of silly objects: golf balls, a mirror, a small compass, and things like that. If you take treasure, you must put something in the container for someone else to find. There should also be a "guest book" to sign. It's fun to see where people have come from, who also found the cache!

This is a good combined activity as you will need boys for partners! Have someone (more than one someone is best!) come and teach the kids how to do basic ballroom dance steps like the Waltz. Then, at the next stake dance, have the kids show off their skills!

In a previous ward, there were several older couples who were magnificent dancers, and who would have loved to teach the youth how. Perhaps you have some couples like that in your ward!

This is a play on the old Newlywed Game. It is great for a Priest/Laurel activity. We did this after the Priest/Laurel dinner. You draw names for the couples. Send the boy or girl out, then question the partner. They write their answers on a card and put it answer down on their lap. After the questions are all answered, the partner comes back in and sees if the answers match. When all the answers are given, the other partner leaves the room and the process begins again with different questions. Usually 3-5 questions per round is good. That way you can get through one round quickly and if you have enough partners, you can give everyone a chance to play.

Sample questions: Does "Billy" still sleep with a favorite stuffed toy? Does "Susie" sing like a rock star into her hairbrush while getting ready? What is "Bobby's" favorite food? What is "Katie's" favorite movie? And so on...

The winning couple gets a silly prize.

This makes a great combined activity with the YM!

A couple weeks before the activity, announce to the ward (and get it in the bulletin) that the youth will be doing a service scavenger hunt, so on the date of the activity, would they please participate with the youth.

As leaders, create a list of service for the kids to do like: wash 4 windows inside and out, wash dishes, weed a garden, wash a car... anything you can come up with.

The night of the activity, divide the number of kids attending the activity into even groups. Divide the ward boundaries into sections, having the same number of sections as groups. Assign a leader to drive.

Each group goes through their section of the ward boundaries (they can go to those who aren't members too, if you know them and they would be friendly towards the kids) and they ask the members if they can perform a service. The kids can ask to do something like "Can we wash your windows?" or if they have a lot on their list, they can say "What would you like us to do for you?"

While the kids are working, the leader should take a picture to "prove" the service was done. If cameras aren't available, the member should sign their list next to the service the kids did. Pictures are fun though because you can make a poster or bulletin board for the ward to see!

First team back gets bragging rights!!

In February, we had a Laurel class activity where the Laurels invited the Priests to a "Date Night".

One of the Laurels made cute invites for the boys, and we had simple refreshments along the Valentine theme.

To open the activity, the youth played "Do You Love Your Neighbor?" and then we had a cute young-ish married couple from our stake come and talk about creative and fun ideas for dating. They handed out 13 little trinkets that represented a different idea for a date, which they would have the youth guess about, and then the speakers would explain and expand on the ideas. As they did that, they also inserted thoughts about keeping the standards and not pairing off, as well as interacted with the youth asking questions about what was difficult about trying to date. They also gave some etiquette tips, as well.

Our Laurels & Priests combined for a group date activity night. We decided to go M&M Bowling.

We went to the local bowling alley and before each person bowled, they had to pull an M&M out of the bag and follow these rules:

Blue: Eyes Closed

Green: Backward, between your legs

Orange: Sing a primary song while you bowl

Yellow: Righties use left hand, Lefties use right hand

Brown: Granny Style

Red: Ballerina Style

We especially loved watching the priest and YM leaders bowl ballerina style!!