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.

We may assume that all the YW know how to play the common sports: softball, volleyball, and basketball. However, many do not, and a lot of times they are scared to admit that they don't know or that they're afraid of making mistakes so they don't play. They may not know the rules or the proper stance (batting, or volleyball), how to properly shoot or swing a bat. They may have never played before. Have a sports night where you not only play a game of the chosen sport, but you go over rules and techniques as well. This can help girls gain confidence, especially if your stake is active with these sports! Have a YW who excels in the sport help with the planning. This could pass off a personal progress goal.

You can also include other sports the girls are interested in like field hockey, tennis, soccer, golf, bowling, etc.

Some girls are experts at styling their hair. Others... not so much. Have a "hair" night! Invite ladies in your ward who are expert braid-ers, up-do-ers, and curl-ers, and ask those girls who always seem to have perfect hair to share what they do and how they do it! Let the girls practice on each other, or let them practice on themselves so they can learn how to do it for themselves! It's a fun way for the girls to interact with each other, and helps those who struggle with their hair, by giving them ideas, tips, and confidence to try something new.

There are some other ideas in this "Makeover Night" post!

*When you advertise this activity, you may want to put a note asking all the girls to come with freshly washed hair!

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!

While attending a Stake Leadership Training last fall, our high councilman talked about value gardens from back in the day (lol). He recommended planting them at the different buildings around our stake.

We loved this idea and got together with the other ward in our building to do this as a combined YW activity. We purchased bulbs for flowers in the different value colors (you can see recommendations in this LDS Church News article from 1992) and spent the evening planting bulbs all around the Church in the available flowerbeds.

And now - they're popping up! I can't wait to see them bloom. I live in Northern Utah so it may be a few weeks, but they are going to be a beautiful reminder to the YW of the values!

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!!

The YW love to have makeover night. We invited a sister to come speak on the importance of caring for our bodies. She had some great quotes and talked about caring for our bodies, minds and spirits. Really good. Just about 10 minutes or so.

Then, we gave the YW this handout with home beauty tips. Inexpensive ways to care for their skin. We reminded them that they need to put moisture back in their skin with an inexpensive lotion or beauty cream.

The YW were then paired up and they did makeovers on one another. We had a hair station, a nail station and a makeup station.

For our hair station, we had a laptop set up with videos on different hairstyles. We used the videos found @ "Hairstyles for Girls." The LDS woman who owns this site is AMAZING and has a knack for explaining how to do hair. Check out her Facebook page, blog or Youtube Videos!

The budget was FREE and I think it was a hit! They have already asked to do another makeover night - this time mothers and daughters!

*Right-click to save the handout (pdf format) to your computer!

We planned a life-size game night. This was a lot of fun and much easier than I at first anticipated. We played a version of "Pretty Pretty Princess." Here's what we did.

What You Need

1. For each YW - 1 ring, 2 earrings, 1 bracelet, 1 necklace, 1 crown (inexpensive plastic party-type stuff)
2. One Mirror - hand mirror or mirror on an easel - any mirror
3. Carpet squares (get from local carpet store - donated or small cost)
4. Masking Tape
5. Magic Markers
6. One giant spinner or dice - we just made a spinner from poster board we had at home. I printed out a spinner arrow on card stock and attached with a brad and washer.

Before the Activity

1. We invited a sister in our ward to speak to the YW on the topic of divine nature and told her about the game we were playing so she understood it was princess oriented. She brought her 3-year-old daughter and both were dressed like princesses - it was awesome!
2. We purchased enough crowns, necklaces, earrings, bracelets and rings for each YW. We bought these online at orientaltrading.com and they were very inexpensive. You could also find them at a local party store if you have one in your area. Just cheap plastic jewelry and crowns.
3. We went to a local carpet store and picked up a lot of carpet squares/samples (we called around first and explained that we needed them for a church youth group and asked if they had any they could donate - they charged a small fee of about .30c/each). To figure out how many squares you need take the number of YW you have and multiply by 2 or 3 (depending on how large your group is and how spread out you want the spaces).
4. Make a giant spinner or dice - something they can use to determine the number of squares they will move on their turn.

Set Up That Night

1. The class presidency came early to set up. They put the carpet squares in a giant circle around the gym.
2. In the middle of the circle they set up a small table with a tablecloth on it. On top we placed all of the jewelry, the crowns and the mirror.
3. We wrote on masking tape with markers the instructions for each square (some YW wrote the instructions and some taped them on each square). The instructions will be: You get a necklace - You get an earring - You get a bracelet - You get a ring - You get your crown - Take an item of your choice - Put an item back... Make one or two sets of each of these (depending on how many carpet blocks you have - you might even need three sets). Then on the blank square (if any) we let the class presidency make up things for the YW to do. They wrote things like "Do a princess wave" "Sing your favorite Primary song" etc. Make sure every carpet square has instructions on it.
   

The Activity

1. Speaker first (she was awesome) and then we explained the rules. We wrote each YW's name on a piece of paper to keep track of what order they would spin and take their turn.
2. Each YW took their turn spinning and going around the squares doing whatever it said. They could NOT get their crown until they had all of the other jewelry.
3. Once they had all of their jewelry - ring, bracelet, two earrings and necklace (they don't get more than one of anything except 2 earrings) - they had to land on a crown square.
4. Once they landed on the crown square they got to go to the middle to get their crown.
5. When they put the crown on their head, they looked in the mirror and said, "I'm a pretty, pretty princess!"
6. We played until all YW received their crown.