The YW love a good spa night - especially if they get to invite their Moms! Here are a few ideas from ours:

1) DEVOTIONAL - on what true beauty is.

2) NAIL STATION - mothers and daughters give one another manicures (hand scrub recipe: 1 cup coarse sea salt, 1/2 cup liquid coconut oil, 6 drops of essential oil for scent), including painting one another's nails.

3) MAKEUP STATION - We brought some inexpensive cosmetics (new for hygiene reasons) and disposable applicators and one of the leaders demonstrated on a YW the proper way to apply makeup and then mothers/daughters did makeovers.

4) CRAYOLA LIPSTICK CRAFT - Recipe: 1/2 teaspoon of coconut oil, 1 crayon (soak wrapper for a few minutes to easily peel off) broken into 3-4 pieces (or combine 1/2 each of 2 crayons) and 1/4 teaspoon vegetable oil (or essential oil if you want them scented) for gloss and easier spreadability). We put a frying pan on the stove with 1-2" water and brought to a simmer. Our frying pan held 4 ramekins so 4 YW could go at a time. YW prepared their ramekins with the oils/crayons and put them in the frying pan (in the ramekin so it's a makeshift double boiler). Stir with skewers (we had tiny plastic spoons that we used to measure the oils and to stir with). Then use pipettes to put hot lipsticks into lipstick containers. *We really only ended up purchasing pipettes and lipstick containers because we had everything else! There are many youtube videos on how to make the crayola lipsticks.

5) HAIR STATION - We downloaded several videos from Cute Girls Hairstyles and one of our YW manned a station where the YW and mothers could watch the videos and do one another's hair. Be sure to download the videos, because most churches block YouTube over the wifi (unless you're using a cell device, obviously).

6) REFRESHMENTS - We purchased nut cups and peanuts and chocolate covered fruit. We made little cups of nuts and little cups of the chocolate covered fruits and put little circle labels on them (see printable below). We also had little water bottles with labels (see printable below).

7) PRINTABLES - 

Water Bottle Labels - Here is a link to the label above PDF here or WORD document here if you prefer. These labels are 1.25" x 8." We used Kirkland brand water bottles from Costco (the SMALL 8 oz bottles) and removed the labels from them (don't remove the sticky glue from the bottles when removing labels!). The new labels were stuck to the old glue and then wrapped around and glued with a simple glue stick (you could use any glue but a glue stick totally worked!!). 

Round Stickers for nut cups or napkins or whatever - Here is a link to the PDF and here is the link to the Word document. (We used Avery 8293 round labels - which we had lying around)

*Font: The font is Cutie Pop and you can download it for FREE here.

Feel free to edit, change, whatever to your heart's content!

Who doesn't love waffles? That was the question my Laurel class had for me when they planned this activity. Their idea was to have a waffle night and invite the Priests.

Assignments were made: waffle irons, waffle batter (6 types!) and toppings (fruit, syrups, whipped cream, etc.) and the party was held.

This was a great activity for socializing. The youth had a good time making different flavors of waffles and just enjoying one another. They played a couple of games and had a fun time. For the waffles, we did "normal" waffle batter and then several flavors of cake batter waffles. To make cake batter waffles, just combine cake mix (ANY flavor - we used fudge, strawberry chip, red velvet, yellow cake - and more) with 3 eggs, 1/3 C oil & 1 1/3 C water.

I purchased disposable containers like these to make the batter in. This worked well because when it was over I just put lids on the batter and sent them home with the young women!

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. :)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Egg Relay Game Party Supplies

Last night we had a mother/daughter dinner. It was a lovely evening. Our class presidency planned it and made assignments. They did all of the cooking and we ate outdoors. Plastic was down on the picnic tables and the girls fed us enchiladas and salad and lemonade. Brownies for dessert!

After dinner we played a version of the Newlywed Game where there were ten questions about the daughters and ten about the mothers. Then answers were tallied and shared. Hilarious!

Some of the questions about the daughters included: What is your daughter's least favorite chore? Who is your daughter's best friend? What does your daughter want to be when she grows up? Moms and daughters both answered the questions (daughters about themselves, obviously). Some of the questions about the Mothers included: When is your mother's birthday (including year!)? What actor does your Mom find attractive? When is your parent's wedding anniversary? Again, both answered the questions - this time Moms about themselves.

Simple activity and a lot of fun!

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!

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.

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.

We had a wonderful activity last night that I wanted to share. We had a panel with the bishopric's wives. They brought their wedding pictures and dresses and had them in the room. We had a jar that the girls put questions in for them to answer - we told the girls they could ask questions about friendship, dating or marriage.

They started out by sharing their engagement stories & their wedding day and then answered the questions from the jar which were things like: How old should you be before you get your first kiss? And, how old should you be to get married?

It was really fun & spiritual and the girls absolutely loved it!

We ended with a nice dessert & gave the girls temple hangers. We told the girls to hang their them in their closet only surrounded by modest clothing so that every day when they see it they will be reminded that they are daughters of God. They will remember what they stand for and of their goal to go through the temple someday.

-Tabitha

Once the dust clears from Youth Conference and Girls Camp (whew!) this Summer, we will be starting a Relief Society mentoring program.

We have had our Young Women sign up and tell us a specific skill that they would like to learn. We have YW interested in photography, car repair, cooking, needlework, etc.

We are planning to take that list and pass it around Relief Society and ask that sisters volunteer to help mentor a young woman in an area they are comfortable with. We will explain to them that they have the opportunity to work on their Personal Progress if they would like, but if nothing else it will be a good bonding experience and a great way to help with the transition between YW and RS!

After 6-8 weeks we plan to have a dinner to thank the sisters who have helped with the skills. We will have the YW display the projects they have been working on with their mentors.

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!

So I recently joined my sister in creating a Sharing Station for BYU Women's Conference (the link will work once our booth is posted). It was quite the project! The theme was "How do you spell love? T*I*M*E" from President Uchtdorf's talk in October Conference, 2010.

Because our theme was about TIME, one of our objects for our table was a clock. I really wanted a "Families are Forever" clock, but I also wanted it to match the color scheme of our booth. SO, I decided to make my own clock face.

This would be a simple project to do with the YW and they could put the yearly theme - or a favorite scripture - or whatever they want on the face of their clock. HERE is the .jpg for the one I made for the booth. HERE is one with this year's theme. Feel free to use either or to make your own template! Here are a couple of blank templates: | TEMPLATE 1 | TEMPLATE 2 |  You can download them and add your own graphics, words, etc.*

I found instructions HERE and followed them almost completely. Before you do this, I highly recommend their advice of purchasing a clock with a PLASTIC face (I am speaking from broken glass experience on this one). The project is fairly straight forward. You remove the plastic cover with a butter knife, turn the hands to 12 and carefully slide them off, insert your new clock face (gluing if necessary), put everything back together and voila!

* Photoshop hint: If you want to do the letters around in a circle in Photoshop simply create a circle path and then select your horizontal text tool and type onto the path - it will follow the circle!

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 wonderful idea since most Beehives feel left out because they can't go to youth conference until they're 14! When my daughter participated, it was on a stake level, but it could also be done on a ward level.

The conference can include several activities and mini-classes like etiquette, table manners (things that should be learned at home, but are still needed), personal grooming/hygiene, how to live through junior high, getting involved in school and church, scripture study at the Beehive age, personal progress, etc.

Then there was a lunch afterward, then a short closing talk. The conference lasts 2-3 hours, depending on how many mini-classes you have.

I guess Girl Scouts have been doing this for years, but until last year I'd never heard of it. My camp director told me about it last year and we hosted our very first pin swap.

What is a pin s.w.a.p.?

Our ward hosted it last year and we're hosting it again this year. That means we call around and find out which wards are participating and get a head count. Once we know how many people are participating, we can begin making the pins.

Each ward makes an inexpensive pin (we budget $5-$10 total for all the pins our ward makes) for each YW (including their own ward) participating. At camp the girls will be given a pin for themselves and several pins to exchange with other YW in other wards. Then, when they meet a YW who is wearing a pin they don’t have, they can exchange for one of their ward pins. The goal is to get to know other YW and to collect pins from each participating ward.

How do I make the pins?

You can purchase flat-back pins and glue anything onto it – or you can use safety pins without the end stopper (as pictured above) or you can also purchase a tie-tac type of pin.

Last year our theme was The Little Mermaid and we glued tiny pink seashells onto flat-back pins. They were so pretty and inexpensive. The YW had a great time exchanging with other wards. Our YW wore their pins on their hat bands. This year we're making them neckties in zebra stripes (we're zebras for our safari theme) that they can put their pins on. We haven't decided on the pins themselves yet. Any ideas? Leave them in the comments!

You can find out more information and get ideas by googling camp pin S.W.A.P. (Special Whatchamacallits Affectionally Pinned).

Certification Requirement!

The 4th years have as one of their certification requirements: "Help to plan an activity for the whole camp or you own group that will help the campers get to know each other. Involve everyone." They made the pins and passed this off!

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!!

We picked up a lot of large boxes (appliance boxes) from a local appliance store. We brought craft items - duct tape, scissors, markers, colored paper, etc. for decorating. We let the YW decorate their "cars" however they wanted. We had cars, the Bedknobs & Broomstick bed, the tardis, etc.

We had movie snacks and watched a church video and the YW loved it!

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.