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!

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.

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

Carnival Games

We had a sister in our ward come speak to the YW. She had served a mission and talked with us about what the YW needed to do to prepare to serve a mission. She explained that we prepare for a mission the same way we prepare to go to the temple and talked about how the YW didn't need to make the decision today. Then she shared some of her mission experiences.

The YW made a care package for a sister missionary who was serving from our ward. We asked her Mom ahead of time some of her favorite treats, etc. We also played a trivia game with questions from For the Strength of Youth.

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.

We divided up into cars. Each car had a coin. We told the YW we were going to see if we could get to the temple and then at each intersection we would have the YW flip a coin. We would go right or left depending on the coin flip.

After driving around for awhile, we met back at the home of one of the leaders and talked about how getting to the temple cannot happen by chance - it is a choice and requires preparation. Then we watched John Bytheway's Standards Night Live. Simple, with a powerful message.

We then planned a trip to the temple for another night and had the YW dress up. We took their pictures and had a great activity on the temple grounds.

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!

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.