Sunday, October 20, 2013

patience.



Our lesson today was on becoming patient.  I loved the video of Elder Uchtdorf's talk Continue in Patience.  My girls loved watching the little kids and whether to eat the marshmallow now or wait for fifteen minutes and get two marshmallows instead of one!

For the handout I made this one of Jesus Christ with www.courtneyaitken.blogspot.com.



I also was inspired by these cute ghosts to tie in Halloween and Elder Uchtdorf's example of the children and marshmallows.  Instead of using pretzel bags and mini marshmallows I used some clear goody bags and stacked 4 regular sized marshmalloes in it.  Then as I closed it up I twisted it snuggly around the marshmallows so they would stay stacked and then fastened the twisty tie.  I had the excess at the bottom instead of the top.

Marshmallow ghosts


For this lesson I also had a picture of Christ and put a large piece of paper over the top of it that was cut into puzzle pieces.  The girls took turns picking a puzzle piece and reading a quote about patience that was taped to the back.  As they did this a picture of the Savior was revealed to remind us to of His patience, our desire to be like Him, and the blessings we recieve from having patience. 



Wednesday, September 25, 2013

general conference notebooks and value project

I know that this idea is not a new one, but it needed a bit of an update.  Last year as the Personal Progress Leader I found a general conference value project and encouraged the girls to do it by giving them a handout with all of the information on it and tied a pen to it.  You can download this under the Value Project tab.

This year as a Beehive Advisor I decided to have the girls make their Conference Notebooks together.  I found a PDF of all of the Apostles and First Presidency for the girls to tape into their notebooks as tabs, and then redesigned some of the other General Conference goodies that are already out there to make it match our notebooks and not use up all of my colored ink! 

At Michaels I found animal print notebooks for 75 cents!  They also had some coordinating animal print jewels.  I went home and pulled out some coordinating paper, scissiors, packing tape, double sided tape and glue sticks. 

There were a few things I did to make it go more smoothly for the activity.  I printed out and cut the title and inserts and premade the Apostle Tabs.  Get the Title and Inserts HERE.

To make the Apostle Tabs I just printed and cut them out (get them from the link below), then cut a long strip of packing tape.  I then put the Apostles face down on the sticky side of the tape and then covered with another piece for some home lamination!  Then I cut them out with a tiny border so that the tape still stuck to itself.

To put the tabs in, cut a piece of packing tape about 3/4 of an inch wide and then tape over the Apostle Tab so that the tape adheres to the 3 sides of the tab that lay on top of the paper.

I put them in alphabetical order and staggered them, leaving about 5 pages in between each tab.

This would be a great gift for Visiting Teachees!

Here are the sites that these ideas/inserts originate from:

http://thegoldenseven.blogspot.com/2012/10/printable-apostle-tabs-for-general.html - Apostle Tab Printable
www.marcicoombs.blogspot.com - Make the Most of General Conference








Friday, September 13, 2013

how can i guard my virtue?

Here is the handout that I have created for my beehive beauties!  Elder Holland has some very memorable phrases to help the girls know how to guard their virtue.


I also created a BINGO game for the girls to play while we read all of Elder Holland's remarks.  This way they have to listen to the words and match the quotes with one of the pictures in the BINGO game to play.  HERE it is.  There are at least 10 different BINGO boards. 

 


Tuesday, September 3, 2013

personal progress summer follow up

Remember when I told the girls that if they completed 2 values or finished half of their honor bee or completed all of their personal progress by the end of summer I would invite them to a special celebration?  Here is the handout I designed for them to easily report what they had done during the summer.  All they have to do is circle what they have completed over the summer and then I can compare what they had already done when summer began.  You can get the document HERE.


Wednesday, August 28, 2013

How Can I be in the World but not of the World?

I am basing most of my lesson on Sister Elaine S. Dalton's talk "Remember who you are."  I love this because this is what my mom told me when I went out with my friends in high school each night.  I plan on showing the video of her talk in entirety.  While the girls listen to the talk I will have them write down "what the Lord wants them to be" and "what the world wants them to be" on THIS handout I have created.  And once again, I compiled the beautiful handouts created by www.courtneyaitken.blogspot.com for my 4 x 6 photo handout that you can download HERE

 
  




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, August 24, 2013

chastity and virtue

I have the honor of teaching "Why is Chastity Important?" to the Beehives! Of course I checked out one of my favorite sites - www.courtneyaitken.blogspot.com - for some awesome handouts.  I compiled her art into a 4X6 photo handout and also found THIS bit on the penny and chastity. And I came up with a handout to go with the penny object lesson as well and will be giving each girl a shiny new penny to keep in her change purse as a reminder to be virtuous! 
This would be great as a VIRTUE handout for personal progress as well.

 
 

Sunday, August 11, 2013

beehive advising

I am no longer the Personal Progress Leader in my ward, but that doesn't mean I can't still be a personal progress cheerleader!  I plan on providing a value experience for the girls to do each Sunday that I teach.  They will have the opportunity to reflect on what they've learned as they take a few minutes at the end of class to complete it.  Just check out the Lesson tab to get handouts and value experience journal cards.  I don't teach every Sunday, but you wouldn't want to do personal progress every time, it would be a bit of an over kill! 


Friday, July 26, 2013

Teaching Take Out

Our Stake is having a YW Super Saturday and has asked all of the PP Leaders to come up with a class that the girls can attend and pass off a value experience.  Right up my alley, huh?  My sister and I created a class called Teaching Take Out. We created eight family home evening lessons, one for each value.  The girls can pass off a value experience when they teach a family home evening lesson to their family.   And they get to create and customize one of the lessons themselves. 

For the Integrity Lesson I chose Integrity #7.  The idea is to have them pick a song, scriptures, etc. that have to do with strengthening the family.  They then read The Family: A Proclamation to the World, the section on Family in the For the Strength of Youth Pamphlet, and two general conference talks on family and then create questions for their families to pick out of their chinese take out box.  They also will be decorating a paper clip with ribbon to coordinate with each value so they can separate each lesson within the manilla envelope.  What an awesome way to complete personal progress! 

Here are the LESSONS, INTEGRITY LESSON CARD,  VALUE EXPERIENCES SLIPS, TAKE OUT BOX LABEL, and use THIS jpeg to print labels for your manilla folders.

 


 
For each packet you will need to print the LESSONS, INTEGRITY LESSON CARD (2 per page), VALUE EXPERIENCE SLIPS (5 t0 6 per page); and add in 8 jumbo paper clips, a copy of The Family: A Proclamation to the World, and 12 slips of blank paper (to have them write the Integrity Lesson questions on).
 

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

cake!

One of my Laurels and I made, or rather, we built a birthday cake for her mom's birthday. I taught her how to make homemade fondant and cover the cake with it. She made 4 layers of cake, two yellow and two chocolate. We frosted it with chocolate butter cream and then covered it with fondant. We added white fondant polka dots and a cute peach bow made of fondant on top. I love spending time with each of the young women. 
 
The Homemade Fondant Recipe is below because I know you want to try it!
 

HOMEMADE FONDANT

16 oz marshmallows
2 pounds powdered sugar
2-5 T water

1/2 cup Crisco
 

Melt marshmallows and 2 tablespoons of water in a microwave.  Put the bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds, open microwave and stir, back in microwave for 30 seconds more, open microwave and stir again, and continue doing this until melted. It usually takes about 2 1/2 minutes total. Place 3/4 of the powdered sugar on the top of the melted marshmallow mix.
Now grease your hands GENEROUSLY with Crisco, then heavily grease the counter you will be using and dump the bowl of marshmallow/sugar mixture in the middle.
Start kneading like you would bread dough. Keep kneading, this stuff is sticky at this stage! Add the rest of the powdered sugar and knead some more. Re-grease your hands and counter when the fondant starts sticking. If the mix is tearing easily, it is to dry, so add water (about 1/2 tablespoon at a time and then knead it in). It usually takes me about 8 minutes to get a firm smooth elastic ball so that it will stretch without tearing when you apply it to the cake.
It is best if you can let it sit, double wrapped, overnight (but you can use it right away if there are no tiny bits of dry powdered sugar). If you do see them, you will need to knead and maybe add a few more drops of water. 
Prepare the fondant for storing by coating it with a good layer of Crisco shortening, wrap in a plastic-type wrap product and then put it in a Ziploc bag. Squeeze out as much air as possible. Fondant will hold very well in the refrigerator for weeks. 
When using rested fondant, get at room temp (use microwave for 10 seconds at a time) and use cornstarch to prevent sticking to counter.  Add a few drops of food coloring at a time and knead in.  When rolling out, don’t go less than 1/8 in thick and use a non-stick rolling pin if you have one, if not, use cornstarch.  When placing fondant on cake, roll around rolling pin, drape the edge over cake and slowly unroll fondant onto pre-iced cake.  Use hands and a small amount of cornstarch to smooth onto the icing of cake, use a pizza cutter or knife to trim excess fondant. 
Store a fondant cake on the counter in a sealed cake box for up to 3 days (fondant seals in moisture), do not refridgerate!  Moisture will condense and ruin fondant.  

 
 

divine nature.

To remind the girls that they inherit divine qualities from their Heavenly Father because they are His daughters I made them crown sugar cookies and attached this tag. I found the tag HERE and you can get the document to print it HERE.


 
 
 


Sunday, June 9, 2013

smash.

What should these girls do with the bazillion handouts that I give them?  They are getting monthly value goal cards, monthly lesson them cards, reminder treats with tags on them, mutual value experience cards...did I forget any? 

Here is what they should do with them...staple them into their Personal Progress journals!  I love that I can write my journal entry and have the card right there so when I go back and read it I know what the value experience was!  And now there is a place for all of the goal cards, and tags from the handouts too! 

All it took was 4 different types of ribbon and a stapler.  I stapled all of the cards in on the same page as the correlating journal entry.  If there were two on the same page I overlapped them and only stapled one side so they could be lifted up.  Then I tied ribbons through the holes that were already on the cards (to hang on the flower mirror hanger) and stapled some ribbon on as tabs to lift them up.  They could even write their journal entry on the back of the card and staple it into the journal so it can be flipped over.  For the cover I used double sided tape and taped some scrapbook paper over it front to back and added a sticker of the temple.  Then I tied it with a loose piece of twine.  What a great keepsake!






Orange you glad it's summer?

I made these for the boys' teachers.  They are orange rolls with THIS tag!  Just thought I'd share.  You could use the tag with something much more simple than orange rolls - orange slice candies, orange soda, or anything orange!

“Knock Knock.”
 “Who’s There?”
 “Orange."
“Orange Who?”

 
Orange You Glad It’s Summer?!

We are too!

 

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

summer personal progress handout.

I made these and am going to give these to the girls the Sunday after school gets out to encourage them to work on their Personal Progress during the summer.  If they complete two values (all six experiences and project for each) OR 20 hours of service and half of the Book of Mormon for their Honor Bee I will have a breakfast or lunch for them at my house. This idea came from www.marcicoombs.blogspot.com. 


Your summer will ROCK
if you POP open your
Personal Progress book and
work on it non-stop!

“Personal Progress provides a wonderful way for you to nourish your testimony step by step. Value experiences and projects are small steps that will nourish your testimony of Jesus Christ as you learn His teachings and regularly apply them in your life. This constant nourishment will keep you safely on the path.”    - Mary N. Cook





Print the handouts on card stock HERE, cut them out, and then staple to another color of cardstock on sides and bottom.  Trim with pinking sheers and staple some rik rak or ribbon to the side to spunk it up. Put your pop rocks inside and you have a super cute reminder!  I found the Pop Rocks at Dollar Tree - One three pack is $1.  Have fun rocking out on this one!

Thursday, May 30, 2013

personal progress low down.

For the past year I have been the Personal Progress leader in Young Womens.  I love my calling and really feel that I have been guided by the Spirit to know what my girls need.  So I'll let you know what I do...

I believe it is important to incorporate Personal Progress in every aspect of YW.  If the girls are constantly thinking about it, and incorporating it into their lives their testimonies will grow and they will have a deeper personal knowledge of the gospel.

How I do it...

Welcome Meeting.

The Second Counselor accompanies me in meeting with each new Beehive and her mother at their home.  At that time I bring a folder with all of the things she needs:


·      Personal Progress Book
·      Personal Progress Journal
·      Pen
·      Notebook  with the mutual theme on it (because the journals are so small)
·      Flower mirror hanger (to hang value experience and goal cards on their mirror to remind them daily of what they are working on)
·      Small file keeper (to file cards in when they are completed or before they are being worked on)
Folder (from Staples)

Contents of Folder


Flower Mirror Hanger:  Each experience or goal card I give the girls has a hole punched in it so they can hang it on their mirror and be reminded daily of what they are working on.  I bought the suction cup hooks in the home improvement section of Walmart and the flowers with wire on the back from Michaels.  Then you just wrap the wire around the suction cup hook and viola!








Monthly Value.

The first Sunday of the month I give each girl a card to set a goal of how many and which experiences she would like to complete for the value that month.  I found the artwork HERE and added this at the bottom: I will complete Value Experience #____   Date Completed:_____

You can download all of these in PDF HERE.



 New Goal Cards:  I have come to the end - Virtue.  So HERE are the new goal cards for the next round with a different look.  I found this beautiful value artwork HERE.


 
Monthly Lesson Theme.

With the new lesson program I pick a value experience that goes with the lesson theme for the month.  This way each girl can complete a value experience that will help her strengthen her understanding of the lesson theme.  I send a card with the value experience on it home with them the second Sunday of each month. I email these to the leaders before the month begins so they can help incorporate the experience(s) into their lessons. The lessons on www.lds.org/youth/learn give value experiences that go with the lesson theme. I choose the one I feel the girls should work on and then list the rest at the bottom so they can work on those as well.  You can download the PDFs  for the entire year HERE!



Last Sunday.

On the last day of the month she will get a reminder handout/treat to encourage her to complete a value experience for the value of the month (monthly goal card). Some of my handouts I come up with on my own, find on Pinterest and on this site HERE.  Click on the Monthly Value tab above for some of the most recent ones I have done, tags included!



Personal Progress Nights.

Nights where we meet together as a class and complete/start a value experience together.  We often do this in our pajamas.  After we do an experience together the girls write in their journals or start working on another value experience while I try to meet with each girl.  When we meet I update my records of what she has done, help her set goals, and discuss project ideas, etc.  Sometimes these are done as an activity for all classes and sometimes with just one class.  We do an All Girl Night at least twice a year and the separate class activities as needed.
 

 





Mutual Activities.

Occasionally (let's be honest - most of the time), we will have a mutual activity that correlates with a value experience.  When this happens I send a value experience card home with the girls so they can complete the one started at the activity.  I attend most mutual activities and try to alternate between which class activities I go to.  See some of the mutual activities we have done by clicking on the Activities tab above!
       

Parent Letter/Email. 

I send an email quarterly to each of the parents.  This email explains how I help their daughter with their personal progress (just like this handout), how she can help her daughter, and includes an updated record of what her daughter has completed according to my record.  The purpose of this letter is to motivate the parents to help or thank them for encouraging their daughters.



Value Projects. 

I give the girls lots of opportunities to do value projects by coordinating with presidencies in other auxillaries and events that are coming up in our ward.

General Conference Notebook

Before General Conference I printed out instructions for a 10 hour value project that they could complete during conference and tied a colored pen to it.  I also emailed the girls a binder cover and pages they could print out to make their journals – found HERE. I made one for myself and love it!  You can get the PDF for the handout HERE.



Serving in the Ward

Have girls be in charge of the Youth Ward Bulletin Board, New Beginnings, Camp Fundraisers, helping with Primary Activities or other activities/needs in the ward so they can complete Value Projects.


Help from Advisors and Leaders.

One of my Beehive Advisors has the girls over on a Sunday at least once a month to work on Personal Progress or read the Book of Mormon and make a treat.

They allow me time at the individual class activities to talk about the value experience that correlates  with the activity so the girls can complete an experience at the activity.

I email them what experiences I will be highlighting that month so they can encourage the girls to work on it and allow them time to work on them in class if they feel prompted to do so and give them ideas of how to incorporate them into their lessons. 

I email them an updated personal progress record sheet of what the girls in their class have completed. 


Time In Opening Exercises Every Sunday. 

My YW President gives me time every Sunday during opening exercises to present and explain the cards, and/or award ribbons and certificates, and most importantly bear my testimony about the subject. This way the girls get to know me, see what others accomplish, and are thinking about Personal Progress at least every Sunday.


new beginnings gift.

Our ward always gives the girls something with the mutual theme on it so they can have something in their rooms that remind them daily of what it is.  Since chalkboards are so in right now, I came up with this cute chalkboard.  It only cost about $3.15 a piece to  make.

I found the print HERE and had it printed as a 5 by 7 photo, not glossy. We had a long plank of wood cut and then I painted each board black with black acrylic paint and then sprayed the front side with 2 layers of chalkboard spray paint.  Then we mod podged on the picture and added some twine with a staple gun, tied a twine bow and hot glued a paper flower on it.  And then tied the polka dot ribbon around it.  They turned out super cute!




new beginnings 2013.

We held our New Beginnings event last Tuesday.  One of our mia maids, Elise, helped organize, plan and conduct the event.  She did a great job and is able to count it towards one of her value projects.  We welcomed two new young women that will be turning twelve this year.  It was a lot of fun and a beautiful evening.  Here are some pictures and downloads to use if you'd like them!






 Tissue paper flowers, paper sack flowers, burlap, our mutual theme chalk boards, temple pictures and some quick mutual theme Word Art I designed made great decorations.



I used a shoe in each value color for my talk and they ended up as the perfect decoration for the mutual theme that I tied into personal progress. 


And for refreshments some yummy treats including mini cupcakes with THESE cupcake toppers.

I also gave the new girls a small jewelry box to put their young women motto necklace in so they don't lose it between now and the time they enter young womens.  I forgot to take a picture but will try to get one for you.  They turned out really adorable...a bright blue heart shaped box and I enlarged the cupcake topper with the high heel on it and printed it on bright pink paper, cut it out in a heart shape and mod podged it on the lid. 

Thanks to Elise and Kayoko the evening was amazing!

mutual theme notebook.
 
I also made these notebooks for each of the girls to write notes, their testimonies, etc. during their Sunday lessons.  Their advisors will pass them out in the beginning of class and collect them at the end each Sunday. Thanks to Walmart I found these notebooks for 10 cents!  Then I printed THIS on shiny cardstock, stapled them on the front and added their name with a ribbon.