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ATTENTION GETTERS

KARATE LESSON: -  - If you know a sister who is into karate, this is a great activity..... The lesson should be on setting goals and achieving them. At the beginning of the lesson, the girls are given a paint stick. (you can usually get several of these for little or no cost from your local hardware/paint store i.e. home depot) The girls write a personal goal on the paint stick/board. At the end of the lesson, the sister demonstrates how she has been trained in karate to break a board.  The girls are then instructed to write on the other side of their "board" something that is or may prevent them from achieving their personal goal(s).  The girls then break the boards as demonstrated by the sister giving the lesson. Objective....Girls learn to understand they can break through barriers that may be preventing them from achieving their goals.

MORALLY CLEAN OBJECT LESSON: -  - An idea for an attention getter for a lesson on Keeping your self Morally Clean (be as appealing on the inside as you are on the outside).  I made some jello and put orange peels, cigarette butts, candy wrappers, lint, hair, etc. in it so that when it firmed up it was jello filled with trash.  At the end of our lesson, I pulled out a tupperware container stating that we had refreshments.  I asked one of the young women to open the treats and share them with everyone else.  (Of course, all the girls were anxious for the goodies and kept telling the young woman opening the treats to hurry up.)  Once they saw what the refreshments were they let out remarks of disgust --- "that's gross!"  "no way", etc.  The point of the exercise being ... something can look great from the outside, but make sure it's also good on the inside.  This can apply to boys they want to date and to themselves ... are they are as clean, pure and appealing on the inside as they are on the outside?  No one wants to be with someone filled with trash.

CLASS JOURNAL: -  I learned these things from speaker, Larry Tippets, at a Symposium I attended at BYU.  I think these "tools" could be effective for Advisors. At the beginning of the year, give each young woman in your class a class journal (an inexpensive notebook will do).  At the end of Sunday lesson you pass out the journals to the girls, and ask them, "After today's lesson, what do you think the Lord would most want me to do or learn? They write their responses and give them back to you.  During the week you read them and write a little comment back about what they wrote.  It can be as simple as, "I enjoyed your comments". Or  "I'm working on that too!"   If  someone isn't there that day you can write "I missed you today". You can also tell them they can write about things they disagree with or have questions about.  Sometimes, the girls might not feel comfortable asking a question or making a comment in class, but they will in the journal.    This helps you clarify what you taught and gives you the opportunity to develop a closer relationship. Another way to do this is after the lesson ask the girls to write down some of the things they learned during the lesson  or thoughts that they had. Tell them that you're going to call on a few of them to share with the class what they wrote.  This gives them time to dig a little deeper  and to focus their thinking  so they have something concrete to offer the class.  Again, this might make it easier for someone to participate in a discussion. You'll know who to call on and the others you can read at home and again make comments in the journal. At the end of the year or when you are released, etc.  you give the journals to the girls for them to keep.

COOKIE OBJECT LESSON: -  Objective:  how important it is to follow directions (commandments, scriptures, etc.)  On posterboard I write my favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe in large letters so everyone can see.   I bring the ingredients for the recipe, however I substitute several items, making the recipe terrible!  (Improvise how you ran out of some of the ingredients and that it won't matter if you substitute something else).  Brown sugar -- cocoa; just throw the eggs in -- shell and all;  Flour -- powdered sugar;  Chocolate chips -- raisins; etc.  After all of this, I let them look at the "batter" and talk about how and why it is so important to CAREFULLY FOLLOW the direction we have been given by our Heavenly Father.  I then present them with some chocolate chip cookies made the proper way! Yummy!  Cindy in PA

BOOK OF MORMON BATTLE: -  We as the Young Women and Young Men are having a "Book of Mormon Battle."  We are counting pages for the next 3 months to see which group reads the most.  Then at the end, for the joint activity, the loser will make and serve dinner to the loser.  To help start off this challenge, we had a fireside to help them become familiar with the Book of Mormon stories.  We had it at one of the leaders home and told the youth to bring their scriptures.  The laurels presidency had previously picked 7 stories from the Book of Mormon and each written a discription of the story.  We then divided into groups (Beehives, Deacon, Leaders, etc...) and each had to perform a skit on one of the stories the Laurels had assigned us.  The leaders did their own skit, so the youth were on their own.  They did a great job and everyone had fun learning the Book of Mormon stories!

SCRIPTURE HANGMAN: -  How you play Scripture hangman depends a lot on your Young Women.  You could play with names, places, things, events, scripture mastery, Personal Progress scriptures, the scriptures are the limits.  (ie... ye are the light of the world ... (spaces for this phrase)).   Break the YW into two groups  have one team guess at it, if they get it before they are hung then they get a point.  Then for a bonus point have them tell you what the scripture is Matthew 5:14-16.  If someone can stand up and quote it their team gets another point.  Then have one for the other  team.  Have several planned out and I am sure after a while the girls will start comming up with their own.

SCRIPTURE HANGMAN VARIATION: -  You can do it very simply and have the YW pick a word out of the scriptures like Zarahemla the other YW guess at it then when they guess it or are hung and told the answer the YW that picked the word has to be able to tell the other YW something about the word. ie... Zarahemla was the leader of Mulek's colony and had a city named after him in ancient and modern times.  When it gets too easy for the YW then add some more rules and have them tell a stoty about the word out of the scriptres.
YW VALUE SCRIPTURE HANGMAN: -  You can play with the YW scriptures.  Give a hint as to if it is a Value scripture (which include theme, standards of personal worthiness and so forth), A Truth Scripture...Beehive, Promise...Mia Maid, Faith...Laurel.  Any scriptures in the responsibilities, mission statements, recerences, and experiences are fair game.  Remember when you do a Faith scripture they include the Articles of Faith.
PERSONAL PROGRESS ACTIVITY: -  Another thing I do is in the PP book.  Have a quick game of do you know your personal progress.  Divide the Girls into teams or classes.  Ask questions to the YW like who knows the YW theme?  (When the YW know an answer have them stand up)  One by one have them resite it. Give 2 points to each team for every YW that got it right and 1 point for every YW that tried to do it.  Ask more questions like what is the value definition of Faith ...What is the YW Moto ...What is the Miamaid 2  responsibilities .... What are the Standards of Personal Worthiness (when the YW have to make a big list of things they could work in a  group and give one point for each correct answer.
PERSONAL PROGRESS AS A CLASS: -  Pick a Value Experience out of the PP book and work on it.  There are many that don't need any preperation like Beehive 2 Choice & Accountability #3  It is a read some scriptures  and discuss them.
CLASS LETTER: - Take out paper and pensils and write a letter to a missionary or inactive girl.  Give the girls a Theme, paper, pensils, and anything else you might have on hand, at the library, or in your closet. Then have them make a Mormonad.  They don't have to do it all at once.  Have them work on it for a while then when they loose interest collect the work and hold onto it.  Keep it in your stuff you bring everywhere and when they need it have them work on it again.  A good theme idea is this years theme Turning the Hearts Toward the Family.  If they want let them chang it a bit ie... Turn your heart to your family, Turn to your Family, give your heart to your family.  Let them choose.
COMMUNICATION DISCUSSION: - Have everyone line up according to their birthday.  Those with a January 1st birthday need to be at the front of the line.  Those with a Dec. 31st birthday at the end.  No one is allowed to talk.  After this group game, you can lead a discussion on body language and what communication really is.  You can talk about how we communicate and how to “read” what other people are trying to say.  
FAMILY LETTER: - ave each girl write letters to family members expressing her feelings towards them.
AGENCY & M&M'S: -  Pass a package of M&M's around the class.  Tell them to take whatever color of M&M's they want, except don't pick the blue ones.  As it is passed around, the class members will notice that there aren't any blue ones and at the end everyone will be asking the question "Why?".  Relate it to Heavenly Father's plan and giving us our agency or following Satan's plan and taking out all the blue M&M's.

CHASTITY LESSON IDEA: -  I first used this 20 plus years ago when working with the Beehives as a
thought for teaching lessons on chastity and morality:  "Be chaste while being chased."    ----- To make a picture for your lesson,  you could find a picture (maybe from a teen magazine or something) of a girl with guys around her (you know the scene!).  Glue it to a piece of card stock or construction paper and add the thought listed above:  "Be chaste while being chased".  My teacher did it when I was a youth, and I still remember it.

MODESTY LESSON: -  As an object lesson you could take some New Eras and put Cosmopolitin magazine covers over them and then discuss what they think the inside is like. My girls really took to this because they want to be in style but not to give off the wrong message. I don't think they had really thought about what they were saying to others by their dress. They figured that if it met the standards listed in the "For the strength of Youth" pamphlets it was totally okay. I have noticed a change in their dress since I gave this lesson.

CHARITY: -    (This is from the book "Power Tools for Teaching", by Beth Lefgren and Jennifer Jackson) Objective: to demonstrate how charity can help us rise to our highest potential as servants of our Heavenly Father.
Materials Needed: Two loaves of homemade bread-one with yeast, one without yeast.
Procedure: Display both loaves of bread.  Ask what the class members think made the difference. (Yeast.) Point out that the recipe was followed exactly for both loaves with the exception of one ingredient, the yeast.  T's easy to tell which loaf has the yeast.   Explain that in our lives we can have a similar experience.  We can develop our character and obey the commandments; gut if we omit the important ingredient of charity for all mankind, it will all be for nothing.  Without this vital ingredient, we cannot rise to our highest potential.

EXALTATION: -  At the beginning of the lesson ask for those who have NOT read their scriptures or prayed or whatever that week.  Now for those who HAVE NOT read Give THEM a Hershey's kiss.  Then continue with your lesson.  Don't say anything else.  You will hear some murmuring. If they murmur say we will talk about it later.  At the END of the Lesson. For those who READ give them a HUGE candy bar.  Tie it into life today ... sometimes it seems as though the wicked are receiving rewards NOW.  Ask was it worth the wait to get the bigger candy bar?  Tie into worth the wait for celestial Kingdom The reward is bigger better and worth the wait.