The personal progress value we are focusing on for April is Virtue. I’ve filled our young women treat jar with golden goodies – Rolo chocolates.
I have a gold candle to put on the jar lid. The virtue stickers are printed on full-sheet labels
Also available in Portuguese.
With March being Reading Awareness Month, my daughter’s teacher asked that I come in again to share another story. They are having a camping theme in their classroom, which made me think of this charming read, “A Camping Spree With Mr. Magee
It’s another great read aloud, with rhyming text and wonderful illustrations.
I wanted to do a craft to go with their camping theme – and this print and fold camper was too much fun to pass up. I found it as part of last year’s calendar of the month club from Curiosity. I did have to open it up in Photoshop to change the month and year, and while I was at it I cut and pasted photos of my daughter’s classmates into the RV windows (they are blurred above for privacy reasons).
I may also bring toothpicks and a bag of mini marshmallows for the kids to do some imaginary toasting.
Although I love the look of the armrests on the chairs, they are a little tricky to cut and fold. I plan to simplify them with the group, like the chair on the right.
I also love these fun campfire cupcakes from Parenting Magazine. I won’t be using these this time, but am keeping them in mind for the future!
I read to my daughter’s third grade classroom again last week, and followed up with an easy craft: a fishing pole bookmark.
This book, “Seal Song”, is a great one for this age group. There is mysterious folklore, special friendship, and poetic phrasing. Also some eerie seal singing, “eeeeeiiiii, eeeeeiiii”. I had to practice that beforehand to get it right. 😉
I prepared these supplies for the bookmark ahead of time:
jumbo craft sticks (with a hole drilled in one end)
fish cut from sparkly craft foam
paperclips
string
You begin by poking a hole through a foam fish with a paper clip. Then tie the string to the other end of the clip, and through the hole in the craft stick. I then had the kids write their names on the sticks with permanent markers. It was fun, fast and easy.
I have another personal progress download for you. It was conceived for girls camp – so girls can complete an experience at camp, fill this out, then add it to their personal progress books when they get home. Download here.
I’m sending a little package to my sister for her birthday today which includes these gloves, fastened into the “I love you” sign.
I made a quick stitch through all the layers of fingers and glove – one snip is all it takes to remove it.
Then I added the heart pin with her name, which reminds me of our relationship as kids! Change that little detail, and you could send some personalized love to anyone for any occasion. Fun!
Every month we highlight a different Personal Progress value in our young women group. We will be talking about integrity in March, and I’ve mades some purple stickers that fit on the bottom of Bliss milk chocolate squares.
During Sunday opening exercises anyone that has worked on a personal progress experience or project can come up, grab a chocolate and tell us what she is working on.
You may have noticed my unintentional progression of treat holders. January’s candy corn (choice and accountability), February’s Butterfingers (good works), and March’s Bliss squares (integrity) were all kept in containers that I tried to tie in with the 2012 mutual theme: “Arise and shine forth that thy light may be a standard for the nations”. The lights in the tops of the jars are meant to reinforce the idea that we “arise and shine” as we read scriptures, pray and do other things inspired from the personal progress program.
I dropped and broke the lid to my January jar, the February jar just wasn’t working, and I couldn’t resist when, at a thrift store, I found that crazy brass candle holder that fit on a vase. I can switch out a different color candle each month to go with the values, and it certainly grabs your attention!
Enjoy!
Click to download the integrity candy stickers in English, or in Portuguese.
This is the handout I’ve made to go along with YW manual 1 lesson 10, Supporting Family Members. The cross-stitch is inspired from this quote from Susan W. Tanner:
I remember a simple sampler that I cross-stitched as a young Primary girl. It said, “I will bring the light of the gospel into my home.” I wondered, “What is that light?” Jesus Christ Himself explained it best when He was teaching the Nephites. He said, “Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world.” Then He explained, “I am the light which ye shall hold up—that which ye have seen me do” (3 Ne. 18:24; emphasis added).
I like this idea of starting by talking about the light we can each bring into our homes, that… “We must be the light to help our families overcome sin, anger, envy, and fighting. We can pray together, weep for each other, heal each other’s wounds, and selflessly love and serve one another.”
From there we will go into the manual and talk about the different roles of family members and how we can appreciate and support one another. I’ve attached a download of my lesson plan – but it is still a little rough. I plan to scribble on it throughout the week and add questions and personal stories as I think of them.
At the end of the lesson I will bring out some Jenga blocks. I’ve added some masking tape to one side that the girls can write on as we build a tower. I will have them open their For the Strength of Youth books to the chapter on Family, and a sentence at a time, pick out things to write on the blocks that build up families. We will build a tower with the blocks and talk about how it represents our homes. We’ll then remove blocks Jenga-style and relate the missing blocks to selfish or unkind actions, teasing, fighting quarelling, disobedience, etc. The tower (our families) get weaker with each block that is removed. If we strive to support and love our family members our family stays strong. (I adapted this idea from Sugardoodle.)
I was really touched by this video, Fathers and Sons, and may try to fit it in – but I doubt there will be time. If I can’t get to it, I may try and send it afterwards to everyone as a link in an email or facebook.
You can download my lesson plan and handout here.
The ladies above are part of the teaching aid for the March 2012 Visiting Teaching message. You may notice some odd details, such as a fruit snack stuck to a boot, chalk dust on a skirt, and a pencil behind an ear. These are all demonstrative of ways (which are explained in the printout) we can walk the path of discipleship while reaching our potential as daughters of God.
Three points stood out to me in this month’s message, and all are encompassed in this teaching aid:
1. When we choose to keep God’s commandments, we honor Him and acknowledge our identity as daughters of God.
2. Our Father in Heaven has given us specific work to help build His Kingdom. He has also blessed us with the spiritual gifts we need to accomplish this specific work.
3. We are daughters of God and as we strive to live as His disciples, we will help build God’s kingdom here on earth and become worthy to return to His presence.
We are all different things to different people; sometimes a daughter, a friend, a mother or sister. Other times we may be a teacher, a student, an employee, or the boss! All these labels constantly fluctuate depending on our environment – but one never does – that of daughter of God. The lady figures above are separated into four sections that can be overlapped and arranged in a variety of ways, illustrating how we are viewed in different ways at different times.
Throughout all these roles, we can come closer to our true identities as daughters of God when we act as disciples of Christ. Each flap represents a way we can come to understand our potential as daughters of God. The back sides have examples of things we can do to help us accomplish that.
President Uchtdorf said this: “Discipleship is a journey. We need the refining lessons of the journey to craft our character and purify our hearts. By patiently walking in the path of discipleship, we demonstrate to ourselves the measure of our faith and our willingness to accept God’s will rather than ours.”
As we take this journey of discipleship, and remember our identity as daughters of God, we can find great joy and peace in knowing that there is a plan for us, that we are deserving of God’s greatest blessings, and that we are needed to do God’s work.
To make this teaching aid, you will need to make a 2-sided copy, then fold using the guides next to the figures, and then flip the page over and cut on the dotted lines. This is a 3-page document which includes the figures in color as well as black and white – for your printing preference. You can download below:
Spanish You can also download this entire blog post in Spanish
Thank you so much to my translators: Birgitta, Blanche, Christine, Priscila, Delmy, Sasha, May and Cheiko!
We had a great time rehearsing for our New Beginnings program last night. The skit and dance will be so fun. The tutus and hats are almost done – I just need to make a gold hat for our Virtue Frog. Gold sock hats are impossible to find, by the way. I’ve been looking for days. It will be interesting to see how this one turns out.
I’ve also been keeping an eye out for Valentine clearance goodies. I love post-holiday shopping. These will come in handy one day. I won’t comment on how many bags of Valentine Dove chocolates I’ve stashed away.
In our gold hat search we came across this “Growing Pet” flamingo egg. It sits in water for several days as it slowly hatches and grows in size. My 4-year old can hardly stand the suspense.
We’ll keep it on the table as a source of dinner conversation for when the missionaries come over tonight. Chili and Fritos are on the menu, with Cherry Chocolate Cake for dessert.
I hope you are having a sweet Valentine’s Day. I love making a fun dinner table for my family on special holidays, and I got a bit of a late start doing this one. I found some great downloads this morning that I printed up and strategically placed to show a little love to my family. I found the cupcake poster here, and the candy wrappers here. The bouquet is a preschool treasure.
I printed up these placemats, and will have the girls color them and write a love letter to the person that sits to the right of them. We will enjoy reading them during dinner, which is still under consideration: a full course meal of crepes, perhaps (ham and cheese, then pudding and berries)?
I wrote a new message on the dining room chalkboard, and will definitely don my new Valentine apron as I prepare and serve the meal!
I realized I still had some darling printables which needed a home, so I cut them out and hid them inside my family’s scriptures. They will be a fun surprise when we open them to read during family study tonight.
