Use for Young Women, Young Men, Family Home Evening, Seminary/Institute
LESSON LIFESAVER Activity
Group Troupers! Activity Idea List
Use these Group Troupers! Activity Ideas page(s) as a notepad to write wholesome ideas suggested by youth. Youth can write these ideas on their own pad as they brainstorm (see ideas below). Ask youth how the activities they have suggested can help them become better friends with other youth.
TO MAKE: Print several notepad pages in color or black and white for each youth.
BRAINSTORM IDEAS:
• “Make Your Own Movie: Take a video camera, costumes, and simple props or other needed items to an interesting setting. Write your movie script as you go. Plan to get together later for a showing.
• Write Your Own Books: With scissors, paper, and glue, write children’s stories using illustrations from magazines or sketches by artists in the group. Donate finished books to hospitals or nurseries.
• “Instant Theater: Find a script or short, humorous play or melodrama or write your own. Collect costumes and provide simple sound effects or music. Have each person choose a part and then read through the play without any rehearsal. You may want to videotape the play and watch it later with refreshments.”
• Holiday Fun: Find out how holidays are celebrated in countries other than yours. Celebrate a holiday as the native country does with appropriate food, decorations, and entertainment.”
• Give Yourself Away: Take a group of children to the zoo, park, or playground. Bring lunch for them. Or plan a special program to perform in hospitals or for people who are confined to their homes.”
• Formal Dinner: Plan to prepare and eat a formal dinner using silver, china, or other appropriate items. Before the dinner, invite a specialist to teach social etiquette (which fork to use, how to eat certain foods, good manners, and so forth).
OTHER IDEAS: Walk dogs; watch a ball game; take a bus ride; go bike riding, bowling, swimming, ice skating, dancing, or roller skating; play bingo, board games (e.g., Monopoly) or card games (e.g., Skipbo); have a holiday, birthday, or family party or a picnic; learn to cook at home or take a cooking class; plan a garage sale or a service project; walk in the park; read books to children; read a favorite book together; plant or weed a garden; hold a sports competition.
TESTIMONY SHARING: Ask youth to share their testimony on the following. Click on the following website objective to introduce the testimony sharing (that follows): What are the Church’s standards regarding dating? “Latter-day prophets have given us standards about dating to protect us from spiritual danger and help us prepare to one day find a worthy eternal companion. These standards include not dating before age 16, avoiding frequent dates with the same person, and dating only those who have high moral standards.”
MUTUAL NIGHT ACTIVITIES:
HOST A DANCE: Youth can host with dance instructors and a disc jockey.
• Dance Theme #1—Country/Western: square dance, line dance, or swing dance; eat farm grown food on pie tins and drink out of canning jars; bob for apples, decorate with bales of hay, and dress western.
• Dance Theme #2—Ballroom: dress formal; formal dinner by candlelight.
• Dance Theme #3—Fifties: dance to oldies, e.g., Beatles, Beach Boys, Elvis, Jan and Dean; eat hamburgers, fries, and malts with whipped cream and a cherry on top.
• Dance Theme #4—Disco Fever: disco music or movie Grease, have a John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John dancing contest; eat pizza, and root beer floats.
• Dance and Movie Theme #5—Roaring Twenties: show the movie Thoroughly Modern Millie, make raspberry shakes and serve tapioca (as mentioned in the movie).
AT ALL DANCES: Have instructors teach youth dance steps. To assign dance partners: Count the number of young women and the number of young men. Then place numbers, e.g. 1-15 in one sack and 1-15 in another sack. Have young men draw from one sack and young women from the other sack. Then have them pair up with their matching numbers. Have a contest and award prizes.
PIE EATING CONTEST: Have young women bake pies and young men compete to eat them. Then serve pies with ice cream on top.
HOMEMADE ICE CREAM AND CRAZY COOKIE BAKE: Hand churn ice cream, and have youth bring candies to decorate frosted cookies.
SHOW VIDEO: The Mormonad “Wish You Were Here” from the New Era, a magazine for Mormon teens. CLICK HERE TO VIEW VIDEO FROM YOUR I-PHONE. Featured Scripture: Matthew 7:12 “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.”
SHOW VIDEO to encourage youth to spend more time communicating with family and friends, rather than technology. Subject: Things as they really are – Elder David A. Bednar warns of the harmful effects digital technologies can have on our souls and invites us to ask ourselves two questions to see if we are using these technologies properly. (3:27) CLICK HERE TO VIEW VIDEO FROM YOUR I-PHONE.
Source YW1.31
THIS ACTIVITY CAN BE USED FOR Come Follow Me
• AUGUST Lesson 4 “Why is it important to follow the Church’s standards regarding dating?”
