TImeline

Rachel wrote in a great idea:

 I was thinking about a giant time line in the gym. The kids get poster
board with events and dates and they put them in order...maybe a bit
young for it? Perhaps they walk down a time line. When they have skits
they start standing at top if time line, walk to their place in time
then begin...

SCRIPTURE CAMP

Thanks so much for helping with Scripture Camp!! Ideas, blood, sweat and tears are all welcome!!

Our objective is to help the children feel like they have a basic understanding of where the different books of scripture originate, when they were written, and just have a sense of the "flavor" differences.

Of course another major objective is to have fun and fellowship together.

I would be transported to celestial realms if they also all knew the articles of faith and the names of the books of the individual books of scripture as well!

So... there is room for bonding, games, challenges, skits, crafts..  let us know your thoughts....

Our current plan is that the days will run something like this (not necessarily in the same order for each group):

Opening Flag ceremony and announcements

Cabins break for devotional and bonding activity

Focus Activity

Physical Challenge (small-group recap)

Lunch

Craft

Games/ Rec Time/ Water activities

Closing Ceremonies

Thursday we'll be travelling as families to the JS Birthplace and taking a hike.

Friday  we'll pitch tents for our cabins on my field, then we'll have activities, pool, bbq and closing games here.



I've put posts below breaking the structure up into different topics--feel free to send me an e-mail with a new post if you want to start a different thread, or comment on the ones below.  Thanks so much for your energy and your help!

Bonding Activities Camp

After flag ceremony and announcements, the first 1/2 hour of each day will be bonding activities for the cabins.

First day:
Devotional
Make a cheer/yell
paint/ draw t-shirts
decorate cabin--banner?
Scripture song of the day


What are some good bonding activities for the small groups?

Sorting

Esther had the excellent idea of sorting kids into cabins (a la Percy Jackson, or Harry Potter (houses))

 What should be the sorting/ claiming ritual?

T-shirt Image

Here's a possible t-shirt image--it is black and white (we could make the lines thicker and larger)
It is the Descending God and some think it is (or could be) a late Mayan representation of Christ.

Some Mayan authorities call it the three-person god.  Here the three parts are Father- sun, Christ, Holy Ghost (wings at the top).

It is also a really cool image.

What do you think?  Would we do it large on the front or small on the upper left?

Camp Crafts

Here are some ideas feel free to add more or support one:

First Day (OT?)

Camp t-shirts
Egyptian canopic jars or tomb frieze (I can get--they cost about 5$ each, very cool http://www.artinhistory.com/Product-Detail.aspx?id=5)
we will have several interesting coloring book pages for the counselors to use at any time they want
Basket weaving

NT

Oil lamp http://www.artinhistory.com/Product-Detail.aspx?id=25
soap carving of a fish (symbol of Christianity)

BOM

Soap Carving of a boat? a sword?
Quetzalcoatl  http://www.artinhistory.com/Product-Detail.aspx?id=21
Mayan cooking pot  http://www.artinhistory.com/Product-Detail.aspx?id=19
Mayan God http://www.artinhistory.com/Product-Detail.aspx?id=22

D&C

Sock Dolls?
help??

Camp Counselors

I asked my kids for some initial ideas about the counselors and they suggested the following:

A meeting the previous Saturday for the Counselors to learn the ropes, get trained, maybe have a campfire.

Have the counselors eat lunch together
Have the counselors do skits
Have a special treat (surprise) for the counselors each day (they know they have to point this kind of thing out to me :) )

any other thoughts??

Faith Factor/ Obstacle Course Physical Challenge

Ok ... here I'm just posting this to get ideas.   Think about the different books of scripture and what would be some good activities for any of them.  Team building activities with a time to sit down and re-cap/draw lessons would be good.

A couple of thoughts we had at the meeting were making a journey in the parking lot with different stations.  (Nephi's journey to the Promised Land, Moses & the children of Israel, Paul's voyages or Christ's ministry with different parables...)

My kids wanted to do a Nephite survival adventure with bow and arrow training... maybe followed by a skit of when Nephi broke the bow and prayed.  (We could have counselors do the skits)

Any ideas?  Anyone want to claim leadership of any particular day?

Buttons --CAMP

Here is a list of things we can earn "Buttons" for.  Does anyone know how to make the pin-on buttons?

Articles of Faith
Naming 5 Stories from each book of scripture  (one Button for each book) or maybe topics for D&C
Naming all the books from the book of scripture (can sing it)  (4 Buttons:  D&C= D&C + PoGP enumerated)
Naming the geography and time period of each book (4 buttons)

Total possible:  26 per kids--maybe we should just put buttons on a string?

Ponytails and Puppy dog tails--CAMP

Rachel had the idea of giving a little spice to each day with an outward sign of some idea.  For example:  wearing 3 ponytails (or 4?) for the number of women in the book of mormon.  I think this would be something fun for the cabins to come up with as part of their bonding.  Then we could guess why they are doing what they are doing..

Maybe to help their counselors guide their thinking, we could come up with a list of possibilities that would appeal to them or help them see what we are considering.  The best would be if these could somehow be also tied into the morning devotional they do with their cabins.

Here are a few to get us started--as you'll see, help is needed!:

Old Testament:
Paint Eyes like Egyptians
Carry a staff
Carry a Basket
Pin on a flame (made of paper) to your shirt (write: Can't touch this!) on it. (Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego)
Wear a wig (Samson)
Braid hair elaborately or wear a headress/tiara (Esther)



New Testament:
Wear sunglasses (blind)
Wear perfume (frankincense)
Wear a bagel on a necklace (is that too wierd??) (Bread of Life)


Book of Mormon:
Ponytails for the number of women in the Book of Mormon
Turn your staff into a title of liberty--write what you would defend
Carry a compass (put it on a necklace)  (liahona)
Shining stones



Doctrine and Covenants (we will be travelling in public this day):
Wearing Cut-offs
Wear a rubber band as a bracelet for each member of your team--so that you all make it together to the end--write their names on the bracelets.

Lesson 8 Sr. Primary

It is interesting that the scriptural account of Jesus casting out the money-changers takes place at the beginning of his ministry and then again in his final days, creating a frame of prophecy and fullfillment

Lesson 8 Jr. Primary

Here are some great songs to go along with your lesson! Latter-day Prophets , Follow the Prophet, and Article of Faith #5

I Have A Question

Teaching Primary inevitably demands innovative crowd-management techniques.  What reverence issues have you encountered and what works best for dealing with them?

Defense and A Refuge

To get us started I've posted some of my thoughts on this theme.  I quoted some of your thoughts as "comments" below.

Enjoy!!

PRIMARY AS A "DEFENSE AND A REFUGE"

3 Nephi 22:13  And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children

As my imagination runs with the idea of “defense” and “refuge”, I think of Primary as

... and in FHE

We were discussing the importance of temple marriage in FHE to celebrate Valentine's Day last Monday.  As my husband finished talking about our sealing in the SLC temple, my youngest son, who definitely has some speech issues, piped up excitedly, "And that's how Mommy became your awful wedded wife."