Find 50+ goal setting ideas for LDS youth for the Children and Youth program

Here is a list of 40 ideas to implement the new Children and Youth program from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

🌎 Read This Post In: English | Español 🇪🇸 | Português 🇧🇷 Disclaimer: These ideas aren't all my own. Most are from past fun activities I have been to, all of which have been team efforts. I hope all my current and former leaders know how much I appreciate everything they planned for us. So... A year of activity ideas!! Pin your favorites. 📌 👉Want these in a PDF? Check this out in the shop. INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITIES 1. Cook for the missionaries Choose a target dish for the youth to learn to make. Bring supplies and tell missionaries dinner's on y'all for that night. Instruct them on making, serving + setting up the meal. Add time limits for suspense! 2. Photography night A photographer in the ward shared her tips on posing, selfies, lighting, group pictures, cameras, and more. It ended with a big photo shoot for practice. 3. Paint night One of our young women was close with her art teacher, so we brought the supplies and the expert showed us how to use them. So much fun that we've done this several times. You don't need anyone good at painting to lead the activity, though -- Pinterest and YouTube have so many tutorials as well! 4. Outdoor survival night We split into teams in the church parking lot and had to "fight to survive" through three stations: making a lean-to with a tree, rope, and tarp, building a fire without matches, and using a compass to find hidden treasure, and enjoyed s'mores. 5. Cake decorating night A sister in the ward is a professional caterer + baker and she showed us all the different icing and frosting mixing and piping techniques! It was sweet. 😉😋 6. Traveling Etiquette Dinner We went to three houses with different lessons and food at each one. First, we had appetizers and a lesson about dinner behavior, then we drove to the next house where we had dinner and talked about place settings. Finally, we went to the last house and talked about dating while having dessert. 7. International Foods Night Our youth group is so diverse and we have a lot of amazing girls that have joined us from different countries around the world. We set this up to let them teach us about their culture...and yes, to have lots of amazing food. It doesn't get better than that! 8. Friendship Bracelet Night We all wished we knew how to make friendship bracelets but felt intimidated by complicated techniques. So we learned to make them soooo easily, with cereal boxes!! All credit goes to this blog from Pinterest, we enjoyed using her tutorial. 9. Iron Chef Competition This was so fun it became a ward tradition. Gather mystery ingredients. Missionaries make great judges. The teams have an hour to make a master meal with what they have, learning resourcefulness and cooking from the older kids along the way. 10. DIY flip flops Relief Society tablecloth flat lay 🤣🤩 Cheap, useful, and cute. We bought $1 flip flops for each Young Woman, and decorated them with fabric ties, as per here. The goal was for everyone to have a pair of inexpensive flip flops they didn't have to worry about getting dirty at girls camp. 11. Tie dye night Everyone brought a white shirt and we folded and dyed them. Pretty easy and quick, try the tutorial here. We bought tie-dye colors but I've seen food coloring used before, from Pinterest ofc. 12. Band night Our bishop got each of the members of his band to teach a different "clinic" based on each instrument - voice, piano, guitar, drums, etc. The youth signed up for which instrument they wanted to do in advance. Instruments were borrowed. We all learned the different parts to one song and had a performance in the gym. 13. Time capsules night I've made printables for cute individual time capsules! What would also be so cute is a group time capsule - each class could make one with group photos of them, positive things they write about each other, their favorite church things, etc. 14. The Game of Latter-Day Saint Life We brought a Game of Life board and played, pausing for devotionals from different people at each spot (college or work first? marriage? kids? home ownership? money?) You can also make a custom Latter-Day Saint themed game board or a life sized game of LIFE. 15. Babysitting skills night A bunch of primary kids were invited. We were given a babysitting lesson before, and then put our knowledge into action as we played with the children. 16. Make-up Know How In a group of young women and their leaders, people qualified to teach makeup techniques it won't be scarce. This was fun for the younger yw who were just getting into makeup and for the older yw who could show off their talents. 17. Bread Making We learned how to make our own bread. We each had index cards to write the recipe on, but we did it step by step as the leaders demonstrated the process with us. Bread making can be intimidating, but thankfully Pinterest exists! Here's an idea to get you started. 18. Hairstyle night Learn to do Dutch, and French braids and have each girl bring her own brushes and hair ties so everything is sanitary. You can also go over curling and straightening hair, products everyone swears by, dos and don'ts, etc! 19. Modesty night We cut out paper dolls and made modest outfits for them with scrapbook paper. We discussed standing out from the world and being a light as we cut, pasted, and taped. A modest fashion show could also be fun! 20. Song night We've done this to prep for musical numbers, or to learn to sing a song. A way to make this more fun is to get a ukulele involved. Chances are that several of the youth know how to play (this has always been true for us at a given church activity) and gets them involved and everyone having fun. PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES 21. Sledding If you have the weather and location, enjoy some fun in the snow and then some hot chocolate back at the church building. 22. Youth Pool Party This one is a classic, along with a BBQ! 💦 The leaders bring the most essential items (burgers, buns, plates, paper utensils) the young women bring the kind of essential items (salads, desserts, appetizers) and the young men bring the items that won't be too unfortunate for us to miss (sodas, chips, condiments etc) and it always works out. 🍔 23. Yoga Night We did this one outside + got some low impact exercise + fresh air. Dual yoga is also fun! 24. Cultural Dance Night A dance teacher from the ward taught us traditional dances from different world cultures. 25. Nutrition Night We learned how to make healthy green smoothies. You could also expand this to healthy meal ideas. 26. Color run We got everyone white shirts that said "let your colors shine." Then we sprinted around the church parking lot while the leaders tried to make us as colorful as possible. 🎨 27. Outdoor/backyard games night We played kickball + Spud, but other outdoor games are, of course, fair game. Ideas include Mother May I, What Time Is It, Missionary Tag, Blob Tag, Ghost in the Graveyard👻, Werewolf/Mafia, Sardines, or whatever y'all enjoy. 28. Glow In The Dark Volleyball This is what it looked like during the activity! 👇 For the first fifteen minutes, everyone got glowsticks + put them together as necklaces, bracelets, anklets, etc. We put glow in the dark paint on our volleyball and really enjoyed this fun twist on a classic game. 🏐 See the glow in the dark dessert table below! 29. Church gym sports When nonmembers ask why we all have gyms, this is one of the reasons. Volleyball, basketball, dodgeball, soccer, and more are all easy to plan + play inside in those cold winter months. 30. Self defense skills night One of the young women does karate + invited a member of her dojo to give everyone tips on basic moves to defend themselves and stay safe if attacked. 31. Nerf Wars The young men thought this would be fun. Tie in doctrinally to "avoiding the fiery darts of the adversary" or the "Samuel the Lamanite" story. 32. Life Sized Games Our ward has played life size Hungry Hungry Hippos and Battleship.The latter was when we did life size Battleship. We split into teams, put up a blanket in the middle, and everyone lay in different areas on the gym floor. While lying down, we would throw a light ball at each other over the barrier and if someone was hit, they were out. I found so many other cute life sized game ideas on Pinterest y'all could try, including Foosball, Clue, Guess Who, Connect 4, Operation, Angry Birds, Chutes and Ladders, Candyland, Jenga, Pac Man, Scrabble, Tic Tac Toe and Kerplunk. Woah, 15 weeks of creative combined youth activities. 😉 33. Group bike route In my old ward, there were SO many of us (easily 30+) and I still laugh out loud thinking about this one bewildered man walking his dog who saw this procession of dozens of women and girls zooming by on their bikes, and was like "who is this?" Having enough bikes for everyone can definitely be a challenge, but if you can round up a lot of extras or consult with parents first before planning, you could make it work! SPIRITUAL ACTIVITIES 34. Watch Face2Face Addresses We always do this whenever they come out because our time zone has them dropping at 10 pm on a school night. You can even do this with old ones they've made. Give one of these a try. 35. Scripture canvas bags These are great for when your youth need to have + transport their heavy, irl scriptures--and y'all need a cute and crafty activity idea! We created ours with fabric markers + canvas bags. 36. General conference prep night We made trail mix to enjoy with our families and DIY notebooks -- dollar tree journals, with cut out pictures of the general authorities that we taped to the pages and used as tabs. 37. General conference review night I'm planning to blog about some fun games to do for this. For now, try a themed Kahoot or General Conference race! 38. Teach the Theme activity Every year we get a new one and every year I put together a package to help you make teaching it to your youth a fun and memorable experience! I ended up having to take the 2020 one down 😢 but I'll be back with another one when the creating-resources-for-the-theme-in-4-months frenzy returns. 39. FamilySearch Workshop Everyone brought a dessert from a country of their heritage and we enjoyed treats while our Youth Family History consultant gave us pointers on how to use the Family Search indexing program. We also did our best to make it fun by incorporating the "Find My Famous Relatives" database that BYU has. I also suggest this Coco family history activity I made! 40. Spiritual Journal Jars Talk about the importance of writing down your "Spiritually Defining Memories" (recently coined term, classic concept.) We decorated mason jars with washi tape, scrapbook paper, Mod Podge, and acrylics and then filled them with journal prompts + ideas. 41. Church escape room This photo is from a St. Patrick's day escape room I created for the group and let me tell you...never again!! The activity went well, and staying up so late working on it every night and going crazy making every detail perfect did not go to waste. But you don't have to become a martyr to host a good activity. Which is why I would suggest using a pre-made church themed escape room like the Hope of Israel one (we've tested and enjoyed) or this general church themed one that is sure to excite, amaze, and promote teamwork skills! 42. Primary song helps Make cute visual aids to help the kids learn their primary songs, helping your busy chorister save energy and time. Win win! 43. Cleaning the nursery We got on our gloves, turned on our Disney music, and disinfected every last nursery toy. This was pre-corona, but I have a feeling this might become more frequent when we're back at church again. 👀😂 44. Family History Campfire Everyone shared one funny/entertaining story from their family history, in the RS room with the lights off and flashlights and lanterns on sitting around this fake fire--which was so hilarious--red, orange and yellow tissue paper crumpled up in a casserole dish. 45. Missionary life skills night RMs set up a bunch of different stations with rapid fire lessons on missionary (but honestly also) life skills they wanted the youth to review/learn--ironing, shining shoes, cooking, sewing (for repairs)--and talked about their mission experiences while we did those chores. 46. Pioneer life skills night Set up different stations with different pioneer skills (making butter, hauling firewood, milling flour, grinding wheat, pulling a handcart) and honor their sacrifice and legacy. 47. Investigator Trailer Night We were put into companions and a bunch of the leaders went into different classrooms around the building, acting as the different stereotypical types of investigators when we "knocked on their doors." (Golden, nice but not interested, angry, etc). Discuss how missionary work is hard but rewarding and your converts, baptisms, results etc don't determine your success but your perseverance and positivity do. SOCIAL ACTIVITIES 48. Personality Party We decorated with Disney Princess Personality Posters, and had everyone take a free MBTI test. We played games that helped us to know how to better minister to and get along with our fellow leaders + young women. Posters, handouts, activities, etc, are here! 49. Speed Friendshipping Everyone writes creative, funny, or even deep questions on slips of paper. Create concentric circles with the folding chairs, and have one circle rotate so everyone gets to "friendship" everyone. They get a time limit to go through as many questions as they can. 50. Caroling for the elderly Every year at Christmas, we sing carols at an assisted living home and enjoy hot chocolate afterwards. 51. Heart Attack This has always been received so well and is a Valentine's Day classic. Spread the love! 52. Cookies + Cards We made valentine's day cookies and cards and delivered them to our ministering sisters. 53. Friendship Dinner We did this over the span of three activity nights and it had a Valentine's Day theme. The idea was to make a dinner connecting youth with those who were old/lonely in the ward for a night of ministering and fun. First, we delivered invitations with cookies to the invited. The next week, we decorated the gym for the event. The final week was the dinner. 54. Make fleece tye blankets Service projects really don't get much easier than this--buy some fleece, cut two equal pieces, and then a fringe. Tie each fringe together while you chat, and donate the finished blankets to a good cause. 55. Gratitude scavenger hunt I created a Thanksgiving themed escape room/scavenger hunt activity that is so cute and will be available in the shop when the holiday approaches. 56. Daddy-Daughter Showdown Super fun Father's Day activity with three main events: the dads stood behind a chalkboard and we had to guess whose was ours, we drew pictures of them they had to guess which one was them, and then the big finale was us having to tie their tie and them having to paint our nails. 57. Disney lip sync battle One of our favorite activities EVER. Young women versus young men -- we rehearsed separately to face off and ended up choosing the exact same song! Super fun, easy, and hilarious. 58. Taking Photos of Graves Easy service project to organize -- index graves for BillionGraves, which has an easy to use mobile app. 59. Mall Scavenger Hunt We split into teams with leaders as the captains and were dropped off at our local mall. The team to take group photos with every item on the list and make it back to the church first were the champions. 60. Making gift boxes for Samaritan's Purse In this Christmastime activity, everyone brought cute gift items from 5 Below, Dollar Tree, etc. We got our assignments from Samaritan's Purse Ministries and put together and decorated boxes for them. 61. Bulletin Board Making Putting together a bulletin board, whether organically or with a printable kit, is a lot of work. We did it together for one of our activities. You could also do it as a service project for a busy (primary, rs, etc) leader at the beginning of the year. Bonus points if you use one from the shop! _____________ Whew! We made it. But before you dash, I want to make sure you know that this is NOT the only resource I have to make your life easier as a busy Latter-Day Saint. 💛 To easily see & have all my free Latter-Day Saint resources at your fingertips, follow me on Pinterest! Again, if you want to have a list of these activities in PDF form, check out this product!

Find 50+ goal setting ideas for LDS youth for the Children and Youth program

Looking for Latter-day Saint mutual activities for youth? You have come to the right spot! Here are TONS of ideas for fun activities - both for individual

I have created free printables to help y'all in goal setting in your families, classrooms + wards. PRINTABLES, WORKSHEETS + LESSON PLANS These can be used for ward, fhe or personal goal setting. For the full goal setting package, check out the FHE lesson kit. The other sets are abridged for various needs. Family Night Printables: English | Español | Português Children + Youth Activity Printables: English | Español | Português Personal Goal Setting Printables: English | Español | Português PREMIUM RESOURCES This goal tracker for Young Women coordinates with the 2021 Youth Theme. ☀️ In several different sizes + with an added motivational quote, this is all about daily reminding you of the Great Work theme + goals you will do this year! BULLETIN BOARDS Go + check out the beautiful bulletin board kit. QUOTES Give out these goal setting quotes as a handout to your children/youth. Best of luck! I know you can get those goals!!

We all want our children to be successful and happy in life. By teaching children early on how to write and achieve goals, you’re creating a healthy habit that they will carry with them into their adult years. Keep reading to learn how to help children write and achieve goals; including a free printable goal

Fall Youth Clinics starting soon! 🔗Register here: https://www.iowaselectvbc.com/youth-program-3 Youth Program Director, Kelly Kelley: 👉Was a setter for... | career

Setting personal goals for children and youth will help to build purpose, identity, and character-- and to follow our Savior, Jesus Christ.

A vision board is quite effective in helping children set goals and achieve goals. This post outlines why and how to do it.

Activities and Combined Activities Mutual Activities After brief opening exercises, Young Women and Young Men activities are usually held separately. Class or quorum activities usually last 30 to 7…

Here are some fun online tools you can use for some exciting virtual programming challenges!

Young women activity ideas for class activities or combined mutual activities. Cheap, fun, and easy activities to put together.

Encourage your family, youth group or activity days groups to choose their own adventure with this interactive goal setting activity.

During a planning session with the youth a young woman talked about a TV show called 'Nailed It'. Inspired by this comedic baking competition, we decided to adapt the concept and create a memorable activity for our youth group. This blog post outlines the planning, preparation, and execution of this delightful event, hoping to inspire other young women leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Need youth group games? We have 50 of them, and they are all no prep youth group games! Perfect for groups as little as 3 and as big as 100. Check out these 50 no prep youth group games that are not dodgeball!

Looking for youth camp themes that your teenagers will actually enjoy? This list includes 15 epic youth camp themes complete with scriptures to back them up.

Keep your LDS class learning with one of these 10 games

Need youth group games? We have 50 of them, and they are all no prep youth group games! Perfect for groups as little as 3 and as big as 100. Check out these 50 no prep youth group games that are not dodgeball!

50 LDS Activity Day Ideas - ldslane.net #activitydays #lds #mormon

Having been thrown into AY leadership at the age of 15, with virtually no leadership education and no idea what to do, I basically know how it is to dread Adventist Youth Programs that I have to plan as leader. So here are a couple of ideas that I hope will help leaders out there to make programs interesting and educational without taking away the sanctity and solemnity of a Sabbath afternoon. Both these ideas are centered around an exploration of the Bible, with the congregation working in small groups. Groups can be made according to the seating arrangement, age levels, gender, existing grouping, or whatever works for you. Program Idea #1 MY BIBLICAL BODY Materials: White Board and Marker (or Chalk board and chalk), Eraser, several Bibles in each group, pen and paper Mechanics: Have groups look up Bible verses that mention different body parts and how these parts are supposed to be used to glorify their Maker. Give a few examples. Allow about ten minutes for this. After ten minutes, have a representative of one group come up front to read their collection of verses. Another group member will be assigned to draw on the board the body parts they found verses for until they can complete a whole human being. When all the groups have had their turn, check to see who has the best and most complete drawing. Close by reading Psalm 139:14, 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20, Matthew 18:8, 9. Important Note: Take care to clarify to the groups that the verses must not only mention a body part but also contain a message on how that body part is to be used or not used or how it is to be taken care of. For example, Daniel 2:32-34 isn't valid because it only mentions the body part but there's no message on how that part can glorify God. Also make sure that they look up verses that refer to HUMAN body parts. One group in my church used Genesis 1:2 which mentions "FACE of the WATERS." Examples of valid verses: Job 31:1 I have made a covenant with mine EYES... Psalm 51:15 O Lord open thou my LIPS; and my MOUTH shall show forth thy praise... Ephesians 6:15 And your FEET shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace... Psalm 144:1 ...which teacheth my HANDS to war and my FINGERS to fight... Revelation 2:7 he that hath an EAR let him hear... Ezra 9:5 i fell upon my KNEES... How the drawings turned out at my church. Thanked God for designing me. :) Program Idea #2 BIBLE STORIES FROM NATURE Objective: To refresh the congregation's minds about Bible stories and to help them see objects around them as reminders of our God's power and our Biblical heritage. Mechanics: Have each group choose an object of nature (e.g. soil, rock, flowers, tree/branch, leaf, water, etc) obtain a sample of such object. Each member of the group must now recall one or two (depending on the number of members and the time available) Bible story/ies that involved that object. Give the groups 7-10 minutes to list down the stories. At the end of time given, have one group come to the front with their sample. The first member holds up the sample and recalls a Bible story involving the object, beginning with "This is the rock/flower/soil/water/etc....". The sample is now passed on to the next member who also shares another story and so on. Have the other groups do the same. Example: Water The group can bring a glass of water. Member 1: This is the water that Jesus turned into wine at a wedding in Cana. (passes the glass to Member 2) Member 2: This is the water that Elijah poured over the altar he made for God in Mount Carmel. (passes the glass to Member 3) Member 3: This is the water that Jacob drew from a well to feed Rachel's animals. (passes the glass to Member 4) I hope these ideas help somehow. If you have more ideas, please do share.

Royalty-free scripted collection of skits for kids for classroom use, youth camps, church programs or school performances.

🌎 Read This Post In: English | Español 🇪🇸 | Português 🇧🇷 Disclaimer: These ideas aren't all my own. Most are from past fun activities I have been to, all of which have been team efforts. I hope all my current and former leaders know how much I appreciate everything they planned for us. So... A year of activity ideas!! Pin your favorites. 📌 👉Want these in a PDF? Check this out in the shop. INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITIES 1. Cook for the missionaries Choose a target dish for the youth to learn to make. Bring supplies and tell missionaries dinner's on y'all for that night. Instruct them on making, serving + setting up the meal. Add time limits for suspense! 2. Photography night A photographer in the ward shared her tips on posing, selfies, lighting, group pictures, cameras, and more. It ended with a big photo shoot for practice. 3. Paint night One of our young women was close with her art teacher, so we brought the supplies and the expert showed us how to use them. So much fun that we've done this several times. You don't need anyone good at painting to lead the activity, though -- Pinterest and YouTube have so many tutorials as well! 4. Outdoor survival night We split into teams in the church parking lot and had to "fight to survive" through three stations: making a lean-to with a tree, rope, and tarp, building a fire without matches, and using a compass to find hidden treasure, and enjoyed s'mores. 5. Cake decorating night A sister in the ward is a professional caterer + baker and she showed us all the different icing and frosting mixing and piping techniques! It was sweet. 😉😋 6. Traveling Etiquette Dinner We went to three houses with different lessons and food at each one. First, we had appetizers and a lesson about dinner behavior, then we drove to the next house where we had dinner and talked about place settings. Finally, we went to the last house and talked about dating while having dessert. 7. International Foods Night Our youth group is so diverse and we have a lot of amazing girls that have joined us from different countries around the world. We set this up to let them teach us about their culture...and yes, to have lots of amazing food. It doesn't get better than that! 8. Friendship Bracelet Night We all wished we knew how to make friendship bracelets but felt intimidated by complicated techniques. So we learned to make them soooo easily, with cereal boxes!! All credit goes to this blog from Pinterest, we enjoyed using her tutorial. 9. Iron Chef Competition This was so fun it became a ward tradition. Gather mystery ingredients. Missionaries make great judges. The teams have an hour to make a master meal with what they have, learning resourcefulness and cooking from the older kids along the way. 10. DIY flip flops Relief Society tablecloth flat lay 🤣🤩 Cheap, useful, and cute. We bought $1 flip flops for each Young Woman, and decorated them with fabric ties, as per here. The goal was for everyone to have a pair of inexpensive flip flops they didn't have to worry about getting dirty at girls camp. 11. Tie dye night Everyone brought a white shirt and we folded and dyed them. Pretty easy and quick, try the tutorial here. We bought tie-dye colors but I've seen food coloring used before, from Pinterest ofc. 12. Band night Our bishop got each of the members of his band to teach a different "clinic" based on each instrument - voice, piano, guitar, drums, etc. The youth signed up for which instrument they wanted to do in advance. Instruments were borrowed. We all learned the different parts to one song and had a performance in the gym. 13. Time capsules night I've made printables for cute individual time capsules! What would also be so cute is a group time capsule - each class could make one with group photos of them, positive things they write about each other, their favorite church things, etc. 14. The Game of Latter-Day Saint Life We brought a Game of Life board and played, pausing for devotionals from different people at each spot (college or work first? marriage? kids? home ownership? money?) You can also make a custom Latter-Day Saint themed game board or a life sized game of LIFE. 15. Babysitting skills night A bunch of primary kids were invited. We were given a babysitting lesson before, and then put our knowledge into action as we played with the children. 16. Make-up Know How In a group of young women and their leaders, people qualified to teach makeup techniques it won't be scarce. This was fun for the younger yw who were just getting into makeup and for the older yw who could show off their talents. 17. Bread Making We learned how to make our own bread. We each had index cards to write the recipe on, but we did it step by step as the leaders demonstrated the process with us. Bread making can be intimidating, but thankfully Pinterest exists! Here's an idea to get you started. 18. Hairstyle night Learn to do Dutch, and French braids and have each girl bring her own brushes and hair ties so everything is sanitary. You can also go over curling and straightening hair, products everyone swears by, dos and don'ts, etc! 19. Modesty night We cut out paper dolls and made modest outfits for them with scrapbook paper. We discussed standing out from the world and being a light as we cut, pasted, and taped. A modest fashion show could also be fun! 20. Song night We've done this to prep for musical numbers, or to learn to sing a song. A way to make this more fun is to get a ukulele involved. Chances are that several of the youth know how to play (this has always been true for us at a given church activity) and gets them involved and everyone having fun. PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES 21. Sledding If you have the weather and location, enjoy some fun in the snow and then some hot chocolate back at the church building. 22. Youth Pool Party This one is a classic, along with a BBQ! 💦 The leaders bring the most essential items (burgers, buns, plates, paper utensils) the young women bring the kind of essential items (salads, desserts, appetizers) and the young men bring the items that won't be too unfortunate for us to miss (sodas, chips, condiments etc) and it always works out. 🍔 23. Yoga Night We did this one outside + got some low impact exercise + fresh air. Dual yoga is also fun! 24. Cultural Dance Night A dance teacher from the ward taught us traditional dances from different world cultures. 25. Nutrition Night We learned how to make healthy green smoothies. You could also expand this to healthy meal ideas. 26. Color run We got everyone white shirts that said "let your colors shine." Then we sprinted around the church parking lot while the leaders tried to make us as colorful as possible. 🎨 27. Outdoor/backyard games night We played kickball + Spud, but other outdoor games are, of course, fair game. Ideas include Mother May I, What Time Is It, Missionary Tag, Blob Tag, Ghost in the Graveyard👻, Werewolf/Mafia, Sardines, or whatever y'all enjoy. 28. Glow In The Dark Volleyball This is what it looked like during the activity! 👇 For the first fifteen minutes, everyone got glowsticks + put them together as necklaces, bracelets, anklets, etc. We put glow in the dark paint on our volleyball and really enjoyed this fun twist on a classic game. 🏐 See the glow in the dark dessert table below! 29. Church gym sports When nonmembers ask why we all have gyms, this is one of the reasons. Volleyball, basketball, dodgeball, soccer, and more are all easy to plan + play inside in those cold winter months. 30. Self defense skills night One of the young women does karate + invited a member of her dojo to give everyone tips on basic moves to defend themselves and stay safe if attacked. 31. Nerf Wars The young men thought this would be fun. Tie in doctrinally to "avoiding the fiery darts of the adversary" or the "Samuel the Lamanite" story. 32. Life Sized Games Our ward has played life size Hungry Hungry Hippos and Battleship.The latter was when we did life size Battleship. We split into teams, put up a blanket in the middle, and everyone lay in different areas on the gym floor. While lying down, we would throw a light ball at each other over the barrier and if someone was hit, they were out. I found so many other cute life sized game ideas on Pinterest y'all could try, including Foosball, Clue, Guess Who, Connect 4, Operation, Angry Birds, Chutes and Ladders, Candyland, Jenga, Pac Man, Scrabble, Tic Tac Toe and Kerplunk. Woah, 15 weeks of creative combined youth activities. 😉 33. Group bike route In my old ward, there were SO many of us (easily 30+) and I still laugh out loud thinking about this one bewildered man walking his dog who saw this procession of dozens of women and girls zooming by on their bikes, and was like "who is this?" Having enough bikes for everyone can definitely be a challenge, but if you can round up a lot of extras or consult with parents first before planning, you could make it work! SPIRITUAL ACTIVITIES 34. Watch Face2Face Addresses We always do this whenever they come out because our time zone has them dropping at 10 pm on a school night. You can even do this with old ones they've made. Give one of these a try. 35. Scripture canvas bags These are great for when your youth need to have + transport their heavy, irl scriptures--and y'all need a cute and crafty activity idea! We created ours with fabric markers + canvas bags. 36. General conference prep night We made trail mix to enjoy with our families and DIY notebooks -- dollar tree journals, with cut out pictures of the general authorities that we taped to the pages and used as tabs. 37. General conference review night I'm planning to blog about some fun games to do for this. For now, try a themed Kahoot or General Conference race! 38. Teach the Theme activity Every year we get a new one and every year I put together a package to help you make teaching it to your youth a fun and memorable experience! I ended up having to take the 2020 one down 😢 but I'll be back with another one when the creating-resources-for-the-theme-in-4-months frenzy returns. 39. FamilySearch Workshop Everyone brought a dessert from a country of their heritage and we enjoyed treats while our Youth Family History consultant gave us pointers on how to use the Family Search indexing program. We also did our best to make it fun by incorporating the "Find My Famous Relatives" database that BYU has. I also suggest this Coco family history activity I made! 40. Spiritual Journal Jars Talk about the importance of writing down your "Spiritually Defining Memories" (recently coined term, classic concept.) We decorated mason jars with washi tape, scrapbook paper, Mod Podge, and acrylics and then filled them with journal prompts + ideas. 41. Church escape room This photo is from a St. Patrick's day escape room I created for the group and let me tell you...never again!! The activity went well, and staying up so late working on it every night and going crazy making every detail perfect did not go to waste. But you don't have to become a martyr to host a good activity. Which is why I would suggest using a pre-made church themed escape room like the Hope of Israel one (we've tested and enjoyed) or this general church themed one that is sure to excite, amaze, and promote teamwork skills! 42. Primary song helps Make cute visual aids to help the kids learn their primary songs, helping your busy chorister save energy and time. Win win! 43. Cleaning the nursery We got on our gloves, turned on our Disney music, and disinfected every last nursery toy. This was pre-corona, but I have a feeling this might become more frequent when we're back at church again. 👀😂 44. Family History Campfire Everyone shared one funny/entertaining story from their family history, in the RS room with the lights off and flashlights and lanterns on sitting around this fake fire--which was so hilarious--red, orange and yellow tissue paper crumpled up in a casserole dish. 45. Missionary life skills night RMs set up a bunch of different stations with rapid fire lessons on missionary (but honestly also) life skills they wanted the youth to review/learn--ironing, shining shoes, cooking, sewing (for repairs)--and talked about their mission experiences while we did those chores. 46. Pioneer life skills night Set up different stations with different pioneer skills (making butter, hauling firewood, milling flour, grinding wheat, pulling a handcart) and honor their sacrifice and legacy. 47. Investigator Trailer Night We were put into companions and a bunch of the leaders went into different classrooms around the building, acting as the different stereotypical types of investigators when we "knocked on their doors." (Golden, nice but not interested, angry, etc). Discuss how missionary work is hard but rewarding and your converts, baptisms, results etc don't determine your success but your perseverance and positivity do. SOCIAL ACTIVITIES 48. Personality Party We decorated with Disney Princess Personality Posters, and had everyone take a free MBTI test. We played games that helped us to know how to better minister to and get along with our fellow leaders + young women. Posters, handouts, activities, etc, are here! 49. Speed Friendshipping Everyone writes creative, funny, or even deep questions on slips of paper. Create concentric circles with the folding chairs, and have one circle rotate so everyone gets to "friendship" everyone. They get a time limit to go through as many questions as they can. 50. Caroling for the elderly Every year at Christmas, we sing carols at an assisted living home and enjoy hot chocolate afterwards. 51. Heart Attack This has always been received so well and is a Valentine's Day classic. Spread the love! 52. Cookies + Cards We made valentine's day cookies and cards and delivered them to our ministering sisters. 53. Friendship Dinner We did this over the span of three activity nights and it had a Valentine's Day theme. The idea was to make a dinner connecting youth with those who were old/lonely in the ward for a night of ministering and fun. First, we delivered invitations with cookies to the invited. The next week, we decorated the gym for the event. The final week was the dinner. 54. Make fleece tye blankets Service projects really don't get much easier than this--buy some fleece, cut two equal pieces, and then a fringe. Tie each fringe together while you chat, and donate the finished blankets to a good cause. 55. Gratitude scavenger hunt I created a Thanksgiving themed escape room/scavenger hunt activity that is so cute and will be available in the shop when the holiday approaches. 56. Daddy-Daughter Showdown Super fun Father's Day activity with three main events: the dads stood behind a chalkboard and we had to guess whose was ours, we drew pictures of them they had to guess which one was them, and then the big finale was us having to tie their tie and them having to paint our nails. 57. Disney lip sync battle One of our favorite activities EVER. Young women versus young men -- we rehearsed separately to face off and ended up choosing the exact same song! Super fun, easy, and hilarious. 58. Taking Photos of Graves Easy service project to organize -- index graves for BillionGraves, which has an easy to use mobile app. 59. Mall Scavenger Hunt We split into teams with leaders as the captains and were dropped off at our local mall. The team to take group photos with every item on the list and make it back to the church first were the champions. 60. Making gift boxes for Samaritan's Purse In this Christmastime activity, everyone brought cute gift items from 5 Below, Dollar Tree, etc. We got our assignments from Samaritan's Purse Ministries and put together and decorated boxes for them. 61. Bulletin Board Making Putting together a bulletin board, whether organically or with a printable kit, is a lot of work. We did it together for one of our activities. You could also do it as a service project for a busy (primary, rs, etc) leader at the beginning of the year. Bonus points if you use one from the shop! _____________ Whew! We made it. But before you dash, I want to make sure you know that this is NOT the only resource I have to make your life easier as a busy Latter-Day Saint. 💛 To easily see & have all my free Latter-Day Saint resources at your fingertips, follow me on Pinterest! Again, if you want to have a list of these activities in PDF form, check out this product!

One of the funny things about blogging is that you never really know what’s going to resonate with people and make it out there in the Internet world. And I have to tell you that I kind of lo…

This Picasso inspired art project is a wonderful introduction to Cubism for the kids. This is great for an individual or a collaborative project.

I volunteered at Drake's 11 Year Old Scout Camp today and boy was it so much fun. I was only there a few hours but my favorite part of Scout Camp was a game they called the 'water bottle game'. It was hysterical! Water Bottle Relay Race It's a relay race where the boys line up in two teams, and go toe to toe throwing their shoes at a standing water bottle while standing on a chair. The first person to hit the water bottle over with their shoe ~ wins! Materials Needed: 2 chairs 1 water bottle How to

Christmas Programs Terms of Use: Except for the first program, which you must order, all of these programs are free. You may copy and change them to fit your personal use. (Copy and paste them into your document. Highlight the document, click control + C, go into your new document, click control … Continue reading →

Five ideas for high-yield activities you can use with youth that require little to no preparation.

Take prayer time to the next level! Incorporate one or more creative prayer stations ideas or prayer prompts into your youth ministry programming.

If you are currently a young woman or young man in the youth programs of the Church, or a parent or leader of youth, you may be looking for ideas for ways to incorporate missionary work into Mutual activities. Even though not all youth may not be planning to serve a full-time mission, many aspects of preparing for a mission (such as learning to speak in public, learning to cook & clean, etc) are skills that apply to any adult's life. Learning more about missionary life is helpful to any church member (whether they serve a full-time mission or not) because it gives them a better idea of what missionaries do and can help them be better member-missionaries. For ideas on how to do this, check out my other blog "The Jolly Rogers Young Women Blog" that features mutual activity ideas that help youth start thinking about missionary work, preparing for missionary service, and doing service for current missionaries. Click on the photos below to link to my activity blog: Missionary-themed youth activities for mutual (mission prep, learning about missions, etc)- How-to write letters and tips for sending care packages to full-time missionaries- All of these ideas can be used for YW activities or adapted for Combined YM/YW activities. It's never too early to start thinking about mission preparations!

Last year, I started a new Space Club program at four middle schools. Not wanting to reinvent the wheel, I searched the web for ideas and curriculum to implement. I soon became excited to find great resources like NASA and TeachEngineering , but I was

Our literature-based learning often lends itself to discovering other places and cultures, which is one of many reasons we love this method! Learning about Italy, Japan, and China have been some of our richest homeschool moments so far. Along with learning about other countries and their continents, we learn where those places are located on the globe. In order to help my girls learn the 7 continents, I created a set of printable Continents Cards that we use in a variety of ways. Note: This post was originally published in 2014. The Continents Cards and the post have been freshly

Activity days is where girls and boys ages 8-11 work on things to strength their relationships with God, their family, their friends, and themselves. It's my calling in my church. I'm over the