New Beginnings

For New beginnings this year, I wanted to take a little less of a serious approach and let the girls have some fun! So we did a circus theme. It was AWESOME!!

When they all got there, I told them that the circus had gotten lost so we would be doing some "clown training" so that they could be in the circus. I had them break into 4 groups so they could rotate through each station to complete their clown training. The first task was learning how to hula hoop.

I was VERY impressed with the Bishop's skills!!




Next was face painting. They couldn't look to see what was getting painted on their faces and they couldn't tell each other what was on them.

Then they had to build a house for a clown car using Duplo's.

After that came learning how to blow up and tie off balloons.

Here's how I tied it all in to YW.....when you hula hoop, you find yourself moving in ways you might not have expected to get things done. You have to trust the person who is painting you face just like you have to learn how to trust the Lord and other people. The house for your clown car has to have a strong foundation otherwise it will fall down. I couldn't think of anything for blowing up balloons so someone else said that sometimes you have to blow off some hot air.

Then I had the "class clowns" (the class presidents) come up and talk about each class and what the motto was. My Beehive President just got reactivated and I was so proud of her for giving her first talk!

After that, we talked about the new Personal Progress program and all the changes. Then was the fun part. I got this idea off sugardoodle.net. I had all the girls sit on the front row. I put a bowl of gum balls that had all the value colors in it in front of them. Then they answered a question about which Personal Progress goal they would be more likely to do and they picked the gumball color that corresponded with the answer. For example...Which Personal Progress goal would you more likely to choose? Bear your testimony (take a white gumball) or baby-sit for free (take a yellow gumball). At the end, they had to count all their gumballs and the color they had the least of was the value they needed to concentrate the most on. Then I challenged them to work on that value for Young Women in Excellence in the fall. It worked really well and they loved it!

That following Sunday, I got released. I knew it was coming but it didn't make it any easier on me or the girls. I have loved serving with them and getting to know each of them. They are all so unique! I am very grateful that the Lord trusted me enough to let me teach and guide them. I am going to miss playing and laughing with them!