We will have our last primary activity for this year in November
(10am-11:30am) and our theme is on “Being a Missionary”. I felt
uncomfortable in having to ask the children to bring a grocery item to our
activity to wrap up and give to our missionaries, as it could be a burden.
Some of our children aren’t financially able to do so. Instead, I thought
about having the children write out their testimonies on blank lined paper
which they would paste in the Book of Mormons that will be donated to us by
our missionaries with their class pictures on it. We had already taken class
pictures of our primary earlier this year so we don’t need to retake them.
What do you think? My only concern on this is that the children may go wild
on their testimonies with coloring it in that it may not be presentable to
investigators.
After that we thought about having a scripture scavenger hunt where the
children could use their scriptures of course. We were going to use the idea
that was already submitted by one of Sisters. If was too short a list, I
could add onto it. Look up the following scriptures to figure out what you
need to find.
1. Matthew 7:25 (rock)
2. Psalms 102:11 (grass)
3. Jeremiah 8:8 (pen)
4. D & C 45:37 (leaves)
5. Mark 10:38 (cup)
6. Ezekial 37:16-17 (stick)
7. Matthew 10:30 (hair)
8. Exodus 3:5 (shoes)
9. Moses 1:41 (book)
The next activity we thought would be also fun for the children. We were
going to have the children split up into teams and play dressing up as
missionaries. The first person in each team to begin would run to the end of
the cultural hall where we will have clothes hanging on those portable coat
racks and they would have to put on every item of clothing that missionaries
normally wear on a day to day basis: white shirt, tie, suit coat and pants,
socks, shoes, trench coat, backpack, umbrella. Once every item is worn they
would have to run back to their team and quickly have the next team member
wear them and so on and on…. For refreshments we thought of having apple
cider/milk/or hot chocolate with doughnuts or some type of bakery As a
giveaway I came up with the idea of giving each a child a miniature
missionary type tag which is simply labeled “Future Missionary” to take
home. —Latu Kinikini
We did [a missionary] activity many years ago and I did a fun station on the
things missionaries have to learn to do when they live on their own. I had
used the partitions to make an apartment in the gym. I furnished it with a
bed (child’s size bed), table etc. I had written slips of paper with
situations /chores/skills that they had to do. A child chose a slip and
completed the task.
ie. You and your companion are about to leave to go visit an investigator
and a button pops off your suit jacket.
I had the small kids do play sewing with a plastic needle on a pre-punched
board, the older ones actually tried to sew the button on.
We presented it in a fun manner and the kids enjoyed learning the different
things missionaries have to do for themselves. Other tasks that I can
remember were; make the bed, wash some dishes (I brought some dirty ones, a
tub of warm soapy water and a dish towel), iron a shirt (did not heat it up,
they just pretended), fold laundry, …. Have fun at your activity, Terri
Finney
We’re also thinking about doing the t-shirts or pillowcases with handprints
on them for the missionaries. Anyone had a good or bad experience with doing
that? We’re somewhat concerned about the mess factor.
We did an idea I got from this list last year where I printed on the T-shirt
from my computer (you can buy paper that will iron on what you type)
Thumbody Loves You and had the kids all put their thumb prints on the shirt
all over front and back and we wrote with a black marking pen their name on
their print. It was fun and we did it during primary, pulling them out by
class. We used ink pads and had wipes to wipe off their thumbs after. Worked
out fine and no one got any mess on their clothes. —Judie in CA
Responses:
There are new fabric paints that dry instantly (better than markers) that
you can buy at Wal-Mart. They come in basic colors and neon. We used them on
aprons and the kids (especially the little ones) had a great time and no big
mess!! —Kate
We did stationary one year. The children were given either flat sheets of
paper with a boarder line drawn around the edge. They could draw something
to decorate the border (and the center space was for the letter to be
written) or a sheet of paper folded into quarters to make a small card and
the child decorated the front. The presidency added envelopes and stamps.
They also took pictures of each class and glued them in the front of Books
of Mormon. Then each class added their testimony to the front page. I taught
the sunbeams then and strung together a few sentences from them like – We
love Jesus. We want to be like Him. etc and signed it with their names and
“sunbeam class age 4”. The missionaries were able to give those out to
investigators. They really liked their packets. —Marcella
What a fun idea to make care packets. Making stationary for them is always
fun. Just have stamps out for the kids to put on paper. Include envelopes.
In a past ward they also made a package with 24 envelopes for each
missionary. In each envelope was a Christmas story or missionary thought or
a letter from one of the children. The missionaries reported that it was
like advents they did at home. They had a letter a day to look forward to
and loved it. As far as something to make and take home, perhaps a small
ornament, like a painted or glittered star, an angel or something depicting
the nativity? This type of thing could be sent to the missionaries and not
be too big or costly. —Becky
We are going to be having an Activity on Saturday on Missionary work. We
have decided to let the children experience a little bit of what it is like
to be a missionary. We will be doing the MTC, where they will do little
workshops like – Folding and Sorting Laundry, Scripture Chase, Making A Bed,
and learning different Door Approaches. We will then enter the airplane- We
have only allotted about 10 minutes for the airplane, and this is where I am
a little stumped. Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do to excite the
children while in the airplane? We will set up a small classroom to look as
much as the inside of an airplane as possible. I am looking for something to
say to the children, or some kind of an activity for them to do inside the
airplane. We would like to give out a treat in the plane. We were thinking
of gummy bears. After the airplane, the children will go to their designated
missions, where they will hear from 3 different returned missionaries. We
are excited about this activity, and think the children will have a lot of
fun. Any ideas you have on how to make the airplane exciting for the
children as well will be greatly appreciated. Thanks to everyone for all the
great ideas. —-Natalie Houston
Games/Activity Ideas
Here were a few ideas I had in my file:
o Color a bookmark (smaller kids) or write a testimony to go in a Book of
Mormon (to be given to the full time missionaries)
o Play foreign language Bingo (made up of animal pictures with the foreign
RM saying the word in their language)
o Write letters to full time missionaries from our ward
o Missionary Banks: Make banks for the children to save money for their
missions
o Missionary Suitcase race: Relay where the kids take clothes out of a
suitcase, put on the white shirt, tie & backpack, run down the room, run
around a chair (or tape mark), come back and take everything off, put it
back in the suitcase & high “5” the next person in
line.
o Service of some sort (maybe helping with something for the humanitarian
effort or something around the church that needs done)
:O) Whitney
We had a wonderful experience as an Activity Day and I wished to share it
with the group. We have a rather small Primary and are able to provide more
for less than some of the larger groups. We have had so much information
about the prophets this year that we integrated missionary work with the
prophet theme. We made mission banks out of one gallon plastic jugs to
represent the Preparation a mission takes (they were made out of material
scraps, felt, beads, in the fashion of a pig). We did a flower attack at a
widows home(cut out large flowers and put them on stakes with something each
child wanted to share with her) to learn the importance of Service. We
learned the second Article of Faith to represent the Teaching talents you’ll
need on your mission. We learned head shoulders, knees and toes to
emphasize how important Obedience is. (Listening to the word) And the final
principle was Work. We baked ginger bread men and a larger ginger bread man
cake in the form of a missionary (tie, white shirt pants and tag) then the
children were reminded of all the principles we had learned and were
supplied with candies and frostings to create their own. They were so
creative and all had a great time. I know the impression of their mission’s
importance will stay with them, because it is fun to follow the
We are planning a Missionary Activity Day in November and I thought I would
share our plans with you!
The purpose of our activity is to get to know and serve the missionaries
serving from our ward.
First we will gather together to hear from the mother or father of the
missionary currently serving. We are asking them to take a few minutes to
show a picture of their missionary, tell where they are serving and share an
experience from a letter they have received from them. We are also inviting
two young men from our ward who have their mission calls and will be leaving
in Jan/Feb., to share with the children where they are going and what they
are doing to prepare.
Then we will rotate the children through 4 rotations:
1. Record children singing Primary songs (to send to the missionaries)
2. Put together cookies mixes to send to the missionaries.
3. Play a missionary dress-up relay game. (we are asking the 2 young men
who haven’t left on their missions yet to help with this activity)
4. Wrap small items to give to the missionaries. We are printing up a list
of small items and asking the children to donate one item to give to the
missionaries. Things such as stamps, envelopes, stationary, church stickers
(to give to children), treats like
Kool-aid, candy etc.
We will be making up boxes for each missionary serving from our ward (and
the 2 that will be leaving) and send them to them from our
mary! —Angela
Missionary Activity
I need help with a couple more things to finish off our missionary activity
coming up on the 29th. Does anyone know of something fun that would involve
8-10 kids in a 15 minute cooking class? I was thinking maybe mini pizzas or
cookies or something.
We’re also having a 15 minutes class on how to give a talk, followed by
their testimony. We want to give a handout to all the kids telling them the
four things they could do to give a talk which would be 1) Choose a
scripture, 2) Tell what the scripture means, 3) Tell a personal experience
or a gospel story and 4) Bear testimony. We have done bookmarks a couple of
times. I was wondering if there was anything else to make as a handout…a
banner or something??? —Kristi
~~~~~
I know our boy scouts love to make the mini pizzas that are made on an
English muffin half. You know, pizza sauce cheese and any topping that they
want to add. Set on a piece of foil (with their name in sharpie marker) on
a cookie sheet. Heat in the oven just until the cheese melts and no need to
cook longer because the muffin is pre-cooked. While it is cooking perhaps
they could make unbaked cookies? Then they will have a quick meal &
dessert. *
As for the talk segment you could add a fifth area…present a challenge to
audience; summarize things talked about, or something like that… Then you
could give them a medical glove with each area written on each finger. Then
they could remember each area of a talk with their hand. Make sense?! Good
Luck! —Mechelle
We just had ours on Saturday and it was a blast! We had a great turn
out…lots of advertising!
Our theme was “I Want to be a Missionary Now”.
When all the kids showed up we had missionary badges for them that I made.
It had a beautiful sticker of Angel Moroni on it and then just said
“Missionary” instead of their names and then “The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints” under that. They were beautiful. The kids loved them.
We put all the kids with a companion after the opening prayer. We had a
senior and a junior companion.(Valiant 12’s companioned up with the
Sunbeams, etc.) Our ward missionaries welcomed them and told them how
important it was to stay with their companions the whole time. Also that the
bar has been raised and that all the missionaries need to be prepared more
spiritually, physically and mentally. And that now was the time to prepare.
We divided them up into three groups and did three, 15-minute rotations. We
had a class on how to give a talk with their testimony by a recently
returned missionary in our ward. We also had a bookmark handout with the
four items for giving a talk; 1) choose a scripture, 2) tell what the
scripture means, 3) tell a personal story or a scripture story relating to
the scripture, then 4) bear your testimony.
Then we had a class where our chorister taught them the song “I Want to be a
Missionary Now”.
Then we had a cooking class in the kitchen. The ward missionaries conducted
that one. We just had it all ready for them. They made mini pizza’s (2 each)
and had an absolute blast and they were delicious. The seniors had to help
their junior companions if need. We didn’t do it for them. We used the
pre-made biscuit dough. (10 for 49 cents). We let them roll it out with
rolling pins, put sauce, cheese and pepperoni on them. (If anyone is
interested in doing this, let me know. There are some things I learned while
practicing these at home that you will need to know). We had the
missionaries make a couple each time too so there would be enough for all
the adults too.
Then all the kids met back in the cultural hall for the 15-minute physical
class. The ward missionaries led them in exercises and jogging around the
cultural hall. They had so much fun!
Then everyone got back in their original groups and we had relay races. The
companions did it together. We started them lying on the floor with a baby
blanket on each of them. We rang an alarm. They had to get up, make their
beds, do 2 jumping jacks, put on a shirt and tie. The junior had to feed the
senior companion cheerios, the senior companion had to look up a scripture
and read it to the junior companion. They had to take the Book of Mormon to
the end and do a door approach…they had to sing “I Belong to the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”. (not the whole song, just that much)
Hand the person a BOM then ride a scooter back to the beginning, (we tried
to get tricycles but couldn’t find three of them) take off shirt and tie and
ring the alarm for the next set of missionaries to get up and make their
beds, etc. They loved it. The senior companion had to help the junior one if
needed during the race.
Then we all gathered together again and they all sang the song they learned
for the closing song. Then we ate our pizzas and rootbeer.
It was so funny because every once in a while we had to ask someone where
their companion was and they would just take off to find them. It was
usually a little Sunbeam that would take off. His mom was there so he kept
trying to find her. The older boy was so cute.
Some of the mom’s said their kids kept their badges on all day too. It was
sweet! My 4 year old brought our next-door neighbor who is also four and
all’s they talked about all day was “missionary this and missionary that”.
Anyway, if anybody would like more info let me know. We also took lots of
pictures to make a big poster. —Kristi
P.S. I forgot about one more thing we had on our relays for our missionary
activity…after the junior companion fed the senior companion the cheerios,
they had to wash and dry their dish.
