Book Review - Bible Origami by Todd Huisken

Let me start by saying that this book makes me happy. I will explain.

Since my youth, I have struggled with spatial things. Things such as folding paper airplanes and answering those test questions that involve imagining how an unfolded patterned cube would look when folded back up. These things tend to frustrate me and make me feel helpless.

Fast forward to my adulthood. Todd Huisken (creator of Bible Origami) reached out to me to review his new origami book.  Todd was my dear friend during our freshman year of college but after we graduated we lost touch. We reconnected when he found my blog and asked me if I would give an honest review his book.

Author, Todd Huisken

Todd sent me a copy of his book, "Bible Origami," along with some paper so that I could try creating some of his designs. (I'd kept my spatial inadequacies hidden so he had no idea how challenging this would be for me.)

So I bravely sat down to try my hand at "Bible Origami."  I started with making Joseph's Coat of Many Colors. I followed the directions and illustrations exactly. Imagine my surprise and delight when I was able to do it! I literally screamed out, "LOOK WHAT I MADE!" (Sure, my family mocked me a bit for my over-enthusiasm but they were happy for me.)

Stake Activity Day - "There's No Place Like Home"

I served as the secretary in our Stake Primary Presidency.  I loved this Stake Activity Day event! Feel free to copy anything you'd like from the activity. 

We had a committee of around 20 people working on it and it was incredible.  Everyone magnified their responsibilities and I have to say it turned out to be quite a memorable event for the girls.

This was our poster (I took our stake name off to make it generic).

Our invitation. We printed them as 4x6 pics at Costco.

We based the theme around the Wizard of Oz but adjusted it to fit our desired goal.  Our theme was "There's No Place Like Home with Our Father in Heaven and our Savior Jesus Christ."  Our focus was trying to prepare the girls to attend the temple someday and then eventually return to live with Heavenly Father.

Primary Airlines Activity

We did this fun "Primary Airlines" activity for our Primary Sharing Time for the children right after they finished doing the Primary Program at church.  We wanted to do something fun for them to show them how grateful we were for all of their hard work.  They memorized their lines, sang songs, and recited scriptures in front of a few hundred people (something many adults are afraid to do).  It was impressive!

Before the children arrived, we set up the Primary Room to look like an airplane.  A few printed airplane windows on the walls, chairs set up like airplane rows and aisles.  In the front of the room we had a big "Primary Airlines" sign.

We had the children line up in the hallway in front of a poster sized boarding sign and gave them each a boarding pass like this.

One of the gals and her family made a video that was projected on a screen in the room.  There were airplane sounds and the pilot spoke to the passengers throughout the movie.  They felt like they were on a flight.  There was even some turbulence and lightning along the way to add excitement.  We stopped at various countries and showed bits and pieces from this "One in a Million" page on the lds.org website.  For instance, for Australia, we would have the captain announce where we were landing and then we'd play a little show about a child from Australia.  It was a big hit!

Part way through our "flight," we served snacks and drinks on a cart, going up the aisles.

The theme of the month was missionary work, so we discussed that and as the children exited the flight, they received a "pass along card" to share with a friend.  They also received a pair of plastic airline wings with sticky tape on the back that were donated by SouthWest Airlines.

I'm sure the kids will remember this for a long time.  It could also work as part of a quarterly activity :)

Father's Day MnM Bow-ties

Take a MnM bag, tie in the middle with a ribbon or string to make it look like a bow-tie.  You can put a tag that says You are a Most Marvelous Dad.

Thank you to my friend Stephanie for this fun idea.  She did this as an Activity Day meeting with the 8-11 year old girls at church.

Paperclip Bookmarks

I found this pack of 500 jumbo paper clips at Staples. There are red, blue, green, yellow and pink.  They have some other colors there as well in smaller packages and sometimes have seasonal colors too.

I saw a cute idea on Pinterest that used fabric and large paperclips to make bookmarks.  I drive my husband nuts because I never seem to have a bookmark for my books so I dog-ear the pages or just lay the book down open to the page I am on.  He is constantly finding me makeshift bookmarks that I find in the book I am reading.  He'll be excited to see this craft.  But my main purpose in making this was for Teacher Appreciation week.

I gathered up some ribbons that I had laying around.  I cut them into smaller strips (experiment to find the length you like).  Then I just looped the cut ends through the end of the paperclip and put the ends through the loop of the ribbon, pulling tight to get it to stay.  Be sure to put it through the correct end of the paperclip so that the paperclip will continue to function.

Easter Story Cookies

Here's an Easter object lesson involving baking. These are also called "Resurrection Cookies" by some people. You can click on the jpg picture below to print it out on one page or read the rest of this post to see how to do this at home.

Ingredients and Props
1 cup whole pecans
1 teaspoon vinegar
3 egg whites
Pinch of salt
1 cup sugar
1 zipper baggie
1 wooden spoon Bible

Directions and Activity

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Place pecans in a zipper baggies and let children beat them with a wooden spoon to break them into small pieces. Explain that after Jesus’ arrest, he was beaten by Roman soldiers. Read John 19:1-3, “Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him. And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head. And they put on him a purples robe, and said, Hail, King of the Jews! And they smote him with their hands.”

Easter Egg Scriptures

Easter Egg Scriptures:

Cut the the following scriptures and put each one with the item indicated into a plastic Easter egg. Write the number of the egg on the outside of the egg so you can open them in order. You can hide them as part of an Easter egg hunt or just take turns opening the eggs, showing the items and reading the scriptures.

1. And he went a little further, and fell on his face and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt. (Matt. 26:39) (Sacrament cup)

2. Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, and said unto them, what will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. (Matthew 26: 14-15) (3 dimes)

Primary - Captain Righteousness

The second counselor in our bishopric is a great sport.  He dresses up as CAPTAIN RIGHTEOUSNESS and pops in to surprise our Primary group during singing/sharing time about once a month.  Before he comes in, the lights are all suddenly turned off and a flashlight is turned on and focused on a small CTR sign on the chalkboard.  Then the kids get excited because they know a special visitor is coming.

He calls one class up to the front of the room and asks each child to tell something that they have done to Choose the Right recently.  Then he gives them a CTR ring to remind them to continue to choose the right.  The kids LOVE it and I must admit it makes me giggle too.

What a great tradition that kids (and teachers) will surely remember.

Primary Meet Your Teacher Pancake Breakfast

We had a fun Meet Your Teacher breakfast for our Primary kids at church this morning. 

Being the random, word-loving person that I am, when I got there I started thinking about IHOP and how those letter were all in the word BISHOP.  The bishopric members were the ones cooking breakfast for everyone.  So listed below is the nickname/acronym I came up with.  I just couldn't help myself.  It made me giggle.

BISHOP (instead of IHOP)
Bishopric's Incredibly Superb House Of Pancakes

During the breakfast, each teacher sat with their Primary class and chatted together.  They gave each table a piece of paper and a die to roll.  There were six questions on the paper.  As a new Primary teacher, I really enjoyed getting to know the kids in my class better.

Here are the questions:
What's your favorite food?
Who's your favorite prophet and why?
What's your favorite subject in school?
What's your favorite hobby, sport, musical instrument?
Where would you like to go on vacation?
What's your favorite TV show?

FHE - Fiery Darts of the Adversary

We met with a few families at the park and had a fun FHE tonight about protecting ourselves from temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary. This could also be adapted for Primary, Young Men, or Young Women activities.

Lesson:

1) What are the fiery darts of the adversary?
(Everyone gets a chance to discuss)

2) What can protect us from temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary?

1 Nephi 15:24 - “Whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction.”

WORD OF GOD: The “Iron Rod is the Word of God” – The Word of God does not consist of just reading the scriptures. It is also listening and obeying to our living prophet as well as obeying the commandments in the scriptures.

D&C 3: 8. – “Yet you should have been faithful; and he would have extended his arm and supported you against all the fiery darts of the adversary; and he would have been with you in every time of trouble.”

FAITH: If we are true and faithful, we will have the Holy Ghost with us and we will be supported when faced with temptations.

PRAYER: Pray for strength to resist temptations and the fiery darts in our own lives.

TRUTH & RIGHTEOUSNESS: We need to cling to truth no matter how confusing the world becomes. We also need to strive to be righteous and not let Satan trick us onto the wrong paths in life.

Activity:

I made up 4 shields in advance. (I bought some silver cardboard cake platters to use as shields). I printed out wordstrips for Word of God, Faith, Prayer and Truth & Righteousness and taped those on to the "shields" (one per shield)

After the lesson, we assigned half the group to be "adversaries" and the other half to be people trying to avoid the fiery darts. For our fiery darts, we used giant marshmallows thrown by hand, and mini-marshmallow guns made from pvc pipes. The people had to run to a "home base" and try to make it past the adversaries throwing their "fiery darts." The four people who received the shields were able to use those to protect themselves. It was a little chaotic and messy, but the kids all loved it. One of the dads was bummed we didn't light the marshmallows on fire to be literal "fiery darts" but we try to avoid arson charges. For dessert we served Ding Dongs because they are silver and round and I told them they were really shields to protect them from the fiery darts of the adversary.

Primary Activity - Two Little Hands

My kids attended a fun Primary Activity Day today. The theme was Two Little Hands. They had five stations and the activity lasted 1.5 hours.

1) Popcorn Hands - The kids filled the loose plastic gloves with popcorn and a jelly bean candy for the fingernails.

2) Scripture Bingo

3) Testimony Gloves - (see picture) They discussed the five basic elements of a testimony and what a testimony is (not a thank-imony, love-imony, etc.). The hand out said the following:

A Pure Testimony is....

1-I know that God is our Father in Heaven and He loves us.

2-I know that Jesus Christ is His Son, our Savior and Redeemer

3-I know Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, and he was the instrument through which the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored to the earth. He translated the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God.

4-I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord's Church on the earth today.

5-I know this Church is led by a living prophet who receives revelation.

4) Magical Hands Storybook and Craft - They read a book about a group of men in a small town and on their birthdays he would do their morning farmwork as a secret service. Then when it was his birthday he woke up and his chores were all done. The kids decorated a little paper hand that they can leave when they do service. It said, "I've served you with my magical hands. Please leave this hand with the next person you serve." I like that idea of paying it forward.

5) Service and Games - The kids helped clean the nursery toys with sanitizing wipes and then played games.

They "handed" out ice pops at the end. Very creative. I give it a two thumbs up!

Primary Activity - Get to Know the Bishopric

We did this in my old ward and it was very fun. I believe our bishopric was new at the time, but this activity could be done no matter how long the bishopric has been in place.

GET TO KNOW THE BISHOPRIC

We want to get to know each of the members of our Bishopric today.
We are going to play a game that will help us get to know each of them better!

· Have all the children sit on the floor.
· Explain that we have asked each member of the Bishopric several questions and they gave us their answers to those questions. We will be using the answers they gave us to play this game.
· The leader has a child come pick one of the cards that are face down on the board at the front of the group.
· The child or leader reads the favorite thing that is written on the card.
· The children guess which Bishopric member listed that thing as their favorite.
· After the correct guess is made, that card is placed on the board under that Bishopric member’s name.
· Next card – same thing, etc.

Heavenly Father has given us Bishopric members to help us and guide us. They love us and want the best for us. When we follow their direction, we are blessed.

Items needed: List of Bishopric favorite things, Bishopric name cards to use as column headings, Cards (with favorite things listed), Magnets to hold the cards on the board