Young Women Blogs

It was either last year or the year prior, that on LDS.org, the Relief Society had a great suggestion on their website.  They suggested that the women do some service and then blog about it.  There are several great places to visit to learn more about blogging and here they are:
http://lds.org/church/share/sharing-via-blogs?lang=eng&query=Service+blog+about

I am giving a lesson on Family history blogging, but Blogging in general is a great way for Young Women to blog about their lives.  They can add photos, and actually write their history through this journaling.  Then they can print it off and keep it and treasure it.  Blogging is like journaling and it can be made private or you can invite only those you want to view your blog, or you can have it open for the whole world to see.  I would suggest a private blog so that those things that they write in anger or whatever, can be erased and no one will know.

Creating a blog is fun, very easy, and doesn't have to cost anything if you use blogger or other free blog hosting. 

LDSJournal.com is also a great place to keep a personal journal. I am in the process of preparing my lesson so I will quit for now, but I will come back and expound on this idea.


Enjoy!  Katie G.

Young Women lesson on Friends/Friendship

Here is the link to this lesson, and I hope it works for you!https://dl.dropbox.com/u/57771560/Katie%27s%20Friendship%20lesson/The%20key%20to%20friendshisp%20%20is%20to%20try%20to%20be%20like%20Jesus.docx

I have finally finnished what I think ended up being a great lesson on Friends. Our ward is going through the topics of the For the Strength of Youth booklet, and it is my turn to teach. I do have a great lesson but I have no idea how to turn it into a format compatible to put on this post.

The lesson is actually being called... the Key to Friendship. I will attach my printables and images I will be using.

The lesson in a nutshell is that the Key to Friendship is to be as Jesus Christ. We will focus on the song "I'm trying to be Like Jesus" sung by the MoTab choir and there is a beautiful slide presentation that I found with lots of different images of Jesus during his birth and ministry. I am selecting a few stories about Jesus that demonstrate friendship such as the Paralytic who was lowered through the roof, to get to Jesus, by his friends.... The story of the woman caught in sin and Jesus not judging her, and the story of Jesus walking on water, and lifting up Peter, his friend and disciple when his faith had faultered, and so forth. I believe it turned out great.

I have a bronze jewelry tree, that I have hanging on the branches, antique skeleton looking keys tied on a ribbon. Attached to the key is also a tag with the image of Jesus, and the backside of the tag has the words printed at an angle "I am trying to be like Jesus", looking like a watermark. (I have included this tag) That will be the handout along with a printable that I also created and will include on this post. Feel free to use them in your lessons as well. Enjoy! Katie G.



Value Colors Printables

I finally got all the rest of the YW Values Colors Papers finnished for using as a certificate, or other project that you might have in mind.  Scroll down a couple posts to see them.  I hope that you enjoy them for now and years to come.  You can click on this link to take you right there if you like.  http://ldsyoungwomentips.blogspot.com/2011/03/young-women-value-certificates.html
Enjoy! Katie G.

Value your Personal Progress tags

I created these little tags to go with the cute little table favor that I am making for the Young Women and their mothers at our "Personal Progress Tea".  Yikes.... did I say the word tea?  Yep, FYI a tea is an occasion, not a drink, as our new Young Women president so aptly stated. (We will not be having tea of any kind, remember it is an occasion, but what we will be haivng is crumpets, Lemon Curd, cream, and fruit.

Anyway, back to the favor....I found these cute little plastic cups, that are small and clear, at the dollar store.  I am filling them with skittles, because they have a rainbow of colors and that is what I am after...... Value colors.  In the wedding cake decorating section of Walmart, I found tiny bags just the right size to wrap these little skittle cups in and I am tying it off with ribbon.  I am attaching these tags to the ribbon.  They will look very cute and the message to the girls isn't just to eat skittles, which by the way are very yummy, but the value colors are represented, and valuing your own personal progress is what all the girls need to focus on.

We have invited the Moms to come to this tea, so that they can really understand their part in encouraging their daughters to value this wonderful program.  It will be a fun evening and an evening of value and worth.  It will also give our new Young Women presidency the opportunity to meet the moms and let them see and feel our spirits and personalities. 

Anyway, I thought I would post this and let you use this in this way or in any other way that you would like as whatever we do in Young Womens, impacts the girls.  This will be for the good and their benefit, and hopefully it will get them thinking alittle deaper than the first glance.  Enjoy, Katie G.

Young Women's Anthem 2011 "Guardians of Virtue"

Are you aware of the beautiful song "Guardians of Virtue" that is the Young Women Anthem for this year?  It is just beautiful.  I have inserted below this post, the video of this beautiful song.  You can have access to the sheet music in PDF here: https://lds.org/youth/video/guardians-of-virtue?lang=eng
or directly here: https://lds.org/bc/content/shared/content/english/pdf/youth/guardians-of-virtue-sheet-music.pdf
I am teaching this song to the Young Women to sing, at girls camp as well as in Sacrament Meeting when they return from Girls camp.  Here is what I am doing.

This song begins with a solo voice singing, but I am using 2 solo voices.  The rest of the YW and leaders will come in at the top of page 3 "We find joy in living what we know".  Everyone will sing in unison to the end of the song however, at the very end the last line will be sung in unison only by the two soloists.  I am writing in an alto part for the soloists to sing at another point in the song, just to give it a little variety and more impact.  If I get around to it, I will also try to pick out the notes that the violinist plays an obbligato in the MP3 recording.  It will be really pretty when we sing it.

Enjoy!  Katie G.

Guardians of virtue: Young Women song

Easter Card for Young Women

I went to a store here in Utah that has these sugar eggs, that have a cute little scene inside of them.  Anyway, for a case of 6 dozen of them, it was only $3.  I was looking for things for an Easter Egg hunt for my grandchildren.  Well my grandchildren are taken care of and so I had two dozen left, and thought I would let the Young Women I work with in my ward, know how I feel about them.  So... here is a card that I drew up and you can feel free to use it if you like. 

I left the inside blank so that you could write a little note to the Young Women and personalize it for them.  Enjoy!  Katie G.

Temples Lesson idea

One of my readers (Berg) has a blog that gives a wonderful idea about a lesson she gave about the temple.  Here is her blogpost and idea http://gardenberger.blogspot.com/2011/03/super-service.html Remember the story about when all the women sacrificed of themselves to build the temple by donating their china to be crushed up and put into the walls of the temple to glisten?  She took that story and gave each girl a piece of china and put a temple message on the back of it, with the story.  I thought that was a great idea.

Now... you may be thinking... that would be very expensive!  Actually not.... if you go down to DI, or other 2nd hand store and buy it there.  I have seen whole sets of china that people have given away, in perfectly good condition.  Ross and TJ Maxx also have china tea plates in sets from time to time, for a very reasonable price, so you can look at stores like these. 

Sometimes $1 stores have the plate stands, so you could check there too if you wanted to give a plate stand as well.

Great idea especially I am sure that at least once a year, a YW lesson will be included on the temple.

Enjoy, Katie G.

Young Women Value Certificates

 I am in the process of designing some cute YW Values Certificates or pages, that leaders can use as they wish.  I was prompted to create some because my own ward did such a cute thing... let me explain.  I had surgery last week, and that following Wednesday, the YW and leaders came over to my home and presented me the "Knowledge award".  I was really touched.  They had gotten together the day before an baked and iced plates of Sugar cookies the colors of the different values.  Knowledge was Green, so my cookies had green icing.  Anyway, they took around cookies to many different women in the ward who represented to the Young Women, examples of all the different values.  I personally loved it!

Anyway... I thought that this was a great idea to do, and thought of so many other applications for a blank certificate in each of the value colors.  So, I am starting to design these, and  I will make them blank for you to fill in the purpose you wish to use it for.  Keep checking back because each of them take several hours to create, and I think it will take me several days.  ENJOY!!  Katie G.

Teaching a lesson on Modesty?

Here is a cute handout that you can put together for the Young Women to give as a handout.  These are treat bag toppers, and you can fill the bags with M&M's and staple this topper on it.  You can either print on White cardstock and even color in the M&M's to match the colors that you are using, or just print these off on colored card stock that will match one of the colors of the M&M's.  It turns out very cute.  Enjoy!  Katie G

ipodd (Individual Progress of Divine Daughters) New Beginnings

This ipod image I drew up was blown up large
enough to have the different aps, pasted to the
screen.  The aps are explained in the skit.

This past month my wards YW had their New beginnings program.  The girls did such a great job of planning and carrying it out.  They wanted something unique and together they created a skit that the setting was an iPODD store, and three of the girls were employees.  They had three others who were customers and they proceeded with the skit. 

I am YW secretary and I had created the iPodd Owners Manuel that the girls referred to throughout the skit that explained different things.  (I will insert in this post, the many pages of the owners Manuel if you want to use them in your ward or stake)

It was very cleaver and turned out cute.  The props were very simple and mimicked the iPod design, though the silhouettes were the Young Women int he different value colors, and then black head phones were attached to the silhouettes. (see silhouette photo)

So the pages aren't in the correct order, but you will be able to see when you print them the order that they will go, as these are in print order, for front and backside of each sheet of paper.  The cover doesn't have anything printed on the opposite side of it, but all the rest do.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Now for the Script:

I have had so many requests for this script, and did have at one time the dropbox link to it.  With changing of computers, that dropbox link faded off into the sunset.  HOWEVER, today I was finally able to locate that script again, and here is a new dropbox link to it.  You will have to personalize it like we did, but at least you can know how the actual skit was presented.  By the way, it was really cute and the girls loved doing it !

 https://www.dropbox.com/s/l2ey40kvpv09two/Ipodd%20Skit%20for%20New%20Beginnings.pdf

Enjoy and Best regards,

Katie Gauger

Handouts for my YW lesson on "A Grateful Heart"

This lesson starts out with the story of the 10 Lepers, and commentary taken from President Thomas S. Monson's General Conference talk "The Divine Gift of Gratitude" found in Nov. 2010 Ensign.  I found a great picture online and made it look nice to display.

I had so much wonderful material for my lesson and I knew I would never be able to give it all, so I decided to create a handout booklet to get in other ideas, thoughts, scriptures and stories, etc.  I made these so that they could be printed front side and backside.  I did them in color, but you can always just do them in Black and white on the Church copy machine, or maybe do the cover in color and the insides in color.  Up to you.  I have yet to put the finishing touches on my lesson, but I will get it posted as soon as that happens... you know like tomorrow since it is being taught the next day.  Enjoy!  Katie G.

This is the cover page and the next one below is to be copied
and put on the backside of this cover.

Print this one on the backside of the cover page

This side will be the middle or top side up page, and the next one
will be the back side.  The reason is that the suggested activity on
this page is explained on both pages, and needs to be opened
together.  Clear as mud???

Print this on the backside of the one just above.

Now just fold in half and staple like you would a booklet or book.  Simple as that!  It looks really cute.  I have some other cute ideas that I decided to do and it really helped to have been to the after Valentine sales, as I was able to find all kinds of heart treats, sticker, handouts, etc.  When you can use a heart in the theme of a lesson be sure to go to the after Valentine sales. 

I found some cute Mardi Gras type red-heart necklaces, that I am going to ask the girls to have a "Grateful Heart day", using them.  I am telling them to select one day and wear the necklace as a bracelet or necklace to remind them to be grateful and thankful the entire day.  They are to tell people thank you, and express gratitude to others like school teachers for teaching them, Mom for cooking dinner, and even showing gratitude by helping with the dishes, or doing something nice for someone.  This will be a day that will create gratitude in their hearts, and will help them to see how wonderful it feels to have a grateful heart.  I hope that they will want that feeling more than just one day, and will always remember the blessing of a grateful heart.

Another thing I will suggest to the girls is that they do a FHE using the materials from the lesson and play the grateful heart game in their family.  They cut out the hearts and when someone does something nice, they post a heart on their door with a note of thanks! 

This is a handout from the lesson when we talk about being
grateful in thought word and deed.

In my lesson, I am going to have them practice what I preached, and what I actually did before I could preach it.  I used Elder Bednars talk about praying to Heavenly Father in Gratitude and thanks and asking for nothing.  I did this for a whole week, and what a marvelous experience it was for me to realize just how much the Lord has given me, as well as how much he is in my life.  I became so aware of the blessings around me, of nature, and the beauty in it. I appreciated more the food I ate and the convenience of just going to the store and purchasing it, not to mention appreciation for my sweet husband for providing the means to buy it, and to the Lord for blessing him with a brilliant mind and talents to perform his job  and provide for us.  My gratitude for everything increased 100 fold and I hope that the YW will have much of the same experience as I did. 

Oh, I found these chocolate covered heart shaped marshmallow "Peeps" at Shopko for like 7 cents each, that I will give to the girls as a treat. I had planned on making Heart shaped iced sugar cookies, but since my lesson prep is to the 11th hour, I am so glad I found these. I will put them on a couple of heart shaped Valentine plates, and as you can see, even my display table will be pretty too.  It works for me and I know the girls will appreciate it!



Enjoy my ideas and let me know what you think and what your ideas are too!!!  Enjoy, Katie G.

Young Women Ideas

I have just started up this new blog and will add all of my creations, like I do on my other two blogs whose links are posted under the banner.  (Young Women oriented only) I would love for any of my visitors to email me with either your blog link, website link or ideas that you have used that will help all those tireless women who serve the Young Women.  I have come to a great appreciation for the time and efforts that are put into the Young Women of our church and know that it is all worth it.  It isn't just a Sunday job, but an all week effort as well and I am beginning to understand how fresh ideas for lessons, handouts, activities, and whatever else is needed, are so appreciated.  I am just the secretary in my wards Y.W. who loves to create cute handouts and things, but I am so grateful for those who spend their time creating wonderful ideas to teach and strengthen the Young Women. 

I would love to hear from you!

Best Regards,
Katie G.

P.S.  Here is an activity invitation that our ward did.  We had a Mad Hatter Tea Party to teach etiquette and manners to the Young Women.  By the way.... if you were worried when you heard the word "Tea" don't worry because it is explained to all the girls at the first of the tea party, that Tea isn't a drink, it is an occasion.  (NO TEA DRINKING HERE)
Here is the invitation that I designed, and the menus for each table. It really turned out wonderful.  The girls and leaders all dressed up in "Fancy Nancy" attire, and we had quite an extraordinary event.

Define the 13 articles of faith.

I found a great handout on the 13th article of faith, on a cute blog called the Red headed hostess.  The link is here http://theredheadedhostess.com/?p=953,  I wanted to use this idea in a meeting I have tomorrow morning and wanted it to match some other handouts, so I drew it up differently than what she had on her blog. I suggest yo go to her blog as she has some really great ideas and printables. 
Enjoy!  Katie G.

2011 Young Womens Theme

This year the Theme for Young Women and Young Men's is the 13th article of Faith.  I have designed for you to print and give out to your Youth a bookmark.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did creating them.
Enjoy!  Katie G.

This is an invitation that I designed for our Young Women in Excellence.  It was a marathon theme, and was an evening where the girls figureatively ran a marathon from stop to stop, learning about each girls value projects, and focusing on the values that would help the girls run to win their marathons in life. 

This is just alittle printable set of two cards that can be uses as thankyous, or whatever.  The one on the bottom is of a young Alice in Wonderland, and perfect for sending a nice note to a Young Women, or to use for an invitation to a Young Women activity.