Hello Everyone!

I decided to create a blog where we can share ideas for Enrichment Meetings and Activities.

www.reliefsocietyenrichmentideas.blogspot.com

If you have an activity or enrichment meeting idea, please feel free to leave a comment or email me at
reliefsocietyideas@gmail.com
.

I will then post your idea/activity/suggestion. Thank you!

Make sure you check out all the ideas just to the right, in the Related Websites section...I hope you find some good resources to help you in your planning!

Friday, November 28, 2008

Jenny Phillips Firesides

There is also a fireside group for Jenny Phillips. They do a few firesides a month for relief societies, wards and stakes. She has great programs for all ages! Check out her website at http://www.jennyphillips.com/. She is a singer/songwriter for Deseret Book.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

RS Birthday Celebration with a Progressive Dinner

Progressive Birthday Celebration
Bountiful 58th Ward

For our Relief Society Birthday party we had a progressive dinner in the church. We had three different sections set up for food.

The first was salad. In this area sisters sat at tables according to the month they were born in. Some tables had a couple of months.

The second was the main dish. In this room the sisters sat at tables with their birth year on it. Each table had random years on it (about 9 different years). Then towards the end of the meal we had a concentration game with questions about Relief Society.

The third room was the dessert. We had the sisters bring a baby picture of themselves and collected the pictures at the beginning of the evening. We numbered each one and taped them on the wall of the third room. Then while the sisters ate their dessert (cookies, brownies) they tried to guess who the picture was of and write it down. Then when everyone was finished guessing we went around and had people guess then tell the correct person.

The sisters loved sitting with new people at each place and getting to know more people. They also loved seeing each other as babies or young children and there were lots of laughs.

Upcoming Christmas Program

We are having a nice dinner in the gym, and then we will move to the chapel for a program. This is the program I put together. I got all the music from defordmusic.com.

Christmas Program Rough Draft

Christmas Program Final

Narrator:
As quoted from The Living Christ, we read “As we commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ two millennia ago, we offer our testimony of the reality of His matchless life and the infinite virtue of His great atoning sacrifice. None other has had so profound an influence upon all who have lived and will yet live upon the earth…

“We solemnly testify that His life, which is central to all human history, neither began in Bethlehem nor concluded on Calvary. He was the Firstborn of the Father, the Only Begotten Son in the flesh, the Redeemer of the world…

“His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come. God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son.”

Video: Hallelujah Chorus

Narrator:
Jesus Christ IS our King of King and Lord of Lords. He is also our Elder Brother who has made our Father’s Plan of Salvation possible. It is now the time of year when we get to celebrate and commemorate His life. The entire Christian world now moves into the happiest season of the year. We open the Bible to Luke’s account of one of the greatest events in history and we hear again what the shepherds heard: For unto you is born this day in the City of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

In the most humble of surroundings, the most precious infant in all history was born. This Child, was “The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” To Mary and Joseph that night, so many years ago, his blessed name was simply, Wonderful. Let us rejoice as we reflect on this sacred event that was Christ’s birth.

Song: O Holy Night

Story: God Bless Your Way

Narrator:
President Hinckley said: It is proper during this season when we commemorate His birth that we remember the Lord Jesus Christ in reverence and with love. He has done for us what we could not do for ourselves. He has brought meaning to our mortal existence. He has given us the gift of eternal life. He was and is the Son of God, who was “made flesh, and dwelt among us.

In Second Nephi, it was foretold, “The Messiah cometh in the fullness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall”. (2 Nephi 2:26)

Without Him, without His atoning sacrifice, we could not be saved. He is our Redeemer.

Song: O Come O Come Emmanuel – Group of RS Sisters


Narrator: Our prophet, President Monson said, “With the birth of the babe in Bethlehem, there emerged a great endowment, a power stronger than weapons, a wealth more lasting than the coins of Caesar. This child was to be the King of kings and Lord of lords, the promised Messiah—even Jesus Christ, the Son of God. –
There is no better time than now, this very Christmas season, for all of us to rededicate ourselves to the principles taught by Jesus the Christ. It is the time to love the Lord our God with all our heart—and our neighbors as ourselves. It is well to remember that he who gives money gives much, he who gives time gives more, but he who gives of himself gives all.

Video: Anya’s Bell

Narrator:
“I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.”

When all is said and done, when all of history is examined, when the deepest depths of the human mind have been explored, nothing is so wonderful, so majestic, so tremendous as this act of grace. The Son of the Almighty, He who had condescended to come to earth as a babe born in Bethlehem, gave His life in ignominy and pain so that all of the sons and daughters of God of all generations of time, every one of whom must die, might walk again and live eternally. He did for us what none of us could do for ourselves- President Hinckley

So think of Him this Christmas season. He was born, and He lives now. Think of Him and all that He has done for us. He came from the most humble of circumstances and yet He is our King, our Lord, and our Savior.

Song: What Child is This?


Video: Nativity

Narrator:
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” 2 Nephi 19:6

As President Hinckley said, “ I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the eternal, Living God. None so great has ever walked the earth. None other has made a comparable sacrifice or granted a comparable blessing. He is the savior and the Redeemer of the world. I believe in Him. I declare His divinity without equivocation or compromise. I love Him. I speak His name in reverence and wonder. I worship Him and I worship His Father, in the spirit and in truth. I thank Him and kneel before His wounded feet and hands and side, amazed at the love He offers me. God be thanked for the gift of His Son, the Redeemer of the world, the Savior of mankind, the Prince of Life and Peace, the Holy One.

Congregation sings the first verse of “Silent Night.”

More Info:
For the Hallelujah Chorus, I just did a slideshow of pictures of Christ put to the Tabernacle Choir singing the song.
As for the Nativity, I used the one put out by the church...the most recent one. Here is an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icilgwdHiZg
The video of Anya's Bell is inside of this book: http://deseretbook.com/item/4964370/A_Christmas_Bell_for_Anya
The story "God Bless Your Way" is inside of this book: http://deseretbook.com/item/4988541/God_Bless_Your_Way (I shortened it a little bit.)

5K Run/Walk

You could have a 5K run walk/ with donuts and juice afterwards. The sisters loved getting up on a Saturday morning and walking/jogging/talking together. It’s a tradition now!

How to decide on mini classes and teachers to teach them!

You can send around a clipboard in relief society asking sisters to write down a skill or a subject that they would be willing to teach. Then choose a day during each month to have these little half hour-hour classes (keep it simple) that sisters can come to. Rotate a different person/class each month.
Examples: Cooking, budgeting, crafts, story telling, nutrition for small children, scripture study, family home evening, etc.

We also had our sisters fill out this TALENT SURVEY. That way we knew what they were skilled in and what they were interested in. This helped us to form enrichment activities....and it was a fun way to find out new things about the sisters!

Click here to get the survey...

Hymns

This activity evolved around Emma Smith’s first hymnbook. The sisters sang hymns together and were able to sing words of one hymn to the melody of another hymn with the same meter.

Local Church History Ideas

Local Church history….
Find some church history about the area in which you live.
This group started out at their old tabernacle with a homemade breakfast including homemade breads and jams. They had a speaker talk about the historical site. Then they went on tours of some of the old and historic homes in their area. For lunch they had a chili cook off. That afternoon they had mini classes.

Another ward wrote a play in which they incorporated how to teach your family about their local church history during family home evening. A packet was sent home with the sisters.

This Little Piggy - Mini Classes

Started off with a dinner of “ham” etc. Then they had different sisters teach mini classes to go along with the nursery rhyme of “This Little Piggy.”
This little piggy went to market: Smart shopping ideas, coupon clipping, etc.
This little piggy stayed home: How to bring the spirit into your home, etc
This little piggy had roast beef: A cooking demonstration
This little piggy had none: (No physical food) But spiritual food – how to study the scriptures effectively
And this little piggy cried, “Wee, wee wee!”: How to find happiness when in adversity.

Good, Better, and Best - Visiting Teaching

This revolved around visiting teaching. The committee went around to sisters and had them act out different situations of “types” of visiting teaching. They taped little skits of visiting teachers running into their sisters at the grocery store, and counting it as a visit… or….driving by a sister’s house, dropping off cookies, mailing the message, etc. They put all these little skits together and showed it at the activity. Everyone loved it! They were laughing and empathizing, but then went away from the activity more motivated to do their best!

Mini Class Ideas

Gardening
Canning
Colors class- what colors look best on you
Vinyl lettering
Purses out of placemats
Finance class
Table Settings

Group Ideas

Play Group
Walking Group
Book Group
Recipe Group
Knitting and Crocheting Group
Scrapbooking Group
Craft Group
FHE Lesson Group

FHE for all Seasons of Life

A lesson on different ideas for Family Night whether you are single, married, young children, older children, empty nesters, etc.

Personal and Family History Night

We had a dinner and a speaker who talked about our personal and family histories. Each sister was invited to bring something to put on display....whether it was a scrapbook, a journal, their family history, books, pictures, etc. Then some sisters shared and told about their projects with the rest of the RS.

Mini Classes

We had a self defense class, a 72-hr kit class, and a class on how to make children's blankets and hair bows.

Christmas

We just had a nice dinner and then we made gift bags for all the widows/and or elderly in our ward.

Reader''s Theater

Have someone come in and put on a reader's theater. Our ward did this with help from our bishop's wife's inlaws. They came and did a reader's theater as Joseph and Emma Smith.