Spawn of Insomnia

Remember that silly blog post about insomnia a month or so ago? Well, that night when "my brain wouldn't shut up" (I plagiarized that line from Valerie) I brainstormed up an idea for our Primary Quarterly Activity.

I don't dare post pictures of Primary kids without the permission of their parents but I will tell you what we did because I know some of you are in Primary in your wards. If you don't like it, or borrow ideas from it I will not be offended but I had fun with it.

So the theme for Primary this year is "My Eternal Family" and the kids are learning a song about being builders of eternal families. Playing off of that idea, we had an Eternal Family Builders workshop. The kids came in and got construction hats, and sang our builder song, of course.

I found these for 50 cents a piece at Oriental Trading.


We had 3 building stations. The idea was to put together a family home evening lesson that the kids could go home and teach to their families.

Station One: Eternal Family Tools
The kids made toolboxes out of cardstock. I drew 4 different tools and then copied them onto different colors of cardstock. Each tool had a scripture on it that identifies different "tools" that help us build eternal families. This will be their lesson at home for FHE.





Station Two: Temple Building
Our Builders built temples out of two inch paper squares and a poster board. I wish I could show you their work but then I would have to post pictures of the kids so you will have to settle for looking at the demo that I made for them. The ones they made are hanging in the Primary room.



Another fun variation for Station 2 would be sugar cube temples. I did that when I was Activity Days leader and it was lots of fun. Our Primary is too big though so it was cheaper to do the paper temples. For our personal FHE I think we will do sugar cubes. Here is the one I made a few years ago.


Station Three: The Treat!

At station 3 the kids decorated sugar cookies shaped like houses. We had frosting and lots of candy to help them build their homes.

The kids were in 3 groups and they rotated from station to station. In between stations we had some fun builder games to let them wiggle.

Game 1: Caution tape

The 3 teams had a caution tape relay race. I found 200 ft of caution tape for $5 at Lowes. Each team member was wrapped in caution tape, then unwrapped, then they ran to the finish line. The next kid was then wrapped until the whole team had been wrapped, unwrapped, and crossed the finish line.

I can even show you a picture because this one is just my little Alex.



Game 2: Tumbling Towers

Each child had one cardboard building block. They ran to their teams' building site and put their brick down. They ran back and tagged the next team member who ran and added to the tower. The first team to finish their tower won. If anyone knocked their tower over their team had to start over.

Can anyone guess which one kid knocked their teams' tower over? Of course...my little Alyssa who was so embarrassed that she burst into tears. It reminded me very much of me as a child. It was always so hard for me to play games because I was afraid I might get embarrassed and then if I did mess up I was so mortified. I know now that it is no big deal, but at the time I was inconsolable so I really felt for her.



Okay, so I hope I didn't bore anyone with all of this but I had a lot of fun planning and I just wanted to share. I think it actually went pretty well. The older kids and younger kids all seemed to participate equally which is always a challenge. I had a lot of fun. I love Primary...nonstop kids parties...that is totally my speed. I am in over my head with the ladies who can sew and craft and decorate. I am safe and happy in Primary. We sing the best songs and have the most fun lessons. No boring Sundays for me. I love it!