Monday, April 28, 2008

Fun Day!


My least-favorite part of being a Primary President is planning Fun Days. We have a tiny Primary (around 30 kids), and most of the kids are very active in extracurricular activities. Getting people together is difficult, and planning something that's worthwhile and fun is even worse (in my opinion).

Our ward has been focused on emergency preparedness for several months now, so it seemed like having an Emergency Preparedness Fun Day was in order. It was not as well-attended as we would have liked, but it was a really neat activity. Tons of credit goes to my wonderful counselors and secretary but also to (who would've thought it) FEMA. My first counselor's husband took pictures, which I will post as soon as I get a copy.

We started out together with an opening prayer and a rousing rendition of "Oh Today is the Day to Get Prepared". Then we divided the kids into small groups and gave each of the kids an inexpensive bookbag. We had five different stations: Spiritual Preparedness, First Aid, 72-hour kit, Home Preparedness and Disaster Preparedness. The groups traveled from station to station, participating in a 15-minute lesson at each. At the end of the lesson, the kids got something to put in their bookbag--we had 72-hour-kit-like snacks such as granola bars or water and combination flashlight/whistle/non-functioning compass.

Once each group had visited all five stations, we reconvened back in the Primary room. Each kid got an emergency preparedness activity book (from FEMA) and a certificate of participation (from the FEMA website). Then we said a closing prayer and we were done! It took an hour and a half from beginning to end. The children who participated really enjoyed it, and the adults were very impressed. Everyone learned something worthwhile about preparedness.

I'm sure that we're not the only Primary ever to do something like this, and ours wasn't particularly fancy, but I'm going to send some pictures off to The Friend and the Primary HQ in Salt Lake. If any of my readership wants details for their own Fun Day, or has done something like this in the past and wants to share their experiences, by all means let me know!

3 comments:

nyclizzie said...

That sounds great! You should post it on some Primary website somewhere since you've already done the legwork on it.

Anonymous said...

Way to go!!! Activities are always a challenge for Primary. Our primary just had one this past Friday evening. It has become a yearly tradition to do a talent show. (Performed or displays) It always been a fun night, with families invited, and popcorn and licorice. LOVE YOU!!!! Cindy

Julie said...

I didn't know you're PP! I'm sure you're fantastic. What a ton of work! The activity looks amazing. Way to go.

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