Latter-day Village Square

I am sorry I am late with these bookmarks! Where does the time go? This month there is not a specific message for Visiting Teaching - we are invited to choose a message from the Conference Report to share with our sisters. I decided to use the photo on the front of the November Ensign - when have we more needed to know we are lead by a living prophet we can depend on?

Here is a link to the bookmark -
http://latter-dayvillage.com/sampler/article.php?id=552

God bless you all -
~ Debra
“Fear not - though the enemy deride! Courage! For the Lord is on our side. We will heed not what the wicked may say, but the Lord alone we will obey!” Let Us All Press On - Hymns, 243

We’ve gotten lots of requests for the 4th Quarter Lesson Handouts for the YW 3 Manual - and AT LAST they are in our store!

As usual, Courtney White has done an excellent job creating these beautiful lesson handouts with her gorgeous photography and sensitivity to the needs of our youth.

This particular collection has 2 lessons about general conference. There is a Conference Companion handout included.

Each year I design a set of Scripture Mastery images that we use on our posters, clip-art and stickers.  This year we added a new product, New Testament Scripture Mastery Shrink Charms - with the New Testament SM designs.  This shrink plastic product has all 25 designs on one sheet that you cut out, hole punch and bake to make sturdy little charms that you can use in a number of ways.

• Give a key ring, zipper pull, chain bracelet or necklace to students and as they “master” each verse, they earn a charm to add to their key ring.
• Life applications - students earn charms as they can share with the class how a scripture mastery verse applied to some aspect of their lives.
• Use for games!
• CRANIUM - Use a Cranium game board and die to play.  Instead of using the cards, use the charms- players choose a charm from a can, or have them laid flat, face down on a table.  The team member must use a variety of ways to get their team to guess what the verse is, such as charades, drawing a picture, modeling clay etc. - the same idea can be used for Pictionary etc.
• MEMORY - Use two sets laid flat on the table top and have students try to find pairs.  When they make a match they recite the verse to earn the charm.
• BUTTON BUTTON - like the old childhood game, lace one set of charms onto a long length of yarn and tie the ends together - students sit cross-legged on the floor in a circle and hold on to the yarn - pass along the charms while music is playing - whenever the music stops they must stop passing the charms.  Teacher has a can with another set of charms in it, and pulls one out.  Whoever has the mate to it has to recite the verse or give an life application etc.  For fun, add a button to the yarn, and whoever has the button when the music stops must leave the circle
• BURIED TREASURE - fill two plastic tubs with sand or wheat and hide a set of charms in each tub.  Place the tubs on a table at one end of the room.  A timer calls out every 15 seconds and have two teams send one member at a time down to dig for buried treasure.  Each 15 seconds the digger stops and another student runs down to dig.  Have a grid with five rows and five columns on a piece of cardboard.  Put a keyword in each square.  When the diggers turn is up he/she takes all the charms they unearthed and places them on the matching square.  They only have 15 seconds to correctly place them or they have to throw their charms back in the tub.  The team with the most charms at the end of a certain length of time, or the team that gets all the charms correctly placed on the grid first, wins!
• BINGO - make up BINGO cards with keywords scattered on each square.  Pull out charms from a can and players place candies on their BINGO cards to form horizontal, vertical or diagonal lines to earn a BINGO.  When someone gets a BINGO they must choose one of the verses in their bingo line to recite correctly to actually win.

TELL US HOW YOU USE THE CHARMS!

~Debra

2009 Resources are now available in the Primary Knowledgebase to help you prepare for the new year!  I have added several already with many more to come.  Currently you can find:

• 2009 Primary Weekly Planner
• 2009 Sunday Planner
• 2009 Talk/Prayer/Scripture Assignment Chart
• Talk/Prayer/Scripture Assignment Cards
• 2009 Theme Birthday Postcards
• 2009 Primary Bookmark
• Class Presentation Sharing Time Reminder
• 2009 January Newsletter Template

Also included is the font used in these resources that you can install on your computer if you want to use the editable Word document versions and keep the look and formatting of the original!

I did the logo you see here and this is part of a whole collection of 2009 Primary Clipart that will soon be available in our store and will also be available as stickers and rub-onz and shrink charms!

2009 PRIMARY SONGS - one of the songs to be taught in 2009 has just been published in the October Friend magazine - “The Family Is of God” and you can listen to the song as an MP3 file at lds.org

There are two months in 2009 when the song is not specifically chosen for you, instead you can select your own favorite song - Song of your choice about Jesus Christ from the CS, Hymns, Friend or Liahona - in April and July.

APRIL THEME - Jesus Christ made it possible for me to live with my Heavenly Father again.

JULY THEME - I will strengthen my family.

The outline only suggests songs through August that will be included in the CSMP.  Two of the songs I have written that are now in the Primary Music KB would be PERFECT for the following monthly themes:

OCTOBER THEME - “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” teaches me about families.  My song - “The Family, Our Destiny’” was written about the Proclamation!

DECEMBER THEME - My family is blessed when we remember Jesus Christ. My song - “He Came” touches on the weekly gospel principles included in the outline for this month.

CSMP 2008

I have to mention that I am the first counselor in my ward Primary, and was in charge of the CSMP this year.  I adapted the script by Linda Whitlock that is in the Primary KB.  She had suggested using the song “I Wonder When He Comes Again” in the script, and I substituted “He Came” in it’s place.  There was a boy who had just turned 12 who so wanted to participate in the CSMP and sing a solo, and he and a wonderful 10 year old girl sang a duet with him.  The CSMP was rough in practice, as is typical, but on Sunday with angels in attendance, the program was so lovely!!!!!  Thank you Linda for that wonderful script.  I cried the first time I read it and little realized I would be using it in my own ward!  All the music was wonderful, including this little duet - just the way I dreamed it would be, but was a bit nervous about till the program.

OCTOBER 2008 RESOURCES

I’ve added new sharing times, lesson supplements, posters, newsletter templates and more for October!

Scripture Mastery (SM) is the one area of a seminary teacher’s responsibility that is not covered very well in the teacher manuals. However, Latter-dayVillage.com carries many different SM teaching resources to help you turn students into scripture masters. If done correctly, this one single area of seminary instruction can become the most lasting memory imprint from your teacher efforts. Many of us still remember the scriptures we memorized even 40-50 years ago; in fact for this write, knowing the SM verses was a powerful missionary tool. I was able to quote prophetic scripture on the door, the street corner, and in our investigator’s homes. In every member missionary situation, having an instant library of God’s Word available to use, will benefit students and teacher alike.

In the next few Seminary News Flashes, we will focus on one of our SM resources, as well as listing much of what we offer. This Flash our attention turns to Scripture Mastery Resources! from Ken Alford. Bro. Alford, a long time seminary teacher has just joined the BYU Dept. of Religion faculty after retiring from military service. His resource packets are designed for quick duplication with using a copy machine; his CD’s are packed with images and activities proven to help with SM passage familiarization and memorization.

New Testament. Volume 1 - The activities in this basic New Testament packet include:

• Games
• Handouts
• Inspiring Quotations (called “Glue Quotes” or “Glue-Ins” each one refers to a specific scripture and they’re all just the right size to glue into scriptures or journals)
• Memory aids
• Instructions and Ideas
• Many, many other features, too many to list in this space. Click here to see the entire product description.

New Testament. Volume 2 - This second activity packet does not duplicate first packet resources, but adds a wide range of New Testament teaching resources:

• Jewish Holiday information (through 2005)
• Scripture Mastery Anagrams activity
• New Testament Tidbits (lesson “attention getters”)
• “Who Wants to be a Zillionaire” New Testament game (complete with speed round questions, lifelines, and game questions)
• Table of Contents (with all packet pages numbered)
• Scripture Mastery Logic Puzzle (and solution)
• As with the previous packet, there is to much to list here. See
  the product page for a complete list of New Testament teaching aids.

ALL 100 Scripture Mastery CD - On this CD, designed for all four years (good scripture mastery involves reviewing previous year’ memorization),  you receive:

• 400 SCRIPTURE MASTERY PICTURES
  • 100 pictures with keywords and scripture references
  • 100 pictures with references but no keywords
  • 100 pictures with keywords but no references
  • 100 pictures without keywords or references
  • These beautiful pictures can be used in handouts, activities, talks, games, flash cards, etc.
• 100 scripture mastery computer jigsaw puzzles
• 48 computer screensavers
• 100 computer background pictures
• 4 computer slideshows
• 4 scripture mastery guides

Picture Clues - The Picture Clues packet provides match the Picture Bingo clues from the Seminary Scripture Mastery Resource Volume 1 packets. Each Picture Clues packet contains:

• 4 Student Handout pages, which each contains all 25 scripture references, keywords, and picture clues from one Seminary year.
• 100 full-size picture clues (8-1/2 by 11 inches). These images are perfect for game/chase clues or classroom visual aids.

All Seminary Scripture Mastery Resources! - The activities in this packet cover the Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, Old Testament, New Testament at the same time! Review and preview all four Seminary years during the same activity.

• 100 new pages!
• New Games and Activities
• Ideas and Instructions
• Crossed Words Game
• Seminary Mumble Game
• Scripture Mastery Cover-Ups and a whole
  list of other useful Games & Activities.

What???!!!  For real?  Shoes for latter-day saints?  ABSOLUTELY!

We got word that Zazzle had added a new product to their assortment of custom printable offerings - KEDS SHOES!!!!  They actually PRINT our designs on the canvas, then cut out the shoe and assemble it!  You know KEDS are quality shoes.

I couldn’t wait to design some LDS shoes!

Are these not the cutest CTR KEDS shoes????  I am so excited to offer the first LDS shoes on the market!  Kids can make a statement on the playground and be reminded who they are, every step of the day!

I have created this shoe in three size ranges -

• Toddler
• Youth
• Ladies

The shoes are quite customizable too!  You can change the binding colors, the shoelace colors, the rivet colors, and you can add your own custom text - put your name on your shoe!

I have also done a darling YW Motto shoe with the artwork of Lori Nawyn.

Come take a look at all our LDS SHOES!

Grettle Payne, one of our long-time seminary authors, recently discovered a hidden treasure in a storage unit she was cleaning out.  Some time ago we converted most of Grettle’s out of print seminary scripture mastery titles to PDF eBook format; those downloads have been selling very well. What she found was several hundred copies of her books, some even that she was sure were all sold out.

We are now offering two of those books as an exclusive sell out; hard copies of these two volumes are now available until they run out.

Scripture Mastery for Everyone, New Testament Print Edition regular $13.00, now only $10.00, save: 23% off until supplies are gone.

Scripture Mastery for Everyone, Old Testament Print Edition regular $13.00  now only $10.00, save: 23% off until supplies are gone.

We will continue to sell the download versions of these books; they are cheaper and have no shipping charges, but for those who prefer hard copy versions, now is your chance. Order now while we still have these in stock!

Like the seeds in the parable, some of the things we have tried at LDV have worked fabulously, and some have fallen by the wayside and shriveled up and blown away.  I put a lot of time into setting up a Zazzle storefront and adding products to it.  So I was thrilled when the first orders started coming in.  I admit it, I like to check orders and see how they are coming, and see who is ordering what.  I started to notice a name repeating again and again.  This was pretty exciting because it meant someone had ordered, received and liked their Zazzle purchases enough that they came back again and again to order new items.

I contacted this customer and asked for some feedback about her shopping experience.  Here is what she said:

I am a seminary teacher and always looking for new and creative ways, that the kids haven’t already seen or heard, to get excited about seminary and their religion. You might remember the old stripling warriors (mama’s boys), Nephi, Moroni, David and Goliath posters, well by the time I came around and started teaching, many of the kids had had siblings that already had these posters or tee shirts. I was so excited to see something fresh and new and with lots of color come out. On the Zazzle t-shirts take the time to read what is said about sizing. Most of my girls like their shirts a little on the “baggy” side and with a little length. I think the shirts are great. There are SOOO Many selections of T-shirts to get. The Bella costs more but I personally like the fit. These make great seminary bucks gifts, the mugs I have personalized with each of the kids names on them.

I think our youth out in the mission field (so to speak) want ways to express their religion and are proud of it. Many (I see them out with their shirts) would take the SM verse in Romans 1:16 to heart. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”

LDV- keep up the good work and know that there are many like me that love what you do. Thank you.

~Angelle W. in Colorado

Angelle is not the only repeat customer in our Zazzle Store, so I am thinking that this seed fell on good ground and I hope to nourish it by steadily adding new great designs!

Just having a Zazzle store is a way of letting our light shine, since it is not an LDS website, lots of other people see our high quality LDS products that reflect our values and beliefs.

~Debra