Primary Activity Days


A PRIMARY DRIVE-IN MOVIE!  I used to love to do this when I was in primary. When the primary was preparing to do their primary program for Sacrament meeting they were rewarded with fake money that was put into a jar for all the kids to see.  At the end of each Sunday that we prepared for the program a dollar was put into a jar for each child.  The money was to be used for one night when we had a primary drive-in.  Each child would come to the church with a cardboard box car.  The boxes were cut to look like cars with windows and wheels drawn on.  Some were painted and colored.  The kids would also bring a pillow and blanket to put in there car to sit with while they watched a movie in the cultural hall.  There were parking spaces made with tape and everyone parked where they wanted.  As all the children came in they got an envelope with the money they earned from the primary program.  There was candy, drinks, and popcorn that the children could buy.  I also remember one year where the Young Women helped with the activity and went from car to car to give them more popcorn and drink refils.  It was so much fun for the kids and young women.  If there are any questions, e-mail me here

This is an activity day we called "New Testament Adventure"  It's a water activity so it's best done in the summer.  Here's what we had:
Water Booth - New Testament map drawn on shower curtain - throw wet sponges at the key cities
New Star in the Sky - Giant Bubbles - make a giant hoop with coat hanger and draw through liquid detergent
Lost Sheep - like bobbing for apples, but some of the apples had a plastic sheep stuck in them
Crossing Storm tossed Sea - ride roller racer or tricycle down a path.  On both side people are spraying them with squirt bottles
Letters from Paul - work in pairs. One child lays down w/cup on chest. Partner tries to fill it from a common bucket.
Pauls' Missionary Adventures.  Maze obstacle course (slide pool etc.)
Peter pays taxes - Fishing Pond - children fish for fish made from styrofoam
Ten Virgins - Candle Squirt.  Candles fixed to surface - kids try to squirt out flame with squirt guns
More Blessed to Give than to Receive - Balloon Towel Toss - kids work in partners and try to flings balloon in towel to partner.

Each child received a ziplock bag to put any prizes in - also a laminated necklace that had pictures to correspond with booths to be punched out after they had done the activity at the booth. We had popcycles after.  It was lots of fun!

Missionary Activity - Each child receives a mission call and acceptance slip (handed out at church). On the day of the activity each child is given a missionary badge at registration.  Meet in primary room and divide into groups (divisions made ahead of time by leaders, i.e. which children will be in which group. We divided it so that some older children went with some of the younger ones so they could help them rotate through the activity). A time filler may need to be used until all the children have arrived.   After they have arrived, move to chapel (the MTC) for 20 minutes. Begin with an opening song and prayer & turn time over to the "mission president"
for a presentation on life in the mission home, and in the mission field. This is a person called ahead of time to prepare a presentation for this. Then the entire group is dismissed to separate for missions.  We set up a plane ride in one area,activities were set up in the cultural hall, and the other rotation was a brother and sister who spoke to the kids about the missions they had served in. (We asked three couples). Each group rotates between these 3  activities.

Plane Ride:  Set up a room to look like an airplane.  Have pilot use a portable microphone to welcome children & talk about where they are going.  Show a missionary film and serve peanuts and soda pop.

Mission: Ask several couples to prepare 15 minutes on a place where one of them served a mission.  They can give handouts, and serve food from their mission if they want.

Cultural Hall Activities:  We used 5 stations - (1) Color a bookmark and write testimony to glue in a Book of Mormon.  (These were given to the missionaries in the ward)  (2) Foreign Language Bingo - Pictures of animals etc. on a bingo card, adult who knows a foreign language says the name of the object and has the children repeat it and find it on the card.  (3) Write a missionary - On a small piece of stationary each child could write a note to one f the missionaries currently serving from the ward.  (4) Missionary Banks:  Make small banks from baby food jars.  Spray paint lids, and put a piece of colored paper around the jar. (5) Missionary Suitcase - Color and cut out paper clothes, put them in a paper suitcase.

Primary Activity Day/Ward Christmas Party - We had a ward Christmas dinner and then to keep the kids and the YW and YM busy and involved had activities for the primary age kids to do and the YW and YM helped with them.  We rotated the kids through 3 rooms, one room was Santa sack puppets, decorated cookies in another, and practiced Christmas carols in another.  After the activity was over those who could went caroling and took plates of cookies to people in the ward who were unable to attend or who were not active.  These plates had been put together ahead of time by the Relief Society.

Primary Activity Day/ Ward Halloween Party -  This had been a great success as a primary activity so the Bishop asked if we could use it as a ward activity also. We served dinner of hot dogs and homemade Root Beer. Then had the kids assemble in the cultural hall.  We made Santa card holders of red paper plates, cotton balls and construction paper.  One paper plate was left in a circle the other was cut in half.  Both had holes punched around the outside.  The Santa card holder was made by putting right sides of the paper plates together (this left a place for the cards to slip in)  the red was showing for the face and the white of the half plate was the beard.  We put black round eyes, white eyebrows, a round red nose and glued cotton balls on for the beard.  They were laced with curling ribbon and the curling ribbon also made the hanger at the top.  Some made wreaths with leaves and holly berries (made of construction paper) glued around the outside of the plate.  In December we took the primary kids caroling and delivered the card holders with a card and two cookies in them to a rest home in the area.

Primary Activity Day/Ward Easter Party - We served a pancake breakfast, then had the primary kids and the YW meet in the cultural hall.  We divided the kids into three groups, the youngest were 3-4 years olds, the second group were 5-7 year olds and the last group 8-12 year olds.  The youngest group had a real egg hunt with candy eggs.  The second group had a paper egg hunt in the parking lot and gathered as many paper eggs as they could find.  The third group went on a treasure hunt. At the end of the activity each of the older groups got a bag of candy from the Young Women who were in the primary room (The Young Women had decorated the bags ahead of time as one of their activities).  We had the doors to the primary room blocked off with gates and the YW handed out the sacks.  The Young Women were also the escorts for each of the groups.