Preparing for Young Womens--"What's in My Purse?"
I think the Preparing for Young Womens activities for Activity Days are my favorite. Especially when you are working with the girls that are just about to graduate from Primary and move on. You can see the excitement in their eyes and the day always comes when you can tell they are ready for it!
I don't know if I have mentioned how much I love the Activity Days Leader calling, but it's definitely one of my favorites.
What's in My Purse?
The topic of preparing for Young Womens can be fun, but coming up with a great activity can be a little challenging, too. It seems there aren't a lot of ideas out there! Until I discovered this:
I love the talk by Elder Quentin L. Cook titled "The Parable of the Purse". If you're unfamiliar with it, you can take a look here. The basic premise of the talk is the question, What would someone learn about me if they found my lost purse and looked inside?
We based our activity that day on the Parable of the Purse, and spent a lot of time talking about the things we value, the things we carry around, and the things we surround ourselves with and how they have an impact on us spiritually.
We asked the girls to bring their purse with them if they carry one. I didn't know if that would work out or not, because I wasn't sure how many of them would even have one to bring. But I was pleasantly surprised that more than half of them brought one. I guess they really ARE preparing for Young Womens!
Related Topic: Activity Days Journals: The Activity That Keeps on Giving
As an Activity Days leader, you could probably really use this super cute Progress Tracking form! I'd be happy to send it straight to your email!
This post may contain affiliate links to products I use and love for which I may get a small commission at no cost to you.
Show the Video
We started the activity by showing the girls the video The Lost Purse. It isn't too long, and it's so cute! The girls loved it, and they remembered what they heard, as demonstrated while we did our craft and talked.
Discuss the Video briefly
We had a craft to get to, and I knew it would take a bit of time, so we kept the after-video chat brief and continued it during craft time and while they filled their purses. We asked them to each take a look inside their purse and if they were willing to share. For those that were willing, we asked them to each talk about one or two things that they had in their purses. When that was done, we had a few questions for them.
- What did the leaders learn about the girl that owned the purse?
- If someone found your purse, what do you think they would know about you?
- Do you think the girl would mind that the leaders had looked through her purse?
That third question was a great one and we even got the answer I was hoping to get! The girls said they thought the girl would be happy because she would want her purse back, and she wouldn't care because she didn't have anything in her purse to be embarrassed about.
Make the Purse
I went searching for little bags or purses that I could use instead of actually creating the purse, but I didn't really find anything that I liked. But when all was said and done, I loved that we did the handmade paper purse! The girls loved them and they turned out so adorable that it was definitely worth the effort!
I bought the pattern for this purse over at myscrapchick.com. She has some SUPER cute designs and it was worth the couple of dollars it cost me to get the pattern. (Plus she includes a photo tutorial that came in really handy!) She even has some new ones that are cuter than the one I used, and may be easier to put together. If you have a cutting machine, there is an SVG file to use and you can cut all the pieces with your machine. If you don't, you can still cut out the pieces by hand because she also includes a PDF version that you can trace and cut. It's important to know that these purses turn out WAY smaller than they appear online, but that was a good thing! They were the perfect size! (And while you're on her site, take a look around because her paper crafts patterns are the absolute cutest!)
A few helpful hints if you decide to go with the paper purse
I'm not gonna lie, the assembly was not super simple. I made a pattern before the day of the activity so I knew what I was up against (and I wanted a sample to show them). And I knew what I had it made that it was definitely doable with some guidance. (We had a group of 10 girls and they all made them without any problems.) So here are my helpful hints:
- You need CRAFT GLUE. Don't try to assemble them with Elmer's glue or glue sticks. It needs to be some good quality craft glue. My go-to craft glue for all paper crafts is Aleene's tacky glue. You will need several bottles so the girls aren't all waiting to share one, and luckily you can buy them in three packs.
- Make sure you cut the body of the purse out of heavy duty cardstock. I used this glittery card stock and the purses turned out super cute! I used a bunch of different colors and patterns so the girls all had unique purses when we were done. This glittery cardstock is another set that I have that would be darling!
- Tell the girls before you start that you are all going to work together, taking it one step at a time. Not only did this made the girls go slow and follow directions, but when one finished with what she was doing, she helped her neighbor. So it made for good teamwork too!
- Go easy on the glue! The more they glob on, the longer it takes for the glue to set. A little of that tacky glue goes a long way! Glue and hold things in place for a bit until the glue starts to set before moving on to the next step.
Fill the Purses
We used Elder Cook's talk as a reference and bought a bunch of fun little supplies for the girls to put in their purses. As we handed them out, we asked them to reference Elder Cook's talk and remind us what it said about the girl that owned the purse. And the girls did a great job remembering! We also discussed with them again how this activity applies as they are preparing for Young Womens.
Here's a list of the things we got to go in the purse:
- comb
- small notebook and a pen
- mints
- lotion
- a recipe card
- a bookmark with a scripture on it
- Strength of Youth pamphlet
The Strength of Youth pamphlet didn't fit, but considering we were talking about preparing for Young Womens, it seems important to include it. It was a tight squeeze to get it all in there, but it worked!
I hope your girls have as much fun doing this activity as my girls did!