For Activity Day in September, we discussed "Bee" Attitudes. Here is my cute invite that I quickly put together for the girls.
Credits: Paper and girl in bee costume doodle by Kate Hadfield @The Lily Pad. I used the following fonts: love ya like a sister, mool boran, and mareen's print.
I had each girl read from Gordon B. Hinckley's article “The Prophet’s Counsel: The Six Bs,” Friend, Feb. 2001, 25. I made visual aids from 6 "Bee" Attitudes Clip Art which I printed out, cut out, and glued on a black piece of construction paper. I cut out "bee" attitudes from “The Prophet’s Counsel: The Six Bs,” article and taped each one on the back of the cute honey bee clip art. After the girls read a "bee" attitude, I either played a game, did an object lesson, or read a story from the Friend to go along with one of the "Bee Attitudes." “The Prophet’s Counsel: The Six Bs,” Friend, Feb. 2001, 25
Excerpts from President Gordon B. Hinckley’s Fireside Address, November 12, 2000 (“A Prophet’s Counsel and Prayer for Youth,” Ensign, January 2001, pages 2-11.)
Be Grateful
Walk with gratitude in your hearts. Be thankful for the wonderful blessings, which are yours. Be grateful for the tremendous opportunities that you have. Be thankful to your parents who care so very much about you and who have worked so very hard to provide for you. Let them know that you are grateful. Say thank you to your mother and your father. Say thank you to your friends. Say thank you to your teachers. Express appreciation to everyone who does you a favor or assists you in any way. Thank the Lord for His goodness to you.
Be Smart
The Lord wants you to educate your minds and hands, whatever your chosen field. Whether it be repairing refrigerators, or the work of a skilled surgeon, you must train yourselves. Seek for the very best schooling available. Become a workman of integrity in the world that lies ahead of you. I repeat, you will bring honor to the Church and you will be generously blessed because of that training.
Be Clean
Avoid evil talk. Do not take the name of the Lord in vain. …
Choose your friends carefully. …
While you should be friendly with all people, select with great care those whom you wish to have close to you. …
Be clean. Don’t waste your time in destructive entertainment. …
How truly beautiful is a well-groomed young woman who is clean in body and mind. She is a daughter of God in whom her Eternal Father can take pride. How handsome is a young man who is well-groomed. He is a son of God, deemed worthy of holding the holy priesthood of God. He does not need tattoos or earrings or rings anywhere else on or in his body. The First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve are all united in counseling against these things. …
There is no need for any Latter-day Saint boy or girl, young man or young woman, to even try [drugs]. Stay clean from these mind-altering and habit-forming addictions.
Be True
Be loyal to the Church under all circumstances. I make you a promise that the authorities of this Church will never lead you astray. They will lead you in paths of happiness. …
Be true to your own convictions. You know what is right and you know what is wrong. You know when you are doing the proper thing. You know when you are giving strength to the right cause. Be loyal. Be faithful. Be true.
Be Humble
The Lord has said, “Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers” (D&C 112:10). … I believe the meek and the humble are those who are teachable. They are willing to learn. They are willing to listen to the whisperings of the still, small voice for guidance in their lives. They place the wisdom of the Lord above their own wisdom.
Be Prayerful
You need His help, and you know that you need His help. You cannot do it alone. You will come to realize that and recognize that more and more as the years pass. So live that in good conscience you can speak with the Lord. Get on your knees and thank Him for His goodness to you and express to Him the righteous desires of your hearts. The miracle of it all is that He hears. He responds. He answers—not always as we might wish He would answer, but there is no question in my mind that He answers.
"Bee" Attitude Ideas
These are the object lessons, games, activity, and stories that I used for my lesson.
Materials needed: A lump of soft clay and a lump of hardened clay.
I believe the meek and the humble are those who are teachable. They are willing to learn. They are willing to listen to the whisperings of the still, small voice for guidance in their lives. They place the wisdom of the Lord above their own wisdom. Demonstrate how the soft clay can be molded into any shape that you desire. Then try to mold the hardened clay. Express the difficulty you are having in shaping the hardened clay. State that hardened clay is unworkable. Explain that we are like the clay. When we are humble we can be shaped and molded the way the Lord needs us. If we become stubborn we harden ourselves to the guiding influences of the Lord and we become unworkable. Discuss ways in which we can become more humble. (Beth Lefgren and Jennifer Jackson, Building Blocks for Better Lessons, [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1998] Gordon B. Hinckley said, "I believe the meek and the humble are those who are teachable. They are willing to learn. They are willing to listen to the whisperings of the still, small voice for guidance in their lives. They place the wisdom of the Lord above their own wisdom." (Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, January 2001, 2.)
Be True: Story
In some situations it may be inconvenient or uncomfortable to stand up for what we believe in. But it is still important to follow the commandments and live righteously. We must, as President Hinckley reminded the youth, “Be loyal to the Church in all circumstances.”
Tiffany Roy, of the Port Charlotte Ward in Florida, had an experience in which she was true to the teachings of the Church even though it was uncomfortable.
“I had just moved to another state and started school. There was a group of girls who found out that I was Mormon and started asking me all these questions. When they found out that I would not swear, this little group of girls blocked me from going inside the classroom. They told me that they would not let me go in until I would swear. I told them that we would be sitting there all day because I would not lower my standards for them. The girls let me go inside because they knew I wouldn’t do it. They avoided me the rest of the year. I did not care what they thought of me. I stood true to my faith by doing this.”
Be Smart: The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost … shall teach you all things (John 14:26). Olivia smiled as she uprooted a reluctant weed. The sun was warm, and it felt good to be weeding the vegetable garden with her family. It felt even better to be finished with school for the day. As they worked, Olivia’s older brother, Jake, started talking about President Hinckley’s six “B’s” that he was studying in seminary.
“Six bees? Like bumblebees?” Olivia asked, pointing to a fuzzy bee busily gathering pollen from a bright purple flower.
“No,” Jake said. “They’re things that we should try to be. They are be grateful, be clean, be true, be humble, be prayerful, and be smart.” Be smart! Olivia’s eyes opened wide with dismay, and her heart seemed to drop into her tennis shoes. “President Hinckley says we should be smart?” At her baptism recently she had promised to keep the commandments, and that surely included following the prophet. But if there was one thing she could never be, it was smart.
Olivia dreaded school. Mr. Blaine, her third-grade teacher, was nice, but he made the class do multiplication tables, which tangled up in Olivia’s brain like barbed wire. She felt dumb when she got bad scores on her tests and worksheets. She tried hard, but her best just didn’t seem to be good enough. The rest of the evening Olivia worried that her grades were a terrible disappointment to Heavenly Father.
The next day at school, she felt even worse about “be smart” when she missed five words on her spelling test and couldn’t find Madagascar on the globe. She was relieved when recess came.
As Olivia ran across the grass with her friends, she noticed a group of fifth graders looking at something. Forgetting her problems for a moment, she went over to investigate.
“What are you looking at?” she asked a tall girl.
“Oh, we found a needle, like the ones doctors give you shots with.” One of the older boys bent to pick up the needle. A sick feeling came over Olivia, and she knew somehow that this was not a thing they should be playing with. “Wait!” she yelled. “Don’t touch it!”
The boy stopped short, staring at Olivia with raised eyebrows.
“Well, it’s, uh, way bad to t-touch stuff like th-that,” she stammered, feeling stupid for telling an older boy what to do.
But then a recent family home evening lesson came back clearly to her mind. “If we listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost, He will help us know when something is wrong,” Mom had said.
Olivia looked the boy in the eye. “We should probably tell a teacher to come get it instead.”
One of the other third-graders ran quickly across the grass and brought back Mr. Blaine. “Olivia told us not to touch it,” the older boy said as Mr. Blaine bent over the sharp needle.
“Smart thinking, Olivia!” Mr. Blaine exclaimed.
Smart thinking? A warm glow replaced the sick feeling that had filled Olivia moments before. Wow! She had remembered her mom’s counsel about listening to the Holy Ghost, and she had followed His promptings. That was something a smart person would do!
Running across the playground, Olivia felt much better about trying to be smart.
Be Grateful: Game (Spin the Honey Bottle)
We played "spin the honey bottle" for a few minutes. Each girl had a couple turns sharing what they are thankful in their lives. They had a lot of fun playing this game!
Be Clean: Object Lesson
I showed them a fresh bar of soap. I allowed them to smell it and hold it. I asked them the following question, "What does it mean to be clean?" Then we talked about how our bodies are like temples and we should keep them clean by not thinking bad thoughts, no wearing immodest clothing, no swearing, and no gossiping. Then discussed avoiding harmful substances such as drugs, alcohol, tea, coffee, and smoking. We briefly talked about no tattoos or many body piercings.
Be Prayerful: Discussion
We discussed when we should pray (all day long and pray to Heavenly Father like you are talking to your best friend). The Lord listens to our prayers and may need not get the answers we need right away. We need to be patient and trust in the Lord about the things we pray for.
"Bee" Attitude Bookmarks
For our last activity, I had the girls color a "Bee" Attitude bookmark. Supplies: Bee attitude bookmark print out, colored yarn, hole puncher, scissors, and markers.
Treat: Butterfingers
Little Sister's Pumpkins
