These could be really useful. To read more about them, click here:
Backlinks exposed!
I also found out that there are ways to customize your blogger header as seen here:
Customize Your Blogger Header
That's all for now...I'm still checking out everything I can do for now.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
It's sunny out and I'm inside...what's wrong with me?
OK, I've had a little time to play around with this...we'll see how it works out. I'll have to have some others check it out and see what they think. It's not that difficult to add cool little pictures in line with text, but I just realized that we're limited to a gig of space. That could pose a problem...maybe I could post the pics on one of my servers and then just link them to here. Not the best way to do it though.
So, there you have it...more rambling, nonsense from me to see how this will work. If you are actually reading this stuff you must really be bored. Why aren't you outside enjoying the sunshine!!!??? I know I should be...
How To Post on This Blog
Welocme to the Lakeridge Ward blog! Well, ok, this isn't the real thing, I'm just testing this out to see if it will work for what I want it to do.
Here are the guidelines:
Labels
Every time you create a new Post, there's a little box in the bottom right that's named "Labels for this post". You need to specify the correct Label in order to make it easier to find with the links on the page. You may have to post multiple entries to help make it easier for everyone. For example, let's say you had a fun FHE service project and you want to share it and your experience with everyone. It is recommended that you create a post for the actual idea and label it appropriately (you can create a new label if necessary) and then create a post using the "Member Experiences" Label for your experience with that activity. This makes it easier to find the activity and your experience. If all else fails, at least there's a search feature that will probably allow others to find what you've posted
Comments
Comments are a great way to let people know if ideas are good or bad. One thing that I'm not so sure about with this blog idea is liking Comments and Experiences. You are limited in what you can do with the Comments and there's no easy way (that I've found yet) to link Experiences to the actual posts they may refer to...hmmmmm...I'll have to think about this more.
Experiences
Use the "Member Experiences" Label for all member experiences posts. It's best to split up ideas and experiences.
Service Ideas
There have been Labels pre-created to help you to categorize your activities and suggestions, but we know that we've probably missed some. Therefore, if you can't find a Label that really suites your idea, feel free to add it. Please make sure that it's not already being used by clicking on the little "Show all" link next to the Labels for this post box on the edit screen for new posts.
That's about all for now...enjoy!
Here are the guidelines:
Labels
Every time you create a new Post, there's a little box in the bottom right that's named "Labels for this post". You need to specify the correct Label in order to make it easier to find with the links on the page. You may have to post multiple entries to help make it easier for everyone. For example, let's say you had a fun FHE service project and you want to share it and your experience with everyone. It is recommended that you create a post for the actual idea and label it appropriately (you can create a new label if necessary) and then create a post using the "Member Experiences" Label for your experience with that activity. This makes it easier to find the activity and your experience. If all else fails, at least there's a search feature that will probably allow others to find what you've posted
Comments
Comments are a great way to let people know if ideas are good or bad. One thing that I'm not so sure about with this blog idea is liking Comments and Experiences. You are limited in what you can do with the Comments and there's no easy way (that I've found yet) to link Experiences to the actual posts they may refer to...hmmmmm...I'll have to think about this more.
Experiences
Use the "Member Experiences" Label for all member experiences posts. It's best to split up ideas and experiences.
Service Ideas
There have been Labels pre-created to help you to categorize your activities and suggestions, but we know that we've probably missed some. Therefore, if you can't find a Label that really suites your idea, feel free to add it. Please make sure that it's not already being used by clicking on the little "Show all" link next to the Labels for this post box on the edit screen for new posts.
That's about all for now...enjoy!
What I did for FHE...
OK, I cheated here a little since I copied all of the following text from:
http://www.theideadoor.com/ServiceandMissionaryIdeas.html#Service%20Activity%20Day
I am so excited for our service project this fall. We did it two years ago and couldn't get the kids to stop doing it long enough to come have treats.
You'd have to move your date up a couple of weeks I think, but we did a Secret Service project. We had the kids dress up as secret agents and then we went around the neighborhood doing secret service projects. This mostly
consisted of raking leaves for people (the kids loved leaving big bags of leaves on people's lawns), or of washing car windows.
Then we left a note at their homes saying the secret service agents were there. The kids had been divided in groups and in every group's area, we had a "bad guy" which was just a picture on paper, for the kids to find. These bad guys were the things that prevent us from serving others, such as Lazy Larry, Selfish Sally, etc. We got rid of our bad guys then had treats.
This was a huge success for us, particularly for the non-members in our area who really appreciated the service. The kids are already looking forward to a return of this project. ---Jennifer Nielsen
FIRETRUCK WASH - "Our town has a volunteer fire dept. and rescue squad. To help them one year we had an activity day that centered around cleaning the fire trucks. This was a big help for our local volunteers and fun for the
kids too. " ---Vicki Gallaher
_______________
UNBIRTHDAY PARTY - "At the beginning of the year we wanted to have a birthday party for our entire primary, but wanting to be a bit more service oriented, we decided to have an un-birthday party to give gifts instead of
receiving them. We held it in the cultural hall and everyone brought an old toy or book that they had outgrown to donate to a hospital or other children's' charity. We had three stations. At the first station they decorated cupcakes and had ice cream. The second they made party hats and the third they played dress-up relay. We all sat in a big circle at the end and sang the birthday song. They all received a helium balloon and a party bag to
take home." ----Cora
__________________
FAMILY HOME EVENING ACTIVITY DAY - "I have done this activity day twice, in two different wards, on two continents. It is a simple idea that appeals to everyone. If you live near a Beehive Clothing Distribution Center, you can get all the boxes you need . Every family with Primary children in your ward or branch gets a free box of uniform size, which the Beehive Clothing center workers will happily donate to you. Each family decorates their own box as a storage container for the things they use for family home evening. This is done before the Activity Day. They bring their family's unique box to the Activity Day to collect items given to them that day. The teachers and leaders organize several different stations or rooms for the children to rotate through, keeping brothers and sisters together in groups, and they learn and make things they can use at home to participate and plan for their own family's FHE's. For example, the groups can cover such things as musical ideas, stories, games, refreshments (especially those with an object lesson that tie in with the FHE lesson themes), and a station to make FHE assignment charts Use your imagination and your own local resources, and get as many people involved as possible. Invite parents to come with their children if they would like. This can serve as a way for the Valiant age children to accomplish the family service Gospel in Action goal, as they help organize future Family Home Evenings. It helps children of ALL ages to
feel like a valuable part of their families who can contribute something of worth to their own FHE's. Have fun, and pass on the idea to others!" ---Sara Potter
________________
TEDDY BEARS FOR HOSPITAL FUND-RAISER - ""The Festival of the Trees," a fund-raiser for children at Primary Children's Hospital, is held each year in SLC. Volunteers decorate trees and contribute other crafts to sell. Our
Primary children made teddy bears to contribute. Ahead of time, leaders cut and sewed fifteen 3' high teddy bears; bags and bags of scrap foam were donated by several upholstery places. At the activity, a Festival representative showed a video about the hospital, and about the children that are helped there. Then we had the children divide into groups to stuff the teddy bears. We put a mountain of foam in the center of the cultural hall. Each group chose a name for their bear, and wrote it on a tag pinned to his arm. Before finishing, the children cut a heart shaped piece of foam, and wrote their names on it; then they placed the heart inside the bear before closing him up. After cleanup, we took a photo of all the children with their finished bears. The children loved it! They really got into the
spirit of helping other children in need!" ---Louise
______________
SERVICE TO MISSIONARIES - "Before the activity day, we found some pictures in our primary closet of our current missionaries when they were Valiant age. We then obtained young pictures of the missionaries who weren't in the
Primary Class pictures. (A sister, and a missionary couple) We made a cute scrapbook page using the pictures we had found with all of the missionaries on the page, with the caption, "I can be a missionary NOW". We then had a
color copy made for each missionary and placed them in a plastic scrapbook sleeve. At the activity, we had on display, a recent picture of each missionary along with the color copies we had made. First we talked about
the things that the children can do to be missionaries NOW. We had a globe and pointed out where each missionary was ( 9 of them) and talked about how they don't have to be far away from home to be missionaries. Then we gave them each a missionary name tag to wear. (paper "copy" slid into those plastic sleeves with lapel pins on the back) Then they went to the tables where the pictures were on display and wrote letters to as many of the missionaries as they could. We encouraged them to write down what they could do to be a missionary now. The children were then led to another room where they made turkey cookies featured in the November 1997 Friend. The
missionaries responded with delight at the letters and the scrapbook." ---Janiene Watson
__________________
MISSIONARY ACTIVITY - "We've done this activity twice in our Primary and we sure loved it! We can have 2 or 3 different groups for this activity. You'll need to:
(1) Call the full-time missionaries serving in your area and invite them. Tell them three groups of children will come and ask them questions about the missionary life, Christmas spent in the mission field, their families, their feelings about the mission, etc.
(2) Call two people from your ward who have served missions. They will bring things from their missions, such as pictures, books, dolls, etc., and will set them up in separate rooms. They will talk to the children about
their time serving the Lord while as missionaries.
(3) Prepare a flier for the children's families announcing the activity and asking each child to bring to the missionaries, wrapped as a Christmas gift, items they can consume quick, such as pens, pencils,
envelopes, notepads, stamps, canned soups, canned food, candy bars, breakfast cereal, dried fruits and nuts, peanut butter, jelly, jam, crackers, flavored oatmeal, napkins, toilet paper, soap bars, microwave
popcorn, fruit drinks, soda pop, etc.
(4) A few weeks before this activity, bring to Primary a basket with some of those items to show to the children. Explain to them how each item will benefit and bless the missionaries. Bring one of the items also
wrapped as a Christmas gift.
(5) Decorate a fake small Christmas tree with yellow paper stars. Each star will have the children's and teacher's names on it. We also prepared a paper chain to put around the tree. Each circle of the chain has
one of the children's names. (We've asked each class to sign the star and the chain a few weeks before.)
At the activity:
The children will be welcomed at the door by one of us and will receive colored small stickers with the Primary colors. Each group will have an assigned color, an adult leader and together they will rotate from one group
to the other. One of us will ring the bell every 15 minutes for the rotation to happen. As they arrive, they will put their presents at the Christmas tree.
After the 3 groups were able to visit the 3 presentations, we all meet again, sing some Primary Christmas songs and tell the missionaries all those presents are for them. We invite them to open some, and it's just wonderful to see the joy on their faces! We provide them with boxes or big plastic bags to take home all the presents and the small Christmas tree.
We call this activity also a "Service Project" from the children to the missionaries. We all have such a great time as we prepare and participate in this activity! Since we have different missionaries every year, this is
still a new experience to all of us, every December.
___________________
VALENTINE DAY SERVICE - "Our activity day fell on Valentines Day this year and we took this opportunity to do a service project. This activity day involves 4 stations. 1) bags, 2)Valentine cards, 3) sugar cookie decorations, 4) mouse suckers. The children went to each of these stations. They decorated valentine bags, made cards and a mouse sucker, then decorated sugar cookies. After everything was made there were several games and lunch.
While lunch was being served we talked about loving one another and how it is important for us to show love to recent converts and let them know that we care for them. After the lunch our 8-11 year old girls along with three
leaders filled the bags with the cookies and other goodies and delivered them to our recent converts, shut ins, and the elderly in our ward. In all 22 bags were delivered. It was a great success and a fabulous missionary tool. We will definitely do it again next year." ---Becky Compton
________________
SERVICE SCAVENGER HUNT- "We had a unique scavenger hunt where we divided into 3 groups (because we had 3 leaders) and each group took an area of the ward. We set up a list of items that could be accomplished including raking leaves, pulling weeds, picking up apples, sweeping out the garage, bundling newspapers, watching young children, etc. Only one item could be done at each house and each task had a number of points assigned to it. Other rules stated that you could only go to houses that you knew, you had to stay together as a group, and all the groups had to be back to the church within 1 hour. The kids had a lot of fun and we were able to serve a lot of members of the ward as well as people in our neighborhoods. ---Julianne Stirling
http://www.theideadoor.com/ServiceandMissionaryIdeas.html#Service%20Activity%20Day
I am so excited for our service project this fall. We did it two years ago and couldn't get the kids to stop doing it long enough to come have treats.
You'd have to move your date up a couple of weeks I think, but we did a Secret Service project. We had the kids dress up as secret agents and then we went around the neighborhood doing secret service projects. This mostly
consisted of raking leaves for people (the kids loved leaving big bags of leaves on people's lawns), or of washing car windows.
Then we left a note at their homes saying the secret service agents were there. The kids had been divided in groups and in every group's area, we had a "bad guy" which was just a picture on paper, for the kids to find. These bad guys were the things that prevent us from serving others, such as Lazy Larry, Selfish Sally, etc. We got rid of our bad guys then had treats.
This was a huge success for us, particularly for the non-members in our area who really appreciated the service. The kids are already looking forward to a return of this project. ---Jennifer Nielsen
FIRETRUCK WASH - "Our town has a volunteer fire dept. and rescue squad. To help them one year we had an activity day that centered around cleaning the fire trucks. This was a big help for our local volunteers and fun for the
kids too. " ---Vicki Gallaher
_______________
UNBIRTHDAY PARTY - "At the beginning of the year we wanted to have a birthday party for our entire primary, but wanting to be a bit more service oriented, we decided to have an un-birthday party to give gifts instead of
receiving them. We held it in the cultural hall and everyone brought an old toy or book that they had outgrown to donate to a hospital or other children's' charity. We had three stations. At the first station they decorated cupcakes and had ice cream. The second they made party hats and the third they played dress-up relay. We all sat in a big circle at the end and sang the birthday song. They all received a helium balloon and a party bag to
take home." ----Cora
__________________
FAMILY HOME EVENING ACTIVITY DAY - "I have done this activity day twice, in two different wards, on two continents. It is a simple idea that appeals to everyone. If you live near a Beehive Clothing Distribution Center, you can get all the boxes you need . Every family with Primary children in your ward or branch gets a free box of uniform size, which the Beehive Clothing center workers will happily donate to you. Each family decorates their own box as a storage container for the things they use for family home evening. This is done before the Activity Day. They bring their family's unique box to the Activity Day to collect items given to them that day. The teachers and leaders organize several different stations or rooms for the children to rotate through, keeping brothers and sisters together in groups, and they learn and make things they can use at home to participate and plan for their own family's FHE's. For example, the groups can cover such things as musical ideas, stories, games, refreshments (especially those with an object lesson that tie in with the FHE lesson themes), and a station to make FHE assignment charts Use your imagination and your own local resources, and get as many people involved as possible. Invite parents to come with their children if they would like. This can serve as a way for the Valiant age children to accomplish the family service Gospel in Action goal, as they help organize future Family Home Evenings. It helps children of ALL ages to
feel like a valuable part of their families who can contribute something of worth to their own FHE's. Have fun, and pass on the idea to others!" ---Sara Potter
________________
TEDDY BEARS FOR HOSPITAL FUND-RAISER - ""The Festival of the Trees," a fund-raiser for children at Primary Children's Hospital, is held each year in SLC. Volunteers decorate trees and contribute other crafts to sell. Our
Primary children made teddy bears to contribute. Ahead of time, leaders cut and sewed fifteen 3' high teddy bears; bags and bags of scrap foam were donated by several upholstery places. At the activity, a Festival representative showed a video about the hospital, and about the children that are helped there. Then we had the children divide into groups to stuff the teddy bears. We put a mountain of foam in the center of the cultural hall. Each group chose a name for their bear, and wrote it on a tag pinned to his arm. Before finishing, the children cut a heart shaped piece of foam, and wrote their names on it; then they placed the heart inside the bear before closing him up. After cleanup, we took a photo of all the children with their finished bears. The children loved it! They really got into the
spirit of helping other children in need!" ---Louise
______________
SERVICE TO MISSIONARIES - "Before the activity day, we found some pictures in our primary closet of our current missionaries when they were Valiant age. We then obtained young pictures of the missionaries who weren't in the
Primary Class pictures. (A sister, and a missionary couple) We made a cute scrapbook page using the pictures we had found with all of the missionaries on the page, with the caption, "I can be a missionary NOW". We then had a
color copy made for each missionary and placed them in a plastic scrapbook sleeve. At the activity, we had on display, a recent picture of each missionary along with the color copies we had made. First we talked about
the things that the children can do to be missionaries NOW. We had a globe and pointed out where each missionary was ( 9 of them) and talked about how they don't have to be far away from home to be missionaries. Then we gave them each a missionary name tag to wear. (paper "copy" slid into those plastic sleeves with lapel pins on the back) Then they went to the tables where the pictures were on display and wrote letters to as many of the missionaries as they could. We encouraged them to write down what they could do to be a missionary now. The children were then led to another room where they made turkey cookies featured in the November 1997 Friend. The
missionaries responded with delight at the letters and the scrapbook." ---Janiene Watson
__________________
MISSIONARY ACTIVITY - "We've done this activity twice in our Primary and we sure loved it! We can have 2 or 3 different groups for this activity. You'll need to:
(1) Call the full-time missionaries serving in your area and invite them. Tell them three groups of children will come and ask them questions about the missionary life, Christmas spent in the mission field, their families, their feelings about the mission, etc.
(2) Call two people from your ward who have served missions. They will bring things from their missions, such as pictures, books, dolls, etc., and will set them up in separate rooms. They will talk to the children about
their time serving the Lord while as missionaries.
(3) Prepare a flier for the children's families announcing the activity and asking each child to bring to the missionaries, wrapped as a Christmas gift, items they can consume quick, such as pens, pencils,
envelopes, notepads, stamps, canned soups, canned food, candy bars, breakfast cereal, dried fruits and nuts, peanut butter, jelly, jam, crackers, flavored oatmeal, napkins, toilet paper, soap bars, microwave
popcorn, fruit drinks, soda pop, etc.
(4) A few weeks before this activity, bring to Primary a basket with some of those items to show to the children. Explain to them how each item will benefit and bless the missionaries. Bring one of the items also
wrapped as a Christmas gift.
(5) Decorate a fake small Christmas tree with yellow paper stars. Each star will have the children's and teacher's names on it. We also prepared a paper chain to put around the tree. Each circle of the chain has
one of the children's names. (We've asked each class to sign the star and the chain a few weeks before.)
At the activity:
The children will be welcomed at the door by one of us and will receive colored small stickers with the Primary colors. Each group will have an assigned color, an adult leader and together they will rotate from one group
to the other. One of us will ring the bell every 15 minutes for the rotation to happen. As they arrive, they will put their presents at the Christmas tree.
After the 3 groups were able to visit the 3 presentations, we all meet again, sing some Primary Christmas songs and tell the missionaries all those presents are for them. We invite them to open some, and it's just wonderful to see the joy on their faces! We provide them with boxes or big plastic bags to take home all the presents and the small Christmas tree.
We call this activity also a "Service Project" from the children to the missionaries. We all have such a great time as we prepare and participate in this activity! Since we have different missionaries every year, this is
still a new experience to all of us, every December.
___________________
VALENTINE DAY SERVICE - "Our activity day fell on Valentines Day this year and we took this opportunity to do a service project. This activity day involves 4 stations. 1) bags, 2)Valentine cards, 3) sugar cookie decorations, 4) mouse suckers. The children went to each of these stations. They decorated valentine bags, made cards and a mouse sucker, then decorated sugar cookies. After everything was made there were several games and lunch.
While lunch was being served we talked about loving one another and how it is important for us to show love to recent converts and let them know that we care for them. After the lunch our 8-11 year old girls along with three
leaders filled the bags with the cookies and other goodies and delivered them to our recent converts, shut ins, and the elderly in our ward. In all 22 bags were delivered. It was a great success and a fabulous missionary tool. We will definitely do it again next year." ---Becky Compton
________________
SERVICE SCAVENGER HUNT- "We had a unique scavenger hunt where we divided into 3 groups (because we had 3 leaders) and each group took an area of the ward. We set up a list of items that could be accomplished including raking leaves, pulling weeds, picking up apples, sweeping out the garage, bundling newspapers, watching young children, etc. Only one item could be done at each house and each task had a number of points assigned to it. Other rules stated that you could only go to houses that you knew, you had to stay together as a group, and all the groups had to be back to the church within 1 hour. The kids had a lot of fun and we were able to serve a lot of members of the ward as well as people in our neighborhoods. ---Julianne Stirling
Just more stuff to see how this will really work
From what I can see, this will probably work for what I want to do, but it would require a lot of work up front and there would be a lot of info posted on a day or two or three, or whatever. It might be harder to check out what others have done too. I'd have to have a label for member comments and/or member experiences. Hmmmmm...this just might work.
Things to do in Portland
Here's a short list of where to find things to do in Portland:
Portland, Oregon Attractions
Pittok Mansion
Portland Japanese Garden
Portland, Oregon Attractions
Pittok Mansion
Portland Japanese Garden
Lakeridge Ward
I'm working on trying to come up with a "simple" solution to post info on a website that is searchable and will also allow other to add to and edit the info for service projects.
So, here's my first attempt to add some stuff to this page and see if it is searchable.
I'm also going to have to see if there's an easy way to try and make links to other stuff...like categories...we'll see.
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