Teen Elect- Even a Caveman Can Do It

I wanted to write a post about our Stake Teen Elect Activity, because when I was searching the Internet in preparation for this event, I couldn't find much information. According to my understanding, the main purpose of Teen Elect is to provide information to the youth about etiquette and manners, and give them a social setting in which to practice what they've learned.

Set up for formal dinner (the youth helped put away table and chairs for the dance)

Centerpieces for the formal dinner included rocks, twigs, pine cones and leaves... fancy stuff!

We did a three part activity, two Wednesday nights, and one Saturday night.  In our stake, this activity is held every-other year for youth ages 12 and 13.  This year our theme, as mentioned in an earlier post, was "Even a Caveman Can Do It."

The first two evenings consisted of class rotations, and instructional dance... and the third evening was a formal dinner and dance.  As the youth arrived, we had them sign in (So we could get an accurate count) and gave them name tags.  The name tags served a double purpose by separating the youth into three groups for rotations.  Each name tag was printed with either Barney, Fred or Dino.  The group names were Flinstones, Rubbles and Dinomites.

I can give you the basic outline for each night, but the individual classes were put together by husband and wife teams.  We told them the basic concepts to cover, and told them to make it interesting and fun by involving the youth with games/questions/object lessons/treats/etc.

First Night:

7:00   Greet and Gather in Cultural Hall; Opening Prayer
          Caveman and Cavewoman Skit (a couple in caveman costumes show very bad manners)
          Divide into groups

7:15 - 8:00 Classes

7:15    Flinstones- Modesty
           Rubbles- Manners
           Dinomites-Table Etiquette

7:30    Flinstones- Manners
           Rubbles- Table Etiquette
           Dinomites- Modesty

7:45    Flinstones- Table Etiquette
           Rubbles- Modesty
            Dinomites-Manners

8:05-8:30 All groups Line Dancing


Second Night

7:00 Greet and Gather in Cultural Hall; Opening Prayer
         Caveman and Cavewoman Skit (a couple in caveman costumes show slightly better manners)
         Divide into groups

7:15 - 8:00 Classes

7:15 Flinstones- Hygiene
        Rubbles- Manners
        Dinomites-Table Etiquette

7:30 Flinstones- Manners
        Rubbles- Table Etiquette
        Dinomites- Hygiene

7:45 Flinstones- Table Etiquette
        Rubbles- Hygiene
        Dinomites-Manners

8:05-8:30 All groups Ballroom Dance Instruction


Third Night

Caveman and Cavewoman attend in nice clothes (animal print tie/bone jewelry and bow, etc) and display good manners

Menu: Lasagna, Parisian Salad, Rolls, Green Beans (all from Costco) Dessert: Jello Poke Cake topped with whipped cream and Fruity Pebble sprinkles

6:30   Arrive
6:40   Opening Prayer
           Boys serve girls at their table first, then themselves
7:15    Serve Dessert
7:30-8:00 Dance, line dancing and instructional dance with rotating partners

Here are a few pictures of the classes:

Hygiene class included a goofy song sung, cleaning and organizational tips, and a scavenger hunt through the "messy room"

Table Etiquette class included a race to set their own tables correctly after learning the proper way.

The overall theme for the Modesty class was "Dress to Reflect Respect."  The teacher asked who would like a piece of cake, and chose someone to come forward.  Next, the teacher grabbed a messy handful of cake and slopped it down onto a plate.  Then the question was something like "Does presentation matter?"

These are just a few examples of the excellent classes.  I heard lots of good feedback about these activities from parents, leaders and the youth.

Additional Pictures can be seen in the previous post "Cardboard Cave"