In a previous ward, I loved our choosing sticks…as opposed to my current ward. So I decided to make some. And since it’s January, I thought it was perfect timing…
They are super simple and pretty self explanatory. I wasn’t very particular if they were painted evenly so it took me about an hour to make 50 of them (I made a few extras).
I let the paint dry by placing them on yard sticks to hold them off the ground…
Worked like a charm.
Then I got a list of all the Primary kids from our Primary President and wrote their names with a Sharpie marker. I added 2 “Visitor” sticks for each bucket as well. When a child moves/graduates I’ll just cover their name with a label so I can re-use the stick for another child.
I found the cute little buckets at Target in their dollar section. There was quite the selection when I was there this week.
To use the sticks, place them all in the bucket with the green side up. As children are picked, turn their stick so the red side is up (you know…green means go and red means stop, kind of thing!). When all sticks are turned to red, turn all of them back to green and start over.
I love these because the sticks always stay in the can, nothing to clean up after they are used, and you can be fair by making sure everyone eventually gets a turn – even if the turn is from Sharing Time or the next Sunday. They will stay in our primary closet so it’s also one more thing I DON’T have to tote to church!
Leave a comment on anything else you’ve found to work for choosing kids to participate!
4 thoughts on “Choosing Sticks”
Love the idea of the two-sided colors to remember who you've chosen… I've heard of using name sticks before, but never thought of THAT idea. Thanks!
WE've had the kids break their sticks once they graduated primary and they love doin g that
We use the same type of sticks. In our ward we have a Jr. and Senior Primary. The Senior names are on large sticks and the Jr. primary are on the small Popsicle size. This way they can still all be in one jar.
I'm making these, but using red and green markers instead of paint because I don't trust myself with that!