Sunday, January 15, 2012
Managing Magazines - Part 2
The Friend is a much bigger task to tackle than the Ensign because of its variety of resources. When I sort through the magazines (see Part 1) I make piles of the various categories: covers, posters, words of the prophet, activities, etc.
Other pages with valuable content that I’m not sure when or how to use, I add to my topics files.
Hopefully this has given you some good ideas on how to utilize our awesome church magazines!
The kids chose their favorite posters. I trimmed them, loosely mounted them on white cardstock, slipped each page into a thermal laminating pouch and ran them through my little laminator. Voila!
Of course, this isn’t a designer’s blog, but the kids love their new posters all the same!
Posters
For the old-school posters (and the General Authorities picture chart), I found 10.5 x 16.5” frames at Target (a few years ago) and hung them super low so the little kids can enjoy them.
My favorite? The posters. They used to come as 2-page spreads, but the last few years have been 8.5 x 11” = easy to manage.
Repeating Specials
The Friend often features the same special articles, one each month of the year. For several years, these cool comic-book-type-scriptures featured latter-day prophets (in 2009 it was Joseph Smith). So I made a binder for these stories.
Words of the Prophets
I reserve articles and poems about Easter and the resurrection for a skinny Easter binder to display with my Easter books in April. I also add artwork from church magazines to the music and lesson binders I put together for Easter week (so the kids have visuals while they sing and in the lessons).
Occasions
Similar to the Ensign, The Friend always begins with a message from the First Presidency. I put all of these in the front of a binder. Following that, I added the one-page articles from the apostles. I had enough to fill a binder, so stopped there.
I put all of the other articles and poems into a large binder. I keep all of these binders in the “Sunday section” of our library for the kids to enjoy.
Easter
Pioneer Day
I just put together this binder for Pioneer Day in July. I mainly used articles from The Friend, but also included a few from the Ensign.
General Conference
Obviously, I keep anything directly related to Conference in this binder. I also include articles that spotlight the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve.
Christmas
I put the activity sheets into an easy-access folder. The kids can write or color on these or cut them up.
I used to be concerned about re-usability, wanting to copy them first or something, but then they just never get used. Besides, you can always reprint from the online Friend.
The Rest
