LDS Activity Day Ideas

Sacrament Lesson

2012-02-08T15:44:00.001-07:00

Tonight for Activity Days we are doing something super simple yet really important. We are going to work on the requirement under Learning and Living the Gospel about the sacrament. My lovely assistant will be teaching a short lesson on the sacrament and the covenants we make/renew. Then the girls will be coloring and decorating this card, which is 4x6.

We are going to put some ribbon at the top so they can use it as a scripture/bookmarker. They will be able to pull it out and look at it during the sacrament each week. Also,they can use it to help them remember the principles they need to teach for FHE. If you want to use this, go here for the sacrament card.

I also whipped up some little treat bags for them to take home, because the more reinforcement they get, the better. (Plus, as we all know, if it is laminated, it is TRUE!) So I made these:

Each bag has a take 5, some lifesavers, and some conversation hearts. They were going to be Reese's hearts, but someone who shall remain nameless couldn't stay out of them! Ok--I confess. It was me. I attached the following card with ribbon, but since I can't figure out how to crop this image, you get to look at it four-fold:

If you would like to use this, go here for the lifesaver card.

To wind up our meeting, we will be practicing the hymn Choose the Right. We will review the concept of agency. This is also a requirement under Learning and Living the Gospel. Ordinarily, this would involve having the Primary Chorister come and help us, but as luck would have it, I AM the Primary Chorister and I just happen to be available!

Hope some of these ideas are helpful to y'all!

Tami

Budget and some NO COST Activities!

2012-02-08T11:12:00.006-07:00

Just saying the word budget kind of makes ya cringe huh?! Working with a budget in Activity days is tricky sometimes. I have received some emails asking about our budget. I will share with you my wards budget and I hope this doesn't create any hurt feelings. In my ward we have 2 groups totaling 16 girls. We get 45 cents per girl per activity for our budget. We also have been told not to use our own money! That is the hardest part for me. But the reason for this is to make it so that the person after us doesn't feel like they have to spend their own money to do fun activities. We also get a $75 budget for the mother/Daughter and Daddy/Daughter activity.

To work with these guidelines I try to do several FREE activities and then do one that costs money. Also, if I have supplies for an activity at my home I use them and I don't turn in a receipt for it. I consider it a donation. There are lots of fun things you can do with your girls that don't cost money like...

-Going for a bike ride

-visiting a church history site

-Taking a tour of different work places and seeing what they do

-Cleaning the sacrament trays

-Doing yard work for a neighbor

-Learning how to garden at your house! Let the girls help with your yard work!

-Having an Article-of-faith-a-thon (more details on that soon)

-Learning how to sew with leftover fabric scraps from ward members(we printed dot to dot papers for practice)

-Learning to play a new sport

-Visiting the temple visitors center and watching a movie there

-Doing a recipe exchange

-Writing letters to missionaries

-Writing to pen pal's (more on this soon to come)

-Learning to bake bread (I'm already making this each week so why not let them help and learn. You could even use some of the bread for the sacrament on Sunday)

-Swim party or splash pad-cosider inviting a life guard from your local pool to teach the girls safety tips. we did this and it was a hit!)

-Visit a bank and learn about budgeting and how the bank is ran. They might even have free giveaways for your girls

-Visit someone with animals like horses and have them share how to care for them Make sure to get permission slips if any riding takes place.

Think about your ward and the skills people have and consider having someone come to talk about what they do.

I do lots of these simple activities and the girls actually love them just as much as making a craft or doing something that costs money. SIMPLIFY your Activity DAYS and spend more time getting to know your girls. You will find a lot of enjoyment even on a small budget!

What is your budget? I would like to know. Please share in the comments your ideas for NO COST Activities so we can all benefit!

Bring an Ancestor to Activity Days!

2012-01-24T17:06:00.000-07:00

This week we are going to talk about family history. I thought it would be fun to have the girls think about it in advance so I made this invitation. The font is kind of hard to read, but basically they are going to "bring along an ancestor" by learning a story about, or dressing up as, or bringing an item that belonged to an ancestor of theirs. I thought I would start with a 5 minute lesson on why we do family history work and why it is so important. Then we will be taking turns introducing our ancestors to each other. This will probably take most of the meeting, because we have 15 girls! Then we will begin to fill out our pedigree charts. I found this one at sugardoodle

I thought this one would be a good starter. It's not the official church one, but we have some girls who don't know all their family info, have stepparents, etc. So it is just a start for them.

To encourage them to finish this up, I am going to send them home with one of these:

A Family Histo-tree!

I found this at chasingmolly.com! So cute! The idea is you put treats in the bag, and then the leaves have some kind of family history assignment on each of them. As they complete each assignment, they can get a treat out of the bag. I am going to use Hearts instead of leaves, to emphasize the "turn the hearts of the children" aspect. I will put the following assignments:

Finish your pedigree chart

Interview an ancestor (parent, grandparent)

Gather some family pictures of each side of your family

Write down a fun childhood story in your journal

Put everything in a box or folder so you can continue to work on your projects.

I actually made the pdf available here

I will try to post a picture of my tree when I finish it. Still in progress! :) For our treat I thought it would be fun to have something to do with family history, but the only thing that came up when I googled was johnnycakes. Seriously? Did the people back then even want to eat them? I am going to make a round sugar cookie and decorate it with a family tree (brown outline of branches with heart sprinkles). I figure sugar cookie recipes get handed down right? More pix to come!

Here is my family histo-tree! The instructions are really simple:
Take a lunch bag and cut the top into 5 sections lengthwise, until you reach about the bottom 1/3. Open the bag up and place candy inside. Then take each of five sections and twist, like rope, to make the branches. Tie around the base of branches with ribbon and then glue on leaves/hearts.

Here are the family tree sugar cookies I made. I am not a cookie artist. But I thought they turned out cute.

Valentines - Soap & Scriptures

2012-01-23T22:05:00.007-07:00

Last year we had a very fun activity. The girls made heart shaped soap (imprinted), then had a "Love" scripture search and made cards.

Glycerin soap, alcohol, water, scents, dies, mold. Simply melt & pour!

I have metal stamps that we used to imprint "Love" and other words.

While we waited for the soaps to set up we did a scripture search. I found this great idea from SugarDoodle for searching for "heart". They loved it!

Then we made up some simple cards. I usually have a sample or two for them to follow. It helps them create ideas off it.

...and I don't know why this photo won't rotate! Sorry!

Money Money Money!

2012-01-19T16:34:00.005-07:00

This week our activity was all about Money. How to earn it, save it, and a bit about spending. We threw in a story & discussion about tithing (story from the Friend) as well.

First - each girl got this hand out and took turns reading & discussing. We spent too long on this part...should have paraphrased so we had more time for the fun stuff.

MONEY handout pdf.

MONDY handout editable

Then they made savings banks out of plastic containers (margerine, yogart, sour cream). The idea was they would write on it what they were saving for so they wouldnt loose site of their goal.

Finally they played the Game of Life. They didn't have nearly enough time for this but they had fun getting it started!

Project Valentine

2012-01-08T21:05:00.004-07:00

Are you looking for a fun service project for your AD Girls? I have got a fun one for you! Project Valentine makes life a "little sweeter" for individuals undergoing cancer treatment. They distribute donated items for hundreds of gift bags. These gift bags are lovingly assembled and hand-delivered each year to men, women and children undergoing cancer treatment on or around Valentine's Day. Would you like to get involved? How about having a craft day with your Activity Day girls and making and donating something fun! Go HERE for information on how you can help.

Kristen

Once There Was a Snowman, Snowman, Snowman!

2012-01-08T15:21:00.005-07:00

Where we live we rarely get snow. When we do, they cancel school, and everyone has a snowman in their front yard! By afternoon all the snow melts and all that is left is the snowman for a few days. I thought it would be fun to make some cute snowmen that could hang around a little longer!

These were a few I made in December with my own children. You can go HERE for directions on how to make them. I bought socks at Target for $1 and used buttons and twine I already had. To make our noses we clipped real twigs from our trees and painted them orange with acrylic paint.

Happy Crafting!

Kristen

Journaling and Goals!

2012-01-06T18:33:00.003-07:00

So, this is the time of year when we all think about setting goals. I love this post from darling doodles--it is hilarious! I think I could achieve the goal of eating more chocolate! :) Or gaining 25 pounds! Or spending more time on Pinterest! Anyway, I thought we would do a short lesson on goal setting. Love this acronym to help the girls remember principles of goal-setting:

from mariettamcclurefitness

Then, darling doodles also has a darling printable for setting goals

from darlingdoodles.blogspot.com

I am printing these off and we will set some goals that night. One goal that I want each girl to work on is writing in a journal. I plan on getting some inexpensive notebooks next week and having them do their first entry that night. Found this super cute poster for journal prompts:

from inkablinka.com

I am going to give each girl a little paper cup of m&ms, one in each color. As they write about each prompt, they can eat the corresponding color! What could be better than cuteness+chocolate to help motivate them!

Anyway, I hope this helps inspire some other great activities! You can download the journal prompts printable here.

Download the goal printable here.

And you can find the SMART poster here.

And anyone who wants to join me in my resolution to eat more chocolate, I will be your goal buddy! Call me anytime you need encouragement! :)

Tami

Learning New Hairstyles!

2012-01-03T12:13:00.002-07:00

This was one of the girls favorite activities! I was a cosmetologist before having children so I know a few things about hair. If you don't consider inviting someone in your ward to come talk to the girls about taking care of their hair or use my handout. Young women always like to help as well!
First off when the girls came I had a long table set up with all kinds of hair supplies for doing hair. I had a comb for each girl. There were also flat irons, curling irons, different rubber bands, hair wax, hairspray, and gel. I first shared a few hair tips with the girls on taking care of their hair. This is the hand out I made and gave a copy to each girl as I went over it.

HAIR CARE TIPS

Washing your hair-

First comb all of the tangles out. Next wet your hair thoroughly with warm water to open up the scale like cuticles of the hair. Next apply shampoo to your roots massaging in a circular motion. Rinse and repeat a second time. Next add a dollop of conditioner and work through to your ends. Rinse with cool water to close the hair cuticle and to retain moisture and have shiny hair! For an extra condition after washing squeeze the moisture out of hair and apply conditioner and put a shower cap on. Heat up with a blow dryer for a few minutes and then allow to cool. Leave on for 10-15 minutes and rinse with cool water. Wash your hair no more than every other day.

Dandruff-

What is considered the best homemade remedy to dandruff is a vinegar wash. Mix two teaspoons of vinegar with six teaspoons of water and rub it against your scalp before you go to bed, then wrap your head with a towel. Apply the same solution to your hair once again in the morning when you wake up, then rinse it with water. You do not have to worry about the smell of vinegar in your hair, as the smell of vinegar does evaporate eventually.

Dry Hair-

* Placing 1 or 2 drops of safflower oil in your palms and rub them together.

* There should only be enough to make your hands "shine" in the light.

* Carefully take your hair (while dry) and "scrunch" the small amount of oil to the ENDS first and work toward the scalp.

* Leave this in your hair.

* 1-2 drops of safflower oil on dry hair is so small, you won’t notice it is there.

Oily Hair-

Do not wash everyday. The cleaner your hair is the more it can seep into your glands and harder it is to get rid of. The more you strip the oils the more oil your scalp will produce. For a quick fix, rub a little Talcum Powder on your dried hair at the roots. Just make sure you wash it out.

You can also use a dry shampoo that you leave on.

Healthy Hair starts with a healthy body! Drink plenty of water. Eat foods rich in protein, minerals and vitamins. Dark green vegetables, fish, meats nuts seeds, and FRUITS and VEGETABLES!

After I went over this hand out I showed a video clip on my laptop of how to do a fun messy bun on long hair. Then I showed them a fun braid bun on my daughter. I handed out a list to each girl of my favorite hairstyle websites so they could search them for fun styles for their hair.

Here is my list...

Websites with fun hair ideas.

Princesshairstyles.com

Cutegirlshairstyles.com

Babesinhairland.com

Allthingsribbon.com

Shedoeshair.blogspot.com

Girlydohairstyles.com

Cutiepiehaircreations.blogspot.com

Afterwards all of the girls got their hair done! Me, our other leader and 1 young women, helped to style the hair. If you don't do hair consider inviting several young women to come and help that like doing hair. Just plan on half of them not showing up! (They are busy:)

Here are a few of the hairstyles we created. A couple of our girls got away before I snapped pictures.

Search the websites above for lots of fun braids, messy buns, twisty braids and more! The girls loved this and I even got text messages from Mom's after telling me how much fun their daughters had.

Have fun!

Kristen

BOO!

2011-12-27T17:12:00.000-07:00

I don't have a picture for this one, but for one of our activity days, we made some "BOO" bags. I thought this would be a fun service project. I was able to pick up some little halloween colored cloth bags for 4/1.00 at Michael's and also a big container of sticky foam halloween shapes. They decorated the bags, made a card, and then we filled them with candy and little halloween treats I picked up at Target, sticky hands, pencils, spider rings. We then left a goody bag for each house in our cul-de-sac. The girls were very giggly and had a great time going out on their stealth missions! They all took a bag home to boo someone in their neighborhood. It was a fun time!

Caroling and Cookies

2011-12-27T13:51:00.002-07:00

From ldsclipart.com

Hi there! My name is Tami and I am the Ad leader as well as the primary chorister in my ward. I love seeing what everyone else does and "borrowing" their fabulous creativity! I hope some of the things we do can help someone else! I know Christmas is over, but maybe this will help for next year. For our last activity, we went caroling around my neighborhood. Because we have a large group, we wouldn't fit in even two cars, so my cul-de-sac gets lots of service from us!

First, we practiced singing several carols. We picked a couple of sacred ones, as well as secular. Who doesn't want Rudolph sung to them? Then we headed out the door.

by evanrudemi from photographyblogger.net

I had made a couple of batches of cookies ahead of time. What is caroling without a treat, right? When the neighbors came to the door, we sang them a couple of songs, and handed them a plate. We ended with "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and then went to the next house. The girls had a great, giggly time, as usual!

To finish up, we had cider and donuts back at home. Then we sat and talked about what we could give Jesus for Christmas. And then what they were giving someone in their family for Christmas. It was a great way to focus on giving to others and the joy it brings!

Hope you enjoy this activity as much as we did!

Christmas Crafts

2011-12-26T14:17:00.006-07:00

I posted previously about my planned Christmas activity.
This shows the story book, ornament (OTC) and a Gumball countdown.
For the gumball countdown I bought bags of wrapped gumballs from the $ store, grabbed some index cards and an old bag of bows. They stapled the gumballs together (or taped) and created the tag for the top. I think this was their favorite part.

This activity filled they 1.5 hours and they loved it!
Note - I had them bring glue guns + the ones we purchased last year so they each had one. Made it much easier!

Prayer Mats

2011-12-26T14:10:00.005-07:00

This was a recent activity that the girls really enjoyed. I bought placemats from the $ store and squeeze fabric paints from JoAnns (w/coupon). We read some poems & stories about prayer out of the Friend.

Then I had them do it all in pencil first, then paint. They were very proud of their creations and Moms say they put them right in their rooms.

*I will note this was an acitivity that did not fill our 1.5 hours. Cub Pack meeting was going on so they went in there to play their games. So plan a little filler of some sort.

Calendar for 2012

2011-11-30T21:13:00.004-07:00

I'm a planner - I can't help it.

I usually plan out 6 months of activities, right now I've got all of next year sketched out - mostly for budget planning. I print the calender for the girls and they have it in their folders and I know they watch it because they will ask about a future activity often. So, after some searching the web for ideas and using the FiG booklet, here is our baseline calendar for next year. Hopefully it will help some of you plan ideas for yours!

Download 2012 calendar

Editable Download

Just as an FYI this version has some detail notes that wont be on the girls calendars. I like them to have the activity title and what FiG topic it cooresponds with (if any).

I will post detailed activity plans as they come about. I'd love to hear what all of you are doing!

Last Activity of the Year!

2011-11-28T00:18:00.002-07:00

My name is Anndee and I've offered to post my AG activities as well. I hope someone can find them useful! I thought I'd start with what we have planned for next week.

Nativity Ornament-I cheated and ordered the kits from oriental trading ($9.25 for 12):
http://www.orientaltrading.com/wooden-nativity-ornament-craft-kit-a2-48_1720-12-1.fltr?Ntt=nativity+ornament

12 days of Christmas stories-
I put together these stories from The Friend. I looked for stories featuring girls. I then grabbed clip art for each story so they can color them. I made copies in the library. We'll be 3-hole punching then putting them in 3-prong clear cover folders that I had left over from a years-ago project. Thus a free project!

With left over time we'll sing Christmas Carols.

Next post will be our activity schedule for next year.

GRATITUDE

2011-11-06T21:17:00.005-07:00

Here's a fun, fast, and inexpensive activity to do with your girls this THANKFUL season.

We started our activity out by mixing up some brownies. After we got them in the oven to bake we sat around the table with the girls to play "name that primary tune!"

We didn't have a piano so we asked if any of the girls would like to hum a primary song so the others could guess what it was. The girls thought it was fun! After a few songs I asked them how they knew the songs so well? They had several answers about singing them every week and so forth, but what it came down to was... "They have fantastic music leaders!" We had a little discussion about showing gratitude to those who serve and teach us. We also talked about how to write a thank you card.

One thing I noted to the girls was to say something you appreciate about the person before writing Thank you for... For example,

Dear Sister Lowe,

I love to see you smiling each Sunday while you lead the music. Thank you for all the fun songs you teach us, and the games you prepare for us. You are wonderful!

Love,

The Activity Day Girls

We then let the girls write letters to all the music leaders in our ward. As soon as they were finished the brownies were done!

We sliced the brownies and put them on plates and delivered them as a group to our wonderful music leaders. I actually got a little teary as I read the sweet things our girls wrote to these leaders. They were so thoughtful and sweet!

It was a super fun activity! Give it a try if you need a fun GRATITUDE activity this month!

Recognition Night

2011-09-06T23:45:00.005-06:00

Activity Days Recognition Night usually happens once a year for the girls to show their families what they have learned in Activity Days.

The Theme for our Recognition Night was "Blooming Together in Activity Days".

We always have a preparation activity before a big combined activity. For the prep activity the girls made invitations, met with their leader to mark off their Faith In God books, and did a run through of our program including practicing the songs we sang.

Here is the Flower Invite to go along with our theme. All the petals were traced onto a piece of card stock for the girls to cut out. The middle of the flower was on a different color of card stock. On another piece of card stock were all the words to the invite. the girls could choose to write the words or cut and paste. they connected the whole thing with a large brad. Very simple and gives the girls the opportunity to make the whole invite!

Here is what our Program looked like. I covered up all the words to protect our girls names but I will tell you what we did for our program.

The girls lead the entire program.
We first had one girl welcome everyone
next the whole group sang "Faith"
One of the girls played the piano and one girl lead the group.
Next Opening prayer
Then we had each group (we have 3) recite a scripture together and 2 girls from each group spoke about 2 activities each they enjoyed this past year. Some showed pictures or things they had made and then shared their testimonies.
We ended with all of the Girls singing "I Am A Child Of God" and a prayer.

The whole program was only about 20 minutes. It was short and sweet. It was neat to watch these young girls lead a program, sing, speak and bear testimony of the gospel. We have such amazing youth in the church today!

We had our program in the chapel on a Sunday night. Afterwards everyone congregated out in the foyer to receive a yummy lollipop cupcake as they headed out the door!

For the flower lollipop cupcake just make your favorite cupcake. Frost. Add sprinkles if you like. Stick in a lollipop and add a leaf that is cut out from any taffy type candy. I think we used airheads.

Mother Daughter Relaxation Retreat!

2011-08-19T10:26:00.005-06:00

I just couldn't wait to start sharing so here is the first activity I'd like to share with all of you! Keep in mind we did use up a large portion of our budget for this activity. Actually it is the only activity so far this year I have turned in receipts for so it is a more costly activity than most I will share. (P.S. I have received permission to share photos of my girls)

In our ward whenever we have a big activity like Mother/Daughter, Daddy/Daughter/ or recognition night we always break it into 2 activities and usually combine all ages of girls in AD. We started by having a prep activity to teach the girls how to plan and prepare for a party. We invited a sister in our ward who works at a spa to come and teach the girls how to give a pedicure. Afterwards we split into three groups. One station they made tissue paper flowers. One station they filled bags with homemade bath salts I made and labeled the bags as a present to give to their Mothers. The last station they made this flip flop invite for their Moms.
I printed out the invite on white card stock and traced my younger daughters foot around the words. I copied a bunch off for the girls. They stamped around the words with this cute flower stampin up! set and glued ribbon on to make it look like a flip flop. Then they mounted the whole thing on some colored card stock. I thought they turned out so great and the girls enjoyed making them.

The day of the Party... We had real rose petals sprinkled down the hall and into the cultural hall where the party was.

We closed off most of the cultural hall to make the room smaller and more cozy.

Place settings at the table. These cute plates and napkins came from the Dollar Tree. We tied a little ribbon around each napkin.

We had 3 tables set up and then a bunch of chairs in front set up for the girls to give their Mom's pedicures.

The tissue paper flowers the girls made at the prep activity for decorations to add color to the walls and go along with our flower theme.

Here is the food buffet table. I thought it turned out so beautiful! I brought some leaves my neighbor picked from her yard to add on the table around the food. I cannot take credit for this display! One of our wonderful leaders helped me put this together!

The food was so yummy! Tea party foods is what I call them. It was a yummy, healthy, delicious lunch.

Fresh fruit kabobs

Cucumber cream cheese sandwiches. Everyone thought these sounded strange when I told them my menu plan, but they were the first to go! Everyone loved them. All they are is a square of bread with no crust, whipped cream cheese, slice of cucumber, and topped with salad supreme.

Next up...Heart shaped strawberry creme cheese sandwiches. The girls favorite!

Egg salad sandwiches cut into triangles. They started to dry out and so I wrapped all the sandwiches before I got a picture, dang it!

Delicious homemade creme puffs made by one of our leaders! yummy:)

I loved these big Gerber daisies another leader brought to decorate from her quilt store.
Notice the delicious veggie tray. I wanted to snap it's own picture but my camera battery died. It was so pretty with romaine lettuce leaves under all the veggies. these lady's I work with sure know how to make things pretty!

Here's the pedicure side of the room. The hospital donated the buckets to us to do the pedicures in and I made a homemade soak and scrub for the girls to use.

The Mom's and daughters had so much fun giving and receiving their pedicures. What a fun way for the daughters to serve their mothers!

Two of our leaders made a delicious smoothie for the girls to serve their mother's while they enjoyed their pedicures.

Our Mothers and daughters!

One of our leaders works at a quilt shop and got us a good deal on tool so we wrapped all the chairs with it an put a flower on.

I really stressed about what we could do on a budget for the centerpieces. I ended up cutting my fresh Roses in my backyard, along with some from my friend yard and some other variety of plants. They turned out beautifully. We added some ribbon around the vases, fabric remnants and fake flowers at the base. The cost: FREE!

Freshly pedicured toes!

Here is the bath salts the girls put together for their Mom's. I made this label up on photoshop. If you would like a copy of the label just email me at the link on the above left and I will get you a copy.

Here it is the recipe...

2 Cups Baking Soda

1 Cup Sea Salt

3 Cups Epsom Salt

Therapeutic essential oils of your choice. Approx. 12 drops. Of course I prefer DoTerra!

For the scrub I took 2 cups of this and put a few tablespoons of fractionated coconut oil. Next time I would probably just use epsom salt and coconut oil with some essential oil.

There you have it! A Mother Daughter Activity to always remember. :)

Hello!

2011-08-18T14:19:00.003-06:00

Hello Activity Day Leaders around the world! I am so excited to be carrying on this blog! I love Activity days. It has strengthened my own testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ as I have been able to work with these young girls. I hope that the ideas I share with you will be beneficial and fun! This blog has served as an inspiration to me and I hope to be able to continue it in a way that will be of service to all of you. If you there is anything in particular you would like to see or are having any difficulties with Activity Days let me know.
This past week I have celebrated my 11th Anniversary with my husband, had my children start back to school, and celebrated my oldest daughters birthday! BUSY, and lots of fun. I am hoping next week to get on the ball and post some fun activities for you to get excited about Your callings in Activity Days. I have lots of fun ideas for no cost, easy, and more elaborate ideas for special occasions. If you have a fun idea you would like to share on this blog please email me. It is so wonderful that through technology we can all help each other in our callings and in Life.

I'd love to hear from you...Have a wonderful day!

Hi ho Hi ho, its off to RELIEF SOCIETY I GO!

2011-06-13T20:38:00.000-06:00

I was called into the Bishops office last sunday and released as a

Activity Days Leader! So its off to Relief Society I go! I have many mixed emotions! I have loved

being in Activity days but after five years in the same calling I guess I could use a change but Im going to miss all my girls! I have loved all your wonderful emails, they make doing this blog so fun! So now the torch must be passed on. (kinda like batman, no one knows who he is but there is always a new one in each movie,) This Site is so wonderful and was helpful to me when I was getting started and someone else was running it.

If you would love blogging about Activity Days and would like to continue this wonderful blog, and feel you could devote some time to keep it going please email me at : ldsactivitydayideas@gmail.com

I will still post some pictures soon about our last Mommy and Me COOKING Activity! SOON

Activity Days PENPAL

2011-05-21T20:12:00.009-06:00

Is now closed---Due to Me getting a new calling!
Okay by the raise of hands who is ready for summer to be here? Anyone with kids counting down the days, hours & minutes till its here? Well I sure am, with my five kids there are days I hope that everyone is fed dinner and just has their teeth brushed for the day! Okay its not that bad but hey my daily calendar for the month of may looks like my three year old colored all over it! WOW! BUSY BUSY! So I had to plan and execute a MOMMY and ME dinner for all the girls and their moms- We had almost 60 People there, it turn out great ! (Pictures are almost done) So in other words Ive been very very busy! I had a great Activity Days leader email me and give me a great idea (HER IDEA) ! For the summer/fall I thought it would be great to start an Activity Days PENPAL program with your girls . You could teach your girls some writing/letter skills (since they are almost non existent these days with computers) and they would receive a letter from another girl, maybe a picture, and a note, story or poem on some pretty paper and someone to get to know that is their same age!

(Plus this could pass of DEVELOPING TALENTS #3)

Email Me at : ldsactivitydayideas@gmail.com
WITH THE FOLLOWING:

1- The number of girls you have in your group
2- The girls ages
3- Where you live

I will send you an email with another ACTIVITY day leaders email and you can coordinate with the other Activity day leader your address and how many girls you have and if you want to send pictures with your letters or not.

RULES: 1- Please do not give out or let the girls give out their address, phone number or email to protect them and their privacy....
2- Lets just stick to all the letters being sent to the leader of the group.

I think this would be really FUN and the girls will love it! Please send pictures of the process and I will display them here! ( I can cover their faces for privacy if needed)

HAVE FUN!

Its a Tea Party...... Mommy and Me Style!

2011-04-07T12:15:00.005-06:00

Every spring we have a MOMMY & DAUGHTER party for all of our Activity Day girls! This was last years party! This year we are doing an Italian/Cooking theme! Ill post about it next month- but this Tea Party was so much fun! These were the invitations that we made and handed out to all the girls and their moms (or grandmas, aunts, or friends. Please be sensitive to those that do not have a mother in the home! We always put an invite at the bottom of all our invitations to say that they could bring a grandma, aunt, cousin, or friend if they choose! ) Our Spiritual theme for this party was: We each have our own Unique Individuality and Beauty!

As they walked in we had a beautiful picture of each of the girls! We took these during the month before at their regular Activity Days class. They got to each take these home when the party was over!

We decorated our tables with pink tablecloths and a really cute tall flower in the middle! We also did paper pom-poms. They are so Cheap and easy to make! Love them! Here is the Link that will show you how to make them: Tissue POM POMS

We always have a corner where each girl gets a picture with their moms! We had many hats, gloves, umbrellas, tea sets, scarfs, to dress up and pose with! The GIRLS absolutely loved this!

Most girls came in their best Sunday dress and a fun hat and gloves! Some even came as the old bell of the ball- with their flowing Southern style dresses!

Here was our dessert table- We had everything you could think of chocolate, cupcakes, puffs, cookies, fudge, you name it we had it! By the time this was over there was not even a crumb left! WOW Girls can eat, and especially SWEETS!

For dinner we had croissants filled with chicken salad, a fluffy jello, and vegi s with a yummy dill dip. Everyone enjoyed it! We also had cherry seven up! SPARKLY!

Here was our Young Women who volunteered to help out! They were so amazing! They helped with serving and with kitchen duty! They even dressed up in their bow ties! SO CUTE!

We had a wonderful lady in the Ward come and talk about how Beautiful and Special each girl girl is! She did an amazing job! She had jokes, a really spiritual talk and some fun songs! She did such a great job! She talked about the photos that we took and how each girl is beautiful and special in their own unique way! It was a lot of fun!

Program outline: 1- Pass out invitations about two weeks before! Always call to remind
the night before! People are busy they forget!
2- Let guests arrive and take pictures in the picture corner
3- When everyone has arrived, Say prayer and Serve Dinner
4- Have fun soft music playing!
5- Have Dessert
6- During Dessert have Spiritual talk!
7- Pass out Photos of Girls!

HAVE FUN!

Scripture Power!

2011-02-25T23:11:00.005-07:00

Scripture Power! Okay Ive been a little slow in blogging lately... I guess that is due to the fact that I have five daughters and that they keep me so busy! I have had Activity days but just not brought my camera along. We went to the local history museums and some of the oldest pioneer houses in town to learn about our heritage, the girls loved it!

Here is the Theme for Primary this Year! It is on the Scriptures this year!:
2nd Nephi 4:15- For my soul delighteth in the scriptures,
and my heart pondereth them.

So here is the Activity that our Primary did, which can go with Activity days
first we made SCRIPTURE BOOK MARKS- with just thick ribbon and buttons!
It was so cute! We had multi colored ribbons to choose from! so many choices!
The girls loved making them! Just take some ribbon cut to size, glue buttons on.
So easy and cute!

Next we had the girls make Mini-SCRIPTURES with CHOCOLATE!
(don't know where they got the idea- so hopefully I'm not stealing anyone elses idea- just expanding on it)
again so easy! take 2 small Hershey chocolates- the small ones
Glue them on a piece of brown or black card stock or construction paper
print out the primary theme on piece of paper-(Really small)
and add a small ribbon down the middle- we used glue dots for everything but you could use
a glue gun instead! or just regular glue!
The girls thought it was so cute!

Okay here is the important part! You could make small scripture bags for church- we bought some from the dollar store! 5 for a dollar and had the girls decorate them! They can now fit some small scriptures in them and their Faith in God books in them!
Here is a book of Mormon Reading Chart! Just click on it and it should take you to the site I found it on and just print it off! You could challenge the Girls to read their scriptures! Maybe have some small party when they get so far and have so much passed off!

http://mormonbudget.com/2010/02/book-of-mormon-reading-chart/

Okay found these at lilluna.com they are like the pilgrims hats we
made around thanksgiving! So easy
1- Fudge striped cookie turned upside down
2- Marshmallow dipped in chocolate
3-Green Frosting- yellow candy- clover! So Cute!

Article of Faith "TREASURE BOX "

2011-01-24T08:18:00.003-07:00

This Treasure box works wonders in getting the girls to learn their articles of faith- We have 13 bags of goodies inside- numbered 1-13 when they pass of their articles of faith they get to choose from the Treasure box, according to the number they passed off. We started off with smaller cheaper things for number one and went up in prizes as we went. We used things like erasers, pencils, different candies, dollar store finds, (cheap)necklaces, bracelets, and other things that the girls would like and when they learned all 13 they got a BIG candy bar. (which was bought on sale) It really helps the girls to want to learn and pass off things. Make an article of faith bag which has all sorts of games, puzzles, and things that help them pass off their "Articles of Faith". It will help them to be regular in studying ..... GOOD LUCK!

For anyone who wants to get ORGANIZED! Merry Christmas

2010-12-23T12:16:00.006-07:00

Merry Christmas!

Here is my Christmas Present to all of you! IF you need to get organized or are new to Activity Days here is the perfect present for you, everything you need to get organized and to run a smooth activity days program- I have spent hours making and racking my brain for ideas that really help! and help you get to know the girls, have some fun, and keep track of everything all at the same time- There are two folders to download- One is for you and for you only! it keeps track of everything for each one of the girls and helps you plan out your year! So that you will not be deciding what to do the night before! There is also one for each girl- You can put them in paper folders, or hard folders, and let each girl decorate them! but it helps them keep track of their own progress and feel good about themselves as they accomplish many things and realize their true beauty and self worth! Just click on the links & it will take you to my google docs, Print them off for you and each of the girls & put in folders- I wish I had this when I was starting out or just needed to get organized!

"Merry Christmas, I know the Lord is so proud of all of you for taking care of his sheep"
lets just do the best job possible!

click on link! let me know if it doesnt work.

Activity Day Leaders Folder

Activity Day Girls Folders

Christmas countdown chain

2010-12-06T13:45:00.007-07:00

Christmas countdown! (This photo I got from a etsy site) We printed off a picture of the the Nativity (you could have the girls color it) . Then we made Candy chains with saran wrap, ribbon, and Hershey Kisses! We made our chains and hooked them to the picture of the "Nativity" and talked about the real meaning of christmas.... The girls loved it- I also told a few christmas stories that i got off the internet or you could go to the lds.org site and print a few off. Next week we are doing a Service project for the elderly for Christmas!

Being Financially Responsible & Shutterfly!

2010-11-26T13:16:00.005-07:00

here is a wonderful lesson from the Young Women Lesson Manual
on being Financially Responsible!

LESSON ON BEING FINANCIALLY RESPONSIBLE

you could help the girls to realize the importance of being financially responsible and talk of ways to save money, be frugal, and to live with-in our means. You could teach them ways to save money, be frugal and the importance of being financially responsible!

In a week or so, Ill post a great Christmas Present for all of you new activity day Leaders!

Happy Holidays

Thanksgiving Tree.........

2010-11-15T23:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we did a really fun activity that the girls loved!
We made thankful trees! It was so much fun! I printed them off here!

http://www.sundayschoolkids.com/activities-thanksgiving-tree-instru.htm

I printed them off on cardstock! with leaves of different colors! and we
talked about "gratitude" and being thankful! I based it on President Monsons talk in
General Conference on "GRATITUDE"! the girls loved listing the things they were thankful for! and then we made chocolate pilgram hats- that were shown in my last blog post! the girls had a blast!

Holidays are coming!

2010-11-02T15:10:00.006-06:00

(Great Thanksgiving Cookie Idea- cookies with Chocolate Covered Marshmallows & Yellow Icing- Yum and SO EASY! )

I can't believe how fast the holidays are upon us! We all know how busy life can be and we all need ideas that can be implemented and fast. Especially as a Activity Day leader we need to have ideas ready and handy and Im going to let you in on a little secret of mine- Okay its not really a secret but it is my favorite place to get ideas for anything. Games, crafts, printables you name it they have it. It is http://familyfun.go.com
okay the secret is out- Now im sure that this site is where you all find your ideas but if not then I really did let you in on a little secret- They have so many cute ideas, crafts, and so much more. So since it is the season for being Thankful, I think I will focus on that this Activity Day month- Here is a few pictures of Thanksgiving Ideas this month.......

Okay so I have been saving my (Toilet Paper rolls) with the hopes that I could somehow find a great craft to use them with the girls with well now I found it- It is a great idea! You could use them for any kind of character. You could make some scripture people from the Book of Mormon, Or santa and his reindeer.

Great TEEPEE's made of Icing and Cones.

"I am thankful for: "
I love this print out you can go to their website and print it off if you would like. Just another Idea. It is six different cards that you can write on. It would be perfect to let the girls write their favorite things that they are thankful for.

Halloween Ideas

2010-10-17T11:05:00.010-06:00

I love ORIENTAL TRADING.com they have the cutest and funnest ideas for parties and holiday kits! Great for any holiday, and some of them are really inexpensive if you plan ahead. The girls had a ball making these little ghosts.

Here is the old popcorn hand that most everyone knows how to make but if you add red food coloring to the mix or make carmel popcorn and add red food coloring you have red popcorn- Then you can attach a note that says
"YOU'VE BEEN CAUGHT RED HANDED SERVING OTHERS" . (or being good, or going the extra mile, etc. etc) and give to any bishopric, primary presidency, or anyone you want to spotlight.

"GREAT IDEA FOR FAMILY HOME EVENING"

You have been BOO"D is a popular thing to do in most neighborhoods during the Halloween holiday. The one that I had the girls do is located at :

http://strongarmor.blogspot.com/search/label/Halloween

You can download and copy and print at this blog site. Great ideas! Love it!

We did the "Halloween Phantom" it was so much fun! The girls made goodie bags
and we copies off two ghosts and two papers to go with it- and the girls picked 2 families that they wanted to Boo- They knocked and ran and left their goodies by the door from the Halloween phantom! Great thing they could do for FHE!

Daddy/Daughter Howling good time!

2010-10-04T10:50:00.010-06:00

Hi, Im very excited to take over this wonderful blog. It will be a honor to share my own ideas as well as yours to help others with being a great ACTIVITY DAY LEADER. I have been in many callings in the church and I love Activity Days, I think it is such a wonderful calling. It is so fun to share in the Lords work and to work with such wonderful girls and help them to discover their true potential as Daughters of God. Yes it can be interesting at times but it is such a great experience. I am a mother of five daughters. They all have "A" names. Four of them have been in or are in Activity days. So we have had plenty of experience with this wonderful program. So in every ward I have been in (which has been many- moved 14 times in 15 years) we have always had a Daddy-Daughter date, and a Mother -Daughter date once a year in Activity Days. Usually we do the Daddy Daughter date in the fall and the Mother-Daughter date in the spring. Our ward combines all the Activity Day girls ages 8-11 to join in on the fun.
Some wards only have 1 or 2 leaders for all girls but our ward has 8 leaders, 2 for every age group- 8 year olds, 9 year olds, 10 year olds, and 11 year olds. Which is a lot of fun!
So last year our theme was a Daddy-Daughter Date Halloween Party! It was so much fun and we had a great turn out! We have around 23 girls in the ward and only 1 girl could not make it!
We sent out Halloween Invitations- (Make sure you are sensitive to girls who do not have a father figure in the home , we always make sure it says to bring a date whether it is a father, grandfather, brother, or friend. ) We decorated the room. We had the girls make table decorations a head of time! Each made their own placemats with their names on them. We served dinner, carved pumkins, and took pictures! It was a great turnout, and the girls really enjoyed it! We had all the fathers dress up and we made sure all the leaders were also dressed up! We also had cute Halloween music playing (Monster Mash, ETC) - IT was a HOWLING good time!

Here is some of the food we served- Eerie Eyeballs- AKA - DEVILed Eggs

Boney Fingers- AKA- Chocolate covered Pretzels

GOBLIN GUTS- AKA Baked Beans

SPIDER LEGS-AKA . CHEETOS & MONSTER MASH AKA. SlOPPY JOES.

DEATH BY CUPCAKES- AKA Chocolate cupcakes & Witch's Brew AKA- RED Punch with floating hands

We had a picture corner where the girls got a picture with their fathers

The Activity was carving pumpkins with their fathers-

Here is a girl with her finished PUMPKIN!

Next please!

2010-09-20T09:21:00.001-06:00

Being an Activity Day leader has been my favorite calling of all time. I have loved getting to know the girls, seeing them grow, planning activities and everything else that has come with this. But, the time has come and today I received a new calling. When the Bishopric asked me how long I have served in AD I replied about two and half years. They said "oh, then you are probably ready for a change." Not at all! I told them how much I have loved it and wish I could continue doing it, but someone else needs the chance to serve the sweet girls of my ward.

When I first started this blog, it was out of desperation. I spent countless hours searching the Internet for ideas but decided that if I wanted to find that site, I was going to have to create it myself. I have loved sharing ideas with my readers and enjoy all of the emails I receive. I'm not the master of AD but I was able to create a system that worked for me, so I felt I needed to share it. I hope some of you were able to find activities that were useful and that I was able to answer your questions as you asked them.

And so, since it is time to move on I am offering this blog to one of my readers. There is one stipulation, you must be committed! Committed to sharing your activities as often as possible and taking the time to respond to any questions you may be asked. Other than that, the blog and email address will be yours! You will be free to change it any way you wish. If you are interested in taking over please email me. Let me know why you are interested and if you are committed to sharing your ideas.

You Are Special

2010-08-27T23:02:00.000-06:00

This blog has been neglected! Holy cow! I took a break from doing activities to take care of my now 6 week old baby but now summer is winding down, I'm feeling great and we are back at it! We started off the new school year with a spiritual activity, ending with a lot of laughter. I guess you could say I'm a little rusty as far as activities go, so the first portion of this activity is an idea I got from my sister.

First of all, you will need the book You Are Special by Max Lucado. Are you familiar with it? I picked mine up on half.com for 99 cents but I believe you can also find it at Wal Mart.

If you aren't familiar with the book, listen to it here.

We prepared for the activity by purchasing gold star stickers at the dollar store and my partner cut out black dots about the size of a quarter (any size would do). You don't even have to do that, regular stickers would do just fine.

We sat the girls in a circle and I began reading the book. Many of them were familiar with it but paid attention just fine. While I was reading my partner went around the circle sticking the stickers and dots (with tape) on the girls. The more stickers the better! Once we got to the part of the book about Lucia, she started removing the dots.

After we finished the book we talked about what different people and events in the book represent. We then began talking about how we are each different and our unique qualities are what make us each special. At this point we passed around a mirror and had each of the girls look at themselves and name one thing that they really like about themselves. Even though the girls are young, it was still challenging for them! The other leader and I reinforced each good thing they said and even gave each girl a compliment.

We also discussed that sometimes we are told something so much, good or bad, that we begin to believe it. To close this part of the activity we talked about people at school that may need a friend because they might be feeling like a Wemmick with a lot of gray dots. I asked the girls is they could think of someone who may feel this way and they all said yes. We then challenged them to reach out to them and lift them up.

This part of the activity only took about 20 minutes so we filled the rest of the time with a little improv. I filled two bags with a few random items like plastic fruit, potato masher, fairy wand, sunglasses, toy cash register, etc. The girls were split into two teams and given a bag. They were given 2 minutes to come up with a skit using every item in the bag. I could not believe their creativity! They about had us rolling on the floor laughing. It was so fun we did about 4 rounds of it and they all asked if we could do it next time. You have got to try it!

Firework Pens

2010-06-29T19:40:00.002-06:00

What a fun way to celebrate the Fourth of July. How about a lesson on freedom and then making these super easy and cheap pens.

I know I have seen the garland at the Dollar Store. Pick up a pack of pens and a few strands of garland and for a few bucks you have a fun activity!

Giving Back

2010-06-10T12:44:00.000-06:00

My sister recently did an activity that is worth sharing. She called up her town Parks and Rec department and asked if that would give her girls a tour of the Town Hall. They were happy to oblige and after the tour was over the girls were able to plant flowers (provided by the town) around the Hall. They had a great time.

Even a tour of the City Hall or a local government building would be great!

Activity Repeat

2010-06-10T12:38:00.001-06:00

This is the first time I have ever repeated an activity but I felt it was well worth it. One of the first activities I did was clean the nursery toys with the girls. Since most of them have moved on (and after spending some time in nursery the other day and seeing the toys get put in lots of mouths) I felt like it was okay to do this one again. We went to town cleaning the toys with Clorox wipes and had a great time laughing and chatting about everyone's plans for summer.

(Horrible picture, I know, but I wanted to crop out the girls' whose faces were showing.)

If your ward has big plastic toys (like a kitchen) you could have the girls use shaving cream (outside of the building of course) to clean them. It would be messy but lots of fun!

After we finished the toys we cleaned the tables, door knobs and cabinets.

When we were all finished we played the Skittles Game that I found on LDS Splash. The girls had a ball and we laughed and laughed about how silly everyone looked with their mouths full of Skittles.

Getting To Know the Missionaries

2010-06-07T22:02:00.001-06:00

We recently invited the missionaries to an activity. They talked with the girls about what a typical day is like for them and then the girls got to ask questions. There were all kinds of questions from what the worst thing they have had to eat was to what life was like before their mission. We learned that one of the missionaries had really long hair and was in a band! The missionaries were great sports and kept things really interesting.

Here's a few more ideas you could incorporate.

Interchangable Flip Flops

2010-03-27T12:14:00.000-06:00

I love this site! And with summer right around the corner I think your girls would love to do this craft.

(Photo used with permission.)

Portable Flower Pots

2010-03-24T11:33:00.001-06:00

In a few weeks we plan on doing an activity about self-reliance and gardening. We've instructed the girls to come up with a 2 liter pop bottle and bring it to the activity so we can do something similar to this. (More to come about this after this activity is complete!)

And this morning when I saw Pioneer Woman's Blast from the Past post, I thought this would make a treat to serve at the end!

(Photo from Pioneer Woman)

You could also do dirt and worms if you don't want to get too fancy.

(Photo from Kraft Foods)

Manners and Internet Safety

2010-02-23T20:55:00.002-07:00

Today we taught the girls about manners (home, table, public and phone) as well as Internet safety.

Since there was so much to talk about I made an outline for me and the other leader to follow. Here's the rundown:

We set the table with plates, cups, napkins and forks (you could do spoons and knives too, but it wasn't necessary for us) and had each girl sit down. We then served them each a piece of cake. We asked them what they should do with their napkins and then taught them how to properly use it. While they were eating cake we played a little game. In a bowl we had questions and scenarios. The girls each chose one slip of paper out of the bowl and then had to either answer the true or false question or act out the scenario using good manners. We also discussed the section about using good manners at home, other than table manners.

After the cake we went back into the living room and followed the rest of the outline.

For the introduction game we paired the girls up and told each of them to play a certain part. One girl was supposed to represent the Bishop, another a new girl at Church and so on. They showed up how they would introduce themselves and I have to say it was surprising how weak the introductions were! We talked to them about shaking hands, smiling and making eye contact. We then reversed the roles and re-did the introductions. Things were much better the second time around!

As for manners at other people's homes, this is where the activity originated from. Most of the activities are held at my house, and although I don't mind one bit, I do mind when the girls go in my bedroom (can you believe that!?) and into my kids room. I decided that we had to tackle this, so hence the whole activity.

For phone manners the other leader and I had a pretend phone conversation. She was the caller and when I "answered" the phone I was totally rude. I pretended to keep the phone to my ear while yelling at other people, hanging up rudely without saying good-bye and totally interrupting everything that she was saying. It was pretty comical, but it got our point across. After talking about the three parts of a phone call (1. When to speak,
2. When to listen, 3. How to respond) we then held a "real" conversation using the three points. (This site was extremely helpful with this part of the activity.)

For Internet safety I have to say that I didn't even think about this until I read this idea on a Yahoo group (thank you to whoever you are for this idea!). I wanted to include it because I know that most of my girls use Facebook daily. Since they are so young and it's not our place to overrule the family computer rules, we simply talked about the Crash and Tell method for a short minute but mostly focused on not giving out personal information.

With the remainder of the time we answered the rest of the true and false questions from earlier.

Throughout the whole hour, it was interesting to hear the girls share personal experiences with manners and Internet safety. I am so glad we had this activity!

I know this is sort of confusing to read, but if you review the outline and still have questions just email me!

New Spotlight Idea

2010-02-09T20:47:00.002-07:00

Since we have spotlighted all of our girls with these questions, we have decided to try a different approach this time. Before, we would call the mom of the girl that was being spotlighted ahead of time and ask her the questions. Now, we are going to use this form. We had the girls fill them out today and although they will know they it's them being spotlighted, it helps to know we are changing things up a little. They will still receive a special treat on their day, but this time we will choose what it is. Hope we get it right!

Service and Valentines

2010-02-09T20:42:00.000-07:00

Today we had a Valentines party but also talked to the girls about service. To start off, we talked about how it feels to serve and asked the girls to share some experiences that they had when someone served them. We discussed how we may not feel like we are doing very much, we don't know how simple acts of service can really change someone's day. We then gave each girl instructions to go home and do a secret, simple act of service for someone in their family. They were each given two hearts to leave behind after they accomplished their service.

Next, we exchanged Valentines. On our invitation we asked each girl to bring a Valentine to share with each of the other girls. We made sure they knew that that did not mean they had to go buy something. We told them it shouldn't be anything fancy, just creative. Not all of the girls were able to bring some, and that was no big deal! They still received some and were happy. We only had one girl that brought store bought cards, all of the others made theirs. It was great to see how different they were. One girl used her mom's stamps, another used printer paper and highlighters and another used glitter glue to decorate cardstock. They were all so diverse.

To end, we all gathered in the kitchen and decorated sugar cookies. The girls had a great time frosting and laughing. We had a great time and no one left empty handed.

Having a Plan

2010-02-03T10:17:00.000-07:00

*Thanks to Patricia for sharing this idea!

For my last activity I had laid out all the ingredients for cookies in my kitchen. I told the girls we were going to make cookies. They were so excited. They said "how much should we put in" and I would just say "What do you think?" So they finally got their cookies mixed (with things like 4 tsp salt, 1/2 C milk, and 3 eggs because there were 3 girls :) ). They decided to bake them on 400 for 20 minutes. As you can imagine they were nasty tasting.

I then said "Oh, I have a recipe". So we pulled out the recipe and made another batch. While they were cooking we worked on our A of F. When they came out we talked about the difference of having a plan vs. just doing what seems good at the time. We talked about if you want to go to the temple, you can't just decide the day before that you want to go. You have to have a plan and implement it all your life. We talked about the most important plan of all, The Plan of Happiness. I printed off this Plan of Salvation Chart.

And then we talked about planning our days. I printed copies of these calendars. And we talked about making wise use of our time and planning to get things done.

I then bore my testimony that time is one of Heavenly Father's gifts to us and we should plan to use it wisely.

Patricia also said that she made a cute copy of the right recipe for each of her girls. Great idea, thanks for sharing!

FHE in a Can....DONE!

2010-01-28T21:11:00.006-07:00

Today we did the FHE in a can activity. It was a huge hit with the girls and a total success. Here's the run-down:

We purchased enough cans and lids for all of our girls (80 cents per can and 21 cents per lid).
We also rented a canner
Using this great site, I found a lesson that was perfect for my girls, Being an Example.

We gave the FHE lesson to the girls and played a few rounds of Draw or Drama. After that we helped them assemble the cans. Here was was included:

FHE Plan
Copy of FHE Game

Copy of FHE Story

Treat Recipe

Cake Mix
M&M's

Each girl folded up their papers and placed them in the can. For the treat, we chose to do cake cookies. We included the mix and 1 cup of M&M's. It's really just what we had on hand, but the possibilities are endless! You could do plain cake mixes, s'mores, many different varieties of cookies, candy bars, etc. Depending on the time of year, you can get smoking deals on cake mixes, brownie mixes, s'mores stuff and lots more.

If you choose to do this FHE lesson, be sure to tell your girls that after they cut the strips up, to use the can to play out of.

The girls loved watching their cans being sealed as well. If you aren't able to get your hands on a canner you could try using paint cans that can be purchased at Home Depot or Lowes or even using the cans and just buying the white plastic lids.

Family Home Evening in a Can

2009-12-23T18:42:00.004-07:00

If you can get your hands on a canner from the cannery, this would be a great idea! Of course you could do it without a canner, just use a small bucket or paint can. Help your girls come up with a lesson idea after including everything you need, seal it! They could even decorate it the can if you have time so that it can be counted towards Arts and Crafts.

From the website:
Inside the can, try to put everything the family needs to hold a family home evening. A lesson could be in any form: a story, games or puzzles from church magazines, or numbered cards to be passed out and read in order. These can be done using scriptures, hymns, and quotes from church magazines. These could be put in a decorated envelope. Also include the ingredients to make a simple treat. This could be purchased mixes for cookies, brownies, cakes, or drinks. Make-it-yourself mix recipes are also available and could be packaged in fun fabric or paper bags. A simple craft could also be included with the supplies in a Ziplock bag. If room allows, include napkins, handouts, and anything else you would like.

I think we might add this to our list of activities to do!

Baking, Ornaments and Secret Santa

2009-12-22T11:43:00.007-07:00

My girls requested (begged might be a better word) to do Secret Santa for a few families this year. We chose to do a family that is currently investigating the church, their Primary teacher and another Primary leader that they all love, the chorister. When they arrived I had everything laid out and ready to go. I laid it out in "stations" so that it was totally chaotic- although some chaos is to be expected!

We had a number of things planned to make but because of time didn't get to do them all. We split the girls in two teams so one half could help bake and the other could work on their craft.

The first baking half made these: (keep in mind while looking at them that the girls did these all on their own!)

Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Ritz Crackers
(It wouldn't be right if I didn't give the credit to my Grandma for this one. She has been making them all my life.)

All you need is Ritz Crackers, peanut butter, melted baking chocolate and sprinkles.
One girl spread the peanut butter between to crackers, one dipped them in the chocolate (you could also do white chocolate) and one of the younger ones topped them with sprinkles.

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Before they arrived I made these cookies out of a Betty Crocker mix. Of course, I would have liked to be homemade but it worked out just fine. We just used melted white coating, then one girl dipped half the cookie in and another sprinkled crushed candy canes on top.

The second group of girls helped make Cinnamon Milk. This stuff if so yummy! My mom's friend makes it for our family every year and I always look forward to it. So, thanks for the recipe Helen!

The girls helped measure out the ingredients, stir it up, fill the bags, tie them shut and add the instructions. We ended up adding 10 cups of milk, 5 cups of creamer and sugar and 2 1/2 tbs. of cinnamon. Then the girls scooped them into the clear party bags (we used a tea cup and each bag got 2 scoops) and tied them up. To add the instructions we just cut them out and taped them to the front. We were in too much of a hurry to get out the door so I didn't get a picture of the final product. We had enough for each of our Secret Santa families and for the girls each take one home. 12 bags total.

I wrote poems to attach to the goody plate just so that the person receiving them could know where they came from. (I know, it sort of defeats the purpose of the whole Secret Santa thing, but I would want to know!) The first poem is appropriate for teachers, bishops, etc. and the second was written for the investigator family. It is more generic and could really be used for anyone.

Besides doing Secret Santa gifts we also wanted the girls to have something to take home. My partner helped them make the cutest little snowman ornaments. She had everything cut and ready to go so all the girls had to do was assemble. She did great! It was so simple and they loved it. If I can find the instructions I will add the link.I know that I am adding this a little late in the month, but maybe this will help you plan for next year! And now that the holidays are winding down we will be going back to 2 one hour activities a month. We have lots of good ideas to share!

Thanksgiving Activity

2009-11-18T20:31:00.005-07:00

The other day we held a 2 hour activity because we are only able to have one this month. Once all of the girls arrived and our spotlight, attendance, etc. was done we loaded them up in our cars (consider asking Mom's for help if you need more seat belts) and took them to the Temple. We didn't tell them what we would be doing until we arrived. Once we gathered them all around one of the leaders discussed what kind of service we do in the Temple and that we would be able to serve the people that were inside serving. We split up into groups and washed the windshields of the cars in the parking lot. Once they were clean we slipped this little saying until the wiper blade: "Because of your faithfulness in serving today at the temple you will see your way "home" more clearly. Thanks for serving so lovingly." (From SugarDoodle.)

Once finished we met up and gave each girl a pebble and a candy for this activity. They were to eat their candy and walk back to the cars and once there we questioned them on how their walk was. Each girl said something like "hard" or "painful." One leader read this quote "Sometimes we cannot recognize our sweet blessings because we are dwelling on the "pebble in our shoe" and discussed with them that although they had candy all they could think about was the pebble in their shoe. Each girl got a copy of the quote.

The Temple is only about a 10 minute drive from where we were meeting so once we got back we still had about an hour to fill. We played Thanksgiving Pictionary where each girl took a turn drawing something they were thankful for.

After Pictionary the girls wrote a letter to someone that they were thankful for. They wrote to teachers, parents, friends, etc.

Once the girls were done we gathered in a circle to play another gratitude game. Starting with the letter A, we went in a circle each taking the next letter in the alphabet naming something we were thankful for until we came to Z.

This activity could be done as two separate ones very easily! If you are still looking for a Thanksgiving activity you could simply use some of the ideas from the second half. The first activity is a great one to do on it's own anytime!

Halloween Celebration Night

2009-10-21T20:06:00.007-06:00

Last night we had a Halloween activity. It was lots of fun! If you are needing an idea to end the month with, it's not too late to pull this one together. My partner and I decided that we weren't going to make the girls mark off anything for this activity. This was the first time we have ever done this so we didn't feel too bad.

We invited the girls to wear their costumes but made it very clear that it wasn't necessary. We didn't want to make anyone feel pressured into spending money or doing something they didn't want to do. But not surprisingly, every girl dressed up! And they all looked great!

We used the Primary Room as well as a nearby classroom. This is how the room was set up:

We started out with bobbing for donuts. I am sure that everyone knows how to play this! We used yarn and thumbtacks to attach the donuts to the ceiling.Next we split the girls up into two groups. One group painted pumpkins and one group did the "Fear Factor Room." As for the painting we were able to purchase our pumpkins for less than a quarter each. They weren't very big, but if they were any bigger than the girls would have taken way too long to paint them!

Now, for the "Fear Factor Room." We used a separate classroom (highly recommended because of the smell! My poor partner is pregnant and it was a little too stinky for her! She was a trooper though and stuck out the nasty stench!) For this we used bowls filled with the following:

Vienna Sausages (Freaky Fingers)
Peeled Grapes (Ewww...Eyeballs)
Cooked Spaghetti (Icky Intestines)
Canned Black Beans (Witches Warts)
Wet Sponge (Bloody Brains)

We had each bowl covered with a box that had a hole in the top. They each got a turn to stick their hand in the bowl and guess what the mystery item was. They loved it and some of them got grossed out. Mission accomplished!

While some of the girls were waiting their turn to either paint or play Fear Factor, we had them guess how many candy corns were in the jar. Of course the winner took the jar home.

Our last activity was the mummy wrap game. So easy and fun! Another easy game that everyone probably knows how to play. Just pair the girls up and give each team a roll of toilet paper. The first team to get their mummy wrapped wins.

Last of all we had a costume and pumpkin decorating contest. The girls didn't know that they were being judged until we handed out the certificates at the end. Here are the categories:

Coolest Costume
Most Unique Costume
Most Creative Costume
Most Unique Pumpkin
Most Creative Pumpkin
Fastest Mummy Wrapper (there were two of these, one for each partner)
Fastest Donut Eater

Everyone got one award. The girls who did not get one of the above awards still got a certificate for "Participation in Achievement Day's Halloween Night Celebration"

I am having trouble downloading a copy of the certificate for you. If I can get it later I will add it.

It was lots of fun...yet very exhausting!

And a little bonus.... a cute way to give your girls their invitations! Just use a toothpick, like this. For the cupcake all you need is a frosted cupcake, striped shortbread cookies, a Hershey Kiss and red gel coloring and voila!

Tithing

2009-10-01T21:07:00.001-06:00

*Thanks to Jamie for submitting this idea!

A couple weeks ago, I threw together an activity for the 8-11 year old's at church. (We have about 9 girls who show up regularly.) We talked about tithing and the importance of saving money. I learned that most of them had never filled out a tithing slip, so it was good to go over that with them. We also talked about tithing settlement since that is one of the Faith in God requirements. I had found some ceramic farm animal banks on clearance (they ended up costing less than $2 each after I pointed out some flaws on them to the cashier and got an additional 20% discount off the clearance price...bargain of the century!!) I wanted the girls to decorate and personalize their banks and boy was I surprised with the creative results!!! I had prepared small squares of cardboard (which they covered in scrapbook paper) as a platform and then I let their imaginations run wild. Here are some pictures of what the girls made.
This really cracked me up. She made a nest for her chicken bank and even included eggs made out of puff balls.

This is a very sassy chicken. Not only does she have flowers and a feather boa around her, but the chicken has a ruby red necklace made out of puff balls.

Mooo! This cow is living large in her barn yard complete with a fence made out of pipe cleaners.

I thought this one was very simple, but very clever. You'll notice that her pig is a little muddy from rolling around in the pigsty.

If I were to do this again, I would allow for more time to decorate the banks. I could have talked to them for at least an hour about how to calculate tithing, the importance of saving money, the importance of wanting something but not having to buy it just because it's there, what a credit card is and to impress upon them how expensive things are and that they shouldn't expect their parents to buy them whatever they want. We ended up spending at least 45 minutes decorating the banks and the room was a disaster afterward, so help with cleanup would have been very much appreciated.

Prayer and Recognizing the Spirit

2009-09-25T12:58:00.002-06:00

My partner gets all the credit for this one!

For our most recent activity we discussed prayer and recognizing the Spirit. We began by discussing when to pray and not being repetitive. We also gave the girls a paper titled "Prayer Ideas." They had room to write 15 ideas of things that they could pray for. We encouraged them to think outside the box.

We then talked about how sometimes we can't hear the Spirit, even though we are doing good things. We did a little object lesson that really hit home. Here's how it went:

We told them it was Saturday and that we they preparing for Sunday by playing church music. Using a CD player we played a song quietly for a second. Then we said that their mom asked their little sister to work on her chores so she began vacuuming. We turned a vacuum on and ran it across the floor. We could no longer hear the music so we turned it up above the noise of the vacuum. While all that was going, we then said "your other little sister decides to practice the piano." I started playing and although it was songs from the Children's song book, it was too much noise. My partner tried to get a few of the girls to talk in their normal voices but no one could hear!

Although everything that was going on were good things, when we don't take time to listen and concentrate, we might get lost in the noise of the world.

After discussing that we had one more object lesson in store. We paired the girls off in two with partners that they don't normally hang around with. We said that they had 1 minute to talk to each other, study each others voices and come up with a plan. They were going to have to find each other without saying each others names and without seeing each other.

We then had one girl from each partnership go with me and the other with my partner. We were at the church so we were able to use the High Priest room that has more than one door. She entered in one door with her girls and I went in the other with mine. We had closed the room off with the partition and on the count of three they all started talking and tried finding their partners voice. Some of them used code words, which was pretty clever. One girl hit the nail on the head when she said "it's too hard to hear when everyone is talking."

They loved it! It was fun to see them when we opened the partition and they got to see if the person they were talking to on the other side was actually their partner.

Now, a side note: if you decide to do this object lesson, I would recommend using a sheet or blanket draped from the ceiling. It would be much easier for the girls, but still a challenge.

I hope this makes sense! It was a difficult activity to put into words. Contact me if you need help!

Ronald McDonald House Service Project

2009-09-09T22:10:00.004-06:00

Tonight's activity comes from here, a great cause. We wanted to make cards and fringed fleece blankets to donate.

Here's the rundown. (I was so mad when I realized I didn't have my camera! Pictures would have been so nice!)

Preparation:

For the blankets: Wal-Mart just happened to have a sale on solid color fleece so we grabbed just over a yard of both pink and blue and were able to get 2 blankets out of each yard. Sure, they aren't very big, but they are just big enough to comfort a child. The blankets are so easy to make, but just in cause you aren't sure how it's done, check this out.

For the cards: My partner gets all the credit for this! She worked so hard to create a good system that wouldn't result in mass chaos and a huge mess. What she came up with worked great! Using a circuit cutter she cut out tons of different sayings (everything from "thinking of you" to "get well soon" to "love") and shapes (everything from monkeys and giraffes to hearts and stars.) Then she labeled sandwich baggies according to what was inside, i.e. animals, planes, flowers, etc.

Set-up: We needed more room than normal for this activity so we used the Primary Room. We set up 3 round tables and 1 long one. The round tables were for the girls and the long table had all of the paper and cutouts on it. We laid out all of the baggies on one end (there must have been at least 30!) and the paper on the other. Since we had the perfect size scraps lefts over from the journals we gave them for this activity, pretty much everything was pre-cut and just the right size for cards.

Once all of the girls arrived we talked about what the Ronald McDonald house is and how it blesses families. Then we explained what we would be doing and where the cards and blankets would be going.

The girls came to the table and chose 1 paper at a time and a few coordinating cut outs. They were able to make as many cards as they pleased and once finished sat on the floor and worked on tying the blankets with the other girls that had finished.

It went so smoothly! I would be lying if I said I wasn't surprised at how cute the cards came out! At the end of the night we had 38 cards, 4 blankets and 18 very happy girls.

Modesty

2009-09-05T11:18:00.005-06:00

This week I did these with my two little girls:(Keep in mind that they are 4 and 2!)

I traced their bodies onto butcher paper and then using scraps of fabric and craft supplies, they dressed their outline up. I thought it would make a great activity if you had a lesson on modesty and then had them create modest outfits.

We used pipe cleaners to make the necklace, pom poms for the bracelet, foam craft flowers, yarn and scrap fabric. Get creative and the possibilities are endless!

Temple Themed Paperbag Books

2009-08-30T15:50:00.004-06:00

Matilda shared this photo of the books that she helped her mom's group of girls put together. They made them in preparation for the Oquirrh Mountain Temple dedication. What a great idea! They turned out so cute!And if you would like instructions on how do these books, check out this post. If you have done an activity that you would like to share, email me!

Altered Purse Notebook

2009-08-28T10:09:00.004-06:00

I saw this super cute notebook over at Sisters Stuff and thought it would make a great activity!

Cemetary Scavengar Hunt

2009-08-27T18:55:00.001-06:00

Today we had a lesson about family history and keeping journals. To prepare, my partner and I went to the cemetery (which happens to be about 1/2 mile from my house) and got ideas to use for the hunt. Here is what we prepared. If you decide to do this, be sure to go to your own cemetery and adapt this page to suit the cemetery you will be using.

We met at my house (you may want to have your girls dropped off and picked up at the cemetery) and after doing the prayer and spotlight talked about family history. We discussed how sometimes you need information that can't be found in a book or on the Internet, so you have to travel to different cemeteries in search of dates and names. We also talked about why cemeteries are NOT scary and how we should act. We then headed off. We had a mom help us drive and she was even kind even to stay and help out.

Once we got there we numbered the girls into five groups of three and handed them their paper and pens. There was no rush since it was not a race, they didn't have to go in order and not every clue had to be completed. I was really impressed how well behaved and respectful the girls were. It was also nice to see some of the older girls reach out to the younger or slower ones.

They got about 25-30 minutes to finish up and then we sat them all down, gave them a treat and talked about how there are times when we are doing family history when we know what we are looking for but we just don't know where to find it.

We tied journaling in by asking the girls how we can keep track of important information, like names and birth dates. I told a personal story about when I was in college at BYU Nauvoo and how my roommate made it a point to write in her journal everyday. She would write about something we did that day, somewhere we went, a neat experience, anything. Sometimes it was extravagant and sometimes it was simple. The point is, she wrote. I didn't write and now I have lost all of the memories that I could have had. Even though it can be hard, if we will just write one thing that happened that day, something good that happened, a blessing we got, something we are thankful for...anything... we will be thankful years down the road.

At the end we gave each girl their own journal. We picked up composition books at Wal-Mart for 35 cents, since all back to school stuff is on clearance, and modge podged some scrapbook paper we all ready had on hand on the front and back. We also added their name to the front cover. We didn't do anything fancy with it like ribbon or anything, since we have so many girls, but they were sure excited! Here's one if you need to have a visual.

Dear D-9,

2009-08-27T13:58:00.002-06:00

Since you have a private profile and I don't know how else to get this message to you, you get your very own post!

You recently left a comment asking for help downloading the Articles of Faith track sheet from this post. Just to let you know, I have updated the post and the track sheet is available for download here. Just be sure to follow the instructions found in the updated section of the post.

Thanks!

PS- Check out the new Download section on the sidebar!

Get creative with your invites!

2009-08-24T18:31:00.009-06:00

Yesterday was Stake Conference so we weren't able to give the girls their invitations at church. So instead today we taped the invitations to a toothpick and stuck them in a cupcake. (Make sure you make the invitations small enough!) Then we took each girl their invitation personally. They were so excited! I know this seems like a lot of work for simple invitations but every once in a while it's nice to do something like this to make them feel special!

Babysitting

2009-08-18T21:10:00.001-06:00

Today with the 10-11 year old girls I had a babysitting lesson. I adapted some of these ideas and came up with the rest on my own.

A few weeks ago I told the girls that we would be having this lesson and told them that they would need to be on the lookout for an old bag of any kind (purse, backpack, etc...) that they could bring. Here are the invitations that I handed out so that you can see how I worded the reminder. Although most of the girls said that they already had something in mind when I told them to be looking for a bag, I didn't want anyone to feel like they had to have something spectacular. After all, it's what's inside that counts, right?

I made each girl a personalized Babysitting Guide using a simple folder (the cheap paper ones) that included these things:

Add to your Kit
Babysitting Games
Safety First
Bee a great sitter

(I will be happy to send these in Word form if you would like. Just email me!)

I also added a few sheets of notebook paper (for notes, tic-tac-toe, phone numbers and so on) and a few coloring pages. I was going to buy dollar store coloring books for each girl but decided to print a few for each of them and then give them a few fun links (which can be found on the Add to your Kit list) where they can print more. They loved the idea!

I also glued a small emergency phone list on the inside pocket. The numbers included 911, Poison Control, the non-emergency number for the police and fire department and the closest hospital.

I wanted to include a basic first aid handout that the local fire station give out but they were all out. It's a handy little flyer geared toward kids that tells you what do to in all kind of emergencies. If you can get your hands on some, they would be great to add!

We discussed the Safety First, Add to your Kit and Bee a Great Sitter handouts and quickly reviewed most of the points. As we went along they asked questions about babysitting and believe it or not, we had a great discussion going!

After we had talked I gave them the rest of the items that I had for their kits:
(Keep in mind that it's a great time to stock up on crayons, glue, scissors, etc.)

Band-aids
Craft items like crayons and glue
Cotton Ball Game items

On the Babysitting Games handout it teaches you how to play a game with cotton balls. I gave each girl a few cotton balls and a long piece of yarn. At the end of the activity we played the game so that they would know how it worked.

They all said that they learned something new and were very excited! 2 of the 9 girls (the older ones of the group) currently babysit for me every now and them and at the end of the activity almost every one of them asked if they could babysit my kids tomorrow! One of them even called me when she got home! I hope I didn't start something!

UPDATE: Wendy, over at Wendy's Activities came up with these great PDF's. Most of the information from my original documents are included and them some. If you still prefer these in Word form, just email me.

Bee a Great Sitter
Safety First
Important Information
Babysitting Games
Songs to Sing
Add to your Kit

Spotlight Questionnaire

2009-08-18T14:03:00.003-06:00

At each activity we try to spotlight one girl. We will call their mom ahead of time and ask her a series of questions about her daughter. We do the spotlight in the beginning, but after the prayer and everything. We read the clues about the girl and after they have been read, anyone who thinks that they know who it is can take a guess. That girl also get a special treat, like her favorite candy bar or treat. We have even does flower clips. Anything small (that won't cause jealousy!) works great!

Here's the questionnaire. If you would like it in Word form, just email me!

Manners and a Tea Party

2009-08-13T21:14:00.007-06:00

* Thanks to Heather for sharing this idea!

The girls LOVED the "Tea Party" for this weeks achievement days. In today's society so many young ladies lack the simple manners necessary to help them become respectful women. So, having an activity centered around manners was only appropriate. Don't worry no real tea drinking took place.Each girl was formally invited with a had delivered invitation. They were instructed to wear their Sunday best and a hat to match. The girls said they loved getting all dolled up for the event.
Along with the theme of a tea party small finger foods were made for the girls. Mini cupcakes, mini croissant sandwiches, mini muffins, mini fruit kabobs and assorted gumdrops and candies. They thought they were in heaven. I think they loved the frappe drink the best.
When the girls arrived each had a setting prepared for them at the table. We talked about manners. What's expected of them and how to properly act in different types of settings. We even talked about holding doors, language and modesty. Once they had their fill of treats we played a few games.The first was a tray with 20 things you may find at a tea party. Each girl had only 2 minutes to study the tray and then try to remember what was shown. The girl with the most correct items listed won. Of course there were party favors for everyone so no one went home empty handed.

This was due to the place settings. Each of the girls were assigned a seat. There name was listed on a card and the card was attached to their tea cup with a hair clip that was holding their name card, a great way to include a party favor into the actual setting.After the game of memory the girls played a game they just had a hoot doing. This was a little silly but gave them a chance to be a little more relaxed since the event was so proper. A small box with a simple gift inside, we used a dress up necklace was wrapped 10 times. You can wrap the box as many times as you like. Under each layer was a sticker with an action the girls must do. The girls sat at the table and we passed the box around to music. When the music stopped the girl left holding the box removed the first layer of wrapping paper. Under the paper was a sticker telling her to do something like "sing your favorite primary song opera style" she must complete the action and once done the game continues. Each time the music is stopped a girl will remove a layer of paper and complete the action until the box can be opened and the prize revealed. The last girl to open was the keeper of the necklace. The girls had a great time doing this and loved playing.

When the activity was over we again talked to the girls about manners to practice thru the week and encouraged them to have a family home evening with their family and focus on the manners that they learned that day. I think it turned out great and the girls were able to complete more than one goal.

Becoming Thrifty

2009-07-21T12:51:00.004-06:00

Today was a great activity! I talked to the girls about how much it costs to run and home and a family and talked to them about ways that we can save money. One of the things that we discussed was making things at home that we usually buy at the store. Then we made three different things- all of which the girls got to be a part of.

The first thing was hand cream. So easy and it only took about 3 minutes. Here are the instructions:

15 oz. baby lotion (can use generic)
3.75 oz. Vaseline (can use generic)
18 oz. St. Ives Vitamin E hand lotion (don't use generic!)
4 oz. Fruit of the Earth Vitamin E Skin Care Cream (don't use generic!)

Melt the Vaseline in warm water. Mix everything together and viola!

I bought little containers (either Rubbermaid or Ziplock) and filled one for each girl. They loved it!

*I was only able to find the Vitamin E cream at Wal-Mart. It is in the hand lotion area and comes in a pack of 2 for about $3.88. At my store it was on the very bottom shelf.

Next we made Ice Cream in a bag. The girls said it tasted like a milkshake!

*We used 10lbs. of ice per 5 girls. Also, be prepared to double up on the gallon bag. Some of the bags got holes and we needed to add another. One more thing, I would add more salt than it calls for- it freezes a lot faster that way.

And while they were shaking and eating that I made homemade tortillas. Since the ice cream didn't take very long some of the girls were able to help. They buttered them up and thought they were great!

*If you want to do this activity I would recommend making the tortillas a few times before the activity (if you have never made them). You don't want to be trying to figure out your method on the spot.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

2009-06-26T07:57:00.008-06:00

Last night was had the mother of all activities! A while back when our girls were asked to sing for the mother's day program we challenged them to memorize all the words to "I Often Go Walking" and as a reward they could help plan the next activity. It worked and they chose a pajama party. All we would tell them was that they could wear their pajamas and that they rest was a surprise.

This is a very long post with a lot of detail so I'll break it down:

Invitations
We handed out invitations with a little poem that went like this:We didn't want any of the girls to feel like they couldn't come unless they were in their p.j.'s so I mentioned it on the invitation.

The party had a slumber party feel and a "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" theme, complete with decorations and everything.

When the girls arrived:
All the girls showed up in their pajamas and we got the party rockin! I made a playlist with fun girlie songs including:

S.O.S.- Jonas Brothers
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun-Miley Cyrus
Don't Walk Away- Miley Cyrus
Get Back-Demi Lavato
Crush- David Archuleta
Fabulous- HSM
Burnin' Up- Jonas Brothers
All For One-HSM
Play My Music- Jonas Brothers
G.N.O.- Miley Cyrus

When they showed up we had the music playing and the girls were all dancing so crazy. I even got in on the action and we jumped around the floor having a good time.

Dinner:
We then stopped the music and settled down to pray and discuss what we were going to do. After that we all headed into the kitchen so everyone could make their own homemade pizza. I have a recipe that doesn't require the dough to rise and that was super fast. I had the dough pre-made and shaped into balls, one for each girl. Each girl got a paper plate (which next time I would spray with cooking spray to prevent them from sticking. Also, the reason for the plate is because I didn't wan to have flour all over the table and counters. We had 13 girls! What a mess that would have been!) and their dough ball. They shaped their pizzas and each got some sauce, cheese and pepperoni.

Since I cook my pizzas at such a high temperature the cooking actually went very fast and the girls didn't mind waiting their turn. We put two pizzas on a big cookie sheet at a time and could put two pan in the oven at a time. When the pizzas on the top rack were done we moved the bottom sheet up and put in the third pan. I hope that doesn't sound confusing and I know you could come up with your own system. After each girl's was out (they did a great job remembering which was their own) I would take it off the sheet, in order to use the sheet for more pizzas, quarter it and put it on a plate for the girls. They were all so patient and it seemed like it took no time at all.

Just F.Y.I-
For 13 girls and two adults we used:
1 large bag of pepperoni's (about 4-5 per person)
3 cans tomato sauce (I just added my own spices to make the sauce)
Almost 24 ozs. of cheese

Games:
After dinner we got the girls together and played a few games. The first was the trash can game. SO FUN! All the credit goes to my partner for this one!

Trash Can Game
We filled a large box (you are supposed to use a trash can but use whatever you have around) with crumpled newspaper as well as dollar store gifts (nail polish, gum, notepads, bath loofas etc.) that were wrapped in newspaper, so you could easily spot them.

Each girl takes a turn passing the dice trying to roll a 7 or 11 (we used a bowl to keep the dice together and to make it easier to pass them). When some one got a 7 or 11 they had to run up to the box, put on a pair of gloves and dig, dig, dig trying to find one of the gifts. We put one gift for each girl in the box but didn't tell them how many their were. We continued to roll the dice and when another girl rolled the right numbers, the girl that was digging had to drop everything (even if she had a partially opened gift) and pass the gloves. It is meant to be a faced paced game.Each girl that had gotten a gift could continue rolling but if they got a 7 or 11 they didn't get to dig but the girl (if there was one) digging had to drop everything and get back in the circle.

It was so fun and the girls did a great job cheering each other on. We noticed that it started to get a little long so to speed it up we took the gloves out and all of the girls who had a gift partnered up with one that didn't. Both girls could roll and dig but if the girl that already found a gift found another, she just gave it to her partner. This sped up the game and worked really well with out girls. I would recommend trying the original version first and only making the changes if necessary.

It was amazing how well the girls did cheering each other on. The noise level was incredibly loud but no one cared because we were all so excited and having such a good time!

What If?
For this game each girl gets a piece of paper and writes a "what if" question on it, i.e. what if cows could talk?, what if Sister So and So had a beard?. After everyone has finished with their question they put them in a bowl. Pass the bowl around and each girl picks a piece of paper. Now they answer the question. Once again, they go back into the bowl and everyone draws a new slip.

The first person to go reads their question and the person next to them reads their answer. Do this until every question has been read and answered. Sometimes the answers match the question really well and it can be so funny!

Dessert
For dessert we had chocolate fondue. We melted chocolate and had strawberries, graham crackers, marshmallows, bananas, pretzels, etc. for the girls to dip. In order to keep it all sanitary we used toothpicks instead of fingers and we gave each girl a dollop of chocolate on a plate to use on their strawberries, pretzels and so forth.

This activity was a huge hit! The girls had a great time and there was so much laughter and happiness. It was well deserved and was the perfect summer activity.

I hope this is all clear! If you have any questions please email me!

Question #2

2009-06-08T09:59:00.003-06:00

How do you keep the girls from talking about other things too much and getting off topic?

*The best thing that we have found to do is to go around the room and give each girl a few seconds to tell us anything new or exciting, about their week, something fun they did recently, etc.

A Week of Questions

2009-06-07T15:45:00.005-06:00

This week I am trying something new! I am going to ask a new question each day this week in hope that we will be able to help each other improve or find new ideas that will improve our activities. I would love your input! And remember, the more answers the better!

Today's Question:

How do you make each girl feel important individually?

Here are a few things that I try:

*Spotlighting a different girl each time

*Writing them notes on Sunday telling them that I think they look cute that day, that their hair looks extra nice, that I think they are special, etc.

*Now, I know this sounds crazy, but I really try to relate to the girls on their level. I try to ask them questions as if I were their best friend in order to get to know them better. You would be amazed how much they appreciate this!

Scripture Study

2009-05-26T23:18:00.003-06:00

*This great tip was submitted by Jessica

I have found it very difficult to know which activities will take up the entire time, and which will not. Sometimes I would show up with an activity thinking that there would be nowhere near enough time to finish... and the girls end up done a half hour early! To fill that extra time, we started doing scripture studies.

I asked the missionaries in our ward, if they could provide each of the girls in my group (I only have 5) with a Book of Mormon. The girls wrote their names in the cover, but I keep them with me and bring them each week. That way, no one will ever forget to bring theirs and be without. Although, a couple of the girls bring their own scriptures from home each week to study and mark.

I dedicated one class to teaching them how to mark their scriptures using the "color code" system found at this site. I printed out a key (Red = words of God, or Christ... etc.) that was small enough for them to glue into the front cover of their Book of Mormon.

Each week, I print and hand out the study guide found on this site. I printed off all of the charts found on the site on the smaller scale so that they could glue those in the back cover of their Book of Mormon. We fill them out as we read. We use whatever extra time we have at the end of our activity to start on the Scripture Study activities on the study guide that I have handed out. I encourage them to finish the rest of it at home during the week.

The girls have loved our Scripture study time a lot more than I thought they would. They feel so "grown up" marking their own set of scriptures. The study guide breaks it down to a child's level so that it isn't so overwhelming to them.

Pool Safety

2009-05-26T23:14:00.010-06:00

*Another fun idea submitted by Jessica

Where we live, almost everyone has a pool in their backyard. I am going to be teaching the girls a class on pool safety. In my ward, we only have 10 Activity Day girls, but we have separated them into two groups. I am the leader of the younger girls (8-9 years old). Since these girls are so young, I am going to teach basic safety rules, and simple things like how to call for help, and dial 911, etc. For a group of older girls, it would be a great idea to have an EMT teach them First Aide and CPR. We will all go swimming after!

Flat Stanley

2009-05-26T22:54:00.006-06:00

*Thank you to Jessica for submitting this fun idea!

I downloaded the healdess Flat Stanley template from here. The girls then decorated the Flat Stanley (as a girl, of course) in modest outfits they designed using craft paper. I took a close up picture of each of the girls and after the pictures are printed, they will cut out their own head and paste it to the body.

I typed a short "About Me" page (What is your favorite food?... etc.) for them to fill out after they were done decorating.

We will be sending our Flat people and "About Me" letters to another Activity Days group, in another ward, in a different state. The ward there will write a letter detailing what the flat people did with them at their Activity Day and take some pictures to send back. The girls were all super excited about this whole project!!!

Mini Notebooks

2009-05-26T21:13:00.001-06:00

When I came across this idea tonight I just knew I had to share it! This would make a great journal for a Family Histories activity.

Fire Station Tour

2009-05-20T20:31:00.003-06:00

Today we took our girls to the local fire station. It was great! The head EMT is in our ward and was able to give us a great tour. I highly recommend this activity! Just call ahead to schedule a time and be aware that there is a chance that they could have to leave for a call.

Our guide let our girls slide down the pole, showed us the living quarters, gave us a few handouts, a tour of an ambulance and much more.

The best part was when they had me get on the stretcher and the girls got to buckle me up and watch me get loaded up into an ambulance. They thought it was great!

A Lesson in Babysitting

2009-05-17T16:10:00.001-06:00

If you have older Activity Day girls, you may want to consider having a lesson on babysitting.

Help the girls assemble simple kits with the following:

crayons, washable markers, pencils, paper, safety scissors, craft materials. (include any or all of these)

First Aid kit (and the knowledge to use it)

Words to children's songs--Five Little Speckled Frogs, The Wheels on the Bus, Head Shoulders
Knees and Toes, There's a hole in the bottom of the sea, Mary Had a Little Lamb, etc.

Game ideas--hokey pokey, I'm a little teapot, duck duck goose, Ring around the Rosy, Motor Boat Motor Boat, Mr. Fox, Hide and Seek, 20 Questions, Oink, hand clapping games

Antiseptic hand cleaner

Duck's in a Row Baby sitter's List and pen to complete it. (Download it here.)

Flashlight with batteries

Old sheets or old clothes for dress up or making tents (optional)
*List ideas from Mormon Share

Discuss babysitting safety:

Give each of the girls this handout. When you have reviewed it, have them keep it in their kit. (Download it here.)

Making babysitting fun:

Here is a great list of ways to keep kids busy. Take some time to teach the girls a few games or songs. (Download the list here.)

*Thanks to Emma from Emma's Place to Be for sharing her handout with us! Check her site out for lots of ideas and handouts!

Placemat Scripture Bags

2009-05-17T10:27:00.002-06:00

My Creative Outlet has a simple way to create cute scripture bags out of a placemat. Check it out!

Extreme Makeover

2009-05-17T09:42:00.003-06:00

This site has a great idea for teaching the girls where real beauty comes from.

Summer is upon us

2009-05-05T09:28:00.001-06:00

It's a great time to think about fun outdoor activities you can do with your girls this summer. Consider some of these:

Outdoor Olympics using some ideas from the Outdoor Fun and Skills section.

Make Ice Cream in a Bag

Take a trip to the Temple and give the girls Letters from Mom or do the Picture Yourself in the Temple activity.

Try the Flip Flop Makeover

This one is my all time favorite!

Shoulder Grip

2009-05-05T09:06:00.001-06:00

Required: Balloons
Players: Small to large groups

Set up 2 teams, you need one person on each team to be the “middle man”. They stand at the other end of the room across from their team and can move about to help teammates. Put a balloon in-between the shoulders of 2 teammates and have them run down to the other end and back. The balloon carriers are not aloud to touch balloon with their hands, only the “middle man”, at the other end can. The “middle man” (which can touch the balloon), can put the balloon back between shoulders if it falls to the ground. When they return to the starting line they then pass off the balloon. First team to finish wins.

*Another idea from Funattic

Jelly Bean Relay

2009-05-05T09:02:00.000-06:00

Required: Spoons, two dishes for each team and jelly beans
Players: Small to large groups

Each team has equal amount of jelly beans in one dish and one empty dish. You’ll need enough spoons for everyone that is playing. The object is for each team to have one person at a time, move jelly beans from one bowl to the other. This is done with hands behind their back, spoon in their mouth and one bean at a time. The first team to have all members complete this task is the winner. You can use items like lemon drops (my favorite), heart candies or anything other than jelly beans.

*Idea from Funattic

Inchworm

2009-05-05T09:01:00.000-06:00

Required: Paper cups and sand or water
Players: Small to large groups

This can be played as teams or individually. Mark off a starting point and finish line. Players are to lie belly down, with cup filled with sand placed on their back, crawl like an inchworm to finish line. If cup falls off and spills they are to start over. The first team done is the winner.

*Idea from Funattic

Balloon Head

2009-05-05T08:56:00.001-06:00

Required: BalloonsPlayers: Small to large groups

Organize players so that they’re into pairs and each team receives a partially inflated balloon. When the game starts, teams must race to a finish line carrying a balloon between their heads, remember don’t use your hands. On hot days try it with water balloons or through a sprinkler. You can even try an obstacle course.

*Idea from Funacttic

Mother's Day Gift Ideas

2009-04-28T09:47:00.004-06:00

Since Mother's Day will be here shortly, you may be looking for gift ideas. Try these:

Brown Sugar Body Scrub

Fleece Blanket

Foot Soak

Cute Grocery Bag Saver

Cute Pencil Holder (for older girls)

Kitchen Sink Pot

Bath Salts

And don't forget to check out other Arts and Crafts ideas from this site! Also, if you have any great ideas, submit them here!

Learning a new song

2009-04-26T16:04:00.003-06:00

The music person in my ward asked if the AD girls wouldn't mind singing "I often go walking" for the Mother's Day program. We only have one activity day before Mother's Day to learn it so we have to get creative. If your girls need an Activity in the Developing Talents section, consider asking if your girls can be a part of the program.

The Amazing Race

2009-04-25T21:04:00.003-06:00

Thanks to Diane who submitted this idea.

It was originally a Primary Quarterly Activity but it may work great if you have enough girls or for a mutual activity.

We wanted our children to learn that work can be fun. We volunteered to clean the church one day.

We fashioned our day after the CBS show: The Amazing Race. We invited parents to come with the children. We divided the kids and adults into 3 groups (because we have 3 lobbies that needed to be cleaned). We made sure that each group had at least one adult in it. Your building needs may be different. We had color coded teams (Plastic tablecloths in Primary colors) cut into strips to tie around their arms or legs.

(Our Approver/disapprovers wore: Big garden hats, aprons and sunglasses. They could not say anything or offer clues to the teams. They just followed each team and made sure the tasks were finished to satisfaction.)

ROADBLOCKS:
We made ROADBLOCK envelopes/clues. Each task had to be completed to satisfaction or they would have to repeat the job. Each clue said: Warning: The last team to finish this task will be given a SPEEDBUMP before they will be given their next clue. (For us, the ROADBLOCKS were: You must make the entrance ways shine-whistling or singing Primary songs as you work.)

The first SPEEDBUMP was:
You must make the living waters shine-Clean the drinking fountains, bathroom and kitchen sinks. Also sweep the floors if needed.

DETOUR #1:
We then had DETOUR #1. envelopes/clues. Put your shoulder to the wheel and push the vacuums. We have 3 vacuums available in the church. So each CLUE was a little different-depending on what they were supposed to vacuum. Since there were more team members than vacuums, the other team members were assigned to pick up clutter in the rooms-skipping to their destinations. Each clue had the warning: Warning: The last team to finish this task will be given a SPEEDBUMP before they will be given their next clue.
The 2nd SPEEDBUMP: You must set up the chairs in the overflow of the chapel.

DETOUR # 2:
We again made envelopes/clues. This clue was the last one. It said that they should hurry back to the Primary Room (Pit Stop) for awards and refreshments.
The remaining tasks were all different things that needed to be done as far as cleaning the church. We equally divided up the extra cleaning jobs into 3 different tasks.

The clues were something like: YOU MUST CLEAN THE DUST BUNNIES. (dusting piano, organ, wall trim boards. YOU MUST MAKE YOUR SLATE CLEAN. (cleaning the chalkboards. We only have one official chalk board cleaner appliance. Therefore, all of the other team members cleaned the chalkboard trays with damp cloths.) YOU MUST EMPTY ALL OF THE TRASH CANS.

WE bought dollar store awards: gold, bronze, and silver medals---1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners.

We figured on 2 hours. Not many people showed up. We were still able to finish cleaning the church in a little over an hour. We had bought fun cd's of Primary music to fill in the extra time, but forgot to take them. You would want to do something like that. We had an opening exercise explain what was happening with a fun song to begin the day. One of our older girls asked if she could prepare the refreshments as one of her requirements for her Faith in God. She brought rice krispie treats and lemonade.

The kids said that they had a good time. We saved our clues. We are going to try and use this idea next year.

What's in a name?

2009-04-22T19:21:00.004-06:00

For our activity today we asked each of the girls to come prepared with the story behind their name. We had them question their parents about why the were given that particular name. At the activity we went around the circle and each girl told their story. Some of them were simple, like "my mom just liked it" and others were more sentimental.

Then we talked about last names. We talked about honoring those that came before you by respecting your last name and living up to it and living by the examples of our ancestors who share our last names. I told a personal story about my great-grandfather and a letter he had written to the family shortly before his death were he talked about this very thing and asked "what will you do with our name?"

We then gave each of the girls a handout with their last name that we had researched the meaning for. We talked about how some names have a simple meaning and others have a deep meaning, but that it was honoring our name that really counts.

Here are a few sites that were helpful in finding the meanings. Of course some names were more difficult to find than others, but with enough research we found every name!

Search for Ancestors
Last Name Meanings (Use the alphabet at the top)
Surname Database (Use the search box on the right)
Winslow Tree

Picture Yourself in the Temple

2009-04-14T10:36:00.006-06:00

Submitted by Sue

I found some very nice individually wrapped gold picture frames at All a Dollar---a real bargain that I have rarely seen. I had each of the girls bring a picture of themselves and then I Xeroxed just an outline of a temple onto a transparency. The girl's pictures went inside the picture frame and we put the transparency on the outside (stuck it on with cute little stickers to hold it) so there was a little space between. The girls could see themselves through the outline of the temple. I had a poem that went with this called "Picture yourself in the temple" and it talks about preparing now for the day they would be able to go to the temple. The girls LOVED making that and I hope it will mean something to them. I asked them to put the picture somewhere so they would see it often and let this picture help them make their choices and decisions in life.

Here is the poem. There is more to this activity and if you would like the rest of the documents, please email me

Movie Night

2009-03-28T12:15:00.004-06:00

Submitted by Kari

This was our first Quarterly Activity. Somehow I got put in charge of these. For this one we did a Movie Night. I made invitations that looked like movie tickets. This year we have a new bishop with a big focus on missionary work. All of the kids were told they could invite their friends to the activity and they were really excited about it! We had a really big turnout. We showed one of the "Liken the Scriptures" movies and made it go up on the wall in the gym using the projector, so it was just like they were at the movie theater. They could wear their pj's and bring a blanket and pillow. We had a concession stand with popcorn, fruit snacks, licorice and punch (in cups with lids and straws). They got snacks before the movie and then we had a short intermission in the middle. Since this is the first time we've had something with this many non-members, it would've been good to talk to the kids the Sunday before and ask them to set a better example for their friends about how to act. Usually they are really good, but when a bunch went out to go to the restroom, things started getting a little wild and it didn't really settle down from there. All in all it was a great event though.

I fit 6 of these to a page. For the half circles on the side, I used a 1 1/4" circle punch.

I could punch about 5 tickets at a time.

Articles of Faith

2009-03-28T12:13:00.001-06:00

Submitted by Kari

We have a few girls that really work on their Articles of Faith, but most don't at all. I decided to work on the 13th with them. If they can get that one passed off, they'll feel like they can pass off any of them!

I made word strips to stick to the board with push pins. After reading through it a few times together, we took turns rolling a big dice and took that many words off the board. We went through until everyone had a turn. (I usually only have about 10 kids there.) After this part of the activity, I had Ziploc bags with word strips for each child in them. I copied them all on different colors of paper, so everyone had their own color. I gave them a few minutes to pick a spot on the floor and try to put the Article of Faith in order on their own. Some worked together and that was fine too. Most did pretty well. Some wanted to pass it off that evening,but I told them they needed to wait and do it on Sunday to make sure they really knew it. They were able to take their word strips home to practice. About half were able to pass if off on Sunday.

Getting to Know You Activity

2009-03-28T12:10:00.002-06:00

Submitted by Kari

I had each child fill out the following "Getting to Know You" Questionnaire.

Getting to Know YOU!
What is your favorite color? ______________________________________
What is your favorite Primary song? ________________________________
What is your favorite thing about coming to church on Sunday?________________
Write down three other things you want us to know about you:
1) ________________________________________________________
2) _______________________________________________________
3) ________________________________________________________

I read them aloud and then the girls guessed who it was. They had a ball doing it! Afterwards, we frosted heart shaped cookies for each member of the bishopric and made them a Thank You card. One person wrote in each one and then every one signed them. We had them come in to present them to them.

Family Home Evening

2009-03-25T10:38:00.004-06:00

Help the girls create a Family Home Evening Lesson. We made a lesson about Joseph Smith that had pictures, a simple lesson, a game and a dessert idea. I did the lesson for the girls and then helped them put their own together. I also gave each of them a folder to keep the lesson in as well. Here are a few sites with tons of ideas:

Family Home Evening in a Snap

The Family Home Evening Spot

My FHE Lessons

Family Home Evening Planner

Family Home Evening Blog

Spiritual Egg Hunt

2009-03-25T10:32:00.004-06:00

A few of my girls have requested this activity. It would be a great one to get them ready for Easter.

Easter and Articles of Faith

2009-03-25T10:30:00.002-06:00

Here's a great idea that combines Easter and the 13 Articles of Faith!

Easter Activity

2009-03-25T10:14:00.003-06:00

Visit this site for a fun way to prepare the girls for Easter.

Spirituality is a Thing of Beauty Part II

2009-03-13T22:39:00.006-06:00

For our activity yesterday we used the pictures that we took for this activity to make these wall hangings.

The best part is that they are SO easy!

Here is what you will need:

photos (We used 4x6 and trimmed them down)

tiles (we used 6x6)

Modge Podge (you can also use Elmer's Glue All with a small amount of water added to it)

Foam brushes

Using a small amount of Modge Podge, all you have to do is brush the area of the tile where the picture will go, place the picture and brush over the entire tile with more MP. So simple! It takes about 10-15 minutes to dry completely. We added ribbon to the back using hot glue so it could hang.

Flip Flop Makeover

2009-03-10T09:39:00.001-06:00

This is a great time of year to start thinking about summer activities. This would be a great one!

Family History

2009-03-10T00:00:00.002-06:00

Thanks to Deb for submitting this idea!

Since the theme this year focuses on Eternal Families, I felt inspired to have a "family history unit".

We started by introducing Family History, and proxy work to the girls. The co-leader used the lesson in the Joseph Smith manual from a few weeks ago, and we talked about different ways of being sealed to our parents, i.e. born in covenant, sealed to your parents on earth, doing the work for others.

I purchased two large size piece puzzles (70 pieces-10x13 inches) and put the puzzles together then flipped them over so the back was up. I wrote out a family group sheet on one (I used my family, and on the other I drew out a family tree. I took the puzzles apart and put them back into the box. When it was time for the activity, I asked a leader (the Primary President) to hide some of the pieces from each puzzle around the room. Some were EXTREMELY obvious, one was deviously hard and the remaining puzzle pieces were jumbled together on the table.

We opened with a prayer and I asked one girl to braid her hair without bending her elbows. When she had difficulty, I asked her if there was anything she needed and she asked for help. One of the girls volunteered. We likened that to doing proxy work. We talked about how we needed to know who our relatives are so that we can make sure their work has been done.

Then I showed the girls a set of blank forms and explained to them that they would start with themselves and fill in the information for, and then they could ask questions about their parents and possibly grandparents. When they asked what about if they didn't know someone and we explained how we could ask others for information as well as use the internet (Family Search, Ancestry.com, the libraries, etc.) and showed them copies of some of the documents I had for my family.

I reviewed with them some of the information found in the forms and went over how no one document is going to have all of the answers but that that's when we have to put together the puzzle pieces and make sure they fit. We then started putting together the puzzles. They realized that some of the pieces were missing and I pointed out that sometimes you have to search very diligently. They started finding the pieces; some were hidden within the papers I'd brought in, some were scattered on the floor, some on the piano, the rostrum, chalk rails, heaters, window ledges, etc. The one really "devious" piece was hidden out of sight.

The girls assembled the puzzle by interviewing me (they asked me who had this last name or this birthdate). As the puzzles were near completion, they realized that they were still missing pieces. It finally became apparent they needed help from elsewhere, we likened this to prayer and being in tune with the holy ghost). The girls kept asking where could the piece be. The Primary President revealed the location in a still small voice.

This activity worked out EXTREMELY WELL.

Reversible Headbands

2009-03-03T11:50:00.002-07:00

What girl wouldn't love this? I've made a few and they are so simple! With some supervision the girls could definitely do this.

Kitchen Skills

2009-03-03T11:36:00.001-07:00

Teaching chopping, cutting, grating and kitchen safety all under the guise of a pizza party is a lot of fun. Have the crusts pre-made into individual sizes. Have each member of the AD group bring a specific pizza topping, pepperoni, cheese, mushrooms, etc. Let each member cut, chop or grate the appropriate ingredient while learning the safe way to do it. Pile on the toppings, bake and enjoy.

*Idea from Mormonchic.com

Calendars

2009-03-03T11:18:00.000-07:00

Have the girls make a family calendar of all the birthdays and wedding anniversaries for everyone in the family. They could make copies and share them with their relatives.

Where in the world?

2009-03-03T11:16:00.001-07:00

Using a map of the world or your country, have the girls place stickers on cities or areas in which their ancestors lived.

What's in a name?

2009-03-03T11:14:00.003-07:00

Have the girls come prepared with what their name means and why their parent's gave them their name. You could also talk about last names. Talk about the importance of being true to your name and honoring your ancestors by living right.

What about nicknames? Ask how they got their nicknames and get the story behind it. Have the girls document their own naming stories in their journals.

Family History

2009-03-03T11:11:00.005-07:00

If you live in an area with museums or old houses take the girls to visit at least one. Give them a list of things they need to be looking for in order to keep them interested.

Rice Bag Feet Warmers

2009-03-03T11:03:00.003-07:00

These rice bag feet warmers are a great way for the girls to help out a local nursing home. Help the girls assemble them for one activity and deliver them for another.

Modge Podge Letters

2009-03-03T11:01:00.002-07:00

Click here to see how to make cute modge podge letters. Each girl could do the first letter of their name.