Thanksgiving Activity

We had a great Thanksgiving activity yesterday.  We started out by making a gratitude board.  The girls all said things they were grateful for and we wrote them on the board.  Without any coaching, the majority of it was filled with the normal things we say we are thankful for, i.e., family, technology, love, etc.

Once they ran out of things to say, we showed them this short video-

The girls were silent as they watched.   It is a very touching video that pulls on your heart strings.  Once it ended needed we went back to the board and tried to fill it up even more.  This time the things they were thankful for came faster than I could write!  Clean water, shoes, beds, washer and dryer, Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, shoes, heat, A/C and more!

We also showed them this video but it was a little too long and the younger girls lost interest.  It might work well for an older or smaller group.

Here is our finished board-

We spent the remainder of the time making thankful books.  Each girl got three brown paper bags then folded them in half.  We cut small slits (you could also use a hole punch) then fed twine or ribbon through to hold it in place.  The girls then had free reign to decorate it any way they wanted.  They all left with the challenge to write things they are thankful for each day between the activity and Thanksgiving.

Here are some of the books they made.

Easter Activity: Resurrection Eggs

From momtheintern.blogspot.com

 Easter is only a few weeks away.  We live here in the south.  You can find Resurrection Eggs everywhere here.  Walmart, Hobby Lobby, the checkout of the grocery store.  I had never seen them before moving this direction.  They are really neat.  They go through the Easter story and talk about the different events leading up to the crucifixion and resurrection of the Savior using a familiar Easter symbol-eggs.  I used them in singing time and last year we made our own sets for Activity Days.  You can find a great version here. 

from momtheintern.blogspot.com

 There are several different versions on the internet.  If you want to substitute a scripture or an item for a different one, then listen to the Spirit and customize it for your group. 

from momtheintern.blogspot.com

Sometimes, you are limited by budget, availability, time, and size constraints.  That's why these are just ideas and you can adapt them to fit your needs! 

Here is an idea for a cute treat that is NOT sugar.  

Sorry, the only source I have on this is this pinterest pin.  

Just some cheesy bunny crackers in a plastic bag (cone-shaped, it might be a piping bag) tied with a green bow.  Easy-peasy!

 Happy Easter!

My Body is a Temple

This is a super cute picture from overstuffedlife.com.  I love her design and the message is inspiring!  I made this graphic into a print 4-to-a-page pdf.  You can find it here .We did an activity last spring ( I know, I am really behind-more on that later) that incorporated this theme.  We talked about how important it is to take care of our bodies and what Heavenly Father expect us to do with them.  You could take this lesson in several different directions.  We chose to do fitness.  So we went outside and played some games.  We did relays involving jumping rope, running, skipping, jumping jacks, etc.  

When the girls were nice and worn out, we had some of this:

Yummy fruit salsa!

And....

cinnamon tortilla chips!  Yummm!!!

This was a delicious healthy snack, easy to prep beforehand, and we make it all the time at my house now.  Here is the recipe (from allrecipes.com):

Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Chips

2 kiwis, peeled and diced 2 Golden Delicious apples - peeled, cored and diced 8 ounces raspberries 1 pound strawberries 2 tablespoons white sugar

1 tablespoon brown sugar 3 tablespoons fruit preserves, any flavor 10 (10 inch) flour tortillas butter flavored cooking spray 2 tablespoons cinnamon sugar

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a large bowl, thoroughly mix kiwis, Golden Delicious apples, raspberries, strawberries, white sugar, brown sugar and fruit preserves. Cover and chill in the refrigerator at least 15 minutes.
2.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3.	Coat one side of each flour tortilla with butter flavored cooking spray. Cut into wedges and arrange in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Sprinkle wedges with desired amount of cinnamon sugar. Spray again with cooking spray.
4.	Bake in the preheated oven 8 to 10 minutes. Repeat with any remaining tortilla wedges. Allow to cool approximately 15 minutes. Serve with chilled fruit mixture.

2 kiwis, peeled and diced

2 Golden Delicious apples - peeled, cored

and diced

8 ounces raspberries

1 pound strawberries

2 tablespoons white sugar

1 tablespoon brown sugar

3 tablespoons fruit preserves, any flavor

10 (10 inch) flour tortillas

butter flavored cooking spray

2 tablespoons cinnamon sugar

1.

In a large bowl, thoroughly mix kiwis, Golden Delicious apples, raspberries, strawberries, white sugar, brown sugar and fruit preserves. Cover and chill in the refrigerator at least 15 minutes.

2.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

3.

Coat one side of each flour tortilla with butter flavored cooking spray. Cut into wedges and arrange in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Sprinkle wedges with desired amount of cinnamon sugar. Spray again with cooking spray.

4.

Bake in the preheated oven 8 to 10 minutes. Repeat with any remaining tortilla wedges. Allow to cool approximately 15 minutes. Serve with chilled fruit mixture.

-

Secret Sisters

One of the best activities we did this past year was Secret Sisters.  We asked our Relief Society President for the names of some sisters who could use an adopted granddaughter, and each girl was assigned one as her older "sister".  We started off the relationship by making a simple card and dipping a caramel apple for them.  The apples were super easy!  Just follow the instructions on the back of the Kraft caramel bag!  And then to jazz it up a little, and give it the seasonal touch, we dipped it in white chocolate and added some fall sprinkles.

Add a little cellophane bag and some ribbon, and you have a little party on a stick.  I delivered these the next day, so the girls could be "secret" for the duration of the project.  

For phase two, we had the girls make these little cuties at the same activity:

It's just a dressed up roll of toilet paper!  Take a sheet of orange tissue paper, tuck and wrap it around the roll.  Tuck a little piece of green tissue in the top along with a smidge of raffia.  Cut out a jack-o-lantern face from sticky back black felt and PRESTO!  A cute Halloween decor item, and an emergency roll of toilet paper in one!  We delivered these on a different day.

For phase three, we made wreaths similar to this one:

You can find the tutorial HERE.  This was a separate activity night.  It does take a while, and I would suggest having all the fabric cut ahead of time.  We had the girls bring their fabric and we were really pushed to finish them.  These were also delivered secretly.

For the last phase of the project, we had an after church munch and mingle with our secret sisters.  Each girl met her sister and visited with her.  We just had some simple refreshments and played a little icebreaker game.  It was really rewarding for the girls to develop this relationship over a few weeks and be excited to serve someone.  They love to see each other now!  You can use this activity to incorporate several different requirements, and adapt it for the needs of your own group.  I would highly recommend it because it really opened the girls eyes to the lives of others outside their own age group.  

What Makes You Beautiful Activity

So I found this super cute video on youtube, a lipsync version of "What Makes You Beautiful" by the Young Men in the stake that they made for the girls to watch at camp.  I loved the message and the idea that what makes our girls beautiful is their desire to do right.  So I based this whole activity on this concept and also the 13th Article of Faith.  We have a couple of girls turning 12 this year and this fulfills one of the requirements for Preparing for Young Women.  

This video is on youtube.  There are several other versions-all of them are great!  This one didn't have as many buffering issues!

First of all, we talked about what beauty is.  What did the girls think was beautiful?  What does the world think is beautiful?  How are they different?  I read them this quote:

You can find the beautifulquote  here.  It is a jpg of two sized for 81/2x11.

Then we split into two groups.  One group worked on this questionnaire:

    You can find this mirror printable here.

The second group made this tiara.  It is printable!  We just cut them out and then added some adhesive rhinestones where ever they wanted.  

         
You can find the tiara printable here.



Then we took a picture in the "beauty booth".  I just took a trifold display board, like for science fairs, but it was PINK!  (Hobby Lobby, if you want to know where I got it.)  I simply added the caption  Be-"You"-Tiful and then the attributes listed in the 13th article of faith.  Here are a couple of shots of my own girls.

We finished the evening off by watching the video and choosing some treats from our candy bar-I labeled several different treats with "praiseworthy", "of good report", "virtuous", etc. 

They took their treats home in these little takeout boxes I ordered a million years ago and hadn't used yet.  They are small, so it wasn't like they took home a ton of candy.  I just taped on a little label found here with some cute washi tape.  Easy peasy.  BTW, there are some other super cute printables of the 13th article of faith at that site.

My awesome partner brought some cupcakes as well, but you could just do the candy bar.  I like the idea of choosing/seeking after--you could do a much bigger display than we did.  It was a simple activity that got the girls thinking about something important with a little bit of fun.  Enjoy!

Who is Your Scripture Superhero?

A couple of weeks ago, we did a scripture superhero activity.  I asked the girls to think about who was their scripture superhero and be prepared to talk about their superpower. ( I made these little invitations with clip art from the ldsblogtrain.  They did a month of scripture hero digital art.  Supercute!  And free, although some of the links no longer work. )

For a snack, we kept it "super"simple and just bagged up some cookies-to-go with a cute bag topper.  I also sent the girls home with mini notebooks and printed some of these covers and adhered them to each one.  They were little scripture journals for them to write their thoughts in as they read the scriptures.

So, on to the activity:  

After opening song, Scripture Power, of course, and prayer, I shared a quick message.  I used a talk by Pres. Ezra Taft Benson, called In His Steps, as my basis.  He talks about how there is a great battle going on and how we need to fight.  "Great battles can make great heroes, but heroes will make great battle.  You will never have a better opportunity to be a greater hero in a more crucial battle than in the battle you will face today and in the immediate future."  You can find the talk here.  

I then asked each girl to tell us who her scripture hero was and what his/her superpower was.  I was amazed at the insight of these little girls as they shared.  Here are a few examples:

Ammon showed up several times.  He had superpowers of service, obedience, and work.  One of those girls said his superpower was doing what he was asked to do!  That is truly an amazing character trait nowadays!

Nephi was a hero because he was humble after he broke his bow and went to the prophet to ask where he should go to find food.  The girl who shared this said his superpower was not murmuring.  I wish I had that one!

Ruth was a hero because she followed her mother-in-law to a different place.  Her superpower was courage.

Esther was brave.

Joseph Smith was a superhero because he saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  His superpower was that he knew he could talk to God.

Moroni, the son of Mormon, was a superhero because he stayed faithful and righteous all his life, and all on his own.

When everyone had a turn, we used these little "capes" to write some goals and ways that we could be like our superhero. 

I have to say, this is probably my favorite activity we have had so far.  It was super simple, but the spirit was so strong as the girls talked about the people they loved in the scriptures and shared the qualities they admired.  I know it is really fun to do crafty things with fun games and super snacks, but sometimes all you need is the gospel.  These sweet girls are truly amazing in their capacity to learn and understand the gospel!  Depending on how many girls you have, you may want to add a couple of different activities.  We had about 14, so it took our entire time to just do a couple of things.  I thought maybe a superhero obstacle course would be fun-maybe make a lego tower with a sign that says "temptation" on it for them to leap over.  Maybe some giant "barbells"  made of styrofoam balls and a dowel with labels of  "trials" and "adversity" on it.  I am sure there is a lot you could do!  Enjoy!

P.S.  You should be able to click on the images above and then right click and save.  They are made to print on 81/2x 11, but they are jpegs, so hopefully you can resize them for whatever you need.  If not, email me!  

here is the invite in word so you can put a text box with your details on it.  Email me if it doesn't work!

FHE lesson

This activity is super quick and easy...seriously.  We are having a lesson tonight on a recent talk by the prophet.  I chose the Race of Life from the April session of conference this year.  I am going to share with them the main points of Pres. Monson's talk-the plan of salvation, enduring to the end.  Then we will put together our own file folder for family night.  I printed off a lesson plan which can be found here.  I will have the girls draw their own diagram of the PofS and also jot down any other ideas they have that would specifically work for their family.   The rest of the time we will spend making this super simple ornament
found here

image from http://pinterest.com/pin/143481938099107665/

I am making it even easier for the girls by pre-cutting the red paper, cutting a black belt out of sticky-back felt, and using a tiny piece of gold pipe cleaner for the buckle on the belt.  We have 14-16 girls, so it has to be super simple and self-explanatory or we don't get finished in time.  I will post a pic of a finished one later. Have fun!

Tami

Budget and some NO COST Activities!

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!

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.

Journaling and Goals!

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

BOO!

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

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!

Calendar for 2012

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!

Mother Daughter Relaxation Retreat!

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. I**UPDATE**you can get a similar bath salt label 

HERE

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. :)