Health & Hygiene

As these girls get older, it is important for them to understand how to take care of their bodies both inside and out. Nutrition is often discussed but hygiene not as much beyond take a shower and brush your teeth. That's all a kid needs right? Probably not.
We started off by playing a little memory game. We had a bunch of hygiene products on a table and the girls had one minute to look at them all and try to remember as many as possible before the table was covered up. Most of them got about half of what was there.
We had: shampoo, conditioner, body wash, face scrub, hair gel, lotion, shaving cream, toothbrush, toothpaste, lotion, hand sanitizer, washcloth, pumice stone, clean pillow case, loofah, clean panties, deodorant, and several other items I can not remember now. After the little game, we discussed the importance of each of the items and why many of them need to be used on a daily basis. We discussed how clean bodies mean clean temples for our spirits to dwell in. We also discussed how clean bodies lead to happier and healthier lives.

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Girl's Binders

With the start of the new year, I had several goals in mind that I wanted to encourage with the girls. I felt strongly that one of the ways I could make Activity Days a better learning experience was with making binders for each of the girls that would encourage memorizing the Articles of Faith, daily scripture study, and keeping personal journals.

I found some mini binders on amazon.com that have a pocket built into the front inside cover that is the perfect size to fit both the Faith in God books and their Articles of Faith memorization cards. Inside the binders I put a phone list, a list of all the activities for 2015 with a list of what they needed to bring, a calendar, as well as personal journal pages and scripture journal pages. Since I am not totally opposed to a little bribery, I told the girls that for every 5 pages they filled out, I would give them a piece of candy. Yes, I know I should be ashamed of myself, but if it gets them reading the scriptures, writing in their journals, and memorizing, I am totally fine with it.

In addition to this helping the girls, it somewhat helps me as I am TERRIBLE about remembering to sign off on their books. I keep track of what they have accomplished in my binder but their books remain semi-blank. They have been told to bring their binders every time so we can both sign off on the journal pages they have done and sign off on their Faith in God books.

I am hoping this will lead to more girls finishing the Book of Mormon as well as some serious spiritual growth.

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Christmas Ornaments

Both of our activities in December involved making ornaments. I don't know if we were just out of ideas or too exhausted to do anything else.

The first activity, we made gumball machine ornaments.
Find it here:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/239113061439728313/

The second activity, we made glitter balls.
Find it here:
http://theornamentgirl.com/blog/being-crafty/how-to-make-glitter-christmas-ornaments-diy/

Side note... little girls + loose glitter = GIANT MESS    BEWARE!!!

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Thankful Dinner

The parents of my Activity Day girls are so supportive and so often jump in to help when we need it. We wanted to have a special dinner for them with the girls serving them dinner. We had a nice table set up with menu cards and pretty center pieces and tried to make it look like a nice restaurant. The girls got to be the waitresses for the evening and they thought it was the best thing ever. They started by serving them water and giving them the menu. It had three courses:

Course 1) Salad with choice of toppings and dressings
Course 2) Choice between 2 entrees (we had lasagna and stuffed bell peppers) and choice of veggies
Course 3) Choice of dessert (brownie sundae or berry sundae)

I made the girls order forms so all they had to do was check the box next to whatever their mom or dad wanted and bring it back to the kitchen. We then put the orders together, one course at a time, and the girls served them to their parents. We had them checking back every once in a while to refill their water, take away plates, bring the next course, etc. The girls were also munching on food in the kitchen in between. I wish we had taken pictures but we were so busy getting everything done we just did not have time. But it was great. The girls loved it and the parents enjoyed being pampered for the evening.

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Birthday Traditions Around the World

I love to learn about other cultures. At BYU Hawaii I took an international relations class and got to talk to students from other countries and about how they interact with one another, coming of age traditions, birthdays, holidays, family traditions, etc. It was so much fun. I wanted the girls to learn about how other cultures around the world celebrate both birthdays and coming of age rituals. There is all sorts of things to find online. If you have anyone in your group from another country, it would be fun to have them do a little presentation. We had no such luck on that. We have one girl from Peru but I completely spaced and forgot to ask her. Instead we had fun facts, pictures, and whatever else I could find online.
To make the evening even more special, since we were discussing birthdays, I made jumbo cupcakes and brought frosting, lots of different sprinkles, glitter gel frosting, and candy pieces and let the girls decorate their own birthday cupcakes.
On a side note...It was the first night for one of my girls and she wanted nothing to do with Activity Days. She was out in the hallway throwing a fit with her mother. I took a couple of the girls into the hallway with me and we were telling her how much fun Activity Days was and we get to do things like make art projects, go on field trips, learn about new things. This only semi dulled the fit. I then mentioned that we were going to learn about birthdays and then decorate our own cupcakes. This got her attention. We were quickly able to get her into the classroom and by the end of the night she was bubbly and giddy along with the rest of the girls. I'm telling you, Activity Days is the place to be!!!

Chowing down on the over the top hot pink cupcakes was the highlight of the evening.

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Painting Mini Pumpkins for the Senior Widows

We have a large population of senior widows in our ward. On top of being a primary teacher and Activity Days leader, I am also the Single Adult leader for my ward. Consequently, I am always trying to watch out for these older sisters who need extra love.
Since Halloween was approaching, we thought it would be nice to do a little crafty service project. I got a bunch of mini pumpkins, some puffy paint, glue on gems, fall colored ribbon and let the girls decorate however they liked. Each girl got to decorate one pumpkin and later on that week I delivered them to some of the senior single sisters. They always love getting stuff from my girls.
Sorry some of these are a bit fuzzy. I was rushed and using my phone for these.

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T-Shirt Scarves and Headbands

I guess you could call this a lesson on how to take something old and worn and make it into something new and fun. It started out as just using old t-shirts to make scarves but it really didn't take very long and there was so much t-shirt left over that we quickly got online and found instructions on making headbands out of some of the rest of the t-shirt. We got a 2 in 1 project. I always love those.

Instructions for the scarf:
http://nancyscouture.blogspot.com/2011/03/fringe-benefits.html

Instructions for the headband:
http://maggiesmoments91.blogspot.com/2012/08/diy-t-shirt-headband.html?m=1
(except we knotted ours instead of gluing it)

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