Star Gazing

Constellations have always fascinated me. I love to look up at the stars and see all the shapes and admire the beauty Heavenly Father created in the sky. I have a pretty good telescope that I really hoped to use with the girls but light contamination pretty much ruined that for us, so we did what we could with what we were given.

I found several kid friendly websites that showed pictures of some of the more well known constellations. We looked at pictures and talked about where they could be found in the sky and during what time of year. We then played a matching game to see how well they remembered them.

The girls had a blast and were excited to go outside and search. They bundled up in their coats and I gave them cups of cocoa and out we went to search the heavens.

I gave each of the girls cards with the constellations for them to reference and they made a bit of a competition of who could find what first.

I think we will have to do this again, but meet somewhere  there is far less light so we can use the telescope.

Link for the flash cards can be found here:
http://liebacklookup.com/for-a-limited-time-constellation-cards-free-printable/

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Valentines for the Single Senior Sisters

Like our mini pumpkin activity back in October, we wanted to something else special for the senior widows. Since any time I bring out colorful paper, scissors, markers, stickers, glue sticks, and glitter paint, the girls go crazy, I thought I would put that crazy to good use. I pretty much laid all the stuff out on a table and let them go to town. By the end of the night we had about twenty valentines for me to hand out. They were a big hit with the single senior sisters.

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Reach for the Stars Awards Night

I think Awards Night is my most favorite activity of the year. It is also my least favorite activity of the year. I love it because it is great to see all the girls have accomplished and reward them for it. I love it because we get to involve the parents and show them some of the amazing things their girls have done. I love it because it is always beautiful, spiritual, delicious, fun, and amazing. I don't like it because I always go way over the top in planning and executing it that I am extremely exhausted and burned out by the end of it.

Our theme this year was "Reach for the Stars" and I kind of felt like my planning was just as much of a reach at some times. Everything was star themed from the decorations, the games and even the food. We had phenomenal feedback from everyone who attended and it may the whole exhausting process totally worth it for me.

Invites:
I ALWAYS do handmade invites...for several activities throughout the year. That kind of got me on the roll as far as silver and sparkly and led to quite a few other ideas I had along the way.

Decorations:

I used a star punch to punch a lot of star shaped holes in silver card stock. I then put it inside of various sized mason jars with tea lights. These were on every table along with white tablecloths, silver sparkly fabric in the middle of the table and light and dark silver curling ribbon. We ended up having to change the date and location at the last minute due to scheduling conflicts but it worked in our favor as the breezeway was so much better in getting the effect of the night sky I wanted. We borrowed white Christmas lights from several parents and I strung those up back and forth along the breezeway. With the lights turned out and only the Christmas lights and tea lights, it was just magical.

Food:

It was the usual...mini pizzas, meatballs, fruit kabobs, trifle, fruit punch...

In keeping with the theme, however, we gave them all outer space names. It was fun and tasty at the same time.

Speaker:

We had one of the moms of one of the girls who will be joining Activity Days this year speak. She was so amazing. She talked about all these phenomenal women in history who went against what conventional society told them and did extraordinary things with their lives (Marie Curie, Amelia Earhart, and quite a few others). She then talked about many of the strong driven women in our ward who have gone back to school to further their education, who have started their own businesses, who have become pillars of the community. She then told the girls that if they begin now by setting small goals and working toward them, they will be in the habit of working toward something special and will be able to do great things with their lives. I was nearly in tears by the time she was done. 

Awards:

We basically have 4 different types of awards we give out:

1) The "New Bee" award for the girls who just started coming but haven't really done much yet. I don't like to leave them out.

2) 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year of goals completed toward their Faith in God Award

3) Memorizing all 13 Articles of Faith

4) Reading the entire Book of Mormon

I make special certificates for each of these that I have both the Bishop and Primary President sign.

I also like to have a small gift I give each of the Activity Days Girls as well as all the girls who will be joining us this year. It generally goes along with the theme. Last year for our Snow White theme, I gave out small handheld mirrors. This year I made star necklaces for each of the girls (yes, I said made).

In the end, even though I was dead on my feet by the end of the night, it was a spectacular night and one I am sure the girls will remember always.

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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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