Activity Days

For the last year and a half I've been the Activity Days Leader for the gals that are 8-12.

This is a program through my CHURCH where we get together a couple of times a month, during the week, to build faith, explore new talents, learn and develop friendships.

You don't have to be a member of our church to participate, we have several friends that join us that aren't of our faith... look into it in your area!

I've recorded some of our activities, but am more committed to posting them here.  So let's go back over the last couple of months.  I'll slowly add ideas of what we've done in the past, and will do better at posting what we do here.

October Activities...

Tic-Tac-Toe w/ the Articles of Faith

I thought I had something planned for this tic-tac-toe activity.  But I didn't write it down in my planning, woops!  What can we do with TTT?  I knew it had something to do w/ the floor and giant grids.  I thought through it and came up with this version of TTT and the girls really enjoyed themselves!  I even have a gal that comes who is not a member of our church and by the end she had several AofF memorized!

First print out, or write the numbers 1-13 on some paper squares. 

Next tape off several TTT boards on your floor.  I used that cute packing tape that is so fancy!

Tape random numbers on each board so they are all different. 

You will need two versions of markers.  I used chocolate and swedish fish.

You will also need a version of X's and O's.  I used two different color of popsicle sticks since we have so many left from our last activity.

Here is how we played...

Each board had 3 participants.  Two players and one moderator, to check the Aof F's.

O chooses where they want to go, which # they would like.  They say the article of faith.  If they have it memorized they can put a chocolate on that square.  If they need help or have to read it they get a swedish fish on that square.  (I stressed here that want I want is repetition.  It's ok if you don't know the AofF we learn by repeating them,  so grab your paper and say the AofF.)

X then takes their turn, same as O.  The first person with three in a row gets to choose 1 piece of candy to eat.  You could give them all of the candy, but I was running out of candy!  I have a lot of girls!

After one game rotate in the moderator. 

After another game change boards.

The girls had a lot of fun doing this.  I forgot my camera!  Thanks to my friend Amy for taking these with her phone!

Popsicle Pumpkins

For tonight's activity we'll be making popsicle stick pumpkins.  I got this idea from Oriental Trade catalog that I get.  No need to buy a kit, we'll just make these on our own!  Here is how to do it...

Start with 10 popsicle sticks.  Lay 8 of them out so they are touching.

Cut the last 2 the length of the 8 popsicle sticks.  Hot glue a line across all 8, then connect with a cut stick.  Do this at the top and bottom.

Turn over and paint with orange paint.  Don't you love how fast hot glue is???

Now cut a piece of green or brown pipe cleaner and give it a twist, then glue it to the top, on the back side.

Now cut shapes out of craft foam, to your liking.  You can either white glue or hot glue them on.

Wala!  Your popsicle stick pumpkin!  It didn't take me long to do.  I hope it takes these gals longer!

September Activities...

Button Bracelets

Our first activity back from summer we made these cute bracelets...

Idea from: Lilly Ella

I got a bunch of buttons together, some elastic and thread.  We glued the ends of our bracelets, chose buttons and began sewing.  The girls had a great, and not so great time!  If you are just learning to sew a button on, it can be frustrating!  The end result was, of course worth it...  And, I told the girls they'd now be able to come to the rescue when buttons fall off at home. 

General Conference Game 

This week we are going to focus on preparing for General Conference, which is a wonderful weekend of listening to the servants of God, who have authority to speak for Him today.

We have a bunch of girls so we divided into two groups to play these two games.  One is a match game to help get to know the apostles.  The other game I tested each girl to see how many apostles they could name, during our game of 'don't eat the apostle'!  Special thanks to these two sites for idea helps...

ldsactivitydayideas.blogspot.com, ayearoffhe.blogspot.com.

We'll also be putting together card kits. On Sunday a woman from our ward told us of a place that is looking for handmade thank you cards and these girls will be perfect for the task. It will be a great activity to do while listening to conference, maybe I'll do the same. It's been a while since I've made cards.  I compiled a page of card designs and gave one to each girl to help jump start their creativity.  Unfortunately I did save that!  But google card template images... there are a million!