Activity Days

For the past three years I have had the privilege to serve as an activity days leader. I work with 8 and 9 year old girls. We meet twice a month and attempt to learn about the gospel, but mostly we just have a lot of fun. The current program for children ages 8-12 is the Faith in God. We are to try and complete six goals per year out of this program. If you do the math that's 2 activities per month so:
                             24 Total activities
                             -6  Faith in God activities. 
          That leaves  18  activities that we come up with ideas of our own.

That is probably the hardest part of this calling. After doing this for three years I have checked out many resources, web sites and reused ideas. I am in desperate need of some ideas. I thought I would share some of our favorite activities. Feel free to refer these to anyone who could benefit from them. Or use them yourself, they often make for a great Family Home Evening.

If I could though, I would LOVE any ideas you may have. Something you remember doing when you were younger, a great Family Home Evening idea, something you have seen your own girls or the girls in you area do.

One of the first things I have done is give the girls a binder when they turn eight. We have scrap booked a cover for these and the girls can then store anything we give them in these. During the year I will take pictures and we will periodically have Scrap Booking Days.

We love to take advantages of Local Attractions:

• Museums. 
• We have toured the library. The girls enjoyed seeing the backroom where all the books are sorted.
  
• We went to the temple grounds, took pictures and discussed how performing temple work blesses families. I typed up their answers and included this with pictures that we scrap booked at our next activity. 
• Hiking. (For those in the area) We did a family hike day to the Y. Grotto Falls is an excellent hike for this age group. Especially in the Fall-LOVE the COLORS!
• Go to the park. We discussed and memorized the 12th Article of Faith. We discussed what it meant to be a good citizen and then picked up trash for a service project.
  
• Each year we also attend Day Camp.

 I got this idea from the Family Fun magazine.

Instructions: Write a short phrase in pencil on a piece of card stock. Using embroidery floss and a dull sewing needle, sew over each letter to cover the pencil lines. For curved letters requiring several sticiches, sew in one direction then reverse and sew through the same holes to fill in the empty spaces. It's best to sew each letter individually. Tape the ends of the threads to the back of the card stock. Once the message is sewn, erase any visible pencil marks, then glue the note to a larger, folded piece of card stock.

One of the Faith in God goals is to write a note telling someone what they appreciate and respect about them. We used these cards for that.

The girls always love to do Holiday Crafts. I often use Oriental Trading Company . A Favorite activity has been to read scriptures about the Holy Ghost (see pg. 6 in Faith in God book) and then make a tissue paper ghost decoration.

Make Freezer Jam

(No sugar added Strawberry Freezer Jam)

Ingredients:

3 cups  strawberries (about 3 pounds)

1-3/4 cups unsweetened cran-raspberry or apple juice

1 1.75 oz box Ball No sugar Needed Fruit Pectin

Directions:

1. Crush strawberries.
2. In a large saucepan, gradually add pectin to fruit juice until dissolved. Over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, bring to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down. Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
3. Immediately add prepared fruit into hot pectin mixture. Stir vigorously for 1 minute.
4. Ladle freezer jam into clean freezer jars or containers leaving 1/2inch head space. Apply caps and let jam stand in refrigerator until set, but no longer than 24 hours. Serve immediately, refrigerate up to 3 weeks or freeze up to 1 year.

Make 4 to 5 (8 oz) half pints.

Summer Swimming Party. We have a variety of water activities including water balloons, giant slip and slide, relay races etc. We also make:

Homemade Ice Cream.

What you'll need:

• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 cup milk or half and half
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 6 Tablespoons rock salt
• 1 pint size plastic food storage bag
• 1 gallon size plastic food storage bag
• Ice cubes

How to make it:

1. Fill the large bag half full of ice, and add the rock salt. Seal the bag.
   
2. Put milk, vanilla, and sugar into the small bag, and seal it.
3. Place the small bag inside the large one, and seal it again carefully.
4. Shake until the mixture is ice cream, which takes about 5 minutes
5. Wipe off the top of the small bag, then open it carefully. Enjoy!

Tips:
A 1/2 cup milk will make about 1 scoop of ice cream so double the recipe if you want more. Don't increase the proportions more than that-a large amount might be too big for kids to pick up because the ice itself is heavy.

Scripture Cookies

 
 


This is an all time favorite activity. I first did it in a primary class when I was younger.