Post Recognition Night

So, it has been about 3 weeks since we had our last Activity Days activity which was the recognition night. Now, it didn't go exactly as I had envisioned but it was cute nonetheless. 

It was simple and that alone made its mark. Would I have loved to have had it decked out? Yes, of course! Would I loved to have had more time to plan? Heck yeah but when there is two other leaders schedules to work with it doesn't always happen.

This was the only pic I got of the night, I had a really active somewhat sick toddler with me that night.

Here are the certificates that we used to honor each of our girls:

These were printed two to a page and then printed on gold card stoke which I had left over from my Personal Progress/YW leader days.  You can download them HERE. I will convert them to a PDF in the next few days just in case your Word isn't being nice and opening it. I took the the basic outline from a google search and then added the words to it to make it fit what I was needing. 

Overall it was a great night, out of 21 girls we had 12 show and they had enough things to share and talents to show that it was truly a testament of the Lord's plan for each and everyone of His children. 

Activity Days Binder Cover

Here is a simple binder cover that I created for all of you Activity Day Leaders! Illustrations came from melonheadz and you can find more cute illustrations by clicking HERE.

Just right click and select Save Image As

Tic Tac Toe- Article of Faith Style

 As promised on my Facebook page, here is one of the two activities that I promised could be used for a time filler or for an entire activity if you wanted. All you need is some cards and chalk and chalkboard.

I got the idea off of an idea that I came across on Pinterest. You can read about it HERE. I thought it was a great idea but I am going to take it a few steps further.

So I started by created my word lists. This combined the numbers and key words of each of the Article of Faiths. You can download a copy of my list as a word doc by going HERE.
Once I had my word strips printed and cut, I cut out 26 pieces of card stock that measured roughly 4 1/4" x 2 3/4" and attached a word to each card. Note that this was the size prior to laminating them (which in the picture they are not laminated) which is optional but I find that things that are last a bit longer especially when it comes to games. 

Once you got your cards done, you are ready to play. Here is the rules to my version of the game but feel free to adapt to what ever fits your needs.

Start out by dividing the group into two. Make sure you have a good mix of older and younger girls that way the game doesn't become so one sided. Now in my ward in Primary each Sunday the kids all recite an article of faith, which ever is the one for the month, in hopes to help the kids memorize them. So even though you have some younger girls, unless they are non members, all of the girls should be a little familiar with them.

So like the blog that I saw the idea, I had one person from each side play rock, paper, scissors to see who went first. The team that didn't win the draw picked if they were going to be X's or O's. 

Have one girl come up and draw a card. Here is the twist, the team then decides if they want to play or pass it to the other team to see if they can recite it as best as they can. If the team that drew decides to play, they must pick someone to recite the article of faith (if they are picked to recite once they can not recite again until others on their team has had a chance as well-this is up to you on to how many that is). If they get it right, they can either place their team symbol on the board or they can erase a symbol from the other team (but NOT both). If they get it wrong, the other team has a chance to steal for a play on the game board. If the stealing team gets it right they get to either play on the board or erase a symbol from the other side. 

Keep in mind this is Tic Tac Toe so the object of the game is to get three in a row either up or down, left or right or diagonally. Play then goes to the other team where the above game play happens. Repeat until there is a winner. 

A Night of Stars:A Talent Show and Recognition Night

So if you have still been following along with this little blog of mine, then you know already that I am now an Activity Days leader. Now, I am SUPER DUPER excited about this calling and have a TON of great ideas (to which hopefully I will be able to put to good use someday) but I am also at the same time, TERRIFIED of this calling. I always seem to go into a calling after a really good leader, one who all the girls love and adore, gets released. Sigh...wish me luck!

Anyway, as part of the Faith in God program (aka Activity Days), we are to hold some sort of recognition night at least twice a year. Ours, is coming up in September. EEK!!! What was once going to be just a talent show is now going to be what I call our Night of Starts where we will combine our talent show and recognition night all in one.

Now, I have convinced the other leaders to kinda make this a fun night for the girls and do a Red Carpet type of theme. Oh, I should mention, what I see in my head and what I put to this blog may or may not be what comes out in real life as with any calling, I have other leaders I have to work with, small things but we are three very different leaders and all with three very different ways of doing things. 

Back to the Night of Stars. Did I mention that this was a perfect theme to tie in with the activity and recognizing the girls and the great job they have done with their Faith in God? We are wanting to do something similar as to what the YW do for their EinE or Evening in Excellence (see?! this would work perfectly for YWs!). We want the girls to bring things that they have done on display so that the other girls, primary leaders and parents can see.

Pinterest is a magical place and has a lot of really good ideas (some as to which I hope to borrow from and tweak a bit to fit my needs) for this theme. To me, Pinterest is kinda like the new Google- if you have ab idea just search the site and you are bound to find someones take on the same idea. I will post the links at the bottom of this post of the ideas that I plan on using (keep in mind this activity for us doesn't happen til the middle of September).

So here is what I envision our Night of Stars to look like:

* When the girls and their parents walk into the church, I want them to be greeted by gold stars with each of the girls names written on them. This to be done with by placing them one the floor, hanging them from fishing line from the ceiling of the foyer or even taping them on the walls.

*Then they would be greeted by the
"paparazzi" and get their pictures taken in front of some sort of back drop. 

*Next, they would walk into the gym where towards the back of the gym would be tables that would have the girls items displayed. In the middle towards the stage, there would be two sections of chairs divided by some red butcher paper more than likely. This would be our "red  carpet" that would lead up to the stage where the girls would perform or talk about their talents and where us leaders could stand and recognize the each of the girl
s for the job they are doing.

Lastly to the side of the gym would be our table for refreshments because when you meet for something like this, food is always a good way to end the night and allow for a little bit of socializing.

Here are the links to the ideas that I just love:

http://alittlecrafting.blogspot.com/2012/11/shine-night-of-stars.html

http://nogalesfamily.blogspot.com/2015/01/young-womens-in-excellence-2014.html

http://www.partycity.com/category/party+ideas/theme+party/hollywood/red+carpet+party.do

http://karaspartyideas.com/2013/06/red-carpet-10th-birthday-party.html

The Importance of Good Healthy Habits

My first activity as a newly called leader of Activity Days was one that I think is very important. It was based on eating healthy and being active. Here is my tie in for the YW program and Personal Progress-this falls under the value Knowledge as an idea for the value project or even under the requirement #2 of that same value. For the Faith in God program, this falls in under the Developing Talents section. Win win!

We started out with the girls each picking a food item. Now some of these items were healthy and some were of the sinful variety like chocolate chip cookies (YUM!). We had the girls look at the labels and we talked about serving sizes and calories and carbs and sodium and the like. We then talked about eating a balanced meal and how we can have the not so good stuff in moderation but our diets shouldn't be made up of junk food. We talked about how our bodies are temples and just like going into the temple and having to be worthy to enter, we need to make sure we are putting "worthy"   food into our "temples" and that along with eating right we need to exercise and keep our bodies active. 

So now we moved on to the active part of the night, we took the girls into the gym/cultural hall and ran some relays and some quick minute to win it type games that are more based on movement. The girls loved this and it was quite fun to watch them as they started to cheer everyone on. For refreshments we had some fresh fruit and veggies along with some water.

Here are some links to Nutrition Info:

eatright.org/resource/food/nutrition/nutrition-facts-and-food-labels/the-basics-of-the-nutrition-facts-panel

http://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/LabelingNutrition/ucm274593.htm

New Theme and Expansion

So in my absence so much has been going on. I am still working on familiarizing myself again with Come Unto Me curriculum while also trying to come up with new activities. It is a lot easier to come up with them when you know you actually have to do them ;)

Anyway, have you heard what the new mutual theme for next year is? I LOVE IT and wish I was in YWs again to take advantage of all the cool things that can come from this theme! If you haven't read about it, you can go HERE and fins out all about it!

I have switched software, again, for making handouts and everything, so you should start to see some things coming out for this new theme. Hopefully, this new program makes it a little easier to create again. My last one was taking FOREVER to just create the simplest things.

Anyhoo, as you read in the title of this post, I am talking about an expansion to this blog. If you have followed me on FB, you would have already read about it (you can like my page by going HERE). I have just been called as an Activity Day Leader (for the girls in primary ages 8-11) and I couldn't be more excited. Now, you are thinking great how is this going to help me in planning my activities for YW? Well, this is my answer. I consider, after doing so research, that Activity Days is like mutual/YWs on Sunday, rolled all into one-just on a mini scale. A lot of the activities that can be done for one groupe can easily be adjusted to fit the needs of either group. So starting in the next few days, you will start to see a little bit more on the activity side for ideas and possibly handouts. 

Thanks for your continued support and patience. Being a part time working gal while being a full time wife and mother has been a challenge at times and since this is my first go at motherhood, it has definitely been a learning experience.

To close, I hope you enjoy the new theme that the church announced and embrace this new change in my life. I know it will be great for both organizations! See you soon!!

image from Melonheadz LDS Illistrating =)