You are my hands...

We had a fantastic Activity Day a few weeks ago. First, we told the story of the statue of Christ as told by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s April 2010 Conference talk You Are My hands and had a brief discussion on what the story meant and how we can become the hands of Jesus Christ.

Our Activity is based on the following Activity from the Faith in God Book: “Learn about and practice good nutrition, good health, and good grooming, including modest dress.” Since we discussed using our hands for good, we decided this would be a good activity to teach the girls how to properly care for their hands and nails… manicures!

Here’s what you need:

• Nail Polish Remover
• Cotton Balls
• Nail Clipper
• Emery Board
• Hand Lotion
• Soap
• Water
• Bowl or container to soak hands
• Hand Towel
• 2 Washcloths
• Nail Polish (optional)
• Nail Brush (optional)

Items like nail polish remover, cotton balls, hand lotion, emery boards & soap can be provided pretty inexpensively. You can ask the girls to bring a small Tupperware container, nail clippers, 2 washcloths, a hand towel and some nail polish that they already have at home (although I found that the nail polish ended up being a total mess and took more time than we actually had). That makes this activity $7 or less:

• Nail Polish Remover - $1
• Emery Boards - $1
• Cotton Balls - $1
• Hand Lotion - $3 (or less)
• Soap - $1

If your budget permits, you could consider putting together manicure kits for the girls. I was able to put together these individual kits for about $2.50 each and the girls loved them! Here’s what I included in a small Ziploc baggie:  

• Lotion – Bath & Body Works - $1
• Emery Boards - Walmart - $.88 for 10
• Nail Polish Remover Pads – Minimus.biz - $.05/each
• Nail Clippers – Walmart - $.49/each
• Nail Brushes – Amazon.com - $.59/each

I also provided hand soap, tupperware containers and nail polish, but those items were not included in the kits. Here’s how we did our manicures:

1. Set up. Lay out a hand towel and gather the following materials: Cotton Balls, Nail Polish Remover, Nail Clippers, an Emery Board, Lotion, Soap, Small Bowl or container to soak hands, 2 Washcloths, Nail Polish (optional), Nail Brush (optional).
2. Clean up. Use nail polish remover to get rid of old nail polish. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and if you have a nail brush, use it to get all of the gunk out from under your nails. Sing the “Happy Birthday” Song twice to get your hands really clean.
3. Trim down. Use nail clippers to trim your nails straight across. Don’t cut your nails too short… make sure you only cut the white part of your nail. Cutting them too short will hurt and may cause bleeding.
4. Shape up. Use an emery board to shape your nail into an oval shape. Use the emery board in one direction… never back and forth.
5. Soak down. Fill a small container or bowl with warm water and a little bit of soap. Soak your hands for about 5 minutes. When you’re done, dry your hands on the hand towel.
6. Moisten up. Squirt a dollop of lotion onto your hands. Massage the lotion into your hands until the most of location is absorbed. Dampen two washcloths in warm water. Wrap each of your hands in a washcloth and relax for 2-3 minutes.
7. Push down. Gently psuh your cuticles down off your fingernails using one of your damp washcloths. Don't push too hard... just enough to make them look nice.

That’s it! You’re done…

…unless you’d like to paint your nails. If so, here are some tips:

• Use nail polish sparingly… a little goes a long way.
• Start painting at the base of your nail and go up.
• Make sure you give your nails plenty of time to dry.
• Have a friend paint your nails, it’s always easier to paint someone else’s nails than your own. You can take turns. 

Download printable instructions for handouts

The Friend, Faith & Friendship

I love the Friend! Whenever I am struggling to plan a particular Activity, I can always turn to the Friend for Great ideas. The Activity Day Answer, featured in this month’s friend brought me to tears. Not only did it remind me of my own struggles when I was young, it struck me as a profound lesson to share with our girls.

First, It is so important to teach the girls that our prayers are not just answered by sitting there… we need to act! I’m reminded of this joke the little boy told in the Pursuit of Happyness. How true it is that we don’t always acknowledge the answers the Heavenly Father sends us! 

The second lesson here is that we all need to learn to be a good friend. So many times we are afraid of new things… including new people. But it is our job as members of the church to love one another and bear each other’s burdens. This means being a good friend and reaching out to those that we don’t know. This is always a great reminder for young girls!

For my activities, I always plan a short devotional to begin to set a spiritual tone for the activity. This is a wonderful one to use.

Valentine’s Day Earrings Service Project

I am excited to share this activity with you, because it was my first ever collaboration! Thank you so much Andi at Hot Pink Pansy Designs for helping me out with this.

This is a super easy craft that my girls LOVED!

Here’s what you need:

• Pink, white and red buttons
• Novelty heart buttons (I found some fantastic ones in the Valentine’s Section at hobby lobby)
• Plain Earring Posts
• Regular tacky glue
• Qtips
• Heart earring boards (print out on cardstock)
• Straight pin

Here’s what you do:

1. Have the girls “Design” several pairs of earrings by pairing plain buttons with the novelty buttons
2. Using a little bit of glue on a QTip, glue your desired buttons together
3. Dip the earring post into a little bit of glue and place on the back of the earring.
4. Let the earrings dry for about 10 minutes
5. Cut out these cute heart earring boards. Puncture the card at the center of each heart with a straight pin and have the girls add their name at the bottom
6. Place your earrings on the card through the holes and let them dry over night

Note: A little bit of tacky glue goes a long way. Although the glue dries clear, it still looks messy if you use too much. I encouraged my girls to use the QTips to better manage the glue flow.

I used this project as a service activity to benefit a Denver-area charity called Project Valentine. The charity gathers donations and assembles gift bags to distribute to cancer patients on Valentine’s Day. I thought these earrings would make such a cute addition to their gift bags.

You can use this activity any way you would like. The girls can make these for their family members, friends, the primary presidency, or you can look into donating them to a cancer treatment center in your area around Valentine’s Day.

My girls loved this activity so much that we are doing them again for a Valentines crafting activity!

My 2011 Goals

I took the opportunity to discuss New Year’s resolutions and goal making with the girls. I found this great online resource that helped me to teach and discuss goal making with a young age group:

http://www.suite101.com/content/goal-setting-lesson-plan-a11204

I used the suggestion of using the chalkboard, dividing it into two sections and had the girls list a wish and a goal. Then, we discussed how some wishes can become goals and others cannot. For instance, wishing for a new baby brother is probably not a reasonable goal; goals have to be something that we work on to improve ourselves… we cannot force goals upon someone else.

After the chalk board discussion, I had one of the older girls read Amy’s Goal from the January 2010 Friend. We talked about how some goals can be huge and sometimes overwhelming to take on, but if we work on our goal a little at a time and break it into smaller steps, almost anything is possible.

Then, I had the girls complete the following worksheet by choosing 2 goals to work on for the year: a personal goal and a spiritual goal. We discussed the basic differences between each. I also went around and helped each of the girls identify obstacles and lay out plans of action as they needed help.

My New Year's Goals Worksheet (undated)

Update

Hi Everyone:

My deepest apologies for not keeping up on this blog! The last 6 months have been crazy. I work full time as a marketing manager AND I started going to school full time pursuing my degree in graphic design. I’ve decided to take my class load back to part time to try to get my life back!

That being said, I hope to add quite a few posts in the coming weeks to catch you up on what we have been doing for our Activity Days here in Denver, Colorado!

I am also teaming with Andi over at www.hotpinkpansy.com for a fun Valentine’s Day Service Activity. Check back for more details soon!

As far as downloading goes, I am going to stay with Google Docs for now. I am taking a web design class this semester, so I hope to use my new found talents to improve this site as the year progresses. If you are having trouble downloading any of the documents, please email me at wactivities@gmail.com. I will be happy to email you the documents directly.

Thanks
Wendy

Google Docs

Hi everyone:

I have been using Google Docs as my file sharing source (since it's totally free). Someone just commented that they were having trouble printing and downloading my files from Google Docs. I'd love to get your feedback... let me know if Google Docs does the job or if you've had issues as well by leaving a comment below

Also, if you have any suggestions for file sharing websites, I would be very grateful!

Thanks!

Wendy

Family History

This year, our bishop has greatly emphasized family history work, so I decided to do a small keepsake booklet that the girls can record a little bit of their family history.

I was a little worried about this activity at first, because I thought the girls would be uninterested or even bored with the subject as a whole, but I was definitely proven wrong. This activity was the most spiritual activity we have ever had. The girls had a great time trying to pronounce the names of their grandparents and great grandparents, discovering who they were named after and realizing how long ago their some of their great grandparents were born! I was so impressed that some of the girls even knew stories about some of their family members.

Prior to the activity, I emailed this worksheet to the girls’ parents, encouraging them to fill in as much as they could, and to send the worksheet to the activity with their daughter.

Family History Worksheet

We started our activity with a brief devotional from this 2005 article from the Friend:
Come Listen to a Prophet’s Voice: Your Fascinating History By President James E. Faust

We discussed how family history and temple work go hand in hand, and how we can be families forever. 

Next, each girl received a family history booklet. You can download the booklet I put together here:

Family History Booklet *

* This booklet is best printed on two 11x17 pages, double sided, folded and saddle-stitched (stapled) at the center. It will look jumbled and a bit confusing when you download it, but it will look perfect when printed double-sided and folded.

1. First, have the girls write their name on name plate on the front page
2. Second, have them fill out their family tree with full names only. The numbers on the family tree correspond with the numbers on the worksheet, so the girls will know exactly where to put each name.
3. Third, have the girls fill out the more detailed information on the following pages (birthdates and ordinances completed). There is also room for them to write down their testimony, what they love about their parents, and what they love about their grandparents.
4. Challenge the girls to learn more about their great grandparents, write down a few stories on paper, and add it to their booklets.

Quick note… I only had a couple of girls that had additional step parents and grandparents that they wanted to include. I printed these blank nameplates on sticker paper so the girls could add additional family members. You can download my template here:

Blank Nameplates

I hope that you will love this activity as much as we did!