Halloween Fun

We have had so many serious activities lately that we thought a fun Halloween project would be fun! In addition, the girls wanted to just talk and play....so this activity really allowed the girls to spend time doing that but also complete the activity.  I based the activity around 4 main activities:

The Halloween Name Game
When the girls arrived, I pinned fun Halloween characters on their backs. The girls then had to go around asking people yes/no questions to try and figure out who they were. They loved this.

Jack-o-Lantern Lanterns craft
 
For this craft, you need jam canning jars, orange tissue paper, printed jack-o-lantern face, modge podge, finishing spray, orange/black ribbon, and candles.

1. Brush modge podge over surface of jar.  Tear tissue paper into pieces and place on wet modge podge (the thinner the layer the better.) Brush another layer of modge podge over tissue paper. Add face, brush over modge podge. Let dry.
2. When thoroughly dry, spray with finishing spray.  Trim top of jar with ribbon. (Do this before dry or you will need additional ribbon. Place candle in jar. Done.


Cookie decorating
The girls decorated pre-made pumpkin cookies with candy and frosting.

Halloween Tales  
I let the girls pick from a bag lines that would help them write a scary paragraph or two. The handed these in and then I strung the paragraphs into a single story which I made a copy for each of the girls that I gave to them the next Sunday.

Here are a few of the story starters:

As I carefully entered the haunted house, the door shut behind me and...
It was a cold Halloween night when...
The black cat started to hiss when...
The large cauldron of purple liquid started to boil when...
The mad scientist was creating a new monster that...
Something in the closet was making a strange noise so I opened the door and...
On October 31st, I was carving a pumpkin when...
The Halloween pumpkin slowly transformed into...

Modesty Fashion Show

Modesty is always a hard topic to talk about, especially with some of todays styles. (One of my partners essentially put this activity together... but she did such a great job I had to share.) She had the girls wear their favorite clothes to wear on the catwalk. Before the catwalk presentation, we discussed and read from the Strength for Youth pamphlet under modesty. Then she had brought miscellaneous clothes that by themselves would not be considered modest. She also gave the girls a way to check their clothes... a head, shoulders knees and toes test. The girls went through and made the clothes modest. In addition, she also addressed tattoos and extra ear piercings. Then the girls walked the cat walk... with style of course. And explained why they were their favorite clothes.

Service Scavenger Hunt

We divided the girls into two cars, gave them a short list of chores to complete and a short list of primary workers (or ward members) to help! And we were off! The girls had blast! This activity was simple and oh so easy!

Christ's Birthday

With Christ's true birthday occurring this month, we decided to help the girls celebrate his birthday by throwing the Savior a party in his honor.

A present for Christ: No party is without gifts. For our guest of honor, material items can not necessarily suffice. So we talked about what types of things we could give Christ. Then each girl wrote down a personal goal of what they could give the Savior. The girls then slipped this piece of paper into a small box wrapped in birthday paper. We challenged each girl to put this box somewhere were they could remember their goal and to actively work on it.

Special Activity: To emphasize how important girl is to the Savior, we had a piece a paper with their name on it. The girls then were to write something specific about each girl... something that they liked about each other.

Games: Then we played friendship tag and did a jelly bean relay.

Finally we had cake and ice cream! It was quite a fun activity!

Planting our Testimonies

We had the girls paint flower pots with acrylics and then plant seeds that they could grow at home. Then we talked about how testimonies are just like plants. That we must nourish them with faith, prayer, reading the scriptures, attending church meetings etc!

As part of the activity, we ate dirt cups! Each of the girls took home and envelope with scriptures that would help them build their testimonies. We also encouraged them to write their testimonies in their Faith in God books.

***This project was devised to help the girls write their testimonies in their Faith in God books.

Daddy Daughter Date -- Two Stepping Dance Doosy

Our other activity this month, we have invited the dads to come and our talented primary president is going to teach the girls some basic dance steps! I am hoping to get some great pictures... I will post! We are also going to serve some refreshments.

Friendship Pillows

This is our upcoming activity! It will pass off Developing Talents #6! (This activity will be divided into two separate ones because we have over 10 girls and only two leaders.... so to make sure we get it done, we wanted plenty of time.) I don't have pictures yet.. but they will come.

Each girl brought her own fabric that would match her room to the activity based on the following standards:

1. The first, they need to choose three coordinating fabrics…. ½ yard for the back (this could be a cream or white), ½ yard for the front (this they will have one big square and be cutting the squares to swap), and then finally a ¼ yard for the heart in the center of the square.

2. The second, they can choose two coordinating fabrics …. 1 yard for both front and back and then ¼ for the heart in the center of the front.

We choose to provide the stuffing -- they are about $3 a bag here. Each girl will also need 1 ½ yards of lace.

At the first activity, we cut the 1/2 yard of the front into 12- 3 1/2 inch squares and one large center square 7" square. The girls swapped their smaller squares with each other. Then the smaller yard, we cut a heart. (Make a pattern for a heart to fit your center square... pin it in place.) The girls then began to hand-stitch the heart into place. If there is time, start working on having the girls sew the squares together. The back needs to be cut into one 14" square. ( I would try to get as much sewing done as possible.)

At the second activity, we will finish the sewing! They should turn out awesome!

*** Note: This activity was a lot more work than we originally planned. It might help if you have smaller groups or more activities. We also had adjust a few of the measurements since I was doing this by eyeballing it!