Achievement Days


We made some little bird mobiles with our girls  - you could use anything you have a pattern for though.  We made them from plastic meat trays that we'd collected over a few weeks before hand, then you need yarn, drinking straws, construction paper, and scissors.  Trace the birds and tails onto the meat tray and cut them out.  The wings are made by folding 1/2 sheet of construction paper like a fan, and put it through a slit in the middle of the bird then spread out the folds.  Bring them all the way up over the bird's back and tie them together with yard.  Put the tail in a slit at the back of the bird.  Make the frame of the mobile with the straws and put a slit in the end of each straw.  Slip the yarn from the bird into the slit and tie a knot in it and let it hang.

We made some candles with our girls.  We don't have a very large group so it worked well, but working with wax you need plenty of adult supervision especially if you have very many girls.  We used small milk containers (like the kids get with their school lunch) and cut the top spout off so it was just a square box.  We filled some with ice, some with pretty rocks, and some with shells, (the girls chose what they wanted) and added the wick.  While we were working with the girls to get the molds ready, a couple of mothers were helping to melt wax.  After we had filled them we poured the wax in.  We had several different colors of wax too.  They turned out really pretty.
    M. Nelson

We had an activity that was really fun with some of the older girls in primary and made pompom mice.  We made all the mice brown but you could do white ones too!
You make two pompoms, one a little larger than the other (or you can just cut it to be smaller after it is made). Make ears by cutting a heart shape out of felt, poster board or card stock (ours were pink) cut a diamond shape out of the pointed end of the heart (one point of the diamond is the point on the heart) put a very small hole in the middle.  Thread a long pice of yarn through a yarn needle, and make a large knot at one end.  Thread it through the center of one of the pompoms, then the ears, then the other pompom.  Pull them together.  Tie a knot close tot he second pompom, so it won't move.  The rest of the yearn becomes the tail.  Trim the pompoms. Glue eyes and nose on.  If you make the tail long enough it can be used as a bookmark.  They were really cute.

We made come really neat little certificates to hand out to the girls when they finish an area of achievement.  They have little girls in the corners with hearts around it in a boarder.  We had a line for their name, which area they completed and lines for the bishop, primary teacher and primary president to sign.  We present them in opening exercises.

Now that the weather is turning warmer we are going to do a nature awareness scavenger hunt with our girls. We're going to a local park and will have them look for a list of things, here's what they will be looking for.  Something red, something which has a rough texture, a piece of wood that looks like an animal, something which smells sour, something you could eat, a round shape, a smooth texture, a pretty design, 3 kinds of rocks, something blue,something which smells sweet, something that squeaks, something yellow, something that makes a noise when you step on it, something that looks like a flower but isn't,  3 leaves with different shapes, a piece of gravel with a corner, something that looks different in the winter. We are ending the activity by having them write a poem or thoughts about nature and will give them some treats.

This is an activity we did with some of our older girls this past week and they really had a fun time doing it.  We asked each one to bring some eggs that they had blown out at home.  We bought candle wax and had a variety of colors for them to choose from.  Heat the wax and prepare the eggs by breaking away the bottom of the big end of the egg.  Then cover it with clay or play dough (this creates the flat bottom for the egg to stand on.  Pour the wax in through the hole in the top and insert the wick.  Set it on the play dough end and let it cool for 24 hours.  We will bring the eggs back next week and the girls will crack the shell off and paint on them for Easter.

We have some families in our ward that we decided to do a service project for.  We made picture books from posterboard to use either at home or at Church.  We made some that had pictures of "church" things as well as others that could be used for either one.  We had the girls cut out pictures from magazines for a couple of weeks to have plenty of pictures, and as leaders we got pictures of Jesus and Bible and Book of Mormon stories.  Cut the posterboard into the size pages you want and then have the girls glue the pictures on them.  If they are in the mood they can write stories to go along with them and cover pages.  The pages can be laminated in the library or a local office supply store.  For the next weeks activity we bound them together with masking tape, just 4 or 5 pages for each book and delivered them with a plate of cookies to different families in our ward

This is a fun idea for St. Patricks Day.  It's a hidden-message four leaf clover.  To make it you need empty thread spools, green construction paper, green, black or brown markers or crayons, and white construction paper.

Color the spools green, cut four heart shapes (all the same size) from green construction paper.  Glue the ends of the hearts to one end of the spools to form a four-leaf clover.  On one leaf the girls write:  "There's a secret message inside this four-leaf clover for you."  Cut a strip of white construction paper 4" long and about as wide as the thread spools.  Make a large heart shape on the paper with the green marker. inside this large heart, have the girls write a message to someone who the four-leaf clover will be delivered to.  Roll the paper tightely and slip it into the hole in the thread spools.


Presidents Day is coming soon so we decided to center one of our achievement days around that theme, plus we thought it was good for the girls to think about the freedoms we enjoy in this country.  We are making a "log cabin" out of half pint milk cartons.  Here's what you need: half pint milk cartons, brown, white, gray, yellow and black construction paper. Glue, scissors, and black crayons, and glue.  Wrap carton with the brown construction paper, fold white paper in half and insert the top of milk carton in the fold and staple or glue for the roof.  Add a door, windows and chimney with the other construction paper colors.  We talked to the girls about the success of our democratic government.  Even though there are sometimes problems we are very lucky to live in the United States.  1/13/2000

We had an activity where we talked about healthy and fast breakfast ideas.  It seems kids this age would rather skip than make something that takes too long.  We made suggestions like preparing things the night before, and the value of eating in the morning before going to school.   Here's a recipe for a Fruit breakfast shake that we made.
1 very ripe, banana, peeled, 3/4 cup pineapple juice (or orange juice if they don't like pineapple) 1/2 cup lowfat vanilla yogurt, 1/2 cup strawberries, raspberries, peaches (almost any kind of fruit they like) Blend together.   11/3/99

We were looking for some Halloween activities and found this recipe for Halloween Oreo's 2 chocolate cake mixes, 4 eggs, 1 cup margarine.  Mix the above, drop teaspoonfuls and bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Frosting:  3- 2/3 cup powered subar, 8 oz cream cheese, 1/4 cup margarine, orange food coloring.  Have fun!
9/20/99

Since the 24th of July is coming up we decided to try our hand at pioneer cooking.  Here's a recipe for Ash Cake:
   2 cups cornmeal, 1 cup buttermilk, 3/4 teas. soda, 1/3 c. fat, 1 teas. salt. Enough water to make a thick dough.

Have a good hot fire.  Pull out ashes and make a nest-like place in ashes.  Put your dough in nest.  Let set a while and the dought will form a crust.  Then cover with ashes and hot embers. Bake 20 or 30 minutes.  Brush off ashes and serve.  The girls tasted it, but the most fun was making it!


We bought acrylic cutting boards and painted on them.  We had shapes made from sponges, stencils and brushes for the girls to use.  We painted them for one achievement day and then delivered them to some of the single sisters in our ward for another one.  After we delivered them we came back to the church and ate cookies and milk.  We had a good time and the girls were pleased with the responses they got from the sisters who had received their service so graciously.

Our ward is having a party for the 4th of July so for one of our achievement day activities in June we are making a poster to put in the foyer of the ward building and little cards to give out to ward members the Sunday before.  We are using an old idea that these girls have never done before.  It's done using tissue paper.  You need different colors of tissue paper depending on what you are making.  We will be doing flags so we are using red, white and blue.  Again, depending on the size of the project you need to cut the tissue into squares.  We are using 3" squares for the big poster and smaller ones for the cards.  You need glue, pencils with eraser, heavy paper or poster board and scissors.  Spread a thin coat of glue on a small section of the project you are working on and with one tissue squre at a time, fold the square around the end of the pencil.  Set it down on the glued area.  Glue the tissue "fluffs" very close together.

As the weather warms up this is a game our girls have enjoyed.  It's called Water Pots.  Divide the girls into 2 teams, the Water Pots, and the runners.  The Water Pots squat in a line about 3 or 4 feet apart.  One of the runners is "it" and tries to touch one of the other runners who are running back and forth between the Water Pots.  Runners can dodge back and forth between the Water Pots, but "it" cannot.  "It" must run down and around the end, trying to touch a runner.  When "it" touches a runner, that runner is out.  When "it" is tired of chasing she suddenly squats beside a Water Pot and that Pot becomes "it".  When all the runners have had a turn at being tagged, the sides change and runners become Water Pots.

We had an achievement day on nutition and tried to stress the importance of eating good foods at the right times of the day.  This is an important goal for girls in primary to start.  Maybe it would last through teen-age years!  Anyway, after we talked for about 15 minutes or so (we didn't want to make it too long) we made peach smoothies.  The girls loves making them and eating them!  You need 6 oz. pinapple juice, 1 banana, peeled, chopped, and frozen, 1 1/2 C. sliced peaches, frozen, 2 T. apricot or peach spreadable fruit. Place all ingredients in a blender.  Blend on high until smooth.  This was enough for one large smoothie, you will need to increase ingredients depending on how many girls you have.

This is a really easy Easter activity and because it involves food the girls will love it.  You need large marshmallows, chocolate chips (or white chocolate) melted, coconut (colored if desired)
Dip marshmallows in melted chocolate and then roll in cococut. We made lots and lots of them!

I've seen reindeer made from pastic spoons, but I saw them made into cute bunnies for Easter.  We're doing them next week.  You need a tootise roll pop sucker, white spoon, white and pink felt, markers in black, blue, pink, and red, curling ribbon.  Glue the sucker to the inside of the spoon, glue bunny ears to the top and make a face with the markers. I made a triangle nose with pink, black whiskers, and a smile with red, the eyes can be blue or black.  I tied the curling ribbon at the neck and curled it. Cute!

We made Sandpaper Prints just as something kind of fun for the girls to do.  They were very creative and enjoyed the activity.  You need one 7" x 10" piece of sandpaper, medium to fine texture, one 7" x 10" piece of construction paper, scissors, crayons, newspapers, iron, white glue, one 12" x 18" piece of const. paper of a different color, and felt-tipped markers

Use crayons, draw a picture on the rought side of the sandpaper. Color it in heavy.  Lay the construction paper on several thicknesses of newspaper.  Place the sandpaper face down ont he construction paper. Iron with the temperature on medium. Hold the iron on the back of the sandpaper to transer the crayon design to the construction paper beneath it.  Glue the sandpaper and the printed construction paper side by side on large sheet of colored construction paper. Use the pens to outline some parts of the design.  They turned out kind of neat.


For one of our achievement days we made decorative gift bags from lunch bags.  The bags come in all different colors these days so we got some colored ones.  They turned out so cute and the girls really enjoyed do it.  Here's a couple of the ideas we used.
1. Fringe or cut a fancy edge (if someone has decorative sissors - they work well) then punch holes right below the edge.  It's easier we found if you flatten the sack out all the way before cutting.  (Pull the pleated part out and flatten)  Then tie with a ribbon or yarn.
2.  Make a house by cutting squares for the windows and door.  Add flowers or whatever they want with paints or crayons.  Fold down the top, add white paper for the roof and punch holes to put a ribbon through.
3.  We made some potato stamps to show the girls how to make them and they used them to stamp designs on the sacks.  You could use rubber stamps though.  We had a great time.

Easter will be here soon and last year we made some darling Easter Gingerbread Houses out of graham crackers - here's what we did:
You will need:  graham crackers, easter candy for decorating, and the frosting recipie (which I will include)
Put the graham crackers together with the four sides for the house and two for the roof. decorate with easter candy.  They turned out really cute.

Icing recipie - Combine 3 egg whites and 1 teaspoon cream of tartar in a small mixing bowl.  Beat until stiff peaks form.  Add 1 lb. powered sugar and continue beating until the mixture is thick and holds its shape.  Cover the icing with a damp cloth when not using.


We recently made "Potato Necklaces" here's what you need:
   Potato, acrylic paint, clear glaze, crochet thread, large needle, 4mm round silver beads, beading needle, filler beads.
Peel potatoes and cut lengthwise, cut into irregular pieces - some smaller, some larger. Cut a little bigger than you'd like the finished product because they shrink a little when dried.  Cut corners if you want them rounded.

Use needle and crochet thread to string potato pieces - leave some space between each one.  Hang up to dry.  It takes about a week to dry them. Move the pieces around a little each day so they dry completely.

Use paints to color the "beads". Let dry and spray with the glaze.  Dry.  Then use a beading needle to string the potato beads and filler beads to make the necklace.  The girls loved it!


This is an Easter activity for Egg Paperweights that we're using for an achievement day.  You need:
Blown Eggs, straight pins, small paper cups, spoons, plaster of paris, wax paper (or funnels), egg dyes, liquid white glue, colored yarn, scissors, sequyins, gold or colored stick-on stars.
   Chip the larger hole of the blown egg with a pin until it is about the size of a dime, or as big as your funnel.  Cut out the bottom of the small paper cup and set the egg on it with the large hole at the top.  Mix the plaster of paris according to directions.  Pour the plaster of paris into the eggs using the funnel (or make your own funnel out of the wax paper).  Let the plaster set overnight.  It may shrink and you'll need to add some.  Dye the eggs and decorate.
Since the year has just started we had the girls make calendars for the year.  We ran off some calendar pages, they filled in the dates and then they used stickers and stamps to decorate them.

Have the girls save bottles from dressing (like Ranch, French, etc.) and bring stencils and paint.  We had some very creative bottles and a lot of fun.  They stenciled as many bottles as were there and would have done many more!

We made "sharing socks" for a gift or "contact" with some of the inactive girls in our ward.  We made a small stocking (it looked like a Chirstmas stocking, but smaller) and sewed the edges together.  Then we glued an applique on the front, and used paints that the girls could write things on the front.  We put cookies in them and delivered them.  The activity took two achievement days to complete and the girls really enjoyed it. This activity can be used for Arts and Crafts or Service and Citizenship.

Our girls wanted to make cards, so we wanted an activity that the girls could handle fairly easily.  We decided on screen painting.  We used an old screen for a window, but you could use a strainer too. We used a piece of paper towel, or newspaper and cut a hole in it the size of the picture that would be put on the card (we did this to protect the rest of the card from getting paint on it) then we let them use tempera paints or food coloring and old toothburshes to make the picture.  Just hold the screen over the picture (or use stencils) and dip the toothbrush in the paint and brush it on the screen.  They got very creative with different colors and multiple pictures on the same card.  We had fun!