Activity Days – Secret Service Recognition Night

Want a fabulous, fun and meaningful service experience for Activity Days or any or youth group?  Here it is.  We have done activities focused on individual worth and personal development and building relationships and we decided it was time to do an activity centered solely on service.

SECRET SERVICE MISSION

We pin-lifted this idea from theficklepickle.  as our starting point.  The girls became “Secret Service Agents” who received a top secret mission delivered to their homes in a large manila envelope.  Click on the links below to see what was included in the “Top Secret Mission” package:

• Mission Possible – Intro Letter
• Mission Possible Report Sheet
• List of Secret Service Ideas – Page 1
• List of Secret Service Ideas – Page 2
• Mission Possible Invite
• Magnifying Glass (because girls love things like that!)

Susan (our leader who was in charge of the packets) pretty much just reworked the downloads from theficklepickle.  Why reinvent something that was already done so well?  Susan also included a different list of service ideas from this blog post by katharinemaries.com.

To personalize their Mission Packets we asked each girl to choose a “Secret Agent Name” which was used as the label on their envelope.  Names could be a number or nickname or something they liked.  We had “Agent Triple S Squid,” and “Agent Nerdy Bird,” and “Agent Flexken 2″ but my personal favorite: “Agent M&M Mad Dog.”  Oh, she’s fierce.  All 42 pounds of her.

GOAL: Practice doing acts of service in a variety of situations and locations.  Learn to see where they can help and act on those observations. Recognize the joy that comes from serving.

Two weeks before the night of the activity the girls received their Secret Service Mission Packets.   During the next two weeks, they were to plan and execute a week’s worth of secret service.  Seven days.  Seven acts of service.  Ideas were listed in their packets.  Everything from taking shopping carts back, holding a public door open for others for 10 minutes straight and smiling at people to inviting someone to play, reading to a younger sibling, or baking cookies for a neighbor.

Each girl wrote down their service experiences each day.  What they did, how they felt, and what the reaction was.  They used this written report to share their experiences at our Recognition Night.

RECOGNITION NIGHT

INVITE

An invitation was included in the Top Secret Mission packet described above – delivered two weeks before the event.  All parents were invited to attend with their daughters and everyone was encouraged to dress in their best spy gear if they chose.   When they arrived to the activity we gave each of the girls a sticker nametag with their Secret Agent Name on it so they could stay in character.

DECORATIONS

During the weeks before the activity we asked the girls to wear their hair in a ponytail if possible and took profile pictures of each girl.  We then cut out a silhouette from that picture, mounted it to a circle of cardstock (created by cutting it with an Xacto knife and a dinner plate as a template) and then mounted it again to a 12×12 sheet of cardstock.  Tip: an easy way to cut the silhouettes was to print each photo in draft quality on a full-size 8.5″x11″ sheet of paper.  Hold a white sheet of paper under the photo and cut around the silhouette shape in the photo to create your clean white silhouette cut-out.  The photo becomes the pattern for cutting.  Try to get as detailed as possible.  There is no need to trace each picture to get a good silhouette so skip that step and simply use the photo as the pattern.  Wearing their hair up somehow, made a much better silhouette than having it down.

The “secret silhouettes” became the backdrop for our activity as well as an ice breaker as each person tried to figure out who was who on the wall!

PROGRAM

WELCOME + LESSON: Since we love to have the program focus on the girls themselves, we had a short lesson by a leader “Agent Hadley” who taught for about 7 minutes about the power of working together in our service efforts.  She used this talk as a reference and emphasized the impact they all can make if everyone chooses to work together in their efforts to do a little service.  Plus, she was funny.  That was a bonus.

AGENT REPORTS: Each girl shared their Secret Agent Name and then reported on their service experiences over the last week.  They shared their feelings about service and their favorite secret service ideas.  If you’re thinking that this would take a long time, think again.  8-11 year-old girls like to talk for about 45 seconds each.  Bam.  Done.  Move on to the next person.

SERVICE PROJECTS  TO GO: Since the girls had spent the last two weeks focusing on serving within their sphere of influence, much of their effort happened in their own homes.  We wanted to extend their service even more to the community.  We moved to another room where we offered two other service projects that they completed with their parents.  We wrote the instructions to each project on the board.

Service Project #1: “Thanks for Serving Me” Treats - 5 bubblegum packets each.  They tied a tag to each little treat bag and were instructed to give them to people in the community who helped them.  The bank teller, the crossing guard, the cashier…just keep them in the car or in their mom’s purse and hand them out when they receive help from someone else.  What a better way to watch for service in their lives – not only were we encouraging them to give service but to be grateful for the service that was done for them as well.  This idea was found here in the super comprehensive and creative list of ways for kids (and grown-ups!) to serve.  We pulled it out to add to our experience of service that night.

Place all of the supplies on a table and let the girls choose which tags and treat combos they want to use.  Another small table held the scissors and hole punches.  A length of masking tape was a great way to help the girls measure the twine lengths themselves.  We wanted them to be independent and paying attention to the set up of the activity helped them make that happen.

Here’s the download for the tags I created for this project.  These can also be included in Project Life books or used as other paper crafting projects, tags, labels and cards.  Click on the title below to download the tags.  Print them out on basic cardstock (my go-to for church activities is a ream of white cardstock found at Wal-mart for about $5).  Cut the tags apart and they are ready for your event.

Thank You for Serving – Tags

Service Project #2: Fleece Dog Toys - donated to a local animal shelter.  The toys were then sent home with adopted dogs.  Let me tell you – girls LOVE doing things for little doggies!  Click here for instructions.  Be sure to check with your animal shelter to make sure that these can be donated there – the dogs couldn’t use them at the shelter itself because of threads and fabric getting in the air circulation system but they were willing to send one home with each adopted dog as a keepsake.

We were done in about an hour.  With everything.  And look at what happened in that hour – it was an activity packed with meaningful contributions from each girl, parental involvement, and a way to extend their experiences beyond the activity itself.  And we have loved hearing about their opportunities to hand out their thank you treats.  It took some bravery on their part and the excitement they felt when they recognized service being done to them and then expressed thanks for it was thrilling.

We are so proud of them for taking on their “Secret Service Missions” so completely and energetically.  And a shout out to the parents for supporting and encouraging them in their tasks.  Plan ahead and do this activity with your youth or children’s group – it’s a keeper.

Read Full Post »

Activity Days: It’s In the Bag Recognition Night

Have you ever had one of those experiences where everything comes together perfectly?  When reality surpasses all of your ideas of how something should go?  When a good idea becomes a great moment because all the stars align and everyone actually does their part and you end up with a perfect evening instead of simply a good idea?

That’s what happened at our last Activity Days Recognition Night.  The idea was not mine.  I stole it.  I’m a big believer in building on ideas that are already good and proven and then adapting them to fit our individual needs.  This activity was passed from my sister to my sister-in-law with fabulous results.  They did it for their young women’s groups (ages 12-18) but I knew it would translate perfectly for our 8-11 year-olds.

 

 

UPDATE:  I have received emails and comments about the invite so I’ll add that here.  I purchased glassine bags (look like wax paper) very inexpensively from amazon.com.  Click here to see the ones I chose.  They are 4 1/2″ x 6 3/4″ in size (11.4 cm x 17.1 cm).  I used that size because they came in a package of 100 for only about $10 and the numbers worked out that we could use one package for both the invitations and the refreshments so I got them large enough to put the popcorn in.

I designed the invite in Illustrator and it is not possible to offer you a file that you can manipulate in Word so you won’t be able to just use this invite, but I’ll tell you that it doesn’t have to look exactly like this to be darling.  Add some baker’s twine (I pick mine up from pickyourplum.com whenever the spools go on sale because it is heavyweight and lasts forever).  I put ALL the info on the invite so that everyone could be prepared with their presentations.  

If you look at the picture further down in this post you’ll see the back of the invite has the message to the parents and what their responsibility is that night.  To create the gray lattice on the back I used my Silhouette Cameo and cut out one of my pattern shapes. I used that as a mask and simply placed it over the back of each invite and lightly sprayed spray paint over the top.  I didn’t take the time to adhere the mask so I just sprayed very carefully directly over the top of the page (a little farther from the page so that it wouldn’t blow the mask up) and called it good.  I like the effect of the paint being blended and “not perfectly crisp.”  If you want the pattern more crisp then you’ll probably need to use removable adhesive to adhere the mask down each time.

Text About the Bags Said This:

GIRLS, PLEASE BRING A BAG THAT REPRESENTS YOU (such as your backpack, purse, dance bag, sports bag, etc.)

and fill it with three items that reflect YOUR PROGRESS in each of the three areas of the Faith In God program (be prepared to share about them for 3 minutes total)

1.  Learning & Living the Gospel

2.  Serving Others

3.  Developing Talents

 

Overview:

Each girl brings a bag of their choice (purse, backpack, dance bag, whatever) with 3 things in it – one item for each of the 3 areas of the Faith in God program (service, living the gospel, developing talents).  They knew they would share for no more than 3 minutes total about their items and I was totally impressed with their preparation and the thought they put into their items.

We started with a very short message about “what we are carrying” in the bags of our lives and how to keep the most important things handy.  Then each girl shared their items in their bags – what each item represented and why they included it.

The “Service” category included things like writing to their brothers on their missions, helping friends at school and babysitting the neighbor’s baby.  For “Developing Talents,” we learned a lot about the loves and hobbies of our girls.  Piano, softball, sewing, reading, dance, karate, and even cutting vinyl!  Lots of talents were shared and celebrated that night.  Finally, as the girls shared about “Learning and Living the Gospel,” we learned about scriptures, prayer, Primary, and family home evening.  Each girl was very thoughtful in what they chose to bring in their bag.  They had practiced what they were going to say and did a wonderful job of talking about their own progress in the Faith in God program.

What could be better than the program being carried out by the girls themselves?  It was often touching, sometimes funny, definitely surprising, and always meaningful.  We learned that Savannah earned her lacrosse bag by selling 29 coupon books in the fundraiser!  No one else even came close!

We learned that Olivia aspires to be a fashion designer and learned to crochet from just one 30 minute lesson from her mom.  Oh, and she loves pigs.

We learned that Karissa has been befriending a less-fortunate girl at school who was being teased by their classmates and Madison has been working on developing her talents in the kitchen – especially with “baked goods.”  Yum.

Parents:

After their daughter shared their items, parents were asked to take 1 minute to share ONE QUALITY that they have seen grow in their daughter over the last 6 months.  It was a focused, simple way to have parents share publicly about their daughter but keep the time under control.  Happy tears were shed, smiles were plentiful and there were lots of spontaneous hugs to go around.

About 45 minutes and 20 girls later (not bad, right?), we wrapped things up with a short message encouraging the girls to cling to their parents as one of the best things they could “carry” with them throughout their lives.  We then gave each girl a letter from their parents that we had gathered before the evening.  This step takes forever to pull together but it’s worth every phone call and reminder text to track down a letter for each girl.  Treasures.  That’s what those letters were.  Not only did each girl get to share their goals and achievements, but they got to hear what makes them special from their parents – both verbally and in writing.  And the whole fabulous night only lasted a total of about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Decorations:

So simple.  We just gathered shopping bags from appropriate shops and stores that coordinated (pink, black and white became our color-scheme because that’s that the majority of shopping bags color motif).  We  used my trusty pedestals in our colors and placed shopping bags on and around them.

Add some tissue paper in each bag and tie a balloon to the handle and you’ve got fun and beautiful decor on the cheap.  I used my foamboard covered in fabric as a backdrop and added some pink banners and called it good.  I think the decorations cost about $2 for the tissue paper that I didn’t have on hand.

Refreshments:

Popcorn drizzled in white chocolate (thinned just a touch to make it light and easy to pour) and placed in the rest of the glassine bags (same as we used for the invites).  I used box lids as the “trays” and covered it in wrapping paper to keep the color-scheme going.  Those glassine bags were also used for our invitations.  I purchased a package of 100 for $10 and we had enough for both the invites as well as the popcorn.

Easy.

Simple.

Meaningful.

My top 3 qualifications for a great idea.  This one didn’t disappoint.  It’ll work for any group, young or old, boys, girls, whatever.  It’s easily adapted and totally perfect.  Perfect because it is focused on each individual.  It’s for them, about them, and in celebration of them.  And that’s what turns this good idea into a great one.

Try it with your group and let me know how it goes.  I can’t wait to hear.

Read Full Post »

Activity Days – Favorite Things Party

Great girls.  Great plan.  Great activity.

Another fabulous Favorite Things Party in the books.  I posted about the invitation idea here.  It will work for any time of year…not just Christmas.  All you need are some gift tags to give them some pop.

1.  Everyone was asked to bring a wrapped gift to swap – it needed to be one of their favorite things and could cost no more than $5.

2.  Everyone was also asked to bring a favorite homemade treat or food to share – and we encouraged them to help make it.

The great thing about a Favorite Things Party is that it runs itself.  Everyone who brings a gift puts their name into a bowl.  Then each person chooses out a name.  Then each girl shares why the gift they brought is one of their favorite things and whoever’s name they had drawn out is the lucky recipient of their gift. (Cheer!  Hooray!  I love my gift!)

As for refreshments, simply go around the group sharing why they brought their particular treat then dive in for the festive feast.  Since we had the party at my home with Christmas decor in place, all we had to provide was some plates, napkins and cups and we were ready to go.

We added a short lesson at the beginning on the importance of being a good receiver (a hard skill to develop in young girls sometimes) reading this book and  this talk as a reference to giving and receiving.  The rest was up to the girls.  They shared and laughed and encouraged and spent time together in a meaningful way.

This activity works for any age – young girls, teens or women.  Try it.  It’ll be your favorite.

Want to make Savannah’s cute mouse treats?  1.  Dip maraschino cherries in melted chocolate.  2.  Add two sliced almonds to melted chocolate to create ears.  3.  Attach Hershey’s kiss for the mouse head.   4.  Cute and yummy.

Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Easy Invites With a Pop

Remember when I told you about our neighborhood Favorite Things Party here and here?  We’re adapting the idea for our Activity Day Girls.  Click here to find out how the fabulous party went down.

I wanted to send invitations to each girl because getting a letter in the mail is the best thing ever, but with the busyness of the holiday season, I needed something quick and easy to make it happen.  Here’s my tip for fab invites or cards that look way better than the time they take to create them.

• Create a box slightly smaller than your envelope and outline it with the color of your choice. (I used basic small letter envelopes found at any office supply store).
• Choose a couple of cute fonts and simply center the type  down the middle of the rectangle, leaving a space in the middle of the card.
• Add a GIFT TAG to the center of the card with a pop-dot adhesive (I found mine at Hobby Lobby for 50% off).
• Done.

Look for gift tags that have some bling for a great impact.  They will look professional in such a simple way.  Yes, our party is during the holidays so the holiday tags work great but lots of tags, even holiday ones, will work perfectly for other themes or times of the year.

Notecards, invitations, thank you notes.  All are fabulous with this little gift tag trick.

Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Activity Days: Your Happily Ever After (Part 2) – Ruffled Runners

Ruffles from plastic tablecloths?  Yep.  Easy and darling.  Here’s how I made them for our Activity Day Mother-Daughter Dinner Recognition Night (click here and here for more info).  I saw this tutorial and decided to try it out.  However, instead of needing my ruffles to run down the center of long tables, I wanted them to travel in a circle around the centerpiece of each round table.  This required some adjusting of the instructions.

These took about an hour to create.  I made 8 ruffles in that time.  They were the last thing on my list and after a crazy week, I wasn’t sure if they were going to get done.  After setting up for the evening I had about an hour to run home and make dinner.  Instead of slaving at the stove I decided to see if I could get these done in time.  I did.  And aren’t you glad?  They turned out really cute and were the finishing touch on an already great-looking party.  Give them a try!  They were worth serving PBJs for dinner.

First, cut down the length of a long rectangle plastic tablecloth.  Create 4 strips, all the same width.  I used the fold marks as a guide and it was very easy.  Fold one strip over lengthwise so that you have two layers of plastic, one about 2″ shorter than the other.  This will create your layered ruffle look.

Sew a gathering stitch (longest that you can on your machine) about 1/2″ from the fold.  This stitch will go through both layers.

After stitched along the entire length of the plastic, tie the threads at one end together in a knot.  This will secure the ends so you don’t pull the thread all the way through, leaving you without any stitching.  Next, take one thread from the other end of your plastic and pull gently.  It should start to gather your plastic.  Carefully use your fingers to shift the gathering down the length of your plastic ruffle, spreading out the gathering evenly as you go.  Pull it as gathered as you need it.  I based mine on how large I needed my circle to be.  Gather your ruffle to the length you need it to be and tie off the ends of the string.  Trim threads.

You’re done!  Now you just need a party!  Use these ruffles as centerpiece runners, swag them from tables or walls or other decor to create backdrops.  Attach them to edges of tables or doorways for a fabulous trim.  Whatever.  The possibilities really are endless!  I’m thinking they would look great this weekend at your Memorial Day BBQs.  Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Activity Days: Your Happily Ever After (Part 1)

I have lots to share, though so I need to get to it.  Today, enjoy the first installment of our mother-daughter Activity Day Recognition Night.  Seriously, this thing was put together 92% with the Silhouette.  It should be a commercial.

Overview of the evening:

Theme: Your Happily Ever After (based on speech given by Dieter Uchdorf here) leading to a focus on PRINCESSES.  Could there be anything better for 8-11 year-old girls?  As you will see, there is not.

Food was involved…salad, yummy biscuits, skewered fruit and daughter-served brownie sundaes.  But I wasn’t in charge of that part and happily put it out of my mind.  Give me the assignment for decorations any day.

Program: 

(photoshoot as arriving)

Welcome

Dinner (girls served moms and brought dishes to kitchen before picking up desserts)

Message & Recognition of Activities Girls had done over the last 6 months

Craft

Concluding Remarks & Clean Up

Decor:

1. Cake Stands – a staple in throwing parties and can be used for everything, not just food display.

I used my pink, aqua, lime, yellow and white cake stands (made with a little epoxy attaching a candlestick or dessert glass to the bottom of a plate and spray painting the entire thing with 2X Rustoleum paint) as the centerpieces because….well, because it’s spring and they are little girls and we were doing princess stuff and…it’s what I already had.

2. Mason Jars with Colored Daisies 

Believe me when I tell you that you only need one flower per table to make it work.  Especially when you add a couple of skinny-doweled Silhouette cut-outs to portray the theme.  For me, it meant a crown and a “Your Happily Ever After” label card.  Wrap them loosely in tissue paper to keep them in place and to hide the ends.  Cost: about $1 if you shop sales for the daisies.

3.  Plastic Tablecloth Ruffles

I saw this idea for creating a table runner using a plastic tablecloth and adapted it to work on a round table.  Click for tutorial here.  Perfect for anchoring the centerpiece on these large tables and making the whole thing look and feel more rich than it cost.  You get 4 ruffles from each plastic tablecloth = that means 25 cents each.  Plus, the ruffles look great draped at the top of my shutter backdrop.

4.  Plastic Tablecloth Chair Bows

I’m sure you have seen these before but they must be done.  An inexpensive way to add flair to ordinary folding chairs and to make the whole place feel like a celebration.  Just cut down the length of a long plastic table cloth (we used the fold lines as guides) and you get 8 strips for bows.  12.5 cents each.

5.  Candy Jars

I’ll post about these in just a bit and give you a quick tutorial but what I will say here is that the girls made these darling candy jars in the activity before our event with the intention of using them as our primary decoration at the Recognition Night.  Click here for instructions.  Personalized, filled with purpose, and the perfect way to reinforce the message of the evening.  More coming on what I mean by that.  These are not your ordinary candy jar.  But let me tell you that the impact of the girls walking into the night with their mothers and seeing their work looking so perfectly lovely and enticing was a highlight of the evening.

6.  Supplies for Craft

Part of our evening included a take-away craft that each girl got to create with their mothers.  After cutting a 2″x6″ board into 6″ blocks, painting and sanding them, they were ready for the night.  Our partners were in charge of that part (bless them) and I tackled 28 sets of vinyl lettering on the Silhouette.  The vinyl shapes are available in my Silhouette store.  Click here for the princess and crown.  Click here for daughter of a heavenly king.  I added some Staz-On ink to the vinyl edges to create a distressed look but it really didn’t need it.  Plain or distressed – it looked great either way. The girls added a little rhinestone bling to their blocks and got to take them home as well to remind them of who they are and why they are here.

Here’s the thing, though.  I like everything to have purpose.  So, I designed the craft supplies to be part of the actual centerpieces of the table.  Large shallow bowls that held the vinyl, craft sticks for rubbing, and rhinestones rested on a cake stand.  Wood blocks were loving tucked under another pedestal and the ruffled tablecloth surrounded the entire thing.  It looked great and there was no time wasted on handing out supplies.  Efficient and beautiful.  The perfect party.

7.  Photo Booth

You first saw my photo booth at Cole’s superhero party and here it makes an appearance so that we could snap a quick pic of each mother with their daughter (probably to be used at a future activity….still working on the exact project idea).  Invites told them that they could come dressed as princesses or in coordinating outfits if they chose.  DARLING!  Some of them really got into it and only added to the feeling of celebration.  Seriously, do this every year, Kolette.

8.  Scallop Wrapping Paper Placemats

The Silhouette didn’t fail me as I cut out a slew of 12″ scalloped circles from a roll of wrapping paper.  I cut it into squares first then used two mats to keep the assembly line going as I cut out all the cute scallops.  We mixed and matched napkins and paper cup colors to keep it all random but coordinating.  They looked great with the green polka-dot placemats.

See, I told you that the Silhouette played a big role in pulling off this evening!  We were so happy to see all the mothers embracing the evening and making it special for each of their daughters.  Whether they dressed alike or worked side by side to complete the craft, it was a beautiful evening of sharing one-on-one time with some of the most important people in their lives.  Thank you mothers!

Come back for more details on how we made this night happen – some tutorials and a printable, of course.  See you soon!

Read Full Post »