Faith in God Recognition Night

I recently came from the Young Women's program so I thought it would be a good idea to have something like a YW in Excellence or New Beginnings night.  It was just okay.

We made this night a little more formal.  We invited the parents, had a program with song and prayer, I explained how Faith in God works, my other leader handed out completion certificates, and a member of the bishopric bore his testimony.  We were done in less than 20 minutes.  But we had cookies and mingled with the parents afterward.

Two lessons from this night: 1) It was a good idea but way too formal for this group.  2) December is much too busy of a month to expect even half the families to be able to attend an activity.

We will be rethinking this one for the future.

Christmas Testimonies, Letters, and Cookies

We like to give our girls multiple opportunities to think about their testimonies through the year.  For this activity we began by discussing their thoughts and feelings about Jesus Christ during the Christmas season.  Then we spent ten minutes or so letting them write down those thoughts and feelings on a special "Testimony" paper in their binders.

Next we wrote letters to the two full-time missionaries serving from our ward, as well as the Bishopric, Stake Presidency, and Primary Presidency.  It was hilarious to see how they pretty much wrote the same things on each of the letters.  Several wrote, "I hope your mission is fun!" on the letters to the missionaries as well as the Primary.  (I guess it was our fault for making this a writing-intensive activity.)

Lastly we decorated Christmas sugar cookies.  Obviously, their favorite part of the afternoon.

12th Article of Faith

As part of a Serving Others activity we discussed the 12th Article of Faith.  I did a little internet research on what it means to be a good citizen and pared down my findings into short actions the girls could understand.  Each girl was given two actions written on word strips and they had to tell the group what it meant and how they could implement it in their lives.  This wasn't as boring as it sounds and the girls did a really good job with it.

Then we played a U.S. Presidents game.  We split the girls into two groups and sent them on a scavenger hunt around the church answering trivia questions about different presidents.

Cookies...Making, Baking, Sharing

We taught the girls how to make Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies (because my mother swears by that recipe).  After mixing the batch we stuck it in the oven to bake.  Then each girl was sent home with two plates of cookies.  One plate was for them to eat but the other plate had to be given away to a friend or neighbor on their way home.

At the next activity we followed up with them and made them report on their small act of service.

Getting to Know You

This was our first activity as new leaders. We delivered invitations and a lunch sack to each girl and asked her to fill it with three things that describe her. When they arrived at the activity the leaders collected the sacks and we had the girls guess which sack belonged to which girl. It was fun to see how well they already know each other.

The girls also filled out this questionnaire that I keep.  It has some random information that we may be able to use for their birthdays or other activities.

Activity Days Ideas

I always love finding new ideas for Activity Days on the internet. Here are the activities we've done with our girls. Hopefully they give you a few good ideas that can be molded to help your own Activity Days girls. Good luck!