- SCRAPBOOK: Take pictures of the girls at
each Achievement Days activity and make an Achievement Days scrapbook.
- JOURNAL JAR: To make a "journal jar." Place several pieces of
paper inside the jar with questions written on them. Each day the child chooses
a question to write in her journal. IE: What is my favorite room in my house?
Why? What is my favorite Christmas Memory? Who is my best friend? Why? Etc...
- GRANDPARENT STORIES: Find out what the
girl's grandfathers and/or grandmothers did for a living.
- NAME SEARCH: Have the children bring a name of an ancestor and
look on www.familysearch.com to see
if you can locate that person. Have them fill out a 4 generation sheet. See
if they can learn what countries these ancestors came from.
- JOURNAL: Make a journal using a three hole
file folder and notebook paper. Decorate the folder with pictures or colored
stickers and talk about what are good things to write about.
- SURNAMES AND WHAT THEY MEAN: Several hundred years ago people
did not have surnames. Talk about the history of surnames - where they came
from and what they meant. ( Surnames usually indicate a place , profession
or a physical attribute.) Ask the children to match a list of their surnames
to a list of their meanings. This may give them an insight into the lives of
their ancestors. Ask the children to " invent" a new surname.
- PERSONAL HISTORIES: Have the ward family
history specialists come and discuss the importance of keeping a personal
history and recording history. The girls can make a pedigree chart. Have
the girls start a scrapbook, or work on an existing one. Teach them to label
with important details (dates, names, etc.).
- LIFE STORIES: Show the children how to write a simple life history.
Have them bring with them important dates of their birth, baptism, when they
have moved etc... Explain that they need to include interesting events and
stories. Explain that they should include every day things like what a school
day is like or a typical summer day or what books they are reading... Help
them to write it and then share it with the rest of the group and take it home
and put it in their journal.
- ANCESTOR STORYTELLING NIGHT: Have the children
bring a story about one of their ancestors. Create a cozy setting around
a fireplace or bowl of popcorn and share the stories.
- NOBLE PAST BRILLIANT FUTURE: For our awards night
we used the theme "Noble past, Brilliant Future". Each of the girls prepared
a 5 min. or less story from their ancestry about a person that showed courage,
faith, wisdom, or kindness. I had no idea how successful this would be. There
was a huge turn out I guess because each family felt a part of the program!
A counselor in the Bishopric gave a short talk about a pioneer girl and her
legacy and challenged the girls to create a legacy of faith for their posterity
so that someday there would be great stories about them! A week before the
program I wrote a little skit about a pioneer woman that showed great faith
in sharing what little food she had and how the Lord provided for her and her
family. I video taped (in black and white) the girls acting it out. We showed
this at the awards night. The girls felt like the stars of the evening. To
advertise, I sent the girls home from church with invitations each Sunday starting
several weeks in advance. I gave them extras to share with whomever they wanted
to invite. To decorate I purchased giant foil stars at Hobby Lobby (35 cents)and
foil star garlands. The girls voted on cheesecake for dessert. We also posted
collages that each girl had made about herself using old Friend magazines.
I put up word strips saying many of the activities our group had participated
in. Each girl received a certificate of achievement that I had printed up on
the computer. It was signed by me and a member of the Bishopric. There were
two inch foil, sticker stars along the bottom of the certificate representing
each time the girls had attended achievement day meetings. We also announced
an awards recognition program of presenting each girl with a 5x7 picture frame
(I keep while they are in AD). There is a picture of them inside. When the
girls accomplish 4 goals in an area (by attending regularly they meet the goals)
they receive a wooden heart that is glued to the wide frame. They get a different
color for each area. When they "graduate" they will have a tangible reminder
of all that they have learned and done. I have never participated in such a
successful evening. Somehow having the girls share something from their past
brought a very sweet spirit to the evening and the girls felt really special.
I hope that this might help somebody somewhere. Good luck! -JPN
- MOTHER DAUGHTER ACTIVITY: where we asked
the mother to bring a picture of her daughter at her current age and a picture
of the mom taken at the age of her daughter's. We put the pictures on a bulletin
board and had everyone try to match who went with who. We also had the daughter's
tell a story that her grandmother had told her, about the grandmother's life,
growing up, etc. Then we had the mother's tell a story that her grandmother
had told her about her life. This way the daughter could learn something
about her great-grandmother. It was a nice change from doing the pedigree
charts. Colleen Butler Orem, Utah
- MEMORY BOX: Decorate any type of box. Talk about the importance
of keeping special things for future generations. The children can go home
and place their special things in the box.
- PICTURE JOURNAL: Have the girls cut out
pictures of things that they like. They can bring magazines, newspapers,
or other pictures that they have. Make a page for each subject IE: Favorite,
movie, food, activity, school subject etc... Be creative. You can put them
in sheet protectors and little notebooks for them to take home.
- PERSONAL HISTORY FORM: I had the girls fill out a simple personal
history form on themselves that included questions like what their favorite
activity is, an embarrassing moment, a spiritual experience, etc. I sent them
home with a duplicate form for them to fill out by interviewing a relative
like their mother or grandmother and answer the questions about when they were
the same age as the girls.
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- CONTRACT/AWARD: I was thinking If kids have best friends they can come here and print out an award and The person and Friend could sign it and it could be a sign of Friendship.....
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