"To help me learn how I can have good relationships with others and how I can help others be comfortable in groups."

• HOST A RECOGNITION NIGHT: Have the girls plan and host an Achievement Days recognition night. Make and deliver invitations for the families. Make and serve a refreshment during the meeting. Conduct the meeting and give talks and prayers. Have greeters at the doors to welcome and thank the guests.
• TABLE SETTING: Learn how to set a proper table. Discuss table manners.
• TELEPHONE ETIQUETTE: never yell into phone, ask to take a message, never say you are home alone, speak loudly etc... bring some phones and let them roll play.
• FRIENDHIP CIRCLE: Have the girls sit in a circle and tell each other things that they like about each other. Discuss what qualities good friends have.
• TABLE DECORATIONS: Make a table centerpiece.
• GRATITUDE BAGS: Our girls have made this a tradition every October or November and they enjoy it as much as the people involved do as well. Have each girl bring two dozen of a treat. Have the leader supply a bag(small paper bag) for each girl as well as a blank piece if paper. To get started, hand out a sheet of blank paper to each girl and have them choose a family in the ward(not a family member or close friend), and write a short letter or draw a picture of gratitude or appreciation for that person/family. Then fill each bag with a treat from each girl and attach the paper to the bag. Leave the remaining for the treat after the activity. Then deliver each bag to the family chosen by each girl. The girls in our group seem to really like the deliver,knock/ring,& run approach. After you may take the girls home or back to where you met for the activity for treats. You will be surprised with the results from the families & the girls. This is fun for all! Items needed: 2 dozen treats from each girl; 1 small paper lunch bag for each girl; 1 blank paper for each girl; stapler/pins/tape; Ward/Branch member list
• THANKSGIVING DINNER: We had a Thanksgiving dinner for the parents. The girls made invitations and practiced table setting and manners in preparation. The girls each chose a dish they wanted to bring, and prepared it with their moms and brought it. Then they served their parents dinner and washed the dishes afterward.
• THANK YOU NOTES: Talk about the importance of writing thank you notes. This is a good activity after Christmas. Have the girls write a note to someone.
• HOW TO FEEL COMFORTABLE IN NEW SITUATIONS: Talk about greetings. What you do when you meet someone, IE shake hands, look them in the eye, speak with confidence,Tell them your name, introduce the people that you are with etc... What to do when you answer the door, IE, turn on the light, if you know them,Ask them how they are doing, invite them in and ask them if they would like to have a seat etc... After the discussion about meeting people in different situations, have them role play.
• FRIENDSHIP MIX: Talk about Friendship. Do a friendship mix. Have each girl bring their favorite snack to share with everyone. (you could assign them to bring one cup of snacks, or a jar of snacks, or a specific number of items just to make it equal) Have a big bowl in the center and have each girl sit around the bowl. One at a time, each girl will put her snack in the bowl. Talk about the good qualities that that girl has and how she has something unique to contribute to a friendship. After everyone has had a turn then you mix up the things in the bowl and give everybody and equal amount back. You tell them that you get back what you put in to a friendship but it is even better because it is much more interesting and fun.
• TEA PARTY: We had a Mother and Daughter Tea. The girls made hats for their Mother's to wear. We served a simple dinner and let the girls serve their Mother's. Then, several girls sang songs and read poems to entertain the Mother's. We had the cutest table decorations. We painted styrofoam coffee cups like hats and then put them in the oven for just a few seconds until the cups started to melt. When they melted they looked just like garden party hats!
• SENIOR DINNER PARTY: You can invite the older people in the ward to a dinner party. Have each girl bring a dish of food or make it together as a meeting right before the dinner. have each girl do one or two talents for the people while they eat their dinner. After you're finished the girls can wash the dishes and have their own dinner
• CRAZY MIXED UP DINNER: We had a crazy mixed up dinner for our parents. The girls made invitations and decorations They set up the ward house like a restaurant, with a reservation desk. The girls had fun cooking dinner, being the hostess, and then the waitress. The parents were all given menus with definitions of the different things to choose from. They then had to figure out what it was they were ordering. They were allowed to order 3 items for each course. And were given 5-10 mins to finish each course. It was fun to see what each course would be made up of. Example (Olives, cake,and knife) or (salad, a empty glass, and a toothpick). Yes even the utensils were on the menu. This was a big hit for both girls and their parents.
• VALENTINE SWEETHEARTS:. The Achievement Day girl will receive a formal invitation to attend a formal dinner in the home of a ward member. Attire will be Sabbath best. Our hostess will be seated with the girls and teach them as they proceed through the formal dinner. The leader and assistant are the servers. At the end of the evening the girls will be pampered with a small gift.The girls will have learned how to serve. How to eat foods they may not normally choose and how to have proper manner in this setting as well as table conversation. We are lucky to have a very skilled sister to teach this. It is so much fun. Last Valentines our girls learned the skills of preparing everything for a Holiday dinner accept the food. They made centerpieces, place mats, names for seating, invitations, artificial corsages. Families were invited. Each girl set her own table properly and served as hostess to serve the table. The girls had a very great time doing this. Attire-no jeans
• MOTHER DAUGHTER PARTY: We had a wonderful Mother/Daughter Party and Recognition Night at the beginning of the month when the topic was Hospitality. We used the theme, "Put Your Best Foot Forward". The invitations were the outline of a barefoot. The girls painted the toenails with marker and punched a hole on either side of the second toe. They tied a piece of yarn in a bow where they had punched the holes. The invitation started with the words, "Remember to put your best foot forward". The girls made place mats for themselves and one for their mother. We used the large pieces of construction paper and "stamped" baby footprints on the paper using the side of their fist dipped in thin coat of acrylic paint. They used their fingers to put toes on the prints. Decorations began at the door where they entered the church with footprints leading to the cultural hall. A sign said "Use good manners every day. To learn how, walk this way." The tables centerpieces for the different tables were ballet shoes, a furry slipper, a cowboy boot, a woman's high heel, and a sneaker. Helium balloons were attached to the shoes and a little greenery was added. When the girls entered the hall, a Disney character was pinned to their back. These were obtained from the internet at www.disneyclipart.com. Then we transferred them to Word and enlarged them. The girls had to guess the Disney character, but it was just the feet and lower legs of the character. They could only ask the mothers "yes" and "no" questions to get their clues. Afterward, they were told that they were able to tell which character it was just by looking at a small part of the character. Likewise, people can tell something about your character just by watching the manners you use. Then we played a bingo game that was made up of different table manners that would be practiced that night. We had a hostess for each table consisting of the achievement day leaders and members of the Primary Presidency. The hostess served each course so the girls would learn to wait to eat until the hostess was seated. Our menu was 1. soup for the "sole" (simple soup recipe) 2. lettuce use good manners salad (green salad)3. bread (only two "heels" per loaf and crackers 4. ice cream and sugar cookies in the shape of a foot (the one time you can put your foot in your mouth and it's okay). Certificates were handed out and the girls were able to take one of the balloons home. The girls and the mothers had a great time. Juneve Anderson, Tempe, Arizona
• LEARN TO BE A CONVERSATIONALIST: Teach the girls how to start and continue a conversation. Rule #1 ask questions about the person you are talking to. Rule #2 don’t use one-word answers. Rule #3 don’t talk about yourself unless asked a question and then turn the conversation back to them. Rule #4 look at the person and be interested in what they are saying. Help the girls think of questions that they could ask someone. Tell them that this is a skill that needs to be practiced and that this is a great way to make new friends at school or to make a new person in the ward feel welcome. After you have thought of questions, have the girls practice with each other. Stress the fact that if they have questions in mind before they start a conversation then there will be very few “uncomfortable” moments. Challenge them to use these skills and start a conversation with someone that they do not know. Have them report back at the next activity.
• SAND ART COOKIE MIX: "Sand Art" cookie mixes are a lot of fun for the girls to put together. You'll need Quart size canning jars with lids. (I suggest one jar per girl) Then you just pick your favorite cookie recipe (or brownie, or soup etc) and layer all the dry ingredients in the canning jar. Then have a small piece of fabric to cover the lid (just to make it look nice, you put the piece of fabric over the "sealing" lid and then screw on the other lid so it will stay on.) Then make sure you attach a small card that lists all the other ingredients (eggs, vanilla, butter, etc) and the remaining recipe, time and temperature to cook. You can either type these up and print them on the computer or if you want a more personal gift, you can have the girls copy this onto the card. On one side of the card it reads "Welcome to our ward - Love, The Achievement Day Girls" or "We're thinking of you - Love the Achievement Day Girls" since we don't have enough new members in our ward for each of the girls to give a jar to we picked a few of the members who might need some encouragement or a smile to cheer them up. Then on the second side of the card the remaining recipe is included. At the activity we will assign each girl a family or individual and let them create the whole jar themselves, from filling and layering the jar to picking the piece of fabric and making and attaching the cards. Then we will take them to deliver the jars. This is the activity we are using for Hospitality to teach the girls about reaching out to others and making them feel welcome. Kristine
• LIFESIZE BOARD GAME: We played an AD life size board game. I just made it up and used old construction paper as the squares and made big die out of boxes and the girls themselves were the pieces. They loved it. periodically they landed on a space that corresponded with a question. They were asked a question at that space. The questions were simple like: What is one thing you would like to do this year to fulfill this goal? Demonstrate how to politely get someone's attention. Demonstrate how to answer the phone. Demonstrate how to ask for something. You could use this for any category or ask questions about all of the categories.
• PICKING WEEDS: Have the girls go to an elderly lady in the ward and have them clean inside or outside their house. This will teach the girls how to care for other people than just them.