- Very
Cute Banners
- Charms and Bracelets
- MINI CERTIFICATES: about the size of baseball
cards. You can have an artist draw them and copy them on card stock or design
something on the computer for each category. Provide the children with plastic
baseball card holders so that they can collect the certificates in an organized
way in a notebook. This may make the award seem more interesting?
- NATIVITY SET: Purchase a nativity set for each girl. IF the girls
try to come to AD activities regularly, give them one piece at each recognition
night. It should take 4 years for them to earn the whole set.
- BEAD NECKLACE: Make a necklace for each
girl. Give them a different colored bead to add to the necklace for each
activity that they complete.
- FLOWER POT: Give each girl a flowerpot when they come into Achievement
Days. For each activity that they complete, give them a flower to add to their
arrangement. You could make the flowers out of wood or purchase silk flowers
and separate the individual stems.
- SUCKERS: Get some cute sucker molds that
coordinate with the different AD categories and make a bunch of suckers.
When the girls complete an activity, they get a sucker that coincides with
the category that they completed.
- TOTE BAG: Buy a canvas tote bag at Wal-Mart or a craft store
(or make them yourself) When the girls complete an activity, they can sew on
a
bead, button or jewel. OR they could stencil something on the bag. This is
a fun idea because they can use the bag to carry their scriptures to church.
- MAGNETS: Make your own magnetic boards.
Find a cookie sheet at the dollar store. If it has a hole on the handle then
it will make it easy to hang on the wall. Get ribbon or stickers or anything
that you want to decorate it with. Hot glue a border around it. The girls
can make magnets for an activity or you can make them and give them the magnets
for their recognition nights. They can hang the board on their wall and use
it to display their awards.
- QUILT: Give each girl a quilt square for each category. You can
decide how you want to do it. For her last activity, have all of the girls
gather around and tie the quilt with her.
- PILLOWS: We bought pillow forms for each
of the girls. We watched for sales and got them for half price. We then had
a recognition night and gave each girl a pillow with instructions to cover
it with material that matched their bedrooms. About a month later we had
a pillow party, where they all showed off their pillows. For every month
of recognition, we give them a button to sew on their pillow. The pillow
should sit on their beds at home, to be a constant reminder to live the gospel
standards.
- Frames: I purchased unfinished wooden frames at a craft store. I also bought small wooden hearts, stars, and buttons. The girls painted the frames and hearts for an arts and crafts activity. This year, the girls will earn one heart for every two goals completed (so at the end of the first year, they will earn 12 hearts). Earned hearts will be glued to the frames at each recognition night. Then, the second year, one star will be earned for every two goals completed and added to the frames. Wooden buttons (smaller than the hearts and stars) will be added during the third and fourth years--again one button will be earned for every two goals completed. One button will be placed on top of each heart and star. At the end of the four years, a picture of each girl in front of the temple will be added to the frames. This will be a treasured keepsake!
- Looking for budget award ideas? I found a wonderful foam rainbow kit from oriental trading company. It has ribbons that hang down (12 in all-one for each goal!) with beads that hang from the ribbons. I plan to award the rainbow wall hangings and the beads that they have earned so far at a parent appreciation dinner-planned by the girls! The cost will be around $1.50 each, perfect for my budget. I wish we could afford the charms but it would be around $70. for my ward, that would blow my budget! 1-800-327-9678 call for a catalogue-it's full of ideas.
jj conner - spfld.mo.
- HOSPITALITY-MOM AND MISS TEMPLE DAY: We met at our church and then carpooled to a park in Logan.We had a lesson on temples and talked about how wrong choices that we might end up making can lead us away from our goal of a temple marriage and how we can repent and get back on track. Then we gave each van a set of die and a frisbee. We told them to take turns rolling the dice. If they roll an even number, they can turn right. An odd number they turned left. Doubles let them go straight ahead. Each turn that led away from the temple (which was only 5 minutes from the park) signified a wrong choice and then we had to try harder to get back on coarse. We ended up on a dead end sub division and had to really repent. Each vehicle had a 30 minute time limit. After that long they were to drive to the temple where we took a picture of each mom with her daughter and a leader told some interesting stories about the Logan temple. We gave the girls a pencil with the saying "the temple, I'm going there some day" and a book mark with the poem "my three white dresses" then we went back to the park for a picnic lunch. The leaders had set up a table with the items the girls had made for recognition and all the fixins for a sub sandwich picnic lunch. The girls had also made "temple mints" for their mom's. It was a really nice morning. Sherrie Anderson Garland Utah stake
|
