Serving Others Ideas

Church: Church suggested Activities.

Parent-Child: suggested Activities.

FEED THE HOMELESS: Make sack lunches for the local homeless shelter.

HUMANITARIAN PROJECTS: Make something and donate it to the Church Humanitarian Center. See http://www.desnews.com/cn/humanitarian/guidelines.htm.

HELP THE PRIMARY CHORISTER: Find out what the Primary Chorister needs for visual aids. Make them for her to use during singing time. It will help her and will be fun for the girls to see what they made.

HELP THE NURSERY: See if the nursery needs more toys. Have the girls send out a flyer to the ward members asking for good used toys. Go around together to pick them up. Clean and repair them and take them to the nursery.

CLEAN THE NURSERY TOYS: Our girls were amazed at how dirty the toys in our building were.

GIVE THE BISHOP A HEART ATTACK !!: We wanted to let the Bishop and Stake President know how thankful we were for all the time they put in. So we gave them each a heart attack. The girls cut out and decorate different size hearts. The girls also took one heart and wrote a personal note from them to the Bishop. We also made cookies. We got one of the Bishop's counselors to let us in to the office, then put hearts up all over the room. For the Stake President we just put hearts all over his office door and left his cookies outside his door. Both the brotheren and the girls enjoyed this activity. The Bishop even left his office decorated for a few weeks.

WALK SHELTER DOGS: Contact your local animal shelter and volunteer to walk the dogs.

PLAN A MEAL: With a set budget, plan a menu for a simple meal and go shopping to see if you can purchase the items within the budget. (You don't actually have to buy the food.)

NEIGHBORHOOD STORYTELLING: Gather young children from the neighborhood and have each girl read them a story.

RECIPE COLLECTION: Start your own recipe collection. Have each child bring a few easy and nutritious recipes that the children could learn to make at home. Let the children copy each recipe on an index card. Challenge them to keep them in a book or box (a small picture album works great, even the free ones you get when you get your pictures developed). Suggest that they try to continue to add to their recipe collection. Suggest that they cook dinner for their families using the recipes.

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

SERVICE SCAVENGER HUNT: Choose a good cause like your Local Food bank, Deseret Industries, MS foundation, Battered Children's Shelter, etc...and find out what they are in need of. Divide the children into teams (each with an adult leader.) Have the teams run from house to house, explaining that they are collecting items for their charitable cause. For example, "We are having a service scavenger hunt for our local Food bank. They are in great need of food for the winter. Do you have any items that you would like to donate? Even one item would be greatly appreciated." If you would like to have some prizes at the end of the scavenger hunt you may do silly ones like: Largest item, funniest, cutest etc... You could also have the children go with you to drop off the items to the charity so that they could see the entire process.

A DIFFERENT SERVICE SCAVENGER HUNT: Make a list of things that need to be done around a home (take out the trash, wash the windows, rake the leaves, shovel sidewalks, sweep a kitchen floor). Divide the girls into two groups. Give each group a list of the chores and tell them they are to go to different homes and complete one chore per home. Have the homeowner sign off whatever chore they completed. The first one to make it back to the start point wins. This is great because it teaches the girls that they can have fun while serving others. Be sure to have the leaders go with the girls and only go to the homes of neighbors you know!

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

THANK YOU NOTES: Have a lesson about practicing good manners and courtesy. Explain that being thankful is very imporant. Discuss the scripure found in Luke 17:12-19 about the Ten Lepers. Teach them to be thankful in their prayers. Talk about the importance of writing thank you notes. Have the children write notes to a parent, teacher, friend, sibling, neighbor thanking them for something. 9This is a good activity after Christmas.)

SPONGE AND SHAVING CREAM CLEAN UP: Every church building has nursery equipment that needs cleaning. Ask each girl to bring a sponge (yellow and green ones work great) and small container of shaving cream to the activity. Tell them to be prepared to get wet. Move all the large plastic nursery equipment, small plastic chairs and tables out to the parking lot near a hose. Hose down the equipment and let the girls go to work with their sponges and shaving cream. Rinse clean, dry and carry back inside. Not only will everyting be clean, but things will smell great. (works well with primary chairs as well)

FESTIVAL OF TREES: This past holiday season we made ornaments out of pretzels and ribbon and donated them to Festival of Trees in Salt Lake City. The girls loved making these simple pretzel wreaths. We then talked about how it made them feel to donate something they made to help others. We also talked about how thankful we can be for our health. If you don't live in Utah, maybe there is a similar charity event in your community.

HONOR THE MILITARY DAY: Have a lesson about the military. Have some veterans and/or families of service men come and talk to the girls. Have them bring a uniform, medals, equipment, pictures, or anything that might be of interest. Explain how important these men and women are to our country. We need them to protect us. Explain how the families feel when their Dad or Mom has to serve for months at a time and be away from the family. Discuss the different branches of the Military and what each one does. Write letters to some servicemen or to their families and express your thanks for their great service and sacrifice. Talk about war and allow the children to ask any questions that they might have. Expain that this is a great form of service.

SERVICE COUPONS: Have each child make a coupon for each family member. Example: For her Mother the girl will vacuum the house. Sister: Read her stories, brother: make bed etc...Wnything that they want.(They can make more than one if they want to.) Tell the children to present the coupons to each family member at their next FHE and cheerfully honor the coupons when they are redeemed. Have them report to you how they felt when they were doing acts of service for others.

FIREMEN AND POLICEMEN APPRECIATION: Make cookies and take them to the local fire station or police station. Write thank you notes for them telling them how much you appreciate all that they do.

RESPECT YOUR ELDERS: Rake leaves, shovel snow, pull weeds, wash windows, go grocery shopping or fix a meal for an elderly person in your ward or neighborhood. Make sure to take a few minutes to visit with them and allow them to tell the girls or boys a story from their childhood.

SERVICE SCAVENGER HUNT: Divide the girls into 2 teams. You will need an extra adult to supervise one of the teams. Give each team a list of services that they could perform for a neighbor or ward member such as sweeping a floor, vacuuming a room, reading a story to a small child, folding a basket of laundry, washing some dishes, pull some weeds, wash a car, scrub a toilet, etc. (Be creative!) The girls then go with their group door-to-door (only to houses of ward members or people they know) and ask if they can perform one of the services on the list. The girls work together to accomplish the task. The first team to complete their list of services is the winner. Meet back as a group for ice cream with the theme of "Service is Sweet".

SERVICE: We had a lesson on service by having the girls wash each others feet with the waterless soap and then giving each other pedicures. Then I told the story of Jesus washing his disciples feet and we brainstormed some ideas. Here is the list we came up with. Pick up litter at the park, make goodies for someone else, clean graves, rake leaves, shovel snow, mow lawns/do yard or garden work, walk dogs, recycle and donate the money earned to a charity, plant flowers, make cards for holidays and give to nursing home or children's shelter, heart attack, visit nursing home, feed missionaries, clean the church, collect and clean toys for the nursery, make cookie mix jars, plan an activity for the primary, sing carols, make small favors and deliver to nursing home or children's shelter, write the missionaries, ring bells for Salvation Army, make a pinata and donate it, babysit for free for enrichment mtg, for parents to go Christmas shopping, or temple trip.

SERVICE SCAVENGER HUNT:  Our Activity Group meets on Wednesday 7-8pm. Because the time is so short, I sent a sign-up sheet around on Sunday asking people to sign-up for donations for the local Safehouse/Women's shelter. 16 people signed up. We called them Tuesday night to remind them. I made a thank you note with a little box of Junior Mints (Halloween candy size) attached saying: Thanks for your involve"mint" in our activity. It really "mint" a lot!
We only had 2 girls attend the activity, ages 8 & 11, both less active, attending different schools. I worried that it would not be very much fun for them.
When we arrived at the homes, it felt like we were trick or treating, except we were giving the treat and receiving treats for others. As we approached the next homes, the girls were no longer shy, but enthusiastic about what they might get for others.
We stopped at the Primary President's house last. She gave us a donation and had arranged to serve us doughnuts and cider! It was a good opportunity for the girls to meet their primary president.
Last stop, my home, where we unloaded our "loot" and took a picture of the girls with the much needed items. I feel it was a success because they both told me it was lots of fun.

HARVESTING FOOD FOR NEEDY FAMILIES: Our group spent this last summer at a garden that grew food/produce for the local food bank. We went out on 5 different occasions and the girls harvested vegetables, planted potatoes and learned about mulching/watering and necessary nutrients that are needed in the soil for plants to grow. They also had the opportunity to "sample" some of the vegetables and work side by side with a master gardener. It was a great success and as a follow up activity, we had the girls write in the journals about the experience and had them play a guessing game - taping the names of vegetable onto their backs and taking turns trying to guess what kind of vegetable they were.

COOKIE IN A JAR: The girls learned how to measure dry ingredients when each of them made a "Cookie in a Jar". We filled Mason jars with the dry cookie ingredients, and the different layers made neat colors (we used peanut butter chips, M&M's, etc.)Then when they were finished, they could give it to someone as a great Christmas gift. There are several recipes for this activity at Allrecipes.com (just search for "Cookie in a jar")

MAKE NECKLACES & DISTRIBUTE AT NURSING HOME: We got supplies to make necklaces and pins (be sure to get some things that the men can wear). We spent one activity making them all and for the next activity we went to a local nursing home (with a scheduled apt.) to deliver our gifts. All the residents were happy to see us and excited to show off how much they were loved. We should have had some songs prepared though. They all wanted to hear us sing. This is a nice activity to do other than Christmas time, to show that people care year round.

ORNAMENT/SINGING ACTIVITY: This last christmas I took my activity day girls to a retirement home to sing christmas carols. As each older man or woman would come in to sit for our little show one or two girls would go and give them a christmas ornament. I just bought a box of regular christmas glass balls from Wal mart. These older folks were so happy to have these girls there singing to them. Some even enjoyed it so much they started singing themselves. Its the best activity I have ever planned.

GOOD MANNERS: Put together situations in which girls can decide the manners they should use in those situations. Such as; You are at the store and an elder person is trying to reach a product on a shelf and cannot, what could you do? Or you can split them up and have them pull out made up situations that you have written down. Then have them split up in groups or what ever fits your size group and put together skits where they show bad manners then correct it by using good manners.

PUMPKIN CARVING: Our activity day girls did a fun service project this past Halloween. We brought pumpkins and carved "Happy Jacks" (jack-o-lanterns that looked happy and cheerful) and delivered them to all the widows in our ward. The girls themselves took the pumpkins to the door and handed it to the elderly widows tith an enthusiastic "Happy Halloween!" Some of the widows had little or no Halloween decorations, so they were especially appreciative. This Halloween, we intend to make it a Daddy-Daughter activity. We'll have everyone bring two pumpkins, one to donate to the widows and one to take home. You'll get two for one! A parent-child activity AND a great service project. Pumpkin carving knives are a must! They do the job and are easy to handle.

SERVICE PROJECT OF LOVE: You will do a service of love.Like saying I Love You and mean it. That's all. BYE

HEART SHAPE PILLOWS FOR AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY: Our group of girls learned to cut and sew heart shaped pillows to donate to the American Cancer Society (ACS). The pillows are used for Breast Cancer Patients to help with comfort and recovery. Contact your local ACS office for more information and to see if they need any pillows. We did this Activity during February so we also frosted sugar cookies as a treat!
The girls loved learning how to sew and use a sewing machine. They also enjoyed stuffing the pillows.
This Acitivty can go under both Serving Others & Developing Talents. It can be used as several activities as you can take 2 activities to make the pillows and another to deliver to the ACS local office and have the girls learn more about Cancer detection and prevention.

BOOK & TOY DRIVE!: We collected books and toys from ward members. Cleaned them and gave them to the Nursery. Also discussed the importance of keeping toys clean and age-appropriate toys.
The girls wrapped up the activity by writing thank you notes to the members that made donations and dropped them off on the way home!

CLEANING THE NERSERY TOYS: Go to your church and have the girls clean the Nersery toys.

TREAT FOR SOMEONE SPEICAL: Have the girls help make cookies. Then put them on a plate and put them on someone in your wards doorstep, ring the doorbell and run. (put it from anoumous, so they dont know how it was)