Feasting: on Pies and on the Scriptures

This was a Thanksgiving themed activity about FEASTING... both on the words of Christ (our spiritual thought) and on helping with our family's feast. We made mini apple pies for this activity!

I really need to be better at taking pictures! Our activities get so busy, and I'm just not a camera person. But these pies turned out great!

Here's how we made it work:

• One leader baked 2 full size apple pies at home, which we ate at the end of the activity
• One leader made enough pie crust at home for a double crust mini pie (4 inch pie pans) for each girl
• We had disposable mini pie pans and aluminum foil to cover the finished pies for each girl
• We brought apples, one of those hand crank apple peelers, all the seasonings and sugar for pie filling
• We brought as many rolling pins as we could and waxed paper for rolling the crust on 
• We had recipe cards for each girl to take home, which included instructions for baking their mini pie at home, as well as for baking a full sized pie

First we had our lesson and spiritual thought on feasting on the words of Christ, and how feasting is something we enjoy and partake of with gladness. We likened this to our upcoming Thanksgiving feast and encouraged the girls to spiritually feast every day!

For apple pie making:
Since we have a large number of girls we divided into two groups: filling and crust. Each group would get to do both activities.

The filling group each got to peel an apple or two, place it in our big bowl, and help add all the sugar, spices and stir well. The first group left their filling in the communal bowl till they made their crust.

The crust group each had a large ball and a small ball of crust dough (bottom and top crusts). They rolled out their bottom crust on waxed paper and placed it in their pie pan. Then they rolled out the top crust and brought it with them to the filling area.

When we switched we made another batch of filling and this got divided into the crusts. Then the top crust was placed, crimped and vented.

It took a little coordinating, a lot of table space, and some patience, but everyone got to really make their very own pie and it was very fun!

We then ate the delicious prepared pies, passed out the baking directions, and sent everyone home eager to bake their pie!

We made sure to tell the girls the pies needed to be refrigerated until baked, and to have an adult help with the baking process at home.

Gratitude Pumpkins

This was a very simple activity based off of this craft: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/11399805279178661/

Now, canning rings for all my girls would have been VERY expensive. Expensive is not really an option with Activity Days, so we substituted paper strips, taped into rings for the canning rings.

I used card stock, in a variety of colors and patterns, and I really, really wish I had taken a picture of this because it turned out really cute, but I didn't.

I loved this because the girls could do just about all of it on their own.

Supplies:

• Prior to the activity I cut cardboard (thin enough to cut pretty easy, but thick enough to trace with easily too) in 3/4 inch wide strips, one for each girl. 
• I brought a pen and scissors for each girl, and several rolls of scotch tape to share. 
• I brought butcher's twine in cute colors, and also some yarn, just for variety
• We used solid brown, double sided card stock for the stem (a 6x4 strip, rolled up)
• We used green card stock and patterned green papers for the leaves
• I also brought some neutral colored card stock cut in 6x6 inch squares to glue the finished pumpkins to. Made it much easier to transport them.

The girls got to pick a card stock color/pattern for their pumpkin (just one sheet of 12x12). They used the cardboard tracer and a pen to evenly divide the paper into 3/4 inch wide strips.

Before they cut the paper they had to write one thing they were grateful for on each strip.
Then they cut the strips apart and taped the ends to make circles.

When all the circles were completed we passed the butcher string or yarn through the center. This part they needed help with. You need to tie the string tightly enough that the rings stand up and form a circle, but loosely enough so the rings can be moved and arranged, and so the paper doesn't tear.

Once the string is tied, and the rings arranged, insert the stem in the middle of the rings. Place a light coating of glue on the 6x6 neutral square, and carefully place the pumpkin on it, rearranging as necessary. Press the bottoms of the rings onto the glue and let it stand to dry. Attach the leaf to the stem and you're done!

Since we had a lesson on gratitude, did all the work on our pumpkin, shared some of the things we were thankful for that each of us had chosen, and had a small snack at the end this filled our 90 minutes almost perfectly!

If we had had time left over we probably would have played a Thanksgiving game, like four corners, with the corners named after turkeys, pumpkins, Pilgrims and Indians.