Sensory Safari

In Primary this year we have learned a lot about our body being a temple. Our body is an amazing creation-- it can do so many wonderful things! 

The idea for the Sensory Safari came from this article in the Friend:
https://www.lds.org/friend/2016/07/happy-sabbath?lang=eng

We had a lesson, then one activity for each of our five senses. Because our activity time has been reduced to just 60 minutes (down from 90 minutes), and because we had 11 girls in attendance, we needed all our time-- and even a few minutes extra!

Lesson: Our spirits wanted a body, because bodies are AWESOME!

There are many things that a person with a body can do that a spirit cannot: we can eat, sleep, touch, smell, and so much more! Our spirits were VERY excited to be able to do these things. Our spirits knew a body would be a special gift; now that we are here on earth we need to appreciate and take good care of our body.

This is what the scriptures teach us about our body:

1 Corinthians 3:16 

What do we learn from this verse? (Our body is a place for our spirit to live. Our body is a temple.) 

Heavenly Father knew getting a body would be special to us. He created this world with many wonderful things that our bodies could experience. He gave us things to touch, taste, hear, see and smell that are beautiful!

There is a song that we sing about our beautiful world on page 228 (have 2 or 3 songbooks for the girls to share) in the Children’s Songbook. 

What is the name of this song? (My Heavenly Father Loves Me) 

Why do you think they chose this for the name?  

Let’s read the words, and listen for the different kinds of things that Heavenly Father created to make the world beautiful to us. (Let the girls read the words aloud)

We know Heavenly Father created  our bodies, and He wants us to both enjoy them and care for them. The prophet and other church leaders teach us to keep our bodies clean and pure. Look at the back of your FIG book, at the “My Gospel Standards”: 

“I will keep my mind and body sacred and pure, and I will not partake of things that are harmful to me.” 

What kinds of things might be harmful to our body? (Drugs, alcohol, tobacco)

It is also good to keep our bodies clean (physically, like with soap and water), to eat healthy foods, to exercise and get the sleep we need.

Tonight we want to focus on some of the amazing things our body can do! So we are going to take a sensory safari and explore all five sense: sight, touch, hearing, smell and taste. As we do, let’s return grace and thanks to God as we experience all he has blessed us with!

-----------------------

Sight: Close your eyes for a minute. Imagine experiencing your whole world without the gift of sight. 

Without our eyes it would be very hard to read, to walk around without running into things, and even do simple things like pick the right cereal box! 

Our eyes can see things far and near. They can pick out patterns and colors. They can even help us find things that are hidden. If you’ve ever seen an airplane far up in the sky, or looked closely at the beauty of a butterfly, or seen how interesting the texture of a piece of bread or block of marble is, you know your eyes are pretty amazing. 

Your eyes convey a great deal of information to the brain, and even things that WANT to stay hidden can be detected by a careful observer if we look closely enough. Let’s test our eyes with this hidden picture!

Do a hidden picture page from the Friend. Have one copy, and one highlighter per girl http://media.ldscdn.org/pdf/magazines/friend-september-2010/2010-09-18-we-love-family-home-evening-eng.pdf

Smell: Our sense of smell is so important! Not only is it great to smell nice things like flowers and cookies and fresh baked bread, our nose can warn us of danger! Like if we smell smoke, or a chemical smell. Maybe you have even smelled something stinky and thus have avoided stepping in dog poo!

See if you can identify these different smells. 

Set up: Place the liquids as far apart as possible on the table (so the smells don’t collide); let the girls smell each container and try to identify the liquid inside by its scent.

I used clean baby food jars, and different clear liquids with distinct scents

I numbered each container, and had a numbered brown paper bag behind each bottle that contained the item: water bottle, vinegar bottle (water down the vinegar a bit!), mint bottle, soda bottles... it is a fun reveal at the end as you show what is inside the bag!

Give each girl a paper with the possible scents written down, and a pencil

Girls write the NUMBER by the word which identifies it (berry soda, 3; vinegar, 1, etc.)

I had the girls identify vinegar; water; berry flavored clear soda; pineapple coconut flavored clear soda; orange flavored clear soda; water w/ mint extract in it

Hearing: We can identify many different varieties of sound, soft sound, loud sounds, the beauty that is music. You can recognize a person by their voice, and everyone has a different voice! How amazing is that? If you spend a minute to listen, even in a quiet room, you can often hear small noises: a fly buzzing, or a fan running, or even the sound of your own breathing. Take a minute to just quietly listen for sounds in this room… 

Our ears can tell us a lot if we use them, so let’s put them to the test and see if you can match up these different sounds!

Set up: Use a lidded, opaque container (such as old film canisters, m&m Minis tubes) and make pairs of tubes with matching interior objects such as: a teaspoon of rice (in 2 separate tubes), a teaspoon of salt, a few coins, a pencil eraser, etc. 

Give one tube to each girl (making sure that each tube has a partner passed out— a leader may need to participate if you have an odd number of girls), and have them shake the tube. By listening to the different sounds, the girls should be able to find the matching tube (that contains the same interior object)

When the girls discover the matching tube have them sit down next to their partner. When everyone is seated, let each pair shake their tubes to show the matching sounds.

Touch: Our sense of touch can tell us about danger, like if something is hot or sharp. It can be pleasurable, such as when we receive a hug, or feel something soft and fuzzy. We can learn a lot about an object by touching it. 

What can we tell about objects with our sense of touch? Let’s explore.

Set up: Have the girls sit in a circle with their eyes closed; pass around different objects;

without opening eyes, talk about what we can tell about each object…

Remind the girls to keep their eyes closed until they've had their turn. To facilitate passing, say “pass” after each girl has had a few seconds to explore the object. 

Discuss: Even if we cannot see something, if we can touch it we know if it is:

Rough/smooth

light/heavy

wet/dry

hot/cold

We might also be able to tell the shape/size

What are some things you like to feel? Silk? a fluffy kitten? small pebbles? grass?

Pass around: a sticky toy, a large rock, playdough, a cotton ball, an ice cube 

Taste: Our mouth and tongue do some wonderful things. We can appreciate all kinds of flavors and textures. Sweet, creamy ice cream or yogurt. Crunchy salty potato chips, or almonds, or cinnamon toast. Juicy fried chicken or a grilled hamburger. Cool, crisp watermelon or apples or pears. Ooey gooey chocolate chip cookies. Even sour lemons, and broccoli! Does anyone else want a picnic now??? :) If we had a picnic, what would you bring?

If there is time, let the girls share a favorite food.

Our eyes and our nose often help our sense of taste along. But even without our eyes, and without a strong smell, our sense of taste can give us a lot of information. Let’s see how smart YOUR sense of taste is!***

Set up: Give each girl a piece of paper with the different types of Cheerios listed on it. I had  Fruity Cheerios, plain, Honey Nut, Chocolate, Apple Cinnamon and Pumpkin Spice.

Place a dixie cup in front of each girl. Pour the same type of Cheerios in each cup while the girls have their eyes closed. I gave each girl about a tablespoonful each time so they could get a good mouthful.

The girls pick up their cup, (eyes closed!) and pour all the Cheerios into their mouths. They can they open their eyes, assess the flavor and mark their card. They should place a number one by the flavor they think they tasted first, a two by the flavor they think they tasted second, and so on.

It's best for the girls to make a choice about the flavor before they go on to the next round of Cheerios. They can go back and adjust later if they want to.

*** Explain that eyes have to be closed because it is a TASTE test and seeing a dark brown cheerio... well you know that's the chocolate one with zero tasting. Obviously the girls COULD easily peek... but there isn't a prize for winning. This is just to test how good our mouth is at distinguishing flavors. Peeking will just wreck your chance to see that. So don't cheat!

Do all the rounds, and then go back and reveal the answers/have the girls check and see how well they did. 

------------------

And that's all five senses! The girls really enjoyed each game and had a lot of fun at this activity. Be sure to close with your testimony, and bring back the idea that we should thank Heavenly Father for the marvelous gift that is our body! 

We can show our appreciation through prayers of thanks, but also through taking good care of our body, and treating it respectfully as the temple that it is.

Friendship Bracelets

The start of another new school year means it is time again for a lesson on valuing others and making new friends!

I based our lesson on this Pinterest post:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/458241330812794990/

{an acronym of the word Friends, with the letters standing for different aspects of respect and friendship.}

I also included in the lesson the idea that all people are our Heavenly Father's children, and our brothers and sisters. Christ had one rule for everyone and that was: love one another as I have loved you. So we have the opportunity daily to treat others with kindness and dignity and that should be our basic goal.

I hid the little cards shown in the Pinterest post around the room and had the girls do a quick search for them, then we discussed each aspect briefly, in order, and stuck them up on the board.

Then we made friendship bracelets!

Thank you Pinterest, for making my life easier! We used the method highlighted here (great pictures on her blog!): https://www.pinterest.com/pin/458241330816051481/

Once you get the hang of it, it goes really fast and many of the girls were able to get a bracelet halfway completed, one or two got theirs all the way done. Also one or two left with only an inch or so finished, but those were the ones doing a lot of chatting! I heard from many parents that bracelet weaving continued at home and many extra bracelets were made!

MUSIC made this super enjoyable. We played some favorite tunes while we were weaving, and it was a fun and relaxing way to spend time together.

I put the instructions on index cards for the girls to take home. You can download a PDF of this file here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9ltWADMnsx7QkNGZHJZc1QwR1U/view?usp=sharing

I made a few tweaks to the method shown in the Pinterest post above. They really helped with the speed of the project.

The first improvement I made was to change the circle from cardboard to craft foam.

• The original card board circle (which I made first) was stiffer and easier to hold, and made a "tighter" weave  to the bracelet... BUT it had the major flaw of catching and snagging at the thread each time you moved it. 
• The foam circle was easier to make (to cut the center hole, I just folded it in half, did a small snip, folded it in half the other way, snip, and that little plus shaped opening was perfect to hold the strands), plenty easy to hold, and, although it did result in a slightly looser weave, it was overall not a noticeable difference. Add to that the foam caused ZERO SNAGGING, and we had a winner!

The second improvement: add numbers to the circle.

• This meant that instead of turning the circle each time, or counting over each time, you could just memorize the sequence. SPEED. 
• Also, one some circles, I added a secondary number to make it FOOL PROOF (if slot 8 is empty, get the tread from slot 5). Some of the girls really liked this, and some found it confusing. Which slot am I on? 8? or 5? So I mixed methods and put the slot sequence on the BACK of the wheel (for reference if needed) and left the front with just the slot number. The girls who wanted to add the secondary number could easily do so. 
• Number sequence: (the first number is the empty slot, the second number is the slot you lift the thread from) 8, 5; 5, 2; 2, 7; 7, 4; 4, 1; 1, 6; 6, 3; 3, 8

As a non-expert weaver I really liked this method. For several reasons:

• You can put down your weaving at any time and it stays in place, PLUS you always know what comes next... no trying to remember which thread you are on
• It was simple to demonstrate/explain to the girls. After just a few times of going through the method together everyone understood it.
• It is very FAST if you memorize the pattern, but doable even if you don't bother and go slow
• It limits your supply needs, with only seven strands of floss needed per bracelet. I thought the bracelets looked best with 2-4 colors, meaning some strands were the same color. You COULD do 7 different colors, but it just looked really busy.

To be fair, there were a few downsides as well, namely:

• It creates a fairly slim bracelet, and there isn't really a good way to make it thicker
• Your pattern changing ability is limited to either multi colored (random) or two colored stripe

Article of Faith Olympics

This was a pretty big activity because there are 13 Articles of Faith. That meant 13 stations, and that meant 13 adults were needed.

We needed the whole gym for the set up, and if you don't have at least 10 girls... I would consider inviting the Cub Scouts to join you for this activity to make the set up time and adult participation "worth it."

It would have been super awesome if I had remembered to take pictures of this fun night... but... I had a few people not show up-- and therefore last minute "aaaaaggghhhh!" going on-- and I didn't. I do have pictures of most of the games though, down below.

Couple of things... 

Memorization: I told the girls starting about a month out that the Article of Faith Olympics was coming up, and that IF (if!) they memorized the Articles of Faith, they would be elite competitors who would have an advantage. This encouraged the girls to be thinking about/trying to memorize the 13 A of F (which they should be doing anyway!) and it was a great way to get them excited about it.

I made the "elite competitor" part true by leaving a score card space for memorization. If the girls had the Article memorized they got 3 extra points for it.

Using the Articles of Faith: Since it was an "Article of Faith" Olympics... you had to say the A of F at each station. For non-memorizers we had the poster board size A of F at each station and they read it with the adult before (BEFORE!) they could play the game.

If they had it memorized, the adult would simply flip the card over, and let them say it for the extra points.

Games were just... games: It would have been super cool... beyond cool!... if the games had to do with the meaning of the Articles of Faith, or were in some way related to them. But they did not. If this makes you sad, I understand! It's okay! Feel free to make up games that do relate to the themes in each Article of Faith and use those instead!

These games are just a mish mash of different ways to have fun for 8-11 year olds! Their defining characteristic is they were pretty easy to put together. When you are doing 13 games, easy is important!

Set up: Took about 90 minutes because I did it alone. Take down, with all the adults helping took about 10 minutes. Plan accordingly! Don't get there 20 minutes early to set all this up or your activity will not happen! Just dragging in all the tables from other rooms in the building will take you 20 minutes!

We still had a lesson: Because why DO we memorize the Articles of Faith??? I thought that was important to talk about! The lesson lasted about 5 minutes, and then the girls played the games.

Winners: I did make a prize for everyone, but I felt like that was optional. I could have just announced who had the most points with no prizes. But the girls (of course) did like getting prizes at the end. If you want to do prizes you could do a variety of simple things from candy Olympic medals, to prize ribbons to certificates. I did a small bag of starburst (about 8 per girl) and told them they were  Article of Faith "stars"!

Here is the lesson I used (VERY SHORT!):

Why do we memorize the articles of Faith?

They teach us about the gospel.

They can help us share the gospel.

They are a good guide when someone wants to know, “what do you believe?”

Along with the Articles of Faith we have the “My Gospel Standards” on the back of the Faith in God booklet.

These simple statements help us see the gospel clearly. They can help us choose the right. They are based on words from the prophets, and from the scriptures.

Tonight we are going to say ALL the Articles of Faith. You will say one at each station before you play the game.

I hope the games are fun! I also hope you have at least a few of the Articles of Faith memorized, because if you do, you will get extra points!

But most of all, I hope that as you say the Articles of Faith that it will imprint on your heart and on your mind. There is much that we can study and learn from them.

Ok... the Games!

For EVERY station the adult helpers had the same instruction:

1. The girl says the Article of Faith for your station.
2. Mark her score sheet in your station’s “Said AoF” column. If she had it memorized, mark the “From Memory” column as well. (extra points for her!)
3. The girl plays your station game.
4. Mark her card with the points she earned in your station’s Game Points square.

Station 1: Ping Pong Squirt Down: a towel on the wall would have been helpful as it got squirted quite a bit. I did have towels for wiping the floor. One large (2 gallon) bucket was plenty to easily fill the squirt gun for each girl.

Give the girl a fully filled squirt pistol. From behind the line she has 1 minute to squirt down as many ping pong balls as possible. Each ball squirted down = 5 points.

Station needs: A of F #1 card; 5 ping pong balls, holding board, 2 water pistols, timer, pen, water bucket to refill squirt guns, towels, table, chair

Station 2: M&M Transfer

Pour one cup (each contains 25 m&ms) onto a clean plate. Set an additional plate 4 inches away on the table. Give the girl a straw. She has 1 minute to transfer as many m&ms as she can from the first plate to the second plate using the straw. Each m&m transferred to the second plate = 1 point. {The girls may eat their m&ms when they are done with their turn.}

Station needs: A of F #2 card; 16 cups of m&ms (25 in each cup); 16 straws; 32 plates, timer, pen, table, trash can

Station 3: Dice Pop Challenge: I purchased the board game Madd Cap Checkers, Dog Lover's Edition, from Amazon because it came with a three dice popper. Unfortunately the dice were dog bones, not numbers! FORTUNATELY, the popper base easily unscrewed and I substituted regular dice, screwed it back to gather and it worked great!

The player selects a number (1-6). She has 30 seconds to pop the popper as many times as possible. She gets one point for each for each time a die shows her chosen number (up to three points per pop, if all the dice show her chosen number).

Station needs: A of F #3 card; timer, pen, scratch paper, dice popper, table

Station 4: Treasure Dig: this was a big bowl with some old food storage wheat in it (about 6 inches deep). The treasure pieces were just small pebbles with numbers written on them. There were six pebbles total, 2 each for four, five and six points. It is REALLY fun to run your hands through wheat. The girls loved it!

Each girl gets to search the treasure bowl and pull out 2 treasure pieces.  

>NO PEEKING! If a piece is visible, it counts for a score.

>The pieces are labeled with different point values.

>Add the points from the treasure pieces for her score.

>Return the pieces to the bowl after each player’s turn.

Station needs: A of F #4 card; large bowl of old wheat; 6 treasure  pieces with different point values hidden in the bowl; pen, table

Station 5: Perfection Puzzle: the classic board game. I had it in my garage, it was a huge hit! (even with three pieces missing!)

Player starts with an empty perfection board. Set the board for 30 seconds. Award 2 points for each piece inserted correctly before the board pops!

Station needs: A of F #5 card; Perfection game board and pieces, pen, table

Station 6: Guess Who: another classic board game! It is one player, with the adult picking the card and the girl trying to identify which person was picked.

Adult selects a game card from the pile. (Keep the card secret!) The player asks YES/NO questions to identify which card you have. For example: Is the person a girl? Does the person have glasses?

Each player begins this station with 50 points. Deduct 5 points per question needed to correctly identify the card. (the identity question "Is it Sam?" does not count against your points!-- unless you have someone just asking identity... is it Sam? Ed? Pete?... then it would count.)

Example: if the girl asks 6 questions (5x6 =30) her score would be 20 points (50-30=20)

Station needs: A of F #6 card; Guess Who board, Guess who cards, pen, scratch paper, table, 2 chairs

This is basically a clean V-8 can that I opened with a Pampered Chef can opener (no sharp little poke point that way) that I stuffed inside a large, (clean) fuzzy sock.

I placed various objects inside, including a plastic spoon, an unopened tube of chapstick, a die, an eraser, a hair band, etc.

When the sock completely engulfs the can, it leaves a little fuzzy tube the girls can easily stick their arm in and feel around the can. It prevents them from seeing anything, while allowing them easy access to the objects inside. Everyone wanted to play this after and figure out the objects they didn't have time to guess!

Station 7: Touch Detective

Player reaches into the mystery box and feels the objects. When she thinks she knows what an object is she tells you her guess, then pulls the object out. She has 1 minute to identify as many objects as she can. 3 points per correctly identified object

Station needs: A of F #7 card; object box and objects (eraser, chapstick, spoon, nail polish bottle, dice, comb, clothespin, lego, quarter, key, hair band), timer, pen, table

Station 8: Balloon Bustle: I placed the starting basket and the ending basket about 20 feet apart. The girls got an average of 5 balloons into the basket in a minute.

Player begins by placing a balloon on her tennis racket. The goal is to get as many balloons (1 at a time) into the goal basket using only the racket-- NO HANDS.

> Time limit is 1 minute.

>Award 5 points per balloon in the end goal basket.

Station needs: A of F #8 card; 2 baskets, 10 balloons, tennis racket, timer, pen

Station 9: Mystery Taste: We had five plates of fruit cut in very small pieces behind a short wall of hymnals. The girls loved tasting and trying to guess the different fruits. Ask about potential allergies before playing! (We only needed one apple, one banana, etc. because the pieces were VERY small)

Place a blindfold on the player.  Give each player a small piece of each fruit, wait for her to identify it, then give her the a different piece of fruit. Continue until all five have been given (strawberry, apple, banana, orange and pineapple). For each they identify correctly, award 5 points.

Station needs: A of F #9 card, toothpicks, trash can, blindfold, tasting foods, poster board “food shield”, pen, table

Station 10: Bozo Buckets : the buckets are set up in a line, with the closet bucket being 3 points, next closest 4, etc. I did 5 buckets, a stand behind line, and ping pong balls. The balls did bounce out of the buckets in my trial run, so I added a layer of cotton balls to the bottom of each bucket, problem solved!

Give the girl 3 ping pong balls. She gets to throw each ball one time. Each bucket is labeled with points. Add the points from each bucket that has a ball in it.

Station needs: A of F #10 card; five buckets ( with point signs), three ping pong  balls, pen

Station 11: Follow the Dots-- This was an iPad game (free) from the app store. It's name is self explanatory! Using a finger on the screen the girls try to stay on the same track as the moving dots. If they miss, turn over. It has a timed, 30 second mode, which is the mode I used.

Note: Most of the girls scored about 30 points on this but ONE girl scored 285. It threw off the whole Olympics, as with this one game, she basically won the whole shebang. I would set a 50 point cap for the station to keep it in line with the points that can be earned at other stations.

Each player can try 3 times to follow the dots on the timed mode (30 second limit). Take the highest score the girl achieves and enter it on her score card.

Station needs: A of F #11 card, ipad, pen, table, chair

Station 12: Jump Rope Junction

Each girl has 30 seconds to do as many jumps as she can. She must clear the rope with both feet for it to count as 1 jump. Each jump is 1 point.

Station needs: A of F #12 card; jump rope, pen, scratch paper, timer

Station 13: Giant Bean Bag Toss... this was a seat sized bean bag, probably weighed 5-10 pounds, but it was quite large. Most of the girls were able to throw it 12-15 feet, so plan your space accordingly!

Each player throws the bean bag once. Measure from throw line to bean bag. 1 point per foot.

Station needs: A of F #13 card; large bean bag, strip of painter’s tape, measuring tape, pen

Here is the score sheet. I printed them on card stock. Link to download a printable PDF:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9ltWADMnsx7WmJ3R2x6YTJVUHM/view?usp=sharing

Candy Advent for the Girls

I am already looking forward to Christmas although it is not yet October!

I like to plan ahead for Christmas, because when Christmastime arrives... you don't have time to plan any more!

With that in mind I have created this Christmas Advent already. There are ten days of scripture meditations to open. (So the girls start opening them on December 15th, after our Wednesday activity on the 14th.)

This is the finished advent. All the envelopes and candy will go inside the bag. I would say more, but if you are interested you can read ALL the details and how tos here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9ltWADMnsx7THo0bW92eEMwTUk/view?usp=sharing

Here is a link to download the label as a .jpeg, in case you want to use a photo printing site (so much cheaper than printing it yourself!) to make the tags:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9ltWADMnsx7cEN0ZG9JX0tDX0k/view?usp=sharing

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.