Once Upon a Time..

We as a stake primary had so much fun putting this girl's activity day together. We based our theme on Elder Uchtdorf's talk to the young women this past spring "Your Happily Ever After" We made supplies for almost 300 girls ages 8-11 and went through it all! Each girl was given a pink bag to take to each of four workshops. Each workshop focused on something different and they received or made something in every class to take home. This idea could be used for ward activity days or YW's too. To start the day off, I gave a quick mini talk on Elder Uchtdorf's talk. I brought in a Grimms Fairy Tale book from my childhood and talked to the girls about how their "once upon a time" starts now.

Bookmarks

"Once upon a time" banner

These were a fast, economic centerpiece we can re-use. They are just vases from the dollar store with scrapbook paper rolled up and placed inside. Tissue paper, ribbon and paper crowns sprayed silver. Balloons came up out of the centerpieces. Rose petals and tulle all around the tables. I don't think we could make anything less expensive- and easy!

Princess Diaries we made from black and white composition notebooks Walmart had on sale for 25 cents each before school started. Yay for little miracles when we have a budget and 300 to buy! We made a card stock cover from clip art the girl's could fill in with colored pencils.

"Mirror, Mirror on the Wall" workshop.

We talked about images we see in advertisements are not always "real beauty" Models have teams of people working on them, photographers take a million pictures and pick the very best one, then a lot of times it's put on the computer and altered to look differently. I showed the "Dove Evolution" commercial from youtube to the girls. I think it really made an impression on how distorted beauty ads can be. These young girls are surrounded by these ads and may start to compare themselves with them. They are comparing themselves to something that isn't even real most times!

We talked about Heavenly Father's idea of beauty and modesty and I wrote a story about a "Princess Perfect" who never was really happy until she stopped focusing on her outward appearance and started helping others. The girls each received a copy of the story and a rainbow sucker that represents letting your "true colors" shine through as we watched a "commercial" set to the song True Colors that I made, showing regular girls doing amazing things just like them. They are all amazingly beautiful!"Princess Academy" workshop. Lisa did a great job! The girls learned table etiquette and had dessert served. A massive amount of dessert quickly plated and served by Karen and Mary!! More importantly they learned that having good manners is more than how we act at the table, it's making sure everyone around us feels included and welcome. It's about being a good friend. The girl's "graduated" at the end with a diploma.
"Princess in Training" workshop by Tacy. Here, the girls learned about talents and how a lot of talents are more than just the obvious ones we can see, like singing etc.. The girl's thought about what talents they have that maybe can't as easily be seen. Then they made princess charm necklaces from Tacy's bead boutique- they were the big hit of the day!
Darling "Princess Diaries" workshop by Maria. Maria talked about gratitude and each girl colored the cover of her own Princess Diary gratitude journal.
Is there anything cuter than 8-11 yr. old girls?!?