December's Meeting - Homemade Gifts!

I'm especially excited about this month's meeting.

Early Bird Activity: Stamping wrapping paper.

Firstly, and most wonderfully, we're finally getting the vests to the kids!

The Adventure level kids will be getting their first beads! For the meetings that they have already attended, credit for the trails that they've worked on. We'll show the vest example off, and explain how they can design their own pictures with their beads. Future meetings will have bead sewing as part of the on-going Early Bird activity.

The Starflight level kids have earned their first group of 4 stickers AND their first patch! We'll explain how it works, how it is different from Adventure level. Starflight earns more patches than Adventure, they'll start earning beads once they're Adventure.

The children will get their vest and whatever award items. For that meeting, however, they can just put their vest on. Once each child has been recognized, we'll move on to the main part of the meeting: Making Homemade Gifts!

Gifts from the heart and made by hand show so much love, especially when children themselves make them. We'd like to offer an opportunity for the children to make a few gifts of their own to give for Hannukah/Christmas.

There will be 3 stations, possibly 4 - different activities where the kids end up with gifts that they can then have for the holidays.

Station 1: Card Making. We'll have the kids paint their hand & press it on the card- they can make a reindeer or mistletoe. There will be "Made with Love"

Station 2: Homemade Chia Pets Using stockings, seeds, and potting soil, the kids will be making a round shapes. From there, they can put a face on it with materials.

Station 3: Mini Succulent Planters w/Corks Using corks, the kids will plant a little succulent plant, glue on a piece of magnet to the cork.

The fourth station is still being worked on - it may be too expensive. We may have this station at an additional charge, or ask members to bring in a jar to use.

Station 4: Cowboy Cookie Mix The kids can fill a jar with the necessary ingredients to make cookies. They can tie the directions on to the jar, etc.

Kids can go from station to station making gifts so they can be ready for the season's gift-giving.

We'll then have the potluck, followed by the closing circle.

(Starflight - Trail to Family and Community, A Better Community, A Gift of Giving, p. 54. Adventure - Trail to Family & Community, A Gift of Giving, generic)