Our Little Flowers Girls Club Group

I started a LFGC at our parish this Fall.  I am going to be sharing ideas, activities, stories, and crafts here.  This group has been a great blessing to me and I hope that the girls feel the same way.  I started the group because I wanted it for my daughters.  My 6 and 4 year old are both participating.  I knew we would have some interest from the playgroup I have been involved with at Church but I was shocked and excited to have 11 girls join our group.

We meet twice a month from 4:00 until 5:30 in the community room at our parish.  We work on one Saint/Virtue each month.  Our schedule looks something like this:

4:00 - 4:15 Girls Arrive / Coloring Pages / Snack

4:15 - 4:30 Opening Ceremony/Memory Verse songs

4:30 - 4:45 Lesson / Story

4:45 - 5:15 Craft / Clean up

5:15 - 5:30 Closing Cermoney / Prayer Intentions / Badges

The First meeting of the month we read a story about our Saint and we work on our scrapbook pages during the craft time.  The girls are each making a notebook/scrapbook with a page for each Saint/Virtue they are learning about.  They also color the Saint page in their member guides.

The Second meeting of the month we read a story based on the Virtue of the month.  We do a craft and they color pages that I print out for them.  They are usually adult pictures of the Saints since the coloring pages in the book are the Saints as children.

We decided as a group to give the patches each month as they are earned.  Since the girls in our group are so young (4-6) it will keep it exciting for them.  They will get their patches for the previous month at the end of the first meeting of the month.

I have contacted a couple other LFGC groups in our area to see if they wanted to be "sister troops" and do bigger service projects with us and possibly even field trips to shrines and holy places.  There seems to be some interest.  Right now I am working on a service opportunity for our "Love Your Neighbor" patch.

Web Resources:

Ecce Homo Press

Official Little Flowers Girls Club Blog

Little Flowers Girls Club Leaders Yahoo Group

Other Leader Resources:

Little Flowers Girls Club Leaders Guide by Rachel Watkins

Little Flowers Girls Club Craft Companion for Wreath I by Katrina Fabian (I do not use this often)

Little Flowers Girls Club Art and Activity Book  for Wreaths I and II by Rachel Watkins (I haven't used this)

Little Flowers Ceremony and Prayer Book  - This isn't necessary but I have found it to be handy as it includes prayers, and ceremonies for sashing and badging, etc...

Little Flowers Girls Club Wreath 1 virtue Stories by Joan Stromberg - These stories haven't been great for the age group I am working with.  They are a little slow and do not capture their attention.  I have been relying on my own books and stories.  They would probably be great for older girls and they are definitely geared towards homeschoolers.  My girls are homeschooled but most of the girls in our group are not.

Little Flowers Virtues and Verses CD for Wreaths 1 and 2 - We use this at every meeting and it is great for helping the girls to remember their verses.  My eldest daughter makes up hand motions to go with the songs and that helps with the memorization as well.

Loyola Kids Book of Saints - We use some of the stories from this book.  I do not always read the stories out of the member guides.  The girls in my group are fairly young and sometimes the stories are a bit graphic for them.  I pre-read everything and make sure that I tell the stories accurately but age appropriately.  

Leader Binder:  I have been keeping my own Leaders Notebook binder with the meeting schedule, Calendar, Opening and Closing Ceremonies, Prayers and Acts, Contact List, Registration Forms, and a copy of each scrapbook page and craft that we do.  It would be very easy to pass along to someone else if I was unable to make it to a meeting and it will be easy to replicate the group again in the future.

My stash of supplies

Uniform and Supplies for the Girls:

Each girl in our Group has the LFGC Sash (found at Ecce Homo press), Cross Name Badge, set of Wreath 1 patches, and the Member Guide.  They also have a blue binder that they keep the guide book, scrapbook pages, and additional coloring pages in.  I slide the pages into sheet protectors for them.  They usually try to wear the color of the month to our meetings.

Supplies for the Girls

Supplies for the Group:

I charged a $10 craft fee at the beginning of our year.  In hindsight this was probably not enough but I was trying to keep the cost down and the families had the expense of the uniform/patches.  Next year I will increase the amount.  I am keeping a spreadsheet of my costs to figure out what is fair.  I have been keeping our cost down by using construction paper and my supplies of crayons and glue sticks.  I think I am going to take advantage of the Christmas sales to purchase a box of crayons, glue, and scissors for each girl.  I will definitely do this in September next year so I can take advantage of the back to school sales!

Oriental Trading Company has some great craft options at a low cost.  We also do quite a bit of cutting, coloring, and gluing.  The girls in the group are 4-6 so these are also skills that they are working on in school.

Snacks:

One of the Moms has organized the snack list for me and sends reminders before each meeting.  We rotate and each girls has the opportunity to bring the snack and drink for the meeting.  The girl that brings the snack is St. Therese's special helper and passes out the snack and leads the prayer intentions at the end of the meeting.

I encourage the Moms to try and come up with a snack that ties in with the theme or color of the month but it is optional.  We keep the snacks light, mostly healthy, and I give them right away while the girls are coloring before we start with opening prayers because our meeting time is so close to dinner time.


Pictures and ideas for each Virtue/Saint to Follow...

WREATH ONE

Faith - Sunflower - St. Catherine of Siena - Yellow

Meeting 1:  We made our scrapbook page and read about St. Catherine.

Meering 2:  "Son"Flower Craft  - We made this craft to look like a Sunflower, but in the Center we put Jesus to remind us that Jesus is the center of our Faith and our life.  We read the story about Faith in our  Virtue Stories book.

Hope - Ivy - St. Monica - Green

Meeting 1:   We made our scrapbook page and read about St. Monica.  We learned that she is the patron Saint of Mothers.

Meeting 2:  I made hearts with the memory verse printed on them and the girls decorated them with Ivy (made from tissue paper).  Then we wrote some of their Hopes around the hearts.  We read the story about Hope from our Virtue book.

Love of God - Peony - St. Agnes - Pink

Meeting 1:  We made our scrapbook page and read about St. Agnes.

Meeting 2:  Since we held this meeting on December 19th, I decided it would be a good idea to combine it with a Christmas party.  We read about the Nativity, or Birth of Jesus.  Nothing speaks to the Love of God better than the story of the birth of our Lord and Savior.  After we discussed the story, we moved on to our craft.  We made these cute Christmas ornaments that I found at Oriental Trading Company.

After our craft we did our closing ceremony and started our celebration.  We did Saint/Bible trivia.  I asked a bunch of questions about the Saints we had learned, general Bible questions, and Christmas questions.  I let the girls pick out of the candy basket for each correct answer.  After that we played Jesus Bingo.  This was a big hit!  I printed the cards here.  We did 3x3 Religious Christmas cards and I replaced the word BINGO with JESUS.  We used Hershey kisses as our counters.  I gave chocolate a Hershey Santa for winning cards.  After that we enjoyed pizza, juice, and treats that the girls brought to share.  We listened to Christmas carols and had a visit from our Parish priest.  All the girls had a great time and I have to say that I did too!  I gave them each a little Christmas gift bag that contained: A St. Therese novena prayer card, a sticker bible nativity page (here), a candy cane decorated to look like a reindeer, a chocolate angel, a pencil, notebook, and a card with a Guardian Angel on it.

Love of Neighbor - Rose - St. Frances de Chantal - Light Red

Meeting 1:  We made our scrapbook page and read about St. Frances de Chantal.

Meeting 2:  We read a story about Loving our Neighbor from Devotional Stories for Little Folks.  Then we made Valentine cards to distribute to Seniors at a nursing home.  Our first service project!  The girls and I are so excited!!  We have almost 60 cards to distribute to 56 seniors.  

Obedience - Carnation - St. Joan of Arc - White

Meeting 1:  We made our scrapbook page and read about St. Joan of Arc

Meeting 2:  We read a story about being obedient and then we made obedience charts.  The parents seemed to like this craft.  I told the girls that they could put a sticker on their chart each time they were obedient the first time to their parents.  After the chart was completed they could bring it back to me to trade for a prize.  I gave them a St. Joan of Arc holy card, St, Therese sticker and a small toy or piece of candy.  We also played "Simon Says."

Piety - Forget-me-Not - St. Cecelia - Bright Blue

Meeting 1:  We made our scrapbook page and listened to the Glory Story about St. Cecelia.

Meeting 2:  We read a story about Piety and talked about what it means to be Pious.  We also talked about Father Lasance's Colors of Piety and then we made "piety" bracelets with embroidery floss.  We did the chinese ladder style because it was easier for the younger girls.

Humility - Violet - St. Catherine Laboure - Purple

Meeting 1:  We made our scrapbook page and read about St. Catherine Laboure.

Meeting 2:  We made a miraculous medal craft and then we went to the Church and did the Stations of the Cross.  We learned this Virtue during Lent and I couldn't think of a better or more powerful way to show the Virtue of Humility than our Lord's Way of the Cross.

Front of the "Medal"

Back of the Metal (Miss Comedian didn't
get the stars quite right)

Girls during the Stations of the Cross

Field Trip:

We were able to take a field trip to the Shrine of the Miraculous Medal in Philadelphia.  The Moms and girls had a great time!  Our Pilgrimage Director, Father Bill was extremely patient and did a great job with the girls.  We were able to shop in the gift shop, watch a short DVD about St. Catherine Laboure and the Medal of the Immaculate Conception (miraculous medal), tour the Shrine and learn it's history, and then we lit a candle and prayed for our intentions in the candle chapel.  We ended with a picnic stye lunch in the cafeteria.

St. Catherine Laboure

Add caption

This was part of the floor - beautiful!

Girls in the candle chapel

Miss Comedian saying a prayer

Some of my lovely Little Flowers!

Industry - Daffodil - St. Frances Xavier Cabrini- Pale Yellow

Meeting 1:  We made our scrapbook page and read about St. Frances Xavier Cabrini.

Meeting 2:  I read the girls the Aesop Fable about the Ant and the Grasshopper.  We talked about which one of the characters was Industrious and what happened to the character who was not industrious.  I had two crafts today.  We made a collage by pasting a card with Mary on it to the center of a piece of light blue construction paper and then pasting flowers we found in magazines around her.  This was our way of giving "Little Flowers" to Mary for the month of May.  Our other craft was to hot glue flowers on fancy hats.  I have been collecting the flower for each virtue all year long.  I sat with each girl and had them place the flowers onto a white hat and I hot glued them on.  The girls will be wearing these hats at our Mother/Daughter Tea in a couple weeks.  We felt very industrious!

Miss Musical's Work

Miss Comedian's Work