Meet Sammantha

This month we learned about Sammantha and had quite a fancy affair. Of course I forgot to take any pictures! The girls came dressed in their finest attire and we were served (Star and Ali were our servants for the day and did a fabulous job) a five course meal. During our meal we learned about proper etiquette and I taught the girls how to set a table. The girls loved it! They were especially excited by the sherbet in between one of the courses, "dessert in the middle of your meal!". Hopefully they remember at least a little bit of the etiquette they were taught as well. Because Sammantha enjoyed giving service to others we did a small service project. The girls each brought items to put together hygiene kits that we donated to the LDS Humanitarian Center. Being so close to Valentines Day the girls also made old fashioned style valentines which turned out really cute. They are all so creative and its fun to see how different their projects all are. I'm so bummed about the pictures!!

Meet Addie

This month we read about Addie, a slave who escapes with her mom and runs to the north to be free. Cate was so enthralled by this story. She had never heard of slavery before and had a hard time understanding why people would treat other people so cruelly. We were able to discuss not only slavery but what it means to be free. In the story Addie's mom tells her that no matter what happens to us we are always free on the inside. I was very impressed by these books (we read a few of them in this series) and thought that they told the story of slavery and then the hardships pf "freedom" very well. For our club Adrienne brought some cotton that the girls had to pick the seeds out of. This gave them an idea of what Addie's job would have been like. It was harder than it lookedand the girls decided they did not want to be slaves! She also had rag dolls that needed mending, a job that Addie's mom had on the plantation, so the girls learned how to mend and then were able to sew their dolls a dress. A lot of sewing for some of the girls but they turned out really cute.

Meet Josephina

We read about Josephina this month. She was a girl who grew up in New Mexico. Cate has really enjoyed her story especially the part about Josephina's goat that was so mean. It was so fun to learn about the Mexican culture and we had a great time doing the activities Adrienne had planned for us. The girls made corn husk dolls which turned out super cute....

They painted boxes like the one Josephina had to put her special memories in....

They made torillas and had some yummy salsa and black beans....