Previously in our student ministry, the girls ministry consisted of a
girls retreat in the Fall, Revolve Tour in the Spring, and coffee dates
the rest of the year. (As well as supporting the general student
ministry happenings). Well, after review of a Girls Ministry's purpose
and goals, we have changed what we're doing. Girls ministry is best
done throughout the year, and my goal this year is to know more girls
that tend to be on the "fringe," doing things that are more
"grade-specific." So we're doing many small events this Fall, trying to
include more girls. Thinking through this has stretched me, creatively,
more than I thought it would. It has also taught me a bit of how to
diversify for different ages. 6th Graders don't always need to hear
what 11th and 12th Grade girls do.
So our first event was for the 6th grade girls. We had a tea party!! I wanted to share some of my ideas of what we did.
Purpose:
The goal of the night was to make the girls feel special, girly, and
like the princesses that they are. We talked about how we are daughters
of the King and that he loves us so much. As their first official
student ministry event, I told them how excited I am that they are now
part of the student ministry and that God is going to do big things with
their time in this student ministry. We talked about being valued in
God's eyes and shining for Him like Princesses in their schools.
How to Tea Party:
The Invites: I used invitations from this
great site that were easy to edit. I gave them to the girls a few weeks in advance. They were cute little reminders.
The Food:
Because 6th Grade girls are probably not too thrilled about hot tea, I
tweaked the script and we served pink lemonade (what drink is more
girly?) and raspberry tea. The girls were pretty excited about the
raspberry tea, and had red mustaches the rest of the night! I ordered
cupcakes from my favorite cupcake bakery,
Dimples Cupcake Factory which was a hit! Those cupcakes are huge!
We
drank out of mason jars, and the girls thought that was very special!
Haha! The goal was girly, so I tied ribbons and put tulle everywhere!
To go along with the lemonade theme, I found awesome Hubert's lemonade
bottles (after drinking the delicious lemonade, of course) and they
contributed to centerpieces. The tables also had some mason jars with
lemon drops and whoppers (malt balls) in them. I really wanted some
giant pink gumballs, but couldn't find any that were cost-efficient
enough.
What we did: When the girls got to the party, they mingled a bit and started drinking and eating snacks. I had put on the tables
these super cute cutouts of cupcakes that
they played with as girls were walking in. It was nice for them to
have something to do with their hands and to do, because with 6th
graders sometimes conversation with new people are awkward.
(Apparently I didn't take a picture of the actual cutouts)
I also found these free cutouts to
make your own photo booth!
The girls really loved this! It was really easy to make, I just printed
these out on cardstock and cut away. I set up a banner in a corner and
it made for a perfect photobooth!
Finally,
we played some get-to-know-you games because I didn't know everyone and
they didn't either. We spent thirty minutes learning names and random
facts about each other.
Then, as time came to almost leave, we
waited for parents and played "pterodactyl" which is played by keeping
your teeth covered at all times. The person to your left tries to make
you smile and show your teeth by making weird noises and saying
"pterodactyl." We laughed so much!
These
girls are some high school students who helped with the evening. It was
awesome to have them invest in younger girls and to have them help with
setup and cleanup!
In hindsight,
I would change a few things. I would not host this event on a Friday
night during Texas football season. I didn't think that high school
football would affect 6th graders, but this group of girls has many
older siblings and a large group of the 6th grade girls went to the
football games, which was a bummer to me.
Overall,
the evening was a success. The girls who came were known and I feel
like they felt special. They heard truth and had fun in the process.
Even though not as many girls came as I thought were coming, the ones
that did were girls I didn't know as well, so it was a good opportunity
for me to meet them. Not a lot of planning was needed because the girls
just wanted to talk and be silly! Their stories were random, but they
were heard and are important to the girls.
