Getting Girl Scouts to Get Along

At the last meeting, a couple of the girls, who happen to be sisters, were not getting along very well.  Our troop is so small at this point that 3 out of the 5 girls are sisters.  These 2 normally get along, but I know how it is, having 2 sisters of my own.  Actually, I have 6 sisters in total, if you count my much younger half-sisters and adult step-sisters.

To end the meeting, I had the girls partner up.  They had to move a ball from one end of the living room to the other without using their hands.  It was fun for them and fun to watch!  It was a great end to the meeting!

Thanks for reading!

~Vanessa

Wolf Cub Scout Requirement 3A

Cub Scout had to track healthy habits for 2 weeks as a part of earning Wolf Cub Scout requirement 3A for the Keep Your Body Healthy Achievement.  Tumbling Girl decided that she wanted to participate, also.  So, I used construction paper and made a chart to track their healthy habits.  It was fun, but also pretty time consuming in trying to squeeze this into our already busy nightly routine.

Thanks for reading!

~Vanessa

Tracking Spreadsheet for Girl Scouts

As I have previously mentioned, I am the leader of a multilevel Girl Scout troop.  So far, we have:  2 Daisies, 2 Brownies, and 1 Junior.  We have only been working on badges since last month, so at this point, I am able to easily remember who has earned what and who has not yet.  However, it will only become more difficult as the year goes on.

I decided to use Excel and create a tracking spreadsheet to keep myself and the girls organized.  Here are a couple of pages from the spreadsheet:

How do you keep track with your group?  I hope this will be of some help!

Thanks for reading!

~Vanessa

Kaper Chart and Name Flowers for Girl Scouts

I made a Kaper Chart for Girl Scouts this evening!  I'm pretty proud of the way that it turned out!  My kids helped decorate it.  It's a little busy, but I think it works.  Because we have a multilevel troop consisting of:  Daisies, Brownies, and a Junior, I thought that a flower theme would be neutral, but fun.

Thanks for reading!

~Vanessa

Brownie Elf Paper Dolls and Rationing Water Activity

At tonight's Girl Scout meeting, the girls made Brownie Elf paper dolls from the Wow! Wonders of Water Journey series.  Since this is a multilevel troop with only 5 girls, I had all of the girls do the activities, even though they were more aimed at the Brownies.

All of the girls were very creative with their designs of their paper doll outfits.  A couple of the girls even made uniforms for them!  My daughter's favorite color is purple, so she used purple in most of her paper dolls outfits, as you can see above.

We also did an activity to discuss rationing water and what it is like in some third world countries.  I cut out 10 drops of "water" to represent buckets of water.  I asked them to imagine that they lived in an area where water is not as plentiful or accessible and how many even need to walk for miles to retrieve baskets/buckets of water.

I had them sort out their water buckets into 3 categories:  food, hygiene, and cleaning.  Most of the girls were in agreement that the majority of the water in a given week would be used for drinking or food preparation.  Then, came hygiene ranging from 1 through 4 buckets of water for the week.  We discussed how people can even take a "spit shower" by just cleaning hands, armpits, etc.  Every girl only gave the cleaning category 1 or 2 buckets of water for the week.

We then did a reflection on this activity.  The girls were on-task for the most part.  This was our first reflection, so it went well, considering.

Thanks for reading!

~Vanessa

Thanksgiving Hand Crafts

I finally got a creative surge and made Thanksgiving crafts with the kids.

For the first one, I traced their hands on 3 different colors of construction paper and had the kids cut them out.  We decorated toilet paper rolls to look like turkeys with beaks, eyes, feet, and the wattle (did you know that is the name for the loose skin that hangs down by the beak?  I just learned that.).  We then glued the 3 hand prints to the back of the toilet paper turkey.

My mother-in-law decorates her office with the seasonal crafts that we make her.  For her Thanksgiving hand craft, I had my husband, the kids, and I each trace and cut out a hand print on a different colored piece of construction paper.  I made a flat turkey this time out of a brown piece of construction paper, but it looked similar to the toilet paper ones.

What Thanksgiving crafts are you doing this year?

~Vanessa

My Little Philanthropist-in-the-Making

My daughter, Tumbling Girl, came home very upset today.  She learned about the hungry children in Africa due to a coin drive that is happening at the kids' school.  She was adamant that we needed to do something about these kids that have no food.  I have a large piggy bank full of pennies, so I gave them each a handful of pennies to donate.  I'm glad that my social consciousness is rubbing off on her, though I believe more in acting locally.  I think that our Girl Scout troop will continue to rub off on her.  I'm so proud of my thoughtful children!

Thanks for reading!

~Vanessa