Making Games Badge - January Troop Meeting

The girls had a blast working on earning their Making Games Badge!   The girls were able to have a conversation about different games and talked about the following:

1. What are some of the first games you remember playing? Do you still play them now?
2. When have you changed a game to make it more fun?
3. What makes playing a game fun for everyone?  What does it mean to be a good team player?
4. How about a good winner or loser?
5. Do you like games you can win (or lose) or where everyone wins?

The girls then explored through 3 different station, talked about upcoming cookies sales and had the opportunity to sample a new lemonade cookie!  

The girls did a See It game in which they could create their own scavenger hunt of 10 different things to see.  For example, if you are making the scavenger hunt for while you are in the car then name 10 things that could be found while you are traveling in the car.   (For example: a gas station, semi-truck, person walking on the side of the road, ) The girls were encourage to include easy ones, hard ones, items of different sizes and items harder to see.  

They then experienced The Mystery Box.  There was a large box with a hole in it.  The girls would take turns to reach in to try an determine what object that they were touching and make a list of what they think they were touching.  

Lastly, the girls were able to play Freeze Dance.  They were able to burn off some winter energy and enjoy a bit of dancing!!

Painting Badge - December Troop Meeting

The girls had a blast working on earning their painting badge!  We went through a short demonstration on different types of paint that artists use, styles of paint brushes, material that can be painted on and talked about a few famous artists.  The Girl Scouts then rotated through three different stations.

Watercolor Station

The Girl Scouts experimented with how to use watercolor paints and paint on watercolor paper.  The students had the option to put tape on the paper before the painted and then peel the tape away once the painting was dry to see what happened.

Paint Your Mood

The girls had a conversation about what an emotion is.  We talked about what the word emotion means and the girls gave examples of what kind of emotions someone might experience on a day-to-day basis.  We then talked about color and how do certain colors make us feel.  We also try to answer why certain colors might make us feel that way.  We also talked about different kinds of lines (straight, jagged, squiggly, zig-zag, etc.) and how this could be related to emotions.   The girls took a piece of paper and wrote their name on the front.  The girls then thought about how they were feeling and used a color(s) to represent it. 

Painting with Natural Materials

We had a conversation with the girls about what objects in nature could we use to paint with.  The girls looked at the different natural items that were brought in and we talked about the shape, color and texture of the items.  The girls took a sheet of paper and were able to interact with the various natural materials and paint a picture using the materials.  They had paint available to dip the natural objects in and experimented with what kind of shape they could create on the paper.  

Rollerskating Party

The troop had a great time at the Rollerskating party.  Here are some fun pictures  from the event!  One of our amazing troop members won the limbo contest!  Way to go Sam!   Enjoy all the fun pictures and videos!

Snack Badge - November Troop Meeting

Wow!  What a great group of Brownies we have!  We had some fun this past Tuesday working on our Snack Badge.  We were able to get quite a few things done in our short amount of time!  We started the meeting off with making a healthy snack!  The girls did an amazing job of creating their butterfly snack and enjoyed eating it. 

We then had a discussion about the following things:



Have you ever made snack for yourself? What did you make?
Where does the food you eat come from?
How can you tell if a snack is healthy for you?
What can you do to stay safe in the kitchen?
Do you prefer sweet snacks or salty ones?
Does your family eat any special foods or snacks during holidays or celebrations?




We then did an experiment to discover how much sugar was found in various food items.  The girls were able to look at the food label and see how many grams of sugar was found in it.   I had small sugar packets that had 4 grams of sugar in each of them.  We poured the coordinating amount in plastic cups to actually see how much sugar was found.   I think the girls were surprised with what we discovered!  If you see the girls digging in your cupboards at home, I asked them to look at some other food labels and see what the ingredients were. 


We talked about some quick, healthy snacks that we could take with us to give us energy.  We weren't able to make any Trail Mix or G.O.R.P. "Good Old Raisins & Peanuts", but showed some different varieties and talked about what we could all put into a Trail Mix.  If your family has a chance, it would be great for the girls to make their own Trail Mix at home. 

G.O.R.P. “Good Old Raisins & Peanuts”

Yield 12 cups
Combine:
• 2 cups peanuts
• 2 cups raisins
• 2 cups chopped apricots or other dried fruit
• 2 cups M&M’s
• 4 cups bite-sized shredded wheat or rice cereal 

GORP like variation
1/2 cup dried banana or apple chips
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup popcorn
3/4 cup granola

Mix the ingredients in a serving bowl. This recipe serves about three people


Lastly, the girls were able to have a taste of some fresh apple juice.  We took apples and put them through the juicing machine.  The girls had a fun time trying the fresh juice.  Some were hesitant to drink it, but so impressed that everyone at least tried it.  I think all of them ended up finishing their glass of juice!


All in all, it was a great wrap up to earning all the components to the Snack Badge. 


We started the The Girl Scout Way badge at our October meeting.  We were able to incorporate a few things that we learned from our previous meeting.  We still have more components of this badge that we will be working on through the school year.   If you have time, please have the girls continue to work on reciting the Girl Scout Law and the Girl Scout Promise.