Brownies: Leap Bots Badge

Tonight my troop finished up the Leap Bot Badge, and there is definitely a learning curve for it. While the instructions for the actual construction of the bot are not awful, there are some tricks that make it easier for everyone involved. I’m not going to address the badge as a whole, just the construction of the bots and the stands since this is where we had the most grief, and I want to prevent other troops from getting frustrated.

The Bots: The badge book says to have the girls use different sizes of spools, but by doing that, you’re increasing the number of variables into the experiment. All of my girls used the same size wood spool (2 1/8″), with different lengths of wood dowels (1/4″ in diameter in 12″, 18″, and 24″ lengths). They decorated the spools using pipe cleaners, markers, and googly eyes.

The Stands: For the construction of the stand, we followed the instructions by using duct tape to attach the dowels to 6″ cardboard squares. Duct tape and cardboard does not hold up under repeated (aggressive) leap bot tests. If I did this again, instead of using duct tape and cardboard, I would make the base out of a 1″x6″ board, cut into 6″ squares. I would drill a hole in the center and use wood glue (or some other heavy duty glue) to make sure the dowel remained steady. It would take extra work on the outset, but taping and re-taping the stands for 16 girls while trying to help them troubleshoot their testing outcomes is not fun for anyone.

The Springs: I picked up a ton of compression springs from Home Depot in varying lengths (1/2″ – 3″) to give the girls choices when they changed a variable during their testing – how much “leap” does a 1/2″ spring provide compared to a 3″ spring?

Leaping: So next to the instability of the duct tape and cardboard stands, the biggest problem we had was successful leaping. Some of it boils down to how you push down the spool, but even when varying that technique, the girls were still having trouble getting their spools to really leap because the end of some of the springs were getting caught on the hole in the spool. My co-leader solved this problem by having the girls add a washer. Assembly order on the dowel: springs, washer, spool. This made a world of difference.

Leaping Technique: If everything else is going smoothly, but the girls still can’t get their bots to leap, how they press down on the spool effects how high (if at all) the spool will leap.

Press tips of thumbs on the top edge of spool and push down. If too much of your thumb is on the spool, it will prevent the bot from leaping very high.

Using tips of thumbs/pointers, press on the bottom edge of the spool, then push down.

Brownies 10/16/17 – Painting (Field Trip)

Our fourth meeting of the year was also our first field trip. We went to Canvas Crashers, a local social painting studio, so the girls could complete the first two steps of the Painting Badge.

Step 1:
The owner of the studio talked about his art – what he does, why he makes art, and why he likes to teach others how to make art.

Step 2:
The girls painted a tree in autumn for their still life. I’m sure that this was bending the rules a bit as they didn’t painted from a picture of a tree instead of an actual tree, but they had fun with it. I liked seeing how different their paintings were even though they all painted the same thing.

Brownies 9/25/17 – GS Way, Snacks, & Movers

Our second meeting of the year went well, though I now know for sure that I need to add an extra 15 minutes to the meetings. An hour isn’t enough to get everything done.

Opening Circle
*GS Promise

Badgework
*Started Girl Scout Way
*Started Snacks
*Continued with Movers

Closing Circle
*Sing “Make New Friends”
*Hand squeeze

GIRL SCOUT WAY
My plan is to slowly pick away at this badge throughout the school year. We might get it done before Christmas break, but it depends on how easily I can fit some of the requirements into our meetings.

Step 1:
I’m modifying this a bit in that I’m going to teach the girls multiple GS songs, starting with “Princess Pat” (a call and repeat/action song) and “The Brownie Smile Song”, and then moving on to some more camp songs. Tonight was “Princess Pat”, which the girls loved. There are multiple versions, which can make it hard to figure out which one to use. I used the lyrics and movements from the alternate version on Scout Songs (scroll down), and the tune as heard on this video.

SNACKS
This is the third time I’ve done the Snacks Badge, and it is one of my favorites. I make it a requirement that the girls try at least one bite of everything they make. They don’t have to like it, but they have to try it if they want to earn the badge. My plan is to finish this badge during our Halloween Party, rolling two of the steps into the party itself.

Step 1:
I do my own thing for this step, having the girls measure out and see how much sugar is in the sweet snacks that they eat. Each girl is supposed to bring in a sweet snack (chips and crackers won’t work for this – it must be candy or cookies or something else sweet), but that doesn’t always happen, so I make sure to have extras on hand (always a bottle of soda and some flavored yogurt – there’s a lot of sugar in yogurt). Also make sure that the girls bring the actual snack. An empty Twinkies box won’t work because the point is for the girls to see the treat next to the measured out sugar.

First we figure out what a portion size is, then use a kitchen scale to measure out how many grams sugar are in the snack. So two double stuffed Oreos is a serving, and there are 12 grams of sugar in a serving.

L-R: Oreos, strawberry-banana yogurt, McDonald’s chocolate milk, fruit gummies, Kit-Kat minis, single-serving Pepsi.

Step 5:
To make something sweet, I keep it simple and have the girls make smoothies – apple juice, bananas, frozen strawberries. With 10 girls, I broke them down into three groups. Each had their own ingredients, blender, and adult helper.

MOVERS
We continued on with our third badge project – paper copters. I recommend making a few of them first so you know how to fold the paper. This is a very fast project, so either make sure you do it at the end of a meeting or make sure there is a balcony or some other elevated place for the girls to spend 10-15 minutes dropping copters.

Back for a new year…

I gave up on Girl Scout blogging last year because it was an incredibly rough year for me in terms of balancing working full-time, three children, and leading two troops. At the end of the school year, I stepped down from my older daughter’s troop – the new leader will do a wonderful job with the girls. My daughter is not returning, instead opting to do Juliettes – she will be a first year Cadette.

I am still leading my younger daughter’s troop – first year Brownies – and am very excited. Brownies is my favorite level, and my troop is down to a much more manageable 11 girls. I also have all of the 2017 meetings blocked out, which will make filling in the details so much easier.

Tonight was the first meeting of the school year, and the hour flew by. I will need to bump up the meeting length from one hour to an hour and fifteen minutes at some point this year.

Opening Circle
*GS Promise
*Girls shared a picture of their favorite thing they did during the summer (pictures were drawn and colored before the meeting started)
*Played hula hoop team challenge game (loop the hoop)

Business
*Set to do a field trip to a local nature preserve to earn the Senses and Hiking Badges (November)
*An overnight at the aquarium is in the planning stages
*Girls voted on Troop Crest

Badgework
*Started Movers Badge (retired)

Closing Circle
*Sing “Make New Friends”
*Hand squeeze

TROOP CREST
I sort of did this with my older daughter’s troop, but it was hard because the girls were split between two grades, and thus two different levels each year. My younger daughter’s troop is all one grade, which makes planning so much easier. I wanted them to have a Troop Crest to act as a theme or what was important to them as Brownies. My co-leader put together a simple poster board with the descriptions of five crests (no images!) for the girls to vote on. We chose: Lightning, Pansy, Shooting Star, Sun, and Unicorn. During round one, the girls could vote on two crests based upon the description. The top two choices made the final voting round – coincidentally, Shooting Star and Unicorn. Shooting Star won, so now the girls are “rare, unexpected, and beautiful.” It definitely fits them, especially the unexpected part. I have a few girls who keep me on my toes. They will get the crests at our Rededication Ceremony in October.

MOVERS BADGE
I have a stash of retired badges, and Movers is one of my favorites. It’s not about the science of air, but more about the fun of making things that fly and spin. The requirements for the retired badges are a bit different than for the new ones, so I mash it up and have the girls complete five or six activities. Tonight we made pinwheels and ring gliders.

Pinwheels – My co-leader prepped the paper by cutting it and marking the lines and dots to save a bit of time, and to keep from having girls make mistakes on how long the lines should be and accidentally cutting their paper in half. This activity definitely requires adult help. Some of the girls had trouble folding and pinning the paper properly. They also needed help pushing the the sewing pin through the pencil eraser. Two bits of advice – 1) we found that placing two beads behind between the pinwheel and eraser made it easier for it to spin, and 2) push the sewing pin through the eraser far enough that only a few millimeters of it pokes through (the pointy end will be covered with a bubble of hot glue). There needs to be enough space for the pinwheel to easily spin when it’s blown upon. If you push the pin through too far, it pushes the paper too close to the pencil, causing the tips to bump the pencil.

Ring Gliders – We did this a little bit differently than the instructions, again to keep it simple. Each girl made two gliders, each one a different shape. They got two straws (the sturdy kind you find in the party supply aisle in Hobby Lobby), two 12″ x 1″ strips of card stock, two 6″ x 1″ strips of card stock, and scotch tape (shared between several girls). The girls taped their strips into circles, then pinched them into the shapes they wanted (circles, tear drops, and triangles being the popular choices). Attach a strip of tape to the end of the straw, then press it into the shape. To test them, the girls stood in the hallway and threw their gliders to see how far they’d fly. We asked questions such as, “which shape do you think will go farther when you throw it?”, etc…

 

Juniors 10/13/16: Make It Matter & Social Butterfly

It has been 10 months since my last post. GS was completely overwhelming last year, I had a hard time making it through with my sanity intact. The short of it was: too many girls (several new girls had very strong personalities that caused issues), not enough behind the scenes help, and working full-time (I had to figure out how to balance work, three kids, and two GS troops).

This year, my older girls are split between Cadettes and Juniors. One of the Cadette moms became my co-leader, and she is working with the four girls who bridged (and doing an awesome job with them!). Six Juniors came back, and we picked up one more. Seven girls is much easier than 16. I’m still trying to decompress from last year, and put myself back in a positive focus.

Moving on…

Badges the Juniors are going to work on this year:

Making It Matter (Retired)
Social Butterfly
Simple Meals
First Aid
GS Way
Ceramics & Clay (Retired)
Entertainment Technology
Musician

Making It Matter
This is a retired badge that focuses on several specific aspects of science. I am roughly following the old badge book, but also modifying it to suit our needs. I happen to have a stash of the old badges, but it would be easy to turn this into a “make your own” badge for your troop. I’ve started a Pinterest board for ideas. We focused on polymers last week (made slime and gak). This week, we focused on acids/bases.

1. Watched two YouTube videos:
   All About that Base (No Acid)
   TedEd Acids and Bases (kind of over their head)
2. Mouth Rabies (what my daughter named it)
   This is an up close and personal experience of an acid/base chemical reaction. Mix equal parts: citric acid, baking soda, powdered sugar (1/4 teaspoon). Put the ingredients on a small piece of paper or in a very small cup. Make sure the girls have a cup of water as well. Take a sip of water to wet the mouth, dump the powder mixture in. Watch as they foam at the mouth. The mouthfeel is similar to pop rocks.
   1. What’s going on?
      When both the acid and base are powder there is no reaction. There is nothing to force the molecules to interact. This is where saliva comes in. It provides the carrier to make the reaction. Towards the end of the reaction, the mixture should taste salty – a byproduct of an acid/base reaction is salt. The powdered sugar is added simply to cut the sour/bitter taste.
3. Litmus Tests
   I bought litmus paper so the girls could test various acids/bases. You can also make your own using red cabbage, but I didn’t have the time. The color spectrum runs from red/acid to blue/base. Neutral is yellow or green.
   1. What we did:
      The girls partnered up and were given seven cups with different liquids or solutions. They were given a chart to mark acid/base/neutral. Dip the paper in, see what color it turns, mark the sheet. We compared answers afterward, and all the teams got the right answers.
   2. Acids: lemon juice ; white vinegar
   3. Bases: baking powder solution ; liquid starch ; dish soap
   4. Neutral: tap water ; powdered sugar solution

Social Butterfly
I had wanted to do the retired Manners Badge with the girls when they were Brownies, but never had the opportunity. This time around, we are doing a manners badge.

1. Step 2: Use Table Manners / Set the table
   1. I broke the girls into teams, gave them a dinner plate, cup, napkin, fork, knife, and spoon. They had to figure out the right way to set everything up. Each team made mistakes, which wasn’t surprising. We made corrections until the settings were right. Then I added in a salad plate and fork.
   2. For the second part of this, I had one girl put together a proper place setting in the center of the table. Then I stacked two full place settings and put them on the ends. The girls competed one-on-one to see who was the fastest at getting their place setting done properly. They had fun trying to beat their best times.

Red Petal – Courageous & Strong

I am in the process of doing this Petal with my Daisies right now. I introduced the Petal with a discussion about what courageous and strong mean, then we read The Terrible Plop and talked what the various characters did and how they behaved (I try to always start a Petal off with a picture book as I do not like the stories in the Girl’s Guide).

The next step in earning the Petal was teaching the girls how to schoolyard jump rope. I did this with my older daughter’s troop and was surprised that none of them had ever done it before. Jump rope, yes…but not the schoolyard style where two people turn the rope while a third person jumps. Running and jumping into a spinning rope is kind of scary if you’ve never done it before.

However, that is not how I started the girls. I demonstrated how to do it, but for round one, the girls just jumped while the rope was slowly swung back and forth. Most of them were not able to get the rhythm down to jump over the rope, even with guidance – make sure to stay on the X on the floor, face one of the moms turning the rope, watch the rope so you know when to jump. Round two was optional. This time the rope was swung in a full circle and the girls had to run and jump into it. (Note: we did this at a second meeting, and more girls were successful in getting a jumping rhythm.)

The rest of this Petal will be earned by playing with slime (equal parts Elmer’s school glue to liquid starch –  white vinegar will get the slime out of everything from hair to clothes to carpet), and a visit from a K-9 Officer who will give a demonstration and talk to the girls about being courageous and strong (the same officer did this with my older daughter’s troop as well).

**I tied this Petal in with the 3 Cheers for Animals Journey when I did it with my older daughter’s troop several years ago.**

Books
The Terrible Plop by Ursula Dubosarsky
Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger
Sheila Rae the Brave by Kevin Henkes
Not All Princesses Dress in Pink by Jane Yolen
Peep: A Little Book About Taking a Leap by Maria van Lieshout

There are many other books out there that would work for C&S. If you want to focus on strong women, take a look at the book selection on A Mighty Girl (here is a link to their top 100 picture books).

Activities
*Learn to jump rope (schoolyard style)
*Relay races
*Superheroes (look at the activity plan from GS River Valleys)
*Do a show-and-tell focused on courageous and strong women
*Create a skit and perform it for their families
*Play with slime (or maybe do a variation on the Halloween touch boxes with peeled grapes and cold spaghetti noodles)

Field Trips/Meeting Visitors
Dance studio
Martial arts studio
Indoor rock climbing
Gymnastics
K-9 Officer demonstration
Police / Firefighters / EMT / Military

Yellow Petal – Friendly & Helpful

I’ve found the Yellow Petal an easy Petal for the girls to earn, and a way to incorporate the GS “do a good turn” into this level given there is no right side up for the Daisy Pin.

As with pretty much every other Petal, I do not use the flower story included in the Girl Guide. I generally find those stories stilted and ham-fisted. Instead, I read a picture book. A quick internet search will pull up many more books than the ones I’ve listed below, but these are ones I’ve read and enjoyed.

After reading a picture book, the girls make their “friendly & helpful daisies” to take home and give away to the person they did “a good turn” for. At the following one or two meetings, the girls share what they did to help another.

With both troops, the girls earned their Yellow Petal before we did our Investiture Ceremony.

Books
Princess Hyacinth by Florence Parry Heide
The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers
Help!: A Story of Friendship by Holly Keller
Otis and the Tornado by Loren LongThe Mouse and the Lion (I like this version)

Crafts
Both crafts are different versions of the same thing. Each girl gets three “friendly & helpful daisies” to give to someone after the girl has helped them.  The yellow centers are printed on card stock and punched with a 2″ circle punch.

 

 

Daisies 11/2/15 – Light Blue Petal

Last week we finished up the Friendly & Helpful Petal, and started the Honest & Fair Petal. I would like the girls to have earned both of them before we do our Investiture Ceremony (probably on 11/30).

During our Opening Circle, I explained what helper sticks are. In lieu of making a kaper chart, each girl has a craft stick with her name on it. I’ve never had much luck with formalized kaper charts. When I need help, I’ll pull a stick from the jar. When the jar is empty (after all the girls have helped, which will probably be over several meetings), everyone’s name stick goes back in and we start over.

Friendly & Helpful Petal
At our last meeting, the girls made helper daisies to take home and give to people they’ve helped. At this meeting, we went around and each girl shared one or two things she did to “earn” the helper daisies. Most girls helped around the house, but some helped friends or teachers. We also played Daisy Islands to reinforce the Petal – the girls had to help each other squeeze onto the mats.

Honest & Fair Petal
The rest of our meeting was dedicated to starting the Honest & Fair Petal. I gave the girls two picture books to vote on, Being Frank and The Little Red Hen. They chose Being Frank, which is about honesty, but from the angle that honesty is good, but that doesn’t mean you should be hurtful. After we finished the book, I divided the girls up into two groups to rotate through two activities. I have 16 girls in the troop, and it is much easier to divide them up.

Being Frank by Donna W. Earnhardt

Activity #1: The Versus Game (original idea from GSRV’s yellow petal guide) – I put a piece of masking tape across the floor in our meeting room and had the girls stand on it. I gave them different scenarios, and depending on what they thought the right answer was, they either jumped to the left (truth/fair) or the right (lie/unfair). Once I gave them several prompts, each girl had the opportunity to share a prompt as well.

Activity #2: Remember the Lie (from Tracie Bruno/HubPages) – two of my parent volunteers were in charge of this. They took the girls to our craft room and sat them around a table. One parent then held up a pink rose and made up a lie about it. The girls had to repeat her lie and add their own. The second parent kept track of what everyone said in case anyone needed help. The purpose of this game was to show how hard it is to keep lies straight.

Juniors 10/22/15 – AoC, Detective, & Flag Ceremony

My troop is now up to 16 girls, and as evidenced by our weekend camping/lodge trip, the increased size has adversely affected behavior. Things that were annoying, but not deal breakers, have now become large enough to be disruptive. Our next meeting will be focused on the GS Promise, the GS Law, and appropriate behavior. Some of the behavior is due to the girls’ ages, and some of it is due to the fact that I kept the focus on “fun things” instead of GS values as a whole. This is not a mistake I will make with Bug’s troop.

The girls learned the flag ceremony this past weekend at our camp out. All of them enjoyed participating, though we need to work on what constitutes respectful behavior during the ceremony. Right now we’re borrowing a ceremony kit from Council, but I need to return it soon. I am glad I used the kit first because I found out that the ceiling in our meeting room is too low for the flag poles for 3’x5′ flags. We ended up doing the ceremony in the church’s fellowship hall, but this isn’t really a long-term option because there are many times when the hall is used for other functions during our meeting time. The girls also “filled the space”.  Hopefully, flag poles for 2’x3′ flags will be short enough that we can do the ceremony in our meeting rooms. One big positive of the ceremony – almost every girl showed up in uniform!

We started working on Power of Team at the meeting (doing Power of One at our camp out). We didn’t do a lot with it other than the “fist to five” exercise. It is a good idea, but I wonder about the requirement that in order for something to be passed, every girl most vote a 3 or higher. With 16 girls, there will always be 1 or 2 girls who vote a lower number than 3.

Putting their voting power to use, the girls voted/re-voted on:

*GS Way, Step 3 – all but 2 girls voted 3 or higher for pen pals. More girls chose 3 or higher for that option as opposed to the last time where more chose looking at activities for older Junior badges. There were still strong sentiments from girl who did not like the options, so we will revisit this again.

*Detective, Step 5 – after looking more into The Giggling Ghost, I found out it is a 100+ page book, not an activity. I gave the girls the option of the cookie mystery or a mystery-themed wide game (which could do double duty for the GS Way). More girls chose the wide game, though there were still some dissenters. We will do the wide game.

*AoC Team Activity – the Journey guide has the girls reading the comic book and then either writing their own comic book, or creating a skit. I didn’t know how that would go over with the girls given their reaction when I brought up writing a chain story for one of the GS Way steps, so I wanted to have another option for them. While researching the Journey, I came across a leader who set up a mock trial about a puppy who stole food from a dumpster to feed his starving family. The girls voted and results were mixed for both choices. We will have to revisit  again.

The final part of our meeting was devoted to Step 4 of the Detective Badge. I found a great activity on CyberBee where the girls compared several different powders. They worked with a partner, and each team had to write down their findings. The girls generally like science experiments, so it was a popular activity.

Daisies 10/19/15 – Yellow Petal

Last night the girls started earning their first Petal – Friendly and Helpful! The meeting was a mix of high energy and quiet(ish) listening. Because the girls are still new to each other, we played a name game (from GSRV – the Promise Center guide) after we did the GS Promise. They absolutely loved it! The rules: say your name and do an action of an activity you like. Everyone copies you. Each girl does this, and each time you say everyone’s name and do their actions. By the time we went around the circle (11 girls), they were giggling non-stop. For some reason, a lot of them liked jumping and swimming. This was a great way to get their wiggles out, which made it a lot easier to talk about the Petal and read a picture book.

I brought out my Petal Board and read the GS Law to the girls. I pulled off the Yellow Petal and asked the girls how they are friendly and helpful. They gave some good examples of both – sharing toys, being nice (friendly) and helping with chores (helpful). I added that sometimes we’re not always friendly and helpful because no one is perfect, but we need to try to do our best.

I do not like the stories included in the Girl Guide. I avoided most of them with Bean’s troop, and plan on avoiding all of them with Bug’s troop. I much prefer picture books. They are more engaging and, if you choose the right one, not so heavy-handed. I brought two books, and the girls voted on which one I would read. They were evenly split between both books, so a little sister who was tagging along broke the tie (she chose the mouse book). I told the girls that we could read the second book at the end of the meeting if we had time.

Help!: A Story of Friendship by Holly Keller

After we finished the book, it was time for our craft activity – making “A Friendly & Helpful Daisy Was Here” daisies. Each girl made three daisies. The idea is that they will be friendly or helpful to someone, and leave behind one of these daisies. I asked parents to try to keep track of what the girls do so they can share at our next meeting.

2″ circle of yellow construction paper glued inside a white cupcake wrapper glued to green construction paper.

Our final activity of the evening was a game called “Friendly/Not Friendly” (from GSRV). I put a strip of masking tape down the middle of the room and had the girls stand on it. I read out a short scenario, and they had to jump to one side of the tape if it was “friendly” or the other side of the tape if it was “not friendly”.

Because we had a little bit of time left over, I read the second book, Princess Hyacinth. Doing it over, I would have skipped it because it was long enough that after a meeting chock full of fun, the girls were ready to be done.

We ended with our Closing Circle, singing “Make New Friends”, doing the friendship squeeze, and turning out.