Updated April 2023 Pets are an integral part of many families. Owning one is like having another family member, as many people take their ...
A cornerstone of Girl Scouting, the seven legacy badges build on over 100 years of Girl Scout history. Each of these badges (Artist, Athlete, Citizen, Cook, First Aid, Girl Scout Way, and Naturalist) is available at five levels of Girl Scouting, from Brownie to Ambassador. Painting Fair Play Celebrating Community Snacks Brownie First Aid Brownie Girl Scout Way Bugs Drawing Practice with Purpose Inside Government Simple Meals Junior First Aid Junior Girl Scout Way Flowers Comic Artist Good Sports
Updated April 2023 The world of science is a fascinating one. There is so much to explore and uncover, yet study after study has shown t...
Join us on our Brownie journey as we explore different badges. We are sharing our tips for the Brownie Race Car Design Challenge, mechanical engineering set.
*This post contains affiliate links. Updated April 2023 The Brownie Snack Try it is one of the most fun badges for the girls to earn, and ...
This year GSUSA's new badges included a Shapes in Nature badge for Brownies. This post will take a look at and summarize the VTK plans. ...
Getting Started with Girl Scouts Daisies and Brownies
Check out how our troop completed all of the Brownie Girl Scout Painting Badge requirements in just one activity! We had a blast and made amazing art!
*This post contains affiliate links. Updated April 2023 One of the reasons Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Scouts is to give girls ...
We LOVE the new Outdoor Girl Scout badges! If you are looking for ideas and inspiration for either the Brownie Outdoor Art Creator or Junior Art Explorer, we have some tips and projects for you. Nature! For the first requirements the kiddos will need to go on an outdoor nature walk! Give each girl a […]
*This post contains affiliate links. Updated April 2023 Insects may creep some people out, but there are millions of them out there. If you plan on doing any kind of outdoor activities with your girls, then they are going to encounter several of them, especially if you take them camping! The Bugs Try It can easily be earned with a trip to the zoo or a science museum with an insect exhibit or program. It can also be earned if you have a local person who does school assemblies and teaches about insects and can visit with your troop. If none of these fit into your time or financial budget, then here is a lesson plan to help you earn the Bugs Badge. Materials Magnifying glasses for each girl Clipboard for each girl or something hard to lean on Pencil Bug Home craft kit Insect craft kit Step 1 Learn About Bugs In the Brownie Guidebook, the first suggested step is to draw a poster of a bug. As a former elementary school teacher who did this activity with her class, this is a very intensive project if you wish the girls to learn anything about the insect they select. My students spent at least two weeks researching and writing about the insect s/he selected.It takes time to research and draw, and that is a lot like schoolwork to me! Instead, give the girls a brief overview of the difference between a bug, an insect and an arachnid. You can run off a worksheet if you want of their different body parts or you can bring in a book about insects and have them see close up pictures. Then ask them how bugs and insects are helpful and harmful. They can be both! Image created by the author in Canva Step 2, 3, and 4 See Bugs in Action/Explore Bug Homes/Take a Bug Field Trip Now is the time to go out and explore what bugs are in your area. Have the girls take a piece of paper, a clipboard and a pencil to write and sketch what they see. can they see and anthill or other insect home? This would be a great time to hand out magnifying glasses to the girls. Then go back inside and make a bug jar. These are inexpensive and are easy for the girls to make. Use the insect stickers to decorate the outside of the jars. Available on Amazon Available on Amazon Step 5 Do a Bug Craft This is a fun way to end your meeting and it does require a lot of planning on your part. There are literally dozens of different bug craft kits that will fulfill this requirement and not require you to research and collect things to make one yourself. Available on Amazon
*This post contains affiliate links. Updated April 2023 Have you ever heard of letterboxing before you became a Brownie Girl Scout leader? In all honesty, I had never heard of the term, but the more I read about it, the interested I became! Letterboxing, in a nutshell, is a scavenger hunt for hidden treasure…treasure that you as the leader have not planted for your girls to find. Others have done this for you. In fact, according to letterboxing.org, there are over 20,000 letterboxes in North America! That means that somewhere near you these exist! Image created by the author in Canva This badge will combine art, puzzle solving, teamwork, and being in the great outdoors. Earning the Brownie Letterboxing badge will take two meetings-one for getting your materials created and together and the other to go on your actual field trip to find them! Before taking on this badge activity, go to this link on the letterboxing website to see how many are in your area. Then you can plan your trip accordingly. In my county there were 38! Step 1 Getting Started With Letterboxing More than likely, your girls have not heard of this activity. This is the time for a brief discussion about what letterboxing is and what they will be doing in order to go on their letterboxing treasure hunt. Here is another resource, Atlasquest.com, which will give a you a wonderful introduction to this activity. You may want to run some copies off for the girls to share so that they have a firmer grasp of these new concepts. Step 2 Find Your Own Stamp One of the items girls will need to earn this badge is their own stamp. You can purchase rubber stamps or have the girls bring in their own from home. But even better is to have the girls make their own stamp. Materials Foam sheets Wooden block Elmer's Extreme Glue Sticks (if using regular foam and not peel and stick foam) Sharpie markers-dark colors Scissors This is a set of 20 peel and stick foam sheets. No need for glue! Make sure the girls rub it onto the wooden block so it gets a good stick. Available on Amazon Amazon also has a huge assortment of inexpensive ink pads so that each girl in your troop can have one of her own. Ink Pad Assortment Available on Amazon Make Your Own Notebook (craft) Letterboxing is not just leaving your stamp in the hidden notebook, you also get to place a stamp inside your own personal notebook. Girls can easily make these themselves. They should be small, like the size of a small memo pad. Use cardstock for the cover and back cover and punch a hole at the top. Use a ring to keep it and the pages you have precut together. The girls can decorate the front. Step 3 Practice Solving Clues This is something the girls have probably done in school. Have the girls invent their own code using numbers or letters (A=B, B=C, etc) and then they have to switch with another member of the troop to solve it. I strongly advice not permitting the girls to use pictures, as this will take a very long time. Step 4 Search for a Letterbox Here is where the fun begins! Have each girl bring her letterboxing notebook, stamp, ink pad and pencil, along with snacks and a water bottle, on your trip. If you have time, you might want to go and find the letterboxes ahead of time with your co-leader, just to be sure that they are still there. Photo by Dominika Roseclay from Pexels and altered by the author in Canva Step 5 Make a Letterbox This final step will require you to have permission to leave a letterbox in your area. Call your local township and ask if you can hide it in some areas you have already preselected. Once you have permission, then give the girls a few choices on what the stamp you will leave in the box will be. Make it easy on yourself and print out a few options from a craft store website. Then go ahead and purchase it with an inkpad, a memo pad, and a waterproof container. For another field trip, have the girls go with you to hide it! What have you done to earn the Brownie letterboxing badge? Where did you hide your letterbox?
*This post contains affiliate links. Updated April 2023 Raise your hand if you are tired of hearing one of childhood’s most often heard phrases, “That’s not fair!” Of course, this is heard when someone feels that the scales are not properly balanced. While at times this may be true, oftentimes it is not. Earning the Brownie Fair Play Badge is a very active meeting. If you are able to go outdoors to earn this one, by all means do! My troop loved any meeting that was held in the fresh air. Image by Tania Van den Berghan Step 1 Follow the Rules Start the meeting by asking girls why rules are needed for games and sports. The bottom line-it makes game play fair. Now it is time to play a quick game of Simon Says. However, instead of having girls sit out when you do not say “Simon Says”, they sit out if they do the action when you say those words. Ask them if they are confused. (They should be!) Now play again, and tell them that they need to do things when Simon does NOT say (the opposite of traditional rules). Then a girl is out when she follows this set of directions. They should be utterly confused at this point. At this moment, highlight why rules are needed-to play the game properly, to avoid confusion and to keep everything fair. Step 2 Include Everyone/Step 3 Be Part of a Team Tell girls that once upon a time, there was a time in history when women could not play sports and girls teams in schools were underfunded, if funded at all. That all changed with Title IX. No one should be left out of a game, no matter what their ability level. Play a game from Games for Girl Scouts. There are a lot of fun team building games that the girls may have never played before. I have used this book for many years! Games for all levels and group sizes. When this is done, then it will be time to divide the girls into stations to do different activities. They are to be good sports about who is on their team and to encourage everyone as they try their best. Tell girls that the fairest way to choose teams is by random numbers or letters, and that is how you are going to divide the stations and teams they will be participating in for the rest of the badge. Line the girls up and count 1,2,3,4. Then select which numbers will be at which game. Steps 4 and 5 Keep Score/Have a Field Day How to run these two parts is up to you. You can have a jump rope contest, kick a soccer ball contest, relay races…you know your girls best and what games will fit into your time table. Different girls can keep score as each team takes a turn. At the end of the meeting, the girls can be given these medals along with their Try It badge! Available on Amazon
*This post contains affiliate links. Updated April 2023 One of the most important Legacy Badges that transferred with the new Brownie ...
*This post contains affiliate links. Updated April 2023 Waking up and starting the day on the right foot is important whether you are se...
