"Cultivating Thoughts" With Your Scouts

My sixth grader and her classmates had to complete a special assignment modeled after Chipotle's "Cultivating Thoughts" essay contest.  In Language Arts, they read Fue Xiong's essay "Two Minutes About Sardines" and were asked to write a narrative story about a time when food created a lasting memory.  The stories and a snack donated by Chipotle will be shared by the students at school tomorrow.  A more detailed description of the assignment can be found on my website.

I love this idea, and I brainstormed ways to incorporate it with Girl Scouts.  As you continue reading this post, I encourage you to consider how these ideas could work within your individual troop, for troops at your school, and for troops in your Service Unit. 

1. Read Xiong's essay to the girls.
2. Choose an idea from the list below.
3. Girls write narratives.  Details can be found here.
4. Print the essays on brown paper bags (or use a glue stick to adhere printer paper to the bag).
5. Distribute bags to the girls.
6. Share a snack.

Thinking Day
After the Thinking Day ceremony, have girls write a narrative about the state or country they chose to represent.  They could choose to write the story from a local person's point of view or from the point of view of a visitor.

Or have them write a narrative as a Girl Scout in the chosen state or country.

Juliette Gordon Low and Girl Scout Birthday
To celebrate the founder of Girl Scouts or organization's birthday, girls could:

• listen to leaders present facts about Juliette Gordon Low's life
• read a story about her
• research the founder of Girl Scouts on their own

Write a narrative.  Consider:

• writing from Juliette's point of view
• How has her work with early scouting impacted your life?

Juniors Scribe badge--satisfy a step or two for this badge, depending on your interpretations of the steps.

Service Projects
Ask the girls to choose their favorite service project.  They may wish to consider the following when making a decision:

• A service project completed this school year
• Favorite service project completed as a Girl Scout
• The most enjoyable service project
• The service project that made the biggest impact (on her or on those served)

Write a narrative about the project.  Again, they can write from a personal point of view or from the point of view of those being served.

These thoughts are the product of a quick brainstorm.  If you have additional ideas, please comment below, and I can update the post.  Thank you for reading!

Service Project: Stuffed Socks

When our troop was filling mason jars with cookie mix at Bake Me Home this past fall, we learned about the Bake It Forward program.  

"Kids entering grades 2-9 can apply for grants of $100 each for a charity of their choice serving children in Ohio.  Each applicant must perform a summer service project for a charity that benefits children.  Amy and Emma then choose three winners and present these awards at a ceremony at The Duke Energy Children’s Museum.  Our winners also each receive a “Bake It Forward” t-shirt and a jar of Bake Me Home Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix. This program is designed to encourage kids to be creative and get involved with other organizations in the community, furthering our mission of “promoting volunteerism.”

My daughter was inspired and wanted to get started on a service project immediately.  Together, we searched for ideas online.  We were directed to the Kid World Citizen website that lists 35 different service projects for kids.  My daughter was drawn to #19:  Stuff warm socks with snacks and fruit to pass out to people who are homeless.  After some brainstorming, she decided she wanted to stuff socks with a packet of hot chocolate mix, mini candy canes, and chocolate candies.  The gift was set.  Now she had to choose the recipients.  

Earlier in the summer, I began spending some time with ladies from our church and participants in a group called Having the Courage to Change.  HTCTC is a women’s residential addiction recovery program through City Gospel Mission in Cincinnati.  My daughter knew this group of women had a special place in my heart.  She asked if she could present the socks to the women in the program at a Christmas luncheon that was scheduled to be held at our church.  After making a few phone calls, it was agreed that this was a great idea.  

We went to a few stores looking for inexpensive pairs of socks since we knew we needed to buy a couple dozen.  We decided to order some fuzzy Christmas socks from Oriental Trading (They are no longer available on the website, so I am unable to provide a link).  (UPDATE:  I recently remembered the socks were ordered from LTD Commodities).  The socks were sold in packages of six.  Did I mention they were reasonably priced?  When the order arrived, my daughter discovered the red dye had bled onto the white areas of the socks.  She quickly learned that you get what you pay for.  I am pleased to announce that Oriental Trading LTD Commodities sent us enough packages to replace the defective socks.  No questions asked.  

We found boxes of Nestle hot chocolate packets on sale for $1 each.  We bought a box of mini candy canes for $2 or $3.  She was all set to stuff the socks.  For the past couple of months, she had been baking some Brookies that we could serve at the HTCTC luncheons we were hosting.  (This link for Brookies includes a recipe for brownies and chocolate chip cookies.  We usually use Betty Crocker Triple Chunk Brownie Mix and a roll of Pillsbury Chocolate Chip Chip Cookie Dough).  Knowing the ladies love this sweet treat, she decided to bake some Brookies, wrapping an individual snack for each lady.   

My daughter did not work with her Brownie troop on this project, but I am posting about it because it is a great idea for a Girl Scout service project.  The socks could be stuffed with a variety of goods and could be given to a wide range of people.  The costs could be covered by a portion of the money earned through Cookie Sales, and the girls could practice working within a budget.  I would love to hear the their ideas.  While my daughter will not be able to apply for the Bake It Forward grant with this specific project as she had hoped, I love her heart.  I am sure she will come up with another project idea to tackle this summer that benefits children.  Thank you for reading!

Service Project: T-shirt Dog Toys

One of the girls in our troop is very outspoken about her love for animals.  Any time we ask for service project ideas, she asks to do something for our local animal shelter.  She told the troop that she wanted to incorporate volunteer work for the animal shelter into her 9th birthday party, but she was told she has to be a teenager to volunteer.  In the past, we have done projects to help our our local League for Animal Welfare, but I wanted to make sure we planned another service project to benefit the shelter this year.

Over the summer, my daughters read the May/June 2014 issue of American Girl Magazine.  They came across several projects for dogs and cats made from old t-shirts.  What a great way for girls to use their resources wisely!  While out of school for the summer, my daughters asked to make a pet bed out of a sink mat and old t-shirts.  I posted about that experience here.  The girls in the troop decided it would be fun to make dog toys out of those old t-shirts.  Additionally, this service project satisfied Step 4 "Make a Pet Feel Loved" for the Brownie Pets badge.

One of the other troop leaders offered to prepare the t-shirts since she happened to have a pile of t-shirts that she wanted to use or donate.  Upon doing an online search for instructions, we had difficulty finding a tutorial or decent set of instructions for this project.  I located our copy of that May/June issue of American Girl Magazine, and modifying those instructions, I decided to post how we made dog toys out of old t-shirts.

To prepare the t-shirts:

 

Lay t-shirt out on table.  Use scissors to cut 

across the shirt below the arms.  The collar 

and sleeves will not be used in this project.

 Use scissors to cut off the bottom hem of the t-shirt.  

Save this strip to use as a tie to finish the dog toy.

 Use scissors to cut up the side seams of the t-shirt.

 

 Use scissors to cut strips every 1.5" to 2".  

Our co-leader started by cutting strips the width of the t-shirt (about 16" for an adult t-shirt).  As she worked, she found it was easier to begin the cut with scissors, and then she ripped the shirt the rest of the way.  Some of the strips may have been 1.5" wide while others may have been 2" wide.  The variance in the width of the strips did not affect the finished product.  As I've mentioned in previous posts, our troop is comprised of second and fourth graders.  Though these girls could have cut and/or ripped the t-shirt strips on their own, we decided to have the strips ready for them.

To make the dog toy:

Choose 9 t-shirt strips and tie them together.  The issue of American Girl magazine mentioned above says to tie the strips together in a knot, leaving a 1" tail.  We used an extra strip of t-shirt to tie off the top of the dog toy.  The hem strips that were saved when preparing the strips worked well for this step.  We wrapped the 9 strips with a hem strip and tied a double knot on the front side of the dog toy.  Then we wrapped the hem strip again and tied a double knot on the back side of the dog toy.
 

The American Girl magazine suggests separating the t-shirt strips into 3 sections (3 strands per section) and then braiding them together.  We separated the strips into 3 sections (3 strands per section) and braided each of the 3 sections individually before braiding all 3 sections together. The magazine suggests tying the strands in a knot when there are a few inches of t-shirt left.  We used the hem strip to tie off the dog toy as described in the step above.

We had the girls work in pairs.  One girl held the end of the dog toy while her partner braided the strands.  They worked together to finish one dog toy.  Then they switched positions and the worked on another dog toy.  The finished dog toys look great!

WARNING:  The magazine strongly suggests readers be sure to supervise pets when they play with these toys.  They advise readers to throw the dog toy away if it starts to shred or fall apart.  This warning definitely applies to the dog toys we made since we did not tie the strands in knots but used an additional t-shirt strip to secure the strand on both ends.

We hoped to stop by the animal shelter during the last part of this meeting.  That didn't work out, so we plan to stop by the shelter at the end of our next meeting to deliver our donations.  Thank you for reading!

Service Project: Knit Hats for Crayons to Computers

Last fall, I stumbled upon a website for KidKnits, and I was intrigued by their mission.  KidKnits was founded in 2011, by a nine-year-old girl named Ellie.  In the summer of 2011, she and her GIRL SCOUT TROOP had learned to knit on a round loom.  She enjoyed making hats for others which gave her a great idea.  She took that idea and ran with it.  Ellie and her family created this organization that sells knitting craft kits.  These kits include yarn that is hand-spun and dyed by women in Rwanda and Chile.  These women and their families benefit from the sale of these kits.  While bumping around the KidKnits website, I decided I would love to receive a KidKnits craft kit for Christmas that year.  I was so excited to open the bag to see the brightly-colored yarn!  A few days later, my daughters and I began knitting our first hat by wrapping the soft yarn around the pegs of the round loom. Before we knew it, we had made a beautiful, warm, winter hat.  We enjoyed this so much that we ran out to the craft store to purchase several more skeins of yarn.  We made several hats that winter—for family, friends, and even baby dolls!
 

When it was time for our Girl Scout troop to decide how to spend their cookie money, we encouraged them to use the money to help others in addition to covering the cost of a fun activity.  When shown the hats my girls and I had made, the troop was excited to use cookie money earned during last year’s cookie sale (2014) to purchase round looms for a service project we scheduled for this school year.  Throughout the summer, the other troop leader and I would occasionally check Michaels for the Loops and Threads 9.5” Round Loom.  This product sells for $8.99, but with our 40% off coupons, we were able to purchase them for $5.75 each.  For the past few years, we have collected $20 in dues from each girl in our troop at the beginning of the school year.  This year, we collected only $15, and we asked the families to purchase two skeins of yarn for this service project.  I had found yarn on sale for $2.50 a skein, and we wanted the girls to be able to choose their favorite yarn for the project.  Our initial plan was to have each girl knit one hat and one scarf for donation. 

The girls spent one entire meeting focusing on learning how to knit on the round loom and perfecting the technique as they started their first hat.  They found out quickly not to wrap the yarn too tightly around the pegs.  They took their projects home, and we asked family members to help them finish if they asked.  I received some feedback from a few parents—some of the girls required a great deal of help, and a couple needed to run out to buy new hooks.  Once the girls figured it out, they all decided they want to knit hats to give as Christmas gifts this year!

            

Knowing we would have all these items to donate, I did a quick internet search to find out where we could take them.  I discovered an organization called Crayons to Computers that "operates a free store for teachers from nearly 600 greater Cincinnati area schools in 16 counties (in Ohio, Northern Kentucky, and Indiana), offering new and gently used school supplies, educational tools, and incentive items."  Crayons to Computers also promotes a program called Keep Our Kids Warm.  They welcome donations of hats, gloves, and mittens that teachers can take back to give their students in need.  Perfect!  I spoke with the Volunteer Coordinator and scheduled a time to visit on a weekday evening, our typical meeting time.  I also asked if there was anything the girls could do to help out while we were there.

The girls in our troop are proudly showing their donations.

See the shelves of hats, gloves, and mittens in center of photo.

 Upon our arrival at the store, we were given a tour.  There were quite a few teachers bustling about, pushing carts full of school supplies and essentials for their students.  We learned that there are companies in our city working hard to be Zero Waste companies, and they donate many different items to Crayons to Computers.  Staff and volunteers at Crayons to Computers find creative ways to use the donations from these companies to benefit teachers and students.  During our tour, we saw numerous examples of how these companies can reduce, reuse, and recycle to benefit our communities.  The girls really enjoyed seeing this in action.

Repurposed packaging tubes make great tools for practicing math facts.

After the tour, the girls were asked to assemble packages of award certificates that will be made available for teachers to take back to their classrooms.  Our girls are eager to please, and they all enjoy earning awards in school.  They understand how much it will mean to the students who would eventually receive these awards.  They truly enjoyed working on this project together.

 Crayons to Computers is a wonderful organization to visit!  Girl Scout troops of all ages can volunteer to help with various projects that need to be completed to ensure the sustainability of this organization.  Depending on the project, troops could easily satisfy steps toward earning several different Daisy petals or Girl Scout badges.  Thank you for reading!

Service Project: Tips for Hosting a Successful Pillowcase Event

Back in January, I published a post describing a sewing class my daughter took at our local Joann Fabric and Craft Store.  In this class, the students cut, ironed, and pinned the fabric they had selected and brought with them to the class.  My daughter absolutely loved this class, especially because she had an opportunity to use a sewing machine. There is a great deal of useful information in the January post mentioned above, including a link to the incredibly helpful Missouri Star Quilt Company Tube Method Tutorial.  I also added photos with the instructions I followed when making one of these pillowcases.  I invite you to check it out!  The purpose of this post is to describe our Pillowcase Event and hopefully provide tips for readers who wish to host their own successful Pillowcase Event.

BEFORE THE EVENT:

• As I learned more about making pillowcases, I discovered the American Patchwork and Quilting (APQ) 1 Million Pillowcase Challenge.  Their website provides free patterns, a charity list, and teaching tools I found to be invaluable as I prepared for this event.
• Knowing I wanted to divide our girls into groups for this project, I invited family members to join us for this meeting.  Six adults were available to help, and it is important to note they are all currently registered Girl Scouts.
• I divided our nine girls into three groups and assigned two adults to each group.  Wanting the girls to work with different people, I made sure they were not in a group being supervised by their mom or grandma.  I also separated all the sisters across the different groups.
• This event was held at my house.  There were three stations: one in the family room, one in the kitchen, and one in the dining room.  Each station was equipped with the following:  iron, ironing board, flat surface large enough to allow girls to pin the fabric (table or kitchen island), another table and sewing machine, scissors, seam ripper, pearl head straight pins, pincushion, thread, bobbin, and fabric. We were able to borrow these necessary supplies from the families in our troop (with the exception of the fabric).  *If possible, it is a good idea to have an additional sewing machine in case you encounter technical difficulties during the event.  (We needed three sewing machines, and we arranged for someone to bring a fourth.  We actually ended up needing that extra one). 
• Earlier in the school year, the girls agreed to spend some of the money they earned during the cookie sale to purchase fabric for this service project.  I shopped during sales and used coupons when I could to purchase enough fabric for each girl to make one pillowcase.  We decided to donate the pillowcases to Cincinnati Children's Hospital.  We spent about $45 on fabric which ends up being $5/pillowcase.  Since the stitches are not seen when using the tube method, we did not worry about matching the thread to the fabric.  I happened to have spools of thread from past family projects, so our troop did not have to buy thread. 
• To make this particular pillowcase, you need a 27" piece of fabric, a 9" piece of fabric, and a 2" piece of fabric.  The ladies at Joann's allowed me to use the table in the fabric department and their super sharp scissors to trim the selvages and straighten the edges of the fabric.  I highly recommend taking the time to prepare the fabric prior to the meeting.  It is well worth your time and effort! 
• Based on recommendations made by APQ, the machines were threaded and bobbins were full and loaded before the girls arrived at the meeting. 
• To eliminate any disagreements over the fabric and to avoid wasting time during the meeting, the fabric was numbered and randomly assigned to the girls.

• As I previously mentioned, sisters were assigned to different groups, so my two daughters were not going to be working together.  I asked one of the girls in the third group to come over about fifteen minutes early.  She joined my two daughters, and they ironed their fabric before the rest of the troop arrived.  Please continue reading and I will explain why this worked well for our troop.

 DURING THE EVENT:

• When the girls arrived, they drew numbers to randomly assign the fabric.
• After saying the Girl Scout Promise, we watched the Missouri Star Quilt Company Tube Method Tutorial.  I had planned to have one of the more experienced sewers in our group of volunteers to give a brief overview of sewing machine basics, but in all the excitement of the day, I completely forgot!  Some of the girls had never used a sewing machine before, so this presentation would have been beneficial. 
• After watching the tutorial, my daughters and the girl who came to the meeting early started pinning their fabric.  At the same time, a second girl in each group ironed her fabric, and the third girl either helped one of the other two or waited patiently for her turn.  Once the first girl started sewing, the second girl started pinning, and the third girl began ironing her fabric.  This system worked well for our troop.  If we were to do this again, I would set it up the same way. 
• When the girls finished, they were asked to work on an endangered animal crossword puzzle and word search.  This helped us gear up for the Junior Animal Habitat badge they will earn at our next meeting and during our Zoo Overnight in May. 

AFTER THE EVENT:

• Although we ran into some technical difficulties with one of the machines, and two of our nine girls had to rip out side seams and begin again, this project went very smoothly.  Everyone had completed their pillowcase before the meeting was scheduled to end.  We even had time to snap a couple pictures.
• Not only is this is great service project, it could satisfy a number of badge steps (For example, you could make it work for the Brownie Philanthropist badge or for Step 2 of the Junior Independence badge). 
• We ordered sewing machine fun patches from Council so the girls would remember this event.

At Cincinnati Children's Hospital

This project could not have happened without the help of our willing and knowledgeable volunteers.  HUGE thanks to Amy, Mandy, Lynne, Sam, and Vicki for sharing your time and talents with our troop!  Many of the girls and their parents expressed interest in making more of these pillowcases at home to give as gifts and to donate to other organizations.  While it did take a lot of time to prepare for this event, it was worth every minute!  Thank you for reading.