Junior Girl Scouts badge: Animal Habitats

Last year, the girls in our troop wanted to spend the night at the Cincinnati Zoo.  They used a portion of the money they earned during the cookie sale to cover the cost of the outing.  We camped out in tents behind the Giraffe Ridge exhibit.  My husband and I had purchased this Coleman 6-Person Tent for family campouts.  The tent gets great reviews on Amazon, and our family highly recommends it!  We have used it several times, and it has been relatively easy to assemble.  To give readers an idea, I set the tent up to take some pictures for this post, and I accomplished this task within fifteen minutes.  (Please note there is a rainfly included with this tent.  If I remember correctly, this protective cover is a little more involved to set up and may require an additional set of hands).  In our experience, we have been able to fit the following arrangement in this tent:

• four adults
• six young children 
• two adults and three smaller kids 
• three adults and two children

Remember to account for the space required for all the gear as well.  Here are a few photos to provide some perspective:

 












Our overnight at the Cincinnati Zoo last spring was such a hit that the girls voted to use this year's cookie sale profits for another overnight at the Zoo.  Thankfully the Cincinnati Zoo offers many overnight opportunities for groups and families, so the girls got to experience something new.  This year, we spent the night with the manatees.  

Knowing we were returning for another zoo program, I took a look at the requirements for the Juniors Animal Habitats badge.  I realized the girls would most likely complete three of the steps during our overnight at the zoo.  We completed the other two steps during one of our meetings. Additionally, the girls were asked to work on an endangered animal crossword puzzle and word search for fun when they finished sewing their pillowcases during our Pillowcase Event earlier this spring.  An online search for an "endangered species crossword puzzle" provides many puzzles that can be printed for the girls in your troop.

Step 1:  Find out about wild animals.  The badge booklet states, "Wild animals may seem very different from your pets at home, but at one time, all animals were wild!"  Since we were sleeping with the manatees, the girls had plenty of time to observe the animals.  As a group, the overnight participants discussed the manatees' behavior and talked about how their behavior differs from other animals we have observed.

Step 2: Investigate an animal habitat.   While at the zoo, we toured the Bird House, Jungle Trails, and had an opportunity to go behind the scenes in both the Bird House and Manatee Springs.  The questions listed in the badge booklet were answered easily. 

Step 3: Create an animal house.  During one of our meetings, we made a Jello Nest as described in the badge booklet.  Unfortunately the experiment did not work as planned, but we talked it through with the girls.  They left the meeting understanding how and why an animal insulates its nest.  As I already mentioned, part of the overnight included a visit to the Bird House, so the girls learned a little more about nests.

Step 4: Explore endangered habitats.  Since manatees are endangered animals found living in the Gulf of Mexico, the questions posed for this step were answered during our zoo overnight.

Step 5. Help protect animal habitats.  We completed this step during one of our meetings.

 
The Juniors used the endangered animal word search I mentioned previously, and they each wrote down the top five endangered animals they wanted to know more about.  From this list, we narrowed their choices down to three endangered animals.  The girls voted, and the groups were assigned accordingly.  One group researched the Asian elephant, and the other group discovered more about the Monarch butterfly. 

Using laptops under supervision of troop leaders, the girls worked together to answer the following questions about their endangered animal:

• Where does the animal live?

• Why is the animal's home endangered?

• How can others help?

• Is there an organization that protects the animal's habitat?  

• If so, what is the name of the organization?  What is its mission?

Our three Brownies work together, and they chose to research the okapi.  All three groups decorated posters and presented their reports to the other two groups. 

Following the presentations, we recreated an oil spill as described in the badge booklet.  We filled a bowl with water and then poured some cooking oil into the water.  We tried to clean up the spill with some string, a tissue, a paper towel, a cotton ball, and a spoon.  When asked what else we should try, the girls exclaimed, "Dawn!"  Guess they're all familiar with the advertisements.  

Another fun badge completed.  Though this blog post describes the steps required to earn a Girl Scout badge, there are some great activities that school-aged children could complete on a rainy day or during summer vacation.  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.