Sample Meeting for Blended Troop of Brownies and Juniors

If you have read this blog in the past, you may recall that this is our first year as a blended troop with Brownies and Juniors.  In the five years I've served as a Girl Scout troop leader, I have often wondered how leaders of blended troops juggle girls of different ages within the same troop?  How did they plan meetings to help satisfy steps for various badges at different levels?  I will admit the planning process can be overwhelming at times even for a troop that is not blended.  It is frustrating and disappointing for both leaders and girls when the plans do not go as anticipated.  In this post, I will outline the agenda for a recent meeting during which our plans did go as anticipated.

Last Wednesday, we decided to make dog toys to donate to a local animal shelter.  We were going to visit the shelter during the second half of our meeting.  The day before our meeting, I discovered we weren't able to visit the shelter because the lobby and bathrooms were being remodeled.  The volunteers at the shelter were unable to accommodate groups and offered to reschedule our visit.  I scrambled to prepare short projects and activities that would fill the 90 minutes we would spend together.  

Once the girls had left the meeting that evening, I decided it actually ended up being, in my opinion, the "perfect meeting."  I thought I would share the agenda here.  

4:15pm   Girls arrive.  
              Kapers assigned.  
              Recite Girl Scout Promise.  
              Sing Girl Scout Law song.
              Share:  Review Troop Rules.  We had a new girl join our troop in 
                         January.  The other leaders and I decided we should review our 
                         troop rules for everyone's benefit.  The girls each had an 
                         opportunity to share one rule for our troop, and we
                         leaders chimed in as well.
               Troop Business:  With Cookie Booth sales coming up in March, our 
                                        Cookie Mom asked the girls to vote on a few 
                                        important details.

4:45pm   Service Project:  T-shirt Dog Toys

5:00pm   Craft:  Metal Washer Necklaces

The Juniors are working on their Jeweler badge.  Step 2 of this badge is "Make Jewelry with Metal."  The Brownies and Juniors made metal washer necklaces during the meeting.  After considering several different ways to decorate the 1.25" diameter washers, I decided we would use scrapbook paper and Mod Podge. There are a million tutorials and blog posts available online, describing how to make washer necklaces. Here's how our girls made their necklaces:

• Prior to the meeting, I grabbed a scrap piece of paper.  I could have easily traced the washer with a pencil on the reverse side of the paper before cutting it out with scissors, but I decided to use my Cricut.  I chose the Simply Sweet cartridge to cut out a 1.25" circle.  I saved the negative part of the paper square for the girls to use as a template during the meeting.  I flipped the circle over, placed the washer on top and lined up the edges, and traced the inside circle onto the paper.  I used a standard hole punch to cut the hole in the middle of the circle.

• During the meeting, the girls chose a patterned piece of paper.  I helped them use the paper template to decide which part of the pattern they would like for their necklaces.  We cut the circles, and the girls cut out the middle hole as described above.

• They used paint brushes to apply Mod Podge to one side of the metal washer.  They covered the washer with the paper circle, making sure to align the edges of the paper with the edges of the washer.  They applied another coat of Mod Podge.  

• I came across some very small letter beads that had been given to me by a family member years ago.  I invited the girls to use these letters on their necklaces.  Some of the girls chose to write "love," "bff," or their names.  We dabbed a little more Mod Podge around each of the letters, hoping they would dry securely.  A hairdryer was used to help with the drying process.  We let the necklaces dry completely as we continued with the meeting.  Before the girls left, we finished their necklaces.  They chose to use a ribbon, yarn, or parachute cord we had remaining from past projects.  We tied a cow hitch (knot) by making a loop in the middle of the ribbon and threading the loop through the middle hole of the washer.  We took the two ends of the ribbon and passed them through the loop, pulling the ends to tighten the hitch on the washer.  The girls were familiar with this knot because they used them when they made macrame bracelets last month. 

5:20pm   Morse Code.
Step 2 for the Junior Detective badge is "Communicate in Code."  My husband and I recently started watching Downton Abbey.  In the first minute of the first episode of the first season, I saw characters using Morse Code to relay the shocking message about the sinking of the Titanic.  Before the meeting, I cued up the clip so the girls could see Morse Code in action.   

One of our co-leaders shared this worksheet she had come across when preparing a homeschool lesson for her daughters:  

http://www.magictreehouse.com/teachersclub/resource_center/pdfs/17-save-our-ship.pdf 

I printed copies of the worksheets.  Our girls used the Morse Code key on the worksheet to decipher the message to the captain of the Titanic.

 

During this portion of the meeting, we had some time to work on a handwriting activity.  Step 4 of the Junior Detective badge is "Try Out Detective Science."  I remembered using a book called Love Your Handwriting by Heidi Swapp when I was into writing titles for my scrapbook pages.  I modified one of Heidi's activities for our girls to work on during this meeting.  The girls played with their handwriting by writing the word trefoil in various ways.  Once they had completed the worksheet, they exchanged papers and examined the similarities and differences in their handwriting.




5:45pm   Braille.  
In this post, I described how our Brownies and Juniors learned about Braille.  During this meeting, they were able to complete some steps for the Brownie Senses badge and the Junior Detectives badge.

6:00pm   Closing.  Our girls love to end the meeting by singing "Make New Friends" and doing the friendship squeeze.

Please note that we don't always incorporate each of these components into every meeting.  It happened to work out this time, so I thought it was worth sharing on this blog.  Thank you for reading!

Bridging to Juniors: The Ceremony

Our Brownie troop bridged to Juniors in late May.  We devoted two meetings just to plan and prepare for this special ceremony, and their participation in this process satisfied the 5th step for the Celebrating Community badge.  In the previous post I provided details about our decorations, but I thought I would include some of the photos here, too.

OUR BRIDGING CEREMONY 

Welcome:  I began the event by welcoming our guests.  I also gave a brief overview of our year for the extended family members in the audience who may not have been familiar with our troop's activities and accomplishments.

Promise:  One of our girls led the troop in reciting the Girl Scout Promise. 

Pledge:  We had placed a flag in the corner of the ampitheater prior to the start of the event.  Another girl invited our guests to stand and join us in saying the Pledge of Allegiance.

Skit:  Two girls introduced our skit, politely requesting our guests not use flash photography (their idea).  This was adorable and got a few laughs.  The skit was written by the girls in the troop.  They brainstormed general ideas, agreed on one, and worked together to write the lines.  We leaders helped ensure the speaking parts were equally distributed.  In the skit, the girls helped a "younger girl" learn about Girl Scouts.  They incorporated the Girl Scout Law, the song "Make New Friends," and the Friendship Squeeze into the skit.  Super cute!

              

Introduction of Girls:  Prior to the ceremony, we filled mason jars with water and added a couple of drops of food coloring to each jar.  Just before the ceremony, we tied a balloon to each mason jar.  We lined them up in two rows, making the "bridge."  When the skit was finished, we announced the name of each girl and let her walk through the balloon bridge.  Once all the girls were lined up across the front of our stage area, we leaders said something special about each girl.  We chose to hand out the bridging gifts at the end of the ceremony, but we took time at this point in the ceremony to explain what each girl would be receiving in her gift box.

Balloon Ascension:  When they were planning the ceremony, one of the girls asked if they could each have a balloon from the balloon bridge to release at the end of the event to symbolize their graduation to Juniors.  We all thought this was a great idea, and we agreed the girls should end their ceremony this way. 

 

Kona Ice Snow Cones!:  The girls decided to have Kona Ice serve snow cones to the troop and their siblings after the ceremony.  This was a great way to end another great year!

The girls are going to work on the Junior aMUSE Journey in September.  This will be our first Journey, so I will be sure to post what worked and what, if anything, we would do differently.  The girls hope to work on their Bronze award next year and have also voted to earn the Camper, Detective, Jeweler, and Simple Meals badges.  We hope you will check back in with us.  Thank you for reading!

At each meeting we take turns assigning kapers. That's a fancy way of saying chore.

If you have spent any time with girls in Kindergarten and 1st grade, you know that "No one knows fancy like Nancy."  A kaper is a fancy word for chore.  A kaper chart "can be used to clarify which individual...is responsible for completing a specific job" (angelfire).  Such charts ensure that everyone in the troop plays a part in the meeting.  Shortly after our recruitment meeting, I searched the Internet for kaper chart ideas.  My favorite descriptions were found on scoutmom.net while my favorite images were seen on Google.  I combined several ideas and sketched three kaper charts on paper to show to our young troop.  I introduced the idea of kapers to the girls by discussing Fancy Nancy and her love for big fancy words.  During that meeting they voted for their favorite chart which is pictured here: 

I LOVE to scrapbook, so I have some tools that made crafting this kaper chart a cinch.  I used the Creative Memories Jumbo Circle Pattern to cut out an 11.5" circle from a 12x12" piece of white cardstock.  This could easily be done by tracing a large plate and cutting the paper with scissors.  I then mounted the cardstock on a piece of cardboard that was cut to the same size.  I divided the circle into ten pieces before assigning each slice a job with a black permanent marker.  The possibilities of specific kapers you could include on the chart are endless.  This Girl Scout site may also be helpful.  I used my Cricut to cut out the 3" blue scalloped circle (Mini Monograms cartridge) and the 2.5" white flower (George cartridge).  I used a .5" circle punch to cut the yellow center.  Then each piece was glued in the center of the chart.  I wrote each girl's name on a wooden clothespin.  These clothespins are clipped onto the kaper chart before the beginning of each meeting.  

We have 10 girls in our troop which explains why we have 10 different jobs on our kaper chart.  However, there may come a time when someone misses a meeting or we may not sing a song or play a game during a meeting.  Sometimes we may have an activity that requires more than one helper.  We simply adjust the chart to fit our needs for the specific occasion by skipping over a job on the chart or by clipping more than one clothespin on another job.

For our Kickoff Meeting, the first girl to arrive at the meeting (who was not my daughter) had the job of assigning kapers for that meeting.  I placed her clothespin on the "kapers" section of the chart.  The clothespins are stored in a zippie bag.  She was instructed not to look in the bag as she pulled out the next clothespin.  This pin was clipped to the "buddies" section.  She continued to clip each successive pin onto the chart in order around the circle.  I recorded who was assigned each job.  The girl responsible for assigning buddies for this meeting would then get to assign kapers at the beginning of the next meeting.  This way everyone had the chance to do both of these jobs as the year progressed.

Descriptions of the other jobs are as follows:

PROMISE--leads the troop in reciting the Girl Scout Promise

PLEDGE--holds the flag while the troop says the Pledge of Allegiance

CODE--reads the Daisy Code that was developed by the other leader of our  
     troop:
     D     Do unto others as you would have done to you.
     A     Always be respectful of others and our surroundings.
     I      I use my inside voice.
     S     Speak when it is your turn.  Listen when it is not.
     Y     You are the most important part of Daisies.  Have fun!
SHARE--is first to share her answer to a question asked to the troop.  This
      helps them get to know each other.  For example, we asked them their
      favorite ice cream flavor at the Ice Cream Social meeting. 
SONG--chooses which song to sing
GAME--chooses the game to play or goes first if game has been determined
HELPER--passes out supplies or helps clean up
CLOSING--chooses how to close the meeting.  Our girls LOVE the friendship squeeze, so she starts the squeeze. 

I hope this post serves as a springboard for you as you help your girls decide on a kaper chart that best fits the needs of your troop.  Our girls enjoy leading their meetings by being responsible for a specific job.  Please feel free to share your kaper chart ideas here.  Thanks for reading! 

Happy 100th Birthday, Girl Scouts!

Our girls are nearing the end of their second year as Daisy Girl Scouts.  They are getting excited to bridge to Brownies in late May.  (Check back for a post describing our exciting bridging event).  They completed the two required bridging steps earlier this month.  The first step is to "Pass it On."  The girls in our troop shared their experiences as Daisy Girl Scouts with younger girls who may one day wish to be a Daisy.  The second step is to "Look Ahead."  The girls in our troop arranged time to spend with Brownies who described to us what it is like to participate in Girl Scouts at the next level. 

Our troop hosted an Ice Cream Social earlier this month in order to fulfill these bridging requirements.  We also saw this occasion as the perfect opportunity to celebrate the momentous 100th birthday of Girls Scouts.  The decision was made to invite a couple of Brownies from a sister troop in our elementary school to the Ice Cream Social.  It just so happened that one of the Brownies is a sister of one of the girls in our troop.  She brought two  friends from her Brownie troop to the party.  We then extended the invitation to five younger sisters related to girls in our troop who will be entering Kindergarten and may wish to join a Daisy troop next year.  The girls in our troop made Ice Cream Social invitations using recycled cookie boxes.  (This link provides other cute suggestions for how to use those empty boxes).  We cut out the front and back sides of boxes we had saved from cookie sales last year.  The girls used markers to decorate the invitation and to list the details for our party.  We shuffled the invitations and the girls delivered the invitations to the younger sisters.  This activity counted toward earning their GREEN petal (use resources wisely).  

Parent chaperones were recruited to attend the party.  We have an incredibly supportive and involved group of parents.  All mothers of the younger children offered to stay to lend a helping hand.  We had 6 adults and 18 girls--quite a full house!  

We began our meeting as usual, starting by reciting the Girl Scout Promise and the Pledge of Allegiance.  Then we went around the room, allowing each girl to share her favorite ice cream flavor with the others in the group.  It will never cease to amaze me how kids gravitate toward neon blue ice cream.  As a mother, I cringe on the rare occasion I give my kids free reign at the counter...it never fails they pick Superman or Blue Moon Cookie Dough.  I think back to when I was younger, and I loved the blue bubblegum ice cream.  Gross, but I digress.  After everyone had the chance to share, the Daisy troop performed a "skit."  I passed out an index card to each girl.  The index card stated the color of a petal and listed what our troop had done to earn that petal.  (Stay tuned as future posts will describe these activities in detail).  The younger girls had the chance to ask the Daisies questions before they lined up to make their ice cream sundaes.  The parent chaperones helped each of the younger girls with the vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, sprinkles, and cherries.  We ushered the younger girls into another room to eat while the Brownies explained each of the badges on their uniforms to the Daisies.  They also described how much fun they have had camping since our girls have not yet tackled spending the night away from home as a group.  Once all the questions had been answered, the rest of the girls gobbled up the sweet treat.  The Brownies were split up between the tables with the Daisies so the conversation could continue.

Just before the meeting adjourned, we ended with our usual friendship squeeze.  As the girls were leaving, the Brownies and Daisies were handed an Ice Cream Social fun patch that our troop had voted upon in the fall.  The Brownies and the younger sisters all received a friendship pin the Daisies had made during a previous meeting.  The event was a success!  The Daisy troop earned their final petal (VIOLET--be a sister to every Girl Scout) for hosting this party and socializing with other Girl Scouts.  I would love to hear stories about how other troops celebrated the 100th birthday of Girl Scouts.  I do hope you visit this blog again as I will explore how our troop spent the last two years earning their petals and serving their community.