Brownie Girl Scout Leaders

[vcr]

I have a group of 10 second grade brownies (I wanted one grade level so we can stay together). We are not doing any Journeys and I let all the girls pick a badge they wanted to do this year and I added a few so we are doing half this year, half next. For our next meeting, we are doing the Making Friends badge and making get to know you Cootie Catchers and playing toss and talk ball for Step 1. I have most of the badges planned. Does anyone else have a pinterest girl scout board? Mine is http://pinterest.com/vcr1995/girl-scouts/ Some of the things I am doing for badges are making no sew tutus for the Dance badge, homemade hula hoops for Making Games badge, laundry bottle piggy banks for Money Manager (TD Bank has a girl scout program that goes great for this badge and includes a free patch). I charged $60 for dues this year to pay for all the fun patches, badges, and crafts we will be doing. $30 at first meeting $30 in Jan. All the money from product sales go to field trips (we live in Central Florida and have tons to pick from)

[huffjoann]

we had our 1st meeting last night,, I moved up from co leader to leader this yr,, we have all 2nd grade girls, 5 returning from last yr and 4 new ones so far,, I am sooo confused about the journeys vs triats,, we are doing the its your world change it journey first, then I guess we will do some tryits? not sure how it will all play out. We meet 2x a month then do some of the SU activities,, my returning girls were never much of a participate on Sat group, LOL,, so we just do the best we can.
last yr my main thing as co leader was planning crafts & activities to tie in with meeting content,, this yr I am doing it all as I have a brand new co-leader and I am not trying to throw a bunch on her early on.

[kelann7]

Originally Posted by Familyof4lovesDW

Have you see the Browine shirts at Old Navy? They are super cute!

Are you talking about the shirt that says "Brownies Rule"? I got one for my daughter. Did you see any others?

Thanks.

Kelly

[RangerPooh]

I'm new to being a Brownie leader. My daughter has been a Daisy the last 2 years, and when no one stepped up to lead, I did. I'm nervous as I have yet to plan activities and our meetings begin next week. From the looks of it I will have to purchase the leader books out of pocket, so I'm not sure which book to start with.

For our first meeting I'm thinking about playing a Bingo game that I made using Girl Scout associated words, meeting everyone, and having our troop assistant (who just graduated high school) show her former vests/sashes to get the girls excited. As for dues, we're asking for $2 a week.

Looking around online I discovered Kaper Charts, do any of your troops use them? If so what do they look like?

Thanks and nice to meet you!
Keri

[Marshay]

Originally Posted by RangerPooh

I'm new to being a Brownie leader. My daughter has been a Daisy the last 2 years, and when no one stepped up to lead, I did. I'm nervous as I have yet to plan activities and our meetings begin next week. From the looks of it I will have to purchase the leader books out of pocket, so I'm not sure which book to start with.

For our first meeting I'm thinking about playing a Bingo game that I made using Girl Scout associated words, meeting everyone, and having our troop assistant (who just graduated high school) show her former vests/sashes to get the girls excited. As for dues, we're asking for $2 a week.

Looking around online I discovered Kaper Charts, do any of your troops use them? If so what do they look like?

Thanks and nice to meet you!
Keri

If you purchase the girls guide to brownies for your daughter then just use that for yourself, too. No need to buy another one for you as leader. This year they are designed to be both for girls and leaders.

I recommend you don't charge each week but get all the dues upfront. That way you know how much money you have to spend for the year...and less hassle to collect money each week, provide change, etc. it may also encourage girls to attend when it's already paid for.

Our first meeting we reviewed the first 20 pages or so of the book, chose our troop crest, learned new brownie songs, asked girls what they want to do this year, reviewed the fall sales, etc.

Yes we use a kaper chart..the girls like to see what they are in charge of, so it works well.

We are not doing a journey at this time...just doing the legacy, business, cookie badges in the girls guide.

Good luck!

[Familyof4lovesDW]

Originally Posted by GS for life

I don't understand how your nut sale affects cookie money. In my council, they are separate.
The water journey is fun

I found out the only girls that have to sell 20 nuts are ones who did not early bird. It is a second chance for them to earn extra cookie money.

By participating in nuts you earn extra money per box for cookie sales. I think they do it to encourage nut sales. Totally bummed they got rid of my chocolate covered pretzel balls from last year.

Originally Posted by kelann7

Are you talking about the shirt that says "Brownies Rule"? I got one for my daughter. Did you see any others?

Thanks.

Kelly

Yes, that's the shirt. I'm going on the hunt for three more, possibly 4 if one will fit me too lol.

We have 6 girls this year and all of the moms are registered but one. Two help other troops and another mom is going to register. One has an older girl, so my coleader and I joke we need to step it up, because she knows what we are suppose to do

We are going to try the Brownie Quest Journey, so if anyone has ideas, please post. I will post mine as well.

We have a schedule until the end of the year (December), I just need to figure out what we will be doing lol. We are doing Operation Snowflake for our service project. Of course there is a patch for it lol, and what I think is cool, is each year you do it, you add a snowflake. So I have the last 2 meetings of the year planned

I plan the rest of the year during Christmas break, depending on what we have done and to work in cookie patches (the business ones) and pin.

[kelann7]

I am planning on doing the Brownie Quest journey, but not until after the holidays. I'll have to find my notes on my plans for this Journey. I'll post them later.

Tonight, we are doing the First Aid badge. This is my plan.

Step 1 - talk about 911 and role play. I came up with a few scenarios - if this happens, do you call 911?

Step 2 - interview a medical professional - one of our moms is a nurse

Step 3 - make a first aid kit - I had already bought a kit for the troop - I will show it to the girls and show them everthing that is in it. I also found individual first aid kits at Dollar Tree - it is a small case with bandages and alcohol wipes in it. I bought one for each girl. I also bought name tag labels - one for them to write their name on and the other to draw a red cross and write First Aid on it. These name tag labels fit perfectly on the front and back of the case.

Step 4 - Learn how to treat minor injuries - the mom who is a nurse will be speaking to the group at our meeting today. After she does her presentation, they can ask questions, which will cover step 2 above.

Step 5 - Learn how to prevent and treat outdoor injuries - I came up with a hanout about poison ivy, oak and sumac that I will give them and talk about it.

So, we will do all 5 steps in one meeting. In looking at the other badges, some of them may take 2 or 3 meetings to do all of the steps. And some of them require a field trip, which I don't mind planning field trips, but it is hard to find a day when everyone can go. Everyone is so busy. I have 16 girls, so I will plan field trips, but what to do if a girl can't go? I'm still trying to figure this out - I'll probably wait and see who can go and who can't and take it from there on a case by case basis.

I would love to hear other plans and ideas for all of the Legacy badges and some of the Skill Building badges. I'm planning on doing all of the Legacy badges over 2 years, but I only like a couple of the Skill building badges. Most of those seem like it is better and easier to do individually instead of as a troop.

Also, I will have the girl pair off and practice putting bandaids on each other's fingers. Kids love bandaids, or at least mine does.

Kelly

[Tabologist]

Originally Posted by Marshay

This year we are making a Brownie Elf doll to be her friend

Is there a pattern or kit for the Brownie Elf doll?

Oh and, how cute is she? Love the new elf

[RangerPooh]

So far our meetings have been going well. We gave 17 girls on our troop! A huge increase from the 3 Daisy's we started with last year. Our last two meetings have been covering the GS promise and apples. We went apple picking last weekend and even pressed cider. I then brought in cider fit everyone to taste so even those who couldn't attend could sample what we made.

Our investiture is coming up in a few weeks. Are there any special activities that you have done in preparation?

Also any advice for the brownie Quest journey?

Someone mentioned operation snowflake, what's that?

[purpleorchids]

we finished the Celebrating Community badge last week. It was fun. We learned about our state. I passed out several pieces of paper to each girl with what represent our state - i.e. our flag, flower, song etc. The girls guessed what it is our tried to describe it. Then the person who had that piece of paper read out load what it was and gave further detail.

We also sang our state song, practiced marching around, and they drew pictures of what would represent themselves. Then next day we went and had fun participating in the Salmon Parade.

This week I found out how many more new girls wanted to join so I will be getting 5 more girls for a total of 10. One thing I am surprised is that our state does not like to mix the age troops. Don't know why but the sister troop we have our meetings don't have to many girls and one girl decided not to come back so they only have 4 which are 3rd grade brownies and we are 2nd graders but they did not give them any new girls for their troop. And I know that they actually had a total of 15 new 2nd graders to place into a troop. I just think it's odd that our state doesn't like to mix the troops

We will be attending our investiture / rededictation in a couple of weeks too that our service unit is putting on. The only thing I will need to prepare is have their membership pins, certificates, and a brief speech at the beginning.

[mupt02]

I'm glad I found this thread. More ideas are always needed.

I have a combined Daisy/Brownie troop. We have 12 total girls - 5 Daisy and 7 Brownie. We have a very ambitious year planned so I am hoping we can get to it all.

We want to complete all petals and all journeys for the Daisies and two journeys and the associated skill badges for the Bronwies.

Our first meeting concentrated on the Girl Scout Law and Promise. We have also done a field trip to the Fire Station. We are on Fall Break right now, so no meetings, but we do have a trip to our local food bank planned. When we get back from break we are going to continue our work on the Brownie Quest journey, Dancer badge, and my Best Self badge. After we do all of the dance badge requirements we are going to have a dance show for all the families. We are tying all of the Daisy stuff in with this as well. That's our plan through Thanksgiving. We are hoping to have through December planned in the next couple of weeks.

Does anyone have any ideas for Take Action projects? This is where we are having the most trouble.

[Cynt]

If anyone is in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area they're celebrating Girl Scout's 100th birthday at the Texas State Fair at the Hall of State building. They have a full exhibit, ap scavenger hunt and patch awarded after you complete it. http://www.statefairgirlscouts.org/

[rainydayplay]

Hi! I just saw this thread today! My DD is starting her second year as a Brownie, and I have been promoted (??) to Brownie Leader.

There are a whole 3 third graders in my Brownie group. (There's a whopping 9 in our entire troop -- 3 Brownies, 2 Juniors, and 4 Cadets.)

Our first meeting was last Tuesday. Our council has an anti-bullying patch and it's anti-bullying month, so we started that. There's a great lesson plan on the American Girl website that includes things like talking points and acting things out, plus, if you have the movie (that was for the 2010 Girl of the Year Chrissa) a video you can use, and a book, and it's geared for grades 3-5. I used it, added some extra stuff, and, of course, they have to make a poster. We did the lesson plans (about 45 minutes, give or take), started on the poster, then made bubble snake blowers (cut the bottom of a plastic bottle, duct take a sock (cut 2-3 inches or so above the toe end) over the end you cut off, dip into bubble solution, and blow through the cap end of the bottle. Was lots of fun!)

We're also looking at the Making Friends badge (since I can see that going in with the anti-bullying stuff), the Girl Scout Way badge, and the First Aid badge. We're going to do the World of Girls Journey, starting in November (since that's National Novel Writing Month -- I know they aren't writing a novel, but it is a story...) We're going to make scrapbooks for them to write their stories in and for them to chronicle some of what we do throughout the year. I've got a few bookmaking projects that I think would be good for them to do.

I'm also working on some nifty Christmas crafts that they can give as gifts, and hoping to organize a Juliet Gordon Lowe birthday party/service project (collecting canned goods or toys to donate to charity) for our service unit's badge day next month, but waiting on approval for that.

Maybe I'm a little overzealous....

[kelann7]

I'm planning on doing the Brownie Quest this year. My plan is to have one meeting wehre we go over Ch 1 - 3 in the book and an introduction to the Journey. The next meeting, we'll do the Discover Key, the next meeting - Connect, the next meeting - Take Action and then wrap it all up. So, 5 meetings in total for Journey. Like someone else mentioned, I'm having trouble coming up with ideas for the Take Action project. Any ideas? I'm hoping the girls come up with something, but I would like to have something in mind, in case they don't think of anything.

Kelly

[Marshay]

Originally Posted by Tabologist

Is there a pattern or kit for the Brownie Elf doll?

Oh and, how cute is she? Love the new elf

My co-leader just basically drew a pattern from scratch, based on a rag doll.

Thin Rectangles for legs and arms
Thick Rectangle/cone for body
circle for head
Long Triangle for hat
Elf slippers for feet.


Cut out the pattern and trace onto material twice (once for front and once for back).

Draw face on doll.

Sew material together leaving room to stuff.

Stuff doll with filler. We are also adding some dry beans/rice/cat litter to the bottom of the body so she can sit up without flopping over.

We also added chenille sticks (pipe cleaner) for the arms to make them more sturdy.

Close up the materials and sew legs and arms and head to body.

Add yarn for hair to head and then sew on hat.

Viola! You got a Brownie doll. I'll post picture when we are all done.