Brownie Try-Its?

[UMTerp]

I posted this on the Community Board but then thought that this board might be good too!

We are new to brownies this year. Each parent has to pick one of the try-its, purchase the supplies, come to the meeting and work with the girls on it.

Anyone had any good luck with a particular one?

Thanks for your help!

UMTerp

 

[HunnyPots]

It has been about 10 years since I was a Brownie leader but I remember a few. Cooking was a big hit. I remember letting the girls make homemade pizza. There was one called "dolls and puppets", I think? We traced around the girls to make a pattern for a life-size doll. I did the sewing and then the girls got to stuff, draw facial features, add yarn hair, and then dress them in their own clothes. We spent a day at a local wild-life park for the animal one. We learned all sorts of songs and games.
I know we did more than one activity for each try-it but those are the ones that stand out in my memory. I'll have to get out my daughter's sash and see what else we did.

 

[Franne]

We did Art to Wear, that was a lot of fun, we made t-shirts that the girls would wear under their vests when we went on outings. We bought blue shirts and used brown paint to make thier handprints. Each girl "handstamped" each others shirts. It was really cute. We also made a cap, decorated it with fabric paint, made bead bracelets, and I can't remember the 4th thing we did, sorry.
But these projects were great because they got double use and we looked so cool when we went anywhere!
Franne

 

[pattyT]

for the 'writing' one the girls all wrote a short dtory about their dream vacation -
they were so cute - and a few of them even took me on it

 

[MerryPoppins]

I was a Brownie leader, so we did a bunch of them.

Art to Wear was lots of fun. My girls did reverse tie dye. We took colored t-shirts and wound them up with rubber bands. The more rubber bands and the tighter they are wrapped the better. Each girl had her name written on the tag so her shirt could be identified. Then we took them out in the driveway and sprayed them with bleach water in a squirt bottle just before the girls went home. Have plastic gloves on hand so they don't have to get bleach on themselves. They took them home wrapped up in plastic bags to protect their clothing and the cars, with the instructions to throw them in the washing machine right away. If you are in a home you could just throw them all in the washing machine together. DO NOT remove the rubber bands first! When they come out of the dryer, the girls find their shirt and remove the rubber bands. Where the rubber bands were wrapped tightly the color remains, but the rest of the shirt is bleached a lighter color. I do suggest having the girls wear old clothes, so they won't ruin good clothes. Someone is sure to get bleach water on her vest otherwise. We did purple shirts and they bleached a pretty pink with purple markings. The girls loved them and we wore them on field trips so we were all dressed alike.

 

[gfolchick]

I am currently a brownie leader for 14 second grade girls. Last Thursday we went apple picking as a troop. At our meeting on Monday they made tacos, fruit salad, and baked apples (and apple bundles a pampered chef recipe). It is part of the Make It, Eat It try it. For our next meeting we are having a pot luck dinner. Each girl is required to bring a favorite recipe (from a category they drew from) to share, plus 14 copies of the recipe. We are having them put together a recipe book and they will decorate covers for it.

 

[Sydnoahmom]

I am a troop leader for 11 3rd grade girls. One of the first badges I suggest is Safety Sense. It deals with making an escape route for your meeting site, you can include fire, hurricane, &/or tornado, whichever is relevent to your area. We just did earth and sky this summer,which was a lot of fun. We actually spent a day at my house this summer and completed 3 Try-Its: Art to Wear, Make it, Eat it and Earth and Sky. The day went surprisingly well. We painted tote bags for our handbooks, socks and t-shirts. Penny Power is a good one prior to Fall Product sale or Cookie sales. Cookies Count tie into cookie sales. Let's pretend was a lot of fun, as was Puppets,Plays and Dolls. I could go on and on. PM with any questions.

Laurie

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

My girls are now Cadettes (soon to bridge to seniors after they finish off their Silver Award), and although it has been a long time since we were Brownies, they have worked with Brownie try-its as part of their Silver Award work.

There are several related to outdoor things (and my girls personally are of the opinion that these are the events being lost from the GS program) such as camping and outdoor cooking. Sorry I don't have those names in front of me but for instance I know there is one that has to do with camping that can be done without actually going camping!

It builds the skills. One of the activities is "roll a bag relay" and is a really fun game. My girls were practicing it for the camping fun 101 event they are running this weekend.

It might be a fun change of pace to do one of those.

There are also try-its that have to do with Girl Scouts in the US and around the world. These help make the connection for Brownies that this isn't just a local thing but there are thousands of girls around the world. There is a postcard exchange that is set up for Thinking Day that allows girls to actually swap postcards with either just US troops or US and international troops. I have the contact info at home if you're interested. My girlies decided to opt out this year - they are moving on to other things.

Guess what I'm getting at is don't limit yourself just to the "crafty" sorts of projects. The GS in the US is a fun one because it includes things like making s'mores (and as already mentioned food is always a winner). These sort of "alternate" try-its can be a bit less expensive as well.

When our girls were that age my co-leader and I used a lot of puzzles, fill in the blank, etc. that they then had to find the answers out of the Brownie book. If the book is limited in number in your troop you can photo copy the necessary pages. There are several web sites that let you make custom word searches, etc. And these sorts of activities help develop reading and problem solving skills as well.

Deb

 

[UMTerp]

WOW! Thank you everyone so much! I had to be offline for
a while can came back to all of these wonderful suggestions!

Thank you so much!

UMTerp