Girl Scout Fun Ideas - February Edition

I've worked with Girl Scouts for nearly two decades (it really doesn't feel like that long!) and one of the things I loved most about having a Girl Scout troop was our holiday and seasonal activities. The ideas I share in these monthly posts are from a New Leader Booklet that was shared with me when I started leading Girl Scout troops in the early 2000s. Since our council (and as far as I know any other) no longer shares this information, I want to make it accessible on the internet. Enjoy!

Keep working on Thinking Day activities. Have an imaginary trip around the world and play songs or games or have food from different parts of the world. Make Thinking Day paper chains  to count down to Thinking Day. On each chain, write one good deed or nice thing they should do for someone.

Celebrate Lunar New Year. Do some origami or calligraphy. Sample foods, learn about customs, try chopsticks, etc.

Have a "loud singing" contest - especially good for a rainy day when everyone feels cooped up.

Spend time going over personal safety - calling 911. fires, strangers, how not to get lost (and what to do if it happens), etc. There are patch programs that help with teaching these topics - if your council doesn't have one, check out other councils' owns.

Celebrate Valentine's Day. There are lots of crafts, foods, etc. to try. Have the girls bring Valentines for each other, or have them write positive notes about each girl in the troop to exchange. Or, have a Valentine, cookie, sticker, or other exchange.

Discuss that our founder, Juliette Gordon Lowe, was def. Learn the alphabet in sign language. Learn how to say your name. See if you can have a person visit who knows sign language. Perhaps they could teach you to sign a favorite song or the Girl Scout Promise.

In February, The French people have a lemon festival in the town of Menton. A parade of lemon-filled wagons in the lemon parade travels through streets lined with lemon, orange, grapefruit, and tangerine decorations. Make a lemon meringue pie, lemonade, or a lemon tart to celebrate. To learn more about the festival, you can visit this link.

Hold a coat or blanket drive in your community to benefit a homeless shelter.

Learn how to jump rope. Play Double Dutch.

Attending the Thinking Day event is a must! This a great chance for the girls to participate and know that they are part of a larger organization thank just their own troop.

Celebrate Lincoln's birthday with building log cabins or making old-fashioned vegetable or stone soup. Celebrate Washington's birthday - anything with cherries seems to work. Or, get a copy of the children's book George Washington's Breakfast and make food from the book. Or, talk about the presidents in general. How many have their been? What are the requirements for becoming president? Make silhouettes of the girls' heads by shining a light past their profile and tracing onto a piece of black construction paper. Mount on a circular piece of paper. How do the girls think they would look on a coin?

Much of the world celebrates Shrove Tuesday or Carnival, or Fat Tuesday. In South America, there are parades, tricks and revelry, masks and games, and feasting. Cut mask shapes out of fun foam and decorate, make parade floats out of shoe boxes, share Mardi Gras beads, and feast on Cajun food or a king's cake.

First Aid - work on your First Aid badge (each age level has their own) - teach some simple First Aid skills such as what to do for a nose bleed or a knocked out tooth. 

Sew dunk bags. These could be made out of open weave dish rags or have duty lace curtain material or any kind of heavy (not tulle) netting material you can find. Sew two pieces of fabric together around three sides. Sew a casing around the top, and insert a drawstring. Practice proper dish washing techniques for camping.

Play the feelings game. Start the discussion by relating an incident where someone's feelings were hurt because of something someone said. Ask the girls to name some feelings. As they name them, write them down on strips of paper (e.g. happy, sad, scared, proud, mad.) Have the girls take turns taking a strip and acting it out without words or sounds. Discuss how you can tell how a person feels by looking at her.

13 Days of Halloween 2018 - Day 5

Y'all, I'm going to be completely transparent for just a minute. Today is not only the 5th day of the 13 Days of Halloween, but it is the LAST DAY OF FALL BREAK. Now, I don't know about your Club sites, but around here, if school is out, the Club is in. For us that means that for the last three days we've had kids for at least 10 hours a day. Let me say that again TEN HOURS A DAY. Not only are we with these kids for a very long time, many of them are not regular Club kids. This means they don't really know the everyday rules and procedures of the Club. Fall Break is a bit of a dress rehearsal for the upcoming Winter Break and for new staff who have yet to endure experience a break, it can sometimes feel like a hazing. Now granted, our staff aren't working 10 hour days, but when you're neck deep in the trenches a 5-7 hour shift can easily feel like a 10 hour day. So, with all of that transparency (perhaps more than you asked for), I give you Day 5 of the 13 Days of Halloween: Back Pocket Ideas (or How to Make Breaks Not-Quite-As-Scary). For those of us who work with kids on a daily, these Back Pocket Ideas are like early Trick or Treating (although I try and make sure our staff have some candy hidden around the Club too).

Now I'm not sure what other organizations refer to these little golden nuggets as, but I learned the term over my years as a Girl Scout leader and trainer. Basically, Back Pocket Ideas are games, songs, activities, anything that keeps your group occupied for the extra five or ten minutes until the next activity starts. The premise is that you keep them tucked away in your Back Pocket until you need them and since they require no set up or materials, you can use them easy peasy anytime. So, since this is the final day of Fall Break, I can assure you our staff have been pulling out the Back Pocket ideas. Here are some of my favorite ideas that I've used over the years.

Who Has It? Who Doesn't?

Staff chooses an observable object such as hair ribbons, watch, white shirt, and says, "Ann has it, James doesn't." When someone thinks they know, they raise their hand and guess. Each youth may make only one guess per object until everyone has had a chance, or until a given time limit has passed. With younger children, the children who "have it" line up on one wall and the ones who don't "have it" line up on the other wall, so they can have visual clues to the criteria or concept.

Barnyard

Each child is given the name of an animal with three children having the same name. No one is allowed to tell another which animal he is. At the signal each child makes the noise of the animal that he has been given. The first group of three animals to find each other and sit down are the winners.

Machines

Groups of 6-10 must create a moving machine by miming it all together, (each person is a part of the machine). Others must try to guess what the machine is. No talking or noises are allowed.

Oh Deer!

A game where a herd of deer seeks food, water and shelter to survive. The group should be split into 2 even groups and they should be at either end of the playing space facing opposite directions. One group will be the environment and the other will be the deer. The environment and the deer will pick one of three signs; WATER (hand over mouth), FOOD (hands on stomach) or SHELTER (hands in a peak overhead). On the go signal from the leader, both groups will turn around and make their  symbol. The deer will run towards the environment that is the same as their sign. If they get an environment, both players become deer. If the deer cannot find the appropriate symbol, they will die and become part of the environment. Fluctuations in the deer population due to different causes can be shown in different rounds.

Okay, I'm going to be real with you all again... I know these aren't Halloween related. But, remember when I said it was the LAST DAY OF FALL BREAK. Yeah, I kinda need a break too. But, they really are great ideas and they are super helpful to have whenever you need them.

Do you have favorite Back Pocket Ideas that you pull out in your Clubs? Let me know!