CONGRATS to our First Communicates

This picture turned out too lovely NOT to post. This weekend, our second grade Brownies will make their First Communion!

Now, that’s more like it!! Of course THESE are the girls we know, and love!!!

Athletes Badge day for whole troop!

Kelsey from Divine Dance & Family Yoga came to our troop meeting recently to help our Brownies and Juniors earn their Athlete legacy badges and a FUN patch for the Daisies. She was able to give the girls a few “rules” in performing yoga and some practice tips to working on it independently. She talked about the differences between strength and endurance and gave the girls poses for each. The girls had some fun with a buddy when they worked together on yoga poses that can be performed with two people. For girls having challenges with not being able to do a pose, she even showed us modifications and ways to work up to being able to perform the whole thing.

Additionally, for our girl with a few special needs, Kelsey worked with her on partner poses and poses she could do so she was a part of the group with everyone else! Besides being a nice, sisterly thing to do, we very much appreciate Kelsey doing this because it also helped illustrate to the girls how sports and disabilities aren’t always independent of each other. After yoga, the Brownies talked a little more about this and read some stories to continue to solidify this concept!

For follow up and to conclude PRACTICE WITH PURPOSE, the Juniors will be using the first few minutes for the remainder of this troop year to work on the pose they want to be able to perform. During this time, we will discuss challenges to staying motivated and the practice tips that were given by Kelsey.

To complete FAIR PLAY, the Brownies also took a field trip to a CMU Woman’s Lacrosse game.

THANK YOU Kelsey for your time and motivation!!! The girls had a blast.

BROWNIES – All Day Journey: WOW!

In order for a girl to earn her Summit Award, she must have completed all 3 Journeys available for her troop level. In a 2-year course, we complete 2 Journeys, one for each year before she bridges to the next level. So, essentially a girl must complete the 3rd on her own. In an effort to assist with this, for any girls wanting to earn Summit, our troop offered all-day Journeys, on different Saturdays, for each level.

Brownies worked on the WOW! Wonders of Water journey. The WOW! journey presents Brownies the opportunity to earn four awards. Girls begin with small, personal acts and then move out to purposeful teamwork that engages the larger community and influences its members in significant ways.

•LOVE Water – This first award encourages girls to become aware of the many ways they use and enjoy water. As they begin to understand the science of water and its importance in the world, they will also make a personal commitment to protect it.
•SAVE Water – The second award is earned when the Brownies team up and speak up as advocates to protect water or keep it clean in their community. Girls start thinking as a team about what they will do for water. By making an effort that moves beyond themselves, the girls begin to realize the impact that group efforts can produce.
•SHARE Water – Girls earn the third award as they create an even bigger ripple by sharing their efforts for water with others, educating and inspiring them to join in, and asking them to commit to a water promise.
•WOW! – Girls culminate their journey by earning the WOW! Award, a grand finale that symbolizes the powerful change they’ve brought to their community. They earn the award by showing proof of their SHARE Water efforts, and by describing how their efforts relate to the Girl Scout Law and how they have had an impact as leaders.

In the photo above, the girls begin work on their Team W.O.W. map, drawing pictures of where their favorite places are to go and see water. The girls worked on this all day adding pictures of water to it from what we were learning and reading. At the end, they added their personal water promises on rain drops and we had our parents write water promises too!

The girls are holding water jars or labels for containers that show where their favorite water came from. This activity was to connect the girls to where water is in their own lives and get them to talk about what it means to them and the role it plays.

Brownie C.A. shows a picture of 14-year-old New York student Deepika Kurup, who invented a solar water purification system and got to meet the President of the United States. The girls were really enchanted with the story of this girl. We encourage you to Google her name to read more about her! Or listen to her here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj9ferpjBKU

The Brownies work on their letters to family, friends and favorite celebrities. These letters are what the Brownies committed to doing for our SAVE project at the end of our WOW journey. Most of these letters were drafts, and the girls will work on final versions at home with mom and dad and mail them off!

Team W.O.W. Map – finished product.