aMuse – Roles and Stereotypes

Our Juniors have started working on the aMuse Journey.  In this journey the girls will build confidence by trying  roles they choose for themselves by being creative, telling stories and inspiring others to try new roles, too.

At our last meeting each girl was given a banner with 7 pennants and had to decorate each flag with a single word/phrase to describe themselves.  They decorated them and shared with the group.  Then, they were told to hang them somewhere special to remind themselves of who they are…to be true to themselves always.

Today we worked on Roles and Stereotypes and how often times, fair or not, they influence each other.

 

The girls were given a variety of roles, printed on post its, to try on for themselves and assign to their troop mates.  We talked about why they each chose the roles they did for themselves and discussed why their troop mates might have chosen some of the other roles for them.  It was very interesting to hear how they each view themselves compared to how others view them.

Then we spent a really long time talking about stereotypes.  We did this by giving them each several “should” sentences and telling the girls they HAD to determine whether or not their “should” was for boys or for girls.  The ensuing OUTRAGE at being FORCED to pick when, CLEARLY, any and all can be for BOTH.  We then talked about how “traditional roles” have paved the way for the stereotypes of today.  The girls also got a lesson in how lucky they are to go to school and live where they do because there are, sadly, still places in our world where girls can’t even do that!

Great, fulfilling meeting!  Can’t wait to start telling our story and learning about amazing women in our community.

Our Girls Celebrate Local Veterans

 

Our troop joined our service unit for a Veteran’s Day parade entry in the local Veteran’s Day parade.  Our older girls were asked to be the flag bearers and banner holders, while our Daisies rode in the float with signs thanking people for their service.  It was a beautiful day to give thanks to those who have given us so much.

JUNIORS – Product Designer

Juniors in our troop plan and lead a badge each year.  Product Designer was lead by 5th grader M.H.  Below is her blog.

I chose Product Design because I would be able to design things.  There was more than that to it though.  I got to interview a product engineer from Traffix.  He taught me all about his job.  He has made a car impact cushion for semi-trucks on the highway so that cars don’t veer off the road and hit the trucks and so that they don’t hit people.  It’s already saved thousands of lives.  

Being a product designer is fun.  First of all you get to make stuff.  Second of all it takes a LONG time.  One group of engineers figures out what problems there are in the world.  How can we solve it?  When they decide on an idea they send it over to another group who analyzes it.  They see if it takes not much money and if it would work. Sometimes when they are in the middle of making it, they find a problem.  Then they have to start all over again.  

We started to design our own products in Girl Scouts.  My troop suster, C.A., made a book cover that has a handle, a light, and tissues!  I designed the perfect reading chair.  It had purple cushions, wheels, a couple of secret compartments and much more!  It was fun! I think it would be a good idea if there were a few more product engineers in the world! 

Pumpkin patch turns paintfest

Annually we take our girls on a field trip to the pumpkin patch.  However, this year is the VERY FIRST time in all the years we’ve done so that the weather did NOT cooperate.  We’ve had gorgeous Fall weather then entire month of October and we wake up on meeting day and it is torrential downpour.  NOT GOOD!  Needless to say, we scrambled for a back up plan (since we also had nothing else planned for the day!)  To the rescue were two co-leaders who are fortunately stay-at-home moms with a little bit of extra time during the day….and an abundance of resourcefulness!!

The girls came to our meeting space immediately following the school bell to discover a “pumpkin patch” in the back of a leader’s car!  50 pumpkins to choose from and decorate!

They appeared to have a blast and every design was unique, just like our girls!

It was ALMOST as messy as mucky mud would have been but much better for the sanity of leaders!!

Juniors AMUSE – Panel Discussion

Our Juniors recently had a successful panel discussion to fulfill one requirement of their AMUSE Journey.  We invited four powerful ladies to our troop meeting so they could share with us the many different roles that they play in their lives.

To Prep for the panel discussion, the girls spent a meeting coming up with questions to ask the ladies.

-What are the roles that you play in your life today – at your job, in your family, as a volunteer?
-What role did you take on at some point in your life that you never really expected to have? What did you learn from it? Where did it lead you next?
-Did you ever have to give up on a role you wanted and try something else?
-Has anything stopped you from playing any of your roles?
-Have you ever had to confront a stereotype?  If so, what happened?
-Are there women who paved the way for you in your roles? Who are they, and what have you learned form them?
-What Stereotypes do you think girls my age face in the world today?
-What can we do about stereotypes?
-What other roles do you hope to try at some point?
-What did you want to be when you were my age?

The panelists were Brenda Watson; a Business owner, race car driver and mother, Delaney Clements; a student, cancer survivor, and cancer awareness advocate, Brianna Brodak; a Gym owner, fitness instructor, wife, and mother), and Christen Coburn; an Accountant, Yoga and fitness instructor, and wife.

The girls asked some great questions and were very respectful.  We are very thankful to our panelists for taking the time out of their busy schedules to work with our girls!
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I Am….a Brownie & ….MORE!!!

Brownies did an ‘All About Me’ art project to earn the Discovering Me Key in their journey. The Brownies did a wonderful job decorating their self portraits. Each girl chose words, stickers and decorations to make their project unique and reflect their own talents/qualities and personality.

Templates and inspiration for this project can be found here.  Be sure to check out our Cadette sisters in Troop 10065 because they did this super cool project, too!

Why we have FULL UNIFORM events

In addition to being super cute, it is really important that we always represent ourselves in the best possible ways.  That being said, there are several times during our troop year where we require girls to be in “full uniform”.  For us, that is their vest/tunic/sash with, at a minimum, a white shirt and khaki bottoms.  The girls go to private school, where uniforms are required, so it isn’t usually a BIG ask to have them wear their Girl Scout uniforms on special occasion; most commonly, for us, are ceremonies and award presentations.

Additionally, we take troop photos…for this blog as well as for our official Thank You cards and the uniformity is always really nice!

How beautiful are these girls?!?!

But….THESE are definitely who we know and LOVE, love, LOVE!!

Daisies kick off with “traditions”

Daises are the youngest level in Girl Scouts. A Daisy troop is made up of girls in Kindergarten and First grade.  Because of their age, and often times nervousness, we usually start our troop year with some easy, fun activities.  In addition to SEEING it, because our troop is multi-level, we also like to build off Girl Scout traditions so the youngest girls quickly learn they are part of a VERY BIG WHOLE!

They learn the Girl Scout Promise and the Girl Scout Law, recited at the beginning of every meeting and participate in our Friendship Circle at the end of every meeting.  This allows them to share what they enjoyed about the meeting and listen to what the bigger girls enjoyed as well.

The girls are taught that everyone plays a part in the big picture.  We use a kaper chart of “helper” jobs.  This one is made with paper and magnets on an old cookie sheet (thank you, once again, Pinterest!!)

They also personalize a Sit-Upon (so they can SIT…UPON…the ground!) made out of inexpensive, white vinyl tablecloth and fun duct tape all stuffed with recycled grocery sacks!  Have to teach them right away to USE RESOURCES WISELY.  This is always a favorite craft.  1. because it is fun, colorful and can fill the time but 2. we ALWAYS, ALWAYS have at least one adult who tells us “I still have MY sit-upon from when I was a Girl Scout!”.  THIS is why we keep “traditions” alive!

Investiture 2015

Investiture and Re-Dedication is a ceremony we do every year.  It is a time for us to get together with ALL our girls (from both troops) and celebrate the beginning of another troop year.  It is a time for older girls to share traditions with younger/new girls.

Our ceremony includes a promise and recitation by leaders, readings by girls and some “unity” symbolism using ribbon and rope, where we add pieces of ribbon to a rope, year over year, showing the girls they continue to be part of something BIGGER!

Always a lovely ceremony!  Check out our sister blog to see our BIG girls at work being Sisters to Every Girl Scout!

FIRST meeting of 2015-16!!!

Soooo…here we go!  We had our first meeting of the new year.  It went SUPER well and all the girls were amazing.  We’ve “officially” branched our Middle School sisters into a new troop.  Last year we had a new troop number for them, but they still met on the same day and time as this troop.  However, with Middle School schedules being what they are, especially with school sports, we were finding it more and more difficult to keep the girls active and participating after school on a week day so we’ve moved them to a different day and time.  You can follow them here to see what they were up to on their first SUPER FUN meeting of the troop year!

But, even with our 18 older sisters on a different day, our multi-level is still pretty huge, with 38 girls!  So, after some introductions of leaders, talking about troop rules and expectations and our opening of GS Promise, Law and Pledge of Allegiance we were off and running!  Each level goes off to work on age-appropriate activities.

Daisies started with a fun ice-breaker that doubled as a get-to-know-our-friends activity.  Each girl was given a set of single-colored beads (different color for each girl) on a pipe cleaner. They had to walk up to ALL their troop mates and introduce themselves.  When they did, they would give their “new” friend one of their beads and get a bead in return.  When they had talked with every girl, they had a bracelet with 16 colored beads!  Fun and the girls loved it.

Then the girls did a craft to help them learn the Girl Scout Promise (shown in photo above).  They traced and cut out their hands then glued it in the GS sign onto a piece of colored stock that also had the words to help them remember!  Very cute!

Brownies started off with an icebreaker for the girls to get to know one another, and talked about being part of a Girl Scout sisterhood that stretches around the globe. The girls discussed the special Quest they will be going on together and the keys they will need to find to complete it. After reading chapter 1 of the Brownie Quest story, the girls broke into 3 groups for a team building activity to learn about working together. Leaders challenged the girls with a competition to see which team could build the tallest tower using only spaghetti and marshmallows. They were instantly engaged in this activity and quickly learned the value of teamwork 🙂

We didn’t get any photos (darn) but our Juniors also did some icebreaker/get to know you activities to kick off the troop year.  Many of the girls commented, during our friendship circle at the end of meeting, that their favorite part of the meeting was when they had to guess who was who based on information given, anonymously, on slips of paper.  This is a great lesson in paying attention to our surroundings, and listening when our friends talk!

Off and running on another year of FRIENDSHIP!!!