Extra Crazy Fashion Runway

Gather up as many old costumes and dress-up clothes that you can find. Then add hats, sunglasses, scarfs. purses, crowns and other fun accessories. Let the girls mix and match everything, to come up with their unique style. It is so much fun to see what they come up with.  If you have a large group pair them up to walk down the runway. For small groups have them walk down the runway by themselves. 

Christmas Plate Craft

     This is a great idea for a Christmas gift. The plates are really reasonably priced at IKEA.  All you need is brown, red and green paint.  Use black, green and red Sharpies for the words and names.
The girls use the brown paint for the fingerprint reindeer.  Use a paint brush or a pencil eraser to paint the dots around the circumference of the plate. 
    After everything is dry.  The leaders  should write the names of the scouts family members and Merry Christmas. Very simple to do and cute.

Making Noodle Necklaces

At our Christmas party the girls made noodle necklaces.  We used food coloring to dye the noodles red and green. This was done before they got to the meeting. Then we strung the noodles on a piece of green yarn. This was fun and easy to do.

Fun with Balloons

Who new balloons could be so much fun!, They tried to volley them and see how many times they could go back and forth.  The girls also played another game were they all sat on the floor and we tried to see how long they could keep the balloon up in the air.  These are simple but fun activities.

Halloween-Fairness Activity

We are always trying to be fair in our troop.  Sometimes it's not easy with girls that want all the same things.  They always want to be called on 1st when we are asking question.  They want to be in groups with their best friends.  Sometimes, it helps build character when they don't get everything they want.  We don't want the girls to be upset or not like girls scouts but it is all a learning experience.
This activity we came up at our Halloween party.  We put all the candy the girls brought with in the center and then they got to pick what they wanted.  We picked one girl and just went around the circle.  Each girl got to pick 10 pieces of candy and we continued around the circle until all the candy was gone.
When the activity was done, all the girls were happy with their candy bags!

Camping Bingo

At the campsite we go to we have a really nice nature center.  A few years ago a troop revamped the nature center to get their silver award.  The nature center is filled with activities for the girls to do.  One of their favorites was camping bingo.  The sheets were printed out and placed in plastic covers so they could be reused again.  There was a big bin of scrap pieces of paper cut into squares that were to be used to cover you square.  The girls really liked this game and it can be used over and over for anyone who comes to the nature center.

http://www.getcreativejuice.com/2013/08/tips-to-keep-your-kids-hydrated.html



Great posting about keeping kids hydrated, I think we need to remember this on our campouts.

Birthday Poster

This is a cute poster made by a classroom for the school's birthday.  I thought is was a cute idea with the balloons and the real strings.  This could be used for a leader's birthday, girls birthday or Juliette Low's.  What other ideas can you come up with?

Cute Garbage Can

We just bought a plain garbage can in white and decorated with stickers.  A cute way to make it your own.

Unplanned Fun

Some of the best times we have had in girl scouts are the unplanned moments.  While the leaders were getting ready for the meeting. The girls found this remote control car and came up with a great obstacle course.

Duct Tape Balance Beam

    This summer was a creative one, my daughter and her friends picked up the duct tape again after having it sit around all winter.  When they go to each other homes, it looks like they are moving out. They take all their crafting supplies with them.  The big question is always what to make. They have made pens, bracelets, bows, and purses.  I try and give them a few ideas but I love it when their imaginations start flowing.  Here is a good example of a project she did yesterday.
      We started with a large roll of wrapping paper and took the remaining paper off the roll and used the cardboard.  What should we do with it? First we thought in would be funny to make a cane for Dad's birthday but then it would just get broken.  So then the moment came when we decided to make a balance beam for my daughter's American Girl Doll. 
      She came up with the rest by using one wrapping paper roll, two toilet paper  rolls and two empty duct tape rolls.  She wrapped everything with duct tape and put it together.  It turned out so cute and know I know it will be used with her dolls.

Birthday Mail

   I stumbled upon a website with some good ideas.  The website is Dosomethinggood.org.  The more I looked at it they really didn't want me to be on it because it is for people under 25.  Since, I am a girl scout leader and am always looking for service projects to do, I thought they had some great ideas.  This is the one that I am going do this year is Birthday Mail. The idea is to make homemade cards for children staying in a homeless shelter.
    First these are Birthday cards, so the card should be fun, creative and not gender specific. You can use markers, crayons, colored pencils, stickers, or glitter.  The inside should be left blank so whoever uses the card can personalize this.  On the website there is a creative guide with ideas or you can come up with your own.
    The website has a list of shelters in almost every region of the U.S. and they are expecting the mail and know what to do with it.  The girls will really like this project and I think we can do it in one meeting.  What a difference it will make to one special Birthday boy or girl.
   
   

Back to School and Scouts

It's that time of year again. Yesterday, I went shopping for school supplies.  Every is looking forward to who is in their classes and who is their teacher.  Today I got the new girl scout catalog in the mail.  I get very excited about looking at it and seeing what is new for the girls. Even my daughter likes to to look at the catalog.  We were looking at the outfits and she got to the official style leaders outfits and she said " I am never wearing that!!" , I told her that was for the leaders. Then she said "you would never wear that either" and she's right.  Our  troop is very casual, we have a lot of fun but we will probably never get that formal. They must sell the formal outfits but I wonder who really buys them.  If anyone does post a comment.

Autumn woodland treasure sculpture

I love these, next time the maple seeds start falling, I collecting these for our girl scout troop to make.





Autumn woodland treasure sculpture


I

Carbon Footprint

      We spent part of our meeting discussing our carbon footprint.  Most of the girls and parents really didn't understand what this meant. The choices one person makes impacts our environment.  We use energy in everything we do.
       An example we used is food we eat. We use all types of energy in order to eat everyday.  We live in a suburban area so we have to go to the grocery store to get our food.  Our cars use gas to get to the store and back. The store uses energy to keep the food fresh either in refrigerators or freezers.  There are lights in the store so we can see what we are buying. The cash registers are all electric. Heat and air conditioning keeps the store comfortable.  Employees use gas in their cars to get to work.  The food has to be manufactured or grown and transported to the store. Once we get the food home we use energy to keep the food cold in the refrigerator or freezer.  Then we need a stove or microwave to cook our food. All this energy is used just so one person can have food on their table to eat.
      People in the United States use more energy per person than any other country in the world.  How can we reduce our carbon footprint?  The girls came up with a lot of great ideas, car pool, farmers markets, turn of light when not in the room, turn t.v. off when not using.   Parents can plan outings carefully,don't make a lot of trips to the same place in the same week.  Recycling and reusing can also save energy.  A good idea the girls thought of was to use library book or e-books instead of buying books.
       Can anyone else think of any good ideas to reduce our carbon footprint?

Valentine Bag

Cut bag we made for Valentines

1 white bag
pink, red and white paper
foam hearts
googly eyes
glue


Pre cut the heart, arms and feet.
Have the girls put together the heart lady
and decorate any whay they want to

Looks really cute when finished

Valentines

We made these valentines by cutting out four hearts, fancy flowers, circles, leaves, name tags out of card stock.  Then we punched holes in the middle of the circles and flowers. Next, we punched holes toward the ends of the hearts, leaves and name tags.  Then just layer them on the stick of a Dum Dum lollipop.  They turned out so cute and the girls loved them.

Christmas Ornaments

 

 

We made these cute ornaments for the tree we decorate in our downtown area.

We used clothespins, markers,string, and pipe cleaners, it was a very easy craft and it looked cute.

The garland was just strips of foam cute into strips and stapled together to for a chain.  The tree looked great!! Thanks girls!!

Domino Cookies

Fun to do, we used pre-made sugar cookie mix and then added chocolate chips to make the dominos.
Ours turned out a little big but they look cute don't you think so?

Girl Scouts Trexler and D'Anna Earn Silver Awards

Girl Scouts Trexler and D'Anna Earn Silver Awards


Link to a great idea for silver award

Surviving Camp in Minnesota

Surviving Camp in Minnesota

I love this video, but don't think I could eat the bugs. What do you think?

Go see a play

Check out your local High School for plays.  We saw a great play about Laura Ingalls Wilder at a high school near us.  It was put on by a professional touring company.  The ticket price was very reasonable.  As a bonus, after the play we were able to tour backstage, the girls loved it.

Duct Tape Clipboard

I love this idea!!

we used a piece of cardboard, two clips and duct tape.  Just attach the bottom of the clips with duct tape. Decorate anyway you want to.  Easy and fun!

Digital Camera Scavenger Hunt

Digital Camera Scavenger Hunt

1.  Prepare a list of items that you want the girls to photograph.

2.  Send the girls out in teams to search for the items on the list.

3. Once the girls find an item they are to take a picture of it.

4. Give a time limit-example: one hour

5. When the girls get back, check to see has the most correct photos

6. Who ever has the most wins

Research a city

Kids research states and countries but it would be fun to research a city.

1. Is this city located close to where you live?

2. What is the history of the city?

3. What historical sites are located there?

4. Is the city known for any special foods?

5. What fun things are there to do for kids in the city?

6. Are there any famous people from that city?


Girls or groups can give a presentation on the city and if is close enough, maybe you can visit it.


Fun Cities

1. Savannah, GA
2. San Antonio, TX
3. Chicago, IL
4. Orlando, FL
5. Anaheim, CA
6. Santa Claus, IN


I'm sure that the girls can think of even more.  Does anyone else have any recommendations?

Technology

A day without technology!

Do kids need to watching tv, pushing buttons or listening to music all the time?

On campout should kids have phone or I-pods?

What do you think?


Get off the energy grid!!!!!!!!

Look what I found a really nice memory box for your girl scout stuff.  My girl scout wants to make this and put her photos inside.  Once she has finished making I will post the pictures.  We bought this at Michaels, they have a lot of cute girl scout crafts.