Coral Patches

Girl Scout 

verb

Being a Girl Scout is something you DO, and it is an EXPERIENCE that no girl should miss!

One day, I was perusing Facebook for further resources pertaining to girl scouts.  I happened to come across a really interesting post in my Facebook group - Girl Scout Troop Leader Connection.  The post was actually kind of distasteful, when I looked more into it.  On the surface, it was a post that said something like, hey check out this cool group - what it really meant was, I need to refer people to this group so I can win something for me, so I am spamming other groups for my own benefit.

ALL THAT ASIDE, when I went to check out the group - Coral Patches - and it was a REALLY COOL group!!  I followed the link to her website - http://www.coralpatches.com/store/ and just looked around.  This site.  You guys. It is awesome.  First and foremost - there are TONS of great resources.  

Let me introduce you to Nicole Sutherland.  She is the creative mind and power behind this site, and she is a doll.  I've spent quite a but of time talking with her, and spitballing, and I am very excited to do a collaboration in the form of a blog post with her.  We have an exciting surprise for you at the end of this post as well! <3 

I am a coffee drinking Girl Scout mom from San Diego who likes Disneyland, making cupcakes, watching football, cooking, crafting, and running marathons. Follow me on Instagram @nic0le for more ideas. ”

— NICOLE

First.  FREE.  There is a large number of FREE resources - I'm talking, download and print at Office Max on the cheap, free. There are awesome, detailed fun patch requirements that you can print for free.  I love this - you all know how we do fun patches in my troop - we have 3 requirements that must be met to earn it - so this was right up my ally.  However, it was also just the TIP of the iceberg.  Nicole has so much more than just patch instructions.  There are resources from super cute planners, to attendance forms.  Cookie sales trackers to calendars.  Kapers charts to badge trackers.  

People. They are gorgeous as well.  Nicole has a great eye for design, and color, and it really shows in her work.  Now - my FAVORITE part of the free printables is that Nicole will absolutely print these items for you.  And yes, there is a cost - but not the etsy cost you've come to expect.  Nicole prints these for a minimal fee ($0.65), on 90lb cardstock, in a flat envelope.  

Click on the photo to check it out!

There are also a variety of other fun things available for purchase for a small cost - patches, stationary, stickers, etc.  I would love for you to pop on over and check her things out.  AND it's probably pretty important that you do - because I am hosting a giveaway.

My readers are girl scout leaders who are selfless, and giving and dedicated. And deserving of a little something fun - so check out the rafflecopter below and enter to win a $20 credit to Coral Patches.  The giveaway runs from now until 12a EST on October 5th.  Enjoy and good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Did you check out Coral Patches? Did you enjoy it? What are you going to get when you win the $20 credit?

Gloria: Respect Myself and Others - Purple Petal

Welcome to the Daisy Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting!  The main focus of this book for our first and second year girls is the Daisy Petal Patch.  Unlike the badge work for older girls, there are not a whole heck of a lot of guidelines for the petal patches.

If you want to print off a picture of the Gloria for the girls to color during the gathering time, you can find one here!

1.  Enjoy Gloria's story and talk about it

Gloria's story is in the Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting.  Gloria the Morning Glory is the sixth petal of ten that you will learn about in this guide.  Gloria's petal is about learning what it means to respect yourself and others.  If you don't have the Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting, you can hear it read here by Troop #5007.

Other appropriate books to enjoy and discuss in lieu of Gloria's story:
I'm Gonna Like Me by Jamie Lee Curtis
The Golden Rule by Ilene Cooper
I Won't Comb My Hair by Annette Langen

2.  Invite an older girl scout to talk to your group about ways to respect yourself and others.

This is a great opportunity for an older scout to fulfill requirements for bridging or other badge work.  It's a good time to reach out to your network of leaders to see if anyone has a girl who'd like to take a few minutes to share with your troop.  You could also ask your girls, and families, if any of them are or were girl scouts, and ask them to talk to the girls.  My troop had my sister come and chat for a bit, but my girlfriend's troop had a grandmother come and not only talk about ways to respect yourself and others, but also share a bit about girl scouting 50 years ago!

3. Practice respecting myself and others

One activity for this is a healthy snack.  Discuss the importance of healthy eating for a healthy body, and then tell your girls you will be making a healthy snack today.  My favorite is a smoothie, and it can be done simply with a bullet or similar blender that is easily transported.  

Ingredients:

• Strawberries
• Bananas
• Clementines
• Honey
• Ice
• Juiced Apple Juice
• Any other fruit you, or your girls may like to try

**I juice an apple for this so I can add some liquid that is all natural - you can definitely use whatever juice or water you like.**

1.  Plug in blender, and peel 1 banana, 2 clementines and cut the greens off of 5 strawberries.

2.  Toss fruit in blender.  Add a squeeze of honey, and about 1/4 cup of apple juice. 

3.  Put a handful of ice cubes in - I use 5 ice cubes.  Its important that the ice goes last (if you invert the container to blend) or first (if using a traditional blender) so that the ice is the first thing to hit the blade.

4.  Blend, and pour.

I also encouraged my girls to add in or take out any fruit that met their desire.  We had a large variety of smoothies, but they were all tasty.

Another very cool activity is one that stresses the importance of hand washing.  I love this simple experiment that shows how easily germs are spread.

Supplies:

• Glo germ or some similar substance 
• Black light or UV light

1.  Open this experiment with a short discussion about the health benefits of hand washing.  Explain that this experiment will show what happens if we don't wash our hands, and discuss proper hand washing technique.

Open Dialog:

1. Do you think you wash your hands well enough?
2. How does illness spread?
3. When should you wash your hands? 

2.  Apply the powder (or gel - it comes in both forms) thoroughly to your girls hands.  Make sure it's worked into both sides of the hands, and into all the creases.  This is when I explain how the powder works - this powder is made of fluorescent material, and we can't see them without a UV light, and that is similar to how germs cannot be seen by the naked eye.  In this experiment, the powder will symbolize germs.

3.  This step will look different for everyone, depending on what they choose to do.  I had 6 girls, and I split them into two groups.  One group (GROUP A) had 3 girls, and only ONE had the powder worked into her hands.  She then shook hands, held hands, high fived - however they wanted to interact - with the other two girls.  The other group (GROUP B) had 3 girls, and each girl had powder applied.  These girls performed normal daily tasks - one drank from a cup, one used a pencil to do homework, and one played with a toy.  

4.  Hold the black light up to all affected surfaces.  With GROUP A, talk about how ONE girl had germs, and didn't wash her hands, and ask the girls to notice how those powder transferred to the other girls.  With GROUP B, look at the cup, writing utensil, and toy, and ask the girls to notice how the powder transferred.

5.  Ask the girls to head to the sink, and wash their hands appropriately.  When they are done, look at their hands under the black light again.  There will be spots they missed - this should be related back to how we can miss germs if we don't use proper hand washing technique.  This is a great time to reinforce that proper technique.

We had a great time with this - not many things cuter than 5 and 6 year olds learning about girl scouts! Tell me how your Gloria the Morning Glory earning went!

The Girl Scout Way - Brownie Legacy

Brownie Badge Work

The Girl Scout Way is a badge that can be earned at every level, Brownie and up.  This post is dedicated to earning it at the brownie level.  Brownies are in 2nd and 3rd grade, and ready to take the world by storm.

Badge Requirements

Girl Scout Way Legacy Patch

• Sing Everywhere
• Celebrate Juliette Low's birthday
• Share sisterhood
• Leave a place better than you found it
• GS traditions

These requirements do not need to be done all at once, or even all in a row.  There is a great spreadsheet that will help track these badge requirements if you choose to space them out.   You can find the spreadsheet here.  The spreadsheet also gives some more great ideas for ways to meet the requirements.  You can also edit the entries if you choose to do something different.

1.  Sing Everywhere - Brownies are at a great age for this one - they love songs and singing!  Help your girls learn 3 new songs, then encourage them to sing them together at the end of the meeting, after learning them.  Below are three great songs.  Click on the link to view the lyrics and a YouTube video.

          Song #1: Make New Friends

                     

          Song #2: Linger

          Song #3: On My Honor

2. Celebrate Juliette Low's Birthday

A great way to celebrate Juliette Low's birthday *ANYTIME* (even outside the month of October) is with SWAPS!  SWAPS are a small token of friendship that you exchange with another troop, traditionally while travelling, but more recently troops are connecting with other troops in their council, state, country, or even another country by way of social media.  You can convene with troop leaders all over the US in our facebook group here!  SWAPS stands for Special Whatchamacallits Affectionately Pinned Somewhere.

One of my favorites, in honor of Juliette Low's birthday, is a cupcake SWAPS.  Below I will list how we make them.

Supplies:

Scissors

Fuzzy Balls

Elmer's Glue

Hot Glue Gun

Small Beads (seed)

Safety Pins

Mini Cupcake Liners

Cardstock

Candles

1.  Start with the mini cupcake liner, and glue a fuzzy ball inside of it. 

2.  Spread glue on the top of the fuzzy ball, and sprinkle beads on it.  The glue will dry clear, and the sprinkles will look like jimmies on the cupcake. 

3.  Cut down candle to the appropriate length, and glue it to the top of the fuzzy ball. (I recommend using the glue gun for this, since its a sturdier glue.)
4.  From the cardstock, cut a tag for your SWAPS.  I prefer this shape:

5.  Write Happy Birthday on the square side of the tag.

6.  Glue the bottom of the cupcake to the side near the hole, and slip the safety pin in the hole.  

3. Share Sisterhood

One of the coolest ways to share in sisterhood with our girl scout sisters (in my opinion) is the Eternal Flame ceremony.  This is a ceremony that started with the original group of girl scouts, as they disbanded, to remind them what being a girl scout is all about. 

Supplies:

• Candles (One for each girl, with the girl scout law tied to it with a ribbon)
• Lighter/Match
• Water bucket - filled with water (*Just in case!*)

Leader #1: Long ago, a special ceremony was formed. Juliette Low wanted her original girls to carry a special spark with them as their Scouting group broke up. Some from the troop were moving away, working to help their families, or wanted to help a group of girls a little younger than themselves. But whatever their reasons, Juliette knew no other group would ever be quite the same.

Leader #2: As the girls stood in a circle holding candles (they had made), Juliette knew what spark it was she wanted to pass on. She lit her candle & spoke.

Leader #1: With this candle, I give you each something very special to pass on. As I light the candle on my right, I ask each of you to light the candle to your right & pass it on. I want you to carry this thought with you wherever you go. This is the ETERNAL FLAME for Girl Scouts. Each of you, after having a lit candle before you, will repeat the Girl Scout Promise with me, then pause & recall a few of the things we have done together as a group. I will hold my candle up, and as I do so, you will all raise yours and we will blow them out together. Before we separate from our circle, I want to ask you to keep this candle as a very special candle. It is not to be used for any purpose but passing on the ETERNAL FLAME. You may use it in other Girl Scout ceremonies, such as camps, encampments, campfires, bridging or court of awards ceremonies. I’m glad we were able to start a special tradition based on our ETERNAL FLAME.

4. Leave a place better than you found it

This is something we practice at every meeting.  Its recited often, and is generally the first and last thing I say at every meeting.  We meet at the girl's school, and so it's very important that we leave the space better than we found it.

However, for this requirement, a hike would also work.  Head to a local state park for a hike and picnic.  As you hike through the woods, remind the girls that girl scouts leave places better than they found it.  Bring a trash bag to pick up any litter you find along your way, and have the girls be cognizant about picking everything up after lunch.  This is an easy concept for the the girls to understand, and it sticks - my little lady picks up litter everywhere we go, reciting, girl scouts leave places better than they found it!

5. GS traditions

For the Girl Scout traditions requirement, you can do any tradition you'd like.  I choose to do one of the most useful traditions - making a Sit-Upon.  I have my Sit-Upon from when I was a brownie girl scout, and I hope my daughter keeps her just as long. They are very useful, and simple to make - which is a win win.

Supplies: 

Photo Credit: Artsy Chaos

• Vinyl - I grabbed some from Hobby Lobby
• Hole Punch
• Yarn
• Padding - I used pillow stuffing for ours

1.  Cut vinyl into rectangles - I used 16 x 32 inch rectangles.
2.  Fold rectangles in half to make a 16 x 16 square.

3.  Use the hole punch to punch holes around the open sides, about 1 inch apart.

4.  Stitch the blanket with yarn, using the holes you've punched.  You can use any stitch you like and just tie it off when you are done!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! If you do this badge, please tell me about it! How did it go - did you do it the same, or tweak it a little? I love hearing about other's experiences.