The Power of One!

So we have decided to start working towards our Bronze Award. The first step we need to take is working on journey. So the journey we are going to start with is Agent of Change. Each journey is always divided up into 3 separate patches or awards.  The first one on this journey is called the power of one. 

It's all about focusing on ourselves and empowering ourselves.  To begin, we sat in a circle and went around and shared why we are in Girl Scouts and why it's important to us.

 

Then the girls chose a part of the Girl Scout Law that they want to work at being better at and we tied a knot in a piece of string.  Then we took the string and had to form a shape out of the string that represented us.  This was a hard task but the girls basically formed a circle because they said it's never ending just like their friendship.

 

Next we got into our patrols again and worked on putting the Girl Scout law in the correct order.  It's long and we don't quite know it by heart in the correct order yet so we needed to practice this.

 

Next, we had a bunch of words that we needed to put into sentences or a story that could empower us.  It included words like inspire, dream, me, work, achieve, etc.  The girls had fun doing this and it came out great.  They all created different words to get us thinking that we are good enough to reach our dreams and there is no stopping us!

 

Next, we worked on choosing words that best describe us and setting personal goals for ourselves pertaining to the Girl Scout Law.

 

We wrapped up our meeting by making Christmas ornaments for our tree trimming activity.  We made ugly Christmas sweaters and they turned out super cute.

Inside Government!

Since it was right before the presidential election, we opted to work on the inside government patch!

First up, we heard back from our awesome P.E. teacher Mr. W. regarding our fitness goals that we set for ourselves.  The girls were excited to get these and hope they will help them reach their goals. 

 

So first up what we did was refresh our knowledge of government by watching a short video. 

 

Then I read this book about government.

 

Then we acted out this public hearing activity.  We divided the group into teams with some being the building committee, some being concerned citizens, and some being city planners.  They had to convince the city that building this new fitness center would be beneficial to the community.  Some of the girls had to come up with ways why it would not be good like hiking up taxes.  It was definitely a learning experience. 

 

 

 

Then we also had a script that had us acting out a courtroom drama regarding an alien that damaged public property.  We had the girls be lawyers, attorneys, judges, the alien, and the jury, who had to decide whether the alien was guilty or not guilty.

 

We then ended our meeting by learning about voting and actually voting for who should be our next president, Hilary Clinton or Donald Trump.

The girls voted on ballots in a voting booth and we tallied up the votes.

 

The results were in.....Hilary Clinton was chosen as our new President.  Of course now we know that is not the case.

Pumpkin Patch!

So one of the local pumpkin patches had a special Girl Scout Night! It was a night designed especially for Girl Scouts and their families. It was a cold night so we bundled up and headed out for some fun!

 

I extended the offer to both of my troops and a lot of girls took us up on this offer!

The girls waited in line to go on some bouncies. 

 

We also went on a hayride.

 

And then posed for some funny pictures.

Practice With Purpose!

To keep with the staying fit patch we already earned, we next worked on the practice with purpose patch!

The first thing we did was think of a fitness goal and we wrote letters to our P.E. teachers Mr. W and Mrs. Murphy in hopes that they could give us some advice on how to reach these goals.

 

Next we did a couple of "Just Dance" videos because we talked about the more you practice something, the better you will get.  So we tried this by dancing.

 

Then we played a game with dice where we had to do various exercises to help us get stronger.

 

Next we went to the gym and practiced some different skills.

First we tested our speed by having a partner roll a through our legs and we had to run and grab it before it reached a certain point.

 

We also practiced speed by chasing others while running through hula hoops.

We then practiced balance by standing in a hula hoop and trying to push on the other person's hands and getting them to step out of their hula hoop.  The girls really had fun with this one.