Service Projects and Meetings Underway

We have already had 3 meetings and been involved in 4 service projects in less than 2 months.

Shoes
The church where I have been visiting with one of my best friends (and co-leader) supported a shoe drive for the Shoe Bank.  We decided to get our girls involved, and with little notice, our girls donated between 25 and 30 pairs of shoes.  The adult shoes will be shared in our Metroplex, and the children's shoes will be sent to Haiti.

Household Items
We are participating in the Goodwill Good Turn service opportunity. Each girl has been asked to bring 2 trash bags full of household items to donate.  This can be clothes, towels, bed linens, dishes, pots/pans, and so much more. About half of our girls have participated, so I have bags and bags of items that I will be donating next weekend.

Exercise, Phantom Energy, and Food Items
Last year we participated in 9-10-11, so this year, we chose to participate in the 10-11-12 initiative.  10--We discussed exercise and being healthy as they got involved in 30 minutes of exercise for 10 days.  This also tied into the Juniors' Get Moving! Journey.
11--To go along with Girl Scouts Going Green, we discussed saving energy.  The girls had to find 11 items in their homes that are plugged in but are not turned on and then unplug them.  These items are using phantom energy. There is a light on, a clock showing, or something else showing they are plugged in but not on.  They are still using electricity even though they are not being used for their actual function.
12--Each girl was asked to donate 12 non-perishable food items that we will then donate to the local Food Pantry. 48 items are ready to go.  We are hoping for a few more items before I donate them next week.

Grocery Shopping
The church where I have been visiting has "adopted" 3 needy families.  Each month, someone at the church goes shopping for each family to purchase $100 worth of food and household necessities. Our girls met us at our local store to do the shopping last weekend. We discussed cost per unit/item, best price, store brands, and so much more.  They had to keep up with what each item cost and get a total of what we were spending.  They also subtracted to see how much we had left when making or decisions.

Meetings
Our 2nd meeting of the year was spent on Journey work and voting on whether or not to spend the night at the zoo or aquarium.  We were very democratic in our voting system. While we wanted to spend the night at the zoo, the girls voted to spend the night at the aquarium, so we will be doing that in the spring.  We are trying to set-up a workshop at the zoo.

Our 3rd meeting was spent with more fun/fellowship than before, so we did not get to our Journey work.  However, we are going camping in about 3 weeks, so we spent a lot of time discussing our camping list and what we will be doing that weekend.


What is your troop doing this fall?

Happy New Year!

It has been a while since I last posted.  Time flies when you're having fun!  How is your Girl Scout year going?

Ours has been busy, but not so busy all at the same time.  A Junior Troop was disbanding, so the remaining girls joined us in September.  These girls have been a wonderful addition as we had two Juniors in our troop.  They have been able to focus on the Agent of Change Journey and discuss ways that lead them to more leadership roles.

In November, members of a disbanding Brownie Troop joined us to add to the fun, friendship, and experience.  The Brownies have been working on their Brownie Quest Journey and have all but finished.  With all the new girls, they have earned the new Making Friends badge.

In December, those interested walked in our local Hometown Christmas Parade and helped pick two tags from the local Angel Tree.  Our girls are so kind and giving.   After donating blankets, comforters, etc. for the Share the Warmth campaign and gloves, hats, and scarves for Warm Hands, Warm Hearts, they voted to adopt an Angel from our community.  The girls chose two.  For those who were available, we met at our local superstore and purchased two shirts/blouses, two pairs of pants, and items related to their wish list.  What a great experience!

Our January meeting brought us cookie training and COOKIE Sales!!  The girls are out and about selling away.

February is going to be a fun month, and I hope March tops it.

What are you doing to celebrate the 100th Anniversary?

We have some extra Brownie Try-Its from the old program.  If you are in need or are interested in earning some, let me know.

Journey Materials

Have you received the new materials--Girls' Guide to Girl Scouting and/or Journey Skill Builders?  I may not have called them by the correct names, but they look fantastic.  I am still waiting on my Brownie and Junior GGGS, but I have looked through the badge work for the Brownie Quest Journey.  We are almost finished earning the Keys, so I look forward to planning activities so the girls can earn the badges.

Have you worked with any of these?  How is it going?  Ideas for others?

Journeys

Have you gotten the new Girl Scout materials?  I am waiting on mine to arrive.  I am anxious to see what has been developed and how we will implement it with three Girl Scout levels.  I know that there are 5 badges linked to each Journey.  

We have decided that we are doing the Daisy Flower Garden, Brownie Quest, and Junior Agent of Change this year.  Did you know there are meeting plans created for the Journeys that include the badge work?  Check out this site.  
http://gsnetx.org/Default.aspx?tabid=463 
Click on the one you need, and it downloads in PDF.

We would love to hear how your meetings are going and what ideas you have for implementing the new materials, Journeys, and fun additional events.

Planning For the Year

Have you begun planning the 2011-2012 year? 
Not having the new materials reminds me of starting a new school year without the new curriculum.  I am a planner.  I like to spend time looking through all the resources, making decisions about the year, deciding what trips we will take & which events we will attend, and setting a tentative, yet firm, calendar. 

When looking at the year, I create a document that looks like a lesson plan.  My document includes the date of meeting, plan for meeting (activities, crafts, etc.), materials needed, plan for dinner/snack, and notes about upcoming events to discuss with parents.  I tend to plan as detailed as possible for the first semester, make changes as we go, and then build the second semester closer to December.

My co-leader and I have not planned our year yet, but we are seriously considering beginning with one of the Journeys and work through it until we can add the new materials to it.  We will have a tri-level troop this year, so we will work to keep everyone on their level but doing activities/crafts that tie the levels/Journeys together.

So . . . have you planned your year yet?  What plans do you have?