Navigating the Girl Scout Cadette Journeys

Transcription

1 Navigating the Girl Scout Cadette Journeys A helpful tip guide on how to complete a Girl Scout Journey and all of the fun activities girls can take part in along the way!

2 amaze! Life is a maze, and the girls on this journey will learn to navigate its twists and turns to find true friendships, meaningful relationships, and lots of confidence! Girls on this journey will be working towards three awards: Interact Award, Diplomat Award, and Peace Maker Award. The Interact, Diplomat, and Peace Maker Symbols Interact Symbol Diplomat Symbol Peace Maker Symbol To complete the journey, girls must earn all three awards. To earn the Interact award, girls must complete three of the nine Interact Challenges found in the girl s book. To earn the Diplomat award, girls must create and do a Take Action project aimed at building more positive and peaceful relationships. To earn the Peace Maker award, girls must fill in the Peacemaker Kit sections located throughout the girl s book and commit to using their new skills. The activities highlighted below are the mandatory for the girls to do to earn the awards. The required activities listed below can be found in the adult guide. The adult book has tips and hints on how you can help the girls working towards the awards. Don t hesitate to stop the girls along the way and explore activities that interest them. Award Check-Off (mark the activities after they have been completed) Interact Award (complete three of the nine; see chart on pages 12-15) Call an old friend (page 32) Design note cards (pages 31-32) Identify stereotypes (page 22) Reach out to someone (pages 16-21) Watch a movie featuring cliques (page 54) Go out with a new friend (page 26) Promise to have a no gossip week (page 60) Get direct and use I Statements (page 63) Create an anti-bullying message (page 74) Diplomat Award (step guidelines listed on page 114) Peace Maker Award First Impressions and Stereotypes (page 25) True Friends and Friendships (page 39) Girl Scout Law and Values (page 52) A Little Saying (page 71) Cliques and Conflicts Quiz (page 73) Bullying (page 93)

3 Breathe This journey is about your sense of air and your flair for air- air for the planet and airspace for you. Girls on this journey will be flying and floating into some amazing new life adventures! Girls on this journey have the opportunity to earn the Aware, Alert, and Affirm awards. The AIR Symbol Alert Symbol Aware Symbol Affirm Symbol To complete the journey, girls must earn all three awards. There are four steps to earning the Aware award; five steps to earning the Alert award; and four steps to earning the Affirm award. Along the way, you will also notice the AIR symbol. This symbol will key you in on various award steps and challenges and examples of possible ways to earn your award. The activities highlighted below are the mandatory activities for the girls to do to earn the awards. All of the activities are located in the girl s book. The adult book has hints and tips as to how to help the girls who are working on the awards. Don t hesitate to stop along the way and explore activities that interest them. Award Check-Off (mark the activities after they have been completed) Aware Award Step One: Air Log (pages 14-15) Step Two: Identify two experts and talk to them Step Three: Increase their AWAREness Step Four: Discover why you care Alert Award Step One: Decide on your issue Step Two: Decide who you will educate and inspire Step Three: Decide what you want to teach to others Step Four: Decide how to reach others Step Five: Educate and Inspire! Affirm Award Step One: Follow up! Step Two: Review the results Step Three: Talk about the results Step Four: Affirm your commitment to the planet

4 MEdia Let s put the ME in Media! Girls will have the chance to make media and remake media into their true Media! Their confidence will soar as they begin to live their story and not someone else s. Girls will have the opportunity to earn the Monitor, Influence, and Cultivate awards. The Monitor, Influence, and Cultivate Symbols Monitor Symbol Influence Symbol Cultivate Symbol To complete the journey, girls must earn all three awards. To earn the Monitor award, girls will complete three activities that will hone in the role media has in their everyday lives. To earn the influence award, girls will influence others by creating a media remake project to change the media for the better. To earn the Cultivate award, girls will challenge themselves to make a positive change in the way they use media. You will notice the Monitor, Influence, and Cultivate award symbols throughout the girls book. These symbols will help indicate which activities count to earn the awards. The activities highlighted below are mandatory for the girls to do to earn the awards. All of the required activities are in the girl s book. The adult guide has many tips on how to complete the required activities with the girls. Don t hesitate to stop the girls along the way and explore other activities that interest them. Award Check-Off (mark the activities after they have been completed) Media Award (complete three plus the Community Media Activity) Slice the Media Pie (page 11) Message Overload (page 27) Take It Apart (page 29) Dip into the Dip (page 19) Messages in the Girl Scout Law (page 34) Be a Spam Blocker (page 35) Stereotype Search (page 46) Background Music, Anyone? (page 60) **Plus** Community Media Activity (pages 42-3 in the adult guide) Influence Award Media remake project (page 74) Affirm Award Media Commitment (page 91)

5 Integrating the Fall or Spring Product Program Make your booth sale shine set out photos of the girls doing the journey activities, a copy of the journey book, and a poster or flyer that talks about their goals for the year or for their journey. Each girl can also design a flyer or album to take with her on door to door sales to help her customers understand her Girl Scout Cadette experience and how the product program is helping her on her journey. Have a Product Program booth themed Cookies for Change or something similar make the take action project the girls choose be the reason for the booth sale. For example, if your girls chose to complete the MEdia journey, they could act out their skits or media remakes, redo or create print ads representing positive or serious issues for girls, etc. Analyze and tailor your advertising for your booth to reflect positive messages or experiences in Girl Scouts. Or, if your girls are completing their Breathe journey, they can display the results of their air tests or have a testing area set up for chemical cleansers versus natural or homemade non toxic cleansers. The Five Skills that the Product Program focuses on are: Goal setting Decision making Money management People skills Business ethics Before your troop starts a product program, ask the girls to consider how they will use the five skills in their journey, or how the journey will help them fine tune their five skills! Girls can make a difference, even in Girl Scouting! Share the story of Madison and Rhiannon, two Girl Scouts who researched Palm Oil and the impact harvesting Palm Oil has on the rainforest. They found that many Girl Scout Cookies contain palm oil, and started a protest to end use of Palm Oil in Girl Scout cookies. amaze! Ideas to kick off your journey Book a Team Challenge 2 hours at your location or a 3 hour or 6 hour session at Camp Torqua. These sessions are designed to work on communication and develop trust between troop members. They can also bring up some tough issues like bullying and cliques, so plan to have a dinner out or picnic afterwards to talk about some of the things they did at the challenge and how it relates to the Amaze! Journey. The Journey references the importance of having a trusted adult as a part of each girl s reflection on relationships. Have each girl identify an adult she would like as her TA for the journey activities. Your girls can plan a mixer, picnic or campout with some fun activities for partners and invite each TA to attend. Some ideas for activities include a sack race, Pictionary or other board game, trivia night, hiking, canoeing or geocaching. Badge links to try along the way Animal Helpers Field Day Netiquette LiA work with a Brownie troop who is working on their Brownie Quest journey! See Brownie leader guide or Cadette Girls Guide for details.

6 Celebrations and Activities along the way Sleepovers with movies ask the girls to pick some of their favorite relationship movies Ramona and Beezus is a great one that looks at relationships between friends, sisters and girls and boys. Pick a craft like friendship bracelets or t-shirt decorating to do while watching or discussing the movie. Busting Stereotypes activity you need balloons and permanent markers. Have the girls label a couple of balloons with stereotypes. There are a couple ways to do this activity, see what your girls would prefer: 1. Fill the balloons with air. Sit or step on to pop 2. Fill the balloons with water. Slam on the ground or use in a water balloon fight 3. Fill the balloons with air, pin them to the archery targets at the archery range at camp and have the girls practice archery with the balloons! Talk to the girls about how they can bust the stereotypes they see at school, or even the stereotypes about Girl Scouts! Conclusions and Take Action projects Work with a younger troop in your service unit have your girls pick a story they liked as a kid, preferably one with friendship or bullying or peer pressure as a theme. Alternatively, use this as a thinking day activity have the girls research some folk tales from other cultures and practice telling them to each other. Then put on a storytelling activity for members of the community or Girl Scouts in your service unit. Have the girls act out the parts, or dress as story tellers. This would also be a great campout activity for older girls to keep the younger girls engaged at campfire time. Part of the Amaze Journey is to assemble a Peacemaker kit. What about making this kit a physical thing? If your girls are into crafting, make a scrapbook and include photos of the girls doing things together and having fun. Present the troop with a group shot of themselves as a congratulatory gift! Breathe Ideas to kick off your journey Contact an aerobics instructor or yoga teacher. Schedule a session to work with your girls on aerobic exercise and controlled breathing. Invite a local representative from an environmental group or nature center. Have the girls prepare questions and choose some snacks for an informal discussion about clean air issues and the impact of air pollution on forests, lakes, and animals. If the representative can t come to you, plan a visit to a state park or forest preserve and pack a picnic lunch. Have the girls look around their picnic area for sources or evidence of air pollution. Visit a nursery or landscape supply business and have the girls talk to the plant experts about the benefits of planting trees or shrubs or house plants. Learn how to identify a few native trees as well! Badge links to try along the way Trees Finding Common Ground this one would be particularly relevant if your girls wanted to explore a clean air solution with an environmental group or wildlife sanctuary. Trail Blazing LiA WOW Cadettes can earn this leadership award by working with a Brownie troop on their WOW journey.

7 Celebrations and Activities along the way Take a bike ride! Several GSSI camps have long roads or paved drives girls can bike on. There are also many county or city sponsored bike trails. Take a break midway through the ride and ask the girls about bike transportation what are the pros and cons of riding bikes versus driving cars? Remember those helmets! Shopping trip! Take your girls to the mall and do a natural or green or non toxic scavenger hunt. On page 74 in your girls journey book, there is an activity for cutting through the hype of green products. Challenge your girls to find 5 products in the mall that are actually healthy or have a positive impact on the environment, and find 5 that are just green hype. You can even incorporate activities from the Comparison Shopping financial literacy badge! Conduct your own air test! This activity is adapted from The Learning Channel (TLC). What you ll need: Stiff cardboard (recycle a box from a cookie case!) Scissors Hole puncher String Petroleum jelly Magnifying glass Rubber bands Step 1: With two simple tests, you can check the air for common pollutants. In the first test, measure how much dust, dirt, soot, and other floating material is in the air. Step 2: To do this, cut two pieces of stiff cardboard into a four-inch square. Punch a hole on one corner of one piece and put a string through it for hanging. Coat both sides with petroleum jelly and hang the cardboard up under the eaves of your house. Step 3: Coat one side of the second piece and lay it flat in the shade, also sheltered under the eaves of your house. Leave both pieces in place for a day. Step 4: Examine both cardboard squares with a magnifying glass and see if you can count the number of small particles sticking to them. Which has more particles: the cardboard that was lying flat or the one hanging? Step 5: To test for invisible gaseous pollutants, stretch three or four rubber bands over a piece of cardboard. Lay them in a shady place. Check the rubber bands each day. The faster they become brittle, the more pollutants there are in the air. Step 6: Try both of these tests in two very different places to compare pollutant levels. You might try them in the middle of a city, then in a forest or in the country. Conclusions and Take Action projects On page 82 in the girl s Journey book, there are ideas for air scrubbing plants. Some can be grown by seed, others can be propagated through cuttings. Find small plants girls can care for during the journey and then donate to an area school or office to help clear the air, or buy a larger plant and take cuttings for each girl as part of your awards ceremony. There are great websites that demonstrate the technique. Experiment with some of the natural and non toxic cleaning agents mentioned in the girl s Journey book. Have the girls test out each one and compare their cleaning power. Once they pick some favorites, ask a local school or church to give the girls some time to demonstrate the cleaning agents and see if they will replace their industrial cleaners with the girls picks. MEdia Ideas to kick off your journey Host a Silent Movie Party! There is a great selection of silent movies on YouTube, including several Girl Scout movies from the early 1900 s. Pop some popcorn and set in a bowl. Place some different seasonings in bowls next to the popcorn with spoons in them. Have girls design their own custom flavored popcorn for the movie night.

8 Create your own version of the Logo game. For a couple weeks, clip logos and brands - grab containers out of your recycling, clip newspaper ads or magazine ads. Try and pick brands that don t have a name, like the golden arches for McDonalds but not the name McDonald s. Paste the logos on index cards. Set them in groups of five have the girls either write their guesses for the company that matches the brand, or have them buzz in and guess. Badge links to try along the way Comic artist Screenwriter Digital Movie Maker LiA World of Girls Cadettes earn this by working with a Brownie troop on their World of Girls Journey. Celebrations and Activities along the way Plan an outdoor cookout your troop can come out to any of GSSI s camps just for an evening and all the campfire and most cooking equipment is provided! Ask the girls to come up with one or two ghost stories or folklore stories to share around the campfire. What was the purpose behind folklore, storytelling and fables? Discuss with the girls the modern day versions of fables and storytelling where would reality TV or home remodel shows fit in? Partner with a younger troop (consider Brownie troops working on journeys so you can earn the LiA as well!) and help the girls design puppets and props for a puppet show. Develop some themes that incorporate what the Brownie troop is working on or have your girls decide some topics relevant to their MEdia journey. Conclusions and Take Action projects Put on a sketch comedy show for your service unit. Invite younger girls, serve healthy snacks and let your troop perform their MEdia Remake project! You can dress it up with awards afterwards best comedy, best drama, etc. You can also purchase large gold stars from a party store and write each girls name on one. Use these to make your own Hollywood Walk of Fame! Break out the video cameras on phones and tape the girls MEdia remakes. If you or one or two of your girls have some tech savvy, combine the videos into one DVD and make copies for the girls. Include some outtakes set to music and show the entire DVD at your awards ceremony. Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois