Girl Scout Journey: It's Your World Change It!

Transcription

1 Girl Scout Journey: It's Your World Change It! amaze! Four-week Girl Scout Journey Program amaze!: The Twists and Turns of Getting Along Life is a maze of relationships and this journey has Girl Scout Cadettes maneuvering through all its twists and turns to find true friendships, plenty of confidence, and maybe even peace. The adult guide offers tips for talking about relationship issues with girls, and pointers for understanding Cadettes development and creating a safe, welcoming space.

2 Week 1 Introduction: Form a circle. Each girl takes a turn saying their name, grade and their favorite thing to do. Opening : Ask, Does anyone know anything about Girl Scouts? Introduce Girl Scout Girl Scout Sign and Quite Sign Introduce Girl Scout Handshake Girl Scout Promise ( The Girl Scout Promise is the way Girl Scouts agree to act towards one another and other people. ) Girl Scout Law The Girl Scout Law shows you all the good ways that Girl Scouts try to treat one another in the world. Main Activity: Ask the girls if that are in agreement that what we are doing will be meaningful, and will be kept in confidence. Explain that we all need to agree that we are going to feel safe expressing how we feel in this group. Ask girls to raise their hands in the Girl Scout sign, and if they agree, to say, I agree. What s in Your Maze (page 32 Leader guide) Working in groups, create a maze. Have the girls talk and think about how their lives are like a maze. Write things down where there is a dead end in the maze using relationship issues (i.e. you have a fight with your friend, you don t know who to sit with at lunch, someone hurt your feelings. Include relationships with adults, friends, teachers). In the unblocked roads of the maze, have girls write in the ways they overcame challenges (people, things). Groups gather together and have each group present and explain their mazes. Have girls create a slogan for their maze. Their slogan should start with, Our lives are like a maze because and each group writes their slogan at the top of their maze. Beneath the Surface game (page 31 of leader book and page 20 of girl book). Prep: Cover each written line on the beach ball with masking tape. Have everyone form a circle and toss the ball to someone in the circle. Whoever catches the ball tears off a piece of tape and answers the question exposed. Keep tossing the ball to someone new until everyone who wants to answer a question has had the chance to answer. For a large group, if all questions have been exposed, cover the questions again and keep the ball going.

3 Week 1 continued Closing Friendship Circle (briefly discuss the activities they did during this meeting, and give a hint of what they will be doing next week) Supplies Cadette amaze Leader Guide Cadette amaze book Maze Paper Pencils and erasers Beneath the Surface Sheet Beneath the Surface Beach ball Masking Tape

4 Week 2 Opening: Girl Scout Sign, Promise and Law (Do It By Hand Game) Main Activities: Circle of Friends (44 of Leaders Guide) Using newsprint, as a group have the girls call out things they look for in a friend. Give each girl a Circle of Friends sheet and explain that the circle represented their circle of friends. On the inside of the circle, have the girls write down words that represent the qualities that they look for in a friend. On outside of circle, have the girls write down words that represent the qualities that they think they bring into a friendship. Ask if any of the girls want to share what they wrote down. For large groups, break the girls down into smaller groups of 5-8 girls and share within their group. Discussion questions Ask the entire group these questions: Are there words missing from our lists? Do any of the words in and outside of our circle sound negative? Why? Are there some qualities that you bring into a friendship but are not returned by your friends? What is it important to have healthy friendships? Do we always choose our friends based on positive qualities, or some we sometimes let other factors influence us, such as clothes, money, status? Why? Talk Show Ask the Expert (role playing) (page of leader book) Explain to the girls that we are going to be role playing, and that we are not going to poke fun any anyone, but we want to have fun. Have the girls raise their hands into the Girl Scout Sign, and make an agreement that the conversations they have in this group are confidential, and it stays just among us. We care about each other, and there is no blaming allowed. Work in an area where the girls can pretend there is a stage with a chair for the host, and a couple chairs for the guests. The other girls should sit facing the stage as if they are audience members. Tell the girls that they are going to take turns being the host of a talk show called, Ask the Expert. Explain that there will be a host (the one who gives advice) and guests (the ones who have friendship issues they want advice on). Ask for volunteers to be the hosts, guests and audience finder (the one who finds the audience member who wants to share and option, and holds a fake microphone). You will need a total of three hosts, three guests and three audience finders.

5 Week 2 continued It is important for you to serve as the Director of the show. You will need to make sure the girls have fun, but stay in a safe zone so discussions do not get so personal that someone feels threatened. Host 1 and Guest 1 sit on stage. Audience Finder holds fake microphone and stands off to the side. Give Guest 1 the Sheet with Sample Scenario #1. Both Guest and Host read the scenario quietly. Tell Host they can be creative by introducing the show such as you would see on TV. Guest 1 reads the scenario, and Host can come up with questions. Host should also ask if there are any audience members who have an opinion for the Guest. Audience Finder walks to the audience member and holds out microphone. Switch to new Host, Guest and Audience Finder for Sample Scenario #2, and again for #3. Discussion Close up the role playing game by having all girls sit down and then ask questions. How realistic was the advice offered to the guests? Would you follow this advice? In your life, who can you count on to give good advice about friendship issues? Game: Shoe Factory (page 51 of leader guide) Have the group take off their shoes and hold them. The girls need to stand in a circle, shoulder to shoulder, and put them in the center of the circle. Girls now choose two different shoes that are not their own and put them on. If the shoes are too small, they can just slip them on halfway. Each girl must then find the mate to each of the shoes she is wearing, and put her foot up against the matching shoe. This may result in a the girls looking like they are playing twister, but should be lots of fun! Closing - Friendship Circle Supplies: Cadette amaze Leader Guide Cadette amaze book Newsprint Markers Circle of Friends Sheet Talk Show Scenarios Pens

6 Week 3 Opening: Girl Scout Sign, Promise and Law (Do It By Hand Game) Game: Back-to-Back (page 51 of leader guide) Break the girls into pairs, trying to match partners of similar size. The pairs should stand back to back, and lock their arms together. Each pair should slowly lower themselves to the floor without unlocking their arms, until they are sitting on the floor with their legs straight out in front of them. Now they need to raise up again, without unlocking their arms. Once the pairs of locked, lowered and raised up, they have two pairs join together and do the same thing again. Once this has been accomplished, have the quartet groups merge with other quartet groups and lock, lower, raise. Keep this going until the entire group is joined together to accomplish this challenge. Main Activities: Where Do You Stand (page 52-53) Peer Pressure Ask the girls to think about a time when they felt pressured and even pressured others to do things that were against their values. Ask questions to the group: We all have experiences that test our values. Do we ever trade in what we believe in just so we can belong? How do we feel after doing that? We also have times when we pressure others. Why? Can that sometimes be for their own good? Sometimes pressure can be good can you give some examples? (if they need guidance it could be to not be with a boyfriend who is abusive, or to give up a bad habit, or to study hard for a test instead of being on the internet all night) Sometimes the pressure to do something you don t want to do can be silent. Can you think of examples of silent pressure? Have you ever accomplished something you didn t think you would be able to do, but were able to do because of someone else s influence? Say: We are going to do an activity that is going to push one another to explore what it feels like to stand up for our values. We really have to trust one another and uphold our agreement that this is confidential and will be meaningful.

7 Week 3 continued Take masking tape and make a line down the center of the room. On one end, set down piece of paper with Agree on it. On the other end, the Disagree, and in the center, In the Middle. Explain that you will be reading our a scenario and if they think it s okay, they will go to the number 10. If they feel it s not okay, they go to number 1. If they are on the fence, they go to number 5. Explain that they really should go to the number that they feel is right to them, and not where your friend or others in the group are going. After each scenario, see if any girls want to share why she stood where she did. Do any of the girls want to persuade others to stand somewhere else? Why or why not? For the girls standing in the middle, you can ask a questions such as: Are you worried about taking a stand? What are your worries? Trying to please everyone? What would help you make a decision? For the girls standing at Disagree, you can ask questions such as: Do you think there are things people could say or do that would make you inch your way down the line? What? How would you answer? For the girls standing at Agree, you can ask questions such as: Do you think there are times someone could persuade you down the line? How? Ending the Activity: Ask girls to sit down, and ask questions: Which scenarios really made an impression on you? How does this activity help you think about the effects of peer pressure and how you use your values to make decisions? Does standing up for a value make you feel like a leader? Why or why not? Take Back the Power (page of leader book) Ask the question, Why do people bully? Girls respond. Sample answers could be: Because others do it. Because it s what you have to do if you want to hang out in certain crowds. Because it makes them feel stronger, smarter, or better than the person being bullied. Because it keeps the person who is bullying from being bullied.

8 Week 3 continued Ask the girls if they have seen bullying before. Ask them to name ways that they responded, or seen others respond, to bullying. Sample answers might be: Report it to a teacher, principal or other adult. Yell back. Walk away. Reason with the bully. Answer back calmly. Cry. Act like it doesn t affect you. Now ask: Which responses are the most effective? Guide the girls into a discussion on the pros and cons of the various responses. Ask: Why do some kids get teased and others don t? (Answer: Because the bully gets pleasure an emotional payoff from the target s response. So kids who get upset become targets and those who shrug it off are left alone) Make a point to let the girls know that when someone bullies you, your first instinct is to defend yourself because you are being attacked in some way. However, research shows that one effective defense is, in the moment that the bullying is happening, show that their insults don t affect you. If there is time, Read the examples on page 62 of the Leader Guide. Closing - Friendship Circle (mention that we learned about bullying, and next week we are going to do some skits about bullying) Supplies: Cadette amaze Leader Guide Cadette amaze book Where Do You Stand Location Sheets ( Agree Disagree In the Middle ) Where Do You Stand Scenarios Sheet

9 Week 4 Opening: Girl Scout Sign, Promise and Law (Do It By Hand Game) Main Activities: Flip the Script: Witness Power (role playing) page 63 of leader guide Explain to the girls that this is a role playing activity, and split the girls into groups of three. Tell the girls this statistic from the Anti-Bullying Alliance: Witnesses play a very important role in bullying situations. Bullying will stop in less than 10 seconds in nearly 60 percent of the time when peers intervene! Witnesses (those who observe or are present during bullying) are in a very important position because they have the power to positively or negatively affect the bullying situation. The person who gets bullied is known as the target and not as victim, because victim is disempowering. Explain that there are different types of witnesses Passive Sees the bullying but avoids the situation Fearful Afraid to help because the bully might turn on her Watcher Watches and maybe enjoys it, happy not to be the target Accomplice Laughs at the bully s abuse and becomes an appreciative audience Defender Challenges the bully or supports the victim Explain the rules of the activity: Decide who will be the bully, witness, and target. Use the ideas we discussed in Taking Back the Power to flip the script so that the bully does not get away with her behavior. Try to do your role in the way you think it would work in real life. Even though this is serious stuff, you can still get dramatic and have some fun acting it out! Hand each group a Flip the script Scene and have them take turns playing different roles. Have the girls sit down and ask each group to act out the scene for the entire group, and how they reacted to the bullying. After each performance, invite the audience to give suggestions on how they might handle the situation. Surfing Through Cyber Relationships (page 64 of Leader Guide) Ask questions to get girls talking about cyber relationships and maybe be willing to share your own answers. What s the weirdest IM or text you ever got? What s the funniest mass you ever saw? Which do you like the most: IMing, testing, or ing? Why? If you could visit only one Website for the rest of your life, what would it be and why? What s your favorite thing to do online?

10 Week 4 continued The Girl Scout Law Meets the Virtual World (page 65 of Leader Book) Ask the girls to think about the topics they have discussed since they first started meeting: Friendships, peer pressure, bullying. Now ask the girls to imagine that all of these topics are taking place chat rooms, , IMing, Testing, etc. Say to the girls: The Girl Scout Law provides a vision and a set of values to how we ideally want to act in the world. Let s take a look at how you can use the Law as a way to assess some of your online interactions. Divide the girls into groups of 2-3. Place Girl Scout Law sheets on different tables or tape up on wall with masking tape. Give the girls sticky notes and pens. Also give them a copy of the entire Girl Scout Law to look at. Ask the girls to write things they would say on one of the online forums that relate to some of the topics we discussed since the first meeting. What can they write down that shows they are thinking about lines from the Girl Scout Law. What can they write down that shows that are exhibiting behavior opposite of the Girl Scout Law. Now have them go around the room and place their sticky notes under the applicable line from the Girl Scout Law. Remind the girls that this is anonymous! Discussion: Is it hard to stay committed to the Girl Scout Law? Why? Why does online communication make it easy to forget the Girl Scout Law? (is it the fact that you can be anonymous?) How can you use the Law to increase peace in your world? Closing Certificates, Snack/Beverage, Friendship Circle and good-bye. Supplies Scripts Post-it Notes Pens Girl Scout Law sheets Soda Cookies Certificates