Over the summer I send out a survey to the Brownies and asked them to let me know which badges or journeys interested them. Pottery and Snacks were two that got a lot of votes. During the summer, our cookie event was a trip to a pottery painting place and all the girls enjoyed it, so I thought it would be a good way to start the year.
Though I have Daisies and Brownies, I try to keep the whole group doing the same thing. If you review my posts from last year, you can see how I related a lot of Brownie badges to Daisy petals. Well, try as I might I couldn't figure out how to relate these badges to un-done petals or Daisy badges, so my Daisies will get fun patches, and my Brownies, badges.
While I was having my initial parent meeting I had play doh (from my supply stash) on the table for the girls. I also gave them some coffee stirrers and told them to make me something. Once I was done with the parents, I had each girl grab a ball of play doh and I showed them how to make a pinch pot. They all tried it with the play doh. I then collected the play doh and passed out air dry clay (bought at JoAnn's with a 50% off coupon) and the girls made pinch pots which I then put away to dry (we have a Girl Scout storage room at church). After sending the girls to wash, and clearing the tables, it was time to work on the Snacks badge.
The Snacks badge calls for the girls to make four different snacks, and in my opinion, no one needs four snacks at one meeting. Therefore, we do one snack per meeting. Our first one was an energy snack--GORP--Good Old Raisins and Pretzels.. I showed the girls the recipe I had written and the measuring cups and spoons. Each girl got a plastic bag to hold her GORP and was told that she had to follow the recipe as far as how much of each ingredient she used, but that she did not have to take anything she did not want. The girls made their GORP and then we sat down and talked about what they wanted to do for the year.
They wanted a sleepover, which I cannot do. The church won't let me do it there, and the GS council won't let me do it at a private home. Therefore, I offered them the option of a pajama party with nail polish and slime. They loved the idea. Stay tuned for more details.
Unfortunately, a heavy rainstorm hit the day of our first meeting and some areas of town were flooded which meant I had four girls absent. Since so many were out, I decided to basically repeat the badge requirements at the second meeting. Instead of making pinch pots, we made coil pots, and we also made animals out of clay. That covered two of the five requirements of the Potter badge. We'll talk about the things in daily life that are made from clay next meeting and will talk briefly about scoring, wedging and firing (these were covered at the pottery studio we visited this summer, but a few girls didn't make it, and I've picked up two new girls this year).
I changed the trail mix ingredients and before we made the trail mix we talked about how it takes two `1/2 cups to make 1 cup, 3 1/3 cups or 4 1/4 cups. Then we all practiced measuring some dried beans. The trail mix we made this week had Cheese-It crackers, candy corn, banana chips and sunflower seeds. Again the girls had to measure their portions but were allowed to skip anything they did not want.
A good time was had by all. Next meeting we are making smoothies and painting pottery.
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