One thing I've noticed about my troop is that there is an "inside" group that has been together since kindergarten and an "outside" group that has joined the troop later. Its not like anyone is mean, its just that they really aren't one group and I'd like to do something to work on that. Unfortunately, facilitating interactions and friendships is probably my weak point as a leader.
Since we usually have a holiday party, I thought we could tie it into the Making Friends and Social Butterfly badges. Let's take a look at them.
Making Friends
For the Making Friends badge, VTK says: Girls will find out how to make new friends, keep old friends, and be the best Brownie friend they can be.
- Make friendly introductions
- Show friends they care
- Share favorite activities
- Learn how to disagree
- Practice friendship!
When girls have earned this badge, they'll know how to be a good friend.
Social Butterfly
The requirements for Social Butterfly: Have fun practicing the social style and good manners that will make you comfortable in any situation.
- Hold a conversation
- Use table manners
- Be prepared for special occasions
- Say thank you
- Practice being at ease
When you've earned this badge, you'll know how to act at many types of events, from picnics to weddings to parties.
VTK Plans:
Making Friends
The first activity choices in VTK are to write a name poem--write a partner's name down a page and then use each letter as the first letter of a word describing them, or to make something for a friend, or to create a list of things they could do to show someone they care.
For the second activity, VTK says to make a list of five things you like and then to share than list with another girl, or to make a list of five things they want to do, and share that, or make a list of five new things they want to try, and then pick one to try with a friend in the troop at the meeting.
The choices for the third activity are to either listen to a friend tell them how they feel for three minutes and then to tell the friend what she said, or to make a list of things they usually agree with their friends about, and then share the list with the group, or to make a list of kind words that make you feel good.
The fourth activity is to introduce yourself to three or more members of the troop, to invite another troop to join you and introduce a fellow Brownie to a visiting girl, or to ask your parents to introduce you to an adult friend.
Finally, Brownies either make a list of things they like to do with friends, and do one of the things with the guest troop, or play a game with a member of the guest troop or do some other activity with the other troop.
Social Butterfly
The first activity choices in VTK are to write conversation starters and then practice them with each other, or to have a guest speaker whose profession involves conversations with strangers talk about how to engage in conversation or to look up conversation tips online and then use them to make a poster.
Next, girls either make a list of things they should and shouldn't do at the table, or they look up various table settings and draw one, or they pick another country and research table etiquette there.
The third activity is to research customs in other countries for weddings, funerals or coming of age ceremonies.
In the fourth activity girls role-play thanking a host after a party where given scenarios happened, or they do a handwritten thank-you note, or they use craft supplies to make a thank-you gift for someone.
The final activity is to practice their skills with a party.
Girls Guide/Badge Insert
Making Friends
The GGGS activities are pretty much the same as the VTK activities.
Social Butterfly
The Social Butterfly activities in the Girls Guide are similar to those in VTK. The first set of choices is exactly the same. For the second activity, girls brainstorm things not to do at the table, and then a good substitute. They pick three things to practice for a week. They can also choose to learn about table settings, or learn about mealtime customs from another culture and practice them by having a meal using manners from that place. For the third activity, instead of research other countries' customs, girls discuss and answer questions about how we behave at such celebrations. The "thank you" activities are the same as in VTK, and the badge closes with a party here as well.
My Plans
As I said at the beginning, my goal was to get my girls interacting with girls outside their usual groups, so we started by filling in a questionnaire as girls arrived. I must have written it on my work computer because I can't find a copy for you now, but it was written so that any girl's name could go on any line, because each question had two blanks, like __________ likes __________ and so do I. _______ wants to be a _________, I want to be a _____________.
After our opening I talked about introducing ourselves to others and conversation starters. I had a parent write down the conversation starters as we came up with them, each on separate piece of paper. I then put the girls in pairs, putting them with girls they didn't usually interact with, and told them to use the conversation starters to talk to each other. That's requirement No. 1 for each badge.
For Making Friends 2, we did the name poem at our party, using this form. When I started thinking about it before the party, I had trouble coming up with words, so I looked up a bunch and put them on a paper for the girls to use. This is definitely one of those activities that sounds easier than what it is. With the word list they did fine; without it I'm sure they would have abandoned the task or complained a lot--and I'm talking about Juniors too, not just the Brownies.
We are handled Social Butterfly No. 2 at our party. Each girls place setting was in a ziplock bag, and I had them remove all the pieces and I told them how to place them, and then walked around the room checking them. Clearly few if any of these girls sit down regularly to a properly set table--and I'm not criticising, we don't do that at my house either.
For Making Friends 3, at our first meeting I paired them up to do a paper puzzle. We are outside and wearing masks.
For Social Butterfly 3 we talked about weddings and answered the questions in the GGGS.
Making Friends 4 is about learning to disagree and I'll talk about that a little, and then we are going to practice being good listeners by listening to other girls talk about how they feel for 3 minutes, and then telling them what they said. Again, I'm going to match the girls up. We still have to do this next time the Brownies meet.
Social Butterfly 4 is about saying Thank You. We wrote thank you notes to the parish for allowing us to meet in their building/patio.
And, for the final requirement for both badges we planned our holiday party. They wanted to wear pajamas and drink hot chocolate. We did a craft too. Then of course, we had the party at our next meeting. Since social distancing meant I wanted the girls seated, not on top of each other and in small groups, when I assigned seats, I broke up the "in" group and mixed them with the other girls, putting three or four girls at a banquet table, with seating staggered.
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