Shapes in Nature

 

My girls like art projects so I thought the new  Shapes in Nature badges would be a good fit.  Earlier I wrote posts giving the requirements and VTK activities for both the Brownie and Junior badges.  This post is about how we went about doing the badges and the results.  I had all the girls (Brownies and Juniors) do all the activities.  

Requirements for Juniors

According to Badge Explorer, Juniors

        1. Identify symmetry in nature

        2. Explore bilateral symmetry in nature

        3. Create nature-inspired art with circular symmetry

        4. Find fractals in nature

        5. Search for the Fibonacci sequence

When Juniors have earned this badge, they'll know about symmetry, fractals, and the Fibonacci sequence. They'll have identified patterns and shapes in nature.

By The Numbers

I've been wondering how things have been going to for my council.  Today I got an email telling me that the 2021 Annual Report had been posted so I decided to take a look at it.  Since numbers mean little without context, I also took a look at the reports for 2019 and 2020.  Here is what I learned.  

Family of God: A Brownie Award

 I am a member of the Catholic Committee for Girl Organizations that oversees the NFCYM programs for the Archdiocese of New Orleans.  In the past I've been the coordinator for the God Is Love program for Daisies, and this year I took on the Family of God program for Brownies.  

The NFCYM awards include pins that can be worn on the front of a Girl Scout uniform and patches which are worn on the back.  There are awards for each Girl Scout level and the books for younger girls are written for use in the family.  However, it is common in my area for Catholic school troops to do the awards as a troop and as a committee we have started offering programs for girls in any troops.  

While I certainly believe that parents are the primary educators of their children, and that religious education isn't likely to stick if it isn't lived at home, I've also been there and done that as a busy parent of kids involved in multiple activities and I know that homework, whether from school or church or Girl Scouts is not looked upon fondly.  We try to make our day programs fun and spiritually enriching, so they are something the girls look forward to rather than being a burden.

The Family of God book has six chapters and each chapter has a number of activities offered.  Girls (or in our case , the committee) select three to do.  The chapters alternate between focusing on the family and the Christian community,  

Time to Cook

 

Because of Covid, last year we met either outside or virtually.  Its funny, even though the numbers are far higher now than they were last year, I'm a lot less worried about it.  The kids have all had the chance to be vaccinated and we know that for the most part, the kids aren't the ones in danger from this virus.  Now that the weather has turned cold, we have moved inside and so we have been working on the cooking badges--Snacks for Brownies and Simple Meals for Juniors.

Brownie Cookie Badges Old and New

 This year GSUSA retired the ugly screen-printed cookie badges and came out with two new embroidered badges.  This post will take a look at both the new and old badges.  

Think Like an Engineer, Part 3

 My Brownies and Juniors recently finished their third design challenge for Think Like an Engineer.  I'm usually one to stick pretty close to the VTK plans, but in this case, none of the offered projects that we hadn't done really excited me.  I had planned to do the Daisy Roller Coaster badge when Covid shut us down in 2020, so I decided to go with that.

I divided the girls into groups of three and gave them each a pool noodle which I had cut in half the long way and taped into one long piece and a small plastic ball. We talked about how roller coasters worked, with the energy coming from the cars being dragged to the top of the hill, and that after release there is no added power.  

I had some chairs, boxes, and books a a available to add height and told the girls to design a track that would get the marble all the way to the end, and to try to make it interesting.  

This group worked for almost an hour.  

New Badge Review: Junior Cookie Badges

 As cookie season will be upon us soon, I thought I'd take a look at the new cookie badges and compare them to the ones being discontinued.   

Requirements

New Badge:  Cookie Collaborator

According to Badge Explorer  Juniors learn to collaborate with their troop, community, and network to grow their cookie business.

• Get to know the Girl Scout Cookie business
• Decide on your goals
• Collaborate on a troop budget
• Reach more customers
• Learn from your customers

When Juniors earn this badge, they will know how to work with their Girl Scout team to set goals and make decisions to run their cookie business, and how to collaborate with their friends and family to connect with more customers.