Girl Scout rangers

I think we should keep an eye on this program, although I'm putting here as a placeholder until I can learn more about it.
http://blog.girlscouts.org/2015/05/5-steps-to-earning-your-ranger-badge.html

Nascent plans

I have been spending some time this summer lining up activities for the girls.  I'm pretty excited about some of them.

Today I have confirmed with a local potter that she can work with the girls this year to finish their pottery badge.  We still have the iron out the details, but, I'm happy we'll be able to let the girls do this badge with a real skilled artist.

I am anticipating that our first meeting will be on 9/21 or 9/28 (in other words, not quite the beginning of school).  I'm open to feedback on that.  I'd like to give new girls a chance to join our troop (although, if you are a potentially new parent, we are open to girls joining at any point during the year).

Call for Volunteer:  I am looking for someone to coordinate snacks.  We'd like to have a sign up genius, so each family can choose some weeks during which they would be able to provide the snacks.  The coordinator position would help run the sign up genius, make sure each week has a contributor, and work with the parents to make sure the snacks can get to the church after school.  It is not a position where you would need to provide all the snacks or be present for each meeting.  Let me know if you think you could do this.

Woodland Park Day camp

Some of our girls got to attend the Woodland Park day camp last week.  It was a great camp, and the girls seemed to love it.  This camp is all run by volunteers, and they packed a lot into one well organized week.  Each day was an adventure.  (Heads up for next year; this seems like one to keep your eyes on.)  On the last day, some of our girls got to be the honor guard.  Great job, girls!

New Badge!

The Girl Scouts have announced their new outdoor oriented badges.  The Brownie one is here:

https://system.na1.netsuite.com/core/media/media.nl?id=841225&c=317771&h=3d545c95f0fc2a8277cc&_xt=.pdf&ck=2ECTIukCAvLkXPCt&vid=2ECTIukCAvbkXKct&cktime=131817&addrcountry=US&gc=clear

It looks great:

1. Play outdoors in a new way
2. Explore nature
3. Buddy up and play outdoor games
4. Learn a camp skill
5. Care for the outdoors

I think our girls would love this badge, and it fits right into some of our other goals for this year.  I'm excited about this.

In other news, GSWW is in the news because they turned down a rather large donation because it came with restrictions on what types of girls qualified.  (http://www.seattlemet.com/articles/2015/6/29/donor-says-girl-scouts-can-t-use-100k-gift-for-transgender-girls) 
I deeply respect that the Girl Scouts have remained committed, throughout the lifetime of the organization, to welcoming and supporting ALL GIRLS, and that they put their money where their mouth is.  I'd like every girl who joins our troop to feel celebrated for her own individual self.

Looking forward to 3rd grade!

Dear parents, and potential parents,

We are putting together our details for next year.  Returning parents may like this information, and new parents can look here to get an idea of what will be going on.

The basics:

*This troop is serving the 2015-2016 third grade class at APP at Lincoln.

*We will be meeting every Monday after school.  (There will be no meetings on weeks that there is no school.)  Meetings will start immediately after school, and end at 5:30pm.

Our leaders (Martha and Megan) meet the girls after school, and walk them to our meeting location (the Wallingford Presbyterian Church).  Parents can pick girls up at the church.  Some weeks we may arrange for a different pick up location, which will always be recorded on this blog.

*We will also be meeting some additional times.  This past year we had approximately five weekend meetings, including one two-night camping trip.  We will have more or less depending on the girls' interest.

Our Goals:

One of the major tenants of Girl Scouts is that it is Girl Led.  As such, our year next year will unfold as the girls in the troop desire.  They will be able to choose what projects they work on, and have some control over how those projects are accomplished.

That said, we have some goals for the year:

1.  Go camping.  The Girls had such a great time at this year's encamporee, it was unanimously requested as a repeat.  It seems like the girls would like more time outside in general.
2.  Do more 'big' things, like field trips or more involved projects.  The girls really enjoy this type of thing.
3.  Cookie sales.  We will sell cookies this year - it is part of the Girl Scout program to foster financial literacy, AND, it can cover many expenses for the troop activities.
4.  Badges - we'll work on some badges.  And learn some songs.
5.  I'd like to get the girls started thinking about how we exist in our community, and specifically how we can be good scouts by giving back to our community and being leaders.

To enroll (new girls only):

(Interesting fact:  'enroll' is spelled with two 'l's in the US, but only one in England, explaining why I appear to have spelled it incorrectly when I move to a new web browser....)

You can enroll your girl here:  https://gsusa.ebiz.uapps.net/vp/default.aspx?pid=9
I believe that, after you have enrolled, you can specify a troop to join.  You'll want to specify 44401.  (If you have difficulty, please let me know.)

It would be a good idea to let me know - comment here or send me email.

Adults may also wish to sign up as adult volunteers.  You can do that on the same web page.

Please ask any questions you have - either in comments on this web page or by emailing me.

For new AND returning girls: 

After your girl is enrolled this is not much to do until we start up again in the fall.  However, I strongly urge all new and returning parents to subscribe to this page with their favorite RSS reader, or by signing up for the email digest (on the right hand side of the blog).  Our primary communication will be through this blog, and it will be the place where you can see weekly plans.

We'd also like all girls to have some uniform - you can choose a sash or a vest (I recommend the vest, although many of our girls have sashes).   You do not need to get a full uniform, but, examples of all the pieces are shown here: http://www.girlscouts.org/program/basics/for_volunteers/where_to_place/brownie/

Each girl should have a guide book:  http://www.girlscoutshop.com/THE-BROWNIE-GIRLS-GUIDE-TO-GIRL-SCOUTING

You can buy these items on-line, or at the Girl Scout store in Bellevue.  Some people like to go with the starter kit, which bundles many of the necessary items together.

We are still trying to figure out snack and dues arrangements for next year.  Check back.

For more information:

Please feel free to ask any questions here, or to email meganursula@gmail.com directly.  You can find out more about Girl Scouts at http://www.girlscouts.org/.

Wrapping up our 2nd Grade year

Whew, its been a good year.  I feel like we've done a lot and our girls have learned a lot.  I am very grateful to have had this year with them, and I hope that they enjoyed all of their time with us.

Next Monday is our last meeting for this school year.  We will be finishing our inventor badge.  (If you have inventing materials - cardboard, paper tubes, rubber bands, dixie cups, whatever your girl likes to build with - please send them on Monday.)

At the end of our meeting the girls will each receive their Snack, Painting, and Inventor badges.

If your girl wants to plan events with her troop mates over the summer, we can advertise them here.  Its hard to get a full quorum because of travel and crazy schedules, but, that doesn't need to stop our girls from spending time together.  Feel free to contact me if you want to do something like this.

I've renewed all the girls who have already decided they want to continue with our troop next year, and we can add more girls as they decide they are interested.  I do look forward to continuing our Girl Scouting adventure next year!  Check back here for details as we firm them up.

Closing out the year

On Monday we talked a little bit about our experiences over the weekend.  Then we did some planning for the rest of the year.  Here is the proposed schedule for the rest of this school year:

5/18:  The girls wanted time to just play, so, on this day we are going to make cookies (with left over oatmeal from camping), and then free play.   We hope to be able to pass out the cookie rewards at this time, too.

5/25:  This is Memorial Day, and thus No School, and thus No Girl Scouts.

6/1:  The girls have decided to have an art show.  This will allow them to finish the Painting badge.  Each girl should bring in some art work to show.  They voted that it can be personal work, or pictures from favorite paintings done by professional artists.  Any pictures are allowable, but, not artwork such as sculptures.
We will put together the show, talk about what is inspiring in the artwork, and serve cookies.  ;)

6/8:  This day is the spring concert for 2nd graders currently taking music.  We will mostly take the day for free-play.  We will also bring the girls back to school for the concert, and parents can meet us at the school.  We will propose a final schedule for this when we see what the final schedule for the concert is.

6/14:  I believe Laural has sent you all email to save the date for a pony related end-of-year party.

6/15:  This is the last Monday of school.  The girls want to have an invention day, so they can finish out the inventors badge.    In order to do this day, we'll spend the next few weeks collecting paper-towel and toilet-paper tubes, cardboard, string... anything that can be used to craft an invention.

I can't believe how close we are to the end of the year.  On the last day of this year we should be able to give each girl a painting badge, a snack badge, and an inventor's badge.   I feel like it has been a productive year, and hopefully we have met our goal of giving the girls more big projects and more fun in Girl Scouting.

Looking forward - I am incredibly grateful that you are willing to share your girls with me.  I think each of these girls is really special, and I'm happy to have them in the troop.  Martha and I have been thinking about how we will proceed next year, and I will be writing that up soon.  We do hope to continue the troop, and we hope that all of our girls will choose to stay.  We will be splitting the two schools into two different troops, and we will welcome any Lincoln girls who wish to join the Lincoln patrol.