Nov 23

We have decided to cancel our meeting tonight. We had been considering it for a variety of reasons, mostly because so many people wouldn't be coming due to Thanksgiving.

And then yesterday, there was a double homicide in a small community near ours. Lots of my girls and parents know these people.

So no meeting tonight, while we try to understand and cope with this news.

Nov 16

An easy meeting - I love having every other week where I don't usually have to do any major planning!

I sat in with the Juniors, who are working on a fitness badge. We have three 5th grade girls - very quiet and hard working. And we have a pile of 4th grade girls - very enthusiastic and loud. Since GS is about fun, and not about being "in school" I don't want to make them feel bad about being loud. But sometimes, their enthusiasm is a little bit too much.

One of the assistant leaders suggested a talking stick, and all the girls seemed good with that idea - especially the older ones. So I guess we'll give that a try.

Paperworks badge

We had so much fun last night! Since I knew some girls still needed to work on the computers to upload photos for the photography badge, I wanted to come up with something the other girls could do, and we could easily rotate who was on the computers. So I decided the Paperworks badge was just what we needed...

We worked on the origami skill builder last night. But instead of doing traditional origami, which most girls have already had a chance to play with, I decided to go a little goofy - so we did toilet paper folding, and money origami. I think the girls had a lot of fun playing with it. They all said they were going to go home and practice in the bathroom...

We did the following designs...
http://www.origami-resource-center.com/toilet-paper-origami-diamond.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7hKndSnOlY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRHU_r9LFK4
http://www.origami-resource-center.com/toilet-paper-origami-pleated-tuck.html

http://members.cox.net/crandall11/money/bowtie/
http://www.net4tv.com/voice/story.cfm?storyid=3241
http://members.cox.net/crandall11/money/shirt/
http://www.homemade-gifts-made-easy.com/money-origami-heart.html
http://www.homemade-gifts-made-easy.com/money-origami-heart-decorative.html

Science Fair

Last night we found out there was a science fair at our school, so we decided to take all the girls to that. It was also a PTO meeting, which was boring, but once they opened up all the science experiments, the girls had a lot of fun. We flipped gummy bears, played with tuning forks, built helicopters, tried to get clay to float, stood inside a bubble, learned what colors are in black, saw Lincoln in the memorial on the back of a penny with a microscope, and lots of other fun stuff.

Busy Weekend

This weekend was a little bit crazy, with a Brownie Sleepover and a Daisy Princess Party. But everything went great!

I was just at the Brownie Sleepover as a safety wise adult - no planning for that one. But the girls earned 4 Try-Its - all the GS ones.

The older girls in my troop were responsible for the Daisy Princess Party, and it worked out great. The girls made a button notecard, tissue paper flowers, decorated a crown, made a beaded necklace or bracelet, and helped color the giant unicorn. The we played "Pin the horn on the unicorn" which the girls really enjoyed. We also had a parent volunteer to do face painting. Then we decorated cookies and had a birthday party for Juliette. My older girls helped with all of this stuff, and when they weren't busy, they were taking pictures as an activity for the photography badge.

All in all, I thought it was a great event.