Brownie Meeting 17: Take Action Project Planning

Meeting at a Glance 

Goal:  The Brownie team moves forward with its Take Action Project to make an impact in the community and earn it’s third key.

Toward the Award:  Take Action Key

Supplies: 

See Brownie Supply Schedule

Pre-Meeting (15 min)

-Greet, sign-in, and put on nametags. 

Snack Time (Snacks, Step #4) (10 min)

Opening (5 min)

- Flag Ceremony

-  Gather and greet each other with the Girl Scout handshake. 

Business (10 min)

• In the Girl Scout Brownie Ring, take attendance and collect dues, review rules and assign kapers.
• “Today we are going to start taking the first steps toward our Take Action Project.”

Activity/Exploration (50 min)

• Read Chapter 5 of the Brownie Quest book . 
• Talk about the different ways to promote the event:  posters, flyers, e-blasts, announcements, talking to friends and neighbors, press release.
• Help the girls to write a letter/email to their principal telling them about our project and the ways we would like to promote it at school.  Ask for permission to hang posters and pass out flyers, etc.  We would like to have at least 2 weeks of promotion time.
• Talk about what information should go on the posters/flyers.
• Take a walk around the school building to identify good places to hang our posters.

Clean-up (10 min)

• ALL girls participate in the clean-up time! Remind the girls of kapers and work together to leave the site better than you found it. 
• The Out Scout should be rotating the names on the Kaper Chart to see who will bring the snack and beverage for the next meeting. 

Closing (5 min)

• FRIENDSHIP CIRCLE – Use the Girl Scout Sign again to get the girls’ attention. Ask girls to gather around and form a circle. 
• Let the girls know who will be bringing the snack next time and ask the girls to take the Snack Box home.  Remind girls to show their parent the note inside the snack box.
• Form a Friendship Circle, sing, “Goodbye Brownies,” and do a friendship squeeze. 

-  Collect nametags and sign-out. 

Brownie Meeting 16: Choosing a Take Action Project

Meeting at a Glance 

Goal:  Brownie team members identify a community need that matters to them and begin to create a solution - a way to Fly into Action and accomplish something on behalf of others.

Toward the Award:  Take Action Key

Supplies: 

See Brownie Supply Schedule

Pre-Meeting (15 min)

-Greet, sign-in, and put on nametags. 

Snack Time (Snacks, Step #4) (10 min)

Opening (5 min)

- Flag Ceremony

-  Gather and greet each other with the Girl Scout handshake. 

Business (10 min)

• In the Girl Scout Brownie Ring, take attendance and collect dues, review rules and assign kapers.
• Hand out the Dancer Skill Building Badges that the girls earned at the last meeting.

-“Today we are going to take the first step toward our third key, which is figuring out who needs some help from our Brownie Team.”

Activity/Exploration (50 min)

• Brownie Brainstorm Chart for our Take Action Project (idea: Organize, promote, and operate a food drive for the Food Bank.  Write a letter to the Food Bank asking what items they need and if we could sponsor a food drive for them.  Write to school principals asking to hang posters up in school advertising the food drive.  Send home flyers with students advertising the food drive.  Have a food drive at a Grocery Store on a weekend afternoon.  Take food to Food Bank and volunteer there to help stock the shelves.)

• If needed, vote on a Take Action Project.  We should probably have at least a top 3 list of possible projects in case something falls through or doesn’t work out.
• Read Chapter 4 of Brownie Quest book and fill in pages 31-33.
• Make a Brownie Plan.  IMPORTANT:  Choose a date for the project…Saturday, May 16 or Sunday, May 17.  (I can call both the Food Bank and Kroger to see if they will allow us to do it and if either of these dates will work)
• Make posters for our Home School cafeteria to encourage kids to make healthy choices for breakfast.

Clean-up (10 min)

• ALL girls participate in the clean-up time! Remind the girls of kapers and work together to leave the site better than you found it. 
• The Out Scout should be rotating the names on the Kaper Chart to see who will bring the snack and beverage for the next meeting. 

Closing (5 min)

• FRIENDSHIP CIRCLE – Use the Girl Scout Sign again to get the girls’ attention. Ask girls to gather around and form a circle. 
• Connect Key Celebration Ceremony.  Hand out the Connect Key patches.
• Let the girls know who will be bringing the snack next time and ask the girls to take the Snack Box home.  Remind girls to show their parent the note inside the snack box.
• Form a Friendship Circle, sing, “Goodbye Brownies,” and do a friendship squeeze. 

-  Collect nametags and sign-out. 

*This would be a good meeting to have a parent iron-on session.

Brownie Outing: Dancer Skill Building Badge

Since our Brownie Quest Journey is all about healthy eating and lifestyles I thought that this would be the perfect time to work in the Dancer Skill Building Badge and talk to the girls about dancing as exercise.

Since one of our Leaders takes ballet and her older daughter is an Irish Step dancer we figured they could run a little workshop for the girls to complete the steps for the Dancer badge.  I reserved a large room at our branch of the public library and we had the workshop there.

Step 1:  Warm up and get moving

Step 2:  Try a new dance
The girls learned a little bit about the history of Irish Step dance and learned some steps.

learning about the Irish Step dancer's dress

Step 3:  Take to the floor like a dancer
The girls learned the 5 positions of ballet as well as the ballet carriage and bow.

Step 4:  Make up your own dance
Step 5:  Show your move

We played some different styles of music (ie.  country, folk, rock-n-roll and modern favorites) and the girls did their own little dances and then had a dance party.