Hi everyone,
Thanks again for being a part of Girl Scouting. Special thanks to Michelle and Michelle (Lauren and Kendra's moms) for helping out today. Without them, the meeting could not have happened!
We had a lot of fun today tying our Girl Scout meeting in with the girls' "Long Ago" unit in school. We played some games that the kids back then would have played. If anyone is interested in more, those came ( loosely adapted) from "Kate Greenway's Book of Games" written by a woman who was born back in 1847. I'll include the rules and the games we played at the end of the email.
We also played some old fashioned outdoor games that the girls really seemed to have a lot of fun doing. We rolled hoops, just like the kids did long ago, and used sticks to play throw-and-catch with smaller hoops.
Finally we went very very very long ago and put on our scientific goggles to do some genuine paleontology. We went back 400 million years (that's pretty long ago indeed) but stayed close to home. We used real paleontologists' tools to clean off fossils from right here in WI. The girls seemed very excited to take them home. If anyone is curious, those fossils were called "pentamerus" and they were brachiopods common in Wisconsin during the silurian era 200-400 million years ago.
Here are the games we played, and the rules we used:
Cat in the Corner
The child who represents the cat stands in the middle. The other children stand around at fixed places. One of the outer children beckons to another and says: “Cat, cat, give me a drop of water!” and the two run to switch places. The “cat” tries to get into one of the spaces. If the cat succeeds, the child that lost a spot is the new “cat.”
Earth, Air, and Water
The children sit in a circle, and one sits in the middle with a handkerchief wrapped in a ball. The child in the middle tosses the handkerchief to one of the others, and says either “Earth,” “Air,” or “Water,” and starts counting to 10. The child that caught the handkerchief then has to say an animal (for earth), a fish (for water) or a bird (for air.) If they can’t do it in time, they move to the middle.
The Feather Game
The players sit close together and one of them takes a feather and blows it into the air. Then they try to keep it afloat just using their breath. The players must sit in their spot, and not stand or move about when keeping the feather in the air.
Hunt the Ring
A ring is threaded on a long string with the ends joined. The players stand in a circle, and the string goes around them. One child stands in the middle. The other children pass the ring from one child to another behind their backs, while the child in the middle tries to guess who has it. If the middle child guesses correctly, they switch places with whoever had the ring.
Who Loves Me?
One child leaves the area while everyone else writes something nice about that child on slips of paper. The first child comes into the room and tries to guess who wrote which slip. Play rotates until everyone gets a turn.
That's about all. I hope to see you at the Lighthouse on Saturday! (As always, if there's a girl that needs a ride, or watching before/after, let me know and we can make any arrangements!)
Aleks Skibicki
Troop 8035
Monday, December 3, 2012
Nov 13th Meeting Recap and Notes
Wow!
It was amazing to see our budding rocket scientists, chemists, and electrical engineers get so into SCIENCE! I don't know if it was cooler to hear the girls shrieks when their rockets launched, or to hear them applaud when they got their electrical circuits to light up. And everyone loves getting messy making silly putty!
A huge huge huge thank you to all the parents today. Our co-leader Kelly, Sue (Katie's mom) and Jenette (Elli's mom) made the meeting a success! And let's also thank our Junior Girl Scout helper, Brooklyn (Elli's sister) for being a big help too!
A couple notes from the meeting, then a couple notes on upcoming stuff (IMPORTANT):
1) On the rockets--I have a few corks left behind. If the girls want to fly their rockets again, they'll need the black rubber stoppers, so let me know if yours is missing. The "rocket fuel" is just 5ml of water and an alka-seltzer tablet. Put the water in, drop in the alka-seltzer, then jam the cork on as tightly and as fast as you can. Set the rocket down, and watch it go!
2) On the electrical kit--there's not much to say. Just experiment and have fun. We had circuit diagrams for the girls to work on at the meeting, but a lot of the fun comes from experimenting and "discovering" something new that works. They have the basics down (electricity needs to go in a circle) the rest is imagination and experimentation.
3) On the silly putty--First, keep the putty in a sealed bag or container or it'll turn more rubbery than putty-ish. Second, the recipe is simply borax (a soap you can find in hardware stores and some grocery stores) plus water plus white school glue. Different mixes will make putties with different consistencies. Feel free to play around at home if you want some simple fun science time. If you can't find borax let me know. I got a king-size box, so I can sure share!
4) UPCOMING INFO: The Holiday Lights Kickoff is Wednesday. I have to look at a map to find a place for us to meet up there. I've never been before, so if someone can suggest a good meet-up point there, please let me know and I'll go with that and pass word out to everyone!
5) UPCOMING INFO: I still have a few of the invitations to the Victorian Holiday Celebration at the Lighthouse for families that weren't there, left early, , or accidentally left theirs behind today: Lia, Isabel, Kennedy, Adriana, and Kendra. I'll get them into BEE folders tomorrow. Keep an eye out for them.
6) UPCOMING INFO: Don't forget this Friday is the Highland View Around The World Festival. It should be a ton of fun again, so plan to come if you can!
That's about it for the moment. Thanks to all of you for letting your girls be a part of our Troop. Without the scouts, it would be pretty boring.
See you soon!
Aleks
It was amazing to see our budding rocket scientists, chemists, and electrical engineers get so into SCIENCE! I don't know if it was cooler to hear the girls shrieks when their rockets launched, or to hear them applaud when they got their electrical circuits to light up. And everyone loves getting messy making silly putty!
A huge huge huge thank you to all the parents today. Our co-leader Kelly, Sue (Katie's mom) and Jenette (Elli's mom) made the meeting a success! And let's also thank our Junior Girl Scout helper, Brooklyn (Elli's sister) for being a big help too!
A couple notes from the meeting, then a couple notes on upcoming stuff (IMPORTANT):
1) On the rockets--I have a few corks left behind. If the girls want to fly their rockets again, they'll need the black rubber stoppers, so let me know if yours is missing. The "rocket fuel" is just 5ml of water and an alka-seltzer tablet. Put the water in, drop in the alka-seltzer, then jam the cork on as tightly and as fast as you can. Set the rocket down, and watch it go!
2) On the electrical kit--there's not much to say. Just experiment and have fun. We had circuit diagrams for the girls to work on at the meeting, but a lot of the fun comes from experimenting and "discovering" something new that works. They have the basics down (electricity needs to go in a circle) the rest is imagination and experimentation.
3) On the silly putty--First, keep the putty in a sealed bag or container or it'll turn more rubbery than putty-ish. Second, the recipe is simply borax (a soap you can find in hardware stores and some grocery stores) plus water plus white school glue. Different mixes will make putties with different consistencies. Feel free to play around at home if you want some simple fun science time. If you can't find borax let me know. I got a king-size box, so I can sure share!
4) UPCOMING INFO: The Holiday Lights Kickoff is Wednesday. I have to look at a map to find a place for us to meet up there. I've never been before, so if someone can suggest a good meet-up point there, please let me know and I'll go with that and pass word out to everyone!
5) UPCOMING INFO: I still have a few of the invitations to the Victorian Holiday Celebration at the Lighthouse for families that weren't there, left early, , or accidentally left theirs behind today: Lia, Isabel, Kennedy, Adriana, and Kendra. I'll get them into BEE folders tomorrow. Keep an eye out for them.
6) UPCOMING INFO: Don't forget this Friday is the Highland View Around The World Festival. It should be a ton of fun again, so plan to come if you can!
That's about it for the moment. Thanks to all of you for letting your girls be a part of our Troop. Without the scouts, it would be pretty boring.
See you soon!
Aleks
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