Girl Scouts: April Meeting Information and a Question

Hello everyone!

Great meeting again today.  I really like these World Thinking Day based meetings.  It gives the girls a great chance to draw connections between themselves and girls around the world.  

April is coming up, and our first meeting of April is next week Thursday (!?!) so here's the link to the SignUp Genius page for it:

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0A4FA5AD22A13-april

I'll also drop off the usual paper letter/permission slip with the classroom teachers tomorrow morning, so keep an eye out for it in take-home folders.

Now, because April is the month around Earth Day, (and because the school grounds can use it!) I'd like to spend part of the meeting with the girls picking up garbage around the school area.  So, please dress your scouts appropriately for the weather those days, and some mud-boots would be great if possible.  (If not possible, there's enough to clean up on sidewalks and blacktop though, so no worries).  If it's raining, we would stay inside.

And a question:

Because we might do a good job cleaning up at our first meeting of the month, would everyone be ok with moving the location of our second meeting of the month?  

I'm thinking of doing one of two things:  

My first choice, if possible, would be to have the meeting over at College Park for once.  Since we have a solid chunk of our troop from College Park it might be nice to be on their home turf for once.  I'd have to see what space we can reserve (I don't get the same kind of favors at CP that I get over at Highland View!), and also make sure we have enough transportation to get our HV scouts over to CP after school.  

My second choice, if I can't get space at CP, would be to have the meeting over at Scout Lake Park, and clean up around there after school.  We could even walk over there from HV, and CP and meet up to start the clean up.  We would have our usual space reserved at HV in case of bad weather.

What do you all think?

Aleks Skibicki

Girl Scouts: Thursday Meeting Attendance

Hello again!

Just checking to make sure I know how many to expect this Thursday.

According to the SignUp Genius page, and returned slips from school ( http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0A4FA5AD22A13-march1 ) here's my list:

Caiya 

Sara

Liliana 

Alexis

Olivia

Lauren

Maya

Evie

Lia

Am I missing anyone?

Thanks!  See you soon!

Aleks

Girl Scouts: Service Area campout t-shirt design contest

Hi,

Those of you that went to the campout put on by the service area back in September received a t-shirt that we tie-dyed (the one with the waving pineapple on it).  That t-shirt was designed by a girl scout from our service area, and now is your chance to design the t-shirt for the next service area campout in September 2014.

This year's theme is "The Wild West," and I've included the design contest template as an attachment.  I need to get any designs back to the service are to be narrowed down to 5 finalists by April 29th.  All the scouts in the service area will have a chance to vote on which t-shirt and patch they like the best from those 5.  The girls whose designs win will get to go to that camp for free.

And don't forget--if you didn't go to the meeting on the 6th, then we hope to see you at the meeting on the 27th (this Thursday!)

Aleks Skibicki  

Girl Scouts: Second of the Night--Summer Events Draft

Hello again!

Here's a quick breakdown of events scheduled over summertime.  Most of these are things we've done before, and have been a bunch of fun.  It's very preliminary, and dates are "To Be Determined" for a couple things.  That also means that if you have some ideas, pass them along and we'll get them on the schedule!

Summer Schedule:  Preliminary

June

Scout Lake Park Cleanup June Date TBD

Troop Campout Dates June 6-8, June 20-22

Beach Cleanup (Bay View Beach) June 12th 6:30-8:00PM

Noah's Ark Waterpark Trip June 14th 10:00AM-5:00PM (But we'll catch the Girl Scout bus closer to 7:00AM)

July

Laura Ingalls Wilder Day at Old World Wisconsin (We'll pick a day on a weekend between June 28th and July 31st 10:00AM-5:00PM )

Greendale 4th of July Parade (July 4th)

Beach Cleanup (Bay View Beach) July 10th 6:30-8:00PM

August

Cool Waters Girl Scout Pool Party August 2nd 

Village Days Parade (August 10th, ?)

Beach Cleanup (Bay View Beach) August 14th 6:30-8:00PM

Renaissance Faire Scout Day August 17th 10:00AM-7:00PM 

Happy Scouting!

Aleks Skibicki

Girl Scouts: First of Two Tonight--Campout SignUp Genius

Hello everyone!

We've added an extra weekend to choose from for our June campout.  I have a ton of amazing ideas to try this year, so it's going to be amazing!

We have 4 nights to choose from:

June 6-7 (F-Sa)

June 7-8 (Sa-Su)

June 20-21 (F-Sa)

June 21-22 (Sa-Su)

Camp will have activities on Saturday from 10:00-Bedtime, and scouts can choose to stay overnight Friday to Saturday or Saturday to Sunday.  If you choose a Friday to Saturday session, check in starts at 4:00 on Friday, and you can stay until whenever you want to go home on Saturday.  If you choose a Saturday to Sunday session, meet at the lodge at 10:00 on Saturday, and we have to be cleaned up and checked out by 11:00 on Sunday.

As always, there's no cost for the campout, though we will have a signup list as the dates approach to help with supplies.

Sign up for the day your scout will arrive at camp.  (So sign up for Friday if you want to stay Friday to Saturday, or Saturday if you want to stay Saturday to Sunday.)  If your scout doesn't want to stay overnight, sign up for either session around the Saturday you'd like to be there, and include a note that says you won't be sleeping over.

Also as always, parents are welcome, but not required.  

Friday to Saturday campers will be eating dinner Friday night and breakfast on Saturday morning, in addition to lunch and dinner on Saturday.

Saturday to Sunday campers will eat lunch and dinner on Saturday and breakfast on Sunday.

The campout is at Ross Lodge in Whitnall Park again.  6750 S. 92nd Street.  It's next to the archery range, and across the street from the golf course and sledding hill.  (Though with any luck we'll be out of snow by then!)  It's a great facility with several different sleeping areas, a craft room, great kitchen, indoor fireplace, outdoor firepit, and access to amazing trails and activities all around in Whitnall Park.

Here's the Sign Up Address:

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0A4FA5AD22A13-greendale3

Happy Scouting!

Aleks Skibicki

Girl Scouts: Robot Games Details and two non-Girl Scout Plugs

Hello again!

First:  Robot Games!  A couple of you said your scouts would be interested in going to the Robotics Competition this Friday.  I'll be leaving our house around 9:30.  If you told me your scout needed a ride, then just come by before 9:30 (4256 Teakwood Ct. Greendale, 53129) and there'll be a spot for her!  

Second:  If you're on my list of PTO attendees, then you've already heard this, but as Greendale School parents, this is something any of you might be interested in:

The Greendale Education Foundation's annual "Celebration of Education" event is May 30th.  The Greendale Education Foundation has supported Highland View both through generous grants for our RIF program and continuing education opportunities for our teachers, and through their KidBooster program which provides needy students with simple but critical things like books, healthy food, money to go on field trips, and even new coats and shoes.  (I'm not as involved at the other schools, so I don't know exactly what programs are GEF-funded at College Park or Canterbury.  GEF has provided grant funding to all the Greendale schools though.)  In addition to being a wonderful event, the Celebration of Education is a great way to support the GEF and let them know we appreciate what they're doing for Greendale.  The event will be held at the Boerner Botanical Gardens, and will include entertainment, a silent auction, and refreshments throughout the evening.  Tickets are $30 and are available at the Greendale School District office (in the High School) or I can get them to you if you need.

Third:  We have an open-water fishing clinic at Scout Lake Park on our schedule for April 12th.  If there are girls who might prefer their spring fun slightly less wormy, Tiki and Emmi's dad let me know that the North Point Lighthouse ( http://northpointlighthouse.org ) has its annual Easter egg hunt that morning from 9:30-11:30.  In addition to the Easter egg hunt, the Easter bunny will be there, there'll be crafts, refreshments, and everyone can climb the lighthouse.  It's $10 for kids, or $5 for adults, or $9/$4 with preregistration at 332-6754.

Thanks, 

Aleks Skibicki

Girl Scouts: Fw: Symphony Opportunity

Hiya everyone!

Kahlen's family has a group pass to the symphony this Sunday (March 16th at 3:00PM) and they'd like to share them with some Girl Scouts.

They said they have 10-12 available tickets, and everyone would have to arrive 15 minutes early.  

Please email Nichole Wnuk with any questions or to take her up on the offer at:

Nichole.Wnuk@dentaquest.com

Thanks everyone!

Aleks

Girl Scouts: Robot Games!

Hello again (and again for some of you!)

When we did a cookie booth at a Thomas More basketball game, the girls got to see the Thomas More robotics team practicing and building their robot for the FIRST League Robotics Championships ( http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc ).  The girls thought the robot was super cool, and enjoyed seeing the students try and get the robot to be able to throw a giant ball into a target.

There are some videos of the competition from 2 years ago here to give you an idea of what we're talking about:  (Skip to about the 8 minute mark to get to the actual game!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llinbKaFIHQ

The Wisconsin FIRST Team Robotics Championship is coming up--you may remember it if you went last year.   While we learned it's hard to get seats, admission was free, and it was fun to watch the robots compete against each other.  The girls met one of the teams afterwards and got to talk with them and see their robot up close.  Would any girls be interested in going this year?  The competition runs Friday and Saturday March 21-22.  Since there's no school on Friday, that may be the perfect day to go.  Robot competition starts at 8:30 and runs until about 6:30 at the US Cellular Arena.

I have room for up to 4 more girls in our car if anyone needs rides.

Is anyone else interested in going?

On a similar note, that same group has a Junior Lego League that we could do with the girls.  Information about that is here:

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/jr.fll

Does that sound like something we could do with the girls?  Teams are 2-6 children, so we could put together a whole pile of teams from our troop.  Each team would cost $50 to register though, not counting supplies, so we'd have to be sure of having interest before making any teams.  We have until April 16th to decide.  Next spring, when the girls are wrapping up 3rd and 4th grades, our Girl Scout zone sponsors actual (not junior) Lego League teams, so we'll certainly try it then, whether or not we do Junior Lego League this year.

Aleks

Girl Scouts: Maple Sugar Days Date--please RSVP quickly!

Hello again!

The people have spoken.  And with a pretty overwhelming voice, Saturday March 29th is the day for Maple Sugar Days.  So, if you want to go, let me know how many are coming--adults, scouts, and non-scout Children 3 and older so I can reserve the appropriate number of spots.  Plan on getting there around noon.  Our walk will be scheduled at either 12:20 or 12:40 depending on how many people want to go; before and after our walk there'll be activities around the nature center to do.  We can stay as long as we like afterwards.

And, as always, if your scout wants to go but needs a ride, we can make that happen.  (In fact, since parking is $3, carpooling is probably a good idea!)  And of course, also as always, if you'd like the troop to cover admission ($5.00 per attendee 3 years old or older) just say the word and it's covered, no questions asked, and no tales told.  That's one of the reasons we just finished selling all those cookies!

Aleks Skibicki

Girl Scouts: A Couple Event Modifications

Hiya,

Just a quick update on the schedule.  I've talked to the people at the Domes, and the maintenance they were working on with a the Tropical Dome is done, and their future programming is back on track, so we'll put the Green Living Festival back on the menu in April (April 26th).  

Also, the fishing group (Walleyes Unlimited) is holding their open-water fishing clinic at Scout Lake Park on April 12th so I put that on the schedule too. The girls seemed to enjoy ice fishing, so I think they may like to try regular fishing too.  The equipment will be provided and the event is free.

Finally, we have a choice to make:  Maple Syrup Days at Wehr Nature center are Saturday and Sunday March 29th and 30th.  So we need to pick a day to go for that.  Are there preferences for Saturday vs. Sunday?   Between 12:00 and 1:00 would most likely be our timeslot.  If you'd like to attend, let me know which day is better and I'l try to schedule around when fits more people's schedules.

Aleks

Girl Scouts: Meeting Notes March 6th

Hi everyone!

That was a lot of fun today.  The girls had a chance to learn some science, some geography, and something about serving other people.  

We talked about the importance of education, and how some children in other countries don't have it as easy as we do to go to school.  The girls were impressed by the story of a man who traveled to Pakistan and helped remote mountain villages build schools.  

They also heard some first-hand stories from Peace Corps workers in Africa and the trouble they had to get fresh water.  They heard from people who got their water from collection buckets on their roofs, and people who had to wait by their houses to watch and see when the water turned on and then had to stay home to collect as much water as they could during the short times it was running.  They even heard from people in areas where there was no running water at all and they had to bring all their household water home each day in buckets from tap holes in the ground.  

Finally, we watched a movie ( http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/videos/sol-soul/ ) about a project American students worked with alongside students in Cape Verde to develop solar stills to get the salt out of the ocean water that surrounds the country.   (Some parts were higher concept so I narrated and explained what was going on.)  They then built their own solar stills using bowls, cups, and saran wrap.  They're pretty simple, so if they come apart, they should be repairable.  They'll work best if you keep them in the sun, and we washed the glass clean water cups in the dishwasher before bringing them in so they're clean.  The girls had all sorts of ideas of what water they'd like to purify, and it might be neat for them to experiment a bit.  Some ideas I heard were using dirty snow, or putting salt water (just add table salt) in the big bowl to simulate the ocean water the people in Cape Verde were using.  

A couple quick things about the solar stills though:  1)  They're energy efficient, but they're not fast.  So, if you set one in a sunbeam in the morning, there might not be much actually distilled by the time everyone gets back in the evening.  2)  They're fantastic (unbeatable!) at getting pollutants that are dissolved or particulate in nature out of the water, and removing disease-carrying microorganisms--basically everything that doesn't evaporate. BUT , hydrocarbons or other low molecular weight liquid pollutants will distill alongside the water.  So if the girls are getting snow to distill, don't take it from along a roadside where exhaust/oils/road runoff might be in the snow.   And even in that case, it may be best to do an observation of the water in the cup compared to the dirt left behind in the bowl, rather than drinking the distilled water.  If you use home water with salt in it to simulate distilling ocean water, then by all means, a taste-test might be the best way to prove that the distilled water has the salt out of it.

I have some cooking badges leftover too, so I must have missed someone.  If your scout wasn't at either the Feb. 27th meeting or the Mar. 6th meeting, let me know, or if your scout didn't get her cooking badge at either of those meetings (you may have left before I got your badge to you!) let me know and I'll get that over to you.

Aleks Skibicki

Girl Scouts: Any last minute additions to the list for tomorrow?

Hi again!

Here's who I'm expecting tomorrow:

Kendra 

Adriana 

Isabel 

Emma 

Tiki  

Emmi 

Hannah 

Ellen 

Abby 

Samantha  

Gretta 

Teagan 

Katie 

Kennedy 

Evie

Lia

Alyssa

Lilly P.

Kiah

Kahlen

Which is 20 girls.  We're going to have a pretty neat meeting.  We'll be learning about girls and schools in other countries and the challenges they face.  We'll learn how students in the United States worked with students in Africa to design solar stills to use to get fresh water.  We'll also make our own solar water stills so we can see how they work, and distill our very own water at home, using just energy from the sun.

Because I need to know how much equipment to bring for the girls to build their water purifiers, please let me know if your scout is coming tomorrow but not yet on the list above.

Thanks a million!

Aleks

Girl Scouts: March meeting SignUp

Hello everyone!

1)  Just a quick word to keep an eye out for some items coming home, and to be ready for our March meeting.

I'll be sending home another round of baggies with badges in them including the cooking badge if your scout didn't pick it up after the last meeting, and those parade patches, now that I think I've heard from everyone who marched last summer.

And for Highland View parents, keep an eye open for the permission slip for the March meeting.  I'll drop them off with teachers on Monday.

And for everyone--if you can sign up for which meeting your scout will attend at the link below, it makes it a lot easier for me to plan.

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0A4FA5AD22A13-march1

2)  As far as I can tell the Irish Family Day at the domes that was on the schedule for the 9th is canceled, like the Chinese New Year and Polish events were earlier this year, so we'll be skipping that one.  Maple Sugar Days though on the 29th/30th is still on though!  

Happy Scouting!

Aleks