Girl Scouts: Thanks! SO many of you have tables!

Hi,

Thanks so much to everyone who offered tables for this weekend.  While I may take you up on the offer down the road, we only needed one more for Sunday, so we're all set. 

Thanks again, you are the BEST!

Aleks

Girl Scouts: Does anyone have a folding table?

Hi!

In the past, we've only needed 2 folding tables for cookie booths, which is great, because that's how many I have! But, as the troop grew, our cookie booths grew too.  This weekend, for a shift where we have 2 booths, one of which is a double, we actually need a third table!  

Does anyone have a folding table we can use on Sunday? (Pick up on Saturday, return Sunday night or Monday?)

Thanks!

Aleks

Girl Scouts: Reminder! No LIGHTHOUSE EVENT TOMORROW

Hi everyone,

Just one last reminder that due to flooding, the Lighthouse event for Brownies that was originally scheduled for tomorrow is cancelled.  

I'll let everyone know when we can reschedule!

Aleks

Girl Scouts: World Thinking Day questions

Hi,

World Thinking Day is an international Girl Scout event where girls in troops all across the globe take time to consider their connections to the girls in the rest of the world.

The last couple years High School and Middle School troops in the Whitnall School District organize an event for the girls in the area to participate in World Thinking Day and earn their WTD patch.  (One of the "special" badges that get to go on the front of the sash/vest....ooooh!)

I had mentioned it before, and suggested a 2/27 date, but only one family responded, so that slid off the schedule.  The alternate date is 3/20, 6-8PM.  Who could go then?  (I know some of you are signed up for the alternate Discovery World Sleepover, so understand that you won't be able to go.)

Here's this year's description:

"Travel around Africa learning about poverty. Play a game of soccer, learn how families get water in Kenya, make an instrument you might find in Togo and participate in making blankets that will be donated to the poor in Milwaukee.

There will also be a toothbrush and toothpaste drive where all items collected will donated in the Milwaukee area.

Girls should be dressed appropriately for games and crafts.  Fee includes 2015 Thinking Day Patch, craft and materials for the donation blankets."

Thanks so much--please let me know ASAP!

Aleks

Girl Scouts: That was fast! Thanks to everyone who emailed so quickly

Hello again,

(That's what 3 in 15 minutes?  That may even be a record for me!)

That open spot did get filled up right away, however we will be doing the event again in March (also 20-21) and we have a couple of weeks to register for that yet if you have a scout that's still interested.

Thanks again to everyone that was willing to fill that spot on such short notice.  If I get any more sick calls in the next few hours, I will be in touch with you directly.

(Seriously, thanks again--I hate when spots go to waste!)

Aleks Skibicki

Girl Scouts: Last minute opening for Discovery World Sleepover

Hi everyone,

We just had a girl cancel on the Discovery World Sleepover this Friday-Saturday.  I hate, hate, hate to have a paid-for spot go to waste.  It's the worst to have paid for an empty chair!

Is there a girl that's available to go?  We're meeting at our house at 6:00 tomorrow evening (Friday) and should be back before 8:00 the next morning.  Here's the schedule we got from Discovery World:

Activities:

The schedule for the event looks like this (at the moment)  Discovery World may change things up a little bit, but not too much:

7:00-7:15pm     Drop Off Supplies, Orientation 

7:15-10:00      Explore!

· The technology building and Aquatarium will be open, along with the Kohl's Design It! lab 

· Girls will have two 30 minute labs during this time

10:00-10:30     Snack on the Promenade

10:45-12:30     Movie Time in our Theaters

12:30    Head to Bed

6:00am     Breakfast along the Promenade

6:45     Pack up to head home

7:00am     Sleepover Ends

Thanks!

Aleks

Girl Scouts: 2 Important Updates!

Hello Girl Scout Families!

Just 2 quick bits:

1)  For the scouts going on the Discovery World overnight event this Friday to Saturday, we'll meet up at our house on Friday at 6:00, and then divide up into cars to get out to DW in time to check in between 6:30-7:00.  (If you're going, I'll send an email out shortly with specific packing and event information.  If you thought you were going but don't get that email from me, check in with me ASAP!)

2)  Unfortunately, the Lighthouse event on Saturday was canceled.  They had some flooding damage earlier this month, and repairs and maintenance afterwards are taking more than they thought.  When they are able to reopen, they'll let us reschedule and we'll get our senses badge taken care of!

Thanks, and stay warm!

Aleks

Girl Scouts: Thursday Meeting Recap

Hello everyone!

Like yesterday, this is a long one, but worth the read if you have a Thursday scout!  (After this week, the girls are done with their take-action projects and the two meeting days will be back to identical meetings.)

Before anything else though, let me extend the biggest of THANK YOU'S to Mr. Sula for his help today.  Unfortunately because of a perfect storm of late nights at work, family tragedies, and extended hours, parent help was scarce.  But thanks to Mr. Sula we were able to make the meeting work, and keep everything on track.  

Another thank you also goes to Mrs. Patneaude, and Mrs. Skibicki, for coming when they could. And a final thank you goes to the girls themselves who understood that it was super important to be respectful and on-task today.  

Thursday's group of girls had decided that they were going to take action by working on projects to help teach kids to not start smoking.  Earlier they had made posters, and met with girls from the Greendale High School anti-smoking group.  We also decided that when the weather gets warm and drier, we're going to write anti-smoking messages in chalk on the sidewalks around the school.

Today, we learned ways that we can be anti-smoking advocates when people ask us why we shouldn't smoke.  We also made videos of projects we did that demonstrate the health effects of smoking.  IMPORTANT NOTE:  While the subject of our project was anti-smoking, the real lesson for the girls to learn was that they can take action and make a difference on an issue of their choice no matter what age they are.  

The 4 demonstrations we taught the girls were:

1)  Cigarettes constrict your blood vessels.

We demonstrated this by breaking into two teams.  Each girl got a little bottle of water.  But one team got regular width straws (the non-smoking team!) and the other team got small-diameter coffee-stirring straws.  The two teams raced to see who could drink the most water through their straw in 5 seconds.

The girls saw that the bigger straws were able to carry more water, just like bigger veins and arteries can carry more blood (and oxygen) through our bodies.

2)  Cigarette smoking can restrict our airways.

The girls demonstrated restricted airways with another race!

The girls split into two teams, and each team got an air pump with a balloon on it.  One pump was unrestricted, for the non-smoking team.  The other pump for the smoking team, had its air hose clamped partially shut.  Then every girl on each team got 5 seconds to inflate their balloon using the pump.  The girls were able to see that a restricted airway made a big difference in how much air their lungs could get to breathe.  The non-smoking team filled, 2, 3, or even more balloons when the restricted-breathing, smoking group wasn't even able to fill one!

3)  Tar from cigarettes can prevent oxygen from making it to our muscles.

The girls demonstrated this with yet another race!

The girls split into groups of three girls.  One girl held the oxygen (represented by a measuring cup of water).  One girl held the lungs (represented by a funnel with a coffee filter in it).  The third girl represented the muscles, by holding a beaker to collect the "oxygen."

But then some of the groups got their lungs all "tarry" by pouring caramel syrup into their coffee filters.

The groups poured their "oxygen" through their "lungs" and raced to see whose "muscles" got all the oxygen first.

They saw that the tar-covered lungs let the oxygen through much more slowly than the clean lungs did.

We talked about how important oxygen is to our bodies, and why it is important for oxygen to be able to get from our lungs to our muscles.

4)  Cigarettes can lower lung capacity.

The girls all measured their lung capacity by displacing water from an inverted 2 liter bottle.  The girls had a great time seeing who had the biggest lung capacity.  They talked about how being able to breathe more oxygen meant you could run farther and faster, and play more without having to stop to take "breathing breaks."  (Special nods to Alexis, Sophia, Lara, and Katie who had the highest lung capacities of the group!)

I have some raw footage of the girls doing the demonstrations, but it might take a while to edit into useable tape.  When that's ready though, I'll send it over your way.  The girls were excited about sharing their stories of the demonstrations to other people and being able to explain some of the ways cigarettes are unhealthy.

After learning the demonstrations, we took some time thinking about ourselves as characters in stories, and made ourselves official Personal Crests, just like fantasy heroes!  The girls all picked three personal characteristics and drew symbols to represent them on a coat-of-arms.  We took turns guessing what traits the girls symbols represented.  I was so proud that so many of our girls see themselves as brave, strong, and smart!  

Finally, we all took a moment and reflected on how we've learned and grown during this storytelling journey and got our journey patches.  As on Wednesday there were some great reflections from the girls, and saved some to share with you:

"I learned about not to smoke because it is bad for you and your lungs.  And I also learned how to spot a problem, and then to take action and fix it."

"I learned you should always be nice, kind, and loving, and believe in yourself."

"I learned about taking hold of my dream and going into the spotlight.  I learned about being myself, and being who I want to be.  Everyone can be a character in their own story."

"I learned to make the world a better place, and to make things better.  I learned to keep your lungs healthy by not smoking.  To be strong and if we see a problem that I am strong enough and smart enough to try to fix it."

In summary, for the Thursday group, here's how our Agent of Change/Girl Scout Story journey went:

We started by listening to stories from other cultures and learning how different cultures and people through time and around the globe have used stories to teach lessons and pass along knowledge. 

We moved on to thinking about ourselves as characters in the story of our lives, and thinking about how we face challenges and situations in the world, in our community in our schools, and in our homes just like storybook characters do.

From there we spent time choosing a problem that as a group we could take action on and make a difference with.  We chose to work on helping students at our schools not start smoking.  We invited students from anti-smoking groups at Greendale High School to help us come up with ideas to take action.  With the help of the GHS students, we decided to make posters, write things in chalk around the school sidewalks, and do a play or sketch or demonstration for the kids at our schools to teach about the dangers of smoking.  We then made posters to get a quick start on taking action!

Finally, today, we made our demonstration videos and learned how to put on anti-smoking demonstrations that illustrate the effects of smoking on our bodies.

That was also one great journey!

Aleks Skibicki

Girl Scouts: Ice Fishing

Hi again,

I kind of buried this at the end of an email yesterday.  Here's the ice Fishing Plan for Saturday:

Ice Fishing:  It looks like meeting up at Noon would work for the biggest number of people.  Unfortunately that leaves me out though!  (Evie has a swim meet that afternoon.)  So, Kathleen will be in the lodge on the bank of Lake Scout Lake at noon.  Meet up right in there.  There's an educational bit indoors first, then everyone heads out to pick a hole and watch a pole.    Please try to be a little early if you can.  The Walleyes unlimited people like to start their program right on the hour.  As long as everyone who goes lets me know they were there I'll pick up patches and get them to you the next week.  ***NOTE:  There's a forecast for -10 to -20 wind chill adjusted temperatures Saturday.  I'll keep my eyes on the Walleyes Unlimited site and give them a call in the morning if it is that cold to see if the event is cancelled.***

Girl Scouts: Wednesday Meeting recap

Hello!

For the Wednesday meeting scout families, this is a long one, but worth the read--I promise!

What a great meeting time today.  Our Wednesday crew wrapped up their Girl Scout Story journey that we've been working on for a few months now.

We started today with a little fun, and continued our "be our own heroes" theme by playing character charades.  Some of our girls are really good at charades!  And a lot of our girls need to watch Mulan!  After our friends from other schools got here, we continued the fun by designing our perfect cookie flavors.  Each girl picked ingredients she thought would make good cookie flavors from an assortment of choices (raisins, dried cranberries, blueberries, chocolate chips, jellybeans, caramel chips, butterscotch, marshmallows, coconut, mint chips, etc.)  After making a first "draft" they got to try again and refine their recipe until it was just right.  Honestly, some of the girls came up with some amazing recipes!

After that we got back to our action project--helping kids make healthy choices at lunch.  I let the girls know that they got permission for their idea to put up posters in the lunchroom/gym encouraging kids to "Try it, you might like it!" So we all made posters with that message.  Expect to see them up in the lunchroom soon!

Next, since the sample day coming up in March will be kale chips, we gave the girls a chance to be a leader and try them first.  Every girl got a chance to try some kale chips made just the way the school will.  Almost all the girls liked them!  Some girls took 4-5 helpings!  The girls promised to do their best to be leaders and encourage everyone to try the kale chips when they're offered as samples next month.

Finally, we took a moment and reflected on what we learned and how we grew over the course of this girl scout journey.  I thought I'd share some of the girls' messages with you. 

"I learned that it doesn't matter how old I am.  I can change, and I can help people make right choices."

"This journey helped me to be a leader and stand out.  It doesn't matter if you are a girl or a boy.  Girls can do anything boys can do."

"I learned to know how to be good at storytelling and to learn about people.  I learned I could be part of stories and help people like a story hero."

"I learned about what I can do in the world and that I can make a difference even though I am 10.  I can create something that can help a problem in the world, in the city, or in the school.  I can make a difference."

"What I learned on my Girl Scout journey, I learned to work together when you're making something, like a play.  I also learned that you have to use your imagination to make a good story and you have to not doubt yourself and you have to be creative."

In summary, here's the path our journey took:

We started by listening to stories from other cultures and learning how different cultures and people through time and around the globe have used stories to teach lessons and pass along knowledge. 

We moved on to thinking about ourselves as characters in the story of our lives, and thinking about how we face challenges and situations in the world, in our community in our schools, and in our homes just like storybook characters do.

From there we spent time choosing a problem that as a group we could take action on and make a difference with.  We chose to work on helping students at our school make healthy eating choices.  We invited the Greendale Scho District food services director and consultant in to talk with us about how the lunch menus are created and what thoughts have to go into the food on our plates.  We learned that we have to consider cost, the season, and even the colors of the food that's served!  Then our Wednesday group put together a menu that the school district is actually going to use on March 5th!  We figured that if other kids know the menu was created by kids just like them, they'll be more likely to try it.

Finally, today, we got permission and made the posters that will be displayed in the lunch room, and reflected on everything we had learned along the way.

It was quite a journey!

Aleks

Girl Scouts: Need an extra parent (at least) for Thursday

Hi everyone,

Those of you signed up for having your scout come to the Thursday meeting may have noticed that it's a big one.

I can't do it alone.

We'll be wrapping up our anti-smoking action journey, and teaching the girls some demonstrations they can use to teach others how bad smoking is for your body and lungs.  (When it's warmed up we'll do a bonus return to the journey with some chalking on the sidewalks like the High School kids do, but tomorrow is the official wrap up of the journey.)

It's not hard work, and is a lot of fun.  Here's where you can sign up.

Aleks

Girl Scouts: Thank you so much! Don't forget:

Hello everyone,

First:  Sorry to fill your inboxes tonight, but I wanted to thank so many of you for participating in the cookie sale!  Wow!  You are awesome!

Second:  I missing around 10 names on the meeting sign up for this week (Tomorrow! and Thursday).  I don't want to be short-handed for snacks or materials, so please sign up to tell me when to expect your scout.  

Third:  Registration is closed for the February Spa Chemistry Sleepover Event at Discovery World.  BUT there was enough interest that we'll have a group going in March (20-21st) too, in case your scout was interested but isn't going in February.

For verification, here's who I have registered for the Feb 20-21st one:

Aria

Sophia + Chaperone

Maya + Chaperone

Caiya

Gabby

Evie + Chaperone

Megha

Liliana

Alexis 

Fourth:  Ice Fishing.  It looks like meeting up at Noon would work for the biggest number of people.  Unfortunately that leaves me out though!  (Evie has a swim meet that afternoon.)  So, Kathleen will be in the lodge on the bank of Lake Scout Lake at noon.  Meet up right in there.  There's an educational bit indoors first, then everyone heads out to pick a hole and watch a pole.    Please try to be a little early if you can.  The Walleyes unlimited people like to start their program right on the hour.  As long as everyone who goes lets me know they were there I'll pick up patches and get them to you the next week.  ***NOTE:  There's a forecast for -10 to -20 wind chill adjusted temperatures Saturday.  I'll keep my eyes on the Walleyes Unlimited site and give them a call in the morning if it is that cold to see if the event is cancelled.***

 

Thanks again, you all rock!

Aleks

Girl Scouts: Ice Fishing This Weekend

Hello everyone!

Since we can't have an uneventful week, in addition to our meeting this week, our traditional ice fishing Saturday is this Saturday 2/14 too.

We have to do nothing but show up, Walleyes Unlimited brings all the equipment, drills the holes, etc.  

Here's the website:  http://www.walleyesunlimitedusa.org/kids_ice_fishing_clinic.html

Now for the details:  All we have to do is pick an on-the-hour time to meet up, between 9:00AM and 2:00PM and arrive there.  Since it's ice fishing, and winter, I have a feeling that later times are probably the best.  

So, #1)  Who plans on doing some ice fishing on Saturday?

ans #2)  Of the folks interested, are there any times we COULDN'T meet up?

 

Thanks!  See you at the meeting!  (If you haven't picked a time yet, do so here!)

Aleks

Girl Scouts: Pick your February Meeting!

Hello!

February's meetings snuck up on me, but they're coming next week Wednesday and Thursday!  

Sign up here to let me know at which meeting to expect your scout:

www.SignUpGenius.com/go/10C0A4FA5AD22A13-february3 

Aleks

Girl Scouts: Anyone else for the Spa Chemistry Sleepover at Discovery World?

Hello again,

I hope cookie sales are rocking!  

I was registering folks for the Discovery World Spa Chemistry Sleepover event 2/20-2/21.  There are still a bunch of spots left for the event at Discovery World, and it sounds pretty awesome:

"Discover the science and art of perfumes, soaps and lotions. Concoct unique spa recipes and take home your own signature fragrance. Explore Discovery World's interactive exhibits late into the night! Includes snack and breakfast."

If anyone else is interested, let me know.  We should have a great group going.  Here's who I have already:

Aria

Sophia/Liz

Maya/Jeanine

Caya

Gabb

Evie/me

Megha

Liliana

Have a great night!

Aleks