Girl Scouts: Don't forget for the meeting tomorrow!

Hi!

Don't forget to bring a day's worth of garbage to the meeting tomorrow (if you can!)  If you can't, that's alright, the girls can share if they have to.  Or, if you can bring it by a little later, that's OK too, we probably won't do the garbage sorting until 4:30 or so.

Aleks

Girl Scouts: Patch opportunity May 6th

Hi,

One of the projects the grade school PTO's have been working on has been to move election voting out of schools.  One of the fruits of that project is that this next Tuesday, May 6th, almost every elected official in Greendale will be meeting together to talk about the issue, and hear from the community.  The school board, the village board, and village president will all be there, so this is a unique opportunity for the girls to meet their elected officials, and see democracy in action on an issue that even touches their lives.  

The meeting is in the Safety Center (police station) and starts at 6:00.  I've included the agenda, if you're curious about what's going to be discussed.

If girls want to go, I know there are "civics" badges, and I'll make sure to have them for girls that attend.  I don't know if it's important for parents to stay with the girls, but it's probably a good idea--that way the girls can go home when it gets boring! 

Aleks Skibicki

Girl Scouts: Thursday meeting needs

Hi!

1)  Two more girls need rides from Highland View to College Park, and there's only one more spot available that I know of.  Does anyone else from Highland View going to the College Park meeting on Thursday have a seat open in a vehicle?

2)  For the scouts going to the meeting, to follow up on our Reduce-Reuse-Recycle theme, it would be great if you could bring one day's worth of garbage from your home to the meeting.  We'll spend some time sorting it out into piles of reduce-able, re-usable, and re-cyclable, to see how close we could get to becoming "zero-waste."  We'll wear gloves while sorting, but feel free to leave out meat-packaging, or disease-carrying garbage.  Also, please leave out anything sharp that could cut the girls--we haven't done our first-aid badge yet!

Thanks so much!

Aleks Skibicki

Girl Scouts: Rides on Thursday and Lego League!

Hello everyone!

First:  Thanks to all the girls and parents that helped pack up the boxes and boxes and boxes of cookies we're sending to the soldiers.  They will for sure be appreciated!  

Second:  At the moment, it looks like only Evie, Hannah, and Ellen need rides to College Park after school on Thursday to get to the meeting there.  Emma's mom had room for the three of them in her van.  I'll email the families who needed rides her information after this.  If anyone else needs a ride to College Park, or has room in case someone else needs a ride, let me know ASAP and I'll connect you with each other!

Third:  Based on the feedback I received, I registered 2 teams (Rock Star Girls and Super Star Girls) as Lego League Teams this year.  Which means we have room for up to 12 girls to be Lego League-ers and work to engineer a solution to this year's challenge:  "Disaster Blaster."  I've included the "Challenge Information" .pdf as an attachment so you can see if it's something your scout would be interested in.  The teams will work mostly outside of the GS group, as their own teams, and can present their projects to the GS troop as a whole when they finish it up.  If we don't get 12 GS girls, we can open it up to other girls from 6-9 years old.  

See (some of) you Thursday!

Aleks Skibicki

Girl Scouts: Great Meeting, and (more) Updates

Hello everyone!

Great meeting!  Someone learned better time management!  And that someone was me!

We worked on Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle by doing all three of them.

We learned to Reduce our waste by learning to make our own glass cleaner--that works amazingly!  The recipe is:  1 Tbs Vinegar, 1 Tbs Rubbing alchohol, 1/2 Tsp Cornstarch, 1/2 Cup Water.  Shake, and spray.  (The shaking is important; you want to make sure the cornstarch is mixed up every time you use it.)

We learned to Reuse our old stuff, by using old magazines as jewelry and making magazine-paper-bead necklaces.

We learned to Recycle, by recycling old scrap paper into new paper with seeds in it that we can use to plant in a garden or other green space.  

I found some great "Recycling Rocks!" patches at the Girl Scout store, so look for those to come home for your girls' sashes soon.

Just one new announcement:  We have one meeting in June.  Since we have four 3rd graders in our troop who will become Junior Scouts at the end of this year, and get their green sashes, I'd like to use that last meeting as a Bridging party for them.  Can all of our 3rd graders come to the meeting on June 5th?  If they can't, we'll schedule a bridging ceremony and party at a different time.  I just thought this would be a good time for all our girls to congratulate our 3rd graders on moving up to the green.  

And don't worry, they'll have green sashes, and be Junior Girl Scouts, but they're still welcome and a part of our Girl Scout Family.  In fact, Ms. Kelly and I made sure we had an extra Troop Number (we're technically 8035 and 8036) so the girls can stay together if they want to stay together--I know that's been an issue at College Park when one part of a troop moved up a GS rung, and another part didn't.  We may start to give them extra responsibilities as helpers during meetings, and things like that though...with great uniforms come great responsibilities!

Thanks again,

Aleks Skibicki

Girl Scouts: Some repetition (but only because it's important)

Hi,

Just some repetition, because a mistake could really cause confusion!

1)  The meeting tomorrow is at Highland View!  It's our May 1st meeting (next Thursday) that's at College Park.

2)  This Saturday is the Green Living Festival at the Domes.  It looks AWESOME.  Let me know if you're planning to attend.  We'll all meet in the lobby at 12:00, but if you want to go early and meet us back out there at noon, the event itself runs from 9AM-4PM.  Here's a link with the schedule to see what your scout might enjoy.  There's a lot going on, so we can coordinate our trip to make sure the scouts have fun.  I'll make sure to bring patches with me too!

http://county.milwaukee.gov/FloralShowampEventSc10360/GreenLiving.htm

As always, if you want the troop to cover admission, just let me know and it's done!

3)  I'll send a paper sign-up for the May meeting home this Friday, but the SignUp Genius page is up and ready online.  I'm still planning some activities, but Greendale's Waste Management manger will be coming to talk to us about recycling, and what happens to our trash after we throw it away.  (Is it like the end of Toy Story 3?)  Here's the meeting sign up link:  

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

4)  Please let me know if you can come to our Cookie Packing Party this Friday 6-8 in the Art Room at HV.  We have a lot of packing to do, and we'd like to get lots of cards from the girls to pack along with the cookies and blankets we made.  Parents don't have to stay, but if you would be able to, let me know so we can keep you there if we need you.

Thanks, and see some of you tomorrow!

Aleks Skibicki

Girl Scouts: Friday Cookie Packing Party

Hello!

Here's the email I promised about our Cookie Packing Party.

We'll be in the Art Room at Highland View from 6:00-8:00, and we'll be putting together cookie care packages for troops overseas.  We'll be packing up the blankets we made at the nursing home, cookies, and cards that we'll be making at the party too.  We have a lot of cookies to pack, so we could use as much help as we can get.  We could also use 6 parents as supervisors.  (Less if there'll be less attendance.)  

Thanks a million!  We worked so hard to get this many cookies to share; it's amazing to see them ready to go.  It will help let the men and women on the other side of the world know we haven't forgotten about them, nor are we taking them for granted.

Aleks