TURKEYS AND HAPPY SOCKS

Our meeting started off with the Pledge of Allegiance. I thought it was cute how Trinity found a way to hold the flag while having her hand over her heart at the same time.

We are working on the girls standing at attention and showing respect for the flag as they say the pledge. No more letting them getting by with talking, having one leg up on a chair or goofing off.

They are learning that now they are older and are Juniors they must act more respectful and have good manners.

The Girl Scout Promis and Law was said and then it was time for our fun to begin.

The girls voted on doing a craft item first.

I have made it a point to have everything we do tie into earning a patch, award, badge or community service.

I knew I wanted the girls to make something for Thanksgiving but thought I was not going to be able to tie it into anything.

After thinking about it, I knew I would find something they could use it for. I was right!

The patch Art in the Home is where it fits in. One of the items required is to make a Holiday Decor item.

It says "Make a decoration, such as a harvest wreath, a dried flower arrangement, a flag or a table centerpiece to add a festive look to your home during a holiday."



To me, this darling Turkey fits in this category just fine! Don't you agree?



The girls really enjoyed making this Turkey. It was a challenge but they all did great.

Even though it was a kit, there was room for the girls to change things up a bit and make it their own.

They were all different looking but all came out very cute.

Everyone got to take home a 2nd kit to make another Turkey too.



After they finished making their turkeys, it was time to move on to making the Happy Socks.



Everyone brought in old socks and they were piled into the center of the table.

The girls were shown how to roll the socks down to make stuffing them easier. They then added a handful of fiber fill to the sock.

Then they got a scoop of Cat Nip added to the sock.



After that, it was another handful of fiber fill.

A knot was then tied to hold it all inside. That was it! They were done.



They just made a Happy Sock. These are for cats. The cats love to play and snuggle up to these socks. It makes them happy. Thus the name, Happy Socks.



Everyone pitched in and we made a big pile of Happy Socks. Little cat toys and some bigger ones the girls liked to say were cat pillows.



While we were making them, we talked about the cats and how excited they would be to get these toys.

I will be calling the Cat Rescue place to see when we can bring them in. When we can, I will pick up the girls after school and we can go deliver them.

I think Jesse is showing us how the cats are going to act when they get their very own Happy Sock! Either that, or the cat nip has gotten to her.



It's always nice to see the girls getting excited about doing communtiy service work. Helping out others is always a great thing for girls to learn.

All the girls told me they had a fun night and really enjoyed both projects.

They will be getting a patch for doing the Happy Sock project. Happy Socks is a Nationwide company that has their own patch and can only be earned by making these toys for the cats.

Our next outing will be this coming Sat. We are going to the Wild Animal Park to work on getting our Wildlife patch.

I think this is going to be a fun patch to earn and I'm sure the girls will enjoy learing even more about animals.

HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP BADGE

Our meeting started out with Trinity leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance and The Girl Scout Law and Girl Scout Promise.

Everyone showed their completed papers they took home last meeting. I was so proud they all did the assignment needed to complete our first badge.

Each girl got the BEING MY BEST Badge.

We talked about some up coming events taking place and voted on going to Camp Sherman and maybe to the Pacific Aquarium. Both will take place in Oct so we may end up only going to one.

The girls voted on what they wanted to do to celebrate the girls birthdays. It was decided to have a cake or cupcakes and all the other girls will bring a small gift to the birthday girl.

However, the money spent on the gift has to be earned by the girls and can't just be handed over by their parents. This will teach the girls to work for their money and they will take pride in being able to earn the money to purchase the gift.


We then started to work on earning the patch HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS.

We played the friendship game. Each girl took turns drawing a question then having to answer it. It helped to show them that even though they may not realize it, there are certain things that attracts you to someone you want to be friends with.

There are qualities and characteristics in people that they look for when picking friends. They also saw how being a good friend themselves is a great way to make other friends.



We also made a list of 6 different things to do with friends that are either free or inexpensive. Before our next meeting, the girls will put one of their ideas into practice and do one of their ideas with a friend and write down what it was.

We learned that there are signs to show how someone is feeling. They learned how to read nonverbal communications.

Each girl drew an emotion that was typed out on a piece of paper. They then had to act it out without using any words. The other girls had to guess what the emotion was.

Some were easy to guess. Some were a bit harder. Can you tell what emotion Trinity is showing in the picture above?

The girls then wrote down three ways to improve communication in their families. Before our next meeting they will try one of the ways out and report back to us how it went.

They also did role playing with different situations so they could develop positive responses if things should ever happen. They did things such as having a friend talking in class and passing notes but then they are the one who gets caught and has to go to the principle.

Then it was turned around and they were the ones who got their friend in trouble. What would they do?

I was proud that all of them would have stood up and admitted it was their fault and not the friend. They learned to accept responsiblity for their actions and when wrong to deal with the consequence.

We missed having Jesse with us. She was with her daddy hunting. We all said we hoped she was having a nice time and look forward to seeing her this coming Friday when we get together to work on our swimming badge.

Then as a way to show those we are already in a relationship with how much we care for them and what they do, we made cards.

It could be a card for any reason such as a get well card, thank you card or just for no reason other then to say hi. It could be for a family member, a friend, a neighbor or anyone they knew.

Each girl quickly thought of someone they wanted to make their card for.

They all agreed they love getting a homemade card and/or mail. The best ones are the ones you are not expecting. They brighten your day and make you happy.

I loved seeing each card and hearing the reason the girls made them.

Nikki made her card for her neighbor who babysits her. She said she wasn't being very nice to her earlier in the day and felt bad so she wanted her to know how much she really means to her.

How sweet! I bet the babysitter will be thrilled to get this card.

Haili made her mom a card because she is so good to her and is her best friend.

Aww, that would melt any mom's heart. I think mom will keep that card forever.

Trinity made her grandpa a card to thank him for working so hard and working on extra days just so she and her grandma could have extra money to go do fun things.

Isn't that darling! I'm sure grandpa will be so happy to get that card.

As long as the girls do their projects at home they will have earned another badge.

The girls love getting badges and we seem to be able to earn them pretty fast. Of course we won't be getting a badge every meeting but we we will keep on working towards them.

We then cleaned up, packed things away and said good bye.

We will be getting together at my house this Friday. The girls will all be doing the things needed to work on their SWIMMING badge.

AUGUST 17, 2010 MEETING

We started our meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance. Nikki was was given the honor of holding the flag tonight as a way for us to show our appreciation for being able to hold our meetings at her house.

Thank you so much Sara and Nikki. It is so nice of you to provide the location for the meetings. We promise to keep your home safe and as clean as when we get there.

It was nice to hear the girls and adults say the pledge loudly and without hesitation.

After that, the girls all said the Girl Scout Promise and Law. They were given a copy of both so they could study them and try to memorize them for the next meeting.

The adults were given permission slips to sign for our outing at the Angel Game on August 28th and were told that custom T-Shirts would be made for the girls to wear and they should also have their sash on that day. Tickets were handed out and everyone was told that we will be meeting at Gate 6 at 4:00 pm.

Also, Maureen White was kind enough to purchase the Troop a lovely banner for the girls to carry during the parade and can be used for all outings when on is needed.

Thank you Maureen! I can't wait to see it! I'm sure it will be great.

The girls learned how to deal with Peer Pressure through role playing. Also, how to change negative thoughts and actions to positive ones and how to act more like their role models.

The girls then wrote positive statements about each other on index cards and gave them to each other.

They were to keep the cards in a special place at home so when they are feeling down or sad they could pull out a card, read it and be reminded of what a wonderful person they are and how others see good things in them.

It was then time to make the journals. Each were given a composition book to cover with different colors of scrapbook paper, stickers, gem stones and each girl got their own package of 3D letters that were their initials.

The girls are so creative and artistic. Each one came up with their own idea on what they wanted their journal to look like.

They were told to use the journals to write down what ever they wanted to in them. Thoughts, dreams. What is bothering them. What they had fun doing that day. It is their journal to use as they like.

They all seemed to really enjoy making them.

This is Jesse's. How cute!

Trinity is showing you her masterpiece. How darling.

Haili's journal is very colorful. It's wonderful!

Nikki picked a nice blue background for her journal. How pretty!

All the girls did a great job. I am very proud of them.

The girls were given a print out so they could write down something they are good at, each day for a week.
Once they turn those in at the next meeting, they will earn their first patch as a Girl Scout Junior! How exciting.

I was also excited to see how many bottles and cans everyone brought to recycle. Way to go girls!

Thanks go out to Trinity's Grandpa, Jeff, for helping the girls by going to cash them in for money for the Troop.

Our next meeting is August 31, 2010.