Wednesday, August 12, 2009

First Session

WHEW! The first session of Join the Journey is over, and I am exhausted and happy.

We had the following girls show up:

1 GS Daisy (actually, she registered tonight so she could take part)
4 GS Brownies
3 Sorta GS Juniors (they Fly Up over the summer)
1 GS Junior

Plus, we know that there is another GS Daisy, Brownie, and Sorta Junior joining in next week. Two group leaders couldn't be there this week due to prior obligations, so we did the whole meeting together. In chronological order, here's what we did in our first Journey session:

1. Greet parents and girls. We meet in a park, so the girls got to play on the playground for a few minutes while parents received their welcome letters and permission slip & health form to complete before they left.

2. Gather girls. I asked who thought they knew why we were gathered, and one girl gave a good general answer that I could then tell everyone was a "Journey" in Girl Scout words. We figured out who was in each GS level and then I gave them one copy of the Journey book from their level to go explore as small groups for a few minutes. The Daisy had a few cute questions for me - she wore her tunic and wanted to know how to earn badges to put on it. I heard the Juniors discussing the word search, graphic novel, and Dez I Ner Spider. I also heard the Brownies noticing the Elf, some of the graphics, and "vlalues" as my own Brownie tried to explain. The Daisy asked as we transitioned, "Where are we going on a journey to?" Perfect? Absolutely!

3. Welcome circle. For this activity, the co-organizer and I gathered the girls again and formed a circle - then we had them rearrange so there was no girl from their own troop next to them. I had a ball of yarn that we tossed around for two rounds. The first round's task was to say, "hi," and introduce themselves. They had to keep a hold of part of the string when they tossed the ball of yarn. The second round was to tell the group one of your favorites... favorite dinner, favorite animal, favorite color, whatever - and they had to toss the ball to someone different. After two rounds, we looked at the yarn in the middle of the circle and described it. The answers were precious... a spider web, a bunch of stars, and a crazy flower. I had them hold up their hands in turns if their Journey had a spider or web... stars... and flowers... I couldn't have asked for a better connection moment! Then I explained the cool part of spider web creation where the web is built from the inside to the outside... just like the Journeys they were starting where we'd explore from inside themselves out and into the community. We set the web-star-flower down where we were as a visual reminder throughout the evening.

4. Values scavenger hunt/Values spiders. This part was done as Daisy/Brownies and Juniors. While we had been working on our web-star-flower, two parents who had stayed cut apart some values words I had printed out and spread them throughout the park. Before we split up, we figured out what "values" were. The Daisy/Brownies were sent on a scavenger hunt to find the 33 values words around the park. The Juniors started on some spiders made out of wooden beads. Tonight they wrote values words on at about 20 wooden beads with permanent markers (I emphasized that spelling was important, but not to stumble over it) - next week we'll add the head beads and chenaille-stem (pipe-cleaner) legs. They had to make sure that they were talking with each other to come up with some words and to make sure we didn't end up with duplicates. They worked steadily. At one point I heard the Daisy/Brownies come back to the pavilion and count up the 29 they had... then they ran off to find the other 4 (oh, they were in a buddy and a truddy [3-person buddy] and had been told it wasn't a race or a competition, they were 2 parts of one team). The two moms helped give a little directional guidance to the girls. One was hung on the lowest tree branch that was just out of the girls' reach. The mom's point was to see how they would solve the problem - she expected, "MOM! Can you get this?" but hoped for different - she witnessed the buddy of girls find it, each take a turn jumping to get it, and then the stoutest (my own little butterball) got down on her hands and knees and made sure she was under the paper . Then her extremely light-weight buddy climbed up on her back, and stood up to grab the paper - the mom/leader was watching to make sure there were no injuries - the other 3 stood nearby, cheering them on. The team work and creative problem solving made for a VERY proud moment for all of us moms. For the record, they found 32 of 33 words.

We gathered back together as a big group and went through some of the words they had found and written. The girls tried to define the words (often by using similar concepts), and when they couldn't, they gave examples or non-examples, showing they knew the concepts. Funny moment: when one Sorta Junior (the SU Manager's daughter; apparently she likes to ask for reasons a lot) defined "obedience" as "when you're told to do something, you do it without saying, 'I don't want to.'" Her leader said, "I'm telling your mom that you KNOW what that word means!"... and we did.

5. Ethical dilemmas. For our last active part, the girls voted that the moms had to take part. We took our web and made it into one thick line on the ground. All the girls and moms stood on the line. I stood slightly in front and off to the side where they could all see and hear me. I read them some short, adapted ethical dilemma scenarios that all ended with, "If you would [action A], take a step forward; if you would [action B, opposite of A], take a step backward." I made it clear that there were no "right or wrong answers," that they needed to step honestly, and they HAD to step (they couldn't stay where they were). We started with: "When you grow up you have to pay taxes, especially when you work. That tax money helps the government run, builds roads and schools, and helps poorer people. Imagine that you are the richest ladies in the world." At which point, a darling little one pops out of the line and shouts, "Hey, I'm a boy!" - it was a boy who had been playing in the park and decided to join our activity - so I adjusted to "Okay, I'm sorry! Imagine that you are the richest ladies and YOUNG MAN in the world. If you think that you should pay more taxes to help poorer people, take a step forward. If you don't think that you should have to pay more just because you have more money, take a step backward." I'm pretty sure everyone stepped forward (one adult hesitated I think). The other dilemmas were:

  • You're walking down the street and find President Obama's wallet. It has $1000.00 in cash in it. If you take it directly to the nearest police station without taking anything out, step forward. If you take it to the police station but take out a little bit because he probably won't notice, step backward. All but one girl moved forward
  • You're on a jury for a trial where someone stole something - the person was a thief. She stole a loaf of bread to feed her family. If you punish her because she stole, step forward. If you don't punish her because she was trying to feed her family, step backward. One mom and daughter took a step forward, all others stepped back.
  • Imagine you're a teenager (adults, remember your teens). It's nearly 11:00 p.m., and that's your curfew - your mom had told you to make sure you were not late, not even by a second. But you've been playing the most awesome video game at your friend's house, and you just noticed that it's a few minutes before 11:00 p.m., and you know there is no way you'll make it home in time. If you call your mom, apologize, and leave immediately, step forward. If you try to sneak in so your mom doesn't catch you, step back. All went forward except one parent who then stated that even a phone call wouldn't have woken her mother if she was asleep.
  • Your fairy godmother has made you an offer. She make it so you'll live forever! However, in order to do that, you need to choose a type of animal and wipe it off the face of the Earth - make it extinct. If you take up your fairy godmother on her offer and choose an animal, step backward. If you decide to live a long life and keep the animals on the planet, step forward. They split about in half, and two of the parents took about 4 steps backward with (joking?) comments about rodents and flying rodents of which they are extremely afraid.
Then they turned around and looked at the point where they'd all started and where they'd come... mostly with some forward and backward movements. We expressed how it's sometimes hard to stick to your values or to figure out how you feel about something, but that it's important to figure out what is high on your values list.

6. Optional (but encouraged) family activities. We went back to the pavilion where I handed out some papers (My Family Star for the Brownies, Power of One and Tell "Her"Story for the Juniors, and All About Me and Me and My Family for the Daisy). I emphasized that it was not homework, but if they bring it back to the next session they attend, they'll have finished the first award on their Journeys (for the record, with the activities between both 1st and 2nd sessions, they'll have definitely earned it).

7. Closing circle. Rather than singing "Taps" and doing the friendship squeeze, we spelled our way out of the meeting. We went around the circle (starting with the Daisy) and spelled "journey" letter by letter. The girl who had "y," said, "Good night, Girl Scouts," and went to clean up and then play on the playground as their parents allowed. The next girl in the circle started the word over again with "j." I was out on the third round, and by the last one out, everything was cleaned up.


Like I said, WHEW! But I'm encouraged and excited about next week. We'll give the girls their individual books next week (parents handed in the money tonight, hence worksheets for the family activities). They are all excited to get their own book that they can write in and draw in. I can definitely tell the two group leaders that I think they'll have fun with their groups... and since it's a small group overall, I think my co-organizer and I will really be able to stand back, observe, take pictures, and troubleshoot as needed.

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