Third Session - Project Planning

Tonight's session was busy for all of the groups! As the program co-coordinator, I learned tonight that we should have given the group leaders posterboards with project planning on them. I have a knack for project planning and seeing it in my head - I have to remember that not everybody can do that, and not everybody understands that when learning or teaching project planning to girls, things have to be spelled out. For example, I think it would have been beneficial for each group to have a simple chart with the Project Goal at the top, and a chart below with Task, What Is Needed, and Who Is Doing It as column labels. With that blatant set up, I think some of the planning might have been easier for the girls to understand. Without that physical structure, I found that groups were planning one step and trying to act on it right away instead of looking at the big picture first (an example of this is in the GS Junior description below).

Here is how tonight went. I wasn't in every group, but the descriptions are from what I saw and heard and what my GS Brownie and GS Junior reported to me.

1. Welcome and Gathering.

• The families are getting really good at arriving shortly before 6:30 or right at 6:30. Our last girl arrived just as we were forming our Opening Circle. We had every girl in attendance tonight: 3 GS Daisies, 6 GS Brownies, 5 GS Juniors, and 1 GS Cadette.

• The GS Cadette made me smile and laugh in a good way tonight. She was so excited when she arrived that she was dancing and jumping around. She wanted to show me her GS Journey backpack with her GS books and her Journey notebook in it. She had written down the song/game she was going to play with/teach to the girls tonight along with some service project ideas to help them get started in their brainstorming. She was just as excited when the Brownie group leader arrived and was ready to talk with her. The notebook is an important piece for this Cadette. She needs the organization of having a written reminder. It is serving as a communication tool between her and the Brownie group leader - the group leader wrote in the notebook tonight what she would like the Cadette to lead next week. This way the Cadette can work on what she needs to do and how she needs to present it during this week.

• Our Opening Circle was a practice in using the Quiet Sign and reminding the girls that it's an open hand, not the GS sign that is used. After that, the Cadette led the group in the GS Promise. Then we sang "The Button Factory" about Joe who has to press buttons with all parts of their bodies - the favorite song of a few girls in my own troop, and what the girls decided was a good song to sing. This got the girls moving and active, but also got a lot of their wiggles out.

• We have established that an opening ceremony is important, but we don't plan a full ceremony as leaders or organizers - this might sound strange, but it has a purpose. The girls learn best by experiencing (Leadership Essentials: Learn By Doing)... rather than telling them what we're doing at each opening ceremony, we let them decide step by step. It's already been decided that next week, the opening ceremony song is going to be "Alive, Awake, Alert, Enthusiastic."

• After that I revved up the program by telling the Daisies that I heard they have new friends to meet tonight, the Brownies were going to have an awesome time because that's what Brownies do, and the Juniors have some challenges tonight. Everybody was cheering, and when I told them to go to their group leaders, they practically ran to them.

2. GS Daisy Flower Garden.

• Well, the bad news was that the real estate agent for a building in town that has flower boxes that could use some gardening said we can't help him. Apparently the building is a foreclosure and they don't want people working on the property for liability reasons. That's too bad, but the group leader noticed a nearby dentist office that might allow the girls to at least plant flower boxes in front of part of the office building.

• On the good side, the group leader brought worms tonight. She had a tub with dirt in it, and the girls got to put the worms in along with some newspaper they'd ripped up and some tomato skins. They are hoping the worms work on composting the pile.

• I had the chance to talk with the girls about their project. They really hadn't come up with something solid for next week. I said to them that the grass and clover in the park looked like it was hurting in places. Could they figure out why? One of the girls said it was because of the trash. So next week they're going to organize a group to clean up that park (it had been used for the town's summer recreation program). I tried to get them to draw a shopping list for me. They listed garbage bags, gloves, something to clean hands with, and sticks with a "sharp pointy thing" on the end to grab the garbage. One unfortunate step here was that the group leader wrote down the list instead of letting the girls draw/write it themselves. I asked the girls what they thought about getting adults or other people to help them clean up - what it would be like if the three of them were in charge and telling the adults what needed to be done. There was a maniacal laugh from the cutest, quietest 5-/6-year old, followed by "Yessss." They each started making a list of who they could ask to help them... sounding out the words as they went.

• Next week they'll be Taking Action in our community by organizing their group of helpers to clean up the park. They believe that Clover (we actually have some blooming) is hurting, and they need to help the Earth.

• I mentioned to them that maybe if they do the Journey as a troop during the school year, it could be fun to talk to the cafeteria director and the elementary school principal about putting a composting pail in the rear of the school. The girls could take care of it weekly and make sure the worms were okay... including figuring out how to insulate the container during the winter months. The leader looked at me like I had three heads, but I really think that if the girls worked at finding out what it takes, they could really do it. They could suggest to the two adults that it would decrease some of the food waste going to landfills and provide compost for the bushes and flowers on the school grounds. Well... at least I can see it happening, even if it doesn't.

3. GS Brownie Quest.

• The Brownies started off by identifying community helpers like veteranarians, doctors, ambulance workers, police, teachers, and phone line workers (we have an eccentric Brownie!). The girls each made a paper bag puppet of a community helper and then talked with/about their puppets. In the discussion, or just after it, the group leader showed them the concentric circles with themselves in the middle and community helpers eminating out from them - the helpers they are directly connected to, I believe.

• They looked at the pages in the Brownie Quest book where things need to be fixed in the community. Since they had been sitting for awhile, this activity was discussed quickly - each girl announced one thing they saw in the picture that needed fixing.

• The girls then moved over to another area where they could sit on the ground and played "La Quaka Dilly Oh Ma" which the GS Cadette taught to them. They sang other songs or played other games as well I think.

• When they came back to their work area, they brainstormed Take Action Project ideas. My Brownie reported that every girl stated one idea. They then voted on the projects. Apparently the winning project is collecting book donations to give to the local library and shelving kids books at the library for one night. Our librarian has a system where once a book in the kids section is taken off the shelf, the kid puts it into a white basket to be reshelved by the librarian or her assistant. This makes for a lot of books to be reshelved.

• Each Brownie is supposed to come up with some books to be donated. I think these are going into the library's book give-away program. One girl is going to speak with the librarian tomorrow to get permission for this project. I'm not sure what we'll do if the librarian declines the help. We'll probably have to schedule an "emergency" meeting for the Brownies so they can come up with another project.

4. GS Junior Agent of Change.
Well, we have 5 Agents of Change for sure... the challenge for them is that they are 5 strong leaders and 5 weak followers. This made tonight's planning very difficult for them. They ended up needing lots of direction and structure as girls were breaking down in frustration and zoning out because they didn't know their particular role in the conversation.

• They have decided to decorate the Girl Scout room that our village has given us. A few years ago, one troop's Silver Award project was painting, fixing up, and putting curtains and bulletin boards up in the room. It's a beautiful job, but we've had leaders mention that it would be nice to have some variation on the wall, like GS quotes or the key words like "Courage, Confidence, and Character."

• Without looking at the room, going on their knowledge of it (some of the girls have had meetings in it), they decided that they needed paint, stencils, and paintbrushes. They spoke with the SU Manager and the SU Outdoor Program Consultant to find out what they as adults would like to see in the room. The Outdoor Program Consultant mentioned that a craft store nearby had a number of the things they had mentioned on clearance. We talked about a budget... and if they would need money. It was decided that they needed to write a letter to ask the SU for a small donation for the project (it was hinted to me by the SU Manager to do it).

• This was a breakdown point because two girls ran with the write-a-letter task and left the others doing nothing. I suggested that maybe one of the three girls might want to ask one of the adults if they would take them to the GS room so they could look at it and really get an idea of what they could do.

• They came back with a list of tasks and tools - and very excited. Apparently they are going to take down some of the bulletin boards and put them up in more visible areas. One will have the GS Promise on it while the other will have the GS Law. I thought it might be neat for them to consider putting the GS Law in the colors of the Daisy Petals or in the shape of a daisy... but it will be up to them. They want to put up words using decorative border or decorative letters that already have the adhesive on the back. They also want to designate an area of wall space for each of our troops. This way each troop can hang up pictures or things they've made for everyone to look at when we have SU meetings or when other troops meet. My own Junior wants to get painter's tape and use that to mark out the lines for the troops boxes so that she can paint straight lines... she's been watching those Extreme Makeover and Hometime shows lately.

• I saw the letter they wrote to the SU team. It's very polite and explains why they would like to do this project, what they would like to do, and what they would like from the SU. They asked for paint rather than money. However, a few of us spoke to three of them after, and they decided that it was best to add in a line requesting $50 - that way they had a little wiggle room if things weren't on clearance, they could give back what they don't use, and if the SU says that $50 is too much and gives a lesser amount it's still reasonable. The funny part of this was that rather than mailing the letter, one of the girls rationalized that the SU team is online a lot, so she is typing the letter tomorrow and e-mailing it with her mother's supervision and help. She was warned that some of us might ask her questions about the project just for clarification, and she seemed ready to explain anything.

• Two of the girls are going to figure out how many of each letter and number they'll need for the project. Right now they say they need cut-out letters for the GS Promise, the GS Law, and "Troop #####" for 13-15 troops. They envisioned having a Crickut or Sizzix machine there for their use, but no body could think of someone who might have one to help them. My mother scrapbooks, so I suggested to my Junior that when she's with her grandmother this week, she ask if she would have any resources and be willing to help them next week.

• I'm excited to see what the girls create. I believe they're recruiting parents to help them physically next week.

• After they had utilized their individual strengths ("Powers") to work as a team, they had the opportunity to find their Power of One badge. I had taken 5 of their Val U. Spiders off the web and hidden them on the playground set; each spider was guarding a Power of One badge. They were to find the spiders and badges... and when they found one for themselves, they had to help the others since they were all a team.

• The Power of Team badge was a little more challenging to finally earn. I used yarn to build a spider web at the backstop at the park; it was similar to the Spider Web on a ropes course. We hung the 5 Power of Team badges in 5 different sections of the web. The girls had to work as a team to get through the web - each space could only be used once. Once on the far side of the web, they had to figure out how to get their badges off the web... and help each other if needed. To get back, they had to cross through the web again - this time they couldn't use any of the lower level spaces. They were supposed to go one by one, but with 5 leaders and no followers, that didn't really happen. They did help each other as feet, flip-flops, and sandals got caught in the web.

• After they all made it, we had a short discussion about having 5 strong leaders in their group and that in their own troops and patrols, they have the potential to be awesome leaders. However, the challenge for next week will be for them to figure out how to work together to get the project done - how to trust each other to take care of their parts.

5. Dismissal.

• It was made clear last week that an official closing was important to the girls. Therefore, I put the girl who spoke up about it in charge of tonight's closing. She decided we were going to "spell out" of the circle again. Since this week's theme was working as a team, the Junior decided the word was "teamwork." Just as in the first session, the Junior started spelling the word, and whoever ended up with "k" said, "Good night, Girl Scouts" and left the circle. By the time everyone had spelled out, the area was cleaned up. Most of the girls were gone before the official ending time, and even those of us who stayed to talk left within 15 minutes of the official end time.

Next week will be interesting. We'll have three projects occurring at three locations. I hope to be able to see part of each one, but I might be recruited to help on a project. The girls all seem excited to work on their projects.