Brownie Designing Robots Part 2

If you are just joining us, we previously completed Part 1 of the Brownie Designing Robots badge! We broke the badge into two meetings because it really does require that much time if you are focused on what they are learning and not just completing the badge.

We searched and searched the internet to find an easy and affordable robot idea for the second part of this badge. It can be hard to find the right supplies but you're in luck, we have included them for you in this post! 

Create your prototype

The idea came from a fantastic tutorial on bristlebots. You can find the tutorial here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Bristlebot-1/ They do a great job of explaining and providing pictures along the way.

What you need:

• Wire stripper
• Scissors
• garden shears
• toothbrush
• double sided foam tape
• vibrating motor
• small battery Caution!!! Do not let little children swallow these.
• googly eyes 
• pipe cleaners

Before the meeting:

Before your meeting, you will want to cut the toothbrushes down with your garden shears. You will also want to prepare the motors by stripping about 1/2 inch off of the end of each wire with your wire stripper. I also separated the materials into ziplock bags for each girl so distribution during the meeting would be easy. 

We started the meeting explaining what we were going to do and then we showed the video below to the girls. We always have great success with video media and the girls' attention span!!

We then handed each girl a ziplock sandwich bag with all of the supplies they would need to create their bots.

With the instructables website up on the projector screen (or you can print it out), we did each step together.

Debug

Oh were there bugs!!! Not just Bug Bots, but obstacles with constructing and getting them to work. But ya know what? That is the purpose of the last step!! Trial and Error. Isn't that what engineering and life is all about?

The bug doesn't work?

Here are a couple ideas to troubleshoot a bot that doesn't work...

• There is an object (probably a finger or googly eye) blocking the motor from spinning
• the wire attached to the foam tape is submerged into the tape and is not conducting electricity
• The wire is not properly touching the other end of the battery.

And there ya have it! You have successfully completed the Designing Robots badge!!! I hope you found this section helpful and if you are looking for Part 1 you can find it here: Designing Robots Part 1. Leave us some love in the comments below and let us know what you would like to see next!!

Brownies: Making Friends Badge

Hello! Welcome back! Today we are covering the steps for the Making Friends Brownie Badge. I personally think this is an excellent badge to cover at the start of the scouting year! It gives the girls a chance to get to know any new girls in the troop. It's also a great "ice breaker" for the year.

1. Make friendly introductions

   1. Have the girls practice introducing themselves to each of the girls. Have them pretend it's their first time meeting and share their names and one interesting thing about them. 
   2. Use a large bounce ball or beach ball (from Dollar Tree) and write fun questions. Start by passing the ball, when the girl catches it she can say her name and read aloud and answer the question that is facing her. Check out this site for more details.

2. Show friends you care

   1. Emoji swaps for friends (this one is my fav!)
   2. Write a pen pal letter about why you enjoy being friends with someone

1. Share in favorite activities

   1. Have each girl write on a piece of paper their favorite activity or game. Fold them up and put them in a hat and have them guess which activity belongs to which girl. After you have gone through them all save time to play a few games.
      1. Go fish
      2. Eye Found it card game
      3. Jump rope
      4. musical chairs

2. Learn how to disagree

   1. Friendship skips: Have the girls break up into small groups (2-3 work best) and act out scenarios on how to be a good friend and handle conflict.  We bought these cute turtle craft foam kit. The girls got to decorate their own turtle and attached them to sunglasses and used them with their skips as puppets. They were turtle "scouts". You can also attach them to wooden craft sticks if you don't have sunglasses. 

Skits are a fantastic way for girls to express themselves and build courage in their voice. The girls have a ton of fun with them too! 

1. Practice friendship

   1. Visit a park and have the girls practice introducing themselves to the other kids. Get a game of tag going with other friends at the park.
   2. Consider creating a buddy bench at school
   3. Have the girls create and sign a Friendship Pledge". Include in the pledge. Examples of what to include could be: I will befriend the new kid in class, I will include everyone on the playground....

For more Brownie scout ideas check out our Brownie page here!

Brownie Pets Badge

This was a pretty popular badge with the girls and their first choice when they voted on which badges to work on. I think they all thought we would get a troop pet...lol While I considered the idea, the work and organization that would need to go into that seemed more than I wanted to invest for one badge. It's still on the table as the girls keep asking. Maybe a hamster:)

Here are some suggestions for completing the steps.

Pet Journal

At the beginning of the meeting I passed out the pet journal to each of the girls. They were to complete this at home and if they didn't have a pet they could used a stuffed animal. This is a great activity to have them follow up with what they learned and take ownership.

You can find the pet journal here--->> Pet Journal <<---

Step 1 Find out what care different pets need

• Make a collage. Make a welcome home kit for a specific animal. Use magazines or online pictures to put together a collage of what your pet would need the first day home. You can also use pet store sale ads.
• Have girls bring small pets (if they have any) to a meeting and share how they care for them. We had a girl bring in all her frogs, lizards, and a bearded dragon! They got such a kit out of it!
• Put on a pet fair! Have the girls pick a pet and create a presentation board. 
• Field Trip Idea: Take a visit to a pet shop and calculate the costs.

Step 2 Keep a pet comfy

• no-sew pillows (fleece tie pillows)
• Clean out a small animal/fish tank (check with your scouts to see who has small animals for pets)
• Field Trip: Visit a local farm or barn and clean out the barn or stalls

Step 3 Help a pet stay healthy and safe

• Field trip: Visit a pet hospital.
• Build a small pet obstacle course. We also used the suggestion from the VTK and made mini obstacle courses for small pets. You can use items from around the house: construction paper, clothes pins, pipe cleaners, toilet paper rolls, ect. The girls really enjoyed this activity!

Step 4 Make a pet feel loved

• Braided sock ropes: For this step our troop created pet toys!! We "used resources wisely" and took old socks (mismatched or holes) and cut them up to make braided dog toys. The girls each brought in three socks. While the meeting started I had one adult volunteer cut the socks in half to double the length.

Step 5 Feed a pet

• Make a feeding schedule for a pet.
• Dog treats: There are plenty of dog treat recipes on Pinterest through a simple search. I've included a few for you below and a peanut free option!

Treat recipes:

Pumpkin Apple Dog treats

Banana Peanut butter dog treats

Guinea pig treats

Spa Science: Make Your Own Lip Balm

Cool Chemistry Activities for Girls (Girls Science Club)

Bella has been into STEM subjects lately and really loves science experiments! I love this side of her and I only want to encourage her exploration, which is why when she begged to make another YouTube video I couldn't say NO. 

We are avid library fans and constantly have 30+ books checked out at any given time. She recently checked out Cool Chemistry Activities for Girls and was excited to try the lip balm activity!

You can make any flavor you like. The recipe calls for peppermint but we used strawberry extract instead! This recipe works great for a Spa Science party or as part of the Home Scientist Brownie Badge!

Bella was super excited about a book she found and wanted to try out the lip balm recipe! She was excited to find out she can apply this to her "Home Scientist" Brownie badge for Girl Scouts! Materials needed: 1 tsp shredded beeswax 1 tsp honey 1 tsp olive oil or coconut oil 1/4 tsp flavored extract (peppermint, strawberry, whatever you like!)

Thanks for watching!

Brownie Painting Badge

In an effort to keep our year girl led, it was no surprise that this was the first choice when the girls had the option to pick a badge. We had so much fun with this and it's definitely a two meeting badge. There is so much to do that it was impossible to fit it all in an one hour meeting.

Meeting 1: Steps 1-3....

Get Inspired:

The girls used their Girls Guide to Girl Scouting books and viewed the different types of paintings as given in the Painting badge requirements. I really wanted to turn this step into a field trip but we just didn't have the time with the holiday season around the corner but I would highly recommend scouting your area for local small art galleries. When I did my search I found several in our town!

Paint The Real World

The girls had the opportunity to choose between two different painting options (dandelion or footprints in the sand). We actually incorporated step 4 in our paintings without even knowing it by using our feet!

I found bulk canvases on sale at Michael's craft store. You can also find some affordable ones here. 

Paint A Mood

We used the suggestion in the Girls Guide and painted our moods with puffy paint! This was so cool and the girls had fun mixing their own puffy paint! 

Puffy Paint Recipe:

• 1 part shaving cream
• 1 part glue
• a few drops of food coloring
• (Optional) mix in some flour to add thickness. 

Meeting 2: Steps 4-5

Paint Without Brushes

Since the holidays were right around the corner and we were feeling festive we used the stamping method to create wrapping paper out of old paper grocery bags. If you have any daisies in your troop this step will go right along with the clover petal and using resources wisely by recycling paper bags into wrapping paper. We also decorated brown paper gift bags!

Use cookie cutters, cut up sponges, and make your own stamps! It doesn't just have to be for the holidays, you can make birthday wrapping paper for Juliette Gordon Low's birthday, too!

Paint a Mural

Keep this one girl led. Let them decided what mural they want to paint as a troop. Have them draw it our first. We used a poster board. If they are having trouble, guide them with some suggestions. Maybe they can paint a large picture of an animal and each take a part (daisies 3 cheers for animals). Maybe they want to paint a scene with each girl in the troop in it. The options are endless but give them time to think about it.

Brownies: Girl Scout Way

For our very first Brownie meeting we thought it would be a perfect to work on the Girl Scout Way badge! We had a couple new girls join our troop and this was a perfect way to introduce and re-introduce Girl Scouting! 

Step 1 SING EVERYWHERE

This year we moved our meetings in home due to schedules and rental fees. The benefit of this is that I can use my smart TV to show the girls more videos since it draws their attention better than me standing in front of them reading. YouTube was great for teaching them some traditional Girl Scout songs!

Make New Friends

S'more Camping Song

Brownie Smile Song

Step 2 CELEBRATE JULIETTE LOW'S BIRTHDAY

We saved this step for the next meeting since it was on 10/30 but you can throw a mini party at any time! I made a Samoa Birthday Cake and we sang the Birthday song and blew out candles. 

Step 3 SHARE SISTERHOOD

We chose to do the "create a story, play, or puppet show" step. I was a little worried about how this would work for my particular bunch of girls but they really enjoyed it! We split the girls up into groups of 2-3. We pre-wrote out the different lines of the Girl Scout Law and had each group pick one out of a hat. They had to come up with a skit for their puppets based on a part from the GS law. We also had a cute craft where the girls made cat glasses that they wore for the skit. We called it the Girl Scout cats! You can find a similar idea with animal masks here!

****If you have a video recorder I would recommend recording the skits! We put them up on our sharesite and Facebook page for the parents. It was soooo cute!

Step 4 LEAVE A PLACE BETTER THAN YOU FOUND IT

This one is easy. We spent some extra time at clean up discussing how Girl Scouts always leave a place better than we found it. We talked about three ways that we could leave the room better than before... Clean up scraps, push in chairs, put away materials. While cleaning up we sang the clean up song as we tidy up the area.

Step 5 ENJOY GIRL SCOUT TRADITIONS

We covered the Brownie Story during this step. I showed the girls where to find the story and read along in their own books. Our girls have a hard time sitting still when we read through the stories. I think its due to the number of girls but I used YouTube on this one as well and it got the girls attention!

Here is a video we used...

Betty and Maggie go into the dark woods in search of a magical Brownie to help their mother keep their cottage tidy. There they meet the wise old owl who helps them discover what it means to be a Brownie. Filmmakers Age 7-10 First Light inspires young filmmaking talent and is funded by the British Film Institute (BFI).

What other ideas do you have for the Girl Scout Way Badge?