Google Forms and Girl Scout Troop Leading

Let's take a minute and talk about a little thing I recently discovered called

Google Forms

. I know my husband, an avid supporter of Google, will appreciate this post. I still can't believe it's taken me this long to figure this thing out!!!

Google Forms is a great tool to use with your troop planning. As a troop leader, I like to get feedback from the parents about the direction of the troop. I have a Shutterfly Sharesite for them to access and I am always trying to find better ways to communicate. For some, it's a struggle to get a parent to just respond if their Girl Scout will be attending a field trip let alone have them complete a year end survey on a website that needs a password.

Google Forms

can make your life a little easier. You can create forms/surveys and email them out to your troop. You can either share the link to the online survey or you can have the survey sent right to their inbox for them to complete. There is no real excuse why they can't do this. Some will fail at this too but it doesn't get any easier than this!

Here are some examples of ways you can use this feature...

Create a year end survey for the parents.

I ask questions such as...

1. How do you feel about the frequency of the meetings
2. How does the day and time of meetings work for you
3. What does your child enjoy most about the program
• Making friendships
• Arts and crafts
• Stem 
• Learning new things
• Badge earning
1. What do you or you child wish to do more of with this program
2. Are you comfortable with overnight troop camping?
3. Are you looking to volunteer?
4. What of expertise can you contribute to the troop
• First Aid and CPR
• Yoga
• Gardening
• Arts and Crafts
• ect

Event and field trip RSVP

1. Name (text option)
2. Will your child attend xxx field trip (choose from list is drop down option)
3. will you be able to volunteer and drive?
4. If so, how many people can you fit in your car?

Do you have any fun tips or tools you like to use for your troop? Please share in the comments. Sharing is caring!

World Thinking Day preparation - Mexico

I was super excited about this year's World Thinking Day festivities that our council had arranged. In preparation for World Thinking Day, I wanted the girls to really dive into the culture of the country we were hosting. The Girl Scout meeting prior to the event had a three station rotation where each girl contributed to our preparations.

Our Country

Mexico

Table Display

Station 1

Prior to the preparation meeting the girls were assigned a certain topic for Mexico. They had to do a little research and bring any artifacts to the meeting. Some girls researched games, food, music, cultural attire, arts and crafts, population and geographical statistics. This was a great opportunity for the girls to take accountability and ownership of their display.

At the meeting we created our display poster and glued on the pictures that the girls brought.

Recipe

The second station the girls got the opportunity to make a Mexican recipe. We made traditional guacamole.

Ingredients

1 Avocado

1/4 cup minced red onion

1 tablespoon minced garlic

2 tablespoon minced jalapeno

1 cup diced tomato

half of a lime squeeze of juice

3 tablespoons of finely chopped cilantro

Mix all the ingredients together and enjoy with chips or on a taco!

Craft

If you notice in the table display picture, you can see the Mexican Sun craft the girls did as part of the last station. We used paper plates, paint, construction paper. They decorated their own versions of the sun art. It turned out great!

Here is a link to the Merry Mexican Suns the girls tried to recreate: 

here

For the girls hard work and preparation they were also able to earn the

Vi petal

badge by

Being A Sister To Every Girl Scout!

Did your troop or council do something special to celebrate World Thinking Day? Please leave a link in the comments so we can all share each others ideas!