April Meeting

Hello Parents,
We wanted to send you a note to summarize yesterday's meeting.  Hope your girls came home and filled you in on all the fun we had at our meeting!

The meeting went as follows:

Again dismissal was very smooth and we think it is very helpful to remind teachers before each meeting!

First we had our investiture ceremony, which is based on ‘The Brownie Story’ page 18 in the binder. This is when your girl officially became a Brownie. It was very exciting! They all took turns looking into a mirror (which symbolized a pond) and recited the poem…”Twist me, turn me, show me the elf, I look in the water and see MYSELF!“ and then they were pinned. The bottom pin is the Brownie pin. If you look closely you can see the little elf dancing. The top pin is the symbol of WAGGGS (World association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts). Our girls are now  a part of 10 million girls in 145 countries! 

Then we recited the Girl Scout Promise and Girl Scout Law located inside the cover of book and binder. It would be great if the girls become very comfortable with these, as we will start every meeting with this promise!

We recapped our last meeting with a summary of “The World of Girls” journey book and talked about the award badges that follow this journey. (Book page 7, Girls side) Our first award will be ‘Hear A Story’, which focuses on the girls finding clues within a story that will tell them important things/lessons about life and girls! Please encourage your daughter to find clues about girls in any story she is reading that will teach her something about her own life or a new experience! (Would also be helpful for the “what did you work on” section in their school reading logs!)

Also gave a reminder about our ‘troop passport’, which is being passed around. When you get it, have your Brownie fill in her page and pass it on as soon as possible, we would love for at least 4 or 5 girls to see it this month! This passport entry should be done by the girls and can be anything they want it to be! They do not need to follow a format, just go for it, share a story… about themselves, girls they know, dreams they have, international connections, family, etc.

Snack time was a big hit… we followed Shali’s story (book page 6, world side) and had fig newtons, hummus, pita, carrots and sweet mint tea! We were very proud of all the girls and their adventurous sides trying new things!

During snack time we asked the girls questions about Shali’s story and they had great responses. We have a very smart group of girls! We asked them about the characters, places and activities! There was also a discussion about Jordon, Shali’s home and we even found it on the globe!

Next we paired the girls with other Brownie’s they didn’t know very well, to fill out each other’s passport page (girls side, page 5), please check it, the girls were so cute! Then they all shared one thing they learned about their new Brownie sister! We noticed a big difference in all the girls from last month, they are already becoming so comfortable with each other. We‘re so pleased!

The girls then played a quick round of an Italian game, Cencio Mollo. We promised we’ll play it again at the picnic! It a game where one girl is “it” and she has a handkerchief and tries to get another girl to laugh! It was so much fun but we did run out of time, so all the girls will have a turn at the picnic!

We then ended out meeting with the friendship circle, page 23 in the binder, we will end all our meetings with this ceremony!

Before we dismissed the girls we gave them their troop crest and troop numbers for their sashes. Please refer to the uniform handout, also on page 27 of the binder, to see where to place these patches! (troop crest and then troop numbers to follow (2440). We also collected money, envelopes and forms from the girls, please check and make sure your daughter handed in all the necessary paper work!

We would also like to a moment to talk about working towards badges. Your enthusiasm towards this makes us so happy but we are still trying to figure things out and will have a game plan for this very soon! We were thinking the girls could vote on what badges to work towards and hopefully do most of the work as a team!
Next meeting is May 29^th and we will need one parent volunteer and help with snacks. We will contact all of you the week before to coordinate this, just a heads up! We also started a blog, which you can find at: http://troop2440.blogspot.com/ Right now it mainly just has our meeting re-caps. There is a calendar as well that lists our different events.

 We think overall we are off to a great start and look forward to hearing your feedback, thoughts or suggestions! Also can’t wait for some of the great family events coming up, will be a great opportunity to talk in person and tell you all how much we love doing this!

 Best,

Michelle and Martha