Building good relationships with the girls in your troop is essential for keeping the sisterhood of scouting. Here is an activity to help you do this.
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One of the most important goals a leader should have for her troop is that they all should get along and be a sister to every Girl Scout-at least during meeting times. If your girls are arguing, forming cliques and generally being unkind to each other, meetings are going to be a drag for everyone involved.
Photo from Pixabay
Promoting sisterhood among the troop can be done with activities that demonstrate empathy for each other. When my girls were Juniors I did an activity at our very first meeting to demonstrate the power of words (you can read about it here).
What can Daisy and Brownie leaders do to establish positive relationships from day one? Here is a fun activity that both levels can use. Daisy Scouts can earn the yellow Daisy petal or the spring green Daisy petal at this meeting. Brownies can do this for the Making Friends badge.
Meeting Plan
You will need this book to begin your meeting after the Pledge and Promise are said. You can ask girls how it feels when their feelings get hurt.
The story centers around Felix, who walks around with an invisible bucket over his head. His grandfather tells him the bucket is full until someone does something unkind to him and some water drips out. Felix is unkind to his sister and he empties her bucket. Throughout his day, his bucket gets emptier and emptier as people do things to him that are unkind or ungenerous. The story ends with Felix filling up his sister’s bucket and him coming to the realization that his actions (being friendly and helpful and considerate and caring), whether intentional or unintentional, make a person feel valued or unvalued. The story come full circle.
Materials
Set of 12 Metal Buckets Available on Amazon
- Small buckets with each girls name written on it or “_______’s Kindness Bucket” set on the table
- Bouncy balls or paper clips-some kind of small object for each girl in front of the bucket.
- Flower stickers
- Posterboard prepped for the meeting (see directions below)
- Paper water drops
- Glue
Foam Glitter Stickers from Amazon
Have the girls sit at the table by the bucket. Instruct them to put something in the bucket when you say something kind and take out an object when you say something unkind. (Note: Do not say anything about a specific child, but in general. For example, “Your hair is a mess.” or “Your handwriting is sloppy.”) After this activity is over, ask the girls how it felt to have an empty bucket. Give them a few minutes to decorate their buckets with flower stickers.
Before the meeting, make a large bucket on posterboard . On top write “Troop _____ are Bucket Fillers”. On slips of paper are cut in the shape of a drop of water, have them write one nice thing they can do to fill it. If the girls are too young to write, then be the scribe and write it for them. Have them shade in the water drop with blue crayon and they can glue it around the bucket.
Send the girls home with their buckets and at the next meeting ask how they were able to fill it.
