Girl Scout Senior Girltopia Journey in a Weekend

Here is how my troop did the Girl Scout Senior Girltopia Journey in a weekend.

Updated August 2022

In my last blog post, I shared with you the resources that I used to create a Journey weekend for my girls. While it was not over the weekend, it was planned for 2-3 sessions. My daughter works four mornings a week, so one session was planned for 1:30-8:30 and the second was planned for 10:00AM to 5:00 PM.

Photos from Pixabay and altered by the author in Canva

The girls were excited to be together, since we have not had a meeting since earning the Girl Scout Senior Room Makeover badge in April. The prospect of pizza for dinner and swimming for a break made for three happy campers.

Introducing Girltopia

As an introduction, I asked the girls what the definition of Utopia was. After answering, I showed them this YouTube video that is basically an introduction to the Journey and the unfortunate statistics about girls in our world.

Showing this video saved a lot of “discussion” time. It really sobered up the girls, as they were not aware of so many of the statistics noted.

Photo by Hannah Gold

ESPN magazine, with Aly  Raisman on the cover, came in the mail that very morning. We talked about what had happened to her and so many other young girls…and how that would never happen in Girltopia.

We then discussed pages 10-14 in the girl book. We talked about inequality and the situations young women faced when there was no hope for their future due to their lack of choices. One of the things I enjoy most about leading older girls is the conversations we now have. They are young adults, and have opinions on matters that they are forming.

We then talked about what the word “visionary” meant and what it meant to be one. Then it was time for an easy craft.

Materials

Construction Paper

Colored pencils

I asked the girls to imagine themselves in the future. What did they want to do?  Where did they want to be in life?  It was another interesting discussion as the girls worked.

After creating their pictures, which are featured below, they had to write how they achieved their goal.

Photos by Hannah Gold

Finding Your Voice

For this next section, I copied pages 34-35 in the girl book and had the girls do it and then we talked about it.

Then we had fun with a game that promoted listening, teamwork, and cooperation. These things are all important to creating a good working and living environment.

I searched for activities for team building and communication and found one that was easy to do with our group of three. Others required larger groups and they were not possible to do.

Photo by Hannah Gold

I had a box of vintage Legos from my older daughter and pulled them out for this activity. I used more Legos than what we would need. One girl would look at the Legos, then close her eyes (or use a blindfold) as they were mixed up a bit. The other two girls took turns being very specific about what Lego they wanted the blindfolded girl to use and where on the base it would be placed. Each girl had a turn closing her eyes and following directions.

Photo by Hannah Gold

The girls were working hard and it was time for a pizza and swim break.

Finding Out Your Ethical Standards

After they finished eating and drying off in the sun, we did the Ethical Situations section of the Journey packet I purchased. I started it off with this situation:

A 10th grade girl’s troop has disbanded. She does not want to be a Juliette. Would you want her to join the troop? What are the pros and cons of her joining or not joining?

I found the responses honest and refreshing.

I then handed out copies of the Ethical Situations from the guide I purchased and handed it out to each girl. We talked about this (discussions are more fun while sitting outdoors).

Then I had the girls take the Leadership Quiz from the packet and then they did the statement rating quiz. Again, the results were very spot on, knowing my girls like I do.

The last craft for the evening way one from the purchased packet. We discussed page 51, the Girl Scout Promise and Law and how it related to them. There was another craft involved, but the girls were getting tired and really did not want to what I had planned, which was to take the law, add their own twist to it, and then illustrate it. We forgo that and then did the discussion on why they picked that particular part of the Promise or Law.

There was one other easy to do craft from the guide that I purchased that the girls did. It was to create a vanity license plate based on one leadership quality.

The girls were spent and did not want to do any more physical activities. In order to keep the time we had productive, I had them research an inspirational quote that they were going to put on canvas the next day. This was an easy task for them to do.

In my next blog post, I will share what we did during our second meeting.