Monday, July 7, 2014

Meeting 3: Hear a Story Award

Summer-Themed Kaper Chart After settling into our new digs at our summer location spot, and beginning with our Kaper chart responsibilities (girls rotate each week, Pledge Leader, Song Leader, Friendship-Squeeze Starter, etc.) we discussed the role of clues in stories, and how each of the girls is a detective, gumshoe, sleuth. As SpyKids, always looking for clues in the stories they read, hear, and see--including those found in books, magazines, comics, movies, magazines--it's their job to identify these "Story Clues." First, this is a wonderful academic skill, to be able to identify defining elements in a story and to go on and make predictions based off these story clues (ie. If we learn that a girl is allergic to peanuts in chapter one, can we predict that later in the story she will eat something with nuts in it? Resulting in a likely conflict? You can almost bet on it!). Soon, the girls will move from simply identifying clues when they "Hear a Story" to learning to "Change a Story" (for the better).

We touched on this "Change a Story" component when the girls brought up the movie "The Little Mermaid," where Princess Ariel chooses to give up her own voice to win the love of Prince Eric. That's a story we considered possibly changing! Then we discussed how there are newer Disney stories where the message is no longer about a Prince saving the day! Like in Frozen, where true love saving the day isn't a kiss from a Prince but is the true love of sisters... as the girls pointed out, much like the line of the Girl Scout Law, "and be a sister to every Girl Scout." *Maleficent, by the way, is similar for those who haven't seen it.

Cozy with their favorite stuffies and dolls, the girls actively listened as Miss Pru read "Flying into Shali's Desert Home" from the A World of Girls Journey book . We discussed the similarities between the characters in the story and our girls and learned about GIRLS TEACHING GIRLS, talking about some things that we've taught our friends and they've taught us. "I taught my brother to use chopsticks." "I taught my brother to play chopsticks on the piano." "My friend who was good at piano taught me to play Old McDonald on the Piano." "I taught my friend how to blow bubbles under water." "My friend taught me how to play guitar." "My friend taught me to draw cartoons."

For our next meeting:
1) We asked the girls to write a list of things they think they can teach the other girls (it can be anything: writing in Chinese, Duct Tape Jewelry, anything they feel confident in or enjoy.
2) The girls should find their favorite story (book or movie or tv show) that meets these criteria and answer these questions:
What is your favorite story that has main characters who are girls or women? _________________
What is the story about?______________________________
In this story __________________________ needs to change.
By changing ____________________________, the world for girls will be better because ________________________________.
In my world, I could change this too, by _____________________________.

A World of Girls
QUESTION TO PARENTS: Would you like to purchase the girls these books, so they may all have one and do the activities inside the books? The cost is $7. Then, they may read along during meetings, too, and answer the questions. Some of these we'll be able to answer together during meetings. Though we don't want their meetings to feel too much like school and lesson plans!

Next, we were supposed to eat a snack of carrots and hummus and find Jordan on the map (where our story took place), but time didn't allow for it all because we were too engaged in constructing our extraordinary suitcases!  A very big thank you is due to Miss Sonor for pre-cutting and measuring all those contact paper sheets for our girls' suitcases--and ensuring that each suitcase was the right size to fit in their Troop Bags! Look at all that gorgeous art on those bags! Please be sure that the girls bring these troop bags back with them each meeting, along with their passports and suitcases, as the girls will be decorating them with flags from the countries they "visit" along our World of Girls Journey. They'll also wear their vests at each meeting (more patches to come, and a ceremony in the fall that's a big deal, where they'll talk about what they've learned, and where they'll get their Brownie pins, and when our troop membership will open up to new members). So, just keep it all in their bag, and every meeting, they are responsible for bringing their troop bag!

We closed with a song, then about half the girls said they enjoyed making the suitcases best, while the other half enjoyed the story time best, then the girls each made a silent wish for the week and we closed with a friendship squeeze and a quick "progressive story" where each girl added a sentence to make a silly troop story.

Next meeting: Jul, 16. The girls will vote on what they want their troop crest to be. They'll also vote on what badge they most want to work toward achieving, and plan an associated summer outing, including everything that goes into planning such an event (ie. checking with their parents' schedules)!


PLEASE MAKE SURE TO COMPLETE SEPTEMBER REGISTRATION FORMS & DUES. THESE ARE FOR NASSAU COUNTY FOR THE 2014-2015 SCHOOL YEAR.

Soon all this administrative stuff will be out of the way and we can just have fun! As always, we'd really love to hear any feedback you have, any suggestions on how to improve this lovely new troop. Please don't hesitate to speak with any of us.