Brownie Journeys Overview

Switch to Daisy  Junior  Cadette  Senior  Ambassador

Brownies have seven different Journeys available to complete.  Below is a guide to help them choose which ones spark their interest.  If they are able to complete any of the three Journeys along with a TAP for each, they will earn the Journey Summit Award which is the highest award available to a Brownie.

A World of Girls

In this Journey, you will:

1. Find out about girls around the world and how stories can give you ideas for helping others—play a game from another culture, invite storytellers to talk about what they do, or draw a self-portrait that shows what's unique about you.
2. Plan a Take Action Project, such as sewing a quilt, painting a mural, writing a play, or creating your own ad.
3. Earn 4 leadership awards: Hear a Story Award, Change a Story Award, Tell a Story Award, and Better World for Girls! Award.

Brownie Quest

In this Journey, you will:

1. Find out how to take care of yourself, your family, your Girl Scout sisters, and your community—do an activity with your family to chart everyone’s special talents, play games at your troop meetings to learn how to work together, or do a fun “clue hunting” activity to learn the Girl Scout Law.
2. Plan a Take Action project, such as visiting a nursery school to read to younger children or teach them a game, creating a school skit about healthy eating, or making a presentation to your city council about fixing a broken sidewalk by your school.
3. Earn 4 leadership awards: Discover Key; Connect Key; Take Action Key; Brownie Quest Award.

Outdoor (Brownie)

In this Journey, you will:

1. Deepen your outdoor skills when you earn your Brownie First Aid, Hiker badger, and Cabin Camper badges.
2. Plan a Take Action project that helps others.
3. Earn a Take Action award.

Think Like a Citizen Scientist

In this Journey, you will:

1. Find out how citizen scientists make observations, collect data, and work with scientists to receive feedback on research.
2. Do 3 citizen science activities: sharpen your observation skills through 2 observation games and a SciStarter project.
3. Plan a Take Action project that helps others.

Think Like a Programmer

In this Journey, you will:

1. Find out how programmers use computational thinking to solve problems.
2. Do 3 computational thinking activities: find out about paper programming; create a functional suncatcher to explore algorithms, variables, and functions; and create a personal innovation to discover rapid prototyping.
3. Plan a Take Action project that helps others.

Think Like an Engineer

In this Journey, you will:

1. Find out how engineers use design thinking to solve problems.
2. Do 3 design thinking activities: design and build an assistive device, a water collection device, and a device that can launch a ball across a room.
3. Plan a Take Action project that helps others.

WOW! Wonders of Water

In this Journey, you will:

1. Explore the wonders of water by find out more about its importance and how it's used around the world.
2. Plan a Take Action project, such as making informative posters, promoting recycling at school, or planting low-water gardens.
3. Earn 4 leadership awards: The LOVE Water Award, the SAVE Water Award, the SHARE Water Award, and the WOW! Award.

Easy chart for voting:

Daisy Journeys Overview

Switch to Brownie  Junior  Cadette  Senior  Ambassador

Daisies have seven different Journeys available to complete.  Below is a guide to help them choose which ones spark their interest.  If they are able to complete any of the three Journeys along with a TAP for each, they will earn the Journey Summit Award which is the highest award available to a Daisy.

5 Flowers, 4 Stories, 3 Cheers for Animals

In this Journey, you will:

1. Find out what animals need and how to care for them—go on nature walks to observe animals; visit a farm, zoo, or animal shelter; or create an animal sculpture.
2. Plan a Take Action project that teaches others how to care for animals.
3. Earn 3 leadership awards: Birdbath Award, Red Robin Award, and Tula Award.

Between Earth and Sky

In this Journey, you will:

1. Explore nature and learn how to keep the Earth healthy—visit a park or farm, talk to a scientist, or make origami butterflies to celebrate nature.
2. Plan a Take Action project, such as planting a tree, creating a garden for a children's hospital, or putting on a play about protecting the Earth.
3. Earn 3 leadership awards: Blue Bucket Award, Firefly Award, and Clover Award.

Outdoor (Daisy)

In this Journey, you will:

1. Explore the wonders of camping and learn how to make art outdoors.
2. Plan a Take Action project that helps make your favorite park, beach, or forest a better place for everyone.
3. Earn the Buddy Camper badge, the Outdoor Art Maker badge, and a Take Action Award.

Think Like a Citizen Scientist

In this Journey, you will:

1. Find out how scientists use the scientific method to investigate the world and make discoveries.
2. Do hands-on activities to learn how to make observations and collect data.
3. Plan a Take Action project that helps others.

Think Like a Programmer

In this Journey, you will:

1. Find out how programmers use computational thinking to solve problems.
2. Do 3 computational thinking activities: Building a Foundation, Happy Maps, and Plant a Seed.
3. Plan a Take Action project that helps others.

Think Like an Engineer

In this Journey, you will:

1. Find out how engineers use design thinking to solve problems.
2. Do 3 hands-on design challenges: design and build a fairy house, a car powered by air, and a way to get across a canyon.
3. Plan a Take Action project that helps others.

Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden

In this Journey, you will:

1. Explore the world of gardening—plant a mini-garden, learn about composting, find out how ladybugs help flowers, take a field trip to a public garden, or talk to a beekeeper.
2. Plan a Take Action project, such as planting vegetables in a community garden or flowers at a nearby hospital.
3. Earn 3 leadership awards: Watering Can Award, Golden Honey Bee Award, and Amazing Daisy Award.

 Need a quick chart?

Agent of Change Journey

I have heard a lot of leaders complain about Journeys, but my girls absolutely love them.  I read the VTK to find out the basics of the Journey and then add, remove, or change activities based on what I think the girls will enjoy.

For Agent of Change, the main theme is superheros!  At each meeting we will try a "superfood" that they may not have tried, or have not been willing to try, outside of the meeting location.  This was a huge hit during the World of Girls Journey where we tried different fruit from around the world.  I am also combining the Junior Agent of Change with the Brownie Quest, so each meeting we will search for the missing key around the room using the ELF activity (Explore, Link Arms, Fly Into Action) using our super powers.

To get the girls really into the theme, they need superhero costumes! We have 11 in our troop so I searched for an inexpensive pack of capes.  The cheapest pack had a variety of colors, but I was worried about how to choose the colors for each girl.  I was able to find a 16 pack of purple capes on Amazon for $28.00.

I used the Girl Scout trefoil image as our superhero crest and each girls name in the center using heat transfer vinyl I already had on hand.  The girls will be able to add some customization to their masks using rhinestone stickers from a previous project.

During each meeting the girls will wear their capes and masks as they discover their own super powers!  I am quite excited about the energy level of the next several meetings!

Customer and Cookie Business Girl Scout Badges

As a multi-level troop, I spend a lot of time finding the differences and similarities between badges to find which ones are closely related and can be completed together as a group.  Cookie booth season is coming up soon so I plan on creating worksheets for my troop to complete during slow times at the booths.  This allows us to sneak in an extra badge and we get real customers to analyze.

Customer related badges

Cookie Business related badges

It's Your World-Change It Overview

     Next up on our schedule is the It's Your World - Change It journey.  This year the troop has both Brownies and Juniors so I will try to mash both Brownie Quest and Agent of Change together while meeting the spirit of both.  Downloading each journey ends up with about 30 pages of info to review, so I create an outline for each.

First step:  Use VTK to find the spirit of both journeys.

Second step:  Eliminate all the activities that will not work for my troop

Third step:  Blend them together

 

Brownie Quest

6 Meeting Overview

Discover Key, Connect Key, Take Action Key, and Brownie Quest Award

Meeting 1 – Discover Me

•          Discovering Me worksheet
•          Ball toss to discover talents and qualities
•          Search for the Girl Scout Law hidden around the room
• Read “Campbell’s New Friends”
• Family Star as homework

Meeting 2 – Team work

•          Review family star
•          Celebrate earning the Discover Key (Discovering our special talents, values of the GS Law, and the talents and values of our families)
• Play Banyoka to work together as a team
•          Create a Brownie Team Agreement
•          Read “What’s Happening at Campbell’s House?”
•          Homework – Find out how to take care of themselves and their families

Meeting 3 – Connecting with Community

•          Create circles of caring
•          Read “The Case of the Broken Sidewalk”
•          Hand out Address a Community Project
•          Hand out Connect Key award

Meeting 4 – Preparing to Take Action

•          Brainstorm places to help
•          Narrow down list to 2 or 3 ideas
•          Make a plan

Meeting 5 – Take Action

•          Complete the Take Action project
•          Reflect on the project
•          Hand out Take Action Key Award

Meeting 6 – Celebrate

•          Share the activities completed along the way with family
•          Sing Brownie Chant
•          Make a “Leadership Commitment” to earn the Brownie Quest Award

Agent of Change

6 Meeting Overview

Power of One, Power of Team, Power of Community Awards

Meeting 1 – What is Power

•          Rope and knot activity
•          Write 3 qualities from the Girl Scout Law they would like to discover in themselves
•          Read “The Journey: What It’s All About” to learn what “power” is
•          What Makes Me ME? activity
•          Power Log
•          Looking back at Herstory
•          Homework – choose a heroine

Meeting 2 – Power of One

•          Complete Power Skills, Power Words puzzle
•         Share their “herstory” from previous meeting
•          Complete Who Led the Way for You worksheet
•          Discuss how a quality within the Girl Scout Law fits one of the heroines they researched
•          Hand out Power of One award
•          Trust Me obstacle course
•          Real Girls, Real Moxie discussion

Meeting 3 – Super Shelter Makers

•          Read “SuperShelterMakers”
•          Begin your own heroine story

Meeting 4 – Preparing to Take Action

•          Continue working on superhero stories
•          Define community and think about where to make an impact
•          Narrow down choices to 2 or 3 ideas

Meeting 5 – Power of Team

•          Break down the project to its essential steps with Team Hopes
•          Assess resources and if they are confident that they can achieve their goals
•          Divide into task teams
•          Hand out Power of Team awards

Meeting 6 – Take Action

•          Complete the Take Action project
•          Reflect on the project
•          Hand out the Power of Community awards

To adapt the activities for my troop, I eliminated all research and homework. I have tried enough times to know this will not happen.  The Teen Titans, Go! series is popular with the girls so instead of a treehouse in Brownie Quest, we will act like they are in a clubhouse.  The SuperShelterMakers comic was just too long and confusing to read together during the meeting.  It needs to be about half the size and not have characters interrupting each other for us to make it work during our meetings.  I would love to include comics with the Drawing badge if I can find an art instructor to give us a hand at a later meeting.  Below is the plan....

Brownie Quest & Agent of Change

5/6 Meeting Overview

Meeting 1 – Superheroes

•          Invite troop to become "Agents of Change" in the “Quest for the Keys” Journey
•          Hand out capes and masks (Amazon affiliate link) with HTV names and sticker gems for decorating
•          Compare superheros with heroines
•          Real Girls, Real Moxie - contemporary heroines (Malala, Greta, Tiera Guinn)
•          Search for the Girl Scout Law hidden around the room
•          Discuss how a quality within the Girl Scout Law fits one of the heroines
•          Power Log (where are heroines needed today?)
• Try out a "superfood" - watercress/kale

Meeting 2 – Power of One/Discover Key

•          Ball toss to discover talents and qualities (What is my superhero power right now?)
•          What Makes Me ME? activity
•          Write 3 qualities from the Girl Scout Law they would like to discover in themselves
•          Read “What’s Happening at Campbell’s House?”
•          Complete Who Led the Way for You worksheet
•          Discuss how we can develop new powers
• Try out a "superfood" almonds
•          Hand out Power of One/Discover Key

Meeting 3 –Connect Key

•          Create circles of caring
•          Define community and think about where to make an impact
•          Read “The Case of the Broken Sidewalk”
•          Compare examples of real Girl Scout projects
•          Brainstorm places to help for our project
•          Narrow down to 2 or 3 ideas
•          Hand out Connect Key

Meeting 4 – Power of Team

•          Trust Me obstacle course
•          Create a Girl Scout Team Agreement
•          Break down the Take Action project to its essential steps with Team Hopes
•          Identify community partners to join the team
•          Divide into task teams
•          Assess resources and if they are confident that they can achieve their goals
• Try out a "superfood" walnuts
•          Hand out Power of Team awards

Meeting 5/6 – Take Action - 1 or 2 meetings depending on project

•          Complete the Take Action project
•          Reflect on the project 
  
• Try out a "superfood" blueberries
•          Hand out Take Action Key Award/Power of Community Award
  
•       Make a “Leadership Commitment” to earn the Brownie Quest Award

Cookie Box Badge Organizer

     The crafty bug caught me this weekend.  I have used several different ways to sort and store badges, from envelopes to safety pins to small boxes, but I still felt disorganized .  I had unearned fun patches here, unearned daisy petals there, and then earned badges for each troop member that I had to keep organized.  I wanted something to store all the badges together that was small, portable, secure, and adaptable to new members.  After many visits to different stores, I was inspired by a small, zipper pouch for use in journal-sized binders (A6).

   
     These pouches in a binder will meet the small, secure, and portable requirements.  But the available binders to hold the pouches aren't large enough to expand with the number of badges my troop earns or for new members.  So instead of a hard binder, I tried out binder rings of different sizes.  I have pouches for 11 Girl Scouts and one each for fun patches, all levels, Daisies, Brownies, and Juniors for a total of 16 pouches, so the 1.5" diameter binder rings worked the best.  I bought the pouches in a 20 pack so I put the extra 4 pouches in the back.  I had basic Avery labels on hand to label each pouch with a sharpie.  While this could have worked, it wasn't that fun to look at or flip through!  For the first attempt, I cut up a box of Caramel Delight cookies in the same size as the pouches to use as a cover and another for the backing.  It turned out cute, but still not awesome.  Next, I used a utility knife to cut another box of cookies in half.  I used one of the pouches as a template to make the hole punches in the box.  Here is the cuteness I was looking for!  The pouches fit inside the Caramel Delight box perfectly!!  Now to make it awesome like the cool journals I saw online I needed a closure.  Office Depot only had gold fasteners, which is not normally my favorite color, but it matched the color in the Caramel Delight cookie so it works just fine.   I tied one end of some leftover ribbon to the fastener on the inside, wrapped it around the box, and then looped it around the fastener.  I then found a Girl Scout luggage tag from a promo item I wasn't using as the pull.  Now this is awesome and completely organized!

Amazon Affiliate Shopping Links:
20 pack of pouches
Binder rings and hole punch
Labels

Step-By-Step Assembly Instructions

Step 1:  Gather supplies and tools
Cookie Box
Knife
Glue
Binder Clips or Clamps
Scissors
Sharpie or pen
Hole Punch
1.5" Loose leaf binder rings
Size A6 zipper pouches
Fastener
Ribbon
Pull or charm
Labels

Step 2: Cut the cookie box
Mark the middle on both sides of the box and use a ruler to cut a straight line.  Repeat on the other three sides.

Step 3:  Fix the corners
Glue the corners on the ingredients side together and clamp until secure.  Cut the folds off on the binder ring side.

Step 4:  Punch holes in box
Place the binder ring centered on the box to determine how far from the sides the hole will need to be.  Align the zipper pouch so the top and bottom of the pouch will fit inside the box and mark where the hole in the pouch matches up with the widest part of the binder ring.  Mark the bottom hole on the zipper pouch.  Repeat on the back of the box making sure the holes are directly across from each other on the boxes.  Use a hole puncher to punch out all 4 holes.

Step 5:  Create a ribbon closure
Use a knife to cut a small slit in the center of the box just big enough for the fastener to fit.  Push the ribbon through the hole using the fastener.  Leave some space between the box and the top of the fastener to allow the ribbon to go around later.  On the inside of the box open the fastener and knot the ribbon end.

Step 6:  Add the binder rings

Keep the hinge on the outside and add the pouches, cover, and back and close the rings.

Step 7:  Add labels and badges
Apply labels for each scout, level, or type depending on your needs.

 Step 8:  Add a charm or pull
Wrap the ribbon around the binder side of the box to the front and then several times around the fastener.  Add a charm or pull so it will hang at the right height and knot to secure.

Step 9:  Head out for some more adventures!