Water Hunt Game for Girl Scout Brownies

The Brownies have been working on the Journey W.O.W. Wonders of Water. I read about a game involving searching for water and wearing a baby doll tied to the child's back. The doll symbolizes the fact that many children are responsible for taking care of their younger siblings. The dolls were tied on with fabric I had in the house. It was about 12" wide and about 2 yards long.

The girls enjoyed the game and reading the signs. After the game they were working on water color paintings and making droplets of water with messages about protecting water for a bulletin board. As the girls were finishing their other projects, many of them asked if they could play the game again. I said sure! The girls even wanted the baby dolls tied on again and went out in search of clean water. Once the water was found, they came and showed us their success.

I would certainly recommend the game to others.

For #1 I had a dirty bucket with leaves and some water in it. For #2 I had a Rubbermaid container with a sandy colored piece of fabric in it to show the creek was all dried up. #3 had a full Rubbermaid container of fresh water. When you are done, the water can be dumped outside on some plants to not be wasted.

Good Turn Mouse

For the first Girl Scout Brownie meeting of the year I was looking for a fun project. I found this little poem about the Good Turn Mouse:

This saucy creature is a mouse
Most mothers won't let one in the house
See, this one it has quite a tail,
Each Girl Scout made one without fail.
Take it home and help all week,
and for good turns you must seek
for every good turn that you do
tie a knot in the yarn...make quite a few.
Remember why each knot you tied
and how much to help you really tried
and then next week, please take your turn
to tell us all, so we can learn...
just what you did to help at home
a ready helper you have grown!

I looked at Google images for a felt mouse pattern to sew. I settled on an almost circle that is folded in half and stitched with embroidery floss.

I started with beads for eyes, added little ears, and finally stitched the body from nose to tail leaving the tail long for knotting.

For the girls, I decided to prep the project for them so they would be able to finish in the time allotted and the project would not feel too hard for them.

I cut out all the mouse bodies and ears. Then I sewed on the mouse eyes and added a threaded needed with coordinating thread. I made up directions with sketches and the steps.

The group of second grade girls enjoyed the project a lot and were very excited to do the hand sewing. They did need a fair amount of help and it was great to have a few extra adults around. Everyone finished their little mice and took them home to keep track of all their good turns for the next two weeks.