World Thinking Day 2014 Celebration

Each year on February 22, World Thinking Day, girls honor their sister Girl Guides and Girl Scouts by taking time to give thanks for their international friendships and remember that Girl Scouts of the USA is part of a global community. The theme for World Thinking Day 2014 is girls worldwide say "Education opens doors for all girls and boys."  It is especially focused on making sure girls get an education.  

I wanted to make our first World Thinking Day special to the girls with the hope that next year they would be really excited about the occasion. Since our troop started later in the year then most we are doubling up on many of the activities during our troop meetings. We are doing a lot at one time while still allowing the girls to have a fun and though provoking experience. we decided to celebrate World Thinking Day a little late but at least the girls got an opportunity experience the celebration firsthand together. We conducted our meeting on 02/26/2014 as a two part meeting. We first went over how the Girls Scouts began and we talked a little about Juliette Gordon Low. We discussed that the Girl Scout Birthday was around the corner and we need to plan a celebration. We learned how to do the friendship circle and we all went around and said something special about each of us. 

Our second part of the meeting, We learned about World Thinking Day and  what the World Association Pin stands for as well.  I decided to take the girls to China. Well, in their imagination at least. We all discussed different things that the girls knew about China and facts that we found online about China.  We helped the girls create Passports to take with them to their trip to China. 

Girl's Passport 

The girls practiced saying hello in Chinese and we discussed Chinese traditions. One of those traditions is the Chinese New Year.  The 15th and final day of Chinese New Year celebrations is the Lantern Festival. Traditionally families hung lanterns around their houses and children walked to the temple carrying paper lanterns. We decided to make paper lanterns as a group in honor of World Thinking Day and our Chinese Girl Scout sisters. The girls had lots of fun with this activity. We finished off our celebration by having snacks and fortune cookies. Each of the girls took a pair of chopsticks home, which they were going to try to use at dinner in order to fully immerse themselves in the culture.  The girls are looking forward to getting their World Thinking Day 2014 patch at the next meeting. 

Girl Scout Troop 5473- World Thinking Day Projects 

Volunteers Needed

Our troop needs Volunteers! I know some of you all have mentioned to me that you will help in any way you can. I truly appreciate your help and I am sure the girls will too. I have learned that at Girl Scouts, we want every girl to be so excited about her future that she can hardly wait for it, because she knows she can achieve anything she sets her mind to. This drives and fuels my desire to help out our Troop. Our troop currently is in need of a, a Daisy Patrol Volunteer, Brownie Patrol Volunteer, a Treasurer, a Secretary (in charge of the snack chart, kaper chart, and newsletter), an Event Coordinator.  More than one person can help out with the different patrols, the more the merrier :-). We need a couple of people to become First- Aid certified and we need a couple of people to get camp certified because we will be going to camp this year. I am not sure if we will be able to go to camp during the spring semester but we will definitely will be attending a weekend camp in the fall (more details coming soon).   

If you want to volunteer, these are the steps you must follow:
1) Fill out the Volunteer Application

• Step 1: Complete the Volunteer Application- Found Here: Volunteer Application
• Step 2: Click Submit at the bottom of this screen 
• Step 3: Go to the email address you provided on the Volunteer Application immediately after clicking submit. 
• Step 4: Look for an email from volunteerapplication@gsnetx.org 
• Step 5: Follow the directions inside the email to complete the Criminal Background Check

2) Complete the Online Volunteer Orientation

3) Join Girl Scouts- the fees are $15 for Adults 

4) You must completed certain online courses and some physical depending on what you are volunteering for, do not worry most courses are online. 

Cookies, Cookies, Cookies!!!

I am placing cookie orders today for those of you that let know that you wanted cookies. It seems we have to turn in money fairly quickly to Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas because we are so late getting our start into the cookie program this year.  I will keep you posted on cookie delivery days and times. Selling cookies is one of the ways that we fundraise for our troop, since we our late start may not permit us to sell many cookies we will be scheduling other fundraisers as well. As a troop we will decide what fundraisers we want to do. 

Petals, Badges and Patches!!!

The Girls of Troop 5473, within their respective patrols, and also as a troop, have a wide selection of Badges, Patches, Journeys and activities to choose from when planning their activities.  Troop 5473 Daisies work on their Petals, Leaves, and Journeys.  Troop 5473, Brownies and Juniors can work on Badges and Patches described in their respective Girls Guides to Girl Scouting, as well as the Girl Scout Leadership Journeys.

Troop 5473 Scouts of all ages and program levels can also work on Council activity patches. You can read more about these Badges here:
http://www.gsnetx.org/Default.aspx?tabid=159

And if that’s not enough, girls can work on badges and patches from other Girl Scout councils around the United States! Our Junior Girl Scouts can work on the Bronze Award, the third highest award in Girl Scouting. I will be helping the girls that are Junior Girl Scouts and are interested earn their Bronze Award.

Girl Scout Mission, Promise & Law

The Girl Scout mission, promise and law are shared by every member of Girl Scouting and define the way Girl Scouts agree to act every day toward one another, other people, and the world. Everyone must learn the Girl Scout Promise. Try to practice with your girls at home; remember practice makes perfect. 

Girl Scout Mission:

Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place.

Girl Scout Promise:

On my honor, I will try:

To serve God and my country,

To help people at all times,

And to live by the Girl Scout Law.

 

Girl Scout Law:

I will do my best to be

honest and fair,

friendly and helpful,

considerate and caring,

courageous and strong, and

responsible for what I say and do,

and to

respect myself and others,

respect authority, 

use resources wisely,

make the world a better place, 

and be a sister to every Girl Scout.

A little info about our Troop

Girl Scout Troop 5473 is exclusively for girls in grades K-8. We are a multi-level troop, meaning we have more than one grade level. We currently have 13 girls registered in our troop divided into 3 patrol units, a Daisy Patrol Unit, a Brownie Patrol Unit, and a Junior Patrol Unit. The patrol units are comprised of 4 Daisies, 4 Brownies, and 5 Juniors. We meet together twice a month in one big troop wide meeting, usually on the first and second Tuesday of each month. We will begin breaking out into our respective Patrol Unit's next troop meeting scheduled for 02/25/2014. We will be meeting for outside troop meeting extracurricular activities, as well.  

Uniforms!!

I have been working on making sure everyone that paid their registration dues appears in our troop roster. If you paid your registration fee and turned in a registration form, you should have received your Girl Scout Starter Kit's last troop meeting . For those of you that turned in your dues in the past 7 days or so, and maybe haven't received your starter kit, I am trying to have your kit sometime this week. When you receive your uniform, pins and/or patches, you can look up instructions on where to put everything and how to do it, right here on our blog!  Click on the uniforms tab on the right side of the blog homepage and it will take you to a blog with step by step instructions on where to place your Girl Scout Insignia and Patches.  Daisy, Brownie, and Junior uniform links are located along the side of the blog homepage as well. 

Want to learn even more about Girl Scout uniforms? Follow this link:
http://www.girlscouts.org/program/basics/for_volunteers/where_to_place/

Would you like to buy Girl Scout Merchandise directly from the Girl Scout Store? Follow this link: 
http://www.girlscoutshop.com/NORTHEAST-TEXAS-COUNCIL

Welcome to Girl Scouts Troop #5473 New Blog

I decided to volunteer as a Girl Scouts troop leader because I wanted my daughter to have the experience of being in a girl led organization. I thought it would be fun to have a blog. The blog would serve as a place to share ideas and important news related to the troop.  First of all, let me tell you a little about myself. I have never been a Girl Scout troop leader before, I remember joining the girl scouts when I was in grade school but I left the organization because my parents had trouble getting me to and from the meetings. :-( I am an attorney. I have been practicing law for a few years. I am about to finish my MBA this May and I teach college courses online on a part-time basis.  I am also a real estate agent.  I really hope to be able to share some of my knowledge and experience with the girls. As you can tell my plate is full and I will definitely need help and support from parents. Hopefully, I can update this blog frequently. I have never blogged before so bear with me as I get the hang of it. Remember being a Girl Scout is all about trying new things in order to make the world a better place. So, welcome to Our Girl Scout Troop 5473 Blog!