Basic Meeting Plans are designed to have minimal supplies and still hit the GSUSA Requirements. Most meetings can be done in a 90 minute time frame.
Items needed:
- Items they can use with clay to create textures and designs – try to find at least 10 items
- Cookie sheet and towel that will cover it
- (Optional) Sheet of paper and pen for scouts to take notes on for the Kim’s Game
- Air Dry Clay for each scout to make a pendant
- Ribbon to send home with scout to use on the pendant after the clay has dried
- Pencil for each scout (to use with clay)
- Bag of multi-flavored jelly beans
- A way to look up what flavor the jellybeans are on your phone
- (Optional) Printout about Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai
Before you start – Tell scouts to listen carefully to the story of Malala Yousafzai. Whenever the scouts hear the story mention how old she is, they get to do an action of their choice (clap hands, raise hands, dance, etc.)
Info Needed: Someone who has shown they are Courageous and Strong is Malala Yousafzai. She lived in Pakistan when she was 11 and the country stopped allowing girls go to school. It was dangerous to speak against the government, but Malala didn’t let that stop her. She wrote stories about her life using a fake name. At age 16, she spoke at the United Nations, a group that helps keep the world fair and peaceful. By age 17, she earned many prizes and awards for her work at building her own organization that helps girls around the world go to school.
Follow Up Needed: Notice that by listening closely we can learn new things.
(Daisy Courageous and Strong Requirement 1 and Brownies Senses Requirement 2 Earned)
Tool Check
Before you start – Have the items they can use with clay to create textures and designs laid out on a cookie sheet with a towel over it.
Action Needed: Scouts are challenged to see if they can remember what items will be on the cookie sheet. Scouts only have one minute after the towel is removed to look at the items. (Optional – one scout in the group could have a paper and pen to take notes if your troop might need it.) Remove the towel and start a one minute timer. Replace the towel after one minute and ask them what they remember was on the cookie sheet.
(Brownie Senses Requirement 1 Earned)
Courageous and Strong Award
Info Needed: There are a lot of people that show they are courageous and strong – even people you know!
Action Needed: Create an award for someone you know is courageous and strong. Use Air Dry Clay to make a pendant, and use the pencil and other tools to draw a design or write words on the pendant and create textured designs. Remember to poke a hole in the top of the pendant big enough for the ribbon that will be sent home with them to go through.
Follow Up Needed: Notice the feel of the indented designs/words and/or designs. Drawing on clay makes a texture you can feel, unlike drawing with ink on paper.
(Daisy Courageous and Strong Requirement 2 and Brownie Senses Requirement 5 Earned)
Note to Leaders – For step by step instructions on how to make a clay pendant, see Create Art with Me
Smell Memory
Information Needed: Smell, Memory, and Emotions are linked very closely in our brains. Smells often conjure up strong memories and emotions for people.
Action Needed: Quiz the scouts to see if certain smells make them think of any memories. Try the smells of cinnamon, garlic, fruit, or vague smells like something baking in the oven, the paper smell you get when you open a book, or chlorine in a swimming pool. Ask them if they have any feelings about the memories those smells brought up.
(Brownie Senses Requirement 3 Earned)
Taste Test
Information Needed: We’ve learned about being courageous and strong while exploring our senses, and there is one sense left: Taste. We can be courageous and strong when we try new things, including food.
Action Needed: Use the bag of multi-flavored jelly beans to have scouts pick a bean they think will taste good. Let scouts come up one by one and do the taste test of courage in front of the other scouts. Use your phone or other device to look up what flavor the jellybean is on your phone – but don’t tell them what it is until after they put it in their mouth and taste it. Scouts guess what flavor it is and you can confirm or correct the guess.
(Daisy Courageous and Strong Requirement 3 and Brownie Senses Requirement 4 Earned)
Meeting End
Scouts can keep trying new jelly beans in a more relaxed setting instead of one by one – and continue guessing the flavors – until it’s time to go home.
General Notes
Note to Leaders – No Basic Plan compiled by The Badge Archive will earn multiple badges in one level. Part of being budget friendly is not costing more than the price of one official GSUSA badge per meeting.
Some badges will take two meetings to finish. This helps scouts enjoy activities and keeps the troop budget in mind by only needing one GSUSA badge for every two meetings. Troops may choose to get a fun patch for one of the meetings if scouts want a badge/patch for every meeting. Scouts can earn the fun patch if they only attend one meeting and get a fun patch and the official badge if they go to both.
The Badge Archive 