Girl Scouts kickoff event

Elena and I have returned as co-leaders of the Girl Scout troop again this year. All of our girls came back and we added two new ones, so we're at 13. We're looking forward to another fun year of adventures, arts, community service, and camping (of course). To kick off the new year, the two of us organized a team-building, clique-busting event for Saturday afternoon, at the school. We started by having them decorate a banner and pose for us.

And then we went to the back garden and read a book called Two, about friendships and the difficulties that can arise between friends and within groups. I thought it was really appropriate and insightful for this age group. Next: Elena had brought a card game with kid-appropriate Would You Rather...? questions, and we divided into two groups and played a round of that. There was a lot of peer pressure/group think in the answers, but also a couple of surprising independent thinkers who stood their ground against the crowd.

We then walked over to the forest behind the field for a trust walk. We divided the girls into pairs - Elena brilliantly matched each of the girls with someone they didn't know very well - and then they took turns being blindfolded and leading the other along the dirt paths. I deliberately picked sections of the trail that went up and down and had lots of roots and rocks underfoot and branches overhead.

For our final exercise, we again divided them into teams of not-close friends, and asked them to design and build a structure. We didn't give them guidelines about the structure -- it wasn't a contest to build the tallest or best -- but we asked them to work together and to make sure that everyone's voices were heard in creating the design and in figuring out how to carry it out.

And then we had snacks and sent them all home -- a fun and hopefully meaningful little activity.