50 Ideas to Make Your Girl Scout Meetings More Fun

Taking the “Boring” Out of Badges

These ideas come from the facebook.

We’ve included some patch suggestions for trips and tours the girls will love.

See all our money-earning and fundraising patches.

From Lucy:
We alternate meetings between badges and fun activities/service projects. For example, we are working on a outdoor art badge so one week we do that and then we go do park cleanup/ gather supplies.

From Meghan:
See what they’re interested in. We gave a few badge choices via paper to have them choose. They also picked a variety of activities with the cookie money earned. Also laid out in pricing.

From Allison:
I did this too-they got to stamp three times on the badges they wanted to do and the community service they wanted to do.

Some of our activities at meetings included planting cucumber seeds in toilet paper tubes, using old cookie boxes to make flower art, making Valentines or Christmas cards for nursing homes, obstacle course and other games to get ready for a hiking outing, and some of our outings were Build a Bear, a Princess Salon, programs at the nature center, ice skating, amusement park, tour of Fire Station, Christmas cookies, and learning about other countries for World Thinking Day. We had a birthday party for Juliette Gordon Low in October, you could also have older girls in your area come and run a meeting if they are looking for service hours, earn a Junior Aide badge, etc.

From Edie:
I like outsourcing! If you can find local people to lead a badge, it works awesome! We had a photographer come in and help the girls earn their digital photography badge, we went to a tree farm and learned from them for our tree badge, the girls love it, and it’s way less work for me!

From Adiana:
Asking the girls what they would like to do is the first step (within reason, of course).

The last thing you want to do is run it like an extension of school, in my opinion. I feel like GSUSA suggestions do just that. I tend to stray away from that and just use the toolkit as a jumping off point. Pinterest and Facebook groups have been a godsend in my years as a leader.

The girls feed off your energy; if you’re bored, they’re bored. Don’t be afraid to be a goofball! A little silliness can make the most boring badge a little more tolerable.

From Bethany:
Ask the girls what they want to do. We voted as a troop and tried to arrange meetings around their ideas. They want a pool party and to go camping. Not really good for meetings but it helps us know what they like. Other things to do – rock wall climbing, going on a hike, making robots, making bracelets (and donating extras to a local nursing home), if you have a local Lowe’s or Home Depot have parents sign up to get the free kids workshop kits and make those or they have kits you can buy.

From Lia:
Ask the girls what they’d like to do and if they’re having fun – they will almost 99% say yes. I’ve spent every meeting working on petals (first year daisies) and I was not a girl scout (since the mid 80s remember nothing). Almost every meeting we just color/craft based on whatever the petal is that meeting. We’re in a school library or classroom which limits other types of “messy” activities and I thought what I’ve been doing has been so boring, but honestly I think they love to color and just enjoy spending time with their girl scout friends. Also coloring seems to keep them somewhat calm for a few minutes lol. You might be doing it just right? I find so many resources on these FB groups, Googling the badge activity and Pinterest has a lot of ideas. Now that the weather is getting nicer hoping to get them outside more too!

From Jamie:
First off give yourself some grace ! Second take a deep breath – now what we have found what works with our troop is do what your girls like and are interested in !! We take the “requirements” and make then fun and will complete activities that cover the main idea / essence of the badge. We usually include youtube videos, books, craft ect. I look at teacher pay teachers, google, etsy for ideas.

Some examples- uniquley us badge – we read a story, we talked about what makes us unique , the girls traced their bodies and then highlighted 10 things about them. The other girls then wrote positive messages about them on outside. They each picked out a fun patch that represents them.

Flowers – we watched a YouTube video about flowers, we talked about parts of the flower, dyed a carnation, talked about seeds, planted a seed and took a seed packet home to plant on report back on.

From Nicole:
Outsource!Find another leader and ask them for fun activities they’ve done.When we do trips, I pull a girl aside to prep her to make the announcements, another girl does the pledge. That way it feels like a meeting but we’re there to have fun and learn.

We have ten 4th grade juniors and I stopped stressing over having meetings unless we have to have one. Create/email a jot form and gauge interests on what they want to do.

From Bonnie:
Those badge requirements are merely a suggestion for someone with no imagination is how I look at them.

From Laura:
There are so many great trips that go with badges. Animal badges might incorporate a trip to the zoo or aquarium. Makingfriends has some fun scavenger hunt patches wirh free printables to make the trip even more fun. Outdoor art could incorporate a trip to an arboretum. I lead 2 older troops and they want to go to an amusement park and a sleepover nearby. No badge, just fun.

From Heather:
I literally put together meetings for 2 troops back to back on the same night, that day. The steps of the badges are suggestions and you can change them as long as the girls get the idea of the badge. With that said, I also shop a lot at bin stores and come across all kinds of things I store for a later meeting/event. You could for next year have each girl take a meeting where they teach the others something they know. For example, we have a girl that makes Kandi bracelets and taught the others how to do them. Another girl taught her sisters how to make a yarn pumpkin. Another taught how to make balloon animals. They like to share their talents with each other.

From Soraya:
We are in Boise! We have the same mix of girls ages and our meetings are generally well received! How much autonomy are you giving them to pick the badges and come up with the ideas and activities? The guidelines for badges are pretty loose so we try to break it up into stations to keep them rotating through and occupied. That age they are still needing to move their bodies. We take them outside a lot too. We rent Camp Alice Pettinger for a weekend, and maybe Camp TAM by you does the same?

Badge example: We did the snack badge and broke the girls up into “salty, sweet, energy” groups and let them come up with a snack at home following the guidelines to share. We have a couple dietary restrictions in our group so it helped them to strategize what they could share with their friends and become a little more empathetic. We’ve really been trying to facilitate the badge work but give them choice and autonomy. I’d be super happy to chat on the phone with you sometime!

From Amanda:
There is no badge police. Meet the requirements but put your spin on it. This year, our Brownies chose to do world of girls journey. The stories were absurd. We decided this year our service project would be the food bank. So one of our lessons was on food insecurity and poverty across the world. We used play good and paper plates to demonstrate food insecurity. We pulled in stories of powerful and influential black women across the world. We had a lesson on water scarcity.

From Melissa:
I work super hard to make our meetings AWESOME. I plan games, activities, crafts and usually a theme snack. I alternate active and more passive activities so the girls don’t lose focus or get antsy. I try to keep everything on theme and with purpose! My rising Senior and I are working on creating badge kits. Follow along with our new page GS Connections. I post a lot of activities specific to our area in NJ but plan to expand SOON! 

From Amanda:
Involve the girls in presenting the material too. This year my 4th graders each picked a badge to lead. Also you can put any spins you like on the badge as long as it’s in the spirit of what they are supposed to be learning. I know leader that only does 3 steps not 5 for badges. No badge police.

From Lesline:
We have a troop of 18 girls Daisy to Cadets. Things we have done at meetings year alone:
Visit a police station
Visited a fire station.
Visited an assisted living and did crafts with them.
We’ve visited and ambulate corp and learned cpr
we visited the local pantry and helped pack groceries to hand out
Our last meeting, I had the girls pick a woman and create a poster and present to the troop for women’s month.
Our next meeting, we have a dance instructor coming to host an Afrobeat dance class.
We called our local trampoline Park and they offered us free tickets for the girls to come and jump. That will be and get move-in activity badge.
I’ve set up a table with a vase, a pumpkin and a teddy bear and got them canvases and had them draw still life 
Just giving you some ideas. You don’t always have to follow what the girls Scout recommend because then it starts to feel like school and the kids get bored. Also, at the end of every meeting we make time for games. They pick the games and get to FreePlay. We do bingo, red light, green light, hot potato. Just giving you some ideas. You have to think outside the box. Most Kids today are very easy to keep interested in things.

From Jaq:
I’m a “spirit of the badge” style leader. Read the requirements, figure out “what’s the point” and go from there. For example, the hiking badges have research and plan requirements, but the whole point of the badge is to go hiking and be safe while hiking. You can hit all the requirements while hiking, no need to have a planning meeting.

Adding: keep an eye on your council activity calendar! We’ve done archery and climbing and stem workshops through them. Earned badges at every one.

From Laurie:
Even when I have girls vote on badges and activities, they would really rather mess around with each other at meetings and half don’t attend the activities/events I plan. It is frustrating especially when GS curriculum is often dull with me just talking at the girls. I have found better ideas on Pinterest but even sometimes we just do a fun meeting, like next month we are doing a donut fun meeting with different Minute to Win It games and crafts.

From Silver:
I definitely am a “spirit of the badge” leader. Sometimes I read the official requirements for badges and the suggested activities and I wonder if whoever wrote them at Girl Scouts’ national office has ever met a child for that age level.  Also, some of the material is so dense and poorly worded. Do your own thing, and do not make your meetings feel like school with wordy lectures and worksheets. For us, the more hands-on our girls get, the more fun they have.

For Daisies/Brownies, our ordinary meeting routine was typically: 1) a moving activity (get the wiggles out), 2) some sort of intro into what we would be learning/doing (game, book, or activity), and 3) a craft corresponding to the badge.

I’ll echo the folks who have said “outsource.” Lean on people you know, or people your troop’s parents know, to be guest speakers or give you access to places. We have had guest dance instructors give lessons, scientists give tours of their labs, and have had a tour of an animation studio all because friends and family shared their expertise to us when we asked. There are also likely older scouts who would love to lead a meeting as part of earning a particular badge or a higher award project.

Go places! You don’t need to just meet and earn badges. We do one meeting a month and one outing a month. The outings often are just for fun patches and no badge is earned. But the girls are still learning and growing in their confidence in trying new things and in growing their bonds with each other.

Start with hyper-local trips and then branch out. Ask businesses for tours. Some easy (and likely local to you as well) things we have done are:
*tour of ice cream shop
*pizza making party at a pizza shop
*pretzel making at Auntie Anne’s
*learning first aid at the fire station
*archery with a local archers club
*tour of In-N-Out
*visit to a wildlife sanctuary
*visit to a nature center and a hike on a trail near it
*cookie decorating lesson
*cooking class
*pottery making
*hula lesson
*self-defense lesson
*gymnastics lesson
*indoor rock climbing
*ice skating
*panning for gold
*making fun camp snacks like armpit fudge, ice cream in a bag, or solar s’mores
*watercolor lesson
*visit to a water supply company
*tea party
*horseback riding lesson

From Tabitha:
We do everything from sewing, chemical reactions experiments, trampoline parks, art projects, sleepovers at the leadership center, community service, roller skating trips, archery and canoeing.

I get bored easily so I assume they do too. I try to keep our meetings structured but throw in alot of “out of the classroom” activities. It keeps them and ME engaged.