The road to the Bronze includes completing a Journey book. Recently my Junior group completed their first journey, Get Moving. Along the way we added extra crafts and activities to teach the girls more about energy and recycling.
Get Moving Journey, Litter Spider
We didn’t have all the girls buy the book, instead we purchased 4 as a troop and the girls shared. On page 8 of the book is a introduction to the spider, we spent a few minutes getting to know the spider then we let the girls create their very own spider. A project I expected would only take 20 minutes or less turned into a hour project. The girls had a blast taking bits and pieces of left over craft items, bottle caps, straws, and newspaper to create their very own Litter Spider.
DIRECTIONS:
Crumble up a piece of newspaper. Wrap another piece around it. Wrap with string and tie off to hold newspaper in a ball. Add straws, bottle tops, caps and anything else to make it look like a litter spider.
The Importance of Recycling
Recycling is a great way to save energy. There are lots of ways to turn old stuff into new stuff, and making new paper out of used paper is one of them. Making recycled paper allows the plant fibers of the original paper to be used over and over again. It also uses less electricity and less water, and creates a lot less pollution than making new paper. I would suggest purchasing Junior Energy Journey Badge In A Bag® from Makingfriends; included in the kit is everything you need to make your own recycled paper. If you do not need the full Journey kit you can even get a kit just to make recycled paper
Ask: By making our own paper and saving trees what part of the GS law are we living? Answer: Using resources wisely
Energy Journey Badge in a Bag®
Makingfriends has a great kit for this journey. It includes everything you need to make your own paper as well as hands-on activities to make your journey a fun, positive experience for your girls and a stress-free, memorable experience for you. Honestly you will need no additional planning time I used this kit and then just added additional crafts to go along with it! Kits available from Makingfriends
Water Bottle Octopus
After the girls learned about recycling we had each girl bring in a empty water bottle to the next meeting. Using the water bottles they made Octopus water bottle creatures.
YOU WILL NEED:
1 empty water bottle per girl
Paint of any color
1/2 sheet felt per girl
Paint Brush
2 large wiggle eyes per girl
Markers to draw face
What you do
1. Cut off the bottom of the water bottle.
2. Paint the water bottle the color of your choice and let it dry.
3. Use scissors to cut strips in the bottle. Start at the bottom and go up to about 3 inches from the top, just leave enough room for the head.
4. Cut a strip of felt to cover the top of the bottle and glue it in place.
5. Cut a long strip, about an inch in width, from the remaining felt. Tie that strip into a bow. Trim the ends and glue that to the front of the felt strip around the mouth of the bottle.
6. Now just glue on some eyes and use markers to draw on some lips and cheeks!
There are many other great recycle craft ideas you can find some on MakingFriends Pinterest page
Another great source to teach the girls the principle of recycling with great recycle crafts geared to repurposing discarded materials into craft supplies. Check out FreeKidsCrafts.com
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