Where do I begin with the aMazing Journey for Cadettes?
As a Cadette Leader working on the Journey books with your troop can be a challenge. You may have heard the girls complain “This is too much like school” or “I am bored, I want to play a game or make a craft.” I have listened to my girls and over the last few years I have overcome the challenge of making it fun and exciting, while teaching them the values the journey book was created to instill.
I have taken many of requirements in the aMazing Journey book and added a new fun twist to the activities to reinforce what they read or completed in their books. In the end when we reviewed what they had learned they took away the high level points the journey is all about while still having fun.
What is your Maze?
To get started with the Journey we did an activity to help the girls understand why relationship issues can make your life “mazelike”. It also engages girls in getting to know one another and to team up with girls they normally would not work with. I have done this activity in a couple ways; first option is to use poster board and pair up the girls. Give each pair a poster board, markers, pens and pencils and instruct them to create a maze in any way that they would like. After they have made their maze have the girls mark their mazes with sketches, text bubbles, or doodles that show the relationship issues they navigate in their lives. Use their book for ideas, the front cover shows a good example as well.
Second variation to this is to use a sidewalk or parking lot to make the maze. It was a beautiful day outside when we had our meeting so we brought sidewalk chalk with us and had girls create their maze on the sidewalk. The added in the sketches, text bubbles, and doodles just like on the poster board.
Marble Maze
Navigating relationship issues is sometimes very hard; after working through some of the activities in their books, we took a break and created a maze to help reinforce this concept. The girls make a Marble maze using duct tape, a zip-lock bag, dish soap, and a marble. Once they completed this craft we had the girls race to get their marble through the track the fastest.
Directions:
First fold a strip of duct tape on itself, so the strip is sticky on both sides. Begin placing the pieces inside of the zip-lock bag so that the duct tape creates a path for the marble to travel. Start all the way at the bottom of the bag and work your way up making sure the tape sticks on both sides of the bag.
Once all the duct tape has been placed into the zip-lock bag squeeze dish soap into the bag and move it along down through the maze to lubricate the course so the marble can move through the maze with ease.
Put a marble into the maze and seal the top of the bag with duct tape. We put two zip-lock bags together to avoid leaks from the dish soap. Once together the girls can now navigate their marble through the maze.
Friendship Games
These activities will help girls know what it feels like to belong to a group where they can get a little silly without worrying about what other people think.
1. BACK TO BACK: Girls break into pairs, the pairs of girls lock arms with their backs to each other. Each pair slowly lowers to the floor, straighten out legs out and then working together stand again. Then once each set of partners are standing up, pairs of girls should join together (two pairs join together making 4) and the sequence is repeated till the whole group is working together to sit down and stand up.
2. SHOE FACTORY: Everyone removes their shoes and puts them in the center of the circle. Once the pile of shoes are made each girl chooses two different shoes other than her own and puts them on (only half way if to small) Each girl needs to find the mate to her shoes and put her foot up against it. By the time the final pair is matched the group will probably have a tangled mess of legs.
Take a Peace Break
Have the girls learn the 12 sun salutation yoga poses, which is a great way to end your meeting or if you’re having a campout we had the girls do yoga before bed to get them relaxed and put you at peace and ready for bed. Learn the Yoga positions here. The Sun Salutation 12 poses are used to help improve strength and flexibility of the muscles and spinal column. The poses also warm up the body and tone the abdominal muscles.
Additional Resource
Peace Journey Badge in a Bag Kit
If you are looking to add to your activities for this journey check out Makingfriend’s Peace Journey Badge in a Bag®. It is packed with hands-on activities to make your Girl Scout Journey a fun, positive experience for your girls AND a stress-free, memorable experience for you. Basic supplies like scissors and glue will be needed but everything else is included!
Check out my troop using this kit
Hi!! After you completed the 12 yoga posses, was the entire journey completed??
The troop leader shared some fun activities their troop did while working on the JOURNEY*.
There may have been additional requirements that were also completed.
*MakingFriends®.com is not affiliated with, endorsed by or a licensee of Girl Scouts of the USA.