Junior Eco Camper Badge: Lesson Plan

Ready to trade the meeting room for the great outdoors? Earning the Junior Eco Camper badge is the ultimate way for your troop to experience the magic of nature while learning how to protect it.

Use the step-by-step program guide below, complete with hands-on activities, meal ideas, and gear prep, to get your girls fully prepared to head out on their eco-adventure with confidence!

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Eco Camper PDF Badge Requirements

Learn the Leave No Trace Seven Principles
Plan meals with the environment in mind
Prepare a minimal impact campsite
Have fun with Leave No Trace
Take a conservation hike

➡️ Get the complete PDF download provided by GirlScouts.org.

Camping Mad Lib

Get ready for some serious campfire giggles! This interactive fill-in-the-blank game is the perfect way to pass the time in the tent or pass the miles on the drive to the campsite. Have the girls call out silly words to create a wild camping adventure story they’ll want to read out loud over and over again.
➡️Download for free!
➡️ Take a look at more printable games.

Step 1: The 7 Principles of “Leave No Trace”

The 7 Principles of Leave No Trace provide an easily understood framework of minimum impact practices for anyone visiting the outdoors. Visit LNT.org for quizzes, activities, and videos.

➡️Headover to LNT.org

Step 2: Plan Eco-Friendly Camping Meals

Cut down on dishwashing liquid and water waste by picking from these 25 One-Pot Camping Meals.
How to Make Foil Packet Meals for a mess-free, delicious dinner the girls can fully customize.
Learn How to Make a Solar Box Oven to teach the girls about renewable energy by baking solar s’mores or nachos!

Edible Campfires

Before you strike a match, let’s practice with snacks! This delicious, hands-on activity teaches girls the essential parts of a campfire using tasty treats. They’ll use pretzels for logs, potato chips for kindling, and candy for sparks, all while learning vital fire safety rules in a completely safe (and yummy) environment.

Smokey's Story about preventing forest fires.

Step 3: Learn About Campfire Safety

This free download features a beautifully illustrated story about Smokey Bear paired with a hands-on activity where your troop can craft their own puppets or assemble an educational booklet to learn essential campfire safety rules.

➡️Get the Free Download

Step 4: Try a new activity

Girls can try a new outdoor activity by completing a nature scavenger hunt that reinforces Leave No Trace principles without disturbing the environment.

➡️ Get the PDF free with the patch purchase.

Brownie Girl Scouts Take a Hike while practicing Leave No Trace.

Step 5. Take a Conservation Hike

Look for signs of wildlife. Just remember never to disturb nature. Pick an animal that you saw and journal about them or take it a step further and fill out this My Amazing Animal poster.

➡️Get posters

Camping is all about trying new things, working as a team, and leaving the world a little better than we found it. With these resources in your leader toolkit, your Junior troop will be fully prepared to head out on their eco-adventure with confidence. Pack your bags, practice those knots, and have an incredible time watching your girls shine in the great outdoors!