Labeling the Giant Map of Africa

Remember our big map of Africa, up on the living room wall? It's still with us!

We left off working with it for a bit when I started homeschool boot camp, but even though Willow is still really struggling with focusing on her schoolwork, she does love geography, and she does love complicated projects, so it's come back into rotation.

My first thought was to use map labeling as copywork practice, but then I decided that I'd rather have the children doing copywork at the sentence level so that they could practice grammar, and using primarily common nouns or really important proper nouns so that they could practice their spelling, and THEN I purchased the Africa pin flag maps from Montessori Print Shop, and discovered that the set comes with two sets of country labels, WAY too big to use with the pin flag maps, still too big to use with the Montessori map puzzle that the instructions say that the labels are for (if I print them 1/4-size, perhaps...), but just right to use with our big map of Africa.

Labeling the big map of Africa involves several steps, all of which Will did independently:

First, she cut all the labels out, a task that I spread out over a couple of days, since Willow doesn't enjoy cutting. At some point while she was doing that, I drew in the two countries, Eritrea and Djibouti, that our Megamaps map of Africa doesn't include. This was very easy, since both countries are inside the former border of Ethiopia.

Willow spread all the labels out, chose them one at a time, compared each one to the map master until she found its location--

--then used a glue stick to glue it to the proper country:

I had expected to spread this activity out over several days, but Willow enjoyed it, really focused on it, and finished it in two:

If you wanted to make this activity repeatable, you could laminate the labels, and use tiny bits of Velcro on the backs of the labels and on the countries. I finally decided to splurge on pin flags, however, so we'll (and yes, I do mean WE, since I don't know these countries, either!) be memorizing the countries with those, and I plan for our Africa map to become so vastly cluttered with other information that leaving space to re-label the countries numerous times simply isn't practical.

For these labels, which we can now print as many times as we'd like, I have other extension activities in mind:

• using them to practice alphabetical ordering
• using them as headers for individual country pages in a handmade Africa book
• if I print them quite small, I'm toying with the idea of gluing them to the backs of the pieces in our Montessori Africa puzzle
• if they're legible when printed VERY small, we can use them to practice labeling the pin flag map at times when getting out the pin flags would be impractical
• and, yes, probably we will eventually get to using them for copywork and to memorize the spellings of the countries

A Big Map of Africa

Lisa over at 5 Orange Potatoes got us WAY hooked on Africam. It's a set of 24-hour webcams located at watering holes in South Africa--our favorite is located at Tembe National Elephant Park.

The first thing that I do in the morning is set up one of our laptops to the Tembe camera, where it sits all day on the living room table; the last thing that Matt does at night is shut that laptop down. In between times, birds and bats and animals of all sizes come to visit us through the camera--someone is forever and always shouting out "Giraffe!!!" or "Elephants!!!" or "Hurry, lion!", and we'll all run over to see. We've seen a lazy lion lounging on the dirt like a giant kittycat, and a baby wildebeest tromping along behind its Momma, and once, late at night after the girls had gone to bad, Matt and I totally saw two elephants have sex.

As such things always do, the Africam has inspired an educational foray into all things Africa. We checked out lots of African animal encyclopedias, because we wanted to identify the animals at the watering hole, and we checked out some children's atlases, because we wanted to see where the watering holes were located, and then, since we already know Egypt and the Fertile Crescent and thus already have a little context for Africa, I decided to go whole-hog into an Africa study.

For that, you need a map. A BIG map.

I'm forever going on about Megamaps, I know (it's because they're really GOOD!), and this is another shameless plug for their free site, since our big Africa map is a 4x4 map printed straight from their site. Willow put it together like a puzzle--

--I taped all the joints from the back side, and then we duct taped it right to the wall, because I'm from Arkansas and I duct tape EVERYTHING.

I asked Willow to color in Egypt and draw the Nile River, but she was so excited that she colored all the countries right then, matching the colors to our children's atlas:

She also drew the Nile in wrong, so we'll have to fix that tomorrow. Oops! I needed to do some fact-checking, anyway, to make sure all the countries and their borders are still accurate.

Syd had the job of painting the oceans:

 I imagine that we'll keep our big map up for at least two months (it'll be a handy ready-made project for our homeschool group's International Fair later this Spring--yay!), and I have lots of ideas of other things that we can add to it, if the girls are willing:

• Fertile Crescent and other locations from The Story of the World volume 1, which we're also studying
• all the locations from our Ancient Egypt studies
• the locations of the Africam web cams
• images of the typical animals found in various locations
• thumbnail-sized images of the picture books that we'll be reading that are set in Africa
• thumbnail-sized images of the chapter books that Willow reads that are set in Africa
• labels of all the countries (which is good handwriting copywork!)
• copies of the short book reports that the girls are beginning to learn how to do
• the Great Rift Valley, and images/info of the best finds from that area

Okay...we may have this map up longer than two months!

My Kid Can Recite All the Countries of Africa: 2012 International Fair

Having done it both ways now, I've decided that I like it much better when my children present a project that they've already been working on for their various homeschool academic fairs, rather than coming up with a particular project especially for each fair. I feel like their projects show more depth, and are completed in a much more relaxed and enjoyable manner when they're presented simply as a chance to show off an area of interest that's already being studied.

With that in mind, our homeschool group's recent International Fair was my favorite one yet--my kiddos have been studying Africa off and on for months now, so they knew right away what areas they wanted to focus their reports and presentations on, and what projects they wanted to elaborate on to display at the fair.  Honestly, the biggest debates centered around what NOT to bring!

We did not bring the girls' salt dough maps of Egypt, but Sydney, who intended to discuss the ecosystems of Africa and their respective animals, created a salt dough grasslands watering hole, and used some carved wooden African animals that my mother gave her for Christmas in the display:

I brought my computer, set it next to the girls' display, and streamed our favorite Africam webcams through it throughout the fair. Matt's special job was to keep a constant eye on the webcam, so that he could turn it off if the elephants that were lounging around the watering hole started to have sex again.

Willow discussed Egypt in her report, and brought a Styrofoam block pyramid that she built:

We did not bring our Montessori Puzzle Map of Africa (I was afraid of losing pricey pieces), nor the pin flag map (I was afraid of toddlers getting ahold of the sharpy-sharp pins); the main display item is our giant map of Africa, which has been so colored on, labeled, pinned upon, and outlined over the months that, while it may be unrecognizable in some aspects, it is certainly kid-owned.

Syd outlined the main ecosystems of Africa in drippy school glue mixed with acrylic paint--I should have laid the map on the ground for her to do this, in retrospect, and then the paint wouldn't have run:

See? DEFINITELY a kid-created project!

After the Biography Fair, when Sydney burst into tears in the middle of reciting Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," I have a horror of asking her to recite, so her oral presentation consisted of telling the audience about the ecosystems of Africa, already drawn onto the map, and some examples of animals that live in those ecosystems, with pictures of the animals already glued next to their ecosystems, and I still thought that she was going to cry for a few seconds there, before she pulled herself together and nailed it.

Willow has yet to cry during an oral presentation, so she prepared a special feat. I purchased the "Countries of Africa" rap from Rhythm Rhyme Results, and she practiced it over and over and over again--

--until she had memorized all of the countries of Africa:

Have I ever told you about my dark history of helping children cheat at their academic fairs? After college but before grad school, I had a job with Score! doing private SAT tutoring. Score! charged outrageous fees for this tutoring (One-on-one in YOUR home! All our tutors have the highest SAT scores!), which meant that all of my tutees were outrageously wealthy. Although you were supposed to arrange all of your tutoring through Score!, all the families knew that while Score! paid their tutors well, they didn't pay us nearly as much as they, themselves, paid Score! (seriously, families paid Score! something like 10x the average tutor's average fee, and I'm telling you, Score! already paid us well), and most families would ask for extra off-the-books tutoring at a price that surpassed our regular salary but also undercut what they'd have to pay Score!.

Of course, helping a kid with their English class is a different animal than helping a kid prep for the SAT, and in most of these families, "tutoring" a kid in a particular subject actually meant that you were supposed to just do the work for them. I tried to at least sneak in some learning, at least for the younger kids whom I tutored, but in one pretty common example, as I was in a child's playroom leading her by the nose through her multiplication homework, her mom walked in to consult with me about the appropriate punctuation on the poem that she was composing for her child to turn in for her next day's English homework.

I earned buckets of money with that family, "helping" their younger daughter with her History Fair project (I designed a display board that had a giant cardboard cut-out of an original-style Coca-Cola bottle on one side and a contemporary Coca-Cola bottle on the other side, and in the middle had a wheel you could turn so that one window would pop up a year, and the other window would pop up a trivia fact about Coca-Cola from that year. At least the kid helped me with the construction!) and their older son with his Science Fair project (I designed a giant poster with cut-outs from magazines of popular icons and images, he did an experiment at school in which he timed kids looking at the poster and then recorded what they remembered, and then we did this big 3D bar graph out of spray painted Styrofoam rods to represent the results of the experiment). I spent entire weekend days with these children, eating restaurant take-out lunches with them, taking breaks to watch "Full House" re-runs with them, driving them to the big-box crafts store for more spray paint and Styrofoam, getting paid by the hour. They went to a fancy-pants private school in Ft. Worth, Texas, and I kid you not, out of an entire gymnasium full of elementary school projects, there was not a single one that looked like a child had even been allowed to touch it.

And that's why I can tell you that my absolute favorite thing about our homeschool academic fairs is that it's perfectly clear from looking at the displays--

--listening to the presentations--

--and watching the confidence of the children as they talk about their areas of expertise, and the pride on their faces as they show off their work, that these are kid-owned, kid-created projects.

And that's so much more empowering for the kiddos.

Earning the Girl Guides of South Africa Tourism Badge

Yes, you can wear a Girl Guide badge as a Girl Scout. But no, you cannot wear that badge on the front of your Girl Scout uniform. Even though both you and the Girl Guides of South Africa are members of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS, lol), you are not a member of the Girl Guides of South Africa.

Fortunately, Girl Scout uniforms have just the place for a "non-official" patch: the back! And that's how Will's brand-new Tourism badge from the Girl Guides of South Africa is now happily ensconced between her voting fun patch and the patch she earned for donating some of her fall product prizes to the sloths at the Indianapolis Zoo, instead, and on top of that Wildflowers of Ohio patch that we had so much fun earning back before the world went nuts.

I miss road trips!

I own a few Girl Guides of South Africa badges, but this is the first one that Will has worked through. I really love the different perspectives that another country's Girl Guide badges offer: the South Africa paddling badge is SO hard-core that I don't know how on earth I'm going to help Will earn it, and their baking badge, which the kids worked on this summer, required them to memorize enough terms to discernibly improve their cookbook literacy. 

The Tourism badge is one of the most interesting. It makes sense, because I'm sure that a LOT of tourists to South Africa take guided tours in some capacity during their visit, and when we were in Greece, our tour guide there, Militsa, told us just some of the strenuous education and certification required to be a Greek tour guide. It's an impressive career option if you live in a place with a thriving tourism industry, and it's just so interesting to me that it's a career that doesn't really exist in the same capacity, or nearly the same frequency, in the US. 

I rewrote the Tourism badge requirements a bit, but I couldn't decide if I wanted to treat the badge as a study of the way that international travelers view the United States, or as a useful primer on planning international travel of one's own... so I sort of did both. Here's my take on the badge:

GIRL GUIDES OF SOUTH AFRICA TOURISM BADGE

1. Browse through 2-3 US guide books marketed to visitors from outside the US (hint: search Overdrive for USA guide books!).

2. Make a list of qualities/characteristics/areas of expertise that a visitor from outside the US should look for in a tour guide.

3. Read and be prepared to discuss the following article: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/06/welcome-to-america-please-be-on-time-what-guide-books-tell-foreign-visitors-to-the-us/257993/

4. Research at least three tour companies and the group or guided tours that they offer. For each company, choose one tour that YOU would like to go on.
5. Create a chart that compares/contrasts the following information about each tour/tour company:

1. Cost of tour vs. value of tour (YOU determine what makes the tour a good value!)

2. Type of tour/quality of tour (eco tour, luxury tour, adventure tour, etc. Give each tour a category that you create!)

3. Tour amenities, evaluated on a scale that YOU determine based on what is important to YOU

4. sites/activities/adventures on each tour

5. Additional costs--is travel insurance included? Airfare? All meals or just some? Extra visas required?

6. You are a tour guide and have a visitor from overseas. Plan a 2-day trip around your state showing off its natural beauty, history, and culture.

• This trip should include several highlights and places to visit, including iconic sites, engaging activities, and interesting places to eat.

1. Sites to see and what they cost (eg. entrance fees)

2. Transportation and cost (are you driving and will need gas? Taking a bus or train? Uber?)

3. Restaurants and copies of their menus, if possible

4. Photos of places being visited, with appropriate attribution

5. Accommodations, their amenities, and costs

6. Itinerary/timetable for the trip, including accurate transportation times

1. Research a 10-day African tour for our Girl Scout troop.

• Include travel dates, costs, accommodation, modes of transport, destinations, etc.
• Write a complete and detailed itinerary, including the same information from Step 2.

1. Research the different types of passports and their costs.

• What information is required to apply for a passport?
• What countries might one travel to that have additional requirements?
• Find your own passport and examine it. When do you need to renew it?

For the comparison of tour companies, I was interested to see that Will chose to compare Greece tours. Very sensible, as the only time that we've taken a guided group tour was our trip to Greece! Here's some of her work:

PRICE vs. VALUE

1. Odysseys Unlimited Ancient Greece
• $385.15 per night. Meals included. 12 nights in fancy accommodations. Small group size. Many interesting sites. Good value.
• Athens monuments and museums, Delphi, ancient Corinth, Mycenae, Nafplion, Hydra, Heraklion, palace of Knossos, olive farm, Santorini town and sites.
2. Cosmos Greece and Aegean Islands Cruise
• $166.67 per night. Meals included. 14 nights in fancy accommodations. Unknown group size. Many standard sites. Good value. 
• Athens, Mycenae, Citadel of Mystra, Olympia, Delphi, Meteora, Aegean cruise, Ephesus, Patmos monastery, Rhodes, Heraklion.
3. Expat Explore Best of Greece
1. $163.75 per night. Meals included. 12 nights in acceptable accommodation. Large group size. Many standard sites. Neutral value.
2. Athens, traditional art workshop, Kalambaka, Delphi, Trizonia, Olympia, Mycenae, Nafplion, Mykonos, Santorini.

This turned out to be a useful project, because price vs. value is entirely dependent on your own priorities. Do you prefer to make your own way through a country, figuring things out on your own, or do you prefer having your itinerary and the details of travel arranged for you? What budget do you need to set, and what would you rather give up to meet that budget? What do you absolutely have to see, and what do you not give a flip about seeing?

Even though I always feel like I include the kids in my travel planning, I definitely make all of those price vs. value decisions for us, and I probably never even told them that we were deliberately staying in lousy hotels and eating packed groceries to save our budget for sightseeing, and we were wearing all our clothes and carrying just backpacks onto planes because the hundred bucks that we don't spend on checked luggage is the hundred bucks that we CAN spend on experiences. So it was interesting to see what Will prioritized--she seems to care more about hotels and meals than I do, but I was glad to note that what you get to see and do, and not just how comfy you are while you see and do them, is also important to her.

After that practice researching and evaluating other group tours, it was time to ask Will to create her own. Here's half of Will's 10-day African tour for a Girl Scout troop. We're going to explore Namibia!

Day 1:

10:00  Fly into Windhoek

           Rent a car

           Drive 30 minutes

11:00  Check into UrbanCamp.net

11:30  Visit National Museum of Namibia

           Eat at rooftop restaurant

           Drive 20 minutes

7:00  Have dinner at Xwama

         Drive back

Day 2:

9:00  Go to Lemon Tree for breakfast

         Drive 30 minutes

10:30 Go to Namibia Craft Center

           Drive 20 minutes

1:00  Horseback tour with Equitrails Namibia

         Drive 15 minutes

7:30  Dinner at Joes Beerhouse

Day 3: 

9:00  Check out

         Breakfast at Royal Kitchen and Take Away

         Drive 3 hours

1:00  Visit the Cheetah Conservation Fund

         Drive 40 minutes

7:30  Eat dinner at Crocodile Ranch

9:30  Check in to Out of Africa

Day 4:

9:30  Go to Bean Tree Cafe for breakfast

         Drive 2 hours

11:30  Erindi Private Game Reserve

2:30  Lunch at Camp Elephant

4:30  Erindi guided safari

7:00  Dinner at Camp Elephant

Day 5: 

9:00 Packed breakfast

11:30Drive back to Windhoek

Packed lunch

7:00 Take flight to next destination

I love that we're going to spend half the time glamping, and that we get to go horseback riding. It's a very whirlwind visit to Namibia, but I think it would work well combined with visits to at least one or two other countries in Africa--I mean, you're going to spend all that time just getting to Africa; might as well stay for a while!

This ended up being an interesting and unique badge to earn, with some practical, real-world activities that Will hadn't ever tried out before. You could argue that this Tourism badge, or at least the way that I rewrote it, is similar to the Senior Traveler badge, but I'd argue that while the purpose of the Senior Traveler badge is to plan an actual trip for the Senior Girl Scout to actually go on, this badge was a way for Will to dream big and research trips anywhere in the world, and in particular places that we definitely aren't going to anytime soon.

Although, to be fair, at this point in the pandemic we aren't even in the position to take that two-day tour of Indiana that Will planned for Step 4... One day, when we're all four vaccinated and safe to travel, may I never again take for granted our ability to actually go on the trips that we plan!

Here are some of the resources that we used for this badge:

Geography with Montessori Pin Flags

My own schooling in geography was woefully inadequate, so among the benefits of this rigorous study of geography that we've been enjoying is the fact that I'm finally learning my geography, too! Would you like to hear me recite the 53 countries of Africa?

I know, I know...it's much cuter when the seven-year-old rattles them off.

Obviously, the plan is to eventually cover the entire world, and we have been studying U.S. geography, as well, since the girls are interested, but seeing as Willow already has the names of the countries memorized, I'd like us to be able to physically locate them before we relegate Africa geography to regular practice and move on fully to new areas of interest.

I worked VERY hard a few weeks ago to build up enough of a surplus in my crafts/homeschool budget to purchase the entire pin flag and geography map collection from Montessori Print Shop. The prices are affordable enough to let me feel like I didn't have to do the design work myself to create my own pin flags and map keys from scratch, although I nearly reconsidered when I discovered that, although I could purchase all the  map keys I'd need as one bundle, I'd have to pick through the shop for nearly half an hour to find every individual pin flag set for every single continent and the United States--blech!

To use pin flags, you need a corkboard or foam core base, and a paper map to put on the base. The map package from Montessori Print Shop includes labelled and unlabeled, colored and blank maps. I printed and laminated one copy of the colored and labeled maps to use as a reference, and several copies of the blank labeled maps, because the girls enjoy coloring them in their correct map colors as part of their schoolwork.

To make the pin flags, you first need to print the flags (I did print ours in color, although coloring them in yourself would be another enjoyable, if lengthy, task). You cut each flag out, fold it in half--

--spread glue from a glue stick on one inside half of the flag, and also put a dot of Elmer's glue on both sides of a flat-headed sewing pin:

Fold the halves together, smoothing them over the pin--

--and repeat ad nauseum:

So far, we only have Africa and the United States completed, so I store both sets around the edges of the corkboard work surface. However, I do plan to eventually cut down a piece of corkboard to size, paint squares on it to delineate the area in which each pin flag set is to be placed, then cut a cardboard box to size so that the entire pin flag collection can be stored without poking anyone or getting in the way.

To play with the pin flags, lay the paper map flat on top of the corkboard work surface, and simply stick each flag where it belongs:

It's absorbing work, as you can see, and quite enjoyable. Although Willow has the names of the countries memorized, memorizing their locations this way, rather than in order along with the names as she recites them, will allow her to call up the location of a specific country without having to first get to it in the order of recitation.

In a more casual manner, as we organically begin to spend less time with Africa and more time with, say, United States geography, and the U.S. presidents, and Base Ten computation, we will also nevertheless begin to work on our ability to draw the continent of Africa, first by tracing it with dry-erase markers on a laminated map, and then by drawing it freehand with a model by our sides, and then by drawing it from memory.

Every Council's Own Girl Scout Fun Patch Program That Your Girl Scouts Can Earn from Anywhere: Geography and History

Welcome back to my very weird series in which I am listing, week by week, topic by topic, every single Council's Own Girl Scout fun patch program that your Girl Scouts can earn from everywhere!

My Girl Scout troop enjoys earning Council's Own fun patches, as well as official badges and retired badges. I usually look for a fun patch that they can earn in addition to a badge whenever we're planning a big project or a trip, etc. This list is essentially just my own research written down for easy reference.

This week's category: Geography and History! This category includes fun patches for geographical locations, if they can be earned not on site (I didn't include place-based fun patch programs that required specific location visits, since you can't earn those from anywhere), as well as fun patches for historical subjects and notable people of history. 

For this list, I only included fun patch programs that fit the following criteria:

1. Girl Scouts can earn this fun patch wherever they are. I did not include any fun patch programs that have site-specific criteria, unless I felt that those criteria would be easy to substitute and still maintain the point of the fun patch program. I also didn't include fun patch programs that require time-specific criteria that have already passed, such as patches programs designed for the 2020 COVID lockdowns. I noted in the description of each patch when substitutions would be required.
2. Girl Scouts can obtain the council's requirements to earn this fun patch. I found several instances in which the council still sells a specific fun patch, but has deleted all the requirements from its website. If I couldn't find an easy link to those requirements from another site, I did not include the patch.
3. Girl Scouts can obtain the physical fun patch. There were also several instances in which councils still host the requirements for a fun patch program, but no longer sell the patch (or, as in the case of a few GSAK patches, they have fewer than ten remaining). If it is unlikely for a Girl Scout to be able to obtain the fun patch, I did not include it. The link to purchase each fun patch is in the caption for its graphic.

GEOGRAPHY/HISTORY

100 Years of Votes for Women GSEWNI

100 Years of Votes for Women, Girl Scouts of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho. Learn about the history of women's suffrage and the importance of voting.

2020 Women's right to Vote Centennial GSMISTS

2020 Women's Right to Vote Centennial, Girl Scouts of Michigan Shore to Shore. Learn about the women's suffrage movement and the importance of voting. This fun patch program pairs well with any of the Democracy badges and the Junior Inside Government badge.

Africa to America USAGSO

Africa to America, USA Girl Scouts Overseas. Learn about Africa, Afro-French culture, and African-American culture.

Be a Partner: Sangam GSCM

Be a Partner: Sangam, Girl Scouts of Central Maryland. Learn about the WAGGGS center in India, and explore Indian culture. These WAGGGS fun patches pair well with any World Thinking Day activities.

Be a Partner: Our Cabana GSCM

Be a Partner: Our Cabana, Girl Scouts of Central Maryland. Learn about the Nuestra Cabana World Centre and Mexican history/geography/culture.

Be a Partner: Our Chalet, GSCM

Be a Partner, Our Chalet, Girl Scouts of Central Maryland. Learn about the Our Chalet World Centre and the history and culture of Switzerland.

Be a Partner: Pax Lodge GSCM

Be a Partner: Pax Lodge, Girl Scouts of Central Maryland. Learn about the Pax Lodge World Centre and the history and culture of England.

Be a Partner: Kusafiri GSCM

Be a Partner: Kusafiri, Girl Scouts of Central Maryland. Learn about the Kusafiri World Centre and topics in African culture and history.

Be a Partner: WAGGGS GSCM

Be a Partner: WAGGGS, Girl Scouts of Central Maryland. Learn about WAGGGS and explore the diversity of world cultures. 

Because of Her GSBDC

Because of Her, Girl Scouts of Black Diamond Council. Learn about the life of a different strong female role model every month. 

Black History Month GSK

Black History Month, Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana. Celebrate Black History Month by learning about Black role models. 

Civic Engagement Scavenger Hunt GSKSMO

Civic Engagement, Girl Scouts of Northeast Kansas and Northwest Missouri. Visit places important to local, state, and national civil life. This fun patch program could support enough field trips for an entire programming year for an active troop.

Civil Rights GSSA

Civil Rights, Girl Scouts of Southern Alabama. Learn more about the history of the Civil Rights Movement. This is a good fun patch program to fill a meeting during Black History Month or around Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, or in preparation for a field trip to a site important to Civil Rights history.

D-DAY 1944 Normandy USAGSO

D-Day 1944 Normandy, USA Girl Scouts Overseas. Answer questions to learn more about D-Day.

Discover Dubai USAGSO

Discover Dubai, USA Girl Scouts Overseas. View a Google Slides presentation, then answer questions.

Discovering Flight GSCCC

Discovering Flight, Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast. Answer questions to learn more about the history of flight.

Dolores Huerta GSHCA

Dolores Huerta, Girl Scouts Heart of Central California. Learn about the life of Dolores Huerta, and the importance of fighting racism. My favorite program activities are the ones that expose Girl Scouts to strong female role models! This one is particularly special, because it was created in collaboration with Dolores Huerta, herself!

Erie Canal Ecology GSWNY

Erie Canal Ecology, Girl Scouts of Western New York. Learn about the Erie Canal and its place in the ecosystem. This fun patch pairs well with the Ambassador Water badge.

European Castles and Palaces USAGO

European Castles and Palaces, USA Girl Scouts Overseas. Learn about some of the castles and palaces of Europe. This fun patch program could make a fun supplement to World Thinking Day activities.

Four Little Girls GSNCA

Four Little Girls, Girl Scouts of North Central Alabama. Learn about this sad but very important tragedy in Alabama and explore other aspects of Civil Rights history. You can find the Spike Lee documentary through various streaming services. 

Freedom Seekers, GSWNY

Freedom Seekers, Girl Scouts of Western New York. Learn about the Underground Railroad and the lives of those enslaved in North America before the Civil War. There are a couple of place-based requirements that you'll need to substitute, ideally with a field trip to an Underground Railroad location near you.

Freedom's Rites, GSWNY

Freedom's Rites, Girl Scouts of Western New York. Explore the history of suffrage and Civil Rights through these fun patch activities. This fun patch program pairs well with the Democracy badges.

Getting to Know the Desert GSACPC

Getting to Know the Desert, Girl Scouts of Arizona Cactus-Pines Council. Learn about the desert ecosystem of the American Southwest.

Girl Scout Birthday Week GSK

Girl Scout Birthday Week, Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana. Celebrate the founding of Girl Scouts with a week of fun activities.

Global Action Days GSCNWI

Global Action Days, Girl Scouts of Chicago and Northwest Indiana. Celebrate the international holidays that bring awareness to equity and diversity issues. This fun patch program is meant to be earned throughout the Girl Scout year, so is a good way to ensure ready-made programming for a few troop meetings.

Global Girl Scout GSOC

Global Girl Scout, Girl Scouts of Orange County. Become a global citizen while preparing for international travel. This fun patch program pairs well with international troop travel planning.

Historical Versailles, USAGSO

Historical Versailles, USA Girl Scouts Overseas. Research what Versailles was like when it was in official use.

Iroquois Confederacy, GSWNY

Iroquois Confederacy, Girl Scouts of Western New York. Learn about the Iroquois Confederacy, and its history and culture. There are a couple of place-based activities that you'll need to substitute, ideally with experiences relevant to the native peoples of your area.

Juliette Low GSNCA

Juliette Low, Girl Scouts of North Central Alabama. Learn about the founder of Girl Scouts by completing activities related to her life. This is a GREAT fun patch program to help you give Girl Scouts a comprehensive biography of Juliette Gordon Low. It would pair well with Girl Scout Week or her birthday.

Juliette Low World Friendship GSSWTX

Juliette Low World Friendship, Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas. Complete activities to learn more about other places and cultures.

Lighthouses GSSEF

Lighthouses, Girl Scouts of Southeast Florida. Learn about lighthouses, their history, and why many of them are in need of preservation. 

Mountain Mommas GSBDC

Mountain Mommas, Girl Scouts of Black Diamond Council. Learn about the Appalachian mountains and the cultural heritage of the Appalachian people through the lens of strong female role models like Dolly Parton and Barbara Kingsolver. This would be a really fun--and intense!!!--way to prepare for a trip to the region.

Our Volcano Neighbors GSOSW

Our Volcano Neighbors, Girl Scouts of Oregon and Southwest Washington. Learn about Mt. St. Helens and explore the field of volcanology. 

Paris Worlds to Explore USAGSO

Paris Worlds to Explore, USA Girl Scouts Overseas. Complete activities to learn more about Paris and French culture.

Past and Promise: The World of Me, GSMWLP

Past and Promise: The World of Me, Girl Scouts of Minnesota and Wisconsin Lakes and Pines. Become curious about your personal history and cultural heritage. This fun patch pairs well with the Journeys that focus on social-emotional issues, such as GIRLTopia and It's Your Story.

Religions around the World GSSWTX

Religions around the World, Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas. Complete activities to learn more about different religions.

Right to Vote GSCM

Right to Vote, Girl Scouts of Central Maryland. Learn about the history of voting rights and the importance of voting. This fun patch program pairs well with any of the Democracy badges and the Junior Inside Government badge.

Road Trip GSDH

Road Trip, Girl Scouts Dakota Horizons. Prepare for and entertain yourself during a road trip, while learning more about the geography you travel through. This fun patch program would be great to earn during a regional or national troop trip.

Scouting Our Past GSNETX

Scouting Our Past, Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas. Conduct a personal interview to learn more about the history of Girl Scouting.

Simone's Big Adventure GSGI

Simone's Big Adventure, Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa. Explore geographical and cultural activities from all seven continents.

Susan B. Anthony, GSWNY

Susan B. Anthony, Girl Scouts of Western New York. Explore the life and works of Susan B. Anthony. 

Two Nations, One Friendship USAGSO

Two Nations, One Friendship, USA Girl Scouts Overseas. Learn more about Paris and the relationship between France and the USA.

Women in Paris USAGSO

Women in Paris, USA Girl Scouts Overseas. Complete the activities to learn more about the lives of famous French and American women who lived in Paris.

Women's History Month GSK

Women's History Month, Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana. Celebrate Women's History Month by learning about strong female role models. 

WWII Remembrance, GSH

WWII Remembrance, Girl Scouts of Hawaii. Learn more about World War II and its particular significance to the people of Hawaii. 

A Year in the Life of Juliette GSBDC

A Year in the Life of Juliette, Girl Scouts of Black Diamond Council. Learn about the life of Juliette Gordon Low through a year's worth of themed activities. Use this for one low-prep troop meeting per month!

Here's a look at my complete fun patch series:

• Arts and Crafts
• Culture, Diversity, and Equity
• Games and Sports
• Geography/History
• Outdoors
• Practical Life Skills
• Reading and Writing
• Science
• Service Learning
• Social-Emotional Skills
• Technology, Engineering, and Math

Follow my Craft Knife Facebook page for more Girl Scout resources as I exhaustively compile them!