Food Pyramid Magnets!

This is a project that I came up with, with the help of my awesome co-leader, to take the place of option #5 for the "Eat Right, Stay Healthy" Try-It. These are also a great recycle project for the girls! Start with 6 tops and bottoms from frozen juice cans. It's important to use this type because they are nice and smooth and have no risk of cutting a little one's fingers.

Using E6000 glue on some strong magnets, I prefer to just pay a little more to get a good quality magnet so they actually stay on the refrigerator. Glue them on the night (or sooner) before your meeting. The glue has toxic fumes and not good for pregnant women or children to breathe. Please, don't use hot glue, it is sure to pop off over time.

At the meeting, each girl should cut out pictures of food from ads and magazines for each of the six food groups; fats and sugars, proteins, veggies, fruits, dairy, and grains. Have the girls glue them into their lids and on top of the pictures glue the number of suggested servings per day.

Voila!

It's Cookie Time!!!

What perfect timing! I came across these on Oriental Trading Company as we were gearing up for cookie season. Every meeting, the girls run in the door and head straight for the table with the cookie games.

This is a Cookie Memory Game where the girls turn over two cards and hope for a match. If they don't match they turn them back over and try and remember where they were the next time their turn comes around. Whoever makes the most matches wins! I divided each set into two games because a full set was just too many for the girls to work with. This is a GREAT time filler! Easy clean-up too!http://http//www.orientaltrading.com/ui/browse/processRequest.do?demandPrefix=12&sku=60/7039&mode=Searching&erec=6&D=memory+game&Ntt=memory+game&Ntk=all&Dx=mode%2bmatchallpartial&Ntx=mode%2bmatchallpartial&N=0&requestURI=processProductsCatalog&sd=56+Pc.+Cookie+Matching+Game

Decorated Hair Ribbons

One of our recent craft projects was decorating hair ribbons. I came across some extra wide shoe laces at the flea market and my mom was so sweet as to give the troop her old fabric paints! Awesome!!!

Prep for this craft; cut cardboard or card stock into strips and tape them together end to end. Next, take some regular tape and roll it up on itself (you're basically wanting to make double sided tape) Stick the tape on the strip of cardboard and press the shoelace down on the tape. This makes it easy to move the shoelaces when they're still wet.

Then, let the girls decorate them with fabric paint.

Try-Its: Art to Wear

Sit Upons

For my first blog post ever, I figured I'd start with a favorite Girl Scout craft! It's called the Sit Upon because, well, you sit upon it!

To start, you need to find something soft for in the middle. There is guy at our local farmer's market that sells new, but irregular, foam. I chose a piece about 4ft by 6ft, and at one end measured roughly 2 inches and at the other end measured about 1 1/2 inches thick. I cut it into pieces that were 2 feet by 1 1/2 foot.

Next, you'll need something preferably waterproof so that the dew on the ground doesn't seep through when using it in the morning while camping.

I found a tablecloth material sold by the yard at Walmart for a great price!

Cut 2 pieces for each sit upon that you're making. Be sure to add 2 inches to each of the 4 sides. So if you used the measurements that I used for the foam you'll want to cut the tablecloth pieces 2 foot 4 inches by 1 foot 10 inches.

Place the foam between the two tablecloth pieces and punch holes around the perimeter of the sit upon.

Now here's a pretty neat and cheap idea to help the girls sew with the yarn! Make a needle out of a chenille stem (formerly called pipe cleaners). The only catch is that once you twist the end around itself make sure that the sharp point is pointing down, otherwise it will snag the tablecloth while sewing.

Total cost of project: $2.25

And there you have it!