This is the last in my series of Girl Scout Activities I planned for a Girl Sports Night. Today, I’m going to give you all the details of the activities and plans and such, so if you would like to plan a similar event for your troop you have a great starting place.
As I have mentioned in my other posts about this event, we belong to a large (60 girls) multi-level troop. We have all levels of Girl Scouts (Daisy, Brownie, Junior, Cadette, Senior and Ambassador). In order to plan an event for all the levels in which badges could be earned, it took a bit of planning, reading through requirements, and picking what we would work on at each station towrad various requirements for each level. I want to show you what I put together.
Now, let me just say right here that I have the best main leader! She totally LOVES Girl Scouts and is in it for the girls! We couldn’t ask for a better leader for our troop. One of the things that she always says to me, both for this event and for my work as a Daisy leader, is that there are no Girl Scout police. Whether that applies to my putting some part of the uniform patches in the wrong place or using requirements for one level and piecing together an event in which all the levels could earn a badge. See, with the new Girl Scout badges, it has gotten increasingly difficult to have big troop events like this and let all the levels earn a badge. The requirements for the same badge or badge category just don’t match up from one level to the other.
For this event, I looked through the requirements for the Brownie, Junior and Cadette badges in the same badge category (ours was a Legacy badge in the category: Athlete). I tried to fit in as many of the actual requirements as I possibly could, but where things didn’t match up we went with the overall theme and main point of the badge rather than the legalistic view that we must hit every single detail. I know some people will disagree with this philosophy. However, I think we have to remember that this is for the girls. They had a great night, learned a lot, had fun and I am certain they got the point for the badge they earned. They also had the opportunity to try some of the things that were either for above their level or below their level. It gave them some variety. Lastly, on this business side of things, the Cadettes were not able to complete all their requirements in one night and have 2 things left to complete. This is totally normal for that level. They just need to do more in order to complete a badge.
As I told you in my Event Organization post about the event, it was really easy for the volunteers to help me get things set up.
That’s a lot of water! We had the sharpies out for each girl to label her bag and water bottle.
Next up, each girl got her goal and score keeping heart. The girl sports night that I planned was on Valentine’s Day. I made all the printable items to add some cuteness to the night and make sure the girls felt like there was some Valentine’s Day fun in our event. I showed you all the printables in my post: Girl Scout Activities {Free Printables}. You can download them for your own or for troop use.
In the post I did about the event organization, I told you about how I put everything for each station in a bag and that we ended up using the bags with balloons to mark where the stations were in the building. We meet in an elementary school and used the hallway, cafeteria and one classroom. The bags with balloons made it easy to find each station.
Snowflake was ready, willing and able to help. I think she was proud of me for planning and putting together this event. She and Pumpkin were huge helpers to me! Thank you girls!
Pumpkin and her friend Rainbow Girl ready to show the world how strong they are! I think they are ready for Girl Sports night! Rainbow girl’s mom is the one who took all these fantastic pictures for me at the event. I knew I wouldn’t have the time and she is a great photographer and was willing to help me out! Thanks so much, Kati!
After our main troop leader started our meeting with the pledge, promise, law and announcements, I took over. During my talk, I publicly thanked my girls. They were so incredibly helpful in getting things together I wanted everyone to know. I also gave them cute little lollipop bouquets. Finally, I made sure the girls knew what the rules were for the evening. I also made sure they knew their group walker. In case you are not familiar with this idea, I had one volunteer for each level that was a ‘walker.’ That means they are with that level and guide them to each station at the appointed time. They also help when needed at the station.
We were working to earn the following badges: Brownie, Fair Play; Junior, Practice with Purpose; Cadette, Good Sportsmanship. The Daisy level will either get an activity patch or earn the Brownie Try-It. The Senior and Ambassador levels were not in attendance at this meeting.
At each station, I had a famous or semi-famous female athlete about which the girls learned. Of course we varied what they learned by level. This was part of the Cadette Good Sportsmanship badge. They were to learn about a female athlete who’s a great competitor. Instead of just one, they got to learn about four.
Station #1 was our Basketball station. At this station, the focus was on setting goals and drilling for skill. Both of these are from the Junior level badge. The girls were to decide on a goal related to dribbling a basketball and write it down on their goal card. Then they got time to drill or practice and time to see if they could achieve their goal.
They also got a chance to try some hoop dunks. This is a fun activity from our Family Time Fitness curriculum using a hula hoop and a basketball to teach kids how to dunk a ball. By the way, Family Time Fitness, now has some new modules for families and for running (instead of only homeschool). They look really neat. I can’t wait to get a look at them.
Station 2 was our Martial Arts station. A parent from our troop owns a Martial Arts studio and volunteered to run this station. The focus was on being a good competitor. This is a requirement from the Cadette badge and ties in very nicely with martial arts.
Station 3 was the games station. The focus here was on following rules, putting your definition of good sportsmanship into action, and being part of a team. Requirements from the Brownie, Cadette and Brownie levels, respectively.
At this station the girls played a game (from the Brownie badge book) called Human Knot. This was part of the requirement as well as them working together as a team to finish the game. For one rotation, we had the Daisy’s and the Cadettes together at this station. That way, the Cadettes were able to get one of their requirements for their badge, which was to play with little kids. They were to help them out and see if their definition of good sportsmanship changed or if they think it is different with other age groups. You can see that pictured above.
Station 4 was the Olympic/Girl Scout Field day station. The focus of this station was to keep score, include everyone, practice, and define good sportsmanship. These are requirements from the Brownie, Brownie, Junior and Cadette levels.
At this station, with the Cadettes, we discussed what good sportsmanship is in a little deeper level. With everyone, we talked about how they wanted to keep score. Each level voted on their own way to keep score with the 2 different activities. We also talked about ways to include everyone in sports activities. At one level we even had a little girl with a hurt ankle. She was not allowed to run, so we had to come up with adaptations so she could be included. Great example of exactly what they were supposed to learn!
Then we moved on to the activities. At this station, we had a 50 yard dash, which was really shorter than that because we had to use the space we had. We also had a long jump activity for the girls. They got to write down their score for both of these activities. They also got to practice at the long jump before doing their final jump. We had planned to have a discus/ badge throw (I have a flat fabric Frisbee that I enlarged a badge to fit and taped it to the front for the “badge throw”). Most levels didn’t get to do this activity as we ran out of time.
Rainbow girl learned that she really liked basketball!
Finally, our whole night filled the Brownie requirement to have a field day. Whew! It was a busy night.
In theory our stations were going to be 20 minutes each. We got a little bit of a late start so each station ended up being about 15 minutes. I would have loved for each station to be 20-25 minutes. It also would have worked to spread this event out over two nights. As it was, I think the girls got a bit more talking than action. I’m glad that the volunteers made sure to get the talking points in and to get the requirements done. I also know it would have been nice to have had a little longer so the girls could have had more time with the activity portion.
Part of that is my fault. I always plan more than is possible to do. I do that so if something totally bombs, you have back up plans and such. I forgot to tell the volunteers that and for them to make sure to just do what they could or the talking and to make sure they got the activities in as well. So, if you plan a night like this, either allot more time or try to spend half of the time at each station on the talking and half on the activities.
All in all, I would say it was a super successful event. I want to thank all the parents who volunteered in planning, setting up, running station, walking with the groups, and helping clean up. I couldn’t have done it without you. I also want to say a huge thank you to my girls…you rocked it with helping Mommy! Lastly, Thank you Kati for taking the fantastic pictures, I really appreciate it! You did such a great job it made it hard to pick pictures for the blog post.
Have you ever planned an event for a large group of kids? What tips and advice do you have for others? Any Girl Scout leaders with tips or advice? I would love to hear it.
Fab event!
I already posted that I was planning to adapt it for my Brownies and Guides (the UK has different badge requirements!) ….reading this has made me even more determined to try and get it going!
HUGE thanks for such a detailed post!
“Kanga” -A Guider of 20 years! 🙂
I’m so glad that you found it so helpful! If you need any further information in order to plan your event, I’m happy to share. Just email me and let me know. Hope it goes off really well for you!
Take care,
KC
Fun event!!!
Thanks!
KC
What a fun event! Love all the stations. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Thanks! We had a great evening.
KC
Looked like so much fun! Thank you for sharing *(-:
It sure was! Thanks so much for stopping by and reading.
KC
Hello. Thank you for sharing this field day event. I am a leader of a multilevel troop (Daisies thru Cadettes) in Djibouti, Africa . I really like all the stations and printable that you posted on your website. Our troop is working on the Athlete badges this month. I have copied the station activities from your website. Would it be possible for you to send me the information sheets that you had for each station? And the names of the women athletes.
Have a great day.
Thank you so much! I’m so glad you have found it helpful. I’m checking to see if I still have the files. I will email you directly if I still have them. Fingers crossed I can find them. 🙂