Juniors 2009-10

We hope everyone had a great summer! School starts next week, but Girl Scouts does not start until September 15. This year we will meet on Tuesdays after school, not Mondays, so mark your calendars. The troop calendar is updated to reflect this change.
If you have not already visited either the GS Western OK shop or website to purchase your uniform and handbook, here is a breakdown of the costs and items.

Item	$
Vest	$15.75
Troop #'s	$3.75
US flag	$1.75
Insignia tab	$2.50
GSWOK	$4.00
GS Pin	$2.00
* handbook	$10.95
* badge book	$11.95
**hand/badge books	$21.50

*Badge book alone has description of Junior Badges
*Handbook alone is not recommended
** package of both Handbook & Badge Book is the best deal to keep track of badges completed, information on Girl Scouting and Junior requirements.

Basically if you would like both books, a vest and the basic emblems it will be $51.25 plus tax.

Are you ready to discover your power? Are you ready to see how this power can make a change in the world?
We hope you are ready and excited to discover this power that you resides within you!
This year we will become "Agents of Change"!
The troop will purchase these books for you.

In addition to this journey, we will accomplish a number of badges. If you have any particular badges that you would like to do as a troop, please let us know.

We are excited to take this journey of Girl Scouting with you. We will see you Tuesday, September 15 after school at CrossTimbers for our 1st meeting of this school year.

Books Badge

We will meet at Edmond Public Library to complete the Books badge. We will try to make the meeting times for the summer some time during the 2nd week of the month.
For June, we will meet at Shannon Miller Park, just in front of the library on Wednesday, June 10 at 10AM for about 40 minutes. We will complete 6 of the requirements during the meeting. Please bring a gently used book(s) to donate to a local organization. (Troop will decide who will receive the books)

Books
Complete any six of the following requirements to earn this badge:

1. It's a Wide World
   Read two fold tales, stories, or poems from a culture other than your own. Share what you have learned in any of the following ways:
   - Act out one or more of the stories or folk tales.
   - Learn more about one or more of the writers.
   - Read one of the stories, poems, or folk tales to your Girl Scout group or another audience.
   - Create puppets and put on a puppet show, based on one of the stories, for a group of younger children or Girl Scouts.

2. Picture This!
   Select one or tow picture books and do one of the following:
   - Read the books to younger friends or Girl Scouts. Ask what they like about the illustrations and the stories.
   - Create two book covers to go with your selected books.
   - Create your own picture book in the same style.

3. Be a Tape Worm!
   Make an audiotape of a book, short story, magazine article, joke or riddle collection, play or poetry collection that you can give to someone who cannot read. You could, with your troop or group, make tapes at a local agency that service people who are blind or visually impaired. Practice reading aloud so that your tape will sound polished and smooth.

4. Be a Reading Helper
   Some children and adults have trouble reading. Find out from a reading specialist, teacher, librarian, or another adult about different types of reading difficulties or disabilities. Then, with the help of adults as needed, do one of the following:
   - put together and distribute a list of places to go in your community for reading help. This information is available at most libraries.
   - be a reading buddy. find out where you can help a younger child who is learning to read or having trouble reading. check with your teacher or leader, or ask your librarian if there are literacy or reading organizations in your community. volunteer to spend at least one-half hour a week for alt least a month with a reading partner.

5. The Living Past!
   When you read about something that happened a long time ago, you make the event come alive again in your mind. Read a story poem, or folk tale that reflects past life in the united States.

6. Read and Review
   In a newspaper or other source, read review of new books for your age level. Check one of the books out of the library, read it, and decide if the review was right.

7. How To? Read On!
   Become an expert in a subject by reading about it. You might read about the subject mater of another badge in this book. For example, read a book about dance, music, the life of a famous woman artist or sports hero, horses, cooking, the environment, or an historic event. Review the book in writing or discuss it with your troop or family.

8. Build a Library
   Share your love of reading with others in your community in one of two ways:
   - Set up a schedule with other Girl Scout members to bring library books in large print, in Braille, or on tape to someone who will enjoy them.
   - With the help of an adult, collect books and magazines for specific age levels and donate them to a library, camp, nursing home, youth shelter, pediatric office, clinic, day-care center, or other facility.

9. Books for Life
   Find out about careers for people who like books. If you can, visit with an author, poet, illustrator, editor, librarian, bookstore owner or book publisher or invite any of those professional to visit your troop or group.

10. Your Library's Treasures
    Explore your local library's resources. Prepare poster to encourage greater use of the library, or an advertising flyer to let the community know about all the library's treasures. Some libraries sponsor readings by local poets and authors, or concert series. What kinds of classes or lectures are available at yours?

And the Winner is . .. . .

Junior Badge & Animals!

You voted to earn another Jr Badge. A part of the requirements for the "United we Stand" badge was the flag ceremony. Another was the Pledge of Allegiance and learning a patriotic song. At the flag retiring ceremony we sang God Bless America & TAPS. We will sing them both again at our Bridging Ceremony.

God Bless America

God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home

Complete the requirement below and bring with you next Monday, May 4:

The American flag isn't the only American symbol. Find out about two other American symbols and what they stand for. Share with your troop.

Now to the Animal part - You voted with your pennies for the social or environmental action project that you all researched and the winner was ANIMALS with feeding children a close second then babies and education. We will find a local animal no-kill shelters to help, such as Free to Live. If you have thoughts or suggestions, please post in the comments for all to see.

Retiring Flag Ceremony

Monday, April 13, Troop 840 retired 2 US flags. The Brownies performed a traditional Girl Scout Flag Retiring Ceremony. We learned the significance of the symbolism of our flag as well as the importance of retiring flags with dignity and respect.

We cut each of the stripes to lay them on the fire one by one

“When the flag of our country has become worn or damaged, the proper way to dispose of it is through burning or burial. We are here to pay our last respects to these particular flags with love and reverence.

7 red stripes and 6 white stripes; Each strip stands for one of the 13 colonies that gained us liberty. The red stripes remind us of the lifeblood of the brave men & women who were ready to die for this, their country.

The white stripes remind us of the purity and cleanliness of purpose, thought, word and deed.

Each of the 50 states is represented by a star on a field of blue. The blue is for truth and justice, like the eternal blue of the star filled heavens.

We cut these flags with respect and will place them stripe by stripe on the fire.

The 1^st stripe stands for Delaware, then Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island” (adapted from the GSA handbook)

The field of Blue with white starts, which stands for all states was burned last and laid on the fire with 2 scouts holding the corners.


We ended the ceremony with God Bless America.
All 12 members of Brownie Troop 840 were present for this event. We thank Oak Cliff Fire Department for assisting us in the burn and Meme & Papa Akin (Raven's Grandparents) and Mr & Mrs Harris (Kesha's Parents) for the flags that we retired.

Water we to do?

Now that we know that the world is in a water crisis, "Water" we to do about it??

We will be exploring this issue over the next few weeks and discover ways to take action to help be a solution to the problem.
Here's some links to explore:

• Bottle or Tap?
• EPA Kid Stuff
• Refill not Landfill
• GO GREEN Stainless Steel Water Bottle - GREAT DEAL!!!

For about the same price (or less if you go to the REI link above and order the bottle that is less than $7) of a case of "disposable" water bottles, you can have fresh, cool water all of the time in a reusable bottle. (Ask Mom or Dad before trying to order it!)
Think of ways that you can do good for the environment. How can you be a part of the solution? The plastic that we "throw away" ends up in the oceans and land fills does not go away. It affects us all.
Think of ways that you can make simple changes in your daily life. Write down your ideas and things you do or are going to start doing and bring to share on Monday.
If you have not already received the reuseable shopping bag from me, you will. It is one of your rewards for being "green" Girl Scouts and successfully selling cookies this year. When store clerks ask you now "paper or plastic?" You can confidently answer "neither."

If you want to look into other types of these bags - check out:
ReusableBags.com.
The one that you will receive is a Brown to Earth Bag Co reusable shopping bag.

Changing the world One Girl, One Day, One Action at a time!

Thank You for YOUR support!

Troop #840 Thanks ALL of our customer for supporting Girl Scouts!

Keep up with our troop with this Blog. Send us your ideas for projects any time.

We can change the world.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle


Troop #840 is a green Brownie Troop where we

One Day, One Action, One Brownie at a time.
Thank you for your support!