Girl Scout Fun Ideas - April Edition

I've worked with Girl Scouts for nearly two decades (it really doesn't feel like that long!) and one of the things I loved most about having a Girl Scout troop was our holiday and seasonal activities. The ideas I share in these monthly posts are from a New Leader Booklet that was shared with me when I started leading Girl Scout troops in the early 2000s. Since our council (and as far as I know any other) no longer shares this information, I want to make it accessible on the internet. Enjoy!

Have a "Silly Party" to celebrate April Fools Day. Call the girls prior to the party and tell them to wear whatever they have on at the moment (a "come as you are" idea). Have everyone bring something "different" to share as the food part of the party. Then, exchange presents - a totally useless/tacky item from around the house, wrapped beautifully. Play goofy games and sign silly songs.

Talk a walk and notice all the spring time changes. Don't forget to take a trash bag with you to pick up any trash you find along the way.

Celebrate Earth Day. Talk about recycling, cutting up six-pack rings, waste from fast food, etc. Bury different waste products (lettuce, apple, plastic, paper, Styrofoam). Plan to dig them up in six weeks and then again in six months.

Make recycled paper. Tear up paper and put in water in a bowl to soften. (You can add a small amount of colored paper to color your finished product). Put softened paper in blend, pour out onto an open section of newspaper. Place a piece of window screen over it and squeeze out excess water with a board. Let dry for several hours. Make invitations to the Court of Awards ceremony on the recycled paper.

Make "food chain" - paper chains starting with one thing and each ring is something that east that thing. Play some nature games. Another activity that would go with the food chain is to watch The Magic School Bus Gets Eaten (it's on Netflix and SchoolTube). 

Make travel sit-upons for bringing to Camporee. Decorate a square of fabric with markers and laminate with clear contact paper. The sit-upon can be folded and carried in a pocket.

Talk about fire safety and practice fire building with edible camp fires. Have the girls tie back hair and check for clothing that might dangle into the fire. Give out paper napkins (fire circle) and clear clear with a fork (rake). Make woodpile by stacking wood according to size (coconut - tinder, pretzels - kindling, and tootsie rolls -fuel). Fill cup with beverage (water bucket) and have a straw (poker). Check for wind direction (back should be to wind). Add two "mini-handfuls" of coconut tinder. Make an "A" with kindling in center of fire circle. Place red-hot (fire starter) under top bar of "A". Put candy corn (match) on fire starter to light. Add more candy corn (flames) and add more kindling and tootsie rolls (fuel). Put flames out by sprinkling from fire bucket (sip). Eat everything so you leave a clean fire circle.

April 6 is North Pole Day - a celebration of Arctic wilderness. Do some activities with magnets, discovering polarity. Learn how to use a compass.

April 7 is World Health Day. Is there a service project your troop could become involved with that promotes good health? Perhaps you could hold a drive to collect hygiene products to send to people in need. Tuck toiletries such as soaps, shampoos, razors, toothbrushes, toothpaste, face cloths, etc into a pair of new socks and tie with a ribbon. Perhaps you could even include gift cards for fast food chains as well. Donate to a homeless shelter.

April 14 is National Dolphin Day, to remember all sea creatures. Take part in a beach clean up or learn about sea creatures. Eat goldfish crackers and do a craft with fish.

Celebrate Spring! Decorate a pot with rubber stamps paint and plant a pretty flower.

Make butterflies with tissue paper twisted in the middle with a pipe cleaner or a clothespin.

Have a She and Me game day at a local park. You could have teams of girls and their adults taking part in different activities like three-legged races, egg toss, etc.

Initiate a book swap. 

Learn some simple facts about women scientists, Then put the name of one scientist on the back of each girl and let her go ask yes/no questions to figure out who she is. Only one question asked of each person!

Plant trees for Arbor Day!

Make a collection of tree leaves. Arrange the leaves carefully between sheets of newspaper or blotting paper and press them under bricks or books for several days. Mount the leaves neatly on sheets of poster board or drawing paper. Label each leaf with the name of the tree. Make sets to show which are deciduous and which are conifers or make plaster casts of leaves.

Hello April!

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils...
 - from 'Daffodils' by William Wadsworth

Monthly Celebrations
International Guitar Month
Mathematics Education Month
National Garden Month
Keep America Beautiful Month
Month of the Young Child
National Humor Month
Autism Awareness Month
National Poetry Month
Month of the Military Child
National Child Abuse Prevention Month
Kite Month

Weekly Celebrations
National Library Week (third full week)
National Bike Safety Week (third full week)
National Volunteer Week (third full week)
National Week of the Ocean (third full week)

Daily Celebrations
April 01: April Fool's Day
April 01: Jump in a Mud Puddle Day
April 02: International Children's Book Day
April 02: World Autism Day
April 03: Washington Irving (1783)
April 04: Martin Luther King Jr Assassination Day
April 05: National Dandelion Day
April 06: National Tartan Day
April 06: First Modern Olympics held in Greece (1896)
April 07: World Health Day
April 08: Passover Begins
April 08: Buddha's Birthday
April 09: National Library Day
April 09: National Unicorn Day
April 10: National Sibling Day
April 10: Good Friday
April 11: National Pet Day
April 12: Beverly Cleary's Birthday (1916)
April 12: Easter
April 13: National Scrabble Day
April 14: National Dolphin Day
April 14: Sinking of the Titanic
April 15: Leonardo DaVinci's Birthday (1452)
April 16: Wilbur Wright's Birthday (1867)
April 16: Charlie Chaplin's Birthday (1889)
April 17: Ellis Island Family History Day
April 17: National Haiku Poetry Day
April 18: World Heritage Day
April 20: Volunteer Recognition Day
April 21: World Creativity and Innovation Day
April 22: Earth Day
April 22: Girl Scout Volunteer Appreciation Day
April 23: William Shakespeare Day
April 23: Ramadan Begins
April 24: Arbor Day
April 25: World Penguin Day
April 26: Audubon Day
April 27: Morse Code Day
April 28: Great Poetry Day
April 29: Zipper Day
April 30: Adopt a Shelter Pet Day

Peanut Day

March is National Peanut Month, a time to honor the peanut and it's most popular product, peanut butter. Choose any day during March to celebrate. Besides doing the activities listed below, you might wish to plan a few peanut games. For example, have a Peanut Toss, a Peanut Hunt, or have a Peanut Race and let the kids push peanuts across the floor with their noses. Follow up by providing handfuls of peanuts for counting, shelling, and tasting.

Peanut Shell Collages

Use this activity to recycle peanut shells saved from the other activities in this unit. Cut peanut shapes from heavy brown paper bags or brown construction paper. Pour glue into shallow containers and set out bowls of peanut shells. Then let the kids dip the shells (rounded side up) into the glue and then place them all over their peanut shapes.

The Peanut Plant

Explain that although we think of peanuts as nuts they really belong to the same family as peas and beans. Then use the following poem to help children understand how peanuts grow.

Up through the ground the peanut plant grows,
(Crouch down near floor)
Peeking out its little green nose.
(Slowly start to rise)

Reaching, reaching for the sky,

(Raise arms above head)
Growing, growing, growing high,
(Stand on tiptoe)

Then the flower starts to grow,

(Make a circle with arms)
Bur it doesn't grow up! Not it! Oh, no!
(Shake head)
Down it goes, sending shoots underground,
(Bend over and touch floor with fingers)
And there grow the peanuts, plump and round!
(Kneel and pretend to dig up peanuts)

Children can also color and label the parts of peanut plant on this printable resource.

Homemade Peanut Butter

Let the children help shell a package of unsalted roasted peanuts. Then have them grind the peanuts in a food grinder. Mix the ground nuts with 1/4 softened margarine and add salt to taste. Serve on crackers, apple slices, or celery sticks. Or, for a special treat, spread on slices of whole-wheat toast and top with warm applesauce.

Variation: Make peanut butter in a blender, using 1 to 3 tablespoons vegetable oil for each cup of peanuts.

 Printable Activities

Iditarod Begins!

The Iditarod is a dog trail race through the state of Alaska that begins in early March each year.

You can track this multi-day race on a state map and take the opportunity to learn about the culture of the inhabitants of Alaska.

Here are a couple of maps that you might find helpful.

This printable mini book would be a great addition to an Iditarod lapbook!

Here's a great activity for kids to do to learn more about the Iditarod and the path it takes.

Perhaps your kids would enjoy making their own paper versions of a dog sled team. Here are two options - a simple version from Scholastic Teachables and a complex version from Woo Jr. When creating the simple version, you can print multiple pages of the dogs and then connect the dogs to the sled using yarn (wrap around the dogs to look like a harness and then string together and attach to the front of the sled).

And here is a craft to create your own dog sled using craft sticks and fuzzy stems.

If you want to expand your Iditarod learning, you might want to adapt the Iditaread challenge. It was originally provided by School Life in 2013 but you could easily use the resources and alter the date to the current year (and if you find more updated resources, please let me know).

You can learn more about the Iditarod and Alaska from the Enchanted Learning website. This site has some free information and a lot of resources available for subscribers.

Want even more great Iditarod ideas? Jen over at Teaching in the Tongas has some great ideas and resources for your Iditarod unit - check her out!

If you want another great resource for learning about the state of Alaska, try this free unit study from Marcy over at her homeschooling blog Ben and Me.

It's easy to tie in many different subjects in your study of the Iditarod - here are some math resources from Education World that incorporate the Iditarod theme.

Newspaper Education Month

The first full week of March is Newspapers Education Week. The celebration can be found at the Republican Herald's Website.

If you are looking for other ideas to use newspapers in your educational adventures, here are some additional ideas.

Find the Word Part
When I was in second grade our teacher had oodles of wonderful morning work activities for us (way before the days of Pintrest, this lady had it down). One of those activities was get an 1/8 sheet of newspaper (she would cut these down for us) and highlight all of the word parts of the day - for example we might be looking for all -ing words. This was one of my favorite activities because we got to read the news snippets AND we got to use the teacher's special highlighters. Other ideas of things to look for with this activity are words with a particular vowel sound, compound words, words in past, present or future tenses, possessives, plurals, and parts of speech.

Explore Geography
Have the kids find stories that illustrate each of the five themes of geography - location, place, human interaction and the environment, movement and communications, and regions. Display the stories on a bulletin board or have the group make a video or slideshow to present.

Make Your Own Newspaper
Once kids have had a chance to explore the newspaper, they might like to create their own. Here are a few resources you can print and use to create your own newspaper with your class or at home.