Tonight's Girl Scout meeting was working toward our eco-action badges. Our opener was making flower petal pledges with ideas about how they can make the world a better place in the next two weeks. Each time they turn an idea into an action, they get to glue one of the petals on the flower center. One of the girls went back to turn the kitchen light off as we went into the dining room for our activity and got to "earn" her first petal!
The main activity was making fabric shopping bags. I had them rotary cut already, so they just had to do the sewing. I'm always amazed at the things that are not intuitive to them. Everyone wanted to hold the fabric and pull it toward themselves as it tried to feed through the machine. I couldn't talk them out of playing "tug-of-war" with the feed dogs. We had four machines going and two chaperone's, so it was quite a busy night. All the bags got done, and I think they turned out quite nicely.
The girls were all very proud of their bags, but decided they didn't want to share them with their parents for grocery shopping. We watched a youtube video during snack time about the evils of plastic bags, and then another one for fun with a dancing man made out of 500 plastic bags, which is the average number we use in a year. I found another craft idea in my research about ironing plastic bags together in thick layers and using the laminate as "fabric" for bags. It sounds like a cool idea, but I'm not sure about the toxic fumes released by the heat and how they are for the environment. Today was an inservice day at school so it was one meeting after another. First CPR, then suicide prevention followed by sex ed and a book discussion. I scooted out just in time to meet the school bus and then started getting ready for the Girl Scout meeting. Now I need to settle down and get some tests graded before tomorrow. The kids always want them back as soon as possible. I'm supposed to be giving a lab practical as well, so I"d better to to work on that.
It sounds as if your Girl Scout meetings are such fun, and you are teaching them some very useful ideas too. I imagine Girl Scouts is a bit like Girl Guides here (Brownies for the younger girls, and Rainbows for the very youngest). The boys have Beavers, then Cubs, then Scouts. I believe that Scouting is supposed to be integrated now, but I think that many still prefer the separate groups.
ReplyDeletepressing pags into a laminated "fabric" is trickier then the age range of the girls you show in your group I think.... I've tried it a couple of times and getting the right temp to melt without warping/bubbling the bags is hard -- and then sewing it is really not a lot of fun as the plastic somehow doesn't feed nicely (maybe I need a teflon foot or to use parchment paper or soemthing... You could have the girls strip the bags and learn to crochet....
ReplyDeleteSuch cute little Girl Scouts!
ReplyDeleteGreat job on the bags,
ReplyDeleteOver here most supermarkets are trying to cut down on plastic bags,
Its good the Girl Scouts are doing this.
Well done,