Sk8 Away

SK8 Away

Girls from Troops 7006 and 7077 at Christ the King School spent the day celebrating the end to Christmas break by roller skating.  These girls have worked really hard this year and were rewarded with a skating party.  For some, this was the very first time they had skated and most of them had only skated a handful of times.  All of them did great and it was nice seeing the girls conquer their fear of skating and practicing their new skills. 

Girl Scout Christmas Party

Girl Scouts singing Christmas carols at the Manor

The last day of school before Christmas break is always a fun one for the Girl Scouts at Christ the King school.  The girls have 1/2 day of school and then spend some time with each other having a Christmas party!  This year the Girl Scouts decorated Christmas cards for people at the Topeka VA hospital and then went across the street to sing Christmas carols at the Manor.  The Girl Scouts have a great time singing and sharing joy, they already looking forward to doing it again this year! 

My Promise My Faith

On Saturday, Dec. 3rd, we worked on My Faith, My Promise badge. A sister from Leavenworth talked about the Three C's. They are considerate , caring , and courageous. You can't be one of the three C's without the other.  We made symbols of our faith out of clay . We also decorated lunch bags for Coritas Corner in Topeka. I believe we decorated close to a thousand.

It was a great experience and I enjoyed my day.

--Abby

Sister Vicki, from Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, came to talk to the Girl Scouts of Christ the King.  She focused her talk about one of the lines from the Girl Scout Law, Considerate and Caring.  She explained that each and every girl brings something different to the group.  She used different colors of clay to demonstrate this.  By taking three different colors and folding them over each other, you get a marble effect.  This showed that sometimes when girls work together their different strengths are molded into what they are working on.  Each girl brings something to the project and by working together they can create a beautiful piece of work.  

Another activity that the girls did was decorate brown paper bags that will be used at Coritas Corner.  This is a place that it here in Topeka next to Let's Help and Catholic Charity.  The workers and volunteers put together a sack lunch for others in need.  The girls decorated bags that are used with Christmas praise, happy thoughts, and so many other positive pictures.  As the girls get older, they hope that they can help make sack lunches that will be passed out!  

 Considerate, caring and courageous....just three little words that have a huge impact on what Girl Scouts focus on!

Harvesters

On Oct. 31, 1860 Girl Scout founder, Juliette Gordon was born.  She founded Girl Scouts 1912 here in the US.  One of the beliefs that Juliette instilled on girls from the beginning, is the commitment to help others.  Today, Oct. 29th, Christ the King Girl Scouts and fellow troop 4306, spent some time at Harvesters.  There the younger Girl Scouts colored and decorated bags that will be used at Harvesters when they take meals to people who are in need.  The older Girl Scouts spent a couple of hours sorting out and repackaging 4,141 lbs. bread that is being sent out around the area to help other food panties.   Girl Scouts collected food items to bring to Harvesters, CTK girls brought in 156 lbs and Troop 4306 brought in 213 lbs.

Energy

Did you know that if you wanted to learn a little about how power travels from the power plants to your home, you could visit Kanza Education and Science Park right here in Topeka!

Our two Brownie troops took advantage of visiting the park to earn their Energy badge.  Westar in partnership with the Topeka Public Schools, build this center so students can learn more about the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).  They also visited the wind turbine that is located there at the park.  This allows students to learn about renewable energy and conservation.

My Girl Scout troop #3715 went to Westar Energy on Saturday, Oct. 22.  We learned how electricity travels to homes and businesses. We also got to see a wind turbine, it was really big.  The trip was a lot of fun.

written by Alaina, 3rd grade Brownie

Topeka Zoo

"The Junior Girl Scout went to the Topeka Zoo and did the Twilight tour on Oct. 21st.  It started at the Rain forest.  After looking around, we went to a room at the back of the Rain forest and saw how they prepare food for the animals.  We saw lots of other animals through out the zoo like giraffes, bears, tigers and lions.  The Twilight tour at the zoo was a blast!" - Rosalia, 4th grade Junior

The 4th grade Junior Girl Scouts worked on the Animal Habitat badge.  Some of the steps to earning this badges are; 1. Find out about wild animals, 2. Investigate an animal habitat, 3. Create an animal house, 4. Explore endangered habitats, and 5.  Help protect animal habitats.

When we toured the zoo at night, we saw how many of the animals do different things within their habitats than they do during the day.  The owls were more "talkative" at night and were closer to the fronts of their enclosures.  The bats swooped all over the place, many of us had to dunk otherwise we would have had bats in our hair!  We also didn't realize how much space is behind the scene at the Rain forest.

After visiting the zoo, Emily did a short presentation on Fairy Penguins.  They are one of the smallest penguins and live off the coast of New Zealand.  We found out during the research that many penguins had gotten hurt from oil that has been spilled into the ocean.  To help the penguins recover after being cleaned, they are outfitted in a little knit sweater!  This is to help keep them from picking at their feathers and ingesting the oil.  Who knew that penguins were fashionistas!

After cookie season this winter, we voted on going to a rescue horse ranch south of Topeka.  There they take in horses that are sick or needing new homes.  We hope to raise a lot of donation money so we can give to the horse ranch to help take care of all of the horses.

This badge was a lot of fun for the girls to do.  They all have a special place in their hearts for animals!

Rome Sweet Home

Our CTK Girl Scouts helped again this year at Rome Sweet Home.  The younger girls had a great time helping people carry their trays to tables, picking up trash and wiping down tables.  The older girls helped clear the gym of tables and chairs for Mr. Russell.  The Daisy girls had such a great time helping people, that they didn't want to go back outside to play!  The older Girl Scouts got a lot of compliments for their teamwork clearing out the gym. Community service is one of the Girl Scout foundations that we strive do to our best at.  We are looking forward to helping again next year!

Sit Upons

A tradition in Girl Scouts is to make what is called a Sit-Upon. What is a sit-upon? They are homemade, usually waterproof pads used to protect the user's backside from the cold and damp while "sitting upon" the ground! They are also great for sitting any where the sitting surface is hard... a Girl Scout tradition for camping.  We made ours with vinyl table cloth, newspaper and duck tape.  The girls were able to decorate with markers and stickers to make theirs a little more unique.  

Junior Girl Scouts taught the Daisy's to make their first Sit-Upon

Aviation day

On October 1, 2016 we attended Girls in Aviation Day/Fly Kansas at Forbes Field. 

We started the day at the Museum of the Kansas National Guard.  There we listened to two female helicopter pilots, two female KC-135 tanker pilots and a female crew chief for the KC-135.  We also did a STEM project about the forces of flight.  We also got to walk through the museum and look at the equipment on display outside.  Just before lunch we moved over to the Combat Air Museum.  We listened to the Governor and state transportation officials about Kansas’ part in aviation history.  They spoke about the contributions that women have made in Kansas aviation.   There were many planes and helicopters to look at.  There was even a hot air balloon.  There were two female Air Force pilots that flew in from Oklahoma to talk to us.  One flew the biggest airplane the USAF has, the C5.  Both pilots had flown supply missions into combat zones.  One had landed on every continent, even Antarctica.   Both of them now train others to be pilots in the USAF.  Overall, we had a great day learning about women in aviation and started dreaming about what we could possibly do! 

Cadette Book Artist

Our two Cadettes got to partake in a Book Artist workshop done at the Topeka library with other troops from the area.  The girls worked with Betsy Roe and Brea Black from the library and learned about how books are assembled, binding of different books and created their own book covers using a marbling affect on card stock paper.

One book style that the girls learned is called accordion fold.  This is where you fold paper like an accordion and slip the ends together to expand the book.  You are able to write, draw on any of the "pages" front and back to tell your story.  These are usually a small booklet, for small pictures or short phrases.

The girls learned how to do two different bindings for booklets.One is the Pamphlet stitched which works well for books with just a few pages.  This is an alternative to stapling in the middle when pages are folded in half.

The other style is simple Japanese stab binding.  This is where you can stack different types of paper; ie textured, colored, different weights of paper; that are stacked on top of each other cut the same size.

The girls learned a lot about what goes into binding different books.  It will be interesting to see if they use one of these bindings for a project in school.

Bonfire

This Saturday our Daisy leaders and their Girl Scouts put together a great Bonfire here at Christ the King School.  The girls were split up into 3 groups and did some crafts, team building exercises and finally made some yummy S'mores!  

The craft that the girls made were indoor camp fires. They took tissue paper and glued them to the outside of a plastic cup.  For the wood of the "fire" they used brown construction paper cut into strips.  Placing a battery operated tealight inside the cup created their "fire".  Of course you can't have a fire and not be able to roast marshmallows, so using a craft stick and cotton ball, they created their final element to their campfire!  

One of the team building exercises the Girl Scouts did was linking hands with others randomly around a circle.  They then had to work together to unwind from their pretzel.  Having girls climbing over each other, twisting backwards, dunking under another set of linked arms, was truly a feat for all of them.  The giggles that came from them, well you can imagine how funny that was!

Finally able to enjoy some real S'mores!  You can't have a campfire and not have S'mores.  Girls enjoyed the gooey roasted marshmallows, melted chocolate and crunchy graham crackers while relaxing on the school grounds and warm sun.  Thankfully God gave us such nice weather.   

Scout Night

Scout Night was a HUGE success for Girl Scouts at Christ the King tonight! We had so many new families come by our tables to get more information and to sign their daughter up for Girl Scouts.  We had 6 Kindergartners, 5 First Graders, 2 Second graders and 1 Fourth grader.  With all these new girls we have a new Daisy troop combining the Kindergarten and 1st grade.  Their troop leader, Jackie Lyon, is excited to have so many girls and looking forward to seeing all they accomplish!  

Thank you to all the families that came out to hear what Girl Scouts has to offer.  Thank you to the Leaders who spent time answering all of those important questions. We are looking forward to a wonderful year!

New Scout year!

GIRL SCOUTS!!!  We are getting ready to kick off the new Scout year.  Girl Scouts will have an information table set up at Christ the King registration night, August 10th, and also at Scout Night, August 25th. Stop by and see what exciting activities you and your daughter can participate in!  

Are you looking for school volunteer options?!?  As a volunteer with any of our troops, you are able to count the time you spend towards your school volunteer hours.  Have fun with your daughter and her friends while taking care of a school commitment, too.  There's lot of options that you can help with, from being a Troop Leader, to taking care of the paperwork, to being in charge of the calling tree for your troop.  Please let me (Jennifer) or any Troop Leader know and we will help you find the right volunteer position you feel comfortable with!

Back to Basics 2016

Girl Scout troops 3099 and 3715 attended Back to Basics camp at Camp Daisy Hindman just outside of Dover with other area troops. 

Local Brownie and Junior troops attended camp hosted by our Service Unit. Here girls go to activities lead by older Cadette Girl Scouts. They go on hikes to learn some basic survival skills, learn how to read a compass, First Aid, build fires, knife skills and cooking on fires. 

In the evening, Girl Scouts have the opportunity to explore camp a little more. Our troops adventured through the muddy trails and tried to get lost. Along the way, we found others troops and fresh deer tracks. After all the walking through camp, the reward for the girls was of course roasting marshmallows and having S'mores!  These girls are ready for their next campout. 

Pinewood Derby

Pinewood Derby is usually a Cub Scout event, but not for some of our CTK Girl Scouts!  They participated in a Pinewood Derby for Girl Scouts on April 16th and had a blast!

The Girl Scouts had to purchase a blank pinewood derby car and create their own unique car of their own. From design, to cutting, to painting and making sure that it was the legal weight, these girls made each one their own. 

The event was held a Grace Episcopal Cathedral, here in Topeka and had troops from all across town participate. All troops from Daisy up to Ambassador(12tj graders) were invited and about 55 cars turned up!  

Each level Girl Scouts raced among their peers. We had Girl Scouts from Daisy, Brownie, Junior and Cadette registered. This was the first time our girls participated in a Pinewood Derby race. We had some winners and some who learned the valuable lesson of not everyone will win. They all had a great time and are already looking forward to next years Pinewood Derby!  

Daisy Fun Day

On Saturday, April 9th, a handful of our 1st grade Daisy Girl Scouts attended Daisy Fun Day hosted by our area Service Unit. This event was open to all Daisy Girl Scouts in the Topeka and surrounding area.

During the event there are activities that teach different badges that the girls earn. These activities are done by Program Aides who are 6th grade Cadettes and up. One Program Aide is one of our 6th grade Cadette Girl Scouts. 

The Daisy's earned their Girl Scout Way badge, which teaches the girls the history of Girl Scouts and the founder, Juliette Lowe. Another badge they earned was Be a Sister to Every Girl Scout. Here they learned about working as a team with others and about the Girl Scout Promise and Law. The third badge earned was one that taught STEM, Science Technology Engineering and Math, where they got to see how a few experiments worked. Finally, the forth badge was Games. Here they played a variety of games focused on some of the Girl Scout Promise and Law. 

Daisy Fun day is held once a year and badges earned are different each year. What will Daisy's earn next year??? They will have to come back next year and see!

Brownies Bridging

On Monday, the 5th grade Junior girls helped the 3rd grade Brownies meet their Bridging requirements. The Brownie girls needed to meet with an older Girl Scout troop meeting, preferably a Junior Girl Scout troop, and learn what it's like to be a Junior level Girl Scout. The Juniors talked about the Get Moving journey they  completed. The girls talked about how they get to go camping for a couple days instead of just one overnight. One Junior shared how she was excited to help plan one of the activities. Usually as the Girl Scouts get older they take on more responsibilities and help plan activities for younger troops and when all the troops get together; such as the Bonfire and lock-in.

Another part of the meeting was playing Mystery Path. Girls took turns leading the others through a mystery path. The challenge is that the girl leading is the only one who knows the correct path. The other girls have to guess which direction to go. If they are wrong the leaders rings a bell. Each girl has to get through the path correctly. As one girl makes it through they can help guide the others non-verbally. This teaches the girls team work and leadership. 

The final activity was teaching the younger girls some new songs. They all had fun picking songs that were their favorite and singing as loud as they could!

Thank you to Miss Hatch and her 5th grade Junior Girl Scouts for helping the 3rd grade Brownie girls with their bridging!  They can't wait to cross the bridge next month and their green vests :)

World Thinking Day

On February 20th, many of our CTK Girl Scouts from the Brownies, Junior and Cadette troops attended World Thinking Day at Fairlawn Plaza.  World Thinking Day (WTD) is a day in Girl Scouts where you have the ability to "host" countries from all over the world and teach other Girl Scouts about it.  

This year Junior, Cadette, Senior and Ambassador troops from across the Topeka area were the "hosts".  Each troop picked a different country to research.  They found what foods are popular, the type of clothing worn, and most importantly, what Girl Scouts from different countries do!  The girls put up posters, decorated their tables and handed out SWAPS (Special Which-a-ma-call-its Affectionately Pinned Somewhere) to all the girls who were "traveling" through learning.  

As the younger girls walked around the Plaza learning about all of the different countries, they got their "passports" punched.  At the end of the event all of the girls had a different country in mind for when they are old enough to help host a country at a future World Thinking Day!  Then, to end the day, each girl from the CTK troops received a Henna tattoo to show their sisterhood with each other.
  

Flag workshop

On February 13th, veterans from the American Legion came to talk to all of the Christ the King Girl Scouts about the history and meaning of our American flag.  The event was held at the Christ the King School cafeteria.

For example:  Did you know that Betsy Ross is the one who talked the committee into only having 5-points on the Star?  Do you remember how many stars were on the first American Flag?  13.  Do you remember what they stood for?  One star stood for each of the original states.  It has been told that each State was to also have their own stripe too.  Could you imagine having 50 Stars AND 50 Stripes?!?

The Legionaries walked the girls through the proper way of posting the Colors; meaning how the flags should be placed when next to each other.  They explained that the American flag is always to the right of the speaker.  The presenters explained then demonstrated to the girls how to fold the flag properly.  Each fold represents something different.  A detailed explanation can be found on American Legion page.

All of the Girl Scouts received a piece from a retired flag (a star from the field) from the American Legion veterans.

The CTK Girl Scouts would like to extend a special "Thank You" to our presenters from the Legion - for all the service and dedication you have provided for our country.

Brownies at Potwin

           
The past couple of Saturdays in February, the 2nd and 3rd grade Brownie Girl Scouts have been enjoying some creative time at Potwin Pottery.  There they learned about making different kinds of pottery, painted them and learned about the firing process in the kiln.  . 

The next time they were at Potwin to paint the girls had a hard time finding their pots, the pots were no longer their original size!  The shrunk to about half the size. All of the girls were surprised at the changes in size; when they made their original pinch pots they were told to make it large and as thick as an Oreo cookie The girls learned that during the heating/drying process their pottery will lose its orginial size, due to all the moisture being removed,.  

On painting day, the girls were told that due to all of the moisture being taken out, they needed to layer their paint colors.  If they didn't put enough paint on their pieces, when it was placed in the kiln again, their colors would be very light.  This is one time that the leaders let the girls "glob" their paints on their pieces.  The girls were able to view the kiln in Potwins backroom and learned that the whole process takes a full week.

With all of this hard work, not only did the girls walk away with a great looking pot made by themselves, they also earned their Pottery Badge!  This is just one of 26 proficiency badges that Brownies can earn during their journey as a Girl Scout. 

Christmas Party

CTK Girl Scout sing Christmas carols to ManorCare residents

On Dec. 18th, our CTK Girl Scouts got together for some Christmas fun.  After school we met together to have lunch, exchange SWAPS, and learn about Christmas traditions in other countries.  We walked across the street to sing Christmas carols to the residents at ManorCare.  The residents were so happy so see such a large group of Girl Scouts and sang along to a lot of the songs.  The girls had such a great time spreading Christmas cheer. 

Ice Skating

Our Christ the King Girl Scouts took in a fun filled afternoon, Jan. 2nd, ice skating at the Expo Center.  They strapped on their skates with other area Girl Scouts.  Some girls stayed afterwards to watch our local Topeka Roadrunners!  The event was put on by our local Girl Scout council.  We had Brownies, Juniors and Cadettes skating around!