Solar Eclipse workshop

The CTK Girl Scouts got to learn about the 2017 Solar Eclipse right before it occurred! They learned about sun clocks, magnets and compasses, how important it is to protect ourselves from UV light, and many other experiments.  We ended making a pin hole box with cereal boxes so they could safely view the eclipse.  Now to wait until the next one.

Bronze Award: Buddy Bench

One of the highest awards that a Junior Girl Scout, grade 4th and 5th, can receive is the Bronze Award.  Girls are asked to explore their community to see if they can help improve an issue.   As the girls pursue their project, they put the Girl Scout Promise and Law into action. They also develop an understanding of sustainability and gain an understanding of the wider world by discussing how others may experience the same problem that their project helped resolve.

Our Christ the King 5th grade Junior Girl Scouts saw a need on the Kindergarten playground.  They thought that with so many kids coming from different Pre-schools and areas around town, that many of them might not have any friends when school starts.  They did some research and found that there is what is know as a Buddy Bench.  This bench is made and placed in an area that kids play.  When some one is feeling lonely and doesn't have a friend/classmate to play with, they would go sit on the bench.  Another classmate would see them and go over to invite them to play.  

The Girl Scouts worked on presenting their idea to Principal Reynoso at the end of the school year and got her approval!!  Over the summer the girls went to Menards to learn about what wood would be best to build the bench with and what paints would be best for being outside in the Kansas elements. Once they had plans, they set off on building and painting their Buddy Bench! Building took the girls a couple of days, making sure that every piece of wood was lined up just right. Girls learned that even painting took some time; they thought that because it was hot outside that the paint would dry much faster.  Instead, it took longer due to the humidity in the air!  They experienced the old expression, "watching paint dry"!  

Right before this school year started, the 5th grade Junior Girl Scouts presented their Buddy Bench to Fr. Matthew, Principal Reynoso and Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Kinney.  Fr. Matthew did a blessing on the bench for the girls.  The bench was in the Kindergarten hallway during registration night so new parents and Kindergartners could see it and then it will be moved to their playground!  

The girls leaders, Jennifer Augustine and Linda Wolf are so excited for all the hard work and dedication that their girls showed on their project.  They look forward to seeing more of what their girls do in the future!  Congratulations young ladies!

Cookie Construction

For nearly 6 months, Cadettes, Senior and Ambassador Girl Scouts got together with some Architecture mentor to come up with a concept and design for this years Cookie Construction competition.  This years theme is, “We are Girl Scouts, We are Innovators”.

What is Cookie Construction?  Glad you asked!  Girls meet with 3 mentors who help walk them through the steps of constructing a design that they come up with.  Each structure is made purely out of cookie boxes that come from the box manufacture.  Girls are allowed to use tape, but it can not be visible.  Each team is judged on how well they stick to the theme.

Girls from Topeka, Lawrence and Leavenworth Girl Scouts made up the TL²  team.  We have one Girl Scout, Samantha Augustine, from Christ the King helping out!
Our project represents a house where Girl Scouts can design and invent freely. We decided to build a house because a lot of space and millions of innovations are found in homes. We decided to include some notable inventions, such as the light-bulb, the spectacles and the microscope. We poured all of our creativity into our thinking caps and developed some inventions that could be made in the future – for instance, a cookie spitter and badge designer. Our building structure consists of three floors with a loft on the third floor. We wanted to section off part of the house and commit it to just making innovations, so that is where we came up with the idea for an innovation lab as the loft. We are using ladders to get from level to level in our house, which are supported by the exterior walls and structural columns. The roof will be a rooftop garden which will have solar panels to provide power for Innovation Manor. This build means a lot to us as Girl Scouts so we have created a mural in the back of the house representing Girl Scout History and Juliette Gordon Low, the founder.

                           

Cookie Season!

It's COOKIE SEASON!!

Girl Scouts from Christ the King were taking cookie orders starting back on January 1st and out delivering and having cookie booths during February.  

A huge Thank You goes out to President Schambari and Athletic Director, Bobby Taul at Hayden for letting all of the Christ the King Girl Scouts sale cookies at their last two home basketball games! The girls did a great job and all of the basketball spectators had yummy cookies while watching games being played.  

All of the CTK Girl Scouts also sold cookies at Kelly Express on 10th and Wanamaker over the February weekends.  The girls also did their final booth sale after Masses here at church Feb. 25th and 26th.  Thank you to all of the parishioners who bought cookies from our troops!

Cookie season officially ends March 10th, so if you still need cookies we have plenty of Girl Scouts who can help you!   

Mall Scavenger Hunt

This morning the Girl Scout Service Unit of Topeka put on a Scavenger Hunt at the Mall.  All girls earned one of their legacy money badges, which is different for each level, and a Mall Madness Scavenger Hunt fun patch.  There were approximately 135 girls registered, so early morning mall walkers saw a lot of different colored Girl Scout vests throughout.  The girls had to figure out clues to find the store that had their questions that needed to be answered.  The two troops that finished the fastest in time, won 1st and 2nd place.

We, the CTK Girl Scouts, had 2 winning troops!  The 3rd grade Brownies won 1st place and the 6th/7th grade Cadettes won 2nd place in their prospective troop levels.  Congratulations CTK Girl Scouts for you wins!

Cadette Badge Workshop

Last night some area Cadette troops got together for a fun evening.  We started off at the KBI building for a tour of the facility, a little crime sleuthing and a mock interrogation.  Next we had Professor Turk, from WU, come talk about the Science of Happiness.  Katy Hatch, a 2nd grade teacher from CTK, taught the girls about Comic Artist.  They studied comics from the Sunday paper, came up with their own script and drawings to create their own comic strip.  Today they played games, made paper airplanes and competed to see who could finish a puzzle the fastest.  That's how 30 girls (6 troops), 6 leaders and 4 badges get DONE!  We all had a great time collaborating and working together.   

Cooking at the Library

Today after school the 4th grade Junior Girl Scouts visited the public library for a little cooking fun!  The girls didn't know what they were going to be making, just that what ever it was they had to try it :)
Jen, from the library, started by explaining that what they were going to make is a nutritious snack and that you can make some of it pre-made to make things a little simpler at home.  Today they were going to make bean & cheese tortillas!  Instead of buying already mashed up re-fried beans, the girls were going to making their own so they could see how easy it was and what spices they could add to add more flavor if they wanted.  The girls also had to grate their own cheese too.  They talked about how you can go into the store today and buy cheese that's already grated, but Jen explained to them that often the pre-shredded cheese is more expensive to buy.  Plus it was just as easy for them to use a cheese shredder to work their own block of cheese.  One of the girls in the troop isn't a fan of refried beans, but since she did all of the work herself, she said it wasn't as bad as she had originally thought!

This cooking class is offered by the public library once a month for anyone to come attend.  Please look up the schedule on the library's website.  The troop is excited to see what next months dish is and hopes to see a lot of people attend!

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!