Brownie Friendmaker

**Brownie Friendmaker** is an All Ages Award from the Girl Scout Council of the Nation's Capital.

**PURPOSE:** To encourage Brownie Girl Scouts to do the following:

* to reach out to their family, friends, and the people of their community with kindness
* send a friendly message by the way they act and speak
* to work and play together in more caring and friendly ways.

In order to complete the patch program, Brownie Girl Scouts should do six activities including the ones that are starred (\*).

# Activities

* “Can we do it? Yes we can! First we have to make a plan”, “Everything is better, when we do it together!” and “Satisfaction guaranteed, when we help our team succeed!” are all power phrases from the Talking with TJ Teamwork Series. After you have gone through all the sessions talk about how following the power phrases could have helped in some past situations so that you will be ready should similar situations occur in the future. To borrow a copy of Talking With TJ Teamwork Series, ask your service unit manager or librarian or call Educational Services at the Girl Scout office.

1. Celebrate a Random Acts of Kindness Week the week prior to Thinking Day. With a small group in your troop act out in skits what you would do if you were in the situations on the Suggested Kindness Situations page following the patch requirements. Present your skits and pass out thank you notes to friends who do an act of kindness at school or in the community during the week. The troop can show a good example by giving acts of kindness.
2. Solve the word search below (in the patch booklet). Look for the following words. They may be backwards and diagonally as well as up and down. After you find them find out what they mean. The words are caring, choice, love, message, behave, act, treat, kindness, feel, honor, secret, promise, friends, sorry, share, fair, thanks, please. Answers on Page 9.

**OR**
Make Peace Soup. Using any kind of hand puppet and a large cooking spoon, announce to the troop that you are making Peace Soup. Ask them for some of the ingredients that would be in “Peace Soup.” With each answer say “one cupful of “ what ever ingredient is voiced —such as: love, listening, forgiveness, sharing, praying, support, welcome, group, introduction, friendly, helpful, etc. If you think one or more are especially appropriate, you could say “two cups full of ...” of those ingredients. After filling a pretend or real pot with these ingredients, have your hand puppet stir the peace soup and declare “Peace is delicious”.
Then ask the girls the following questions:
* + - Which of the ingredients do you think are the most important?
		- Which of the ingredients would be the easiest for you to do?
		- Which of the ingredients would be the hardest for you to do?
		- What are some other ingredients for making peace in your home? In your troop? In the world? If your “peace soup” were made of people, who would you put in your soup?

1. Look through you local newspaper for stories about people who give help and those who need help. Make a list of things that your troop could do as Planned Acts of Kindness.

**OR**
Make a coupon book of service for a group or individual in your community. It might include yard clean up where you meet, or raking leaves, or planting and weeding, or reading to someone who cannot see.
1. You cannot know what a person is like on the inside by only looking at her outer wrapping or appearance. Play the People Packages Game on page 5 of the booklet. Have you ever been wrong about someone after deciding what she is like from her “outer wrapping”? What are some of the things everyone can do to learn what a person is really like?

**OR**
Visit a troop of Daisy Girl Scouts. Have girls in both troops make name tags or me collages with descriptions or pictures of what they like, i.e. food, games, clothes, activities. Have the girls get to know each other by reading the name tags and sharing any similar interests. You will need magazines showing girls from different ethnic groups, scissors, glue, and markers.
1. How do you rate as a friend? Do the activity, **Being a Friend** on Pages 79-81 of the Brownie Girl Scout Handbook. With your troop make a list of rules on how to be a friend.
2. Many girls have not become Brownie Girl Scouts because they don’t know anything about Girl Scouting. Make up a game about the Girl Scout Promise and Law. Play the game with a friend who is not a Girl Scout. Be prepared to tell her all you know about being a Brownie Girl Scout.
3. A Friendship Stick is small, painted, curved, stick given as a symbol of friendship by Guides and Girl Scouts around the world. Make a friendship stick and give it to a Girl Scout friend after you explain what all the symbols mean. Follow the directions in this patch booklet.

* Have a Friendmaker Festival in your service unit or community. Make posters or flyers to advertise the day. Include some of the following:
	+ songs, poems, skits, swaps and games about friendship.
	+ exchange Friendship Sticks
	+ at the end of the event, present “The Friendship Award” to all who have made new friends.
	+ have everyone take home a Friendship Kit.
	+ make a friendship banner

See page 7 for materials in the Friendship Kit and how to use it. A copy of the Friendship Award is on page 8. There is a suggested list of songs, poems, and stories on page 9.

# External Links

GSCNC Patches and Council's Owns
Brownie Friendmaker Booklet