We all had some breakfast and some caffeine and I went to find out where I would be setting up my station. I was doing science experiments with the kids. I had found on a Facebook group, a link for a Girl Scout fun patch from the PBS show Fetch! I knew that these would be activities that my girls would like, and I thought that others would as well.
I would be spending the day at the Shandy Wood pavilion, so I packed everything back up into my car and we proceeded to get lost. Seriously, I get lost everywhere I go. When we found it, I was impressed with this site as well. Of the two sites, I think I would take my troop to this site. It was back pretty far and way from the other sites. I like to be alone with my girls so that if they start acting like monkeys, they wont bother anyone.
The pavilion was very nice, and they also had a fireplace and refrigerator. With our small troop, I think we would be comfortable there.
Like I had said, I am organized. I set up each experiment and put them in separate bags so all I have to do is pull out the bag and everything is right there. I would have Daisy and Brownie girls first, then Junior's two groups of them, and finally Cadette and higher.
We started off with building tin foil boats. Originally the instructions said to use pennies, but I was using pennies for a later experiment and my darling husband decided to cash all of my pennies in, 3 days before camp! However, the paperclips were not heavy enough so Miss B proceeded to use the pennies we had and prayed that there would be enough.
The girls built some nice and sturdy boats. One looked like a turtle. Some built some really pretty boats that held nothing. The big winner of the day was a boat that barely looked like the girl worked on it. It looked like all she did was halfheartedly bent the foil edges up. That boat held 50 pennies.
The next experiment was one all about balance. The girls had to stand up against the wall and try to lift their legs or to bend over with out bending their knees. Every group had girls who were thinking that it would be super easy, but once they tried it, they were confused about why they could not move. We talked a bot about balance and what the body does to compensate for your movements.
Third experiment was with the pennies. We had to see which household solution would clean pennies better.We used vinegar, water with baking soda, cola, lemon juice, ammonia cleaner and ketchup. The girls soaked the pennies in the solutions and drew conclusions on what they thought would happen.
I did this experiment at home before we left, and I was totally surprised about the outcome. You should definitely try this at home! When we did it at camp, the first group had three groups and each group had a different solution that worked best because of variables in the experiment.
The last experiment that we did with the Brownies and the Daisy girls was to build catapults out of pop sticks, rubber bands and spoons. The girls had a blast with them. And after a day, I have a whole arsenal of spoon catapults.
For the Juniors, we still had two more experiments to do! We followed the directions on the Fetch site and build soda bottle rockets. They were super simple and the girls put them together really quick. The ones who paid attention to the instructions had theirs going right away and it took some others a few more minutes, but it was a simple project.
The last thing that the Juniors did was to test the ph of the solutions that the pennies were in and to talk about the ph scale. We tried to figure out what was on the penny based on what type of solution cleaned it. So if we had a penny that really got clean because of the acid it was in, then there was a good chance that the stuff on it was a base. I had purchased litmus papers from eBay and it was so neat to see it all change colors.
For the older girls, I had purchased a csi dna kit and we did three different punnet squares and figured out who belonged to what parent. I thought it was interesting and I was so looking forward to doing it with the girls, but they weren't having it. I feel like that was my only fail moment during the day. But what the girls really wanted was to make the spoon catapults. lol I guess I should have just continued with what I was already doing and let them do all of the science the young ones were doing. Live and learn, right?
Around 4 o'clock we were done with all of the girls and we headed back down to our tents. It had finally stopped raining. My parent volunteer had to run home quick to check on her ill husband and on the way back, she stopped to get us some BK! It was so good, and I hate that food. But lunch consisted of pb and j sandwiches so, junk food looked so good.
I made sure that we ate somewhere private just so that other girls were not feeling left out. Then we plopped ourselves down in front of the fire. The ladies who stayed at our were trying to get the fire started. After a while, I got my things to build a fire and helped out. I get possessive about my fires. Don't mess with them, I am trained to do it and gosh darn it, I froze my tush off in October to be certified to start the fire. BACK OFF! lol Within 5 minutes the fire was roaring to life and the girls had sticks with hotdogs on them. They ate in shifts, as certain things were done before other things.
My princess took care of me and made me a hot dog. She is a good girl. It was so nice to be warm and semi dry. We decided to pack it in and head into our tents around 9. The girls stayed up till 11 and then it was lights out. The community lead was teaching whittleing to the other girls but knowing my girls, we would have been making a trip to the ER so it was good they were in bed.
The next morning,OMG it was only 45 degrees out at 8am, we ate a quick breakfast, packed up, cleaned out and were on our way home to shower before 11! They also had a really quick re-dedication ceremony. We will be doing one at a troop meeting, since some of the girls in the troop did not come to this camp.
Despite the weather we had a blast. I can not wait to camp again!
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