Girl Scouting At Home

Earn your Eco Friend Badge at Home 

• Talk about ways to be friendly to others when you are out for a hike, or playing in your back yard with friends.
• Draw a picture of your favorite wild animal and list reasons how you can help take care of their space when you are in it, and how can humans be kind to animals? Much like we take care of our spaces inside houses.
• Go out into your back yard and make a list of natural things you see (such as pinecones or leaves). Can you make up a story about one thing you saw?
• Make an edible fire ring using whatever materials you already have on hand. Be sure to include fire circle, wood and something for the fire!
• Design a poster on how you and your Girl Scout friends can care for nature.

*To complete the Eco Friend Badge you will need to also learn how to build and put out a campfire safely*

Earn your Bug Badge at Home 

• Make a bug craft and learn about your bug (Spider, ladybug, caterpillar etc)
• Learn about caterpillars and come up with a song or dance about their transformation into butterflies.
• Use something you already have, or make a bug viewing box. Make it comfortable and add grass or twigs so you can find a bug to view up close. Be sure to release the bugs once you are doing viewing them. You can also watch a bug in its natural habitat in order to not disturb them.
• Look for bugs outdoors in your back yard, what did you find? Can you draw a picture?
• What insects pollinate? Do you have any in your back yard? Go on a search near flowers if you have any.

Earn your Outdoor Adventurer Badge at Home 

• Write down anything you might see on a nature walk
• Play nature charades with your family where you act out anything you previously wrote down.
• Create an obstacle course in your back yard with your caregivers’ approval. See how fast you can complete it.
• Go on a nature scavenger hunt or play nature bingo in your yard.
• After your hunt write down what you saw, heard or smell. How did being outside make you feel?
• Make a cloud board or paper using cotton balls – then identify what types of clouds are in the sky today.

o Cirrus clouds – these are high wispy clouds that almost look like air.

o Cumulus clouds – these are fat puffy clouds that generally form on clear days.

o Cumulonimbus clouds – these are thick, low hanging clouds.

o Stratus clouds – these are low clouds that almost look like a fog that can’t touch the ground.

• Make a necklace using materials you already have that resembles the sun. Try and practice knot tying while making your necklace or learn how to build a fire by building an edible fire.
• Listen to the trees. Sit under multiple trees and see if they sound different in the wind. Put your ear to the trunk do you hear the trees heartbeat?

Work on your Outdoor Art Creator Badge at Home 

• Take a walk in your back yard and note down all the natural things you see (flowers, grass, trees etc). As you write them down, note what shape they resemble.
• Create a color wheel using crayons or markers you already have, put similar colors next to one another. Take a walk outside and see what colors your find in nature. Did you find anything not in your color wheel?
• Make a leaf or tree bark rubbing. If you use a leaf, take it from the ground not the branch of a tree. Hold a piece of paper over the bark of a tree or overtop of a leaf and use a crayon or chalk to make a rubbing.
• What do architects do? They design and build structures. What would your house look like if you can only use what you find in nature? What do birds, rabbits or bees use?
• Nature dance time – make a list of insects or animals and mimic how they move.
• Make a wind chime out of materials you find in nature such as sticks and acrons. (You will need to use some craft supplies to hold it all together!
• Ask a parent to use their phone to learn about nature photography and take some close ups of things you find in nature. Take a close up, an outdoor scene or maybe a cloud in the sky.