...3 Cheers for Animals! - Session 4

It's Your Story - Tell It!: A Leadership Journey
Girl Scout Daisies

"Girls begin to explore how animals, like people, are unique, including in the ways they communicate and move."

Download ...3 Cheers for Animals! - Session 4 handout.

Session 4 - All Creatures, Great and Special

Opening Ceremony:
Animals Around the World, page 51 from "How To Guide"
(Cheetah: Kenya)

• Pointed out Mari, the marigold, on "The Flower Friends and Their Girl Scout Law Values" poster. (May also be found in the back of the "How To Guide.")
• Used ...3 Cheers for Animals! - Session 4 map to show where Mari is from and then located Kenya on a globe.
• Shared the italicized parts and other pertinent information from this section with Tessa.
• Visited National Geographic Kids: Animal Creature Features to enjoy facts, photos, sounds, a video and more pertaining to cheetahs.
• Cut out three cheetah spots from black cardstock for the Team Animal Mural. (The girls will add their spots to a cheetah cutout that I printed on gold cardstock.)

Earning the Birdbath Award, page 52 from "How To Guide"

• Congratulated Tessa and ironed her Birdbath Award onto her vest.

For the other girls, I created a Journey Award certificate, placed the background and Birdbath Award patches in a 3 x 5 in. plastic bag (purchased from Michael's with a coupon) with the zipper seal cut off and folded over, then stapled it to the middle of the certificate. Printing on cardstock works best. I also made a copy of the ironing instructions for their moms.

Want to design your own certificate? Visit Scrap World 2010 to download some really cute Girl Scout graphics for just $1 each. I used this version for the certificate. Other hair colors and skin tones are available.

Story Time:
“The First Stories” (continued), page 53 from "How To Guide"

• Completed pages 24-27 of the girls' book.

This section seemed too much like Session 3, so instead of making up another pourquoi tale, Tessa completed the remaining activities from "The First Stories" section of the girls' book. I still haven't found any place in the "How To Guide" instructing us to actually do so.

Tessa's completed work from pages 24-25 of the girls' book. The red robin picture is from the drawing lesson mentioned in the Closing Ceremony section below.

Get Creative!

Fantastical Animals Flip Book, pages 54-55 from "How To Guide"

• Completed flip book activity as directed.

Flip books can be tricky to create, so I designed a simple three-page flip book for the girls to color and use for this activity. Instead of using expensive binders, I used cardstock and brads that I already had on-hand to bind the pages. After printing the three animal pages, place a sheet of cardstock behind them and a one-inch strip of cardstock at the top. Use a three-hole punch to punch holes. Tightly fasten the brads through the holes.

Okay, it's not really quite as simple as that. The best way to do this is to pre-punch the holes. Punch the cardstock together. Punch the printed animal pages together. For the one-inch strips, it's easiest to punch the holes, then use a paper cutter to cut a strip. Punch holes again, then cut another one-inch strip and so on until you have enough. Have the girls color the animal pages and then cut to the "STOP" lines. Assemble the flip books as listed in my simplified directions above.

I had a very hard time coming up with animal clip art that matched up well enough to design a flip book. The animals have to be just so for them to work. In the end, I settled on three animals...a cheetah, zebra and alligator. They worked pretty well together.

This was Tessa's favorite flip-book animal. She called it an alcheze (get it...al-ligator, che-etah, ze-bra). She came up with the name on her own. I thought it was pretty clever. She decided that it gives birth to live babies, is good at kicking (with its hooves) and also chomping (with its big teeth). Tessa thought the world would be one heck of a boring place if all animals and all people were the same. She also said we wouldn't be able to tell people apart or have as much food.

Busy Squirrels Song and Dance, page 56 from "How To Guide"

• Completed activity as directed (minus coming up with a new version of the song).

Tessa loved "The Busy Squirrels Song." We sang and acted it out four times.


Closing Ceremony:
Moving Toward the Red Robin Award, page 57 from "How To Guide"

• Completed Learn to Draw a Robin.

This section was difficult to adapt to the home environment, but was too complex for the few minutes I spend with our Journey girls before each troop meeting, so I swapped the ceremony for the cute drawing lesson above. I think it sufficiently psyched up Tessa for the next part of the Journey. You can see her drawing in Story Time section photo above.

Looking for more activities to complement the ...3 Cheers for Animals! Journey?

Check out my Girl Scout Law Ring Book - Pets Version - Girl Scout Daisies & Brownies printable scouting helper.