Running Your Girl Scout Troop - "Senses" Try-it

This Try-it can be fun but requires a bit of planning before the meeting. Below I will give you a quick run down for a station meeting. I didn't do any fun outings for this one just a straight forward meeting with 4 stations. If you have any exciting ideas to add please do so in the comments section at the end of the Hub. On the other hand, there are times when you need to just have a simple meeting. So save this plan for one of those times.

Girl Scouts is phasing out the Try-its this year. After this year they will no longer be available. So if you want to do this one make sure you can still get the patch at your council before you start.

You will need adult help at this meeting. Since you are dealing with the girls senses there is an element of trust. You are going to ask them to trust a person to put things in their mouths and hold something to their nose. It is easier to get them to do that with an adult rather than another child. Don't force them to do anything they are uncomfortable with. Please keep the trust issue in mind when picking out flavors and fragrances. They are little girls who trust you. That doesn't mean you can't use something that may smell bad, just don't make them gag. Keep allergies in mind too.

Requirement #1: The Try-it book says to use egg cartons, you can use any small containers. We used small cups and cotton balls if needed. Pick a few smells like lemon juice, hot sauce, apple juice, pine needles, sun tan lotion,and chocolate syrup. Another idea is to use scented markers. (You should have 6-8 scents. Let each girl smell about 4 smells. That way the girls waiting won't already know what the smells are when it is their turn to do the smell test.) Blind fold the girls one at a time. This is where the trust comes in. The adult running the station needs to hold the cup under the blindfolded girls nose without scaring her. The girl has to guess what the smell is. See who can guess the most scents.

Requirement #4: You can do this requirement exactly as it is stated in the Try-it book or you can do what we did. We did the old Halloween bowl of eye balls. The adult in charge of this station brought in containers of squishy things for the girls to touch without looking. Cold spaghetti, pudding, starch and newspaper, etc. Anything you can think of. The point we made wasn't so much what is it as what does it feel like. Use your imagination for the contents of the containers and make the girls use their imaginations to describe what it is. The more creative the better. You can use soft fuzzy items too. They can write down descriptive words. Encourage story writing for your budding writers. At the end of the meeting, you can show them what was in the containers.

Requirement #5: This was a lot of fun but you need to take care. Not all of my girls liked the idea of putting things in their mouth when they had no idea what they were going to taste. A patient adult that they trust is mandatory at this station. You can follow the directions in the Try-it book to map the tongue or find other instructions at the library or on-line. Be honest with the girls about what is going to happen. Try picking the adventurous girls to go first in each group. Keep this in mind when putting your groups together for this meeting. If someone really doesn't want to do it don't push. A few of my girls changed their minds after they saw others do this experiment, just give them a little time. I did get them all to do it and they all loved it.

Requirement #6: Learning sign language is hard. Teaching the girls their names is easy. If you have someone who knows how to sign or can get someone to come to a meeting that knows, do it. There is no substitute to a person who is fluent in sign language. If not, using the alphabet in the Brownie Hand Book, finding one on line, or at the library will be all you need. If you are able to have your troop learn the Girl Scout Promise and/or Law, have them show everyone what they learned at your next Court of Awards. Just keep practicing at each meeting.