Meeting One
Patch Purpose :
When girls have earned this patch, they will have developed an appreciation of the uniqueness and commonalities both of themselves and others and of various cultures in their community and world. Girls will deepen their understanding and respect for people who may be different from them and learn how to better relate to others. This will truly teach them to respect themselves and others and be a sister to every Girl Scout according to our Girl Scout Law.
Meeting Length : 1.5 hours
Note to Adults/Leaders:
It has been a long-held belief by many, including social learning experts, that not calling attention to racial differences would lead to children being less likely to notice and develop bias, therefore being less likely to discriminate against others. This is commonly known as the colorblind approach to handling discussions and interactions dealing with race. Research has since disproven this theory. Studies have shown that children notice and begin assigning meaning to race at a very young age. For example, distinguishing between white and black people and drawing conclusions about traits inherent to those groups of people. Research has shown that parents and guardians who meaningfully talk to their kids about race end up with better racial attitudes than kids with parents or guardians who don’t. At Girl Scouts of North Central Alabama, we believe that education is power, and are committed to helping educate girls to recognize and celebrate the differences of every Girl Scout.
Erin N. Winkler is a professor at the University of Wisconsin who studies racial identity; she states, “Children pick up on the ways in which whiteness is normalized and privileged in U.S. society.” When working through these activities with your troop, make a concerted effort not to make whiteness the default and inadvertently mark other races as other. For additional resources on how to support healthy racial identities, refer to the list of additional resources at the end of this activity plan.
Preparation Notes:
Please read the plan carefully before beginning this patch program. Each activity has a material list and preparation notes detailing what needs to be purchased, prepared, and discussed with families prior to conducting these meetings and activities.
Getting Started
Time : 10 minutes
Materials Needed:
Girl Scout Promise and Law Poster (Optional)
Steps:
Welcome everyone to the meeting and recite the Girl Scout Promise and Law.
Activity #1 : Story Time
Time : 15 minutes
Materials Needed :
A book about diversity (see suggested book list below)
Pre p Needed :
Obtain a copy of the book you’ll be reading to girls.
If you plan to read All the Colors We Are by Katie Kissinger, try to use the latest 2014 edition with updated images.
Read through the book prior to the meeting to practice pronunciation and the material presented.
Steps :
Read your selected book to your troop and share the story images with the girls. While you’re reading, allow time for girls to ask questions or make on-topic comments (for example, girls might offer observations like, “My grandpa has a lot of freckles like that grandpa!” or “My neighbor has that color skin, but I don’t.”)
After you have finished reading, explain that one of the ways that we’re all special and different from each other is the color of our skin. Everyone in the room has a different color skin, and no two skin colors are exactly the same. There might even be different skin colors on different parts of your own body.
Book Suggestions :
• The Skin You Live In by Michael Tyler
• The Color of Us by Karen Katz
• Same, Same, But Different by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw
• Let’s Talk About Race by Julius Lester
• All the Colors We Are by Katie Kissinger
Activity #2 : Our Many Colors
Time: 20 minutes
Materials Needed:
acrylic or tempera paint in various colors
bowls
spoons
thick paper
paint brushes
water (for rinsing brushes)
newspaper or craft paper (for covering workspace)
(optional) handheld mirrors
Prep Needed :
Set up painting station: cover the table with newspaper or craft paper, squeeze paints into separate bowls, and place spoons into bowls.
You can mix skin tones with just the primary colors, or you can offer girls white, black, brown, tan, yellow, and red paints for easier mixing.
For a tutorial on how to mix skin tones, visit
www.craftsy.com/post /mixing-paint-skin-tones
Steps :
Explain to girls that they’re going to be mixing paints to match their skin tones and using the paints to create a portrait of themselves.
Direct girls to the painting station and hand each girl a plate. Demonstrate how to mix the various paints to create different skin tones. Give the girls a few minutes to mix the paints. Once they’re satisfied that their paint matches their skin tone, hand them a large sheet of paper to paint their self-portraits. If using, offer them handheld mirrors as well.
Meet back in a circle and give the girls time to share their work.
Activity #3 : Same and Different
Time : 15 minutes
Materials Needed :
“Same, Different” Venn diagram sheet (one per girl)
writing utensils
Prep Needed :
Print off copies of the “Same, Different” Venn diagram (one per girl)
Steps:
Have girls remain in a circle for this next activity. Ask girls, “What are some things that are the same about all the girls in our troop? What are some things that are different about our troop?” Give girls a few minutes to come up with examples.
Tell girls that even though they’re all part of the same troop, there are many things that are different about them. Today, they’re going to explore some of the things that make them the same and different from their friends.
Have girls pair off and then complete the “Same, Different” Venn diagram with their partner. Girls can draw pictures or write their observations on their sheets.
If there are girls in your troop who tend to pair off for every activity, now would be a good time to count off to encourage girls to work with someone they don’t know as well.
Some questions they could ask each other:
What’s your favorite food?
What’s your favorite color?
What’s your favorite animal?
What holidays do you celebrate?
Who’s in your family?
What do you like to do for fun?
What makes you happy?
What makes you sad?
What makes you feel special?
Allow girls a few minutes to complete the sheet, then gather as a large group to share their findings:
After everyone has had a chance to share, discuss the activity with the girls:
What things about you and your partner were the same?
What things were different?
Why is it positive that everyone has things that make them different from other people?
Activity #4 : All About Me!
Time : 15 minutes
Materials Needed :
“Family Interview” sheet (one per girl)
writing utensils
Prep Needed :
Prior to the meeting, connect with families and let them know about the take-home activity girls will need to complete before the next meeting. If possible, arrange to have a few family members attend the follow-up meeting to talk to the troop about their personal heritage or culture. Talk with your parents to make sure they can find ancestors and family history. If not, you can tweak the activity to discuss current family members living in different places.
Steps:
Ask girls if they remember the word “ancestor” from the book they read together in the first activity. Tell them ancestor means a member of their family that lived before they were born, a lot of times they lived a very long time ago. Discuss with girls how, just like how their skin color is one way that makes them special and different, each one of them has ancestors who have come from other places—and that makes them special and different too!
Explain to girls that people learn skills and customs from their ancestors—another word for the things you get from your ancestors is culture or heritage. This can be the food you eat, the kinds of clothes you wear every day or for special occasions, and the holidays you celebrate. All these things make up your culture. If you’re comfortable sharing, tell girls a little bit about your own cultural background.
Tell girls that they’ll be chatting with someone from their family about their family story. Hand each girl the “Family Interview” sheet. Girls will need to complete the sheet at home and bring it back to the next meeting. If girls would like, they can also bring photos or other meaningful items (with parental permission) to the next meeting as well.
Wrapping Up
Time: 15 minutes
Materials Needed:
Make New Friends Lyrics Poster (Optional)
Steps:
Close the meeting by singing Make New Friends and doing a friendship circle.
Family Interview
My name is _______________________________________. There are _____________ people in my family.
I am chatting with __________________________________ today.
She/he is/they are my _____________________________ (how is this person related to you?).
We speak these language(s) in our home: _______________________________________.
An ancestor is a relative who lived before me.
My ancestors came from (list one or more countries):
______________________________________________________________.
When my ancestors arrived in the U.S., they spoke these language(s):
______________________________________________________________________________.
One relative or important adult in my life who came to this country from another country
is named _______________________________. He/she/they came to this country because
_____________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________.
Family traditions include holidays, foods we eat, games we play, and things we like to do. The family tradition that is most special to the person I am chatting with is
_______________________________________________________________________________
because _______________________________________________________________________.
The family tradition that is most special to me is _____________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
because __________________________________________________________________.
Meeting Two
Getting Started
Time : 10 minutes
Materials Needed:
Girl Scout Promise and Law Poster (Optional)
Steps:
Welcome everyone to the meeting and recite the Girl Scout Promise and Law.
Activity #1: All About Our Troop
Time: 20 minutes
Materials Needed:
“Family Interview” sheet, completed (from Meeting 1)
Prep Needed:
Send a reminder to families to have girls bring their completed “Family Interview” sheet and any pictures/special items to share during the meeting.
Steps:
Have girls take turns and share their family stories. Allow time for girls to ask questions as well.
Relatives that have volunteered can share with their girls.
Activity #2: A Map of Us
Time: 15 minutes
Materials Needed:
world map
tape
star stickers
strips of paper
writing utensils
Prep N eeded:
For many reasons, some girls and families may not know exactly where their ancestors came from. Encourage girls to mark the map to the best of their ability.
The activity can also be adapted to have girls mark the map with the places where their family members currently live (for example, an uncle who lives in Florida, cousins from Peru, grandparents in Missouri, etc.).
Have this conversation with parents before the meeting begins and plan the activity that best fits the needs of your troop.
Steps:
Lay out the world map for girls to see.
Tell girls that they’re going to map out all the different places that their families have come from. Help girls locate their ancestors’ place of origin on the world map. Mark the place with a star sticker (some girls might have ancestors with multiple places of origin—use additional stickers to mark those places too).
Hand strips of paper to the girls and have them write, “[Name’s] family is from here!” and tape the paper on the map next to their corresponding stars.
Activity #3: Potato, Potahto
Time : 20 minutes
Materials Needed:
potatoes (one per girl)
paper
writing utensils
Steps:
Tell girls that you’re going to go around the room with a bag of potatoes. As you go around the room, the girls will each select one potato. They should get to know their potato—they can look at the different marks on the potato, the various lumps and bumps, the shape of the potato, etc. They can sketch their potato or take notes about their potato. However, they cannot make a mark on their potato to distinguish it. Tell girls to really get to know their potatoes because in a few minutes, you’ll collect them all again, and they’ll have to pick out their specific potato from the bag.
After a few minutes, go around the room and gather up the potatoes. Tell girls that you’ll roll out all the potatoes and they need to pick out their potato. Once they think they’ve found their potato, they should be able to say why they think that potato was their original potato.
Ask girls the following questions:
When you first saw this bag of potatoes, did they look like a normal bag of potatoes?
Were you able to pick out their potato from the bag?
How did you do this?
Ask girls,” Is this something that we sometimes do with people too? Sometimes, we put everyone in the same group and say, ‘They’re all the same.’” Ask girls to come up with some examples of lumping people into the same group. For example, “All girls like to wear dresses,” “All boys like to wrestle,” “All second graders walk to school by themselves,” or “All grandparents live in nursing homes,” etc.
Say,” We learned in this activity when we take the time to get to know someone, we find out the many ways that each one of us is different and special.”
Wrapping Up
Time: 15 minutes
Materials Needed:
Make New Friends Lyrics Poster (Optional)
Steps:
Close the meeting by singing Make New Friends and doing a friendship circle.
Additional Resources:
“A Guide for Selecting Anti-bias Children’s Books” (Article)
Link: socialjusticebooks.org/guide-for-selecting-anti-biaschildrens-books
“Children Are Not Colorblind” (Video), Erin N. Winkler, Professor and Chair, Africology Department, UW-Milwaukee.
Link: wpt.org/University-Place/children-are-not-colorblind
Talking About Race: Alleviating the Fear (Book) by Steven Grineski, Julie Landsman, and Robert Simmons
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria: And Other Conversations About Race (Book) by Beverly Daniel Tatum
