The Cookie Decision Maker badge is one of the badges girls can earn during the Girl Scout Cookie selling process. We chose to cover this badge over two meetings. Selling cookies was new to our group of Brownies so we wanted to introduce them to the cookies and the idea of selling over a few meetings. If your Service Unit or Council is hosting a Cookie Rally, incorporating that into this badge is a fun idea.
Below is a list of activities to meet the requirements for the Cookie Decision Maker badge. Find ideas for more Brownie badges here.
Taste the Cookies
Each girl got to sample every cookie we sold! The cookies were cut into quarters and passed around. As the girls tasted the cookie they scored them on a sheet. Then we asked for everyone’s favorite.
The girls liked this activity a lot, because cookies! It also gave them more information when selling cookies. For our troop, this was the first year selling cookies and most of the girls had not tried the cookies before.
This sheet also was useful as a tally sheet at cookie booths. We had to keep more official records, but the girls could use this format to keep track of sales during their shift. It was a good way to divide tasks at a booth.
Practice Selling Cookies
For this age group of girls (7-9 years old), we had a mix of girls with strong multiplication skills and others that were just starting. We practiced figuring out the total cost of an order and making change.
How did we make it fun? Each group had a toy cash register and play money to help the cashier. The “customer” rolled a dice that determined how many boxes of cookies she bought. Then she rolled a second dice to determine how much money she paid with. This allowed girls to practice making change for a $20 bill for a single box or smaller change for more boxes.
I made the dice out of cardboard from a cereal box. I cut out six squares 1 ¾” in size for each dice. Then I wrote the different values on them and used clear tape to stick the sides together. The values were 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, and 4 boxes and $5, $10, $10, $20, $20, and $20 for the payment.
Goal Setting
As a group we talked about what activities we would like to do together for the year. We brainstormed ideas on a whiteboard. Then we talked about how cookie selling would help us pay for these activities.
I created a goal setting worksheet for the girls to write up their own activity goals and then how many boxes she’d like to sell. We also created a script the girls could use to create a video for selling cookies or use when talking to family and friends.
Finally the girls practiced their scripts. We prompted the girls on what they should say in different circumstances, especially at a booth.
