The Making Friends badge is a great option for the first meeting of the year or when you have a new group of girls joining. It’s easy and gets the girls interacting right away.
Below is a list of activities to meet the requirements for the Making Friends badge. Find ideas for more Brownie badges here.
This or That
To get the girls up and moving, I read a list of “this or that” choices and then the girls would run to one side of the room or the other corresponding with their choice. The choices were things like “vanilla or chocolate”, “cake or ice cream”, “gold or silver”, “cats or dogs” etc. It was a fun way to learn about the girls’ interests and see where we had a lot of similarities.
Make a Troop Banner
Each girl contributed to our banner. They created something personal to them – their handprint. Each girl traced her hand on the felt, cut it out, wrote her name on it, and then attached it to the banner. The Troop makes use of this banner for group pictures, cookie booths, and bridging ceremonies.
Meet New Friends
One of the small groups worked on meeting the girls in the troop and learning about them. They also were given different scenarios of situations that might happen in school with friends (name calling, feeling left out, not sharing, etc.). The girls read the scenario and talked about how they would feel and what they could do.
Show Gratitude
For our troop, this meeting took place in November which is a great time to talk about giving thanks and showing gratitude. We gave each girl a blank card. Then they wrote thank you notes to someone they know. Our girls wrote notes to friends, teachers, and parents. After the meeting the girls delivered their notes.
