Mean People Suck!

Just as I was settling in, getting ready to watch the Oscars, I discovered that the plans for the next night’s Girl Scout meeting fell through.  Crap!  I thought I was in the clear, and didn’t have to do anything, but I was wrong.  I found myself scrambling to come up with something for ten girls to do – and it had to be something that required minimal preparation.

I’m not sure why, but I started to look up ideas about No Bullying.  I guess I think the girls are at the age when they start to find out that MEAN PEOPLE SUCK.   I wanted to help get the message across without being to preachy, and without the girls feeling like they were back in their classrooms.

After some searching on the Internet, I came up with these ideas.

Crossing the Line     

This is a simple game to get the girls to think about how others often “cross the line” with their words.  I took a jump rope, and laid it on the ground in a straight line.  I asked the girls to line up, shoulder to shoulder, on one side of the rope.  Before we started, I asked the girls if they knew what it meant when someone crosses the line.  One girl said her mom says it to her all the time!  I explained that crossing the line means someone says or does something in a way that makes another person feel badly.  I read some ways that people in the troop or in their class might behave.  If the girls though it was “bad” they took a step over the rope (thus, they crossed the line). 

Here are some of the things I read to the girls:

“Would you like to eat lunch with me?”

“Did you really wear that ugly shirt to school?”

“Only my friends can play this game at recess.”

“Sorry, my mom said I can only have 5 people at my party.  But, I will invite you over to play another time.”

This game allowed the girls to think for themselves, because while some thought the behavior was bad, some did not agree.  It was a good activity to get the girls talking.

Wrinkled Heart

You probably saw this activity all over Pinterest (because I did!).  I gave each girl a paper heart, and every time I said something not nice, they had to fold the paper.  Eventually, the paper heart took the shape of a paper ball.   I explained to the girls that every time you say something hurtful to others, you are putting a wrinkle on their heart.   I then complimented each girl, and with each compliment, the girls could unfold their paper.  I explained to the girls that even though the words were taken away, the wrinkles remain and that we should be careful with what we say.   We then took this poem (Before you speak, Think and be smart.  It's hard to fix a wrinkled heart), and attached it to our hearts with a band-aid.  

SpongeBob can definitely help to heal a hurt heart.

  Compliment Catcher

I don’t think we compliment one another as much as we should.  Too much time is spent on the negative, and not on the positive.  I think this is the truth for Brownie Scouts as much as it is true for those in the workplace.   It seems to be easier for people to put things in writing rather than actually saying it, so that’s what I asked the girls to do. 

Each girl was given a sheet of adhesive labels and a pen.  I asked them to write down as many nice words as they could think of on each label.  At first it was met with some whining, but once they got into the swing of things, each was able to fill in the entire sheet.  Each girl was then given a paper plate shield to wear (I prepared these before the meeting.  I punched two holes at the top of the plate, and tied string around it to make a necklace.  The plates were labeled with their names).  The girls were told to wear their plates on their back.  Then I released the hounds: the girls had to walk around the room, and had to place a compliment sticker on another girl’s plate.  At times they looked like a dog that was chasing its tail!  They were walking in circles after one another, giggling the entire time.  After the last sticker was placed, they took a look at their plates and discovered each one was filled with kind words.  I told them that whenever they have a bad day, and someone said something hurtful, they could go home and look at their plate to remember the nice things their sister scouts said.

This was my Monkey's plate.

So, here is what I have left to say about this lesson: Pay it forward tomorrow…do something nice for someone….say something kind to another person....SMILE.

Until next time.