Paper Bag Princesses

Our Dasies earned their "Respect myself and others" petal at the end of April.

Self respect and standing up for themselves can be a tricky concept to convey to a group of five and six year olds.  Thankfully, there is a wonderful picture book that handles the topic superbly that we based the entire meeting around.  If you have never read Robert Munsch's The Paper Bag Princess, I implore you to do so.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Paper-Bag-Princess-Annikins/dp/0920236251

http://www.amazon.de/Paper-Bag-Princess-Munsch-Kids/dp/0920236162/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1430862107&sr=8-1&keywords=the+paperbag+princess

In the story, our brave Princess Elizabeth survives an attack on her village and castle by a ferocious dragon.  Everything has been burned (except one paper bag) and the Prince, Elizabeth's fiancee, is taken prisoner by that same dragon.  Elizabeth, much like our Heidelberg scouts is not content to play the part of "damsel in distress" and heads out, wearing the only thing left, that paper bag, to track down the dragon, defeat him and rescue her prince.

When our brave Princess rescues Prince Ronald he responds in a most disrespectful fashion, turning up his nose at her and criticizing her messy hair and lack of high fashion.  She, in turn, respects herself enough not to take that, tells him he may LOOK like a prince but acts more like a bum and doesn't marry him after all.  

Thank you Robert Munsch for writing such an awesome book and making leading this petal so very simple!

We had lots of lively and great discussion about the story and how it related to our petal.  After which we sang a slightly revised version of Joe Scruggs awesome song Rapunzel got a Mohawk and talked about how many of the fairy tale heroines they are familiar with might have been able to stand up for themselves. 

http://www.thelyricarchive.com/song/2744430-444941/Rapunzel-Got-a-Mohawk

We followed up the story and song by having a bunch of fun making paperbag dresses and princess crowns.  Look at these girls, are they having fun or what?!

DAI Maker Space

Hi and welcome to our new blog.  Here is a place that families can see what the girls have been up to.  People interested in joining, or just wondering what this "Girl Scout thing" is all about, can also read and see who we are and what we do.


Two weeks ago we were fortunate enough to be invited to participate in the DAI Maker Space.  Most of our girls, at various age levels came and told people about scouting, helped people make SWAPS and also got to explore the other displays.

Here are Marika, our Ambassador, and I in front of the display

(thanks to one of our awesome Moms for taking this photo)

And below are several photos of the girls interacting with the community who came out for the event:

Our older girls worked to design a plastic "badge on the 3-D printer.  They enjoyed watching it print out and are all excited that each girl will get one to sew on her vest or sash:

It was a great event and we are very grateful to the German American Library (DAI) for including us.  Hopefully they will do it again sometime.