This weekend at my work I am leading a letterboxing class for Girl Scouts. I have the badge printed out that lists their requirements so I can match them, and I've already got a bunch of traditional boxes hidden here for them to find.

Does anyone have any tips or advice on how to present everything? What's the best (and cheapest) way to have them make their own stamp for the day? Craft foam? I can't get a bunch of gouges, unfortunately, but I do plan to show them my tools as part of the overall intro. I do have a bunch of small blank books they can use as their own logbooks, and some ink pads to send with them.

Thanks!

We had our Scouts make stamps from Gatorade caps (because they're large) and foam stickers. We showed them the pink stuff and gouges, and talked about carving, but we didn't actually carve with them. Too complicated/expensive/dangerous.

Our girls also made log books out of cardstock squares, hole punched in the corner and tied with yarn. We kept it all very simple. We talked to them about AQ, writing clues, etc. Showed them what a box might look like and what should and should not be in it.

What's the best (and cheapest) way to have them make their own stamp for the day?

Foam stickers are probably cheapest, but white polymer erasers are lovely to carve. I cut them in half to make itty squares. I do not share everyone's concern about the danger of gouges. I think kids can handle proper tools. That said, nibs taken out of the handles are easily managed so they can carve their own without poking each other's eyes out. They are reasonably cheap, endlessly reusable, and the erasers are fairly cheap and make a good impression that they can personalize. Part of the fun for my inner child is my secret letterboxer identity and matching stamp.

I once had a group of 5 [5th grade] boys do lino carving with me, and one boy cut himself. He was so freaked out seeing his blood that he vomited, and I had to call mom to take him home. It was not a big cut. It was using the same tools you are probably planning to use. So I might suggest finding out ahead if anyone is prone to passing out when they see blood. This kid lost all his color and looked so sick. I had never seen that reaction before.

Ouch! Maybe that's a boy thing? ;-)

I have lead Girl Scouts (kindergarten Daisy thru high school) in carving with gouges and they have done really well. I *do* give a warning to the group before they begin that the gouge is sharp and you can cut yourself etc. I also give each girl one-on-one attention (me or one of the older experienced girls in my troop) before they are allowed to pick up the gouge. (They need to create a logbook from index cards, pencil a sketch, and (transfer) rub it onto the pink eraser before they call someone over to help.) Typically I need one band aid out of 60 girls (most are kindergarten through 3rd grade).

Don't be afraid to let the girls carve! :)
I have heard you can remove the eraser from a pencil and pinch the metal to form a primitive gouge; try that and see if it works.

For what we have done, the logbook / carving takes about 40 minutes with a group of about 16 girls. If you are working with a smaller group you can probably have the group carve in 20-25 minutes.

Well, linoleum does require a harder carve than pink, so pink might be fine, I agree.

My Daisy troop just did letterboxing, not for a badge, just fun. We made log books out of scrap paper between cardboard covers reused from girl scout cookie boxes. Used foam stickers on bottle caps for stamps. Most of the girls in ths troop are 5&6 and they loved it. We went and found some boxes I planted just for them as well. They got the concept of it all really quick.
Good luck with your tutorial, I'm sure it'll go great.

Thanks for the advice! I think I'll stick to foam, because I have it already. I didn't think of the foam stickers, I have a lot of those, too! I'll probably let them pick a sticker or two OR let them cut their own shape, either way. I'll have to find something to put them on.

Funny story...I actually used to work at a girl scout camp where I taught knife safety. Not all of the girls had permission to use knives, so those girls went through the motions (safety circle and all) but had sticks instead of knives so they could pretend. Guess who got hurt? Not a single girl with a knife. Somehow a girl with sticks managed to get it up under her fingernail and popped that off. Yeah....that was fun....

I suppose you have to plan for every contingency. Have to admit, I never saw that coming.

Please, please be sure to explain what letterboxing is! The requirements don't mention that! If you go to the Scouts board, I did a long explanation of what my troop did when this badge first came out. good luck!

Ohhh yes. I'm also going to emphasize secrecy, and respect for surroundings and the boxes themselves.

What about pencils with the eraser removed and the metal bit bent into a gouge shape?
They are good enough for kids to enjoy on pink erasers, anyways. And not very sharp. Much more fun than foam shapes and glue.

I need a *shivering* button. Ugh.
There is no way to prevent all injury...and I think when kids see/sense the inherent danger they are better at self preservation. Otherwise, creativity just gets the best of them!

I would love to hear back of how everything went. Good luck!

Thanks!

Current plan:

I put pictures on a power point (visuals!) to go over key terms, and plan to bring some of my own stuff to show n tell. Then they will make a stamp- I have foam stickers and small wood blocks. They'll make up a trail name, too and can write it in their log book.

Then, break into pairs and each pair given a clue for practice boxes, hidden around the room. Then I can observe that they stamp correctly before I send them out for real.

Then, given real clues (Slightly altered from AQ clues). There'll be 2 teams and I've reversed one set of clues so they are not all on top of each other. One goes clockwise on the trail, the other goes counter clockwise.

They'll have an hour and set to meet back in the classroom. Now that they've seen multiple clues and boxes, they will have a chance to rehide the practice boxes (temporarily) and write their own clues for another pair of girls to find.

Basically, doing that last step means they've earned a whole badge without having a letterbox haphazardly hidden and listed on AQ only to disappear in a week. :)

Hopefully it works out and hopefully they can do it all in the 2 hours allotted!

Holy cow. My daughter was carving on her own at age 6!!! Never had one problem.

Ohhh... Linoleum..... Much different story!!! Now that, I can see cuts, because it is so tough.

Slightly off topic, but anyone who passes out at the sight of blood, might not be an ideal scout candidate? Don't they use pocket knives, tools of all sorts, etc by age 10 or so? I kind of assumed skinned knees and cuts are the norm for a camping trip.

I took my son to one Boy Scout meeting and he was complaining about ants and spiders, crying and carrying on. We never went back. He is soooooooo not Scout material. Lol.

Well, this was in my elementary classroom, not a scouting situation.

This was before I knew about pink. It was real linoleum.

It depends on the troop. There are some more focused on STEM activities.
I get frustraetd in GS when people assume they don't want to get dirty or do "boy" things at this age. It's becoming true...but I think it's because of what they hear from not-me; not because they ultimately feel girly.

We started out crafty with daisies, we did camping, hiking and messy stuff last year with brownies (including carving with real gouges on pink and letterboxing). This year, they picked cooking, jewelry making, pottery and more camping. Letterboxing was so popular with some that they always ask to do more. We will go hiking once a month or so with them when the weather is good.

I think you are right. The "girly" activities thing really depends on the girls and leaders involved. There was another troop that wanted to do more hiking/letterboxing but their leader couldn't physically do it. I offered to take her troop, but the leader didn't get back to me.