Did you know that Taylor Swift was a Girl Scout too? During a recent troop sleepover my girls shared how much they loved Taylor Swift (TS). My girls are 8th and 9th graders and I’m always looking for ways to make our time together fun and memorable. Half of the girls bridged to Seniors this year and I wanted to find a way to entice a few of them to renew for high school. Since I knew how much they loved TS I wanted to find a way to include her in an upcoming meeting. During my search I found a TS Was a GS, Too Fun Patch and a fun lesson plan that incorporated the lyrics of TS and the Girl Scout Law (you can find anything in Facebook groups if you look long enough). Below is a summary of what our night looked like during our meeting and a few of the special things we did as a troop.
Dress As Your Favorite Era
That’s right, I told the girls they could dress anyway they liked for this meeting. Let your creativity fly here girls. Go big, go bold, or go soft and sweet! I let them know that I would be wearing a glittery dress with cowboy boots (because we all have those dresses in our closet that need to be worn one more time, right). The girls had so much fun and showed off their personalities.
Paparazzi Photos on the Red Carpet
This one was a last minute decision, but I called in a favor to one of our local GS dads who is also a local photographer. Literally 30 minutes before the meeting I remembered he lived in the same neighborhood where we hold our troop meetings and sent him a text. “Hey, want to play paparazzi tonight?” I imagined him showing up and just snapping some photos of us during our meeting but he took the challenge to a whole new level. He showed up with lights and haze and set up a fun red carpet experience for the girls! If I had more time I would have actually bought red paper for the carpet, next time!! He took a few individual photos of each of us and a group photo at the end, then left to do his magic with technology! He blew us away with what he came up with. Seriously, find a friend and just ask! I ended up sending him a little something special on Venmo. Photo credits to Will Miller Photography in Palm Harbor, FL for being so amanazing!
Selfie Station
This one was simple, I went to Walmart and spent $6 on a rainbow foil backdrop (something similar on Amazon, affiliate link) and hung it in our meeting space. We kept it simple with decorations but you can go all out. My daughter really wanted me to find a disco ball but I didn’t look until it was too late to order online.
Activities
These I found in a Facebook group. They were originally in a Google Doc format and I created a fun printable handout for my girls in Canva. I’ve saved all of these in our troops Google Drive and you are welcome to copy/print/use anyway you like. Here was the agenda for the actual meeting activities:
TS Trivia – I let the girls know ahead of time there was going to be a trivia contest with prizes! Some of them studied in advance, some of them were true Swifties, and some of them had no idea because they didn’t read my texts! This activity took us about 20 minutes to complete. They answered the questions on their own handout and I gave them a few bonus points if they knew any of the “extra” info (number and names of cats, etc). After they had all their answers written down we went around the room and shared the answers.
Prizes – I grabbed a few GS swag items from my endless closet of leftover goodies from cookie sales and leader events to give as prizes. I also designed and printed TS Stickers for each of the girl. You can grab my Canva sticker template for FREE here if you want to have some fun making your own stickers. I printed them at home on sticker paper, laminated them, and cut them on my Silhouette. You can find my supply list here: https://amzn.to/3PdfzmH, Amazon affiliate link). Since TS has a lot of copyright phrases I didn’t list these items for sale, but I do have a sticker shop and I’m happy to take custom orders! Just send me an email to calleypate@gmail.com.
Life Lessons from TS – This activity was the one I was most looking forward to. You match the TS song lyrics with a line in the GS Law. I honestly couldn’t tell in the original handout if there were right and wrong answers here so I let the girls decide! We even talked about why they chose the way they chose. This was a fun discussion and I loved seeing them working in small groups connecting songs with the law.
How can our troop be more like TS this year? – This was a question I asked them to answer on the handout. We went around the room and shared our answers. Most of them wanted to be as nice and giving as TS. One of the girls wanted to organize an event like this for other Girl Scouts.
Which TS Era Are You In? We spent about 5-10 minutes talking about this one as a group. They discussed which Era they felt most like and even helped their GS Sisters who weren’t sure which Era fit them best. My favorite answer of the entire night was from one of my Girl Scouts who didn’t come dressed up. It didn’t surprise me that she didn’t dress up, this is her normal personality. Sometimes she can be hard to read and she’s typically very quite. I asked her which Era she felt like most and here was her reply, “Lover, because I’m glitter and rainbows on the inside!” Y’all, I could not have laughed and loved her more in that moment as she stood there in her grey hoodie and straight face!
We spent the last 30 minutes of the meeting eating our Sour Patch Watermelon candies, making friendship bracelets, listening to our TS playlist, and hanging out with friends. They took some selfies, did some improve, and just spent time together.
Some of my leader takeaways: Listen to your girls when they are hanging out with one another. That’s what sparked the idea behind this evening during their sleepover. While I did plan the activities of the night, it was 100% girl-led and inspired! They steered the trajectory of the night and I played off their personalities. Don’t be afraid to be crazy and silly! I’m allowed to be their friend as their leader and knowing that they are in a safe space is priceless. They are free to express themselves and be vulnerable with one another. They are free to sing the lyrics of their favorite songs at the top of their lungs! They are free to let their glitter and rainbows out! This my friends is more than I could ever have imagined Girl Scouts in middle and high school looking like….and I have no idea how I’m going to top this one!
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