In addition to the Leadership Journeys, girls at each Girl Scout grade level have their own edition of The Girl’s
Guide to Girl Scouting—a binder full of information about being a Girl Scout and how to earn certain badges,
including ones about financial literacy and the Girl Scout Cookie Program. Girls who want to earn more badges
can add a Skill Building Badge Set tied to the theme of the Journey they’ve chosen.
When a Girl Scout earns a badge, it shows that she’s learned a new skill, such as how to make a healthy snack
or take great digital photos. It may even spark an interest at school or plant the seed for a future career. Please
remember that we don’t expect you to be an expert in the badge topics; just have fun learning by doing with
the girls!
While you’re having fun, keep in mind: badges are for educating girls, not for decorating their sashes and vests.
The quality of a girl’s experience—and the skills and pride she gains from earning leadership awards and skillbuilding badges—far outweigh the quantity of badges she earns.
If you’re working with Girl Scout Daisies, plea se note that they earn Petals and Leaves (which form a flower)
instead of badges.
There are several ways to supplement the National Program Portfolio and enhance girls’ time as Girl Scouts—
and have fun while you’re doing it! A few of them are outlined below.
The For Girls section of girlscouts.org features a variety of videos, games, blogs, and other fun ways to enrich
the GSLE. Girls will find opportunities to post their ideas for public service announcements on topics that
matter to them and get inspired by watching short videos that tell the stories of women from all walks of life. If
you work with Girl Scout Daisies and Brownies, you might like the site’s print-and-play coloring and game
pages—great for having on hand when energetic girls get together! Both girls and volunteers will have fun with
Badge Explorer, an overview of all of the badges girls can earn. For Girls is updated frequently, so check back
often—and invite girls to do the same!
Girls are welcome to develop and complete activities to make their own badge—a great way to explore a topic
of personal interest. (In addition, girls who make their own badge will learn how to learn, which is an
important skill to have in school, on the job, and in life!) Once girls check the Awards Log in The Girl’s Guide to
Girl Scouting to make sure there’s not already a badge on the topic they want to explore, they’ll follow steps
outlined in that handbook to complete the requirements for their very own badge. Even better, they can go
online to design and purchase a badge that later arrives in the mail! For more information, check out the Make
Your Own Badge website.
The Girl Scout Law includes many of the principles and values common to most faiths. And even though Girl
Scouts is a secular organization, we’ve always encouraged girls to explore spirituality via their own faiths. Girls
of all grade levels can now earn the My Promise, My Faith pin. By carefully examining the Girl Scout Law and
directly tying it to tenets of her faith, a girl can earn the pin once each year she participates in Girl Scouting.
You can find more about the requirements for this pin in The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting.
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