Brownies: Snack Badge

My troop really enjoyed earning this badge.  To repeat what Catherine said, "What Girl Scout does not like a meeting that involves food and eating!" Straight from the mouth of one of my babes!

The Snack Badge is one of those badges with endless opportunities to have fun.  I do not have any earth-shattering activities, crafts or wisdom to share, but I can tell you what I did for this meeting and hopefully take the planning phase out of your schedule.

We also plan to tour Central Market, which is a gourmet grocery store, for our next field trip.  They plan on showing the girls some odd fruits in produce, lobsters in the Seafood Dept and breads in the bakery!  We get to end the tour with gelato!  Can't Wait!

I used the www.ChoosemyPlate.gov website for information and to help guide my troop discussion.  I passed out small paper copies of the plate and asked the girls what they observed when looking at the plate.  Kids are funny... one girl commented that green seems like a good color to represent vegetables (since most vegetables are green) on the plate and red for fruit (because strawberries and apples are red), brown for grains (because bread is often brown) and she gets why Dairy is blue since the lid to her milk is blue, but why is protein purple?  She has never eaten purple meat.  Friends, this is why I love leading!  I had to laugh, these girls can be so observant.
I had to redirect the conversation because this was not quite the information I was fishing for and finally a girl comments that Vegetables and Fruits are the biggest colors on the plate.  YES!  So with this observation I asked the girls to give examples of foods in each category.  We talked about the "Recommended Daily Plan" for each of these food categories, what constitutes a serving, how to calculate a cup of food and so on.  I did not get into a lot of detail.  I did not feel this was a big health lesson, just an awareness.  They could probably spend an entire month on diet alone in 3rd grade.  Besides they could not sit still anticipating the snacks.

I once again set-up the snacks in stations, with a large troop this makes the most sense.  Each girl was asked to go to one of 3 tables where I had a parent helper to lead the building of their snack.   We talked about how much fun food can be to make and that they are old enough to find foods they can make on their own.  The 3 station were good examples of foods they could make themselves.

Station 1:  M&M Flowers was a Birthday Snack for one of my Brownies and was a good example of a less healthy alternative for a snack, but a good chance to reinforce that not all snacks need to be healthy all of the time.  Birthdays are a great time to celebrate and be less concerned about healthy foods.
Items Needed:
    vanilla wafers
    icing
    m&ms
    pretzels

Station 2: Safari Celery - Celery is loaded in Vit C, A and K which is critical for good blood function and coagulation.  Many kids are not fond of celery, but with this combination my girls were willing to try it.

Items Needed:

     Celery (one stalk cut in half per serving and bottom carefully pre-cut to allow the celery to lay flat)

     cream cheese (to avoid possibility of allergies) OR Peanut Butter (also found Wow Butter a                               soybean, nut-free peanut butter alternative that tastes like PB alternative at Wal-Mart)

     animal crackers

     Toppers for fun: dried cherries, mini chocolate chips, icing sprinkles

Station 3:  Tortilla Pizza Wraps (FAVORITE amongst Girls) - whole grain or wheat tortillas make this snack even healthier

Items Needed:

     Tortillas

      Squeezable (a MUST!) Pizza Sauce

      Sliced Mozzarella Cheese (prevents mess)

      mini-pepperoni

I also had an alternative, although only 1girl out of 26 did not want the pizza tortilla

Ham & Cheese Tortillas

Items Needed:

    Tortillas

    Ham & Cheese combo pack (Oscar Mayer Deli Fresh Combos)

    Slice American Cheese

    Pickle (Sandwich Slice)

    Mustard & Ranch May (optional)

I had the parent helpers ask the girls which food group each ingredient item was from.

Celery Snack CLICK HERE
m&m Flower Snack
Tortilla Snack
My Plate
My Plate Handouts

If you download my files please list your troop #, council and state in the comments area.  I love for readers to see all the active leaders in the area looking and sharing resources! Also this keeps me inspired to continue updating my posts!