End of Year Brownie Scout Celebration (9 Badges)

Congratulations on bridging up to Brownie Girl Scouts. As you begin to plan out your adventures, try to get the girls involved in the planning. We ended our Daisy Scout Year with a Brownie Scout survey. I suggest asking the girls to complete the survey with their families because families control so much of what the scouts can do at this age.

Once you have an idea of what your girls want to do, start thinking about a family celebration for the end of the year. We try to get the families together at least once a year. Learn more about Brownies by visiting What Brownies Do. We dive into how to earn Brownie badges below.

Planning a Family Celebration

Brownie Girl Scouts is a great time to give your girls a little more independence and leadership. Planning a family celebration provides them this opportunity. There are a few great Brownie Scout badges that lead to an awesome end of the year celebration. We like to combine a few to make something fun for the families, but feel free to only try one or two. Whichever ones you pick, then become the badges you want to work on through the year leading to the celebration. We try to pair these with our survey results.

I’ve included the nine badges that pair really nicely together to make an incredible family celebration for your Brownie Girl Scouts. First, remember that parts of all nine badges work well together, but you do not have to include all six in your celebration. Second, to earn the badge, girls may need to complete some parts prior to the family celebration. Lastly, this allow the girls as much opportunity as possible to plan the celebration.

Preparation Before the Field Day

Location

To prepare for the field day, your scouts will need some time to plan this event. They will need to plan out a location where they can hike, hide letterboxes, and walk between landmarks. This is not an easy task, but something that you could do in a downtown area. Once you know where you will hike, you will need a trail map so that the families know where to hide their letterbox. Moreover, you will use the trail map to teach the scouts to read a map as they hike.

Next, you will need to plan a location to camp. Camping could be separate from this adventure but it also fits in nicely. For camping, ask your troop if they want to tent camp, cabin camp, or even camper camp. Then find a location that works for you. Many campgrounds have options for all three, so families could choose what works best for them.

The girls will need to prepare a meal. We plan to have the girls prepare breakfast the next morning. Be sure to have them figure out what they want to make, brainstorm all the materials needed, and shop for what they need. No one wants to miss breakfast after a busy day of camping. We save dinner for our family potluck!

Brownie Letterboxer

We asked each family to create a letterbox to bring to our Brownie Girl Scout end of year celebration. Inside of each letterbox, we asked the scouts to put an object that is important to their family with a short note explaining why. This is their family story to share. Also, we had each girl add a family tree inside of their letterbox. Each scout will need a special stamp, you can ask families to bring their own or create one together. Once you arrive at the hiking location, the families will need a few minutes to hide their letterbox and write the clue.

Pack Your Gear

Each family will need to bring their gear for the hike and camping. Remind the scouts that they need the essentials for hiking. These include sun protection, water, a snack, whistle, first aid kit and flash light. They will also need to bring any items they need for camping including changes of clothes. Plus they will need to bring their potluck dinner to share with the troop and a few copies of the recipe.

Opening Ceremony

Plan an opening ceremony Olympics style. For our opening ceremony, we had the girls pick a song to begin our event. The girls had a great time choosing a song to play as their opening ceremony. If your girls are having trouble, listen to some songs about America to get their creativity flowing.

Afterwards, we asked an expert to teach us some marching steps. A member of the high school marching band is an awesome resource. Who knew how many different steps are used when marching? I sure didn’t even though I was in marching band all through high school. Finally, allow the families to practice what they learned by walking in an opening parade to kick off the festivities.

We modeled our parade off the Olympics opening ceremony. Our girls loved getting to walk out with their families as we made our way to our starting location for our hike. This would also be a great time to hide the letterboxes if each group works as a family.

Brownie Hike

To begin the hike, ask the families to take a few moments to hide their letterboxes somewhere along the hiking path. Once the letterbox is hidden, have the families write a short clue to share with everyone to assist with locating the box. These clues can be in a special code or written in riddles. This allows the girls to complete the scavenger hunt and mystery game parts of Brownie Making Games badge.

Now you can begin your hike. As you hike along, the scouts can use the trail maps to follow along. During the hike, they can solve clues to locate each letterbox and learn about their fellow scouts.

Be sure to explore the three different landmarks along the path and keep an eye out for American flags for the Brownie Celebrating Community badge. The scouts can observe the signs of nature, which might include plants and animals along the way. Additionally, keep a lookout for animal homes and signs of animals.

While hiking, the scouts should engage in at least one way to care for the outdoors. This may be a trash clean up as they hike. However, you could also have the girls do some weeding with permission or even help plant some flowers or trees too.

Brownie Field Day

Now comes the fun of field day! Be sure to let your girls plan the fun activities and encourage all members of the families to participate. It’s way more fun with a big group.

We began with a team game. This helped to get everyone more relaxed and working together. Plus, there were many laughs and craziness from both the kids and adults. We had our buddy party game next, where the scouts actually took a game they love and changed the rules. All the family members needed to listen closely to learn the new rules of the game which was super fun for the girls.

We closed our field day portion with a new sport that the troop invented. Everyone was invited to play. But be sure to have the scouts keep score as part of the Brownie Fair Play badge requirements. This was an absolute hoot and the families were beside themselves the whole game.

Potluck and Camping

Now that you’ve worked up an appetite, be sure to head someone to eat. We asked each family to prepare one cultural or ethnic food to share with the troop and bring it for our potluck dinner. During dinner we played the girls’ favorite songs as part of the Brownie Celebrating Communities badge. You could ask each family to bring a cultural song instead if you want to really learn about the girls’ culture.

After everyone ate, we held a closing parade to practice our marching and headed over to our campfire. Here we taught the girls a new camping skill of being safe by a campfire and building a safe campfire. This actually helps fulfill Brownie Outdoor Adventurer badge and Brownie Cabin Camper badge requirements. Be sure to bring a special treat to roast over the campfire and skits, songs or stories to share. This could be a great time for girls to share their special objects if letterboxing was a little rushed.

Finally, the next morning we asked the girls to prepare breakfast. This fulfills a Brownie Cabin Camper badge requirement. Plus all the adults wanted some time to take down camp and get ready to head home.

9 Brownie Badges We Can Earn

Celebrating Community Brownie Badge Requirements

Our Brownie celebrating communities badge ideas make earning this badge super simple. The final step in the Brownie Celebrating Community badge asks your girls to participate in a flag or town ceremony or to make their own. Our scouts loved making their own ceremony and inviting their families to join their ceremony. In addition, by hosting our own celebration, we could pair multiple badges together. This badge ties really nicely with the final step in Brownie Fair Play and Brownie Making Games.

You can add in all the parts of the Brownie Celebrating Community Badge if you plan your location carefully. Plan to host your outdoor gathering near different landmarks in your town. These can include a park, monument, plague, garden, or business. The hike needed for Brownie Hiker Badge and Brownie Letterboxer Badge should go past three different landmarks to complete step 1 and 4 of Brownie Celebrating Community Badge. While on your hike, be sure to look for all the American flags you can find.

To complete the Brownie Celebrating Community Badge, plan to sing at least three songs throughout the day. You can plan an opening song and a closing song. Then you just need one more song to sing at some point during your field day. Your last song could be your marching song! Invite a member of the local marching band or someone from the military to teach about marching. Then practice using your music as an opening ceremony for your field day.

Brownie Fair Play Badge Requirements

Our Brownie fair play badge ideas make earning this badge fun and easy. The last step in the Brownie Fair Play badge asks the scouts to plan a field day. What a great tie in to a family celebration. Work with your troop to create team relay races or make a theme day. The theme day involves creating games to fit into their theme, which really gets the creative juices flowing.

During your field day, be sure to teach and follow the rules for a game to complete step 1. Try playing popcorn, a human knot, or octopus tag to complete step 3. Finally, find a way to keep score for one of the games for step 4. You’ll just have step 2 to complete prior to the field day, by learning about women or people with disabilities in sports. However, the field day is a perfect opportunity to include everyone!

We asked our troop to create a field day for their families, including siblings. This field day helped to map out our family celebration and all badges fit nicely within a field day experience. This badge fits well with Brownie Celebrating Community and Brownie Making Games.

Brownie Making Games Badge Requirements

The entire Brownie Making Games badge is really great for a family celebration. Your scouts can create each of these games as part of their theme or relay races. First, create a scavenger hunt that matches the theme of your celebration or allow your letterboxing search to be your scavenger hunt. This could tie nicely to the Get a Clue mystery game, where the clues are written to help the scouts find the letterboxes. On the other hand, you could add a Who’s Who game but instead use items that match your theme.

The next steps work well for a theme party. Second, step 3 asks the scouts to create a party game. Let your imagination run wild. Additionally, if you make this a buddy game it ties with the Brownie Outdoor Adventurer Badge. Next, step 4 looks at changing the rules for a game, which could tie easily with any step from this badge. And finally, step 5 looks at inventing a new sport. This badge fits well with Brownie Celebrating Community and Brownie Fair Play. These Brownie making games badge ideas will help your scouts earn this badge quickly.

Brownie My Family Story Badge Requirements

Earn this badge with our Brownie my family story badge ideas. The final step in the Brownie My Family Story badge involves sharing your family story. One of the choices is to have a “family tree” potluck party. This covers both step 2, exploring a recipe, and step 5, sharing the potluck dinner. We loved having families all bring a dish and recipe to share at our family celebration. Such a fun way to incorporate food into your party. You can add this to any family celebration! Additionally, some of the other steps are great to share at the celebration. Steps 1, 3 and 4 fit in nicely with sharing a family story and family tree and an object with importance to your family.

This badge pairs really nicely with any family celebration, but especially with the Brownie Letterboxer, Brownie Outdoor Adventurer and Brownie Hiking badge if you want to add in more than just the “family tree” pot luck.

Brownie Letterboxer Badge Requirements

The first and final two steps in the Brownie Letterboxer badge would pair nicely with a family celebration. Ask each family to create a letterbox to hide at your family celebration location. Each family would also need to create clues for their letterbox. Then, allow the families time to solve the clues and search for the other letterboxes. This allows you to place letterboxes for the day and then take them home if you don’t have a location to leave one for other scouts.

To complete this badge, either work with the scouts to create a special stamp or have each family bring their own stamp. Then, before beginning your search, have each family create a clue for the other scouts to solve that describes where their box is hidden or helps another scout find their box.

This pairs nicely with Brownie My Family Story as the girls could place pictures and items important to their family inside their letterbox. In other words, the letterbox becomes so much more valuable to your scouts. Moreover, this pairs well with Brownie Outdoor Adventurer and Brownie Hiker if you place the boxes along a hiking trail. Our Brownie letterboxer badge ideas add some excitement to this badge.

Brownie Outdoor Adventurer Badge Requirements

Our Brownie outdoor adventurer badge ideas fit in nicely with this celebration plan. Try hosting your family celebration outside to meet most of these requirements. Step 1 and 3 pair nicely with the Brownie Fair Play field day and all of Brownie Making Games. These two steps look at playing games outside and buddy games, so be sure to add a buddy game into the celebration. It’s easy enough for any part of the Brownie Making Games badge into a buddy game.

Additionally, step 2 looks at exploring nature. A nature hike pairs nicely with the Brownie Letterboxer badge if family’s place their letterbox on a hiking path or along a path the scouts can hike. Asking the girls to clean up trash along their nature hike completes step 5. I suggest completing step 4, learn a camp skill, prior to your family celebration, but you could always add a campfire and teach the skill here too! Easily pairs with the Brownie Letterboxer and Brownie Hiker badge.

Brownie Hiker Badge Requirements

We love to hike with our troop, so we completed the Brownie Hiker badge prior to our family celebration. However, you could easily add in this badge by allowing the girls to pick the trail and teaching a hiking skill like following trail signs or using a trail map. The scouts would need to prepare their gear and a snack, then enjoy their hike. These Brownie Hiker badge ideas make the perfect compliment to your day. Easily pairs with the Brownie Letterboxer and Brownie Outdoor Adventurer badge.

Outdoor Families – 2 Additional Brownie Badges

If you have families who love camping outdoors, you can pair this celebration with an overnight. This allows you to include both the Brownie Cabin Camper badge and Brownie Eco Friend badge. We held our campout separate from our celebration, so you can read more about that in our post on Camping with Brownies.

For Brownie Cabin Camper badge, your troop needs to make a camp meal. We let our girls make breakfast so we had time to deconstruct camp and get ready to go home. We definitely needed a shower after this day. Check out our Camping Meals with Kids post for some simple and easy breakfast ideas.

We paired the Brownie Eco Friend badge with our hike and campfire. During our hike we practiced Leave No Trace and the Outdoor Code, while observing nature. Then during the campfire, we learned how to build a safe campfire and some awesome safety tips for the scouts. Of course, the campfire was some of the most fun of the whole day and definitely what our girls were looking forward to. We had some s’mores and told some silly stories with a few songs sprinkled throughout.

Final Thoughts

These nine badges help to make up your year in scouts prior to your family celebration. Any step in the badge that you do not wish to cover at the family celebration, add into your meeting plan through the year. Then any girl who attends the family celebration, earns the nine badges at the end of the meeting. This is a great time to present badges to your scouts and have a little graduation style ending by recognizing everything your scouts accomplished this year.

Brownie Badge Checklist for End of Year Celebration

First, Brownie Celebrating Community Badge – Completed in full!

Second, Brownie Fair Play Badge – Completed steps 1, 3 – 5, need to complete step 2. This step asks scouts to learn about women or people with disabilities in sports.

Third, Brownie Making Games Badge – Completed in full!

Fourth, Brownie My Family Story Badge – Completed in full!

Fifth, Brownie Letterboxer Badge – Completed in full!

Sixth, Brownie Outdoor Adventure Badge – Completed in full! (I do suggest completing step 4 prior to the field day, but it is not necessary – this is a step on learning a new camping skill).

Seventh, Brownie Hiker Badge – Completed in full! Scouts would need to bring their hiking gear and prepare a snack.

Eighth, Brownie Cabin Camper Badge – Can complete in full if you plan to camp, you will need to plan your camping adventure while planning your field day. Scouts will need to bring their own camping gear but you could teach about it while you camp.

Ninth, Brownie Eco Friend Badge – Completed in full with your hike!

Looking for other badges to add into your Brownie Girl Scout planning for the year? Check out our Planning Brownie Scout Year: Leap Bots post. Have other ideas for a family celebration or tried out our celebration, leave a comment below and let us know how it went.