Girls First Resources and Tracking Sheets

Girls First “Book” For Handing Out

I have a Guide level unit and most of my girls have never been on the Girls First platform, despite our encouragement.

We are finding that, because they are not exploring the new program online, most of our girls have no idea what badges exist; and when they are given a badge, they don’t know what it is for.

Here are a few documents I made to print out and hand out to our girls like a little “book” they could have for reference. They are best printed in colour, if possible.

I’m uploading the raw Word Document, so that if you have a unit of a different level, you can adapt it for your needs – basically the pictures of each badge would need to be swapped. You can get great shots of each individual badge from the Girl Guide Store.

If you do make a Spark/Brownie/Pathfinder/Ranger version, please send it to us so we can add it to this page for download.

Girls First “Book” to print for girls – Guide Level (Word Document Version) Girls First “Book” to print for girls – Guide Level (Printable PDF Version) Discovery Badges “Book” to print for girls – Guide Level (Word Document Version) Discovery Badges “Book” to print for girls – Guide Level (Printable PDF Version)

New! Mini Books!

Some intrepid guiders have taken this idea of a printable “mini book” that summarizes Girls First to fabulous heights.

Here are three great ones that you could print out for your unit (if you have the budget – or just send them to the girls via email). At the very least, it’s a great idea to print a couple out to have on hand at meetings for planning purposes.

Guide MiniBook – adapted by Karla Williamson

Brownie MiniBook – adapted by Erin Hamre

Brownie extra-mini Booklet version (print on two sides and fold like a little book)

Sparks MiniBook – adapted by Melissa Poulin

Pathfinders MiniBook – adapted by Karla Williamson

Rangers MiniBook – adapted by Karla Williamson

Girls First Tracking Sheets

We still keep our badge records by hand. Hopefully some day the Girls First platform will be better at tracking, but right now we just find it too limiting and there are too many “holes” where activities the girls do don’t get recorded.

Here’s a variety of tracking sheets created by various guiders – hopefully you’ll find one that works for you! I’ve uploaded them in Word format where possible so you can edit/modify for your needs.

For Guide Level

Guide Level Individual Tracking Sheet – Word Document Version Guide Level Individual Tracking Sheet – PDF Version Guide Level Tracking Sheet – box style (PDF Only) Lady Baden Powell Award booklet (DOCX) (Print double sided and fold to make a booklet)

For Sparks

Spark Level Tracking Sheet – box style (PDF Only) Spark Level Excel Spreadsheet – detailed tracking Spark Level tracking sheet – Word Document

For Brownies

Brownie Level Tracking Sheet – box style (PDF Only)

For Pathfinders

Pathfinder Level Digital Tracking Sheet – Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet Format Pathfinder Level Printable Tracking Sheet – Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet Format Pathfinder Level Printable Tracking Sheet – PDF

Girls First Planning Worksheets

At the beginning of the year, we asked our girls to fill out this “What’s Your Favourite?” worksheet. We used this information to guide our Girls First Programming – we used their ideas here to look for parallel activities and also to plan several “theme nights” around their favourite books/movies/TV shows.

Suitable for all levels – younger girls could draw a picture rather than write.

What’s Your Favourite Worksheet

This is a set of brainstormed ideas for each Program Area/Theme (Guide Level). We used these as “voting slides” in one of our first meetings at the beginning of the year – we hung them around the room and let the girls “sticker vote” by putting a sticker next to activities they would like to do (they had a limited number of stickers). I’d recommend only hanging up slides of program areas you want or need to cover this year – when they have access to ALL the program areas at once, the same favourites tend to come up.

Activity Ideas and Voting Slides – Guide Level – PDF Version Activity Ideas and Voting Slides – Guide Level – Microsoft PowerPoint version

For Parents

Lastly, here’s a great little booklet that one unit created to hand out to parents as a “welcome to Guides” expectation guidebook.

It’s a Word document and you should definitely give it a read through, adding your own unit’s details (guider names, meeting times) and making sure the various policies match with what your guide unit expects and plans. You could also easily modify it for other branch levels (this one is specifically for guides).

Welcome to Guides – Guidebook for Parents (Word Doc)