brownie quest journey badge

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Girl Scout Journey in a Day Resources for Leaders

Updated April 2023

If you have read this blog for any length of time, then you know that I have never been a fan of the Girl Scout Journeys program. From the time I first looked at the Daisy Journey book when my troop started in kindergarten, my experienced teacher self thought, “This is age inappropriate!”.

My most commented on blog post in the past 6.5 years has been about the Journeys program ( you can read it here ). I followed it up last year with a post about Councils and leaders having a Journey in a Day program   . The bottom line for me is if it this program is so important, why can it be done in a day? What have you learned in a day that was absorbed completely?

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Leaders who need to do a Journey but dislike the program have flocked to this concept. Since it is so popular, I have decided to place all of the Girl Scout Journey in a Day resources for you in one place. Then you can pick and choose what you want to do!

Of course, before you make any plans on your own, check your Council’s website to see what they are offering for a Journey in a Day. When searching for resources for you, the events often came up at the top of the list.

Photo from Haute Chocolate #hcstyledstock

Daisy Girl Scout Journey in a Day

One Year of Daisy Scouts (two documents with HOW to do a Journey in a day or sleepover event)

Welcome to the Girl Scout Flower Garden  (from Making Friends)

Between Earth and Sky  (from Making Friends)

3 Cheers for Animals  (from Making Friends)

3 Cheers for Animals (from Plant, Plant, Electro…What?)

3 Cheers for Animals (from Girl Scout Troop 2214)

Brownie Girl Scout Journey in a Day

Wonders of Water (from Girl Scout Troop 2214)

Brownie Quest Sleepover (from A year in the Life of a Girl Scout)

A World of Girls (from Girl Scouts of Nation’s Capital)

Junior Girl Scout Journey in a Day

aMuse (from I am Girl Scouts)

aMuse (from Girl Scouts of Nation’s Capital)

aMuse (from Girl Scout Leader 101)

Get Moving (from I am Girl Scouts)

Get Moving (from Girl Scout Leader 101)

Agent of Change (from Girl Scouts of Central Texas)

Have you done a Journey in a day? Did you plan it or attend a Council event?

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12 thoughts on “girl scout journey in a day resources for leaders”.

Hi there, I am the troop leader for Troop 2214. Your active link for our Get Moving journey (Juniors) is incorrect. Takes readers to someone else’s (equally amazing!) blog 🙂

Thanks for finding that for me! It is now corrected.

Like you I am not fond of the Journey’s, at all. I would like to know if someone has developed a Journey in a day for the Cadette’s, Senior’s and Ambassador’s?

I am not sure. You may want to join the Facebook groups for older scouts and ask there. They may resources for you.

This is my second year as a Daisy troop leader. The first year we focused on earning the petals. This year, we decided to wade into the Journey badges. We are going to complete the 3 Cheers for Animals and Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden. We were told the 3 Cheers for Animals Journey was “the one to do”. In fact, it was out of stock and the lead time for shipping was 6 weeks. I was able to find a copy on Amazon though. After digging through the leader guide I was simply amazed at what was expected for this age level. The leader guide suggests taking a whopping 10 meetings to complete this Journey. Almost half of the Journey is planning to earn the Red Robin Award. As an adult I was overwhelmed just reading the leader’s guide! I started tweaking things so they were more appropriate for my girls and I cut the amount of meetings in half. We are also going to take a tour of our local animal shelter and then to earn our Red Robin Award the girls are going to collect supplies to be donated to the animal shelter. I feel like Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden journey is a bit more age appropriate. It also seems like the meetings are more coherent versus 3 Cheers for Animals which at times to me, feels disjointed. The Flower Garden journey also seems to be more hands on for the girls and I feel will hold their attention more. Luckily for our troop, we will start the Garden Journey in late winter / early spring and the church I attend has decided to start a community garden so all of our plants, worms and possibly Labybugs will be donated to the community garden. I have zero experience with anything other than the Journeys so I cannot compare them to what was done prior to the Journeys. I do think some changes need to be made so they are more age appropriate. The Journey In a Day seems overwhelming as a leader and for the girls. It seems like that would be information overload and I am not sure how much the girls would absorb. And how in the world would you the Gardening Journey in a day? Anyway, sorry for the long comment!!

I appreciate comments both long and short! I did not believe in the Journeys program since I felt it was age inappropriate and required too much overhauling, therefore never did one until I was forced to for my troop to earn the Bronze. Anything that needs that much tweaking to make it work tells me that it is not working! We are volunteers and the program should not have to be modified, which takes up so much more of our time. You may want to join the Daisy Girl Scout Facebook group. They have amazing resources and can help you answer how to do the Journey in a Day. You really do not have to do it, so I would not stress over it.

The irony of Journeys is that they were originally designed to accomplish two goals: (1) provide girls with the specific experience and background skills needed to tackle higher quality Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards since too many girls simply had no clue how to approach a quality project; and (2) to give leaders the type of “turnkey” program they were begging for to reduce the amount of time they were spending coming up with ideas and resources for troop meetings. After struggling for years in a love/hate relationship with Journeys, I have come to appreciate the good parts and I simply ignore or modify the rest.

As an educator for over three decades, I know how to make a program work for my students. The Journeys was a complete disaster, in my opinion, because leaders could not figure out what to do. They had to redo the entire thing and use other resources to get it done. Plus it took forever! Back in the mid 1990’s, my school district adopted a new math program. My two co-teachers and I had the teacher guides over the summer to go over them, and then we met to see how to approach it. We all agreed it was a poorly written program. It took five years and abysmal test scores, plus a consultant who cost $5000, to finally get rid of a program we teachers had been saying all along was bad. We had to rework the entire thing and use outside resources to teach.

The Journeys Program reminded me of that experience. Leaders disliked them. And in my opinion, if you can do a Journey in a Day, what is the point of the program?

Don’t forget the Girl Scouts of River Valleys. They have amazing Activity Plans for EVERY level (including Cadette, Senior, and Ambassador) which break down the Journeys into two 3-4 hour blocks, plus the final Take Action Project. girlscoutsrv.org

(Not my Council, just a big fan of their resources!)

They do have amazing things! Thanks for the reminder!

I think it’s interesting that the VTK has shortened the journey plans for the original journeys from 10 meetings to six. I’ve tried journeys as they were intended, and by the time the year was over they had forgotten what they learned at the beginning. More successful was one I did over two long days on two different weekends, with the TAP being decided on but accomplished later. I do think it’s possible to plan a JID but it needs to be a long day, and especially for older girls the TAP likely would be done later. But when I saw a program being advertised to do the outdoor journey virtually in 4 hours I was really irritated.

Deborah, I have been irritated by the Journeys program since 2008 when I first discovered it as a new leader of kindergarten Daisies. As an educator, it felt so age inappropriate the way it was written. Sixteen years later, leaders are still complaining. I have always been of the opinion that Journeys were a way for the GSUSA to make money. Since you need to do one to earn the metal awards, then the program must be purchased. There are Facebook Buy and Sell groups that do virtual Journeys and then your troop only has to do the TAP. It took a few months for my troop to earn their Bronze Award, we never completed the Silver Award, and we did two Senior Journeys for my girls to earn the Gold Award. Those two were done over the summer over the course of three days.

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The Badge Archive

2011 – brownie quest (journey set).

Released in 2011. The Brownie Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting page has the information on when all badges were released.

Find out how to take care of yourself, your family, your Girl Scout sisters, and your community—do an activity with your family to chart everyone’s special talents, play games at your troop meetings to learn how to work together, or do a fun “clue hunting” activity to learn the Girl Scout Law.

4 parts to Earning this Journey:

• Their special qualities and talents
• Values of the Girl Scout Law
• Special qualities and values of family
• As a Brownie Team
• With their families on healthy living activities
• With their communities to increase healthy living opportunities
• Identify a community place where they can take action
• Plan to Take Action
• Improve their world by carrying out their Take Action Project
• The Brownie Quest Award – At the end of the Quest, the girls also earn the journey’s culminating award, the master lock that needs all three of their keys in order to open. Through this award, the Brownies will see that, together, their three keys—Discover, Connect, and Take Action—unlock the meaning of leadership.

Note – Please see our Affiliations page to know if any of the links on The Badge Archive benefit the website in anyway.

• Leader Guide available in Girl Scout Shop online
• Girl Guide available in Girl Scout Shop online
• Official badge is available in Girl Scout Shop online or look for your local shop to save on shipping.
• Leader and Girl Guides are NOT currently available in the Open Library

Troop Meeting Ideas

• Discover Key on Webpage at Bluehouse School
• Connect Key on Webpage at Bluehouse School
• Webpage at DS Brownie Girl Scouts
• JIAD (Journey in a Day) Links from Girl Scout Leader.net
• Discover Key Downloadable Content at Teachers Pay Teachers for Growing Girl Scout Helpers
• PDF Meeting Plan ( Mtg 1 , Mtg 2 , and Mtg 3 ) from GSRV (River Valley)
• GSUSA VTK – No links Only Accessible through MyGS log-in on Council’s website
• Downloadable Content on Etsy from On My Honor Downloads

At Home Individual Girls

• None Currently Available

Multi-Level Matches

Check out other badges that might work well with this badge when doing activities with multiple levels.  These are simply suggestions and may take some creativity and extra steps to earn all the badges in various levels.

A Multi-Level Troop will need to do extra steps when earning different badges across levels. It depends on how many requirements overlap. Some will only have one or two matching requirements.

If there is no badge in a level, we suggest that a level earns a Fun Patch related to the rest of the badges instead of an official badge.

• Daisy – Between Earth and Sky – Feelings, talents, protect national treasure (the TAP)
• Brownie – Brownie Quest – Talents, teamwork, TAP
• Junior – aMUSE – roles, stereotypes, TAP
• Cadette – aMAZE – healthy relationships, navigating cliques, moving beyond stereotypes, TAP
• Senior – Mission Sisterhood: self-reflection and healthy relationships, find issue that women face and research it, TAP
• Ambassador – Public Policy – make a TAP to solve a local problem

Uniform Vest Placement

This Journey badge set should go where #17 is stated on the GSUSA Uniform Guide .

(Note – Badges and pins on a sash simply go in order (top of sash to bottom of sash) of Identification badges, bridging badge, pins, journeys, and other badges. Anything that does not fit on the front can be placed on the back of the sash. Sashes will not hold a lot of badges and vests are recommended if you plan to earn badges.)

Find out how you can support The Badge Archive !

Return to the Brownie Badge List .

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State College Girl Scouts

GSHPA Service Unit 416

Brownie Quest

Girls learn how to take care of themselves, their families, their Girl Scout sisters, and their community in the  Brownie Quest  Journey. Together they read to younger kids, promote healthy eating, or choose a project that improves the lives of their neighbors.

Brownie Quest In a Day

Part of the Journeys sequence. Earned by Brownie Scouts.

Earned by Brownie Scouts.

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A Year in the Life of a Girl Scout

I'm a Girl Scout leader (and volunteer), and this is my blog chronicling what my scouts have done and what we will be doing... plus some extras for fun. To my troop parents- if your Girl Scout tells you she did "stuff" this week, here's what we really did. To my fellow troop leaders- need ideas? We have plenty of those you can take!

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Brownie quest..... in less than 24 hours, 3 comments:.

Oooh oooh! This is perfect! We are not doing this Journey but we are doing a sleep-over (maybe) next year so I love it! We can totally incorporate this, thanks for the idea. We are doing the It's Your Story journey this year as 2nd graders, and currently getting sidetracked :) But I have our meetings posted at KristiBug.com since this system won't let me comment with my website address. :) Cheers!

OMG ... This is a blessing for us! We're going camping in May and we will use this format to conduct our Brownie Quest!!! Thank you for sharing this!!! :)

Great idea! Where can I find Change to Challenge workbook you used?

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Brownie Troop Year Planner

Your guide to a year of trying and exploring! 

For troop leaders of second and third grade girl scouts. .

Brownies are excited to discover all they can do and be. As their leader, you get a front-row seat to all this action! You will guide your Girl Scouts through activities focused on exploration, confidence, and practical skills that will help them become their best selves. Planning for your troop year should always be girl-led . But to get you started, we’ve collected a variety of our most popular badges and awards into one action-packed plan! Get ready for a year of adventure and excitement as you help them grow. 

How to get started:

Use these online Brownie troop year plans to start planning your year. You can customize it along the way as you get to know your Girl Scouts and their interests.

• Order your Brownie program materials and resources from the Girl Scout Shop
• Access detailed instructions to lead troop meetings through the Volunteer Toolkit (VTK), your free online resource for meeting overviews, materials lists, and more. See step-by-step access instructions.

Brownie First Year Plan  

(pdfs available in english and bilingual spanish )..

Brownie Second Year Plan

 Find everything you need to lead a successful troop year at the Girl Scout Shop.

Tips and Resources:

• Arrival : Ask Brownies who arrive early to help unpack and set up any snacks and activity materials for later. Try to be on alert and catch Brownies being honest and fair, even in subtle ways.
• Warmups and Wellness : Get Brownies excited to begin their meeting with a warm-up activity, a question, and a wellness check. Ask them how they are feeling today and what they are excited about!
• Opening Ceremony : Officially open your troop meeting by reciting the Girl Scout Promise and Law.
• Activities : Engage your Brownies in exciting activities to earn their badge.
• Closing Ceremony :  End your meeting by reviewing what you have learned together and asking Brownies to share their favorite part of the meeting. Congratulate Brownies on their accomplishments. Finish with a  friendship circle  and by singing “Make New Friends” as a troop.
• Follow Up with Families : After the meeting, remember to share with families all the great things their Brownies did!
• When you can get outside, do it! Go for a small trip or simply meet in a new space. Shaking things up occasionally keeps things exciting
• Check with your council to see if they’re offering events or activities that your troop could attend. Those events make life easier for you and allow your troop to connect with other Girl Scouts from their area. Many councils and service units host annual World Thinking Day events in February.
• If any of the recommended program options is not the right fit, or if you want to give your Girl Scouts the chance to shape their own experience, have them vote to choose a different badge or activity within the same focus area. When you enable Girl-led activities, girls step up and take ownership of their decisions, they grow into confident leaders who can make informed and empowered decisions—a valuable skill they’ll carry throughout their lives.  Check out  our Award and Badge Explorer for other badge favorites, our latest release of new programs , or visit the Girl Scout Activity Zone .
• Access free detailed instructions to lead each of the meetings included in these troop year plans through the Volunteer Toolkit (VTK).  Simply log in or create a member account from mygs.girlscouts.org .  Once you log in, from the left navigation menu choose “Volunteer Toolkit.” Then choose “Explore,” “Pre-Selected Tracks,” “Fun and Friendship” and you’re set! See step-by-step access instructions .
• Access other easy-to-follow volunteer essentials to keep you organized and inspired.
• Access volunteer training from gsLearn for easy access to essential training and courses to lead activities the Girl Scout way.
• Simply log in via myGS.girlscouts.org and search for “GSUSA Brownie badges” or other topics of interest.  Each course will show you how to bring the badge content to life for your Brownie troop.
• See step-by-step access instructions .

Give your troop another year of growth, laughter, and the confidence they need to be their most authentic selves!

On My Honor Downloads

BADGE & JOURNEY REQUIREMENT  ACTIVITIES AND WORKBOOKS

• dsbrowniegirlscouts

log in help

• Pages & Files

Ideas for Brownie Quest Badge

Requirements for earning badge:.

• The Discover Key  
• The Connect Key
• The Take Action Key
• The Brownie Quest Award

Skill Building Badges in This Journey

• Computer Expert
• My Best Self
• Home Scientist
• My Family Story   

Outings and Visitors

Sample meeting 1, brownie quest, comments ( 0 ).

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