by Meghan Cartwright
Valentine’s Day is a great opportunity to teach your Brownies, Guides and Pathfinders about love – not just of others but (perhaps most importantly) of themselves.
You may have seen “happiness jars” online; this is a similar idea but one focused on helping the girls build positive self-image and a self-love support system, which is especially critical for young women. Often, I don’t think girls or women take time to think of all of the amazing things they have accomplished in their lives, of the supportive people that love them, of their beauty and creativity. Instead, especially in challenging times, we create self-doubt and flood ourselves with negative self-talk and thoughts. Creating a Great To Be Me Jar will encourage every girl in your unit to take time to think positively about themselves and their fellow Brownies/Guides/Pathfinders, and keep these positive thoughts and encouragement for later use, when they are most needed. Also, once made, these jars can be added to at any time.
Materials needed:
- One clean glass jar for each girl
- Colourful card-stock in several colours (the more colours you have, the more easily you can associate a colour with a particular challenge – see below for challenges)
- Scissors
- Pencils, pens, colouring pencils and/or markers
- Other crafting supplies (i.e. felt, ribbon, lace, paint, paper, etc.) to decorate the outside of the jars
Instructions:
- Have each girl cut out pieces of the colourful card-stock into shapes like hearts, circles, rectangles, etc.
- Selecting a particular colour or shape for each of the following challenges, instruct the girls to write one answer on each piece of card-stock:
- Five things that you have done in your life that you are proud of
- At least one thing that you are AWESOME at
- Five things that you enjoy doing and/or that make you happy
- Four people that you can talk to about a difficult situation or if you’re feeling blue
- Three of the best qualities of each person in this group (and have each girl give the qualities to each relevant person in the group, for them to include in their Great To Be Me Jar)
- Ideas of things to do when you are bored or blue (i.e. read a book, go for a walk, talk to my sister, do a puzzle, draw, etc.)
- Inspirational quotes (the Guiders could bring example quotes that the girls could cut out and include in their jar if any particularly speak to them, or the girls can brainstorm and include some quotes that they know themselves)
- Things to do instead of watching TV or going on the computer/internet (i.e. playing outside, doing a puzzle, reading a book, going for a walk, playing with your dog, calling your friend, etc.)
- Three things you have learned about each of the other girls in your unit since joining, the start of this sleepover, the start of this meeting, etc.
- Insert all of the paper pieces with writing on them into your jar – they’re now available for you whenever you’re feeling down, need inspiration or a kind word from yourself or a friend
- Each girl can personalize the outside of her jar with any other crafting supplies you have, including felt, lace, ribbon, paper, paint, etc. – her creativity should be the only limit!
Hope your unit has fun making Great To Be Me Jars!
Program Requirements:
Girl Guides:
- Discovering You – Stay Fit and Healthy #5
- Discover What’s Important to You #5
Pathfinders: