Girl Scouts of Washington Rock C

Gift of Water Patch Requirements

Gift of Water

A Council Patch Program for Brownies, Juniors and Cadettes/Seniors

Everyone must complete each of the following requirements. They may be completed

in any order.

1. Visit a pond, stream, seashore, or other natural body of water. What grows around it? What lives in it? How did the water get there? Is it clean? Do people use it for recreation? Is it used in any other way?

2. Learn to read your water meter at home. Figure out three ways that your family can save water. Read your meter for three weeks or more to check how you are doing. Hint: Toilets use 5-8 gallons of water for every flush; a sink holds 3-4 gallons; a faucet dripping can use 2-6 gallons an hour. Do you leave the water running while you brush your teeth? Measure how much you use when you do this.

3. Plan, organize, and/or participate in a community service project related to water and invite other troops to join you. Let people know what you are doing.

4. Complete the following in “Wade In: A Pond Study” (Appendix A).

Brownies: Do one activity from each section

Juniors: Do one activity from each section plus two

additional activities of your choice from any section

Cadettes/Seniors: Do one activity from each section plus three

additional activities of your choice from any section

Appendix A

WADE IN: A Pond Study

Section 1 Rainbow Trout

a. Savor some watery words. Make up or look up a few words about water. Write or

learn a poem inspired by water.

b. Enjoy beautiful water images in paintings, old crafts, or illustration. Look for

nautical decorations and crafts, such as fancy knot work, decoy carvings, and scrimshaw.

c. Create a water-creature puppet. Bring it to life in a play about what it’s like to

live in water.

d. Make up motions to go with the words of a sea chantey, paddling song or canal work

song.

e. Wet your senses in water. Make ripples in a pool, listen to the roar of waves. Notice

patterns and rhythms in and around water.

f. Dig some clay or dampen some sand. Mold and shape it to create a sculpture.

g. Listen to a water legend or read a sea story.

h. Knot a net, tie a fly.

i. Design a shelter or a playground piece based on a shell’s shape.

j. Capture a happy memory of fun near the water. Catch it on film or recall it in a

drawing.

Section II - The Great White Shark

a. Put the states of water to work! Get water to float, push, become invisible, flow uphill, or make a cloud!

b. Figure out ways that water and weather go together. Predict rain and welcome it when it comes!

c. Get to the bottom of it! Examine sand, clay, mud, pebbles and such from under the water. Search for signs of erosion.

d. Make something that will float, something that will hold water, or something that will keep ice from melting.

e. Compare salt and fresh water. Which boils first? Which freezes first? Which yields salt crystals? Which makes better soapsuds? Which makes floating easier?

f. Find out how water and energy go together. Make a teapot whistle or visit an old mill with a water wheel, or a power plant.

g. Take a closer look at some grains of sand. Compare sand at water’s edge with sand way up on a dune. Figure out why they’re not the same.

h. Search for fossils of water life in nature or in things made of stone (buildings, table tops).

i. Help change a washer in a leaky faucet!

j. Show that water and oil don’t mix. Make marbleized paper, batik, or a crayon-resist picture.

Section III - Sea Urchin

a. Pretend to be a sailor, a fisherman, or a river-boater. What would you wear? What jobs would you do in a typical day? In what ways would your life be the same as the life of someone who did the same kind of work 100 years ago?

b. Send a message across an expanse of water. Try lights, flags, or horn signals. Learn your initials in international code flags.

c. On the water, getting there is half the fun! Ride a ferry, tour a cruise ship, or walk the deck of a riverboat. Use shipboard words at home too; port, starboard, bow, stern, galley, ladder, deck.

d. Visit a nautical antique store or maritime museum. Figure out things that people used to help them find their way or tell time.

e. Pretend to follow the course of an explorer from a distant shore. Present a skit about sights or surprises along the way.

f. Collect nautical stamps and find out about the stories behind them.

g. “Bell-bottom trousers, coat of navy-blue”. Why are sailors’ pants flared and their collars so big and wide? Where does the name “pea coat” come from? How about names “middy” and “sou’wester”?

h. Learn to say “water”, “fish”, and “boat” in three languages from lands across the sea. Get to the nautical roots of these words and others like “skyscraper”, “nave”, “gam”, and “nausea”. What does “posh” and “scuba” stands for?

i. Make nautical rubbings from an old tombstone or something else with a nautical past. Tell the story behind your rubbing, basing it on as many facts as you can find.

j. Make a splash with your own display or show at a harbor festival or waterfront carnival.

Section IV - Currents

a. “Don’t go- throw!” Practice throwing and reaching rescues that would help someone in the water or on thin ice.

b. Go fishing! Help get a fresh fish ready for eating.

c. Visit a fish market! What kinds of creatures do you see? How long ago were they caught? Where and how were they caught? Are they still alive? Are they fresh, frozen, smoked, salted, or pickled? Why?

d. Search a supermarket for food from the sea. Read labels to find food made with seaweed. (Hint: look for “carrageeman” or “agar” in ice cream or pudding.)

e. Be a water saver! Get in the sea-shower habit:

water on – wet down

water off – lather up

water on – rinse off

water off – dry off

f. Learn about and practice ways to help if a hurricane or flood hits your area.

g. Imagine the life of a lighthouse keeper. Visit a lighthouse or a Coast Guard Station. Ask why Coast Guard people are called “the lifesavers”.

h. Rain drencher? Sun-quencher? Model what to wear in cold, wet conditions and on hot, sunny days. Compare wool and cotton, show layers and lots of hats in your fashion show for the out-of-doors.

i. PFD? Try out a Personal Flotation Device (life jacket). Show how to fit it and fasten it. Do a float test, too!

j. S-O-S! Giving help to others in distress is the law of the sea. Practice recognizing and sending distress signals: wave both arms, fly a special flag, flash Morse Code, etc.

Section V - Shells

a. Fly a kite and build a sand castle at the beach.

b. Reflect on water! Get up to marvel at sunrise over a body of water – or stay up to see the moon mirrored in the water.

c. Watch a barnacle feed at high tides and close up at low tide! How is it adapted to protect itself? Examine other tidal creatures too.

d. Figure out why most fish are dark colored on top and light underneath. Feel the textures of scales and fins. Tell how these adaptations help fish live and move in their watery environment. Make a fish print while you are at it!

e. Discover the underwater world. Peer beneath the water’s surface using a water scope – or go snorkeling.

f. Visit an aquarium, fish hatchery, or animal center. Find out how the animals are kept and fed to help them grow. See them show off their feeding behaviors.

g. Watch different birds swoop and skim, dive, or tiptoe as they feed at water’s edge. Why are some birds short-legged and some long-legged? How have their bills adapted? What good are webbed feet?

h. Look at ways other living things move through water. Imitate animal actions in a water game you make up.

i. Examine tiny life in a drop of pond water, using a magnifying glass or a microscope.

j. Tippy-canoe! Capsized! Practice ways to get yourself and your canoe safely to shore.

Revised 12/06