Here at Glessner House, we have had good success working with the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana. We offer a program on selected Saturday mornings where the girls can earn their Playing the Past badge. The program runs two hours and includes several activities that directly tie with learning objectives.
The morning begins with a brief introduction to the house, and then an activity involving Mrs. Glessner's Monday Morning Reading Class, which she ran from 1894 until 1930. We have a large picture of the class taken in 1902. Each girl is given the identity of one of the women and then they share the identity with the class, so they can learn about the life and accomplishments of that women. Then the girls spend some time making a bracelet from beads, consistent with Mrs. Glessner's hobby of silversmithing and jewelry making.
We then taken the girls on an abbreviated tour of the house, focusing on the Glessners' daughter, Fanny, who was nine years old when the family moved in in 1887. The girls end up in the former conservatory, where they are treated to a tea party with assorted teas and pastries, again based on actual teas Mrs. Glessner had in the house. The last activity is to play a period parlor game, known as "Kim's Game," based on the novel Kim by Rudyard Kipling.
It is a lot to fit into two hours but the girls seem to greatly enjoy the variety of activities and it really reinforces some of the key stories we tell at Glessner House, in particular as they relate to to Mrs. Glessner. We do provide the badge, the cost of which is subtracted from the fee the girls play to participate. Additionally, we have partnered with a historic church that is a couple of blocks away, which offers the Detective badge. About half the time, the girls will combine both programs and do them in one day.
The program doesn't bring a lot to our bottom line, but we find it has been one of the best ways to engage young people in the history and stories of Glessner House by providing a variety of experiences that directly connect them to how the house was used and enjoyed during the Glessners' occupancy.
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William Tyre
Curator and Program Director
Glessner House Museum
Chicago IL
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-14-2020 04:28 PM
From: Allison Shelly
Subject: Working with Girl Scouts
Hello all!
Here at The National Geographic Museum we just opened the exhibition, Becoming Jane: The Evolution of Dr. Jane Goodall. With this exhibition, there is an excellent opportunity for us to start creating activities and programs for our local Girl Scouts, as they are an audience we have not fully embraced. While I have a few ideas on how to get started, I was hoping for some thoughts from those of you who already work with Girl Scouts.
Do you provide a Girl Scout program in which the girls complete the entirety of a badge, or does the program only complete a portion of the badge requirements?
How long do your programs typically last? Do you schedule the program and have troops sign up, or are troops able to request the program on their own terms? What is the basic structure of the activity?
Do you require troops attending the program to complete any portion of the badge prior to attending?
What Girl Scout levels do you find the most success with? We are thinking of aiming our activities towards the Brownie, Junior, and Cadette levels.
Any tips, or tricks, stories of success or failure? I would love to hear how other museums are interacting with Girl Scouts!Thank you all for your time!
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Allison Shelly
Supervisor, Visitor Experience
National Geographic Museum
Washington DC
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