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6 Fun Activities to help you earn the Brownie Bug Badge
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Time to read 4 min
Never Struggle Planning Activities Again
Easy to use activity booklets for your troop meeting.Never Struggle Planning Activities Again
Easy to use activity booklets for your troop meeting.|
Time to read 4 min
Let’s talk about bugs. If we are being completely honest, bugs can be kind of gross, right? But kids—including mine—absolutely love them. Whenever we are outside, my kids immediately want to flip rocks over, find the weirdest looking bug possible, and then try to guess what it is. We usually end up snapping a picture and using Google Image Search to figure it out. Thirty minutes later? I suddenly know everything there is to know about the North American millipede.
Planning a troop meeting around this badge shouldn't feel like a chore or require a degree in entomology. To give you some fresh, low-stress ideas that you can pull off in a standard meeting space, here are 5 completely fun and easy activities to help your Brownies earn their Bugs badge while staying active!
What You Need:
How to Do It:
Why It's Fun & Works for the Badge: This is a fun craft to learn about fireflies/lightning bugs.
Leader Tip: As they are making craft, you can share facts about lightning bugs.
What You Need:
How to Do It:
Toss 5-10 inflated balloons into the air.
The girls must work together to keep all the balloons (the "flies") from touching the ground by batting them upward with their fly swatters!
Why It's Fun & Works for the Badge: It’s a high-energy game that burns off after-school energy while lightly touching on the concept of how fast flying insects move and evade capture.
Leader Tips & Product Recommendations: Have the girls shout out a bug fact every time they successfully launch a balloon back into the air! Grab a multi-pack of bright Plastic Fly Swatters so everyone has their own.
What You Need:
How to Do It:
Give each girl a celery stick and a plastic knife to spread their butter inside the groove.
Have them carefully place their raisins in a perfectly straight, single-file line across the celery.
Eat your "Ants on a Log" while discussing how real ants use pheromones to follow each other in exact lines!
Why It's Fun & Works for the Badge: It combines snack time with a brief lesson on insect communication and behavior.
Leader Tip: Always check for nut allergies before the meeting; SunButter is a fantastic, safe alternative!
What You Need:
How to Do It:
Have the girls color a coffee filter entirely with washable markers.
Spray the filter lightly with water so the colors bleed and blend into a tie-dye effect.
Once dry, scrunch the middle of the filter and clip it with a clothespin to form the butterfly's body!
Why It's Fun & Works for the Badge: It visually teaches the concept of symmetry in nature, as the colors bleed evenly across both sides of the "wings."
Leader Tip: Lay down cheap plastic tablecloths before spraying the water to make cleanup take less than 30 seconds.
Below is a bug coloring page to use with your girls as well. Download to print.
The best way to learn about bugs is by going directly to the experts for information and help. Visit your local zoo or bug museum to speak with the educators there. You can also interview a local beekeeper or entomologist. Even the parks and recreation staff in your city might be able to share some information about the types of bugs in your area.
If you can’t get out to interview an expert, utilize online sources. Watch documentaries and YouTube videos about bugs and insects, listen to science podcasts, and follow entomologists on Twitter for cool facts. You’ll be able to learn so much from them.
Can’t get anyone to come to meeting? Check out this great interview with a BeeKeeper!
The Brownie Bugs Activity Booklet is the ultimate "Easy Button." At less than the cost of a drive-thru latte, this comprehensive digital download gives your weekend back to you.
It features exactly three distinct choices (a game, a craft, and a real-world action) for every single step of the badge, complete with professional, kid-friendly printable worksheets.
The Weird and Wonderful World of Bugs: A Book About Beetles, Butterflies, and Other Fascinating Insects
Calling all young bug enthusiasts! Come along on a journey into The Weird and Wonderful World of Bugs. Kids from ages 5 to 7 will learn all about the insects and other arthropods we call “bugs.” They’ll meet moths, bees, fireflies, spiders, and mosquitos in detailed, full-color photos that bring the bugs to life from antennae to abdomen.
Well of course give them the Brownie Bug badge to display proudly on their vest, they earned it! Additionally If you are like many leaders we want to award our girls when they complete something even beyond just the patch. One great way to show achievement is with a certificate. Don’t worry you don’t have to make them, I found a resource that has done all the work for you and all you have to do is print them and customize the certificates with each girl’s name, badge or award earned, date, and troop leader.
Editable certificates perfect for awarding girls after earning a badge.
Enjoy every minute being a leader and continue to inspire your girls!
