Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Meeting Five prep

I can not wait to do meeting five with the girls! We will be making a team bird bath. Before the bath activity, we plan on reading A Little Birdie Told Me, which will lead right into the bird bath.

This will be the first meeting that we had to spend money on. We found a lot of easy bird baths that used terra cotta pots and their bases. The concept it to get 3 large pots, all in different sizes, and to stack them up (large on bottom, small on top), and to use the largest pot bottom as the "bath" portion (much likethis bird bath). To save a little money, our idea was to use 2 medium sized pots, stacked at their bases, and to use the larger bottom still for the bath. Our fearless leader and I really liked the idea from that link that used a small base for a bird seed holder, so we thought we could add our touch by decorating that one ourselves.

With 15 girls in our troop, we decided it would be easy to split up the work a little, so we wouldn't have so much crowding or oopsies. We plan on splitting them up into 3 groups, and letting each group paint a portion of the bath, and then assemble the bath the next day once it's dry.

Before the meeting prep:
2, 12" terra cotta pots
1, 12" terra cotta pot base
1, 6" terra cotta pot base




Acrylic or tempera paint, various colors (stuff that will wash off the girls and their clothes)
paint brushes
paper plates or bowls (for paint)
acrylic based silicone caulk (afterwards, to assemble the bird bath at all seems)
Clear spray paint (make sure the can says for out door use)

As part of our example, my fearless leader and I did that bird seed portion today. It's far from perfect, but it serves it's purpose (identifies who dun it). We also found some inspiration to add a little something to it....


We took that phrase and painted it around the edge of the dish. We had some extra room, so we wrote our council name in there as well, and separated it by a trefoil and faux-daisy.


As for the top, not too special as you can see (yes, I put my hand over our troop number, gotta keep this anonymous you know!). We're still waiting on it to dry, but as soon as it's done, I'm gonna lay on that clear/seal spray paint to give it the final pop (I promise I will edit in a photo when it's done!).


The best part about this craft... we got in touch with our local parks and rec department to see if we could donate our bird bath to one the parks in our county. That way, the girls can take their friends and family to show off their work. As of today, we're still working on the kinks, but if all goes as planned, in the spring, we will be putting the bird bath in one of our locals parks and we will get to plant daisies around it (which will go with one of our petals project, and our Earth Day good turn).

2 comments:

  1. I am frantically preparing for my meeting tonight and this idea is just fantastic ! I think I've even got time to pull it all together. Thank you !

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