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Girl Scout Journey in a Day Resources for Leaders

Updated April 2023

If you have read this blog for any length of time, then you know that I have never been a fan of the Girl Scout Journeys program. From the time I first looked at the Daisy Journey book when my troop started in kindergarten, my experienced teacher self thought, “This is age inappropriate!”.

My most commented on blog post in the past 6.5 years has been about the Journeys program ( you can read it here ). I followed it up last year with a post about Councils and leaders having a Journey in a Day program   . The bottom line for me is if it this program is so important, why can it be done in a day? What have you learned in a day that was absorbed completely?

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Leaders who need to do a Journey but dislike the program have flocked to this concept. Since it is so popular, I have decided to place all of the Girl Scout Journey in a Day resources for you in one place. Then you can pick and choose what you want to do!

Of course, before you make any plans on your own, check your Council’s website to see what they are offering for a Journey in a Day. When searching for resources for you, the events often came up at the top of the list.

Photo from Haute Chocolate #hcstyledstock

Daisy Girl Scout Journey in a Day

One Year of Daisy Scouts (two documents with HOW to do a Journey in a day or sleepover event)

Welcome to the Girl Scout Flower Garden  (from Making Friends)

Between Earth and Sky  (from Making Friends)

3 Cheers for Animals  (from Making Friends)

3 Cheers for Animals (from Plant, Plant, Electro…What?)

3 Cheers for Animals (from Girl Scout Troop 2214)

Brownie Girl Scout Journey in a Day

Wonders of Water (from Girl Scout Troop 2214)

Brownie Quest Sleepover (from A year in the Life of a Girl Scout)

A World of Girls (from Girl Scouts of Nation’s Capital)

Junior Girl Scout Journey in a Day

aMuse (from I am Girl Scouts)

aMuse (from Girl Scouts of Nation’s Capital)

aMuse (from Girl Scout Leader 101)

Get Moving (from I am Girl Scouts)

Get Moving (from Girl Scout Leader 101)

Agent of Change (from Girl Scouts of Central Texas)

Have you done a Journey in a day? Did you plan it or attend a Council event?

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12 thoughts on “girl scout journey in a day resources for leaders”.

Hi there, I am the troop leader for Troop 2214. Your active link for our Get Moving journey (Juniors) is incorrect. Takes readers to someone else’s (equally amazing!) blog 🙂

Thanks for finding that for me! It is now corrected.

Like you I am not fond of the Journey’s, at all. I would like to know if someone has developed a Journey in a day for the Cadette’s, Senior’s and Ambassador’s?

I am not sure. You may want to join the Facebook groups for older scouts and ask there. They may resources for you.

This is my second year as a Daisy troop leader. The first year we focused on earning the petals. This year, we decided to wade into the Journey badges. We are going to complete the 3 Cheers for Animals and Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden. We were told the 3 Cheers for Animals Journey was “the one to do”. In fact, it was out of stock and the lead time for shipping was 6 weeks. I was able to find a copy on Amazon though. After digging through the leader guide I was simply amazed at what was expected for this age level. The leader guide suggests taking a whopping 10 meetings to complete this Journey. Almost half of the Journey is planning to earn the Red Robin Award. As an adult I was overwhelmed just reading the leader’s guide! I started tweaking things so they were more appropriate for my girls and I cut the amount of meetings in half. We are also going to take a tour of our local animal shelter and then to earn our Red Robin Award the girls are going to collect supplies to be donated to the animal shelter. I feel like Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden journey is a bit more age appropriate. It also seems like the meetings are more coherent versus 3 Cheers for Animals which at times to me, feels disjointed. The Flower Garden journey also seems to be more hands on for the girls and I feel will hold their attention more. Luckily for our troop, we will start the Garden Journey in late winter / early spring and the church I attend has decided to start a community garden so all of our plants, worms and possibly Labybugs will be donated to the community garden. I have zero experience with anything other than the Journeys so I cannot compare them to what was done prior to the Journeys. I do think some changes need to be made so they are more age appropriate. The Journey In a Day seems overwhelming as a leader and for the girls. It seems like that would be information overload and I am not sure how much the girls would absorb. And how in the world would you the Gardening Journey in a day? Anyway, sorry for the long comment!!

I appreciate comments both long and short! I did not believe in the Journeys program since I felt it was age inappropriate and required too much overhauling, therefore never did one until I was forced to for my troop to earn the Bronze. Anything that needs that much tweaking to make it work tells me that it is not working! We are volunteers and the program should not have to be modified, which takes up so much more of our time. You may want to join the Daisy Girl Scout Facebook group. They have amazing resources and can help you answer how to do the Journey in a Day. You really do not have to do it, so I would not stress over it.

The irony of Journeys is that they were originally designed to accomplish two goals: (1) provide girls with the specific experience and background skills needed to tackle higher quality Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards since too many girls simply had no clue how to approach a quality project; and (2) to give leaders the type of “turnkey” program they were begging for to reduce the amount of time they were spending coming up with ideas and resources for troop meetings. After struggling for years in a love/hate relationship with Journeys, I have come to appreciate the good parts and I simply ignore or modify the rest.

As an educator for over three decades, I know how to make a program work for my students. The Journeys was a complete disaster, in my opinion, because leaders could not figure out what to do. They had to redo the entire thing and use other resources to get it done. Plus it took forever! Back in the mid 1990’s, my school district adopted a new math program. My two co-teachers and I had the teacher guides over the summer to go over them, and then we met to see how to approach it. We all agreed it was a poorly written program. It took five years and abysmal test scores, plus a consultant who cost $5000, to finally get rid of a program we teachers had been saying all along was bad. We had to rework the entire thing and use outside resources to teach.

The Journeys Program reminded me of that experience. Leaders disliked them. And in my opinion, if you can do a Journey in a Day, what is the point of the program?

Don’t forget the Girl Scouts of River Valleys. They have amazing Activity Plans for EVERY level (including Cadette, Senior, and Ambassador) which break down the Journeys into two 3-4 hour blocks, plus the final Take Action Project. girlscoutsrv.org

(Not my Council, just a big fan of their resources!)

They do have amazing things! Thanks for the reminder!

I think it’s interesting that the VTK has shortened the journey plans for the original journeys from 10 meetings to six. I’ve tried journeys as they were intended, and by the time the year was over they had forgotten what they learned at the beginning. More successful was one I did over two long days on two different weekends, with the TAP being decided on but accomplished later. I do think it’s possible to plan a JID but it needs to be a long day, and especially for older girls the TAP likely would be done later. But when I saw a program being advertised to do the outdoor journey virtually in 4 hours I was really irritated.

Deborah, I have been irritated by the Journeys program since 2008 when I first discovered it as a new leader of kindergarten Daisies. As an educator, it felt so age inappropriate the way it was written. Sixteen years later, leaders are still complaining. I have always been of the opinion that Journeys were a way for the GSUSA to make money. Since you need to do one to earn the metal awards, then the program must be purchased. There are Facebook Buy and Sell groups that do virtual Journeys and then your troop only has to do the TAP. It took a few months for my troop to earn their Bronze Award, we never completed the Silver Award, and we did two Senior Journeys for my girls to earn the Gold Award. Those two were done over the summer over the course of three days.

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Explore what really matters to you and use your passion to change the world—that's what Girl Scout Journeys are all about.

Girl Scout Journeys are multi-session experiences in which girls dig deeper into their interests and use the skills they gain along the way to make a difference in their community. While badges show the world you’ve learned a new skill, Journey awards say, “I found a way to make a difference.”

During a Journey, Girl Scouts do hands-on activities, connect with experts, and take the lead on a Take Action project with their community. And once a Junior, Cadette, Senior, or Ambassador completes their Journey, they’re ready to drive lasting change in their communities by going for their Bronze, Silver, or Gold Award.

Journey requirements can be found in the Award and Badge Explorer. . Volunteers and Girl Scout caregivers can also find the requirements in the Volunteer Toolkit .

Find everything you need to kick-start your adventure with your grade level's Journey.

How Take Action Projects Differ from Community Service Projects

Journeys encourage Girl Scouts of all ages to think critically, boost their problem-solving skills, and make an impact. They’ll learn something new and grow their leadership skills.

Take Action projects are at the heart of all Journeys, but they’re different from the community service projects that Girl Scouts may have done—and you’ll want to understand those differences before planning a Take Action project.

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Scout Leader 411 Blog

MakingFriends.com

Planning Journeys for a Multi-Level Troop

October 12, 2015 By Stephanie Rose Leave a Comment

Leader needs some advice: I am a brand new leader, taking over an existing troop of 7 girls, 3 second year Brownies and 4 first year Juniors. I was just approached by a new mom, asking if her daughter can join our troop. Her daughter is a first year Brownie. I am NOT doing Journey’s this year, I am waiting until next year, when all girls are Juniors. If I allow this new girl to join, she will be doing a Brownie Journey by herself. Should I do this? Is it going to be hard to complete projects and Journeys with 2 different books? I have no idea what I’m going to do…please advise! Thanks!

Amy’s experience: I tried to plan journeys for a multi-level troop, we had one Junior and 8 Cadettes. I was doing the Juniors journey and another leader was doing the Cadette Amaze journey. Although journeys do have valuable lessons, the maturity level was such a gap. I don’t think the Junior got much out of the journey. I even tried to convince the mom to put her into a troop with girls her own age with no avail. The girls need to have age appropriate conversations with their peers when it comes to the journeys. After that, we have tried to keep a troop that is all the same age level. Diane: You should go to MakingFriends® .com for their journey Badge In A Bag® . You can catch up the first year brownie by having her do the journey in a weekend, or you can even have the other girls help earn it with her. There is nothing wrong with refreshing their memory of the journey! Gemila wrote: I wouldn’t worry about the Brownie journey at all. Stick with your original plan to do a Junior journey next year. I would allow the 2nd grader to join, as long as the parent understands that next year, the rest of the troop will be Juniors. She may wan t to seek out a troop of 2nd grade Brownies now, otherwise her daughter will always be “behind” the rest of your troop. As Juniors next year, there are activities that they will be able to do that Brownies are not (like high-ropes). It wouldn’t be fair to hold the Juniors back from these kind of things because you have one girl who can’t. This gets even more difficult as the girls get older. Stacie: No, sorry. It will be even harder when she is the only Brownie and they are all Juniors. It’s hard to say no, l know, but it’s hard enough to plan for multiple levels without adding a third. Katherine: I  just bridged to Juniors from being a Brownie leader, and I can see a big emotional maturity difference between the Brownie Journeys and the Junior Journeys. Our troop is a multi-level troop, and we do Journeys separately by age. It can be a pain to h ave one leader doing three journeys. We ended up in situations where we had one leader talking to a third of the girls while the others do badge work in the other part of the room. Two thoughts- Does your Council or service unit ever do “Journey in a day” sessions? Or, could you find a co-leader to do Brownie Journeys with the Brownies? It is very lonely doing a Journey one on one with a single girl. Danielle: All of the journeys have valuable lessons & activities regardless of age level, I have this situation in my troop this year. We are picking out the best lessons from the journey (of said age group) and using it for various troop meetings so all of the girls can appreciate the material & activities. My troop has 1st year Daisies- Cadettes. It’s not easy but a little pre planning & delegation goes a long way.  

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State College Girl Scouts

GSHPA Service Unit 416

Brownie Quest

Girls learn how to take care of themselves, their families, their Girl Scout sisters, and their community in the  Brownie Quest  Journey. Together they read to younger kids, promote healthy eating, or choose a project that improves the lives of their neighbors.

Brownie Quest In a Day

Part of the Journeys sequence. Earned by Brownie Scouts.

Earned by Brownie Scouts.

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Patriot item news, patriot item news | fleetwood brownie troop uses cookie sale earnings for camping trip.

Fleetwood Girl Scout Brownie Troop 1684 sold a large number of Girl Scout cookies and the girls decided to go camping with their earnings.  They planned a trip to the Girl Scout Camp Wood Haven in Pine Grove.

During their weekend, they went on several hikes, including an early morning walk in the woods before they left for home.  One thing the girls were excited to do was to play Gaga Ball.  Girl Scout troop leader Marsha Ney surprised them with several fun crafts.

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Daisy/Brownie Outdoor Journey in a Day - Colorado Springs

Service Unit 403 invites Daisies and Brownies to join them to earn the badge portion of the Outdoor Journey!

Come with your Girl Scout or as a troop!

This is not a drop off event, please make sure all groups can provide proper ratio with no tagalongs!

To register and pay, or if you have any questions, contact Briana Miller at [email protected]

Physical badges not included. Take Action project not included.

Link to flyer

This is not a drop-off event. All girls must be accompanied by their caregiver or attend with their troop. Adult safety ratios must be followed. Please refer to Volunteer Essentials.