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Updated April 2023
Have you ever heard of letterboxing before you became a Brownie Girl Scout leader? In all honesty, I had never heard of the term, but the more I read about it, the interested I became!
Letterboxing, in a nutshell, is a scavenger hunt for
hidden treasure…treasure that you as the leader have not planted for your girls
to find. Others have done this for you. In fact, according to letterboxing.org,
there are over 20,000 letterboxes in North America! That means that somewhere
near you these exist!
Image created by the author in Canva
This badge will combine art, puzzle solving, teamwork, and being in the great outdoors.
Earning the Brownie Letterboxing badge will take two
meetings-one for getting your materials created and together and the other to
go on your actual field trip to find them!
Before taking on this badge activity, go to this link on the letterboxing website to see how many are in your area. Then you can plan
your trip accordingly. In my county there were 38!
Step 1 Getting Started With Letterboxing
More than likely, your girls have not heard of this
activity. This is the time for a brief discussion about what letterboxing is
and what they will be doing in order to go on their letterboxing treasure hunt.
Here is another resource, Atlasquest.com, which will give a you a wonderful introduction to this activity. You may want to run some copies off for the girls to
share so that they have a firmer grasp of these new concepts.
Step 2 Find Your Own Stamp
One of the items girls will need to earn this badge is
their own stamp. You can purchase rubber stamps or have the girls bring in
their own from home. But even better is to have the girls make their own stamp.
Materials
Foam sheets
Wooden block
Elmer's Extreme Glue Sticks (if using regular foam and not peel and stick foam)
Sharpie markers-dark colors
Scissors
This is a set of 20 peel and stick foam sheets. No need for glue! Make sure the girls rub it onto the wooden block so it gets a good stick.
Amazon also has a huge assortment of inexpensive ink pads so that each girl in your troop can have one of her own.
Make Your Own Notebook (craft)
Letterboxing is not just leaving your stamp in the
hidden notebook, you also get to place a stamp inside your own personal
notebook.
Girls can easily make these themselves. They should be
small, like the size of a small memo pad. Use cardstock for the cover and back
cover and punch a hole at the top. Use a ring to keep it and the pages you have
precut together. The girls can decorate the front.
Step 3 Practice Solving Clues
This is something the girls have probably done in
school. Have the girls invent their own code using numbers or letters (A=B,
B=C, etc) and then they have to switch with another member of the troop to
solve it.
I strongly advice not permitting the girls to use
pictures, as this will take a very long time.
Step 4 Search for a Letterbox
Here is where the fun begins! Have each girl bring her
letterboxing notebook, stamp, ink pad and pencil, along with snacks and a water
bottle, on your trip.
If you have time, you might want to go and find the
letterboxes ahead of time with your co-leader, just to be sure that they are
still there.
Step 5 Make a Letterbox
This final step will require you to have permission to
leave a letterbox in your area. Call your local township and ask if you can
hide it in some areas you have already preselected.
Once you have permission, then give the girls a few
choices on what the stamp you will leave in the box will be. Make it easy on
yourself and print out a few options from a craft store website. Then go ahead
and purchase it with an inkpad, a memo pad, and a waterproof container.
For another field trip, have the girls go with you to
hide it!
What have you done to earn the Brownie letterboxing badge? Where did you hide your letterbox?
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