by Kat Apf

Created on: January 19, 2010   Last Updated: March 13, 2010

Of all the Try-Its my two Brownie troops did, I think Let's Pretend was one of the ones we had the most fun with.  A decade later and these girls still talk about the play we put on and all the fun we had doing it.  This age group loves to play pretend and this Try-It lets them explore acting and pretending a little bit more.  Even the shy ones let go a little during these meetings.  

There are seven activities to chose from on this Try-It but you only need to do four to earn the patch.  Choose your activities ahead of time so you can plan your meetings. Remember, if the girls are enjoying it and having fun with the activities, you can do more than four.  

The first activity is called Be a Mime.  We played charades to fulfill this requirement and the girls had a blast.  There is a list of things to act out in this activity but letting the girls choose themselves is fine, too.  

The next activity is called If You Were. . . Group three or four girls together and have them pretend to be some kind of machine.  There are three machines listed: A train, a computer and a washer or dryer but again, let the girls work together to decide what they would like to do.  To add to the fun, have the rest of the girls see if they can guess what machine is being acted out.

The third activity is called Dress It Up.  We had each girl bring in a few dress up items from home and then, we let everyone try on whatever they wanted.  Ask them if they feel different when they're dressed up in costumes and if they can act differently because of the costumes.  This brought about a lot of good thoughts and ideas.  We had a great conversation centered around this activity.

The fourth activity listed is Act It Out.  We ended up putting on an entire play for the girls' parents and friends.  This took quite some time but was well-worth the effort.  We put the girls names in a hat and drew for who would be what characters in the play.  This eliminated auditioning which probably would have sucked the fun out of it for some girls.  

Everyone in the troop had something to do, be it a part in the play or being in charge of props.  You can find some good short plays on PBSkids.org.  Overall, this one activity took us almost a month of meetings.  We did a lot of practicing and we also spent time during that month's meetings making tickets and programs for the girls' families.  

Without a doubt, this was probably the hit of the year for both troops I did the play with.  Even the parents loved it.  

The next three activities are fairly self-explanatory.  Louder, Please, Tongue Twisters and Putting your Best Face Forward.  We did the Tongue Twisters at the meeting where we did charades and If You Were.  I chose not to do Putting Your Best Face Forward as all it was, was making a paper plate mask.  I just felt the girls were beyond this.  We did Louder, Please when we were practicing for the play.  It's an easy breathing exercise and it tied into the speaking parts of the play.  

My troops had a lot of fun with most of our activities but this one stands out as a favorite for all and while the play really was a lot of work, it truly was one of the best things we did all year.

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