There are all different kinds of youth work.
One type that I do in my free time is lead a Girl Scout troop. And not just any troop. I lead between 12 to 30 girls at a time (depending on the week) between the ages of 5 and 15, in activities ranging from nature scavenger hunts to pottery making, from learning how to be a better girl scout to learning the best way to shoot a soccer ball into a goal.
The social, emotional and behavioral skills the girls are learning can’t be understated, but neither can the physical skills. They’re learning sewing, painting, drawing and most recently… friendship bracelet making. Plus, the hand-eye-coordination these bracelets are teaching is incredible too!
You’re probably asking yourself, ‘Why/how does she teach 12 or more girls at a time, of so many different ages and abilities, how to make friendship bracelets?’ (This is, incidentally, the very same question I was asking myself on Thursday night of last week.)
Why? Mainly because it’s a lot of fun with the right mindset and preparation.
How? By preparing ahead of time. Depending on the age and numbers of your youth, you may want to consider making short practice strands ahead of time. This helps cut out a lot of waiting around while everyone picks their colors and gets them measured out before starting the first lesson.
One of the best things is that it’s not a very expensive project. You can get a lot of embroidery floss, which is the primary resource used in making friendship bracelets. Other than the thread, all you need is tape or a clipboard for each girl (although I even doubled up two girls to one clipboard and that worked OK too) and scissors for cutting.
You can find books on friendship bracelet making, although I’ve found two great video resources you might like to use as well.
How to make a basic friendship bracelet:
BeyondBracelets also has other great tutorials you can find here.
This one is made by a youth and shows how to make a spiral bracelet:
Personally, after trying to teach both on the first day, I recommend starting with the spiral bracelet because it allows for a lot of focus, practice, ease of use and creates a funky pattern for such a basic bracelet.
But you don’t just need to do this with Girl Scouts. You might also enjoy leading a session plan about making friendship bracelets:
- For a craft-fair fundraiser
- As an ‘activity with a point’ in a faith-based session about 3 strands in a cord being better than 2 (Ecc. 4:12)
- As a girls session to break the ice
- As a crafty session with youth
- At the start of a session about making friends
- Or just for fun!
Some boys may enjoy making these too, so don’t discount them!
Question: How would you use a friendship bracelet making session plan? We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below.
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