At the previous activity we made something to work with, so in order to balance work with fun, at this activity we made something to play with- Marshmallow guns.

This was the activity where I laid out my plans for the rest of the year: We would have a dinner for the girls and their families at the end of the year. At this dinner we would show off all of the the great things we worked on. However we would have to buckle down and do some hard work in order to have something worth showing off at the dinner. We agreed that a lot of the stuff is kind of boring, but if they would promise to work hard -even on the boring stuff- I would promise to make sure we had plenty of fun too. They agreed that this sounded fair. We made the guns, with the understanding that when we had boring activities I would make sure there was time at the end for them to play with their guns together. As new girls enter the group they get a marshmallow gun and a booklet (they make the gun, I make the booklet).

I used the instructions and design found here to put together the guns. The girls measured out the lengths, and cut the pieces of pipe themselves with a hacksaw. We did not glue the pieces together as the glue isn’t necessary and only adds to the cost. Also without the glue it disassembles for storage. When they were finished they each got a little baggie of mini marshmallows. I used sidewalk chalk to draw a target on the block wall in my backyard and they had target practice before they went to ‘war’ with each other.

Total cost was about $2 per girl for the materials and the marshmallows- kind of pricey (considering the budget) but I viewed it as an investment because we will use these more than once. This would count to pass off the goal under Developing Talents that says to “make an item from wood …”