Gossiping Is No Good!

This Friday's lesson was all about gossiping. The last few lessons we have been talking about different types of communication and working together. Coach Jenn began the discussion by asking the girls if there was any type of communication that was hurtful. Eventually, the girls said gossiping hurts everyone involved. When we tell stories about other people, or gossip, it hurts the person we're talking about, it hurts the people we tell the stories to by making them feel uncomfortable and it hurts the person telling the story.

To help the girls understand how telling stories can get out of hand, and really hurts those involved, Coach Jenn had the girls stand in a close circle, with their shoulders touching. Coach Jenn gave one girl a ball of yarn and asked her to hold the end of the yarn and throw the ball to another girl. The next girl held the string of yarn and threw the ball to another girl. After the ball of yarn was thrown from girl to girl, a shape began to form. Coach Jenn asked what the shape looked like and the girls said a spider web. And a web is exactly what stories can begin to look like when we gossip about others.

Coach Tanya then got the girls ready for their warm up by splitting them into two teams and spacing them out around the black top. In this modified version of "telephone," Coach Tanya drew a shape on the starting girl's back. The girl then ran to the next girl and drew the shape on her back. Then she ran to the next girl and drew the shape and so on. After the last girl received the shape, she had to write down what the shape was, to see if the final shape was actually the shape Coach Tanya originally drew. And you know what? For one of the teams, it wasn't. Coach Tanya and the girls discussed how this is just another example of how a story can start out one way and when it goes from person to person, it turns into something completely different. Just like gossip.

While Coach Jenn and Coach Tanya were doing the lesson with the girls, Coach Connie was busy hiding lots of goodies around the playground. Why? For the SCAVENGER HUNT!

That's right! The girls' favorite activity finally arrived: the GOTR Scavenger Hunt! The girls had to find lots of things: something blue, the GOTR snack for the day, something smooth, etc. They had to run, they had to jump rope, they had to do a cheer. But best of all, they had to find their GOTR t-shirts, which are a bright pink this season. Now we're all powerful in pink this season!

After all the girls finished their hunts, we did our cheer and went on our way. What a great way to start our weekend!