I’m always looking for ways to meet our Girl Scout badge requirements, but make things fun and interesting for the girls. We meet right after school, and after a day of sitting in their desks working hard, the girls don’t want to meet for another hour to do the same thing for even longer.

So when it was time to work on our scribe badge, I knew I didn’t want them to just sit at a desk writing. We made these story orbs so they could display their stories at home and have them look cute. This would be a great writing activity for anyone, though — you could try it with your kids at home this summer.

You could make these with plain paper and pens…but I figure any time you can make your project cuter with craft paper and gel pens, you really should. Besides, the girls enjoyed picking the paper and pens they were going to use. Do you remember being ten? Did you have a favorite pen? I had a pink glittery one that I loved and saved only for special projects. So I figured the girls would be just as into that part of the writing as the rest.

How to Make Story Orbs:

Supplies:

• scrapbook or plain paper
• pens (gel pens or colored pens are fun!)
• scissors
• hole punch
• brads (2 per girl)

Start by writing a ten-line story. You can have the girls trace ten lines on a piece of paper (that will make each strip an even length and width). Then, write each line of the story on each line they drew. You can do this two ways — either have each of the girls write an entire story. Or have each girl write the first line, then pass the paper to the girl on her left and have that girl write the next line, then pass again and so on until you have ten different lines. You can take some time to read them all out loud before you start your project.

Then cut each line into a paper strip — ours were 5 in long and about 1/2 in wide. Each girl should have ten strips of paper. Line them up and punch a hole in the top and bottom of all the strips. Put one brad through the top and one through the bottom of each strip.

Then begin sliding the papers around — as you do, they will form a ball.

Slide them around until you have them where you want them, and that’s it! Each girl has a fun way to save her story, and one requirement from her scribe badge done!

I thought these turned out so cute, I have a few on my desk right now.

And of course, when we came home, the rest of the kids wanted to make them, too! I think we’ll do a few of these this summer. It would also be a great way to preserve memories from a special trip or event.