Outdoor

Activity Details

Time needed: 15–30 minutes

Materials needed:

• 1 square foot of waxed paper (or aluminum foil if using a grill or campfire)
• 1 banana
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips or 1/3 of a chocolate bar
• 2 large marshmallows or 1/4 cup miniature marshmallows
• Spoon
• Small plate
• Parents: this activity will require you to use a microwave, solar oven, grill, or campfire

Setup: Camping is an adventure! You play in nature, eat outside, and sleep under the stars with your family or buddies—your buddies could be the girls in your troop or other friends. 

Today we get to try cooking for outdoor camping trips. We’re going to try a dessert recipe today, and this activity will complete a requirement of your Buddy Camper badge. Sometime in the year ahead, you may get to go camping with your family, friends or troop, so let’s practice making banana boats!

Activity: First, before we can start, you need to ask an adult to be in the room with you the whole time. Great! Now tie back your hair if it’s long and tie an apron or kitchen towel around your waist. Next, I want you to wash your hands really well. Do you know the song “Make New Friends” (or “Happy Birthday”)? If we sing either song two times, that’s as long as we should wash our hands. Ready? Sing with me.

Now, I’m going to go through this step by step, so take your time and have fun.  

1. Take your banana, peel back one long strip on the inside of the curve, and leave the strip attached at one end.

2. Use your spoon to scoop out a little bit of the banana all the way down the curve.

3. Take your chocolate chips and spread them out as evenly as you can inside the ditch in the banana.

4. Pull your marshmallows apart with your fingers and spread the pieces out on top of the chocolate in the ditch.  

5. Carefully replace the strip of banana peel back over the marshmallows and chocolate chips.

6. If you are using a microwave, wrap the whole banana up carefully in waxed paper, place it on a plate, and with an adult’s help, heat it in the microwave for about one minute. Adults, this will vary depending on the microwave, but we want the marshmallow to melt into the chocolate. If you are cooking banana boats over a campfire or on a grill, let the fire burn down to just coals. Wrap your banana in aluminum foil and then use tongs to put the foil-covered banana onto the coals. Be careful!

Reflection: While our banana boats cool, I want you to answer a couple of questions. You can share your answers with the adult who is with you there. 

• So, did you do anything during this activity that you’d never done before? 
• Imagine you’re going camping overnight with your troop or your family and you’re in charge of one whole meal for your camping trip. You’ll be cooking over a campfire. With your adult, talk about one thing that you would like to cook.

Now, guess what? It’s time to try our banana boats!  

Troop Leaders:  The instructions for all badge steps are available free of charge in your  Girl Scout Volunteer Toolkit.

Girl Scouts at Home activities have been adapted from existing Girl Scout programming and optimized for use at home during a period of social distancing.

Adapted from Step 1 of the Daisy Buddy Camper badge. Purchase the official  badge booklet to complete all requirements and earn the badge .

Once you have earned this badge, you’ll know how to go camping—at a campsite or in a back yard—with family or friends.