Kaper Charts

Most of the skills required for camping and outdoor activities are used in other Girl Scout situations. For instance, Kaper Charts are just as important to regular meetings as they are to camping experiences. Girls learn songs for more than just singing around a campfire. This section addresses in greater depth, skills that are briefly mentioned in Outdoor Education in Girl Scouting and the various Girl’s Guides to Girl Scouting and recognition books. When working on skill development your primary resource is Outdoor Education in Girl Scouting. Kaper Charts are used to equitably divide the work tasks among all the girls. Kapers during a troop meeting most frequently include doing the opening ceremony, snack, cleanup, and closing ceremony. On the camping overnight(s), the Kapers shift to include cooking responsibilities and others:

• Fire - this could include gathering wood, starting and maintaining a wood or charcoal fire, starting coals for a box oven, or setting up cook stoves;

• Cooks - they prepare and cook the meal;

• Hostess/hoppers - the girls ready the eating area and ensure that there is a grace; and

• Cleanup - the groups that set up the washing area and clean the cooking dishes (as long as the cooks didn’t severely burn anything!).

Plus, flag detail, litter detail, latrine duty, and sometimes a Girl Scouts’ Own as well as different activity periods, may be included.

Assigning girls to Kapers will depend on how the troop is organized. The optimum number of girls working on any one cooking task is two, but up to four girls can be useful. The number of girls on each task will depend on the type of meal being prepared, the size of the eating space, cooking area, and type of heat source being used.

If the troop has more than 12 girls, it is recommended that the troop be divided into two or more patrols for cooking. This means that you will need a complete set of cooking pots, utensils and heat source for each patrol. Each patrol then breaks into smaller groups to cover the above cooking duties. If the troop has 12 or less, then smaller groups can be assigned each of the cooking duties and only one set of cooking implements and heat source is needed. You may keep them in the same small groups to assign the rest of the Kapers or rotate girls through to each task with a different buddy. Rotating girls allows them to work with everyone, thereby encouraging group development and individual girl development of her relationship skills. They won’t become friends unless they work together.

Types of Kaper Charts

• Patrol - generally only used when the troop is large enough to have more than one group cooking at the same time.

• Troop - Kapers are assigned to each patrol or individual girls are rotated to each Kaper.

Example # 1 - Individual Girl Rotation

This is frequently used with small troops as it helps girls to get to know everyone better rather than just one or two “best buddies.” Place all the names in a hat and randomly draw and place the names on the Kaper Chart for the first activity. Then group girls for the various activities making sure that everyone has a chance to do as many of the activities and chores with as many different girls as possible. Here is how the section on meals of the troop Kaper Chart would look:

Example # 2 - Cooking Patrols

In this example, the patrols are responsible for different parts of meals and conducting activities they have planned for the camping trip. The blocked-out areas indicate that there is no activity under that column on that day. The use of symbols adds fun to the chart. Make sure there is a legend to explain what the symbols represent. For instance, this chart identifies that Patrol 2 has planned a night activity for the troop.