Girl Scout Daisy Petal: Considerate and Caring

I didn't think I would have a hard time trying to come up with ideas for this badge but as I began thinking, I came up with one idea initially. Luckily, this meeting was the next meeting after we had a wonderful guest speaker come it so I took the opportunity to have the girls write thank you notes.

Here are some great ideas of activities you can do for the Zinni petal

Write Thank you notes

Have you had someone visit the troop recently or joined up with another troop? This is a great opportunity to write thank you notes. Other suggestions are writing thank you notes to our military service men and women, someone special in each girls life that they want to appreciate, or notes to another girl in the troop.

You can also have each girl pick another girl in the troop to be sort of like a "secret Santa" and write a note about something nice the girl has done.

These are thank you letters from Kindergartners. It's so cute to see them begin and grow as writers!

Have the girls create a mural of the Daisy Flower Garden.

Have an assortment of crafting materials that the girls can pass around and share. You can set a timer and ever couple minutes the girls have to switch the materials they are using. Possible material suggestions are: crayons, colored pencils, watercolors, stock paper and scissors, markers, stickers...

Work on a service project

Have the girls create care packages for young girls in less fortunate areas. Check your council activities for service projects. Our council has several service projects from creating mini medical kits for the children in third world countries to chemo kits for children with cancer.

Making Girl Scout Swaps!

I was confused at first to what these are but after a little digging they are a very cute idea that the girls can share with one another in the troop or with another troop. There seems to be an endless search on Pinterest with swap ideas.

Act out the Flower Petal story

in the Girls Guide to Girl Scouting manual

You can print out color pictures of each flower and character from the story and glue them on popsicle sticks for the girls acting out the story. If you are really creative and crafty think about making hand puppets of the daisy flowers. You can use these over and over again to act out the stories. The girls are much more engaged with the story!

I hope this helps when planning out your Girl Scout meetings!

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Girl Scout Daisy Planning: Money Counts Leaf and a Hair Clip Craft!

Since they're in school enough hours out of the day, the last thing I wanted is a Math lesson. I wanted to make sure this was a fun meeting and the girls were engaged. Financial literacy is very important and an essential part of Girl Scouts and the Cookie Product sale.

You can find large cardboard cut outs of all the coins and dollar bills at the Dollar store. I would go through a brief explanation of each and pair it up with the real coin or dollar. The large cut outs help for better viewing but girls also like to see and feel the real thing. I also set aside a bag of 100 pennies and showed the girls what a dollar can equal in pennies. This helps them visualize and compare. You can do this with the other coins or dollars, too. For example, hold up 4 quarters and compare it to a dollar bill. We also talked about how much our cookie boxes cost and what the troop profit was from each box.

Once we explained the different kinds of money and compared and contrasted, we talked about the difference between what costs money and what doesn't. We had each girl come up with one way they can have fun with or without money.

Here are some examples....

Costs money:

Going to the movies

Going to a theme park

Free:

Playing a board game at home with your family

Playing with a friend in your yard

Going to the park

Renting a book from the library.

*another idea is to cut out pictures of things that cost money and things that don't. Use a large poster board and draw a line down the middle. Have one side represent things that cost money and the other side represent free. Have the girls glue the pictures to the right section.

*If the girls are doing a personal scrapbook you can use the above idea in a smaller version and they can glue the pictures right into their scrapbooks.

Now starts the fun!!!

We had a guest speaker,

Designs by Denise

, come and speak with the girls. She is an entrepreneur and has her own handmade hair bow business. Guest speakers are great because the girls have a natural interest in something unfamiliar.

She talked about what an entrepreneur is and why keeping track of her money was so important. She discussed profit and how much materials cost. She had a display of the bows she had made and explained where and how she sells them.

This was a great introduction to ownership and business skills for the girls as we are upon the Cookie Product season.

The girls were very engaged as it was a new face and they could relate to the pretty hair bows. Our speaker lead us into our final activity. I like to close each meeting with some kind of fun craft!

Activity: The girls made their own hair clips!

Materials:

for 10 girls

3 Ashland daisy flowers from Michael's in blue

(each flower will give you 4 large flower pieces)

3 Ashland daisy flowers in white

10 hair clips

felt

Gem for the center about 1 inch

*use a coupon and look for sales on the florals. I got mine for 50% off!

(I believe the whole thing came out to $1.40 per girl)

I first cut the felt pieces ahead of time. I separated everything into each individual flower clip bag so the girls had all their materials in one place.

Cut a 1 inch circle out of felt for the backing of the flower.

Cut a 1 inch long by 1/4 inch wide piece of felt to glue on the inside of the clip so the girls hair doesn't get caught.

You can let the girls choose the order of the two different color flowers. This allows them to make it their own. Although, it does look best with the blue behind the white :).

We used a hot glue gun. BE CAREFUL with this and only let adults handle the glue guns.

Glue a couple of dots on the center of the bottom (blue) flower. Have the girl place the top (white) flower on top and line it up. 

Glue a couple of dots on the center of the top (white) flower and let the girls place the gem in the center on the top.

Glue the circle felt on the back of the flower 

Glue the other piece of felt on the inside of the top part of the clip. (adults)

Glue the flower on to the clip. (adults should do this)

They were so excited to do this and it was a great round up of the entire meeting. As we were assembling the hair clips we talked about the materials and the individual cost of each. I held up the equivalent in our cardboard money so the girls could see.

They really loooooved this idea and I even saw the girls wearing their clips to school the next day!! Probably their favorite craft so far and we were able to tie in something fun with the Money Counts badge!

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Girl Scout Daisies Holiday Meeting: Ornament Making

Happy Holidays!!!!

We had our 5th meeting of the year this past week. I wanted to keep it low key as it's close to the holidays but also have some fun!

We opened up the meeting as usual in our Daisy Circle. We recapped on our Cookie Goals from last meeting and said the Girl Scout Promise and practiced the Girl Scout Law. Then we went straight into the fun activities!

Girl Scout Daisy Ornament

What you need:

Green pipe cleaners

Green and White pony beads

Blue flower bead

ribbon to hang on the tree

hole puncher

Print out for your daisy troop.You can download the publisher file I created here: 

Daisy Ornament Tag

I set out a couple of plates with both the white and green pony beads. I handed each girl a blue bead and myself and a couple of adults helped the girls string the beads on the green pipe cleaners. 

Once the girls had the desired number of beads (15 on each side worked best) we twisted the pipe cleaners and trimmed the edges. I twisted them a couple of times to ensure they would stay. 

Then you string the ribbon around the twisted area and make a knot. 

Slide the hole punched tag through the ribbon and make another knot to keep it in place. 

Lastly, make another knot at the ends to create a hoop that can allow the ornament to hang on the tree.

What do ya think?

Our second activity we decorated snowflake sugar cookies with white icing and blue shining sprinkles. I put out a couple of ramekins of different toppings through out the table and we passed around the bag of icing to each girl. I would have liked to have another bag of icing to speed up the process as we have ten girls but surprisingly the girls were pretty patient.

The girls had so much fun doing these two activities and it took up the full hour for the meeting. We also played some festive music in good party fashion. You can serve snacks or cookies and milk. We did not because our meetings are in the evenings and as parents voted it was best not to feed them that late.

If you would like other ideas...

This idea is super cute: 

Tree ornament with beads

This one is my favorite!

Check out Play Trains website: 

DIY pipe cleaner trees

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and have fun with your little Girl Scouts!!

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Investitures Ceremony - Girl Scout Daisy

It seems like Girl Scouts is the only thing I can write about these days. I've been so busy this session with my overwhelming classes, the holidays, photography projects, and girl scouts. This is my very last week of classes and them I'm all done with school and I can't tell you how excited I am!

This past week we had our Investitures Ceremony for the Daisy troop. This would be meeting 4 for the girls and it gave them an opportunity to get a feel for the structure of the meetings and to better understand the Girl Scout Promise and Law.

Planning Ahead

Send out cute invitations to the parents at the prior meeting so they know that this is special. The girls will get excited about it too! Here is a download for the one I quickly created: 

Investiture Invites

I first created an outline ( basically a script) of how the ceremony would go. You can download a copy of the script we used here: 

Investiture Ceremony

Then a prepared all the materials.

Materials Needed:

Felt board ( I pasted a large piece of felt on to a meeting board purchased at the dollar store)

11 sheets of felt in the colors of the daisy flower (Blue for the center and 10 different colors for the petals... See below for the different colors)

Scissors to cut the felt.

Printed out scripts

Membership pins

Certificates (optional) I was not able to create one for this event:(

The Ceremony Script

We started with the girls walking in single file. We have 10 girls so each girl was given one of the 10 petals on the daisy flower.

Here is how the ceremony went....

---

Intro:

(The girls walk in single file and lined up.)

Leader 1: Where are the girls who want to be daisy girl scouts?

Daisies:Here we are!

Leader 1: You have agreed that you are ready to make your promise and receive your pin as Daisy Girl Scouts. Let’s make that promise together.

(Everyone holds up the Girl Scout salute)

All:On my honor, I will try

To serve God and my country

To help people at all times

And to live by the Girl Scout Law.

Leader 2:The Girl Scout promise is a pledge that tells us how to live our lives. The center of the flower represents the Girl Scout Promise. The Daisy Girls Scouts earn 10 learning Petals. Each of the Petals is a different color and represents a part of the Girl Scout Law.

All: I will do my best to be

(Each girl will get a petal to add to the board. Whisper in their ear for assistance)

Girl 1: Honest and Fair

Girl 2: Friendly and Helpful

Girl 3: Considerate and caring

Girl 4: Courageous and Strong and

Girl 5: Responsible for what I say and do,

Girl 6: And to respect myself and others

Girl 7: Respect Authority,

Girl 8: Use Resources Wisely,

Girl 9: Make the world a better place and

Girl 10: Be a sister to every Girl Scout.

Call each girl by their name up to receive their pin and welcome them into the troop with a Girl Scout Handshake. 

Leader 2: “Name of girl” as a Daisy Girl Scout would you step forward.

Leader 1: Here is your daisy Girl Scout pin. (Pin on Daisy Insignia Tab)

(Followed by the handshake.)

Leader 1:Girl Scout Daisies are named after the founder of Girl Scouting in the

United States, Juliette Gordon Low, whose nickname was Daisy. She brought Girl Scouting to the United States from England. As parents, you are very necessary to the growth and development of our Girl Scout Daisies . We need to know your expectations for how "high" our Daisies will grow and ways that you can help us to reach that growth. We would appreciate your suggestions and participation throughout their journey.

Now we will do our closing. Would you please join us in a friendship circle.

Girls move back into larger circle--admitting parents as part of the group.

(Friendship Squeeze)

---

This script was adapted from a video I found on YouTube. It was extremely helpful and you can add or change up where you see fit. There are plenty of videos and examples.

There are so many ways you can go about the Investiture ceremony. Just make sure to have fun with it and know what your girls can handle. I have a large group of girls that are rowdy so I wanted to keep this ceremony short and sweet. The whole thing took about 10 minutes. I arranged for an entire hour. The first 30 minutes the girls did a practice run so they had an idea of how it would go.

I hope this is helpful in your planning and don't forget to check back for more Girl Scout Daisy planning ideas!!

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Girl Scouts meeting: Lupe Petal "Honest and Fair"

Our very first Girl Scout Daisy Meeting was this past week! Being the introvert that I am, reading out loud was a challenge for me. I think I'm hiding my social anxiety pretty well:) The first meeting we dived right in to start tackling the Daisy Petal Badges. I am saving the Promise center for the Investitures ceremony that will be done in the 4th meeting.

Like Girl Scout fashion, I divided the sections up into pre-meeting, Opening, business, Activity and Closing.

Pre-meeting activity

(I would really recommend not skipping over this one. I didn't think I needed it but it really helped the girls focus while everyone arrived)

A petal coloring sheet (coloring sheet can be found on the second to last page here: here)

Opening

Introductions: Since it was our first meeting, I wanted all the girls to get to know one another. We sat in the Daisy circle and went around and said our name and one thing we like.

For example: My name is Katie and I like to garden.

We practiced the Girl Scout Promise with the repeat after me technique. We also showed them the three finger salute.

Business

We asked the girls to get out their blue Daisy folders (this was provided at the parent meeting) to see if there was any thing they needed to hand in, such as troop dues, forms, ect.

Activity

Read Story

We read the Lupe story from our Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting book. I read the story out loud and the girls that had their guides followed along. Once we were finished with the story I asked the girls how they liked it and provided a brief recap. Then I used the questions from the end of the book to discuss what they learned.

Truth or Lie Game:

We played a game to tie into the story. We used Happy and Sad face signs. Each leader got one and we stood across the room from one another. I listed examples of honest or not, and fair or not. The girls had to decide if they thought the example was being honest and fair or not. This got the girls moving and they looked excited. Our meetings are held after dinner so this was a great opportunity to get the silly's out before bed time.

Examples we used:

Truth or Lie

• You forgot your homework and tell the teacher your dog ate it
• You girls are 10 years old
• Lupe told her friends about the cheese
• You tell your parents that you cleaned your room but you didn't
• You accidentally spilled juice on the carpet and you tell your parents right away
• The boy had cried wolf when there was no wolf

Fair or Unfair

• You take turns on the playground
• You're with your friends and someone passes out cookies. Your friend next to you doesn't get a cookie because there is not enough
• Cinderella couldn't go to the ball like her stepsisters because they were jealous
• Treating all of our friends the same
• Waiting your turn in line

Snack Time:

We had two apples and I asked the girls how can we make sure everyone gets a piece. I used an apple slicer to divide the pieces evenly. Once the girls were finished we cleaned up and I explained that Girl Scouts leave places just the way they found them.

Closing

Make New Friends but Keep The Old Song

I brought my phone and doc to play the make new friends song. We have a single Cadette in our group so she taught the girls the song and then we played it on my phone.

Friendship circle and Squeeze

We held hands in the circle and did the friendship squeeze. I started the squeeze and it went around in the circle. Once it came back to me I said "Goodbye Sister Girl Scouts" and the girls said it back. The squeeze was the close of our meeting.

After

I made sure that each girl got a certificate for the Petal Badge they earned as well as a next meeting reminder sheet. If you have the Badges at this point in time you can hand those to the girls as well.

I used a free printable for the Badge certificates I found here: 

Lupe Petal Award

I hope this gives you some ideas on your meeting planning!

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Girls Scouts Daisy First Parent Meeting

This seemed to be a daunting task for a newbie troop leader like me. I am completely out of my element as a leader so organization is something I am obsessed over. I have a little bit of OCD when it comes to planning.

What do you want to include in the parent packet?

Each girl/parent got a blue folder with their name on it. This folder is used as a parent communicator that the Daisy will bring to every meeting. The folder will be sent home each meeting with a wrap up of what was done at the meeting and updates and information on the next meeting.

Below is what I included in the folder for the parent packet...

• Parent letter (including troop expectations, rules, meeting schedule)
• Parent Helper sign up form
• Uniform handout (explains the items needed for uniform for the parents to purchase, unless you will purchase the entire troops)
• Forms
• Girl Membership Registration Form
• Adult Membership Registration Form
• Medical History form (both girl and adult volunteers)
• Permission slips

Girl activity

I wanted the girls to have something to direct their attention to while I discussed the business with the parents. For this I had my co-leader take the girls aside to decorate their own daisy flower that we would put on the Troop meeting board.

Business

I wanted to keep the meeting fairly short and to the point.

I went over...

• Parent letter (for a copy of my parent letter visit my updated post ---> here )
• Troop Leader contact information
• Meeting information
• Day and time of the week
• Location
• What they do at the meetings
• Uniforms and Handbook
• What badges to purchase before hand
• Council ID
• American flag 
• Troop Numerals
• Insignia tab
• Troop Dues
• What does troop dues cover
• Due date
• Importance of volunteers
• Positions open
• Share site
• Shutterfly offers an amazing share site to keep the parents up to date on meetings. I would strongly recommend checking it out!

• Forms ( I handed out the forms for the parents to complete at the meeting.) 
• Goals for this year 
• 2 meetings / month
• 1 field trip or event / month
• Earn a badge every meeting
• Start on a Daisy Journey in the Spring

For my troop, I decided to include the Membership Pin and Badges the girls will earn through out the year in their membership dues.

It's important to decide how you want your troop to operate for the year and have some sort of outline. I really wanted to incorporate outside activities not just regular meetings twice a month so I welcomed suggestions of ideas for meetings other than at the school. This also got the parents involved.

The meeting ended on a wonderful note with all the Moms excited and I could see they were also bursting with ideas. I hope this helps you plan out your first meeting!

Butterfly Modeling Clay Craft and Magnet

March is a hit or miss when it comes to the weather in the Midwest. This winter has been unusually cold. It just seems like everything is wet and cold, but I guess that is what spring is about here. 

Since we are just inching to get outside and beat the cold weather blues, we had a little fun with some modeling clay! We got this clay as part of a goody bag on a trip to our favorite zoo last fall. It's been hiding in the top cabinet for some time now. I was hesitant to bring it out for fear of it staining the carpet or furniture... in fact it does!

Since spring is here and we have a great unit study ahead of us, I thought we could kick it off with a fun Butterfly craft.

Despite how hard the clay was, the girls had a ton of fun playing with it and molding it. Mommy had to do some flattening and shaping for them. It was also a great opportunity to introduce symmetry to my kindergartner. Once we were done shaping and decorating, we placed our creations into a bread pan.

Place in glass or metal oven safe dish. Do not microwave. Bake at 275 degrees for 15 minutes per 1/4 inch thickness.

Allow them to cool completely before handling. They will become hard.

*We attached magnets to the back of them and now they are sitting pretty on the fridge holding up the latest masterpiece by my little ones.

Check back soon for some more spring crafts!

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