Daisy Flower Garden Journey: Session 3

"He who plants a garden plants happiness." ~Chinese proverb

Hey Troop Leaders!

Last spring our troop journeyed through the Daisy Flower Garden. You can actually find the first two sessions here: 

Daisy Flower Garden Journey: Session 1

Daisy Flower Garden Journey: Session 2 (Bees)

Session 3 Theme: Flower parts and Seeds

For session 3 of the Daisy Flower Garden Journey our focus was on the parts of the flower and how flowers produce seeds. 

Start up Activity:

Have the girls color the Mari page and/or PG. 44 and 45 in the GB (Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden ) If you remember from previous sessions, I printed out copies of these pages and pasted them into their Garden Journal. This is a great way to record their seedlings current progress.

Have the Girl Scouts water their seedlings!

Activity: Read Chapter 3: Amazing Daisy and Her Flower Family from GB

Activity: Flower art project

Girls this age love expressing themselves through art and this is a wonderful activity that they enjoyed. I would keep this one easy and let the girls run with it. Prior to the meeting send out an email or letter asking the girls to bring supplies from home. Try not to buy anything new and encourage the girls to use what they already have as all Girls Scouts "use resources wisely." I created a template that I would love to share with you all and can be found here: Flower outline template

Possible ideas for materials

• tissue paper
• construction paper
• pipe cleaners
• yarn
• bird seed
• cupcake liners
• crayons
• glue
• beads
• sequins
• Flower template

Here is the project done a couple different ways.

1. Freestyle drawing. 

My daughter used tissue paper to represent the seed. She also colored all the parts of the flower that we discussed.

2. Cupcake liners and bird seed.

I had some cupcake liners leftover from a previous party. They were already in the shape of a flower so this worked perfectly!

Activity: Paper Marigold for Mari petal "Responsible for what I say and do"

This activity is in place of not in addition to the flower art project. Make a paper marigold for Mari and talk about what it means to be responsible for what they say and do.  Tell the girls by taking care of their seedlings they are being responsible. Ask the girls what other ways they are responsible at home?.... chores, making their bed, taking care of a pet, ect...

Here is a great example of another troop leader who did a marigold tissue flower.

Closing Ceremony:

Friendship Squeeze and presenting of badges! Girls earned their Watering Can Award and their Mari petal (Responsible for what I say and do). Woo hoo double whammy!

"A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust." ~ Gertrude Jekyll

For more resources on the Daisy Flower Garden Journey check out previous sessions....

Session One

Session Two 

Session Three

Session Four 

Session Five and Take Action Project 

Garden Party

The best website for troop community!

Hello Troop Leaders!

I'm here to share with you today one of my favorite websites that I is a big part of our troop. And no, I'm not affiliated with or getting paid by this brand. Have you heard of Shutterfly Share Sites? Well let me tell you how great they are to organize your troop community and why you need to use one this year!

Shutterfly Share Site

Share Site is a closed (not open to the public) website you can create for your troop and share (by email) with all of your troop parents. It's a great way to have a private online community to share news, information, sign ups, pictures.. lots of goodies! 

Benefits

1. It's FREE!

2. Online Meeting Calender accessabile 24/7
3. Share pictures and videos privately.
4. Automatic emails: When upcoming meetings are approaching, cancellation of events, anything you want. This is also optional and something you can turn off.
5. Holds important forms that parents may need to access.
   1. Registration forms
   2. Permission Slips
   3. Financial Assistance Forms
   4. Health History Forms
   5. Badge make up requirements
6. You can create sign up sheets for snack mom or field trips and events. We used this for our cookie booths as well.

Recommended Pages

Calendar

Because everyone forgets dates, including myself, you need this. This is probably the main resource parents will go to the share Site for. Add in meetings, events, field trips, days off from school. Anything.

Sign up

Parents can go in and volunteer for snack day, volunteer roles, supply round up,. You can also keep a sign up for field trips and events so you know who is going without having to track them down.

Message Board

If parents had questions they would post to the board so everyone could see. This eliminated repeat questions.

Our message board currently consists of 3 topics... 

• Uniforms: I posted an attachement of how the uniforms should look along with the placement of the patches, such as the council ID and the troop numerals. I also provided some tips on how to iron on the patches. 
• Activities and Ideas: This message board was an open discussion for parents to add ideas as far as activities and what they could volunteer their skills towards. I would only recommend this board if you are seeking out parents ideas and opinions.
• Cookie Sales: This is a must! Oh the millions of questions about cookie sales. Dates, Deadlines, how tos, it's all housed here.

We may add more topics to this message board as we continue on this year.

Pictures and Videos

Of course you need this one. As a troop leader you can't also be the one taking all the pictures. You will have moms snapping away at the meetings and events with their cell phones and they will need a place to share their pictures! One girl even uploaded a video she took at one of our events of irish step dancers!

Forms and Documents

This page is great because you don't need to constantly be printing off and supplying permission slips or registration forms. You can direct them to the website and bingo bango you're good! I also like to copy the activity handouts from the meetings here, too. 

Optional: Badge Earning

This was a special page that I created for any of the girls who joined mid year. Girls who joined later or missed a chance to earn a badge had the option of making it up on their own. I made word documents for each badge we earned that detailed the requirements and options of activities the girls could do. This does require extra work on your part to create these documents but it does make a difference to the girls who love earning their badges! Maybe I will share with you the documents I have already created? :).... stay tuned.

Better Than Facebook Groups

Sure, there are other options out there for creating an online community for your troop. One of the alternatives I have heard was Facebook. I thought about this, too. One of the biggest reasons I was against it was because it required you to have a Facebook profile to access. Despite what you might think, not everyone is on Facebook. In fact, there were several parents in our troop that were not on Facebook, including my husband. The last thing you want to do to a parent who has already, for all these years, resisted the Facebook community is to exclude them or force them to join. With Share Site all you need is an email address to join. Additionally, Facebook doesn't offer the subpages that make the site organization easy.

What do you use to organize and communicate with parents?

XOXO, Katie

How to Calculate Troop Dues

One of the biggest questions I had starting out as a troop leader was how much do I charge for troop dues. It's not a number that you can just pull out of the air and if you are new to troop leading you might have similar questions like me.

What are troop dues?

Troop dues are what your girl scouts pay in addition to the yearly membership to keep the troop alive. When you first start your troop you will need to open a bank account. Running a troop cost money and it should never be at the expense of the troop leader. 

There are so many factors that come into play when considering troop dues. As a troop leader you will need to take into consideration all these things such as...What upfront costs will we need to cover for the troop? Does the troop dues include uniform cost or will they need to purchase that themselves? It's  really up to you to decide what you want to cover with troop dues but generally troop dues are what finances the troop and gets you started.

The biggest question I have for you is are you planning on relying solely on fundraising techniques, such as fall product and cookie sales, to financially support your troop? If so, there will be a waiting period on when you can actually start purchasing stuff for the troop... this means the little supplies you will use at your regular meetings will have to wait until your girls start cashing in. You also have to consider where you are holding your meetings and if there is a rental fee? Even public school districts charge a rental fee so make sure you check.

If you are starting up a brand new troop, I would recommend collecting troop dues upfront in a lump sum. When I first started I knew that I wanted to make the troop dues fairly reasonable, not too much but at the same time I didn't want to stress about having enough money to pay for the cost of the meetings and badges.

What I covered under troop dues...

Building Rental-I knew we would need to pay for the building rental at the school, which was only $21 for up to 18 meetings but this needed to be paid by the first meeting.

Meeting Materials - You can choose to do a round up and have each girl donate certain materials such as pencils, folders, paper, crayons, paint, ect.... You can even make it fun and do a scavenger hunt if your heart desires. I wasn't too sure which materials we would actually end up using so I just went ahead and budgeted for this in the troop dues.

Earned Badges and Pins - I did include the earned badges and pins that we would work on together as a troop such as the Daisy flower petals pack, Journey badges, Membership pin.

Not included - I did not cover the cost of the uniform and I left it up to the parents to purchase this on their own. I wanted the girls to have the opportunity pick between a vest or tunic and I didn't want to be responsible for collecting the different sizes of each girl and having to return if they didn't fit. This also gives the parents an opportunity to request financial assistance for the uniform and Girl Guide through the council, which generally comes in the form of a store credit. This might help some families financially. You might decide differently so ensure all girls get the Girl Guide or the same uniform, that is totally up to you. 

How to calculate the cost

How much and how often....

When I started hashing out the details of what it would cost to run the troop I first calculated how many meetings we would actually have. From there I set a small and realistic budget that I would allocate for each meeting. *Keep in mind that some meetings you will spend more and some you will spend way less but if you have an average in mind that will help you stay on track and not over spend. I estimated $12 dollars per meeting or $1 per girl per meeting. If you have a smaller troop you might consider charging more per girl per meeting. Let me tell you, the cost of crafting material adds up especially if your girls like crafts!

Also, it's good to note that once you start buying supplies, such as crayons, markers, pencils, etc, these items are reusable for future meetings as well. So, you might initially spend more to build a Girl Scouts materials supply but spend less later when you reuse materials. I purchased a rubbermaid bin to keep all of the Girl Scout materials separate from the rest of my supplies.

18 meetings x $12 = $216

Calculate the earned awards...

I purchased the Daisy petals pack, a membership pin, and one of the journey awards. I added these awards together and multiplied by how many girls I had in the troop...

For example, it would cost say... 12.50 per girl in badges and awards

$12.50 x 12 (girls) = $150...

Your troop total is up to $216 + $150 = $366

Then, add in the building rental of $21 the total would equal = $387

Divide the total spending budget for the troop by the number of girls you have and that would equal...

Total per girl = $387 / 12 girls = $32.35 per girl.

Now I don't particularly want to charge a girl $32 and some change, so I rounded up.

I would charge each girl between $33 and $35 in troop dues.

I would recommend collecting this up front as a whole or splitting it up into two payments.

Some people charge per month or per meeting.... I strongly discourage this method!! It was hard enough to collect one payment let alone several and in all honestly I personally would forget to pay them if I wasn't a troop leader myself. One or two payments is a lot easier for the parents to remember.

Moving Forward

Once you have developed a decent troop bank account and through fundraising programs, you can re-evaluate the troop dues for the following year. For many troops after the first year they rely solely on the fundraising programs to continue the troop bank account and some will continue to require troop dues. It's really up to you to decide. For our second year, I still charged troop dues but I lowered the cost because the girls did such a fantastic job with fundraising. I really wanted the money the girls earned in the fall product and cookie sales to go towards troop outings, so instead I needed to cover the remaining cost with some troop dues.

As you can see, troop dues is nothing glamorous and honestly I would recommend having a volunteer who handles the finances for you. It will make your job a lot easier and a heck of a lot more enjoyable.

XOXO, Katie

How to Survive Your First Year as a Girl Scout Troop Leader

Hello everyone! It's that time of year to get your troop meeting planning started. I remember just a year ago I was getting in contact with the membership specialist to see if there was a troop my daughter could join when I was encourage to be a troop leader. 

I was completely out of my element being a shy introvert who has a hard time with new social situations. I promise you I'm not stuck up or anything, it's just not something I comfortably do. Anyways, I thought that this might be a good opportunity for personal growth and not just my daughter, so I took the leap to really challenge myself. If you are reading this and thinking you can't be a troop leader because you are too shy or introverted then let me prove you wrong. Just remember you are doing this for your daughter.

Here are some of the things I've learned in my first year as a troop leader that will help any of you newbies out there. If you a seasoned leader please feel free to add any additional advise in the comments!

Plan ahead

When I first started out I dived right into the program. I looked through everything and reviewed the badges and journeys the girls could earn. I got myself the Girls Guide to Girl Scouting and made sure I understood the program. The Girls Guide has all the badges you can earn for that level. From there I did a rough plan of how the first year would go. Since we started off in Kindergarten I knew we had two full years to complete the Daisy program. Your planning might look different if you only have one year within that specific level. You will need to decide how often you want to meet. Our troop has at least 2 meetings a month. Here is an example of a sheet I made to plan out the year.--->>> Download

Keep in mind that you will need to be flexible with this plan as things change throughout the year but it's nice to have a basic layout. I changed this plan around several times but it was always a starting point for me that I could work off of.

Stay organized

Binders. folders. You will need lots. Girl Scouts loves their paperwork so you will need a place to keep all of this and a separate folder for the health forms that are required at each meeting. Don't forget about the finance binder. You will also need a system to keeping the petal badges organize. Here are some ideas to get you started...

• Financial and Forms Binder - keeps your finance tracking sheets, bank information, copies of important forms such as tax exempt letters, blank health history forms, permissions forms, ect.
• Health History Folder- contains all of your members (including adults) health history forms that must be present at each and every meeting and outing.
• Planning Binder - keeps your planning ideas, shopping lists, activity ideas..ect. You can also keep your meeting planning forms in here.
• PR and advertising binder - this is a little something I put together in case any parents have questions or if you are trying to present an idea to an outside organization for maybe fundraising purposes. I also like to keep information about registration and uniform requirements in this binder. This might be something that you can develop over the year as you probably wont be contacting business right away. Also, check with your council to see if they have a media kit you can use.

You will figure out which ideas work best for you and your troop but it's helpful to keep ideas and concepts separate that way you are not searching through a big binder for that one form.

Seek out help

This was a hard thing I had to learned as  I tend to take a lot on my own and generally don't accept too much help. It's probably the introvert in me not wanting to ask for the help even if it's offered. I was lucky to have a great group of parents always reaching out and asking if I need help. Lesson learned that I need to accept more help! Here are a list of roles parents can volunteer to take a load off....

• Troop Cookie Mom-this is an absolute must!
• Finance and treasury- can track your spending in a nice little package at the end of the year, helps organize forms, ect. Also helps with budgeting.
• Field Trips and Events-Organizing field trips can be a hassle.  Have someone else figure out the details. This works for any parties or special occasions too!
• Shopping mom-shops for the best deals on troop meeting supplies. Do you have an extreme couponer in the troop?
• Snack mom-Organizes a snack rotation and makes sure there aren't food allergies!

Scout Trax Tracking system

This puts any excel sheet you have ever seen to shame! It's like the super hero of excel. Download this baby for free and it keeps everything organized from the attendance of your meetings to the badges each girl earned.

Do what you can

• There will be your ups and downs. You will leave a meeting feeling like there was no take-away or disappointed with a dissatisfied parent. At the end of the day remember that you are a volunteer and you are doing the best you can.
• Also remember the age of the girls and keep in mind what your troop can handle. There were times when I set out to do an activity only to realize that the girls were too young or they were simply not engaged enough.
• Each troop has a different dynamic that you will have to get a feel for and see how and what interests the girls the most. That might mean you will need to through aside your leadership planning guides and be more open to other ideas. Pinterest is a big help for this!

Keep Calm and Girl Scout On!

It really is a ton of fun and it's even more beautiful getting to see your daughter grow! Good luck and you got this! Have a great first year!

xoxo, Katie

Google Forms and Girl Scout Troop Leading

Let's take a minute and talk about a little thing I recently discovered called

Google Forms

. I know my husband, an avid supporter of Google, will appreciate this post. I still can't believe it's taken me this long to figure this thing out!!!

Google Forms is a great tool to use with your troop planning. As a troop leader, I like to get feedback from the parents about the direction of the troop. I have a Shutterfly Sharesite for them to access and I am always trying to find better ways to communicate. For some, it's a struggle to get a parent to just respond if their Girl Scout will be attending a field trip let alone have them complete a year end survey on a website that needs a password.

Google Forms

can make your life a little easier. You can create forms/surveys and email them out to your troop. You can either share the link to the online survey or you can have the survey sent right to their inbox for them to complete. There is no real excuse why they can't do this. Some will fail at this too but it doesn't get any easier than this!

Here are some examples of ways you can use this feature...

Create a year end survey for the parents.

I ask questions such as...

1. How do you feel about the frequency of the meetings
2. How does the day and time of meetings work for you
3. What does your child enjoy most about the program
• Making friendships
• Arts and crafts
• Stem 
• Learning new things
• Badge earning
1. What do you or you child wish to do more of with this program
2. Are you comfortable with overnight troop camping?
3. Are you looking to volunteer?
4. What of expertise can you contribute to the troop
• First Aid and CPR
• Yoga
• Gardening
• Arts and Crafts
• ect

Event and field trip RSVP

1. Name (text option)
2. Will your child attend xxx field trip (choose from list is drop down option)
3. will you be able to volunteer and drive?
4. If so, how many people can you fit in your car?

Do you have any fun tips or tools you like to use for your troop? Please share in the comments. Sharing is caring!

Daisy Flower Garden Journey: Session 2

For more resources on the Daisy Flower Garden Journey check out previous sessions....

Session One

Session Two 

Session Three

Session Four 

Session Five and Take Action Project 

Garden Party

We are on our way through the flower garden journey! The girls were super excited to plant their seedlings last meeting and even more excited to see the little sprouts this week. This is session 2 of our journey through the daisy flower garden. Use this as a blue print or guide and alter as you see best fits your daisy troop!

Materials needed:

• Leadership guide (LG)
• Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden girl book (GB)
• Photocopies of pages 13 and 26 from GB (enough for each girl)
• black pipe cleaners (cut into 2 inch pieces)
• safety pins
• googly eyes
• mesh tulle in light yellow or white
• small yellow craft pom poms
• hot glue gun
• regular glue
• ink pad
• bubble wrap
• Garden Journal from session 1
• mini gardens from session 1
• crayons or other coloring tools
• watering can

Preparation before the meeting

Prepare the bee pins

I hot glued the pom poms together prior to the meeting. I tried to use regular glue at first and it didn't stick together very well. I didn't want the girls to be using the hot glue gun, which is why I prepared them ahead of time. For the bee body, I used three yellow pom poms.

Prepare the garden journals

I rubber cemented the photocopies of pages 13 and 26 from the GB into the garden journals for each girl.

Meeting outline

Start-up activity

Set out the garden journals and crayons on a table. As the girls arrive, have them complete page 13 from the GB that you previously glued into the garden journal.

Opening

• Gather in a Daisy Circle and recite the Girl Scout Promise and Law

• Have the girls go around in the Daisy Circle and share their page 13 from the garden journal. Make sure each girl gets a turn to share.

Recap and Read Chapter 2

Recap chapter 1 from the GB so the girls remember where you left off in the story. Read chapter 2. When you get to the part of the story where the girls find the buried box have your daisy scouts color page 26 from the GB in their garden journals. Follow up at the end of chapter 2 with questions to ensure they comprehend the story.

Bee pins

The girls loved making this little swap. Not that they had to swap them but it is a great idea for a swap. Prior to the meeting it will be helpful if you hot glue the yellow pom poms together as regular glue doesn't hold well.

How to...

1)

  Have the daisy scout wrap the black pipe cleaner around the pre-glued yellow bee body (pom poms) and the safety pin. If you wrap both the body and the pin together there is no need to glue the bee to the pin later

2)

Tie the yellow mesh tulle strip around the bee body to give a wing effect.

3)

Use regular glue to glue on the googly eyes.

There you go! Simple as that!

The girls can pin these to their vests as a remembrance of the helpful honey bee introduced in chapter 2!

Honeycomb Stamping

This is a fun little activity that the girls can do right in their garden journals. I used bubble wrap and an ink pad. You can cut the bubble wrap in the shape of a honeycomb. This is a great opportunity to explain the importance of bees in a garden. Some points I made sure to hit on are...

• Bees are very important in a garden.
• They help pollinate the plants so we have food
• They drink the nectar of the flowers to produce honey

The girls can even draw a bee of their own on this page if they have some time or you can give them bee stickers.

Mini Garden Care

Have each girl water their mini garden. Make sure you explain how we are being responsible for the plants by watering and caring for them.

In their garden journals, have the girls draw a picture of how their gardens plants are doing. You can do this on a new blank page. Make sure they record the date of their findings! Each meeting the girls can record how big their plants are getting so they can look back on the progress from the previous meeting.

We finished off the meeting with a closing ceremony and friendship circle and squeeze! If you would like to see what we did for the first session visit my post: 

Daisy Flower Garden Journey: Session 1!

Don't forget to follow along for more Flower Garden Journey sessions!

Daisy Flower Garden Journey: Session 1

For more resources on the Daisy Flower Garden Journey check out previous sessions....

Session One

Session Two 

Session Three

Session Four 

Session Five and Take Action Project 

Garden Party

An Introduction into the Daisy Flower Garden Journey

We recently started our adventure with the Daisy Flower Garden Journey. Its part of the national Girl Scouts program for daisy scouts. I was really excited to start this journey as I love gardening and thought the spring time would be a perfect introduction. Since we are already several months into the program and have earned several of our petal badges and nearly mastered the Girl Scout law and promise, I didn't follow the leadership guide exactly as planned. If you are just starting out with first time daisies, the leadership guide would be a great start as it introduces the promise and law.

When I first started my planning for this journey I read through the "How to Guide" first and then the girl's book "Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden". Each chapter of the girls book is to align with a session or meeting and concluding the journey at session 6. Don't be afraid to alter this depending upon your goals for the troop. If you need to extend this out that is perfectly fine. 

Before the first meeting

Preparation is very important for the first meeting. There are many supplies you may need to purchase. I wanted the girls to have a field journal throughout this journey to record everything and have something to look back on as a keepsake. This required me to print and copy pages from the Girl book (GB) and paste them into each journal a head of time. Read on to the Field Journal section on how to pre-assemble.

Materials

• Leadership How To Guide (LG)
• "Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden" book (GB)
• Potting soil
• seeds ( basil and assorted flowers)
• garden shovel
• garden gloves
• small gardening pots (one for each girl) I found these from the Dollar Store in sets of 2.
• tray or storage container to carry the pots
• Seed starter kit (like this one)
• composition notebooks (one for each girl) Purchased from the Dollar Store.
• rubber cement
• crayons or other coloring utensils
• photocopies for each girl of ... GB pg. 8,9,10,12   Optional pgs. 11,13

Here is how I broke down the first session.

Start-up activity: 

As the girls arrived, they completed page 9 (from GB) in their field journals. Make sure all the girls complete this page as you will be sharing during the group discussion.

Flower Garden Field Journal

Prior to the meeting put together the field journals by pasting in the photocopies of the pages from the girl book (GB pgs. 8, 9, 10 ,12) with rubber cement. I like using rubber cement because it doesn't crinkle the pages and dries fast. I used a new page for each photocopy. I just glued to the front of each notebook page, not the back. 

*Note: I started with Page 9 first and then followed with the girls bios. (ex. 9, 8, 10, 12)

I explained to the girls that I would be keeping these journals between sessions. This ensures that each girl has a notebook for every meeting and if I need to do any preparation between meetings I have them available.

GB pg. 9

GB pg. 10

Opening:

• Form a Daisy Circle and practice the Girl Scout Promise and Law. 
• Have each girl share what they wrote and colored from the start-up activity (GB pg. 9). 
• Explain what the Garden Journey is and what the girls can expect for the first session and the rest of the Journey. I took this time to explain about the Take Action Project.

Introduce Daisy Journey Girls

Introduce the girl characters by reading the short bios of each one. As you read through each one have the girls color the page in their Field Journal (pages 8, 10, 12). After you read each one, do a recap. Ask questions like "where are they from" and "what do they like to do".

Garden Story Time

Read the first chapter of the Garden story (GB pg. 17). Recap the story at the end and follow up with some questions about the story. You can also reference the questions from the LG on page 41.

Mini Garden Planting

You can start by having the girls decorate their own pot or use a permanent marker and write their names on the bottom of the pots. Start an assembly line by filling the pots with dirt about 3/4 of the way to the top. We used basil as it's pretty easy to maintain and doesn't require replanting. Have the girls plant their own seeds and lightly cover with some soil. 

Next, have a small watering can for the girls to water their seedlings. Have a long container or tray for the girls to place their pots in when they are finished. This will help in transporting the flower pots to each meeting. I explained to the girls that I would be keeping the basil pots for the journey and bring them to each meeting. The girls will be allowed to take home their basil pots at the completion of the journey. This ensures that each pot is brought to each meeting and no girl is left out.

I also had a separate seed starter going for the flower seedlings. I explained to the girls this was in preparation for their take action project where they will plant a community garden with the flowers they start today. Several meetings previously the girls had voted on what they wanted to plant and agreed upon flowers. I wanted to make sure this was still an option for them.

You can use a seed starter like this one.. Seed starter kit (like this one )

Daisy Game, Garden-Style

Refer to page 44 in the LB. Have the girls get in a circle and talk about the different critters you find in your community and garden. Explain that the girls will be the critters that live in a garden. This game takes about 5-10 minutes and is a great way to conclude the meeting and get the wiggles out!

Closing Ceremony and Friendship Squeeze

Found on page 45 of LB.

I hope this helps you in your planning and encourages you to think outside of the box. Don't be afraid to do something different from the program to best suit your troop and the needs of your girls! Don't forget to check back for more updates and ideas for the remaining sessions of the Daisy Flower Garden Journey!

World Thinking Day preparation - Mexico

I was super excited about this year's World Thinking Day festivities that our council had arranged. In preparation for World Thinking Day, I wanted the girls to really dive into the culture of the country we were hosting. The Girl Scout meeting prior to the event had a three station rotation where each girl contributed to our preparations.

Our Country

Mexico

Table Display

Station 1

Prior to the preparation meeting the girls were assigned a certain topic for Mexico. They had to do a little research and bring any artifacts to the meeting. Some girls researched games, food, music, cultural attire, arts and crafts, population and geographical statistics. This was a great opportunity for the girls to take accountability and ownership of their display.

At the meeting we created our display poster and glued on the pictures that the girls brought.

Recipe

The second station the girls got the opportunity to make a Mexican recipe. We made traditional guacamole.

Ingredients

1 Avocado

1/4 cup minced red onion

1 tablespoon minced garlic

2 tablespoon minced jalapeno

1 cup diced tomato

half of a lime squeeze of juice

3 tablespoons of finely chopped cilantro

Mix all the ingredients together and enjoy with chips or on a taco!

Craft

If you notice in the table display picture, you can see the Mexican Sun craft the girls did as part of the last station. We used paper plates, paint, construction paper. They decorated their own versions of the sun art. It turned out great!

Here is a link to the Merry Mexican Suns the girls tried to recreate: 

here

For the girls hard work and preparation they were also able to earn the

Vi petal

badge by

Being A Sister To Every Girl Scout!

Did your troop or council do something special to celebrate World Thinking Day? Please leave a link in the comments so we can all share each others ideas!

Girl Scout Daisy Meeting: Sunny Petal Friendly and Helpful Badge

Here are the three activities our troop did to earn their Sunny Petal. Our meetings last an hour and with the traditional meeting set up (Opening, Business, Activity time, and Closing) you can easily fit these activities in.

Activity 1:

Read the Sunny story

and follow up with discussion questions found in the GS book.

You can also have the girls act out the story for more engagement.

Activity 2: Friendly Greetings!

Use flash cards with different greetings from all over the world. Teach each greeting to the girls and have them repeat back and guess which country or location.

Greetings that we used

Hello

Namaste

Jambo

Bon Jour

Hola

Ni Hao

Guten tag

Activity 3: Pine cone bird feeder project

Give each girl a pine cone and have then create their own bird feeders with peanut butter and bird seed!

*for those with peanut allergies have them use honey instead.

Supplies:

One pine cone for each girl

One spoon for each girl

One piece of yarn or heavy duty string for each girl about a foot long

Plate

Plastic baggies for the girls to take their project home

First, tie the string on to each pine cone. If you don't do this first, there will be a big ol mess later.

Use the spoon to coat each pine cone with a decent amount of peanut butter. Make sure to get between the crevices.

In a separate dish, roll the peanut butter coated pine cone in the bird seed. Be generous with the amount of bird seed you use. Set it aside to harden or place it right in the take home baggie.

Other ideas..

Volunteer at a retirement home or animal shelter.

Meet with another troop and do an activity so the girls have the opportunity to meet with girls they haven't met before and show their friendly side.

Kaper Charts!

This is a great opportunity to introduce kaper charts and have the girls take ownership and help out with each meeting.

Overall, the girls really LOVED the bird feeder activity. I have found with my rowdy troop of 12 girls, the more hands on activities the better!

Happy planning troop leaders!