First Field Trip - Fall Festival

First Field Trip- Fall Festival

Last week on October 2012

 

First Field Trip: Fall Festival

3:50        Meet in Parking Lot and give out bracelets, find buddies

4:00        Enter Park

4:05        Daisy Promise in circle and all around

4:10       Nature hunt, ABC, and gathering

4:25        Crafts

4:40        S’mores

4:55        Head to Hayride

5:00        Hayride (garden animals)

5:30        Slides

5:50        Gather for circle, give out patches, ask to be honest all week, remind about homework, sing Daisy song

6:00        Pick up

 

For our First Field Trip we went to a local “Fall Festival.”  There are a ton of these in our area.  It’s huge.  We chose not to do the most popular one with all the awesome attractions, but instead went to a quiet place with lots of woods and nature to explore and pick your own pumpkins.  There were a few things that I was able to tie in with the Garden Journey.

Looking back now, it was one of our least educational and most expensive field strips ($9/person.  The girls were paid out of dues.  This was a significant chunk so early in the year).  But it was a lot of fun and a nice, comfortable way to ease the girls into field trips.

 

Recommendations for 1^st ever field trip

(To ensure they’ll come again)

1. Make sure it’s close to home.  We didn’t even have to car pool, which was great because that can be anxiety provoking for parents until they get to know you).
2. Invite all the parents to come if they’d like (we invited siblings at the group rate as well).
3. It’s gotta be fun, so the girls want to go again.  I wouldn’t bring them anywhere where they really have to be quiet this first time (unless your girls are much older).
4. Make sure the moms know ahead of time what they are doing and exactly what their job was.  (This we didn’t do until much later in the year.  We learned the hard way).
5. If one of the girls has older girl scout sisters, have them come along and ask them to bring their song book for down times.  (Life saver for waiting)

Don’t get me wrong.  This experience was far from perfect.  The girls had trouble staying with their buddies and in some cases accepting their buddies.  Girl’s acting different because their moms were three and often clung too much.  I was overly ambitious with crafts and I wouldn’t do them at all on the first trip if I had it to do again.

Overall,I felt scattered and overwhelmed during much of the trip and exhausted but satisfied at the end.  All the girls left with smiles on their faces.  Need to keep reminding the OCD that that’s all that matters.

 

Daisy Circle

We did this formally this first time with the promise.  Can’t say I remember a time that we did it again during a field trip.  Normally now it’s, “Make sure you have all your stuff, grab your buddies hand and line up.” 

Nature Hunt and ABCs

This is straight out of the Leaders Guide to the Garden Journey page 47.  Had the girls run through a wooded area and burn of energy while looking for things that started with the first letter of the alphabet.  I think we only got about half- two-thirds of the way through the alphabet, but that was fine.  Biggest problem was probably that the girls were shyer with their moms there and less likely to call out answers, waiting for the moms to help them.

Also I’m sure this game would go better in the spring or summer when there are more options.  The fall was pretty though.

We also had the girls gather leaves, seeds and other natural things from the ground for the craft project.  The two things at once were probably too much.  Next time, I’d do one then the other or just pick one.

Craft Projects

We had two (yeah, first mistake)

1. Simple wreathe.  Paper plate with a hole cut in the middle, Elmer’s glue, and anything the girls found on the ground that they wanted to glue on.  Then as they were winding down, bring out a little glitter and they were excited again.   

    We should have just stuck with this.

2. Acorn necklace:  I saw this on the internet and just had to try it.  It was a disaster.  Way too small and delicate for this age group.  Honestly, I couldn’t even make one that looked right.  I don’t think I’d do it again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Cute, but never again

 

S’Mores

          

The place we were had a nice fire pit that allowed the girls to try out s’mores for the first time.  They enjoyed it, even if many of the girls ate them deconstructed. 

 

Hayride and Pumpkin Patch and Free Time

While waiting for the hayride my co-leader’s cadette daughter came in handy leading the girls in rousing call-and-response songs. 

On the hayride I asked the girls to make the sounds of the different animals they saw (there are cardboard cutouts around the farm).  This was modified from something I read in the leader’s guide, though at the moment I can’t figure out what.  But they really liked doing it and trying to be the first one to call out the sound. 

After the pumpkin picking the girls were allowed to go play on the slides and playground equipment as long as an adult was within sight at all time.  This was probably their favorite part and there was no way they could have done anything structured at this point anyway.

Closing Circle

Again, we didn’t do this often, but it worked well here.  We reminded the girls about their homework and gave out goodie bags that included their fun patch and some Halloween treats.