Daisy Scout Meeting Eight

First week in February 2013

Goal and Badges:        

Begin working on Orange "Responsible for Myself and Others" Petal.  

* * * * * * *

Arrival:   Gathering- Paint Petals

       Paint Bags

4:15                      Daisy Circle- Daisy Promise

‘Round the Daisy Circle with favorite part of field trip
               Water team garden

4:30                      Snack and read Mari’s story/explain piggies

4:45                      Popcorn/promise game

                           

5:00                      Make Mari/

                              Make poster daisies

5:10                      Switch

5:20                      Final Daisy Song in Circle

                              Friendship squeeze

                              Hand out Zinkies

                              Be responsible for worksheets (grab folders)

* * * * * * *

Gathering Activities

Mari Petals

My Mari was one of the flowers that required painting and we always tried to add the painting part to the Gathering so the pieces would be dry enough to work with by the time we worked on the flower. If you're going to try it that way I would recommend always giving the girls paper plates with their names on them so you can tell the flower pieces apart without the girls needing to write on all the little pieces (and ruin them).

I'll put the instructions for Mari all together down further in the blog.

Team bags

As part of this petal we decided we wanted the girls to become more responsible for their stuff at meetings and their handouts (Instead of the chaos that often happened at the end of meeting with moms and dads scrambling to find everything they need.)

We decided to have the girls make their own tote bag and folder then make it routine to get it at the end of the meeting to put their things in. The folders they had made at the end of the last meeting. For the bags, I found a kit from Oriental Trading that included 12 plain linen cream-colored bags, just big enough to fit a binder in, a set of fabric markers, 4 sets of fabric paint pens and foam letters. Oriental trading link.

We saved the foam letters for a different project since neither of us leaders had faith they would stay on the bags. Before the meeting, I used the markers to write the girl's name and the troop number on one side then we laid the bags out so they could decorate the other side any way they wanted. Because of the amount of time it takes for fabric paint to dry they could only decorate one side. Also, I wrote the girls names because I wanted to make sure it was legible (We still had quite a few 5 year olds at this point)

My Daughter's finished bag

Daisy Circle:

The Promise Leader led the Promise and then we went around the circle saying what they liked best about the last field trip.  Then we watered the team garden.

Snack and Story time

After handing out snacks we read the Mari story and talked about what being responsible meant.

Piggy Bank Pledge

This was mostly a take home project.  Basically, we explained to the girls that they were taking home their piggy banks and a list of chores and they were to talk to their parents about what they would take responsibility for in their household over the next couple of months.  From this they would earn money for their piggy bank and bring it in at the end of the spring when we were doing "Make the World a Better Place" and the money would be donated to the charity of their choice.  My girls wanted to donate it to an animal shelter.


Popcorn Promise Game

For this game we used a parachute and bunch of light balls (the kind you use in a ball pit). The inspiration came from the girls always asking to play "popcorn" with our parachute. This is where you put all the balls in the middle and everyone takes a piece of the parachute and shakes vigorously making the "popcorn" pop like mad.

This creates a huge mess and my kids never want to pick up all the balls. So for this game the girls got to play popcorn, but after they had to make a "promise" to get a certain number of a certain color balls and bring them back to the bag. Then they had make good on their promise. Repeat until the room is cleaned. One or two girls whined that it was just cleaning up but the room was clean in no time. Overall, they enjoyed it and we burned up a little energy.

 

Parachute and balls for game

Make Mari the Marigold (half of the girls at a time)

For this one I used orange construction paper instead of cardstock.  I was hoping the paper would dry crinkly on the edges to look like marigolds.  Didn't work out that way, but I still think construction paper is a better effect.

My Mari

 

Supplies:

1.  Real Pictures of marigolds
2.  Orange construction paper
3.  Marigold template into three different sized flowers

Template for flowers

4.  Yellow paint
5.  Dixie cups
6.  Green cardstock or construction paper 
7.  Scalloped scissors
8.  Green pipe cleaners, 2 per girl, cut
9.  Glue
10.  Stapler
11.  Googly eyes
12.  Red and/or pink sharpies
13.  Small paper plates


Steps:
Pre-meeting
1.  Cut out at least three marigolds per girl in 3 different sizes
2.  Cut out leaves. Take a piece of green paper and cut into three long strips (different widths) then use a scalloped scissor to cut dozens of crescent shapes.  This should be fast and organic so they don't have to look exactly the same.
3.  Cut Pipe-cleaners.  Each girl should have, approximately, one pipe cleaner cut into 2/3 and 1/3 pieces and one cut into 1/3 lengths. (5 pieces total)
4.  Cut down 1-2 Dixie cups and add 1/3 yellow paint to 2/3 water and mix 
 

Watered down paint

Gathering
1.  Each girl gets a paper plate with their name on it and 3 different sized flowers.
2.  Dip the petals in thinned yellow paint to coat just the edges.
3.  Place them back on plates and set aside to dry.

Later in meeting
1.  Pass around pictures of real marigolds.

2.  Girls glue, then adults staple stems
3.  Glue on flowers largest to smallest
4.  Glue on leaves
5.  Glue on eyes
6.  Draw on mouth

One of the girl's Maris.  (Dot on forehead is a ladybug sequin we had added later).

Make Poster Daisies for Booth Sales (half of the girls at a time)

Remember the disastrous attempt at cookie posters a few posts back?  The one where we let the girls decorate as they wanted to and the posters were a mess and there was no way anyone could read them from the street? Well, they were just not going to work.

However, we didn't want the posters to look like they were made by OCD moms and not the girls, so we came up with this idea.  We had each girl create two flowers: one with copied words or a phrase about something we want to use our money on and one with a drawing of something they love about girl scouts.  We then pasted the flowers on daisy blue poster-board and used the left over foam stickers from the bags to tie it all together.


Supplies
1.  Poster board (we needed 2 for 8 girls)
2.  Flower Template

3.  Construction paper in various colors
4.  Glue sticks
5.  Colored pencils
6.  Sharpies
7.  Foam or/and paper letters
 
Steps
Pre-meeting Prep
1.  Cut out enough flowers from construction paper.
2.  Decide what the troop wants to use the money on (from previous discussions) and write enough for each girl on small pieces of paper for them to pull from a hat.

At Meeting
1.  Distribute one flower per girl and let them pick a phrase from the hat (examples:"Field Trips", "Journey books," "help the animals," "craft supplies," etc).
2.  Have them copy the phrase in sharpie on one flower.
3.  Distribute second flower, let the girls draw whatever they love about daisy scouts on that one.

After meeting
1.  Glue on flowers.
2.  Write "Buy Cookies" or some such in premade letters and let your own daughter stick them down.

Finished Posters

Closing Circle: 

This closing circle was a little more complicated than most.  After the friendship squeeze, we had the girls go get their folders (the bags weren't dry yet) and sit back in the circle.  We explained to them that from now on they were responsible for getting their bags and folders and putting their things inside.  We gave out their patches from last time (the leaves and bank patch) and the Marigold handout.  Then we gave them the Piggy instructions and reminded them to bring home their piggy bank.

Last we had them calm down (for some reason my girls are always excited and wound up at this point) and explained to them their final Responsibility project: the Zinkie Project.

Zinkie Project

Zinkies are itty bitty little plastic animals that come in plastic bubbles.  I happened to have an extra set left over from Christmas.  If you do this, I recommend using the Squinkies which are still small but not quite so itty bitty. 

We handed out Zinkies attached to cards and told the girls that their Zinkie was their responsibility until the next meeting.  They were to name the Zinkie and promise to take care of it.

There was one objective:  Don't loose your Zinkie!  Nothing else was required.  All they needed to do was bring it back to the next meeting.  Moms were told that this was the objective, but they were also instructed not to hide the Zinkie and to let the girls take charge.  It was an interesting experiment.  (Outcome in next blog, to come out when I get a break from Girl Scout camp craziness).

Zinkies and Zinkie Cards.  Purple Squinkie on left for comparison.

Homework/Handouts:
  

Mari Handout

Handout explaining projects to mothers.

Note on Cookie Sales:

At this point we were pretty heavily into cookie sales behind the scenes, but the idea of getting into it feels overwhelming and, also, there are so many more awesome cookie moms out their with great blogs.  We did our best but it was our first year.  Unlike Journeys, cookie sales have been going on for generations. 

Point of this ramble ... I think I'll do a single post with all our behind the scenes cookie dealings later in the timeline.  It might not be sage wisdom, but hopefully it will be interesting to other newbies.