Garden Field Trip

This may have been my favorite field trip from that first year.  Looking back, it was very likely completely unnecessary.  We didn't earn another Petal and while it reinforced a bunch of things from the Journey it wasn't needed in our already busy schedule.  That being said it was awesome and I'm so glad we went.  The grounds at Green Spring Gardens are beautiful.  The day was gorgeous and the tour guide spectacular.

We only had about half our girls show up (there were a few last minute emergencies) but the girls that went had a great time.  We also created a worm composting bin and the worms are still, miraculously, alive in my garage.

Green Springs Gardens Field Trip

Early May

Green Spring Garden Horticulture Center

Goals and Badges:

As I said, this wasn't a field trip that we needed for anything.  Technically, it would have been part of their Bumble Bee patch for the Garden Journey, but they had already earned that.  We did read the 5th chapter from the Journey Book.   It also fed into our last two petals, "Use Resources Wisely" and "Make the World a Better Place" as well.  

*******

                10:30am       Drop off/gathering

                10:45           Drive to Green Spring Garden

                11:30           Arrive 

                11:45           Lunch and read from Journey Book

                 12:30          Tour/activity

                 2:00            Pack up to head home

                 3:00           Arrive back at my house

*******

Hand Out for this field trip

Email about Field Trip:

The Sunday May 5 Trip to Spring Gardens will start at my house at 10:30 (that’s 30 minutes earlier than previously announced.  It’s a long drive and we want to make sure we get there on time.)  We plan to be back around 3:15, but leave me a number to text you when we get home and you won’t have to wait in my driveway.

Like the last field trip please bring/remember:

1. Be in full Daisy uniform
2. Wear sneakers, we’ll be out in the grounds
3. Bring/wear a light coat or jacket, we’ll be outside a lot
4. Bring a packed lunch for before the tour. 
5. Bring a water bottle instead of a drink box or pouch, big enough to last the whole trip. It can have any drink, doesn't have to be water.
6. Give them breakfast before, lunch will be between 12 and 12:30.
7. Bring a backpack to keep your lunch and jacket in. The girls are responsible for carrying their own stuff. The chaperones will no longer carry bags and jackets!

K____ will send out a message with the permission slip attached.  Try to have it for Friday.  Thanks.  

Gathering

I'm sure we had a Gathering Activity, we always did, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was.  Oh well.  I do remember the drive being a bit of a hike and making a few wrong turns on the way.

Lunch and Story Time

When we arrived we were immediately impressed by the Gardens.  We walked around a bit until we found a set of picnic tables behind the Horticulture Center where we were to meet our tour guide.  Everyone had a packed lunchbox and water bottle.  We had the girls eat while my co-leader read them chapter 5 in the Journey Book.  It was about worm composting so that was apropos.

Chapter 5

Their picnic

After lunch, we let the kids play in the garden until our tour guide arrived.

View of Horticulture Center from the back.

Garden Program

We had a lovely woman, who was very good with with this age group, as a tour guide.  First, she taught the girls all about worm composting and we made our own composting bin to take home.  She then had a recycling game to help teach the girls about what to feed the worms and what to recycle.  Finally, she took us on a long walk through the woods, around the pond, and over the grounds.

Garden and patio we worked in.

Worm Composting

I'm far from a worm composting expert, but as I understand it, we made the simplest form of a compost bin.  Considering I still have it, alive and functioning, in my garage a year later with minimal effort on my part I can definitely recommend this method.  It's easily something you can do in the backyard, alone, or with your troop.

Supplies for composting:

1. A medium size plastic container with a lid and air holes drilled in about 2 inches from the top.

2. Red wiggler worms (earthworms from the backyard will not work.) You can order them from amazon or get them from a friend who composts.

3.  Wet newspaper.

4.  Organic material for food.

5.  Dirt.

( This is where you would most likely get a whole lot more detail if this wasn't a year later, but I'll do my best. ) Our tour guide had the girls soak and wring out newspaper, then tear it into shreds to lay down a layer of bedding in the container.  The container was placed under a table so the sun didn't dry it out.

Preparing the newspaper

Looking in the "parent" worm bin in the shade

Then our guide added dirt and the girls mixed it all up.

Adding dirt

Mixing

Then came handfuls of her already created compost from the "parent bin," along with the worms.  We were surprised at how good all the girls were with handling the worms.  It was pretty cool. 

Each of the girls with a red wiggler

Red wiggler worm

After that, the girls added old veggies and another layer of bedding then we sealed the bin up and took it home.  See the afterword for the wormery today.  

Here's a good website that has more accurate info than me:  

http://www.planetnatural.com/composting-101/vermicomposting/

Recycling game

I could tell our tour guide understood little girls by her next activity.  She had two of the moms stand at the end of a long walkway in the garden, one carrying a recycling bin and one a "compost bin."  On the other end was a pile of various toy foods and recyclables.  The object of the game was for the girls to run the toys to the other end of the garden to sort the pile.  There were some trick foods, like meats and things (plastic of course), that they were supposed to leave behind.

Moms doing their part

Girls enjoying the recycling game

Objects they sorted

Walk around the grounds

The last thing we did was take a hike around the grounds.  Our tour guide took us down a path, through the woods, around the pond, and through the flower gardens, talking to the girls about the various flowers and wildlife along the way.

Start of the tour

Creek in the woods

Geese by the pond

Turtles in the pond

Goslings

Pond

The final stretch back across the lawn to the Horticulture Center

Enjoying the day

Afterword:  Worm Compost 14 months later.

These worms have lived on a shelf in my garage for 14 months.  I'm amazed that they are still alive.  I didn't touch them for almost three months in the middle of the winter (and it was a terrible winter), partially because of forgetfulness and partially because I didn't want to let the cold air in.  I think they survived because the composting keeps it warmer in the bin and because without food they went into a kind of hibernation.

Wormery in my garage

Inside of the bin after 14 months

As I'm writing this I'm inspired to actually harvest the worm casings for the first time.  It was supposed to be done 6 months after the bin was started, but that would have been December and that wasn't happening.   I did scoop out some castings and mix it with dirt in April when the troop was doing some planting, but didn't do a full harvest until now.

According to the directions I found on the website I listed, I pulled out the partially digested food and pushed the rest to one side.

Worms and casings to the left

I poured out the liquid fertilizer "worm juice" into a bowl and used it to water my pumpkins.  

"worm juice" that got poured on my pumpkins 

Worm

Worm again

Then I put new bedding and food on the clean side.  I didn't have a lot of rotten veggies so most of the food I added was weeds from my flower beds.

Set up to lure the worms out of the casings to harvest easier

Now back on the shelf for two weeks and hopefully all the worms will have moved to the clean side of the wormery.

Two weeks Later:

In the next two weeks, we added some strawberry tops and banana peals to the food side of the bin.  When it was time to harvest it was looking pretty gross.  Lots of worm casings.  Neither of my kids would come near it.  There's an unpleasant smell but it is very mild.  

Bin after opening two weeks later (yuck!)

I got out a pair of garden gloves and scooped out the casings, trying my best to keep as many worms as I could out of the fertilizer.  I was shocked at how many worms there were.  I'd say a minimum of  50, but there could have been as many as 100.  I don't think we started with more than 10.  

Harvested casings

After I filled up a sand bucket (it took maybe ten minutes) I still had casings left in the bin but they were so packed with worms it was hard to separate any more out, so I just spread the remains back over the bottom of the bin and added more food.

Cleaned out bin, with worms and new food.

Then came a nice thick layer of new "bedding" (aka wet newspaper).  There was a good chance I wouldn't be doing much more with these little guys for the next month or more.  And then the bin went back on the shelf in the garage.

New bedding

The casings I brought to the backyard.  After the big garden from last year we decided to plant a simple pumpkin patch, but we did have a few hitchhiker tomato plants grow on their own from last years squashed tomatoes.

Pumpkins and tomatoes ready for fertilizer

The fertilizer would have probably done more good at planting, but it was too late so I packed it around the roots,

Fertilizer added

then watered the garden.  

"Before" Garden

And done.  For now.  :)

First Email to Parents and Troop Rules

So, I had a lot of requests for these emails and at first I kept up with them but I've gotten way behind, so I'm finally doing what my co-leader suggested I do months ago and just post them.  It's weird looking at them because we sent them out a year and half ago and things have changed.   But this is what we started with as first year daisies:

First Email to Parents:

Dear Parents,

We are happy to invite you to join our new Daisy Scout Troop!  My name is Stacy and my good friend K and I will be co-leading.  My daughter is a kindergartener at _____ Elementary, and K’s daughter is a first grader at ________ Elementary School, so this will be a mixed troop.  Our goal is to have eight girls.

If you would like to join or troop we will be meeting from 4:00-5:30 pm every 1^st and 3^rd Friday at my house.  We are having a Family Meeting September 21 at 6 pm to meet everyone and sign paperwork.  The meetings will start on Friday, Oct 5, and if you decide to join I will send you our tentative schedule for the year. 

We also plan to have monthly field trips on Saturdays or Sundays (Sundays will be mostly during soccer season).  Our first field trip will be Apple Picking on Sunday October 28 to Mark Miller Farm in Winchester from 1-5:30.  Most of our field trips will not be this long or far away. 

We need families who are committed to coming to the meetings since this will be a small troop and we plan to be moving at a strong pace.  We want the girls to earn a petal or a patch at almost every meeting.  The meetings will be held in or near my kitchen which is not nut free, so if your child has a dangerous nut allergy this may not be the right troop for them.  We plan to have a very active and interactive group. If you are not interested in the weekend field trips please wait for another troop.  As a small troop we want the majority of girl’s at all events.

We will also need parent involvement.  We will need a female chaperone for each field trip.  We are asking all the parents to rotate “hosting” meetings, which means bringing a snack and hanging out during the meeting to help if needed.   For meetings, moms and dads are welcome (dads are welcome on field trips as well, but because of regulations we’ll need 3 adult females if all the girls want to go).  We’re also looking for moms interested in being Cookie Mom or our Troop Money Manager.

K and I have decided to purchase everything the girl’s will need to get started and hand it out at the first meeting.  We’ll expect each girl to come with $90.  For this we will register the Daisy, one of her parents (a parent needs to be a member of girl scouts to help out), the Blue Daisy Vest (we’ll have them at the family meeting for the girls’ to try on for size), all the petals and pins they will need to get started, and all of our crafts, activities, and field trips through the end of the year.  Hopefully after that, fund raising will start to pay for everything.  We are not requiring the girls to purchase the Daisy Handbook, but you may want to.  We’ll have one available to look at the meeting and if you want we can purchase a copy of that for your daughter as well.  It’s $22.50.

Please know that if you don’t think we are the troop for you and you turn us down now you will keep your spot at the top of the waiting list, but if you join the troop and then want to switch you will be placed at the bottom.

If you decide to join our Troop we promise an exciting adventure that is both fun and character building.  Please let us know as soon as possible if we seem like the troop for you.  We’re so excited to meet you and get started!

Thank you,

Stacy & K

Troop Rules

It looks like I over wrote out initial troop rules and these were the ones I put together before our second year, so you'll see the curriculum and books I've mentioned are what we did in Fall of 2013 when we had both Daisy 2 and Brownies.

Troop 000

Daisy Troop 000 is a small mixed group Daisy Troop with Kindergarteners and First Graders from ____________Elementary School, ____________  Elementary School and ____________Elementary School. 

Meeting Place: All regular meetings, including the Family meeting with be at Stacy’s house:

            XXXXXX

            XXXXXX, VA 55555

(I do have two small dogs.  I’m going to try to keep them in the basement for meetings, but they may get out so please warn your girls not to try to pick them up.  They look like cuddly, friendly teddy bears, but they bite if they get scared or have had too much.)  We will usually be on the main floor, but some activities may be outside.

Meeting Times:  Regular Meetings will be 4-5:30pm on the First and Third Fridays of every month.  Please be on time or early as we have a lot to do. 

Uniform: The Blue Daisy Vest or Brown Brownie Vest and patches/pins, Khaki bottoms (pants, shorts, skirt) and a white shirt should be worn at every meeting, field trip or event. If you would like to buy the official Daisy or Brownie skirt, leggings or shirt be our guest, but they are rather expensive.

Badges:  This Fall the Diasies will be working on Their Animal Journey Badges (and will get other fun patches along the way).  The Brownies will be working on 6 different Badges that either work well with the journey or that our current girls have chosen.  They incluse: Painting, dancer, My Best Self, Hiking, Snacks, and the Daisy Way. 

Books:  The Daisies will be using The Daisy Handbook and 5 Flowers, 4 Stories, 3 Cheers for Animals Journey Book.  The Brownies will need the Brownie Handbook and all three badge supplement packs. 

Dues:  We earned a ton of money last year in cookies and fall sales, but we also spent almost all of it with our many field trips, activities and badges.  We are asking for $100 from daisies and $115 from Brownies for the girl’s registration, mom’s registration, badges, vest, books, craft supplies and most field trips.

Field Trips:  Outside the two meetings a week we will be planning a monthly field trip (Usually the second weekend).  Depending on the logistics it might be Friday, Saturday or Sunday.  We would like the girls to attend as many of these as possible, as they will be a very important part of the experience.  If all the girls attend we will need at least one other female chaperone.  There are extensive rules for male chaperones and while we welcome them as the fourth etc, we need three adult, registered female girl scouts on all trips. 

Snacks:  We are requiring that every family take turns “hosting” or bringing snacks, plats, cups, etc for each meeting.  Girl scouts very much emphasizes healthy snacks, so keep that in find when your turn comes.  Also, we’d like to avoid prepackaged snacks because we will use snack time to emphasize sharing and being fair and the small packages are just too easy.  There will be times when a specific snack ties in with an activity so we might ask you to get that.

Fund Raisers:   We do plan on having all the girls participate in Cookie Sales after the new year, including booth sales.  We will also participate, more casually, in a Fall Fund Raiser that sells magazines and Candy/Nuts. 

Absences:  We expect all the kids to be sick at some point this year and miss a meeting.  Since we will be earning patches at most meetings, if a girl is out we will get you a packet of things to do at home so they can still earn their badges with the rest of the girls.

We hope to have a wonderful, fun filled year!

Mommy Rules:

While I'm posting rules, I might as well post the set that we instituted these year for field trips and camp outs.  They've been invaluable and I often have parents quoting the "Mommy Rules" to the girls.  

The Mommy Rules

Troop 000

1.     Mommies do not carry a girl’s scouts stuff on field trips and events

2.     Mommies do not carry girl scouts

3.     When mommies are at meetings they do sit in the Girl Scout circle.  Girl Scouts do not sit on their laps (they may sit next to them).

4.     Mommies do not clean up the girl scouts’ mess (unless specifically asked by the leaders because we are running behind).

5.     Ms Stacy and Ms K are in charge, if they tell you to do something do not go to mommy to get an answer you like better.

6.     When mommies are at meetings they will be given jobs, girl scouts will not leave what they are supposed to be doing to go bother their mommy.

7.     Crafts at Girl Scout meetings are designed so the girls can do them mostly by themselves.  Mommy’s can help by using the stapler, opening glue bottles, and pouring paint, but they will not do a girl scout’s project for them.

8.     Ms Stacy and Ms K are in charge but all Mommies are to be respected at all times.  They are allowed and asked to tell any girl scout if they are misbehaving and all girl scouts are expected to listen.

Hope this helps.  I'll try to get out more blogs.  It's just been a crazy busy year.

Using Resources Wisely Field Trip

I Saturday in late April  2013


On researching Field Trips I learned that many local parks and historical sites offer programs to complete badges.  There are a ton of options for older girls, but we were able to find two that we liked to complete our last two petals.  This one wasn't my favorite, but at $5 a girl it was an affordable and interesting way to earn their Using Resources Wisely Patch.  The grounds were beautiful and it was definately  different from anything else we had done before.

Handout we sent home with girls two weeks before the Field trip

Goal and Badges:        

We did everything we needed to do to earn the Green "Using Resources Wisely" badge, though we did a few small things in the next two meetings to finish up the lesson.  We also wanted to get fun patches from Sully Historical Site, but they were $5.  Ugh.  Way to rich for even our indulgent blood.

* * * * * * *

Sully Field Trip Itinerary

9:15. Meet and my house and make Garbies

9:30 Begin Traveling

10:00 Arrive at Site and read Daisy Handbook Story

10:30 Tour/Using Resources Wisely Activity

11:30 Picnic Lunch

12:00 Travel back

12:15 Pick-Up

* * * * * * *

Gathering Activity

I was searching the Internet for songs that would go along with the "Using Resources Wisely" Petal and I found this one:

He's My Garby

(To the tune of "It's My Party")

He's my Garby,

I'll reduce ‘cause I want to,

Reuse ‘cause I want to,

Recycle, I want to,

Please do it too,

He'll be proud of you.

I thought it was super cute, but I couldn't figure out who Garbie was, so I decided we were going to make him.  All the girls were asked to bring an old, used sock (preferably Dad's so it was a good size) and while the girls arrived they made their own "Garby" puppets.  We thought them the song later in the day and they preformed it with their puppets at the finial celebration.

Our Garbies

Arrival:

Sully Historical Site is a 19th century well-to-do farm house, out-buildings and grounds.  When we got there we had to walk across the grounds (it was a beautiful day).  We lined up the girls and taught them Garby, singing it was we walked across the property.  

Sully Farm House

Snack and Story time:

We had all the girls bring a packed lunch made from left-overs (using resources wisely, get it?) for after the tour and I bought a bag of apples for before the tour.  Our little group stopped under a tree in front of the farm house, we handed out the apples and allowed the girls to drink from their water bottles while we read the girls the "Using Resources Wisely" booklet.

Using Resources Wisely Story from Handbook

After, we talked about the story a little (bribing them with coins to pay attention) and about how they, personally, could use resources wisely.  Luckily, this lined up perfectly with Earth Day and the girls had talked a lot about recycling and such in school and were eager to share.

Then I had the girls search for clover in the field and see if they could find clover flowers.  They enjoyed this quite a bit.

The tree we ate under

Searching for Clover

Tour:

Tapestry on the wall of the meeting room

The tour began in the beautiful front room.  Our tour guide was dressed authentically as the lady of the house.  She began by showing the girls the candles they used in the early 19th century as the only way to light the house at night.  She emphasized how precious the beeswax was and how careful they had to be to use as little as possible.

The house tour was given with a emphasis on how they had to Use Resources Wisely to survive in the 19th century.  Things like keeping the doors closed to keep the heat in rooms and sharing beds to share heat.  They did all their sewing in the rooms that had good natural light so no candles had to be used.  The tour guide showed the girls shoes that could be used on the right or left foot so that they could use them longer, since the shoes wore differently on each foot.  They were shown lady's and little girl's under things and dresses.  We were told that even this relatively wealthy family only had about 3 dresses each and showed how rows were added to the end of the girls dresses so that they could be worn for many years as they grew.  They even had a set of marbles the  children made from the virginia clay soil we have so much of.  

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised at how well my 6 and 7 year olds paid attention.  Most of their questions were stories from their own life, which seemed to frustrate the tour guide after a while, but if you deal with this age a lot you probably know it's pretty on par for their age. 

Lunch:

The girls all packed their own lunch (it was supposed to be from left-overs) and after the tour we walked further into the grounds where they had some picnic tables.  They ate and ran around.  Since it was a beautiful day, we just let them have fun until it was time to pack up and go home.

Homework/Handouts:

This was our main day for the Green Petal, so we handed out the Using Resources Wisely handout as homework.