Daisy Scout Meeting Ten

First week in  March 2013

This particular meeting was a little crazy.  I had a very clear plan to finish up the Purple Petal and start the the Magenta Petal, "Respect Authority."  We also had a guest coming from a local program Plant A Row that works with people from our county to grow fresh produce for charity.  This would set up the next meeting to return to the Garden Journey.

Plant A Row Brochure

I can't remember if I blogged about it, but we gave the girls a choice of two "Amazing Daisy Projects": Plant a flower garden at the local Safety Center or grow a vegetable garden in the backyard and give the produce to a local food bank.  They chose the vegetable garden (which was probably obvious from the previous paragraph.)

Anyway, when I was inquiring as to which food banks took fresh produce I ran upon this lovely woman who not only told us where to bring our stuff but offered to give us seeds and talk to the girls.  My Co-lead and I thought this would be awesome so I asked her to come to the meeting directly before the meeting where we planned to start indoor planting so we would have the seeds ahead of time.  What I didn't realize until the day of was that our guest intended to plant with my girls.  Luckily, I had planned that next meeting too and a few hours ahead I rearranged our schedule so we flip-flopped about two-thirds of the meeting with the next.  

I felt frazzled the entire meeting from the last minute switch, but looking back it was a really great meeting and the girls didn't notice a thing was amiss.  They handled the mix of topics really well.

Goal and Badges:        

Finish working on Purple Petal, "Respect Myself and Others," and reintroduce the Garden Journey.  Do some work on Cookie Activity Pin and set up plan for earning Safety Pin.  Have a guest and earn the Watering Can Award.

A Note on Pins:  While leafing through the Daisy Handbook I ran into the Safety Pin and Cookie Activity Pin.  I won't lie, the thing that attracted to me at first was that they got pinned on the front of the vest and moved up with the girls from rank to rank (so it looked cool and satisfied my obsessive need to get every award.). 

After a little research we discovered that we only had 2 steps left to get the Cookie Activity pin. Cookie Activity Pin Requirements.  We had to practice our "Elevator Speech", i.e... if a potential customer says they already bought Girl Scout cookies or that they're on a diet the girls were to say "then would you like to donate a box to the troops."  We worked on this step  individually at booth sales.  (And it really sold more cookies when we did.)  The last requirement we hadn't fulfilled was to "Discuss how living by the Girl Scout Promise and Law applies to what you should do in the Girl Scout Cookie Program as a  Business Women." This step we did in this meeting.  

And the Safety Pin, well, that was stuff we really wanted the girls to learn.  I'll explain exactly what we did with this at the end and in the next blog.

* * * * * * *

Daisy Scout Meeting March 1

Arrival:                Gathering- 1.  Sign Thank You

                                            2.  Pour water on pellets

                                                         3.  Cut out pictures of ways you respect yourself and put in bag

4:10                      Daisy Circle- Daisy Promise  NEW SONGS

                           Go through law and booth/guest

Present bag 

Water team garden

4:20                      Learn Gardening Song

4:30                     Talk about Seeds

                            Read story and eat snack

                            Plant

5:00                     If time Garden Craft and/or garden scamper

                                   

5:10                     Ceremony and Songs

5:25                     Closing Circle, learn address and phone number

* * * * * * *

Gathering Activities

Sign Thank You Note

Our original lesson plan on "Respect" had a section or the girls making Thank You Cards for all of our past Field Trips.  That was postponed, but I really wanted the girls to have one for the lady who was visiting that day.  In the interest of time, I let my daughter decorate the front of the card while she was waiting for the other girls to arrive.  Then the girls had to sign the card before they could do their other activities.  Some of them drew a little flower or heart as well.

Prepare Soil/Amazing Daisy Project

The overall plan for our Amazing Daisy Project was for the girls to plant the vegetable seeds indoors, in March for the slow growing seeds and April for the quick growing seeds.  Then we transplanted them  into the garden at the beginning of May and the girls took turns harvesting and delivering the vegetables to the Food Bank over the summer (now).

I've started many seeds indoors, flower and vegetable, and the best way is a seed starter pack like this:

The soil disks are low mess and the container is great for quick germination.  I also have a germination warming mat and  a growl light which do produce more and larger plants but you can be completely successful by placing the kit over the refrigerator until the seeds germinate and moving them to a bright, draft free window once seedlings appear.  

Heat Mat I use

Grow light I use.  From Amazon.

For the gathering, after signing the card, each girl got 8 soil disks and a tubberwear container.  We had them place the disks in the container then pour a cup of water on top and put it aside.  In 5-10 minutes (after their last gathering activity) they could come back and see how they expanded to 5x their size into a fluffy seed starter mix.

This isn't my photo but a good image of the dry and wet disks.

Make Respect Yourself Bags

After their two quick assignments the girls went to the craft room where they each took a paper lunch bag (I think I had blue in the house).  Then there were a pile of family friendly magazines, scissors, glue sticks, construction paper, and colored pencils. 

The girls were asked to cut out or draw things they do to show they respect themselves and put them in the bag.  We shared what they came up with at circle.

Supplies for Respect Myself Bag

Daisy Circle:

Music for "Amazing Daisy" 

We also decided to start teaching the girls more songs. (Wow, we did a lot of new things this meeting. No wonder I was frazzled.)  We started by just playing this song while the girls came to circle.  I don't think we ever "taught" the words, but every single one of them knows it by heart now.  Some of them even taught it to their friends at Girl Scout Camp.

This song is from "Girl Scouts Greatest Hits Vol. 11". The album is $9.99 on iTunes and but the song is free from this site.  I thoroughly Recommend the album.  

Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden

Welcome to the Daisy Flower garden!

Here you'll find all you need to grow the flower of possibilities,

The sun and the rain and the honey bees,

make the world a better place, Amazing Daisies!

Welcome to the Daisy Flower garden!

Here you'll find all you need to grow the flower of possibilities,

The sun and the rain and the honey bees,

make the world a better place, Amazing Daisies!

The Promise Leader led the Promise and then we went around the circle saying presenting their respect bag.  Each girl showed 1-2 things they had inside and how that showed self-respect.

We talked a little bit about the guest who was coming and how we should show respect to our guest (sitting quietly, raising hand to ask questions, listening etc..). Then I pulled out our Girl Scout Law poster and we went through the laws one by one and I asked the girls to think of something that applied each when with either meeting a guest or hosting a cookie booth (cookie booths started the next day).  

This activity went surprisingly well and we checked off another "to do" for our Cookie Activity Pin.

Learn "Planting Time"

After talking a little bit about how we were going back to our Garden Journey today and starting our garden we got the girls to their feet to learn this little hand motion song.  This is another song they love and know by heart.

Planting Time

(Sung to tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat")

Dig, dig, dig the earth

(Make Digging motion)

Then you plant your seeds

(Pretend to drop in seeds)

A gentle rain

(Flutter Fingers Down)

And bright sunshine

(Circle Arms over head)

Will help your flowers Grow

(Hold One Arm parallel to the ground and 

move the other arm up behind it with fingers 

extended to represent a flower growing)

Snack and Story Time

After handing out snack, we used this story time as a review, since they hadn't heard the Garden Girls story since the beginning of the year.   My co-leader started reading at the beginning of the book and read until our guest arrived (she got a bit lost and was a tiny bit late).  My co-lead got through about two chapters.  We asked the parents to retread chapter 3 at home before the next time we worked on the journey (April) so we could pick up with chapter 4.

Guest and Planting

Once our guest arrived things went surprisingly smoothly, which I'm sure is more to our guests credit than mine.  We ushered the girls into the craft room where I had set out each girls tubberwear with their sets of soil pods, now fluffy and moist.

Our guest talked about feeding the hungry and how important it was for them to get healthy vegetables to eat.  She told them for every 13lbs we grew it would feed someone for a week!   Then she asked them questions and they talked about basic plant and garden care.  She even brought us pots made out of newspaper, though we didn't use them.  I kept them to use for transplanting later.

The girls attention did wander a bit while she was talking but came back with lazer focus when she pulled out her seeds. She brought a whole pile of organic seeds for us.  She would explain each type as we'd hand them around.  Each girl was to plant 2-3 seeds per pod, only one pod per type per girl and then we would collect them as they finished, keeping them labeled.  We planted tomatoes (5 different types) green peppers, eggplant, lettuce and spinach.  I gladly accept seed packets for cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash, peas, carrots and several types of beans to plant in April (except the carrots which needed to be sowed directly in the soil.) 

The seeds only need to be pressed ino the pod with one finger and lightly squeezed to cover with soil. They do not need to be watered at all until after germination takes place. (About two weeks for most of these.)

New seedlings (though I'm pretty sure these are the April ones).

Tomato and basil plants a month old just before I transplant them to the newspaper pots

Just post transplant in newspaper pots

Our set up

 (If you were wondering if we had time for the Garden Craft or scamper ... we didn't).

Watering Can Ceremony

By this time, all the girls had had a chance to bring home the team mini-garden and take care of it for at least a week.  We had learned the Girl Scout Promise and Law (at least an overview of it), read three chapters of the girls' book and learned the basics of how to grow and care for plants.  We figured it was about time the girls earned their Watercan Award.

Full grown mini-garden

For the ceremony, we had the girls stand in a semicircle facing their parents. We put of the song from the Lorax movie, "Let it Grow."  Ahead of time I had cut out and put badge magic on the back of the Water Can Badges.  I would announce the girls one by one, they would step to the center of the semicircle and I would stick the badge onto their base garden badge on their vest.  Then I would announce that they could bow or dance a little dance while everyone clapped.  We went around until all the girls were done. 

Closing Circle: 

We did the friendship squeeze and reminded the girls about the Safety Center Tour.  We also reminded them (the email had gone out to parents a week or two before) that there would be a test for their Safety Pin after the field trip so they needed to study if they wanted their pin.

Homework:

The homework for this week was to study for the "Safety Test." Since this blog is already enormous and confusing I'm going to go in details on this in the next blog on our trip to the Safety Center.  In brief, the girls needed to study their address and phone number and know it cold!

The requirements for Safety Award straight from the Daisy Handbook

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.

Movie Night and Cookie Rally

January 2013

The story behind this odd event that lasted far too long is thus: we had promised the girls a movie and pizza night because they did so well with Nut Sales.  The plan was to have it the Friday before Christmas.  The girls would wear their pajamas, have pizza and watch the American Girl Movie, Chrissa Stands Strong.  This movie is about standing up to bullying and would tie in nicely with the red petal.  They could bring their dolls and have a nice low key event.

Then I got the flu and the movie night was postponed until January.  The day we wanted to do it was the night of the official Girl Scout cookie rally.  We found one being held at a nearby school, so we opened it up to the troop.  Seven girls wanted to go, so we decided we’d go to the rally then come back and have the movie night.  Great.  Wonderful.  I was excited.  The girls were excited. Yup. 

Then they canceled the rally we were going to and tried to get us to go to one that ended way to late at night for our girls.  So we bought the materials from the people doing the rally and decided to hold our own.  Wow.  Not the best idea.  It was this an exhausting night.  3-7:30.  Wow.  Yeah. 

Goal and Badges:

We finally did the last tiny bit for the Red Petal, continue to work on the Financial Leaves, especially “Count it Up” and “Talk it Up”, and get cookie rally patch and movie fun patch.

Official Girl Scout Cookie Rally

Movie Fun Patch.  $1 from Troopmoore on Ebay

* * * * * * *

Yup, handwritten again.  Didn’t get my act together until February.

* * * * * * *

Gathering Activities

When the girls came in we had on my computer the Girl Scout Cookie Rally Movie that was being played all over the country that night at Rallies and Cookie Sleepovers.  It’s an hour long.  No way our girls could watch the whole thing.  So we watched chunks of it.  I had prewatched it and decided what would be fun. 

It’s at http://www.littlebrowniebakers.com/media/sleepover.html

For the gathering we ushered the girls into the room and let them watch the beginning of the video.  We didn’t make the girls sit quietly or anything.  The 3D part isn’t until later in the video, so no glasses needed.  We got through the intro and the call and repeat part of the video.

Word of warning, my girls showed up ready for a party.  They were wound and wild from minute one.  Some of the quiet activities we had planned either required a lot of maintenance from us or were scrapped for more lively activities.

 

Daisy Circle:

We said the promise together then went around the circle telling what “friend” (doll or stuffed animal) they had brought with them today.   Then we went over the plan for the day.

Cookie Door Hanger

After safely placing their “friends” with their sleeping bags, the girls headed to craft room to do a craft that we got in our rally pack.  I’m not going to post directions because they are all there in the following link along with the printables you need:

http://www.littlebrowniebakers.com/volunteers/garden-of-goals/

Picture from website.  Don't have one left at home.

My girls mostly chose either a hundred packages or “to get the puppy” incentive (125 packages) as sales goal, which was fairly ambitious.  (5/8 did make that goal in the end though.)  We had to help them spell their fun and service goals.  Most of them said field trips or zoo camp for personal goals and feed puppies or something for service goal.  It helped, of course, that we had talked about the troop goals the week before.

Most of the girls liked this activity.  One or two were too wound up to sit and do much.

 

Cookie Safety Bingo

Next we moved to another room to play “Cookie Safety Bingo.”  This was also something we got from the cookie rally packet, but you can print it out yourself from the links below.  You will also need coins, chips, stickers, or stamps for the girls to mark their spots.  We had cookies for prizes.

Instructions:   http://www.littlebrowniebakers.com/media/filebrowser/safety_bingo_activity.pdf

You can print the bingo cards here: (the people who printed ours must have set it for 2 pages per sheet, because ours were smaller, to save paper I guess.  This worked fine.):

http://www.littlebrowniebakers.com/media/filebrowser/bingocards_cookie_safety_1to20.pdf

These are the “posters” which are the different lessons or tid-bits about cookie selling safety (very good for the girls to learn).  Reading one of these is the equivalent of getting a random number in regular bingo.  Ours were much smaller than poster size, but the girls couldn’t read them.  Maybe some of them could have if they had been bigger.  We let the girls take turns picking a card then the leaders would read it out loud: 

http://www.littlebrowniebakers.com/media/filebrowser/safety_bingo_signs_lr.pdf

Girl Scout Cookie Movie with 3D Glasses

Next we moved back into the room where the on-line video was set up.  The rally packet came with 3D glasses so we handed those out.  The 3D portion of the movie is about 40 minutes into the movie. 

Now, to be honest, our girls had a really hard time with the glasses.  They didn’t like keeping them on and at this point they were getting really restless.  My co-leader snuck off the order pizza while they were watching and I fast forwarded to 42 minutes in to a game called “What’s Your Cookie IQ?”  This is a very fun game (that they would have done better on if they could read, so I’ll probably try it again next year.) 

The game has the girls vote for the correct answer by moving their body.  For example if you think it’s the Trefoil put your arms up and if you think it’s the Thinmint put your arms down.  There are a few rounds with them getting faster as it goes through.  The game was a lot of fun.  It was hindered by the instructions being written on the screen so I had to read them.  I was actually pausing the game as it got really fast.  But, really, this is best part of the video.  Very cool.

Dancing

I think we threw in the towel at this point and decided that we were just going to play dancing games until the pizza arrived.  The girls were done with anything resembling focus, so we tossed out anything else we had on the schedule at this point.

Duck, Duck, Cookie:

Lame name, but it was kinda fun.  Basically "Duck, Duck, Goose", but instead of "Goose" they would say a kind of cookie.  Then, if the person was caught they were put into the center and we would "bake" her into that cookie.  So I’d say, “Everyone throw in sugar, everyone crack an egg, everyone cut up butter…. Ok, everyone stir…”  The girls would follow the hand motions. At the end the girl in the center would get "baked" and we would “eat” her.  Make sure to remind the girls to be gentle with the “eating” and that is pretend and to maintain personal space or the girl in the middle may get scared.

Skip Cookie Jar:

Skip Stew is a game my daughter loves where the girls skip in a circle to music.  The music stops and the girl who stops moving last goes into the “stew” in the center of the circle.  We made the stew into a “Cookie Jar.”  My co-leader played so she could be the first one in the stew while I ran the cd player. 

Dance Like Me: 

After Skip Cookie Jar we allowed free dancing.  "Dance Like Me" is a game I made up on the spot when things were starting to go down hill.  I stood up and yelled “Everyone Dance Like Me!”  then a danced a lot of really silly, funny dances until all the girls were giggling and engaged.  Then I yelled, “Everyone Dance like Sarah,” and Sarah (I don’t actually have a Sarah btw) starts dancing silly and everyone does what she does.  Every few minutes I switched girls until everyone in the room had gone at least once.  Might have been the highlight of the evening.

Pizza

Pizza.  No explanation necessary.

Movie

The movie we chose was Chrissa Stands Strong.  This is a movie by American Girl (and a two book series) that has won several awards for the way it deals with bullying.  I really wanted the girls to watch it as part of their “Courageous and Strong Petal.”  I do wish we had done a separate movie night, because their focus wasn’t where I would have liked it to be.  We held this in the basement with sleeping bags and pillows.

http://store.americangirl.com/agshop/html/item/id/150667/uid/918

This was not a light and fun disney movie.  The adults in the room found the bullying uncomfortably realistic.  Actually a lot of the movie is uncomfortable in that way, but it was a beautiful story where a very sweet girl learns to stand up to bullying and get through it without it damaging who she is.  It also shows the girls how to stop being a bully and how easy it is to be pulled into being one of the bullies. 

Even though the movie was intended for 8 year olds, I felt this (6-7) is the age where the girls need to be taught the signs.  The Mean Girl years are getting younger and younger.  In the end, all mygirls said they liked the movie (I was surprised) and it does have a happy ending.

 

Ice Cream

After the movie everyone got to come upstairs again for ice cream.  We held this up as a carrot to be good, with moderate success.  We made an sundae bar where we scooped out vanilla and chocolate ice cream for them and they could then add various sauces, sprinkles, candy and whip cream.  Unsurprisingly, a success.

Last Bit of Party

Until the parents showed up we let the girls dance and play freely.  I started doing the zipper pull craft that we never got to at the table and 3-4 girls came over and wanted to do it too.  (If interested link: http://www.littlebrowniebakers.com/media/filebrowser/zipper_pull_activity.pdf). Those girls made the craft.  The others just danced until their parents showed up to take them home.

I’m not sure what happened after they left, but wine may have been involved.