Daisy Scout Meeting Six

First week in December

Badges and Goals:

The girls finished up their Light Green “Considerate and Caring” Petal and started working on the Red “Courageous and Strong” Petal. They also practiced songs for caroling at the holiday party.

* * * * * * *

Arrival:                    Gathering- Work on thank you card to Post Office
                                                   (draw how kind)

4:05                         Daisy Circle- Daisy Promise
                                                      ‘Round the Daisy Circle with “how I was Caring and Considerate”
                                                      Water team garden
                                                      “Brave Olympics”

4:15                         Try new Foods

4:30                         Snack and read Tula’s story

4:45                         Blind Obstacle course

5:05                         Make Tula
                                Make Videos

5:20                         Practice Caroling

5:30                         Final Daisy Song in Circle
                                Friendship squeeze
                                Remind girls to be brave and strong, handout homework
                                Review party

* * * * * * *

Gathering Activities

We had laid out a poster board with “Thank You” written on it and had stickers and markers for the girls to decorate and sign for the tour guide at the post office. When the girls finished (only so many could work on this at once) we had a stack of construction paper so they could draw how they had been Considerate and Caring that week.


Daisy Circle:

Promise Leader lead the GS Promise and then we sung “Here we go ‘round the Daisy circle” with “Considerate and Caring.” (See Meeting One for song details). Then they watered team Garden.

Before starting the activities we introduced the “Brave Olympics.” Basically, we gave every girl a plastic bag and told them for every brave thing they did that day they would get a gold coin.

Gold Coins for "Brave Olympics."

Try New Foods (Bravery)

This was so fun! Everyone doing the Red Petal should do this.

In brain storming what was “brave” for a five or six year-old girl growing up safe and sound in the suburbs, we hit upon trying new foods. Seriously, what’s braver to a picky kindergartener then putting an odd looking vegetable in their mouth? My co-leader and I had a ton of fun buying things for this meeting. By the way, if you have a Wegman’s that’s where you shop for this.

Our collection of odd and unusual foods

What we came up with: (Starting at the right of the picture)

1. Pantone (Italian Christmas Bread)
2. Pomegranate Jam (on crackers)
3. Prickly Pear
4. Some weird spiky fruit whose name I don’t remember but was actually delicious
5. Cauliflower Bread
6. Star Fruit
7. Canned Jicama (warmed and served on crackers)
8. Papaya
9. Coconut Soda (not nearly as good as it sounds)
10. Goat Cheese (not pictured)

Weird Prickly Fruit.  Yummy.

We started with some of the least scary food and asked all the girls to try it. They got a coin for trying something new. We then worked through all 10 foods. Amazingly, of 8 girls (many of whom are pretty picky) 7 tried every single food! And the 7th, our pickiest, only refused the weird prickly fruit. She did have seconds and thirds of the cauliflower bread (which by the way was crazy delicious). Most of the foods really tasted good, which helped. I found the star fruit very bitter, but I had one girl who loved it and ate all the leftovers.



Snack and Story time

After handing out a snack (yes, they were still hungry. I swear my girls could eat all day long) we read the Tula story to the girls (which talks about standing up to bullies) and discussed this.

Blind Obstacle Course

While one of us was reading the girls the story the other went into the living room and set up a really simple obstacle course with pillows, chairs, the parachute and tables. We had a long scarf that we tied around the girls eyes and the object was for them to allow another girl to guide them through the obstacle course. The idea was they had to be courageous and trust her sister scouts. The other girls cheered them on.

Again, we chose who went first based on who was behaving at that moment. I lead the first girl then she would lead the next, etc. By the time they got to the last girl their patience was so thin that we quickly shuffled them to the next activity. The girls got coins for being brave and completing this activity.

One of my girls ready for the Obstacle Course

The girls enjoyed this, but there was too much time waiting and watching. In the future I would do this in small groups.


Tula the Tulip

This time we did the project all together, while my co-leader pulled the girls out one by one to make their videos.

My Tula (and friends)

Supplies

1. Real life tulip pictures (to pass around)



2. Red card stock cut into tulip shapes
3. Red tissue paper cut into tulip shapes
4. Googly eyes
5. Green Pipe cleaners
6. Dark Green Paint
7. Paint brushes
8. Dixie cups to contain water and paint
9. Stapler
10. Elmer’s Glue
11. Black sharpies

Steps:
1. Have girls glue down stems then go around and staple them
2. Glue cardstock then tissue paper over cardstock
3. Paint the long leaves (just for a different technique)
4. Glue on googly eyes and draw on mouth

One the othe girls' Tula

Christmas Card Videos

The other thought we had when thinking “what’s brave to 5 and 6 year olds?”, was that for many of the girls speaking or singing in front of people or being the center of attention was anxiety producing and, thus, required courage.

We used this in two ways. The first was caroling, which we were going to do later that month and the other was a Video Christmas (or Holiday) Card.

So … each girl was pulled, separately, into another room and my co-leader video taped them sending a message to their family and friends and singing a song. As you can imagine, some girls need more prodding then others, but they all did and got their coin. It left some really sweet videos that we later put up on the Shutterfly Share Site for their parents to send around to family and friends.

Video Christmas Card from Shutterfly (Just a pic.  Sorry)

Closing Circle:

We started the closing circle early this day so the girls could chose a couple songs and practice signing (for 1-2 of them just singing in front of the other girls required a lot of courage). We sang “Frosty the Snowman” and “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer” and a few others until the parents arrived then did the friendship squeeze and ended the meeting.


Homework/Handouts:

Tula Handout (that wasn’t due until January) and reminders to bring in Items for Project Elf and food item for the holiday party the next week.




Post Office and Parade Field Trip

Field Trip 2
Early December 2012



I don’t have whole lot to say about this second field trip other than it was looooong. We wound up adding a parade to the end of a relatively simple trip making it a whole day extravaganza (I just can’t say “no” to anything that sounds fun). Not all the girls did the entire day; some did the first half, others the second, but it was overall a real success. I loved it. My co-leader would probably just describe the experience as exhausting. (Though I bet I can convince her to do it again next year. :D hehe)


Post Office


Fun Patch


A Post-office Tour is a nice, easy, free tour for younger kids. If you call one of the bigger Post Offices in your area you should be able to set something up. Having it at Christmas time meant it was extra busy and there was a lot to see.

We tied this in to the Light Green “Considerate and Caring” Petal. The girls had a pile of cards to mail to the Red Cross that they made for the troops overseas. Also, they each had a “Secret Santa” Card they made for each other (see last meeting blog for details on these).

The Lady who did our tour allowed each girl to “cancel” her own Secret Santa envelope with a large stamp and sort it into the bin for our home zip code. These letters were able to get out that morning so when we got home from the field trip it was already in the mailbox. All the girls I was driving ran directly to the mailbox to check when we got home. They thought it was the coolest thing!

They also let the girls sit in the driver’s seat of a mail truck and toss packages into bins.

Lunch

We were lucky enough to have a connection to a local small business who had space for us to come in and have lunch and let the girls play after the Post Office. We had each family sign up to bring an item for a picnic lunch and my co-leader and myself chipped in for chicken nuggets from a local fast food place. After lunch, we had free play time before we had to drive out to the parade.

Parade

Our Service Unit was invited to participate in a local parade. We made this a family event and had the girls’ families meet us at the parade grounds to march in the parade. We had one girl whose mom couldn’t make it and we took responsibility for her. The girls who went loved it and I think it was worth the craziness. It was a great bonding experience.

Daisy Scout Meeting Five

Third week in November 2012



Goal & Badges: We finished up the yellow “Friendly and Helpful” petal and started on the light green “Considerate and Caring” petal. We focused a lot on Charity and sharing this session, beginning several projects.

* * * * * * *

Arrival:                  Gathering- Start Zinni                                                                  Water team garden

4:05                          Daisy Circle- Daisy Promise
                                ‘Round the Daisy Circle with “how I was friendly & helpful”
                                 Review jobs

4:15                          Friend Flower Hunt

4:25                          Finish Zinni

4:35                          Snack and read Zinni’s story
                                 Talk about Project Elf- How could you help?
                                 Talk about Troops

4:50                          Make cards

5:15                          Plan menu as a team

5:30                          Final Daisy Song in Circle

                                 Friendship squeeze

                                 Remind girls to be Considerate and caring and handout homework
                                 Discuss Project Elf with parents

* * * * * * *

Gathering Activity

Girls made stem and leaves for Zinni (would get petals later). This was my bright idea on how to save time later and get things done since we had another big craft project that day. I didn’t like it and we never did this again.


Daisy Circle:

First Girl to chose to be Promise Leader from Kaper chart stood up and led the promise (with us whispering help :)).

We sang “Here we go ‘round the Daisy circle” (see meeting 1) with each girl getting a chance to say how they were “Friendly and Helpful” since the last meeting.

We reviewed the new Kaper Chart we were using and made sure each girl knew her job

Friend Flower Hunt

This was a friend/team building game. I had the petals for Zinni in packets (one for each girl) hidden around the living room. The girls needed to hunt for them with a partner and couldn’t stop holding hands the entire time. The girls went in pairs while the others cheered them on. 



Petal pack hidden in Livingroom



We chose the best behaved girl first, who chose her partner. Once we got to the last girl (we had one absent that day so an uneven number) she got to choose anyone she wanted to go a second time. That really worked out well.

This was a quick and fun activity that the girls really enjoyed.

Zinni the Zinnia

We did this a little differently this week because of the flower hunt and the cards we made later in the meeting. I do prefer to do the flower after the story usually, but this was an easy flower fir the girls to make with no new art techniques. (Though cutting out the flowers for the leader is really time consuming).

My  Zinnia

Supplies:

1. 3-5 light green card stock flowers per girl (Thankfully I find paper cutting relaxing, otherwise you it want to ask for help or see if someone was a cricut machine.)

2. 4-6 medium to dark green leaves per girl (I think I had ones from the craft store that I used for this one. You could cut them out from cardstock or from old fake flowers)

3. 1 green pipe cleaner per girl

4. 2 Googly eyes per girl

5. Elmer’s glue

6. Stapler

7. Red sharpie

8. Real Pictures Zinnias

Steps: (Very much like the ones before)

1. Glue down pipe cleaner and then staple it

2. Glue leaves

3. Glue flowers from biggest to smallest

4. Add googly eyes

5. Draw on face



One of the girl's Zinnis



Snack & Story time

We had the girls divide out the snacks (practicing fair again) and sit down for the Sunny story. They ate while we read and then we discussed the story. We did find snack in the first half hour helped behavior.

Project Elf

Project Elf is an amazing program in Northern Virginia where a troop can adopt a needy family for Christmas. They send you the ages and sizes of everyone in the family as well as their wants and needs. 

We asked for a small family because our troop was small and got a single mom (all she wanted was food awwww!!!!) and a 6 year old daughter. We introduced the service project after reading the story and then coordinated with the mom’s on-line. We collected everything a month later at our Holiday Party. It was really a fantastic experience for all of us. But more on that later.

Patch girls got when turned in presents

Cards for the Troops


We really wanted the girls to make holiday cards for the troops overseas. Obviously, this is caring, but we tied it into considerate (which according to the Daisy Handbook is sharing.

To me, that’s more fair but whatever it’s all good) by adapting an activity they suggested where the girls all working on the same drawing. We did this in two rounds.



One of the girls' cards



For each we had:

1. A blank cardstock, folded in half, for each girl

2. A bin with a different art supply for each girl. Foam stickers, shiny stickers, crayons, markers, colored pencils with stencils, Christmas stamps with red and green ink, winter stamps with blue and white. Etc. (Nothing that couldn’t dry quickly.)

3. Stop watch or timer

Round One

1. Each girl picked a card and we had them each write “Thank You Hero”. (Most of them didn’t spell yet so it was on the chalk board and they still needed help.)

2. We explained the rules, then they were randomly given a supply bin (there was whining, but we kept strong. One particular metallic sharpie was in high demand) and allowed to start decorating.

3. We set a timer for a minute and when it went off they had 10 seconds to finish up and pass their supplies to the right. This continued until everyone had used each supply.



Round Two

Same start with a card they wrote “Thank You Hero” on, but this time the girls could use what ever they wanted to decorate it and when the alarm sounded they had to pass the card instead of the supplies to the left. The round was finished when everyone had decorated a bit of every card.

Later, I glued a small slip of paper on the back that listed the troop number and everyone’s first names.

The cards were bundled together for our next field trip to the Post Office where we would mail the cards to the red cross to distribute over seas.  The program we used was Holiday Mail for Heroes.  The adress is on the website. 

http://www.redcross.org/support/get-involved/holiday-mail-for-heroes


Planning Menu for Field Trip

Our next meeting was to be a field trip to the Post Office. After this, we had a local building where my co-leader worked where we were allowed to meet for lunch and wind-down time before we headed out to a Holiday Parade that the service unit was marching in.

We decided in the spirit of the first few petals that we have everyone bring one item and share it among everyone. To test the waters of girl lead we collectively, as a troop, came up with a menu.
This consisted of sitting in a “circle” (the later into the meetings it got the more circles became clusters) and having the girls call out ideas, then vote between things we thought were appropriate. 

I think the list was something like this:
1. Chicken nuggets (provided by leaders)
2. Chocolate and white milk
3. Grapes
4. Carrots and dip
5. Fruit cheerios
6. Rice crispy treats
7. Sugar cookies


The mom’s later signed up for their Item on Shutterfly (More on the wonders of Shutterfly Share Site later. It revolutionized our troop.)

Final Circle
Friendship squeeze and reminders.

Handouts:
Zinni handout, yellow petal, field trip permission slips and Secret Santa Card.

“Secret Santa Card”

This is another one which I whole heartedly recommend. Each girl was given an envelope addressed (randomly) to another girl in the troop, along with blank cardstock and instructions for mom and dad. The girls were simply supposed to create a card for their sister Daisy, stamp it and bring it to the post office. During the Post Office Trip they were each allowed to cancel and sort their own card. The girls actually got their cards later that afternoon. The girls who missed the field trip simply mailed the card from home.