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.

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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

Tae Kwon Do Field Trip

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Third Saturday in February

Goals and Badges we worked on:

This trip ties in with the Purple “Respect Yourself and Others” badge and helped introduce the Magenta “Respect Authority” badge.

Respect Yourself and Others Field Trip:

 

This was the simplest trip we went on all year and, probably, one of the best.  We loved watching these little girls (some of them teeny tiny) get excited and fierce as they did Tae Kwon Do.

But I digress.  I thought of Tae Kwon Do early on in the planning process to do as part of the two respect units since the martial arts are all about being respectful, exercising self-discipline and good self-care.  I was worried we would have to pay for birthday party or something, but we lucked out.  My co-leader’s older son had been doing Tae Kwon Do for years and she knew the owner.  He agreed to give us an hour lesson and talk on respect for free.  It was awesome and probably very savvy on their part since two of the girls have signed up for Tae Kwon Do since.

The studio was right in our neighborhood so parents brought and picked their kids up from there.  It was only an hour and we had perfect attendance.

“Sir” taught the girls how to stand and how to address him in a firm but kind way.  He then took 15-20 minutes to talk about respect and the different character traits taught in Tae Kwon Do.  The girls seemed very fidgety and inattentive to me, but the master later told me they were exceptionally good for their age.

Then he set in with a Martial Arts lesson; running, punching, kicking.  And, of course, the disclaimer that we never use what we learn there on our siblings and that it is only for self-defense.  The girls got a great work-out (which ties into the Self-Respect Unit as well) and I got some adorable pictures.

patch from Troopmoore on ebay

Daisy Scout Meeting Nine

Second week in  February 2013

 
Goal and Badges:        

Finish up earning the Orange Petal and begin working on the Purple Petal “Respect Myself and Others.”  Have a small Valentines Celebration.

 





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Daisy Scout Meeting Feb 9

 
Arrival:               Gathering- Cut out Gloria leaves
                                                 Draw what you did with your Zinkies       

4:05                     Daisy Circle- Daisy Promise
                                           Present Zinkies and tell what did with them
                             Water team garden

4:15                     Snack and read Gloria’s story

                                                             What is respect?

4:30                     Charades

4:55                     Make Gloria or

                                                             Make smoothies

5:05                     Switch

5:15                     Final squeeze and hand out stuff

5:20                     Decorate Valentines bags

5:30                     Sit in kitchen to exchange valentines, share smoothie flavors and enjoy final treat.

 

* * * * * * *

Zinkie Outcomes:

The Zinkie Project was our Responsibility Project that we handed out at the end of the last meeting (see two blogs ago). I’m going to go ahead and share some of the stories of what happened with those poor little Zinkies.

Two days before our meeting, I got a frantic email from one of the moms. Her daughter had lost her Zinkie, maybe the dog had eaten it, and where could she buy another one? I called my co-leader so that we were on the same page on this only to find out her daughter had lost hers as well. My co-leader’s daughter had been playing with it the first night, her mom warned her that she was going to lose it if she didn’t put it away, but her daughter decided to play with it anyway and it was now missing.  My co-leader refused to help her find the Zinkie.

To the mom of the email, we asked her not to replace the Zinkie. We told her that her daughter wouldn’t be the only one who lost it and wouldn’t be made to feel bad about it, but part of the lesson was that it was the scout's responsibility and if she lost it then the consequence was that she didn’t have it any more. The mom seemed to accept this without a problem.

In the end, three of eight girls lost their Zinkie.

My daughter didn’t, but I’ll share her story and you can decide if it was cheating. My daughter was playing with her Zinkie, made her a paper house and paper food. When she was talking about keeping it safe so she didn't lose it I suggested she put it in her doll house which she did. Five days later, (on the day of the meeting) my then five year-old had completely forgotten this conversation and had no idea where the Zinkie was. I told her to look in the doll house where, low and behold, it was still resting.

So, I guess, I helped my daughter keep track of hers Zinkie. Really, it was a very hard project for a kindergartener (though two of the girls who lost it were first graders). I recommend doing it with a toy that’s a little bit bigger.

The turtle Zinkie is sitting on a quarter

Gathering Activities

Cut Out Leaves

A happy coincidence was that at our Valentines Day meeting we were also doing Gloria the Morning Glory, whose leaves are shaped like hearts. When the girls first came in they each had a pile of green squares and I showed them how to fold them in half and make them into heart-shaped leaves to use for later.

Close up of heart leaves on poster

Draw what you did with Zinkies

When and if they finished the leaves, the girls were given construction paper and encouraged to draw her Zinkie and what she did with them this week (even if they lost them).


Daisy Circle:

The Promise Leader led the Girl Scout Promise and then we went around the circle saying what Zinkie they had and what their name was. They showed their Zinkie or the picture they had drawn. The girls were encouraged to talk about how hard it was to keep track of their Zinkie, how they lost them or how they kept track of them.

Thankfully, none of the girls who lost them seemed ashamed or upset. They readily admitted that they lost them and how hard it was.


Snack and Story time

We passed out snack (heart shaped Rice Crispy Treats) and read the girls “A Surprise for Lily” the Gloria the Morning Glory Story which is about the flowers practicing good hygiene and self-care before going to a party and about  respecting their host by being polite and on time.

After the story, we talked about what “Respect” means.  I’ve found that most kids (even teenagers) can’t define respect.  It’s a term thrown at them often, but they don’t really understand it.  Unsurprisingly my girls couldn’t either.  Their closest answer was “it means being good.” 

My Co-lead and I defined respect for these girls as “doing things that show someone that you know they are important” and that self-respect was "doing things that show you know you are important by taking good care of yourself."

If someone has another good way of explaining it I’d love to hear, because I’ve been struggling with the definition for years.



Charades

We figured Charades would be a fun way to talk about the ways girls their age can respect themselves.  Then for extra fun we added a second round of things “not to do” when you respect yourself.

Respect “Dos” we used:
1.      Eat Healthy
2.      Brush Hair
3.      Go to Dentist
4.      Go to Doctor
5.      Be polite
6.      Do homework
7.      Take a bath
8.      Exercise

Respect “Don’ts”:
1.      Go out messy
2.      Burp
3.      Pick nose
4.      Eat Junk
5.      Be late
6.      Be mean
7.      Be lazy
8.      Refuse to go to bed

The girls took turns with the “dos” first.  (We left the “don’ts” as a surprise).  They were hesitant and shy at first, but by the third girl they were fighting for who got to go next.  The leaders helped by reading the slips to the younger girls and giving the girls ideas if they needed them.  The girls were a bit embarrassed to do the “don’ts,” but they were jumping up and down with excitement by the end.


Make Gloria the Morning Glory (1/2 girls at a time)

Gloria was perhaps the most complicated flower to make.  I had some premade pieces for the girls if they balked on the fancy cutting, but I was happily surprised at how well they did. 

Close-up of my Gloria

Full Picture of Gloria with her windy vine

Supplies
1.      Green Yarn
2.      Green construction paper
3.      White paper
4.      Scissors (one or each girl)
5.      Glue
6.      Purple tissue paper
7.      Googly eyes
8.      Red and/or pink sharpies

Pre-meeting Prep:
1.      Cut up green construction paper into various size squares and fold in half for leaves at Gathering.
2.      Cut long lengths of yarn.
3.      Cut 1” circles of white paper.
4.      Cut 2” circles out of the purple tissue paper and fold into 8 wedges.

Meeting Steps:
1.      Leaves as stated in Gathering.
2.      Pass around pictures of Morning Glories. Discuss how they are vines unlike the other flowers.  (And weeds as my co-leader insists. They’ll grow any where).


Morning Glories climbing a house



Close Up

Check out the heart shapes leaves

3.      Have each girl glue a windy path for the vine then glue on the yarn.

4.      Pass out the pieces of tissue paper and while the girls are gluing the vine go to each girl and help them cut the tissue paper (it’s kinda like cutting out snowflakes).  There are 4 small cuts: two angular at the tip making it a sharper tip and two cutting off the top two corners.

Tissue paper already cut and white paper showing lines to cut

5.     Once all the girls have cut their flowers they can glue the white circle at the top of the vine.  Then unfold the flower and glue it on top.

6.      Glue on eyes and rest of leaves.

7.      Wait until the last possible moment to draw on mouth since it will probably be wet with glue (or cut out mouths instead).

One of the girl's Glorias.  Pretty good, eh?




Make Smoothies

In the Gloria story the Flowers make smoothies as a healthy breakfast.  We thought making smoothies would be a fun activity and way to talk about respecting yourself by treating yourself to healthy snacks.

Exerpt from story

The girls really enjoyed taking turns putting in the ingredients and pressing the buttons.  At the end my co-leader made a big show of all the girls putting one hand on the top of the blender to keep the lid on.  It was a very cute bonding thing.

The recipes we used were the NickJr Fresh Beat Band Recipes.  The girls found them a bit tart for their taste, especially the berry one.  We used frozen fruit except for the bananas and that smoothie was the far yummier.  I’d recommend using vanilla instead of plain yogurt and as much fresh fruit as you can find. 

Mini Valentines Day Party

We extended this meeting by 20 minutes so the girls could have a little Valentines Party at the end.  All the girls had brought Valentines for each other.  We laid out red paper lunch bags (cheap at Target, already had them in the house) and a ton of Valentines Day stickers and markers.  Then we let them decorate the bags.

We had a lot of plans for organized delivery of valentines, but in the end it was just a free for all with the girls exchanging valentines (not unlike SWAPs at camp I now know) and putting them in each other's bag.

At the end, we had Valentines Day cupcakes (baked enthusiastically by my daughter) and fun was had by all.


Homework/Handouts:

The girls went home with their Gloria worksheet, permission slip for next weeks Tae Kwon Do Field trip, their valentines, and their orange petal.