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.

Daisy Scout Meeting Four

Daisy Scout Meeting Four
First week in November 2012



Goal & Badges:        

            Finish Up working on blue “Honest and Fair Petal” and start work on yellow “Friendly and Helpful” Petal.

* * * * * *

Arrival:                Gathering- Paint Sunflower center and make their Kaper chart index cards

4:05                        Daisy Circle- Daisy Promise

  ‘Round the Daisy Circle with “how I was honest and fair”

4:10                        Water the Team Garden

4:15                        Teach friendship squeeze

4:20                        Help get snack and read Sunny’s Story

4:30                        Make a help chart for meetings 8 jobs, explain they will have them from now on

4:45                        Count of by 2‘s “Fairly” and divide into two groups

                                4 girls go to living room to pretend they are meeting a new friend

                                4 girls go to craft room to do Sunny activity

5:00                        Switch

5:15                        Create Sunny mural, ask if girls want it read again. 

5:30                        Final Daisy Song in Circle

                                Friendship squeeze

                                Remind girls to be helpful and friendly and handout homework

* * * * * * *

Gathering Activities (I started using this to get projects that we would do later started.)

1. First they painted the center of their Sunny Sunflower (more later)

2. They made a Index card with their name on it for the Kaper chart (more later).

Daisy Circle:

Say the promise together

Sing “here we go ‘round the Daisy circle” (see first meeting) with each girl getting a chance to say how they were honest and fair since the last meeting.

Friendship Squeeze

Most resources have you teaching the friendship squeeze right away as it’s a staple in girl scouts (I haven’t been to an event with the girls where they haven’t done it).  The Daisy Flower Garden Journey Leader Guide has you teaching it at the end of the first meeting, but we ran out of time and then it seemed to be a perfect fit with the “Friendly and Helpful petal so we finally fit it in here.  

Basically, you stand up in your friendship circle, cross your arms, and join hands.  The leader then starts the circle by squeezing one of the girls hands, they then squeeze the girl next to them hand and so on and so forth until we are all the way around the circle.  It will take a couple tries for them to get the hang of it.  After that it’s a great way to end meetings.

We also use it with field trips, when we arrive and need everyone to settle down and gather while waiting for our tour guide.  Just throw up a hand and say “Quiet hand” once they’re quiet we say “Quick daisy circle for the friendship squeeze.”  It isn’t perfect but it works.

Snack and 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.

Make Kaper Chart

There are tons of beautiful Kaper Charts out there.  Ours was not one of them.  What it was was quick, easy, and girl made.   We’ll be redesigning the whole system over the summer for the older and, hopefully, more responsible girls.  But this worked well as a lesson.

Our less then beautiful, but fully functional Kaper board made during the meeting

Supplies

1.      Large cork board

2.      Multicolored index cards

3.      Thumbtacks

4.      Markers

5.      Stickers

Step 1:  As part of Gathering (we had two task this time) the girls each choose a colored index card and were asked to write their name and decorate it with markers and stickers in any way they wanted. (I collected them and put them aside).

Step 2:  After story time we explained to the girls that they were going to have jobs that they were going to do at each meeting and they would each get a chance to do them.  (My co-leader tried to call them Kapers but the girls just looked at us funny.  We’re still calling them jobs).  I had a big paper and I would write down all their ideas. It required a lot of prompting.  This was the first time we did this.  Then we asked the girls which they thought were the best ideas.

Step 3:  We made index cards with the jobs on them and pinned them on the board.  Then based on how quietly the girls were sitting we let them each pin their name next to a job for next time.

Jobs we used: Craft Room Clean Up, Promise Leader, Parachute set up (2 girls), Snack (2 girls) Hand out crafts, Hand out papers at end.

Favorites were handing out snacks and picking where everyone sat. 

Sunny the Sunflower (Half the girls at a time)

My Sunny

Supplies:

1.      A small scrap of rug (about 1-2 inches, any shape)

I used a piece of this rug as the stamp

2.      Brown cardstock, 3 inch diameter circles, cut with rick-rack scissors (1/per girl +1)

3.      Gold cardstock cut into 1 inch strips then into lots of petals (free-form)

4.      Green pipe cleaner (at least one per girl)

5.      Googly eyes (next size up from the other flowers

6.      Red or pink sharpie

7.      Elmer’s glue

8.      Stapler

9.      Gold paint

10.    Long leaves (4-5 per girl) cut from green cardstock or construction paper

11.    Small paper plate (one per girl with name on it)

12.    Pictures on real sunflowers

Steps:

1.      During gathering: place at each seat a small paper plate with each girls name on it (if you want to use resources wisely save these) and a brown circle on each plate.  Have another small paper plate with gold paint on it and an old scrap of rug.  As the girls come in they can use the rug to blot a pattern on the circle.  Put them aside to dry and let the girls work on another project.

2.      In small group:  hand out each girls garden and their circle (hopefully at least slightly dry).  Show them sample garden.  Hand out glue and pipe cleaners and have them glue it where they want to.

3.      Have them pass around and look at pictures of real sunflowers while you staple on the stems. 

4.      Distribute petals and leaves and have them glue them together with the flower center.  

5.      When they are done give them googly eyes to glue on and markers to make mouth.

One of the girl's Sunnys. I loved the leaves as a hair bow.

Role Play Making New Friend (Half the girls at a time)

While half girls are working on Sunny the other half were  roll playing meeting new friends in the other room.  They each took turns being the new girl and being the girl that went up and introduced herself.  They were prompted to say things like, “My name is ______ what’s your name?”  And “Would you like to play with us?”


They had extra time so they talked about what chores they could do to be helpful at home.

Sunny Mural

Again this was straight out of the Daisy Handbook.  We bought a huge roll of white paper at the teacher’s store (we’ve used it a couple times and I still have plenty left), unrolled it across the floor, put out small buckets of crayons and colored pencils and told the to draw the party at the end of the story.

Closing Circle: 

 Friendship squeeze again and reminded them about being friendly and helpful.

Homework/Handouts:

Sunny Worksheet and Lupe petal