Daisy Girl Scout Leaders

[kelann7]

Hi, Rae,

Yes, it does sound like we have very similiar situations. Here is my plan for next year so far. It needs a little work and may need to be tweaked, but at least it is a start. I'm a planner, so I like to plan ahead.

1st meeting Get to know each other
Rededication and Investiture ceremony
make and decorate name tags

2nd meeting Journey book - chapter 1
make Pipe cleaner daisies
Friendly & Helpful - give them chore list for home

3rd meeting Journey book - chapter 2
plant mini garden
Jiffy Greenhouse (Show this at Walmart - hope they have them next year or something similar)
report on chore list - to get the yellow petal

4th meeting Halloween party - snacks
Honest & Fair - candy divide activity - fairly divide candy equally among everyone there to earn Light blue petal
Juliette Gordon Low's birthday
Halloween craft

5th meeting Considerate & caring - Holiday cards for Heroes
to earn light green petal

6th meeting Christmas party
Secret Santa, Christmas craft

7th meeting Journey book - chapter 3
Responsible - Say & Do
report on progress of mini garden - orange petal
Also earn Watering Can for the Journey

8th meeting Respect Authority - guest speaker for Magenta petal
Play Mother May I?
Still working out the details, need to find a speaker, will ask school prinicpal or police officer

9th meeting Use Resources Wisely - green petal
need idea to make something from a recycled item

10th meeting World Thinking Day
Sister to every girl scout - violet petal
Need to decide on activity for this meeting

11th meeting 100 year Anniversary
Tracking the Girl Scout Past badge
will ask a former girl scout to talk about when she was a girl scout

12th meeting Respect Myself & Others - purple petal
read the Book - I'm Gonna Like Me
Courageous & Strong - red petal
Need activity for both of these petals - hoping to do both at one meeting

13th meeting Journey book - Chapter 4
Worms & Ladybugs
Game - dig for fake worms in dirt
may make a ladybug craft

14th meeting Journey book - Chapter 5
Plant flowers at school - Honey Bee Award for Journey
World a better place - rose petal

15th meeting Journey book - Chapter 6
Garden party - games - snacks
Amazing Daisy award for Journey

16th meeting End of year party
scrapbook page

Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Kelly

 

[Stacey012345]

Stacey, it looks like your council and/or service unit has some nice fun events planned. We are not so lucky, I find that our service unit is very unorganized and the council events filled up so quickly that the few that I wanted my girls to attend filled up before we could register! It was crazy. This was my first year - I learned alot, including register EARLY for council events next year.

Anyway, to answer someone else's question, I also have a group of Kindergarten and 1st graders who were all 1st year Daisies this year. My daughter is in Kinder, so I will be the leader for Daisies again next year, but I most of my girls are bridging up to brownies. I probably will get new girls to join our troop next year. This year, we did earn all of the petals because I wanted to first graders to have all of them before moving to brownies. We did not do a Journey.

I'm starting to plan for next year and I do plan to do the Flower Garden journey and I also want to do all of the petals for the new girls and I think it will be a good review for the 2nd year girls. This journey can be done in 6 meetings. I plan to do one or two meetings dedicated to a journey chapter and then 1 or 2 meetings for petals, then back to the journey, alternating petals in between. So, we are not doing Journey book every meeting for 6 meetings - I'm going to spread it out. Because the 2nd year girls already have their petals, I want to plan different activities for earning petals than I did this year, so that the 2nd year girls aren't repeating the same exact craft or activity and they won't get bored. I have a few ideas, but I still need more ideas for some of the petals.

We meet every other week, which I think is perfect. I am looking forward to a break during the summer.

Thanks.

Kelly

Our council did have some cute events, yes. I've experienced similar with the service unit being very disorganized though. It's definitely a learning process, sounds like you have a good plan going for next year, and reinforcing the petal piece of the law with different activities is an awesome idea.

 

[raestr]

I asked a State Trooper to come speak to our girls last night. He did a fabulous job. After the meeting he said he was expecting older girls (even thougth I'm sure I told him the age range). I think the primary campaign for Troopers right now is "Don't Text and Drive," but he was able to adapt his program extremely well. I couldn't tell he wasn't prepared for 5-7 year olds. He was very entertaining, while emplasizing the importance of wearing seat belts and going over the procedures for calling 911. I took a picture of him with the girls at the end. It was great meeting. I cut the meeting a little short because we had strong storms coming in last night, but I gave each girl a piece of paper with instructions to make the trooper a thank you card. They are suppose to bring them back to the next meeting. I'm also writing a thank-you letter to him and will send all of them to him after I have collected all of the thank-you cards.

Rae

 

[Marshay]

I asked a State Trooper to come speak to our girls last night. He did a fabulous job. After the meeting he said he was expecting older girls (even thougth I'm sure I told him the age range). I think the primary campaign for Troopers right now is "Don't Text and Drive," but he was able to adapt his program extremely well. I couldn't tell he wasn't prepared for 5-7 year olds. He was very entertaining, while emplasizing the importance of wearing seat belts and going over the procedures for calling 911. I took a picture of him with the girls at the end. It was great meeting. I cut the meeting a little short because we had strong storms coming in last night, but I gave each girl a piece of paper with instructions to make the trooper a thank you card. They are suppose to bring them back to the next meeting. I'm also writing a thank-you letter to him and will send all of them to him after I have collected all of the thank-you cards.

Rae

Awesome!! and doh for me! We just did one thank you card but I should have had all the girls make an individual one. That would have been cuter for them.

See -- I love this board and sharing ideas, etc.

 

[kelann7]

Now that we are getting close to the end of the year, I'm looking forward to a break for the summer. This year has been a learning experience for me - I learned A LOT - from this board and from talking to others. I think next year will be even better because I learned what works and what doesn't.

We have had some behaviorial issues - next year - first meeting - we are coming up with rules and consequences. I would do it now, but we only have 2 more meetings left and most of my group are moving up to Brownies next year and I'm staying with my daughter in Daisies for another year. I hate that we have a split troop with 2 grade levels because they won't stay together. I will only have a few coming back next year but we will hopefully get some new girls.

I hope to have more help next year from parents and I also hope to go to some council events.

Anyone want to share lessons learned of what worked for them?

Thanks.

Kelly

 

[Avonlady1001]

What are you all planning for end of the year? Anything special w/ cookie money?

 

[amez]

What are you all planning for end of the year? Anything special w/ cookie money?

I was wondering the same thing.

 

[kelann7]

My troop voted and decided to have a Build a Bear party. We are using cookie money and this will be our end of year party in May. I'm sure that they will all enjoy it.

Kelly

 

[Stacey012345]

In terms of end of year party, our troop voted on Build-A-Bear for their end of year event and it's in early June. It will be paid out of cookie money. Also, coming up shortly, with their cookie money as well, we are doing a service project by planting a garden plot with some large perennials in front of a historic home in our township. This is their cookie service goal as well as the 2nd piece of their flower garden journey.

Kelly -- in terms of lessons learned, I collected dues each meeting this year and people constantly just handed me cash and didn't put it in the requested envelope with their child's name. Times that by 10 and trying to keep tabs on who handed me what and who forgot and who owes....I already let everyone know I will be doing a one time dues collection at the start of next year. Will make my own life so much easier!

I, too, am looking forward to the summer break.

 

[Familyof4lovesDW]

We did our Build A Bear Party with cookie money and it went great! We have the gilrs a budget and if they went over they had to talk to the parents about the difference. I saw a lot of you were doing them and wanted to let you know that they accept coupons at their parties. I did not know that. One of our girls went over and her mom used the coupon to cover the difference. You can also use more than one coupon at a time. Did you see the Daisy Bunny? Half of our troop got that one. It is so cute. My DD got a Tinkerbell outfit for hers.

We are doing a end of year party at the leaders house. The troop is supplying the main dish (not sure what it is yet) and we are going to have the parents bring side dishes and the leader and I are doing dessert. We will give the girls a gift (something cute that is daisy hopefully marked down after Easter lol). We are going to give the parents a CD with all of the pictures we have taken that have their child in them. This way they can get them printed if they want and the troop does not have to pay for it.

We are doing an easter egg hunt and easter games at our next meeting. We are going to Camporee in May. It was interesting to see that other troops have a event called Camporee, too. We also have a Zoo trip planned with our cookie money. I am also glad the year is ending, since we have weekly meetings.

 

[Avonlady1001]

The Build-a-bear idea is cute! Our BAB doesn't have a party room & is in a mall. I don't that would work for us... We were thinking of doing something that was only us, nice & private...like a bounce house party or something like that. We need to make up our minds soon!! We only have 4 meetings left! I'm really looking forward to summer... LOL

I totally agree about the dues, Stacey012345! Same lesson learned here...apparently it is hard to put $4 in an envelope & write a name & date on it. (Even though I sent an email reminder before each meeting!!) I had a chart & checked off each girl as the $ was handed to me, so it wasn't too bad, but I, too, will be collecting in full at the beginning of next year. That's one thing I'm not dealing w/ again...It was also very chaotic at the beginning or end of each meeting dealing w/ all the hands shoving $ at me all at once.

 

[Stacey012345]

Familyof4lovesDW, did they accept the regular coupons on the party? More than one of them? For you paying or only if the parents added on and then they took coupons from the parents? Interesting...
Didn't see that Daisy Bunny, very cute, but wow, $18 alone without clothing. We're doing either of the $10 option bears for the girls along with the blue daisy vest for each girl and then the girls will get to choose their own skirt to finish the outfit, too. The patches for their vests and a matching smaller one for the bear's vest come with the party, too.

Avonlady1001, yup, dues was a big lesson but now we know. One of those wish I knew last year type things, but could be worse. Our Build-A-Bear is also in a mall without a private room, I think 99.99% of them are anyhow, but we're going on a weekday at 5 pm and the probability is it will be pretty empty.

 

[Familyof4lovesDW]

Familyof4lovesDW, did they accept the regular coupons on the party? More than one of them? For you paying or only if the parents added on and then they took coupons from the parents? Interesting...
Didn't see that Daisy Bunny, very cute, but wow, $18 alone without clothing. We're doing either of the $10 option bears for the girls along with the blue daisy vest for each girl and then the girls will get to choose their own skirt to finish the outfit, too. The patches for their vests and a matching smaller one for the bear's vest come with the party, too.

Avonlady1001, yup, dues was a big lesson but now we know. One of those wish I knew last year type things, but could be worse. Our Build-A-Bear is also in a mall without a private room, I think 99.99% of them are anyhow, but we're going on a weekday at 5 pm and the probability is it will be pretty empty.

Yes, one of the parents used her regular coupon to cover her overeage, which was collected when we made the payment for the party at the end. They acted like they would have taken other ones if we would have had them. When I went with my son on Friday (not a party) they let me use 2. Our BAB only had one vest, but had several browine outfit, which would be cute if you were bridging. Each girl got $30 to spend. Our BAB is in a mall, too, but we just went during our normal meeting time and it was not really busy. Our girls got the free Easter Baskets also along with the patch set.

We are having an easter party this week and getting ready for Camporee the next by making sit-a-pons and SWAPS. Have any of you made sit-a-pons? I think we are going to use foam for the filling, let them decorate while pillow cases and we will cover them with vinyl. We want to make a strap to close it and one to carry it. I was hoping some of you had made them and could give me some ideas of what works and what does not .

 

[skw444]

Have any of you made sit-a-pons? I think we are going to use foam for the filling, let them decorate while pillow cases and we will cover them with vinyl. We want to make a strap to close it and one to carry it. I was hoping some of you had made them and could give me some ideas of what works and what does not .

We made sit upons a couple of meetings ago. We got foam for the filling and took a vinyl tablecloth (we got a pretty pink plaid print) and cut it to go around the foam. Then we took pink duct tape and used it to close the seams.

 

[Stacey012345]

Yes, one of the parents used her regular coupon to cover her overeage, which was collected when we made the payment for the party at the end. They acted like they would have taken other ones if we would have had them. When I went with my son on Friday (not a party) they let me use 2. Our BAB only had one vest, but had several browine outfit, which would be cute if you were bridging. Each girl got $30 to spend. Our BAB is in a mall, too, but we just went during our normal meeting time and it was not really busy. Our girls got the free Easter Baskets also along with the patch set.

We are having an easter party this week and getting ready for Camporee the next by making sit-a-pons and SWAPS. Have any of you made sit-a-pons? I think we are going to use foam for the filling, let them decorate while pillow cases and we will cover them with vinyl. We want to make a strap to close it and one to carry it. I was hoping some of you had made them and could give me some ideas of what works and what does not .

Thanks for the info!

This may be a silly question, but I have never heard of sit-a-pons...I must be out of the loop. Can someone please describe and/or share a picture, I'm intrigued?
Thanks!

 

[Marshay]

Hi, Rae,

9th meeting Use Resources Wisely - green petal
need idea to make something from a recycled item

10th meeting World Thinking Day
Sister to every girl scout - violet petal
Need to decide on activity for this meeting

12th meeting Respect Myself & Others - purple petal
read the Book - I'm Gonna Like Me
Courageous & Strong - red petal
Need activity for both of these petals - hoping to do both at one meeting

Kelly

For the green petal we combined this with our Valentine's Day cards for the elderly residents at a local senior center. We were not allowed to buy anything new to make our Valentine's cards. Everyone had to bring stuff from their home (and we had plenty leftover). Crayons, ribbons, yarn, stamps, macaroni noodles, sequins, buttons, etc. It was funny some of the stuff the girls brought in but they made fabulous cards!

Now that we are getting close to the end of the year, I'm looking forward to a break for the summer. This year has been a learning experience for me - I learned A LOT - from this board and from talking to others. I think next year will be even better because I learned what works and what doesn't.

We have had some behaviorial issues - next year - first meeting - we are coming up with rules and consequences. I would do it now, but we only have 2 more meetings left and most of my group are moving up to Brownies next year and I'm staying with my daughter in Daisies for another year. I hate that we have a split troop with 2 grade levels because they won't stay together. I will only have a few coming back next year but we will hopefully get some new girls.

I hope to have more help next year from parents and I also hope to go to some council events.

Anyone want to share lessons learned of what worked for them?

Thanks.

Kelly

We collected all the money at the beginning of the year. I just didn't want to deal with money at each meeting.

Athough we didn't have behavioural issues, at the beginning of next year we will have the girls come up with the rules for GS and write them on poster board and bring to each meeting.

What are you all planning for end of the year? Anything special w/ cookie money?

We didn't sell cookies but are having an ice cream party.

We made sit upons a couple of meetings ago. We got foam for the filling and took a vinyl tablecloth (we got a pretty pink plaid print) and cut it to go around the foam. Then we took pink duct tape and used it to close the seams.

Great idea!! I think we'll plan to make one of these too, next year.

 

[Marshay]

Thanks for the info!

This may be a silly question, but I have never heard of sit-a-pons...I must be out of the loop. Can someone please describe and/or share a picture, I'm intrigued?
Thanks!

It's a cushion that you make so your booty is more comfortable when you are sitting...like those bleacher foam pads you see people bring to football games, etc.

We meet at the school in the hallway so there is no carpeting. A sit-upon would be nice.

 

[Familyof4lovesDW]

Thanks for the info!

This may be a silly question, but I have never heard of sit-a-pons...I must be out of the loop. Can someone please describe and/or share a picture, I'm intrigued?
Thanks!

A sit a pon is used for girls when they are camping or doing outdoor events. This way when the ground is wet, their bottoms do not get wet, because they are sitting on a sit a pon. If you google or bing it you will find several, different pictures and ideas to make them. I just wondered what has worked and has not for people who have made them. When I was a GS ours were not nice like they are now lol. Ours were folded up newspaper with constriction paper covered in plastic.

They would also work in a hallway as the pp mentioned. You could really use them anywhere.

I wonder if the bleacher seat people got their idea from GS? I know I made one long before bleacher seats lol.

 

[raestr]

Kelly,

We just went roller skating to earn our Red petal for Courageous and Strong.

"9th meeting Use Resources Wisely - green petal
need idea to make something from a recycled item"

For our Green Petal we made this cross for Easter that I saw on the internet. Here is the link:

http://www.makingfriends.com/recycle/egg_carton_cross.htm

I did not use the lace, just ribbon and a flower. I also used pink, yellow, blue and green egg cartons, so they were already Easter colors. I made 2 holes in each "end" of the cross to thread the ribbon through (used a nail for this). If you start at the bottom of the cross and thread up to the top, the part you tie off at the top can be used to hang your cross on a door or door knob. Then you thread the cross section and just tie it off on one side. I also read The Earth Book for this meeting.


I learned a lot this year and I can’t wait for summer. Truth be known, I would love for someone else to be the leader of my troop, but I don’t see that happening.

What I’ve learned this year:

1. My girls LOVE crafts. However, the simplest crafts can be very difficult for Kindergartners and 1st graders. GS frowns on “cookie cutter” crafts, but I think that is exactly what you need for this age group. We meet for 1 hour, which means we only have about 30 minutes to complete a craft. Anything more creative would require more time and I think 7:30 pm is late enough for these kids. As a result, I plan to place a large order for all expected crafts for next year through Oriental Trading. I have spent way too much time driving around town trying to collect parts for each week's craft project.

2. During the next cookie sale, I will only accept 2 checks from my parents. I will not collect 50 checks, a couple hundred dollars in cash, and about $15 in change at my meetings. I will collect one check when 50% of the money is due and one check for their balances at the end of the cookie sale. It took so much time at each meeting to count each person’s money and write them a receipt. Then I spent about 45 minutes recounting all of the money and completing the deposit slip the next day before making my deposit. You have to write the account number on EACH check and list EACH check on the back of the deposit slip. It will be much simpler to complete a deposit slip of just 7 checks. It will also eliminate any worries about bad checks.

3. I like reading a short book to my girls during snack time. This cuts down on rowdiness at the end of the meeting. They also don’t seem to make as big a mess with their snacks if I read a book. Clifford books, Little Critter books, etc. are good. Berenstain Bears are a little too long. The Earth Book was good for the Green Petal – Use Resources Wisely and Officer Buckle and Gloria was good for the Magenta Petal - Respect Authority.

4. Chatty parents take up too much meeting time. I am going to ask that if any parents have something they need to discuss with me, to email me and let me know and we will meet 15 minutes before the meeting, but we will start the meeting on time. I had a lot of trouble with this at the beginning of our troop. We started late in the year and very near cookie season and I spent a lot of time collecting money and answering questions during meetings. The girls would get very rowdy and we did not accomplish what I had planned to do for the meetings because I had spent so much time talking to parents. I do not want to spend time discussing things after meetings because, again, I feel that 7:30 pm is late enough for this age group (and I want to go home, too). I am going to try and be more firm about starting our meetings on time regardless of whether or not a parent has questions or someone is late to the meeting.

5. During cookie season, I am planning to do 3 booths next year. My booth rules will be:
No more than 4 girls present at a time. Since our booth sales run for 2 hours, 4 girls can work the first hour, and 4 different girls can work the 2nd hour if we have more than 4 who want to participate. There will only be 2 adults at the table with the 4 girls who are selling. That is 6 people standing around a small table of cookies. It is more than enough. Other parents are welcome to stay, they just need to step off to the side and not participate in the booth sale. If you have more than 2 parents, they tend to just stand around and talk with each other and not pay attention to selling the cookies.

No hand-held games are allowed at the booth sale. It did not occur to me to say this before our booth sale this year and one girl brought two DS games with her.

I want to assign each girl a “job” at the booth sale and they will rotate every 15 minutes. 2 girls will be “greeters”, 1 will mark down how many cookies a customer buys (we used one of the Council’s forms for this – by the way, this was the most popular “job”. They all wanted to mark down the cookies), & 1 girl can put the customer’s cookies in a plastic grocery bag. I highly recommend bringing plastic bags that you have collected from the grocery store or Walmart for your cookies. This is a “Green” thing you can do, too. "Green" is part of the theme for the 100th Anniversary year.

It has taken me a week to come up with this, so I think that's about it. I am anxious to see the new books for next year. Especially the mini stories about the Journey flowers that are suppose to help the girls earn their petals. I'm hoping the mini stories will be my new snack time stories. I really wish they wouldn't wait until fall for the leaders to see these items. It would be nice to plan out next year over the summer instead of having to come up with a fast plan next fall when the new troop year starts.

Rae

 

[Marshay]

Kelly,

What I’ve learned this year:

2. During the next cookie sale, I will only accept 2 checks from my parents. I will not collect 50 checks, a couple hundred dollars in cash, and about $15 in change at my meetings. I will collect one check when 50% of the money is due and one check for their balances at the end of the cookie sale. It took so much time at each meeting to count each person’s money and write them a receipt. Then I spent about 45 minutes recounting all of the money and completing the deposit slip the next day before making my deposit. You have to write the account number on EACH check and list EACH check on the back of the deposit slip. It will be much simpler to complete a deposit slip of just 7 checks. It will also eliminate any worries about bad checks.

5. During cookie season, I am planning to do 3 booths next year. My booth rules will be:
No more than 4 girls present at a time. Since our booth sales run for 2 hours, 4 girls can work the first hour, and 4 different girls can work the 2nd hour if we have more than 4 who want to participate. There will only be 2 adults at the table with the 4 girls who are selling.

I want to assign each girl a “job” at the booth sale and they will rotate every 15 minutes. 2 girls will be “greeters”, 1 will mark down how many cookies a customer buys (we used one of the Council’s forms for this – by the way, this was the most popular “job”. They all wanted to mark down the cookies), & 1 girl can put the customer’s cookies in a plastic grocery bag. I highly recommend bringing plastic bags that you have collected from the grocery store or Walmart for your cookies. This is a “Green” thing you can do, too. "Green" is part of the theme for the 100th Anniversary year.

Rae

thanks so much for your lessons learned here. Since we did not sell cookies this year, I will take your advice and do these for next year!