Daisy Girl Scout Leaders

[Familyof4lovesDW]

What other school supplies do you think we will need? I got 2 packs of markers, 2 bottles of glue, 5 glue sticks and 5 pairs of sissors. There was another daisy leader buting sissors at Target when i was there. They were only .51. I have construction, scrapbook, and wall paper. I also have long off white paper, tons of ribbon and misc stuff.

I have not heard about the 100 things, but we have a leader meeting this week so I should find out more. I have checked the products sales and I saw some new products. The prizes and patches are cute, too.

We are going to do the animal journey as we have already completed the other two and are planning an animal shelter visit and I am on the watch for free/cheep dog and cat food to have the girls donate when we go. So those of you working on the aminal journey, what do you have planned?

 

[TyTysMommy]

Do your troops wear the Beanie hat? I'm trying to decide whether it is needed or just another unnecessary thing to make the parents buy.

 

[Marshay]

Do your troops wear the Beanie hat? I'm trying to decide whether it is needed or just another unnecessary thing to make the parents buy.

No beanie hats here.

We just bought the tunic and patches/pins that were appropriate.

We don't do the journals either (will start the Girls Guide next year) since we do our own activities. This year we are doing "All About Me" a book we got from '5 Below' and are making activities around that, plus adding other things we want to address like bullying, community service, First Aid, families, holidays, etc

Some of the parents purchased a Daisy shirt or leggings which are neat but we don't require any of them.

Our first meeting for this year is on Wednesday -- I'm looking forward to it!

 

[MaidMarian]

We're doing the animal journey. We have several guest speakers-a vet, a zookeeper, a support dog handler and a dog rescuer. We're also doing a field trip to the zoo, a farm, an equine therapy center, bird sanctuary, nature center, and paricipating in a service project where we are going to make cat beds, toys, paint dog houses, etc. We are concentrating on how they can care for animals and themselves and others, both at home and in the community.

 

[Marshay]

We're doing the animal journey. We have several guest speakers-a vet, a zookeeper, a support dog handler and a dog rescuer. We're also doing a field trip to the zoo, a farm, an equine therapy center, bird sanctuary, nature center, and paricipating in a service project where we are going to make cat beds, toys, paint dog houses, etc. We are concentrating on how they can care for animals and themselves and others, both at home and in the community.

sounds wonderful!!!

 

[raestr]

We only do the tunic and the patches and pins that go with it. Uniforms are not required, per our council, so I phrase it like this on my troop information sheet:

Uniforms are not required. Should you wish to purchase a tunic/vest for your daughter to display her earned patches, here is price list:

And then I list the vest/tunic prices and all of the accompanying accessories that go on it. And of course, they always buy one.

Rae

 

[weluvjasmine]

I just confirmed that I will be a leader also. I have less than 10 girls from 4 different schools. I'm excited but scared.

 

[solstice621]

To Weluvjasmine:
Don't be scared! It's soooo much fun! You can be a little nervous - but don't be scared there is so much info here on the internet that it is super easy to plan meetings. And pair up with one of the moms from your troop maybe, and she can help co-lead. It is nice to have the help!


To those doing the animal journey: We are starting with that too. I don't have as many things planned as you guys. We are taking it month by month pretty much. I love the ideas for field trips, but what are you doing/discussing at your meetings? Or are the field trips your meetings?

So glad I checked back on this thread!

 

[kelann7]

I had my first meeting of the year. I have a LOT of new girls joining this year. We have a split group, which I don't particularly like, but we don't have enough adults who are willing to be leaders. Meaning that I had both Kinder and 1st graders in my troop last year. The 1st graders moved up to Brownies this year, but the Kinder stayed with me for Daisies for another year. The lady who was my co-leader last year is now the Brownie leader for the 9 girls that moved up. I was left with 5 girls, so I opened it up for more to join - I now have 18 girls - most are 1st graders, only 4 Kindergarteners, but 2 new moms who are my co-leaders. I just don't like how the same girls can't stay with the same troop and all move up together - because of the grade levels, I will get a new group every year.

Anyway, at the first meeting, we just did a getting to know each other meeting, since I have so many new girls. We made name tags and talked about the Girl Scout Promise and Law.

At my next meeting, we will start the Flower Garden Journey. We did not do a Journey last year, but we did earn all of the petals because I wanted the girls who were moving up to Brownies to have all of the petals. This year, we will do the petals again for the new girls with new activities - I won't repeat the activities we did last year, so that the 2nd year girls won't get bored and it will be a review for them.

I found this at Wal-mart (I hope the link below works)- it is a Mickey Garden Kit - it cost a little more than I wanted to spend - $10.00 each - but my love of Disney took over and I got each girl one so that they can each do a mini garden.
http://www.burpee.com/kids-gardening/disney-mickey-grow-garden-prod001894.html

Happy Girl Scouting!

Kelly

 

[MaidMarian]

At our meetings we're reading the stories in the animal journeys and discussing what each one means. We'll discuss how to care for animals and how to help our community. How we care for our selves and self esteem and confidence builders. Appreciating and celebrating our uniqueness. We'll be sending postcards to our international penpals and learning about animal mythology and yoga and oragami just like the flower friends do in their stories. We're also working on our Red Robin Project and our Bridging requirements, plus we're hosting a World Thinking Day at our school. We always do crafts and usually some dancing at all our meetings that tie in with what we're talking about

 

[TyTysMommy]

I'm thinking of doing a Pinkalicious themed fun party near the end of the school year. Its a great way to incorporate a fun party with teaching girls to be themselves and not give into peer pressure. I got some great party ideas from thinkpinkalicious.com. We will read some of the Pinkalicious books. They each have a moral to the story. I ordered Pinkalicious, Purplicious, Silverlicious, and Goldilicious books from walmart.com.

For a pink drink we could try to make it healthy and do Strawberry Quick (or red Kool Aid) mixed with a little water and frozen into an ice cube, then add them to milk at the party and watch the drinks turn pink as the ice cubes melt. The website suggested cranberry juice ice cubes in water. I think that wouldn't taste real great. It would be watered down. Maybe cranberry juice ice cubes in a clear drink like ginger ale or sierra mist...if your parents are ok with the girls drinking pop. If not, I like the milk idea.

 

[solstice621]

We had our 2nd meeting of the year last night. For the animal journey, the girls made their nests and we talked about the ways parents care for their kids, and the ways we can care for animals and how they are similar. We also talked about ways to keep the girls safe while caring for animals. I am struggling with "catching up" the new girls. Last year, we focused alot on the promise and what all the petals mean so the 2nd year girls have a much better understanding than the 1st year girls. I don't want to repeat anything, so I am struggling with this.

 

[solstice621]

And I forgot to mention...I gave out some fun patches last night, for events we had at the beginning of summer. I also had one for everyone that just says Daisies on it, so everyone got one. One of the girls was very upset that some of the others got more than her, but her mom chose for her not to attend the events the patches were for. You don't give patches to the girls who don't attend, right?

 

[Stacey012345]

And I forgot to mention...I gave out some fun patches last night, for events we had at the beginning of summer. I also had one for everyone that just says Daisies on it, so everyone got one. One of the girls was very upset that some of the others got more than her, but her mom chose for her not to attend the events the patches were for. You don't give patches to the girls who don't attend, right?

We only give patches to the girls who attend and participate. I give the patches at each event/meeting as they earn them. I feel like that eliminates confusion over who gets what, plus they get to enjoy the patches on their vests all year. But that said, no, the girls should only be getting patches if they are there and participating with the rest of the troop. The only exception to that is petal earning - if I have a girl absent when we earn a petal or part of the journey, we give a "make up" assignment to complete so they can earn it on their own with parent help. Oh, and at cookie time when different kids earn different patches/incentives/etc I always have some who don't even earn the patch and others who earn a ton, so I make it a point to hand them out to the parents at the end of a meeting so it's not a who got what type scenario....

 

[Stacey012345]

We had our 1st meeting last week which went well and they re-bonded by earning their purple petal (the 6th they have earned) by making posters all about themselves and sharing them with the group, talking about what they like and showing some pictures, and then talking about how everyone has different "likes" and it's important that you always choose things you like to do (everyone doesn't have to be the same...what makes us different makes us special) and the that you should always respect your own decisions about things you like as well as respect others and what they choose to like...it doesn't have to be the same as you. It's great to have friends who have different interests because you can all have fun and learn from each other. It was a nice lesson for the girls and a great way for them to re-acquaint after the summer.

We are replacing a lot of in room meetings this year with outings/events because we only have 4 petals left and 1 piece of our journey left to earn, so less in school time is needed and we can do more trips!!

Next week is our pumpkin patch/hayride/corn maze event. Last year we got rained out so this year I booked a place that has a rain or shine policy and if it rains they have a pumpkin patch in a greenhouse and they do Halloween stories and pumpkin picking/decorating and a few other activities, so they'll go either way.

After that, we have an Intro to Horses 2 hour event run by our council...the girls are excited about that one, too!

Then we'll circle back by early Nov for our next meeting.

 

[Marshay]

And I forgot to mention...I gave out some fun patches last night, for events we had at the beginning of summer. I also had one for everyone that just says Daisies on it, so everyone got one. One of the girls was very upset that some of the others got more than her, but her mom chose for her not to attend the events the patches were for. You don't give patches to the girls who don't attend, right?

In general, we don't give the girls who don't attend a patch, unless it is something they can make up outside of the meeting. Last year we baked muffins for the homeless and one girl was sick. We let her and her mom bake muffins and give them to an elderly neighbor instead. The mom and girl had to sit down and talk about ways to be Friendly and Helpful. We thought this was a fair way for her to still earn the petal, feel part of the "baking muffins" and also was easier for me as a leader!

 

[kelann7]

I had my second meeting this week. We started the Journey - Flower Garden. It was OK. We did the pages where they have to fill in the blank and then draw a picture. This was hard for this age group - some of them are just starting to read and write and spell. We had to tell them how to spell everything. With 18 girls and 3 leaders, this took longer than I thought it would. I think I would have rather just let them draw pictures and not worry about writing in the books. But they seemed to enjoy it. We also made pipe cleaner daisies. I'm waiting until the next meeting to plant the mini gardens.

Kelly

 

[mickimousemama]

Hello!
I haven't posted in a while! Last year I was a co-leader to my kindergarten Daisy troop, but the Leader quit so I am taking over this year! We had our family meeting last week which seemed to go well and we will be having our first meeting tomorrow night. We have 5 new girls joining us which gives me 15 girls! I opted not to buy the new guide books, because we already have our year planned out earning petals and we are going to do the 3 cheers for animals Journey, it will be our first Journey and I'm kind of excited! We will end our year with a trip to the zoo!!.
Anyhow, tomorrow we are going to start a "flat daisy" project. It's much like the story of Flat Stanley. I printed off some pictures I found and enlarged for the girls to color onto cardstock, I had them color them at the family meeting while the parents talked, and a few of them still have to finish tomorrow night, then I will cover them with clear contact paper to protect them a little. I wrote off a little story about how their Daisy ended up flat, and am working on an introduction letter. I'm going to include a little journal/scrapbook with each Flat Daisy when I mail them off. I was wondering if any of you would be interested in having a Flat Daisy visit your troop? if you think you might feel free to PM me! I'm hoping that each Flat Daisy can visit troops in other areas! We are from southern Minnesota!
Thanks so much!
~Micki

 

[mickimousemama]

sorry double post!

 

[raestr]

We had our 4th meeting and Investiture/Rededication meeting on Monday night. We started our Daisy Flower Garden Journey a couple of weeks ago and planted our mini garden in a plastic Folgers can (being able to put a lid on it worked out great!). I bought some herb seeds at Dollar Tree at the end of summer and each girl planted a few in the can.

After the girls drowned the seeds at our last meeting, I was skepticle they would sprout, but they did! The girls were so excited when I showed them the sprouts. At Monday's meeting, I decided to just let them spray the sprouts with a small water bottle instead of watering them with a watering can. That worked much better and they were all able to take a turn. We did not read Chapter 2 of the Journey at Monday's meeting, but we did read the story of Lupe from the Girls Guide to Girl Scouting, so the girls earned their blue petal, too. I really like the Flower Friend stories for earning the petals.

We are also participating in the Fall Product sale, so it is a lot going on when you are earning Journey awards, earning petals, selling Fall products, and trying to do some events outside the meetings. We aren't going to do very much with the the 100th anniversary other than the council sponsored events (they can earn some of the badges at these events) There are just too many anniversary badges to earn.

At our next meeting, I will be collecting Fall Product items and we will go over Chapter 2. We are also going to make this cute fingerprint bumblebee craft I got from Oriental Trading. I thought it was perfect for Chapter 2 of the Daisy Flower Garden Journey.

http://www.orientaltrading.com/thumbprint-bumblebee-craft-kit-a2-48_9762-12-1.fltr?Ntt=bumblebee

Rae