Before the first meeting, I purchased colored plastic beads and some stretchy elastic cord. My youngest helped me separate the beads by color (no small task!).
Then I made a list of the colors (based upon the Daisy petal colors), and experimented some with how many beads were needed to make a bracelet that would fit an average child-sized wrist. What we ended up with were three dark blue (for three aspects of Girl Scout Promise) then two of each Daisy petal color (for aspects of the Law, two of each because "one for how I treat myself; one for how I treat others"), and three white beads in to separate as we went, to reaffirm the three aspect of the Promise again.
You can do it however you like, though. That just ended up being easiest for me.
I made a list of the order for the colors, and then pulled out the correct number of beads, along with a pre-cut length of elastic, and put them into little Ziplocs, one for each child.
At the meeting (after our initial housekeeping tasks like the Pledge, snack, etc.), we taped one end of the elastic to the table (easier than trying to one end up, since the holes on the beads were big):
We provided sheets for them to reference on the table as well, for the right order.
Group Discussion/Five Steps:
But before we did the craft, while the girls were eating their snack, we talked about the Girl Scout Promise and Law. The point of this meeting (our second one -- the first was our Bridging Ceremony) was to review what we learned in Daisies. I made five points for discussion (going back to the five steps required for each badge in Brownies), and we multitasked during snack by talking about these:
1. What does "promise" mean? (Doing what you say you will do.) What are some examples of promising something? What are the consequences of keeping or breaking promises?
2. What does "strive" mean? (To try really, really hard!)
3. How important it is to live by the Law in how you treat yourself.
4. How important it is to try to live by the Law in how you treat others.
5. Pick an aspect of the Law that is challenging for you and strive to work on it between now and our next meeting.
Then we set up for the craft. The girls really enjoyed making their bracelets! The adult volunteers on hand were great and helped the girls with the beads and tying off the bracelets initially (most were able to tie them themselves).
After the girls were finished, we handed out notecards and colored pencils. We had each girl write on a card something she loves -- could be anything at all. But not to put their names on there.
Then we collected the cards, because they will be part of a later meeting (more info to come!).
By then it was time to go, so we packed up and headed out!
(Part two, coming soon!)
Hi - I just wanted to say that you are so amazing! I know you've already heard this a million times so I wasn't going to post any comment initially. But I just had to acknowledge that thanks to your inspiring and thorough information, our 1st grade girl scouts troop thinks we just might be able to make it through the year. Like you we did not start out with a Kindergarten troop so accomplishing all of this in one year was so intimidating. We now have a pathway forward and I just love your posts. I can't tell you how grateful I am.
ReplyDeleteI am wondering...You mentioned that you have 2 children...Are you going to head up a troop for the little one in the future?
Peace from Chicago
Gosh, you're so welcome and yes, comments like this are so encouraging to me! Because I know how overwhelming it is, especially given that every troop is different (how often you meet, number of girls, etc.). So being able to follow the guidelines set by GS can be difficult at times.
DeleteAnyway, yes, I do have another daughter and next year she starts Kindergarten, so I will be leading two troops (yikes!). Here's how I'm going to do it (hopefully):
Our current troop meets the first and third Friday of the month (except for when school is on break). Next year we will drop down to meeting once a month, which is fine. A lot of troops only meet once a month. But we needed to meet twice a month (IMO) in first grade in order to accomplish earning all our petals (which I felt was really important. Others may not. That's okay!).
For Daisy troops who only meet once a month, but start in Kindergarten, my Daisy Petals outline can still work. You can still accomplish one petal per meeting, but spread it over two years instead of one. :)
Anyway, we continued with twice a month meetings for this year's Brownies mainly because I wanted to continue having that third-Friday-of-the-month meeting slot at our school, to save it for next year.
Because next year we'll have third grade Brownies meeting the first Friday, and Kindergarten Daisies meeting the third Friday.
That way I'm still doing roughly the same amount of work in terms of number of meetings, and still keeping with the current meeting schedule for me.
The biggest challenge will be regarding Service Unit activities, honestly. Because they sometimes split Daisies and Brownies. And I'll need to be at both. SO that's where I'l be relying upon my co-leader(s)! And then there's camp. I'm not sure how that will work, since both my girls will want to be in the tent/cabin/whatever with me (and I, with them!).
So we'll just have to play that one by ear and hope for the best.
In the interim, my very loose plan for Brownies next year is to work on more longer-arching badges, if that makes sense: whatever Legacies we have left, maybe a Journey, and/or Make Your Own(s). Since we're dropping to once a month, it makes it harder for girls who may miss a meeting. But if the badges we're working on take more than one meeting, it will be easier for them to catch up.
Anyway, that's the plan. :) We shall see if it works out as well as I'm hoping!
Have you done part 2 yet
ReplyDeleteI have! It is here: http://troopleadermom.blogspot.com/2013/10/brownies-girl-scout-way-part-two.html
ReplyDeleteWhat did the girls/your troop do with the cards that they wrote down something they loved on? I couldn't find where you used those? I am really interested in what you did with them! I love your site! We have a combined daisy/brownie troop and i love the ideas you have! I also love that it's coming from a teacher!
ReplyDeleteThe original plan was to use them at the next meeting, but we had to make some changes. I still have the cards, and plan to use them at some point down the road as a backup activity. It is likely at this point we will save them for an end of the year item, where we can play a game to see if the girls remember which ones they did, and then mix them and have the girls try to guess whose is whose. :) This was one of those things that we weren't able to finish in the time allotted, and I felt wasn't a necessity to finish up, compared to other activities hat were specifically badge-related. Does that make sense?
Delete