Daisies: Orange Petal, Plus Brownies & Daisies: Cookies Part Two--Sales

For our sixth troop meeting we focused on learning about Being Responsible for What I Say and Do, and this was a nice tie-in to our cookie sale introduction to the girls, as well.

We talked about what it means to be responsible, by doing what we say, cleaning up after ourselves, etc. Then we asked the girls about "helpful" words versus "hurtful" words.

Every child was given two hearts (I printed these out and cut the pages in half to save on paper):

You can choose to do whatever you'd like with this, but since we had a lot to cover in one meeting, we went with simply having them write their names in each heart.

Then I told them to take one page (with one heart) and wad it up as tightly as they could. Then to try to straighten it back out. We compared the two papers: one heart was still smooth with no marks; the other showed marks, no matter how much we tried to straighten it out.

Always remember to use helpful, kind words to each other. Because the hurtful ones leave marks on our hearts. (Simple, but hopefully effective way to illustrate being responsible for what we say.)

During snack, we read the Mari story from our Daisy blue book, and talked about making responsible choices in our actions, and following through with what we say we'll do.

Note: If we not hadn't needed to talk about cookie sales, we would've spent more time with crafts and related activities on other aspects of being responsible. However, we needed to segue into cookie sales, and goal-setting seemed the ideal way to do it.

So, after snack, we talked about cookie sales. We explained a little about how it worked, how our troop receives money for every box sold, which is how we pay for crafts, etc. (Our troop doesn't require dues, so we rely heavily on cookie sales. Hopefully after our end-of-the-year party, this will leave us with enough money left over for next year so we can get by without requiring dues again!)

I showed them their COOKIE CONTRACT:

We stressed that a big part of being responsible is to set a goal and do your very best in following through. While our troop goal may be a set number of boxes per child, we are asking every girl to take this form home to her parent(s) and go over it as a family/partnership. We want them to create a personal goal that is realistic, as opposed to assigning them a goal. And to have the support needed to reach that goal.

The parents are aware of our troop goal, and that the only way we can reach this is by averaging a certain box number per girl, but we have stressed that no one will be looked down upon for not reaching the average goal.

It's a challenge as a troop leaders, to praise those who will go far beyond exceeding goals, while still being as encouraging to those who are/were not able to. But it's doable, with lots of love, and not a little distraction. At least I hope!

One way to handle it is to find small patches (check online resources or your local craft/fabric shop) that can be "fun" patches for the back of their vest. That way, even girls who did not sell any cookies at all, but did attend the meetings during cookie season, will still feel rewarded. (As opposed to the limit of selling X number of boxes to earn an initial patch.)

Keep in mind too, about the monetary leaves/patches that can be earned. More information to come on those! :)

So, while reaching our goal will allow us to have an end of the year party (at a location the girls will vote upon), there will be parents who will not want/be able to participate. We understand that. But the girls should not be penalized for parents who cannot participate. So we are giving these parents the option to pay out of pocket for their child to attend the party if selling cookies is a burden to them (and of course, we will cover any who are financially unable to do so themselves).

However, we will do our best to ensure it all averages out, so the girls who did work very hard to go above and beyond will receive the reward they deserve, in addition to personal GS incentives.

But at this age, I'm okay with allowing those who didn't put forth the effort (due to non-parental involvement) to participate. If we cannot all go, we will all do something different.

Once they are older, and able to take responsibility for selling the cookies with less parental assistance, well, that changes things. ;) But for six-year-olds? Yep, everyone participates in our end of the year party, no matter what it will end up being.

Bottom line: Using a Cookie Contract with parents can introduce the concept of reasonable goal, encourage doing their best to reach that goal (both girls and parents), and reward all for trying. If we cannot meet our overall goal, we have secondary rewards planned (smaller end of the year party), and of course, personal incentives from Girl Scouts itself.

The final craft we did was a door hanger for door-to-door calls (template also in earlier post for those who missed it):

We cut them out and gave each girl several, then cut thin green ribbons to form large loops, and included foam stickers (hearts, flowers, etc. -- available at large box/craft stores) to hold the loop in place on the back.

Daisy Friendship Circle, song, and that was that! :)

We didn't get to this in the meeting, but here's the coloring page we sent home with them for this petal:

I printed it out in black and white, for easier coloring.

Brownies & Daisies: Cookies Part One—Intro and Parents

It's that time of year, when the weather's turned cool, the holidays are winding down, and my oh my, the Girl Scout Cookie Sale is about to kick off!

Yum. I'm hungry already! Don't these look divine?

Do you remember Sunshine Bakery? They used to make a cookie called Lemon Coolers. I loved those things. And then they stopped making them. :( So sad. They were so good!

But then last year, I stumbled across the Girl Scouts' Savannah Smiles cookies.

THEY ARE SO GOOD! They taste just like Lemon Coolers. Happy, happy me. :) I'm going to buy a bunch this year. We ran out way too soon last year.

Anyway. So, to cookie training. . . . I admit, I wasn't feeling terribly confident about it, because our troop's "Cookie Mom" had to reneg at the last minute due to other commitments. It just reminded me how vital it is for a troop leader to be as flexible as possible, and not be afraid to ask for help. :) Because I'm going to need it! Thankfully, my co-leader offered to store the cookies at her house and help handle distribution. That left me with paperwork, money, and training, etc.

I can do it.

But just like with learning how to be a Troop Leader, I needed to learn how to be the Cookie Mom.

For those of you lucky enough to have a Cookie Mom, she should attend your Troop Leader meeting with you, and the two of you should work together with your co-leader in delegating duties, etc.

While I'm sure it varies, for us, there was a Troop Leader meeting where we received a crash course in cookie sale information, and all our paperwork, including copies of the same packets parents receive, and instructional pamphlets on ordering, distribution, setting up booth(s), money organization, and online resources for keeping track of it all.

I was quite impressed with our Council's setup, to be honest. But it was still a bit overwhelming. For first-timers (like me), it's so important to make use of your resources, including your Service Unit and Council contacts, for questions and help. (And take lots of notes at your meeting! You won't regret it.)

A couple of things to keep in mind:

Streamline important information for parents.

Not all parents will read their packet thoroughly. Or they may, but it's nice to have dates streamlined for them. On the inside cover of ours, there are some spaces for important dates, etc., but not all. So I typed up a letter to parents, highlighting ALL the important dates, as well in including information regarding our troop's goal.

I stapled this to the inside cover of each parent's booklet. It is basically a cheat sheet for important dates. Made things easier on all of us. :)

One thing to keep in mind is that it is always better to give parents dates that are earlier than your actual due dates, to anticipate those who might have issues getting their orders and/or funds to you on time.

We have a parents-only meeting scheduled before our next troop meeting, so we can go over all the information, but by typing up all the important dates on one sheet, and including some information regarding our troop goal and cookie booth, this allows parents added convenience, and it also can help reduce confusion down the road.

At the parent meeting I can answer questions they may have as well as collect permission slips (which MUST be turned in before orders can be taken, and you should save your permission slips and all paperwork related to cookie sales for at least six months after the sale ends).

Establish goals:

At the meeting we can talk about our highest goal for troop sales, as well as come up with options for secondary goals to give as choices to the girls, should we not meet our top one.

While there are individual incentives for cookie sales that Girl Scouts already provides, our troop reward will not exclude any child who's unable to meet the overall goal average of 50+ boxes per child. If we have an average of 50+ then we will have our party at Build-A-Bear (no, they aren't paying me to use their name or anything; it's just a cute place for us to take the girls, plus they have Daisy GS outfits for the bears!). If not, then we will have some other kind of party elsewhere (even if it's just a choice between cupcakes or ice cream, at our regular meeting place), and try to give the girls as much input as we can in that.

But we've figured out how much it costs to go to Build-A-Bear and how much we need to retain in our account for future crafts, activities, etc. It doesn't do us much good in terms of earning all the money and blowing it in one fell swoop. We need to teach the girls about saving money too!

But for now, the important thing is getting everyone started, and getting the parents on board.

Edit: Once you get the initial order from everyone, you can provide a list of viable activities/rewards for the girls to vote on. Looks like the bouncy/jumping party place might win out over Build-A-Bear for our troop's end of the year party!

The first step is going over all the paperwork with parents, especially money stuff.

Explain why we do it. That it helps prevent or offset dues, for one. That it helps the girls learn about personal responsibility, money, setting goals, etc. Go over all the safety guidelines and paperwork.

And speaking of paperwork, in your packet there should be some receipt books. USE THESE! Anytime a parent picks up cookies, count and double count the boxes/cases, and have the parent sign a receipt for them. Same with money collection. Keep a paper trail of everything, including any communication you have with parents regarding money. That way if there are any problems with parents turning in their cookie funds, you have it all well-organized should you need to turn the issue over to your Council for resolution.

Decide if you'll accept checks.

In our troop, we have opted not to accept any checks from anyone other than a troop parent. Individual parents may choose to accept checks, but we are asking each troop parent to write a (post-dated, if necessary) check for the total amount of her initial order once she picks up her cookies.

This allows parents the convenience of not having to drop off funds constantly as we go between when cookies arrive and when the initial debit is made to our account.

Booths, blinging, and phone debit scanners:

Decide if you'll have a booth, and what all is involved in "blinging" it up. Attend training (if available and/or necessary) for using a phone credit/debit card scanner. This can be a WONDERFUL tool, especially for booth sales! And it helps balance things out if you're unwilling to accept personal checks.

Booth blinging: Check out Pinterest for ideas! There are some awesome ones out there. Reuse anything you can from prior activities (for instance, we have a nice wooden sign from our scarecrow that we can reuse for our booth!). There are TONS of ideas online for how to attract attention. Just keep in mind that it should be fun, should not leave a mess behind, and should involve the girls.

Customers:

Online social networks (for parents of Daisies, obviously; see rules regarding ages and online safety at the GS site and in your Cookie Sales paperwork)
Email
Workplace (always check to make sure it's allowed)
Church
Neighborhood
Family/Friends
etc.

Girl Scout Cookies are one of the few solicited items that seem to be met with acceptance across the board, but spam is still spam, so try not to go overboard if you can help it. ;) Regardless, it's very important to maintain your child's safety at all times when taking cookie orders. For instance, I've seen online templates for door hangers that instruct you to leave your child's name and troop number.

Some people may not have an issue with this, but I prefer having the parent's name on there instead, just to be safe.

Here's a template that you can use:

You can print on regular paper, cut out, and instruct parents/girls to tape to doorknobs (never tape onto painted doors), or put in between screen/front door. Or you can print on card stock, get some ribbon and a foam sticker, and make a loop from the ribbon, using the foam sticker to adhere it to the back of the hanger. Then hang it on the doorknob if no one's home.

Does it matter to customers to have a girl's name versus a parent's? I don't see why it would, especially since your child will be the one to leave the hanger, and the one to hand-deliver the cookies when they arrive.

And your child is the one who benefits from the money earned. :)

Stay in uniform!

If weather permits, have your daughter wearing her Daisy vest when you are out together taking orders, working the booth(s), and delivering cookies. See your cookie packet info for details on behavior, but the bottom line is that she should remember the GS law and act according to it. So should you.

That's it for now. More to come!

Daisies: Light Green Petal

Today we worked on being Considerate & Caring. We also worked on a craft that I'm hoping will go along well with a Journey Badge for taking care of animals, from Three Cheers for Animals.

This meeting was our last before holiday break, so it worked out really well to work on being Considerate & Caring.

Here's what I told the girls:

Now, you might think there's not a lot of difference between being considerate & caring, and being friendly & helpful. But there is!

There are many things you can do to be helpful – you can help at home, or help your friends, but when you are being considerate, you are putting someone else's feelings in front of your own. You are considering – thinking of – their feelings. And when you are being caring, you are showing someone that their feelings matter to you, and if they are sad or hurting or in need, you can help.

And it's not just about your family and friends. It's not just showing your mom or dad or grandma or brother or sister that you think their feelings are important. It's also helping to care for others, people you don't even know who may need help, or who may not have anyone to care for them.

A lot of times during the holidays you might see Toys for Tots boxes, or Salvation Army people with their red buckets and ringing bells. You might see people bringing groceries to school to help give to other people who may need help.

And the holidays are a wonderful time for people to be considerate and caring. They are a wonderful time to remind us that we should always try to help others, but Girl Scouts don't stop at the holidays. We do this all the time! We should always be willing to help out someone in need, and to think of other people's feelings.

So if there are ways for you to be considerate, to be caring, you should do it. And it doesn't have to be with just people, even! It can be with the environment, like not littering, and trying to always recycle when we can, and caring for animals, as well. We can help care for the animals in our world like Juliette Low said to do. . . .

  

My co-leader gave an example of how a woman in line at the store let her go ahead, because she had fewer items to buy. That was being very considerate! We asked the girls to come up with ideas on how they can be and have been considerate of others.

Then we talked some more about being caring, and how Juliette Low said that all Girl Scouts are friends to animals, even (and especially) wild ones. And one way we can be caring is to help make birdfeeders for the birds. This is a great craft (though a bit messy), and works well with the Journey Birdbath patch.

CRAFT:

Here is an easy set of directions on how to do it: http://crafts.kaboose.com/pine-cone-bird-feeder.html

What you'll need (this was for our troop of 18; adjust as needed):
1. Decent-sized pinecone per child
2. Two large jars of peanut butter (natural is best!)
3. Paper plates for each child
4. Plastic spoons or dull knives for spreading
5. Paper towels for cleanup
6. Sturdy paper bags or gallon Ziplocs (we had two)
7. Roll of twine
8. Scissors
9. Paper bag each to take home
10. Birdseed (check the ingredients; you'd be surprised to find some birdseeds have artificial ingredients, blech!)

Spread peanut butter on the pinecones, then pour some birdseed in a Ziploc. Drop pinecone in, seal, and shake. Tie twine around pinecone and make a loop to hang. Ta-da! Instant birdfeeder! (Image from the wonderful internet. Our pinecone was eaten up too fast to get a good picture!)

ACTIVITY:

Next up I'd planned to have the girls make holiday cards for us to take caroling with us to a local retirement home. But the weather was just so nice, I opted to take them outdoors for a scavenger hunt instead. Yes, the card-making would've been a better fit for the petal we were working on, but the weather's getting colder and I wanted to take advantage of it while we could! See? Flexible. It's a good thing.

I'd made up the supplies beforehand as a backup just in case. I'm so glad I did!

I got the idea from this site: http://howtonestforless.com/2012/07/24/nature-scavenger-hunt-for-the-kids-free-printable/

The author has free printables! I did alter the check-off list slightly though, to add "keep it or leave it," etc.

Here's the nametag printable:

The girls had a great time! I printed out the check-off sheets and name tags (used Chalkduster font; I am not a fan of Comic Sans, but like this one), glued the names to paper bags, put a marker in each, and off we went to the playground!

There was no reward, and while I'd planned on them working in teams, we ended up just letting them do what they wanted. It was easy and fun. :)

EXTRAS:

I'd also made holiday goody bags ahead of time. Not all the girls celebrate Christmas (some are Jewish, etc.), so I made the bags very generic. I used snowflake cellophane bags, and filled them with mini-snowflake bubbles, small butterfly rings (Target party favor aisle), snowflake ruler/bookmarks, various candies, Girl Scout recycled pencils, GS holiday pencils, and two patches -- this one:

 . . . and a "Happy Holidays 2012" snowman one (which is no longer available from that site). We had two girls join our troop after I'd already ordered the patches, so I went to the local Council store and bought some fun holiday patches there. Now I know to always order extras, just in case!

Also, while it's nice that patches from online sites like Patch Sales are inexpensive, keep in mind they may not be iron-ons.

Check your local Council store, too, for clearance items! Sometimes ours has fun patches on clearance.

The girls loved goody bags, had a great meeting, and the next week we went caroling at the retirement home.

Next up? Cookies! My, oh my, what a time that will be! More to come. . . .

Daisies: Yellow Petal

This meeting we worked on our yellow petal for being Friendly & Helpful. First off, we talked about different ways to be friendly. I asked each girl to name one way to be friendly, and we went all the way around until someone said, "Always say 'please' and 'thank you'" and then I paused and said, "Yes! And we'll get back to that in just a minute."

We finished up letting everyone who wanted have a turn with a suggestion, then went back to the "please" and "thank you" one.

As part of earning one of their Brownie badges, another troop had made Happy Birthday cards for our girls, to celebrate Juliette Low's birthday. To work on our own yellow petal badge, we made Thank You cards for each of the girls in the Brownie troop (this would work well for Being a Sister to Every Girl Scout -- violet petal -- as well).

We talked about the importance of always saying "thank you," whether it be in person or in writing. Since the girls from the Brownie troop weren't there in person, we were making them thank you cards. Our girls used foam stickers and markers on construction paper.

During snack, my co-leader read the girls a story about helping your friends, and working together. Afterwards, we passed out more construction paper, pencils, markers, and scissors, and had the girls make "Helping Hands."

After tracing the hands and cutting them out, the girls colored them and wrote "A Daisy Was Here" on each one.

The girls put the hands in their folders to take home (each made at least three), with the assignment of doing helpful things around the house, and leaving a handprint where the helpful deed was done. Once all three hands had been used, the yellow petal could be ironed onto her vest!

Before the meeting ended, we scrubbed the tables really, really well and left a big handprint drawing on the board with a note, "Daisies were here!" for the art teacher, whose room we use as our meeting place.

Doing extra things like this helps show the girls to always clean up after themselves (and leave things even cleaner than we found them), to say thank you, and help someone who's been kind enough to do something nice for us.

**A personal note**

Girl Scouts has a wonderfully comprehensive approach for Daisies in the blue book and Journey books, and of course these are designed in accordance with Juliette Low's ideals (see below); the point as we go is not to earn badges as rewards, but to become proficient in these skills and wear the badges to show others they can rely on us to have those skills.

However, when you're dealing with five-, six-, and seven-year-olds, immediate gratification and tangible rewards can be much easier concepts for them to grasp than the notion of skill mastery.

In other words, showing what a "smart" girl you are can be a very good tool and reminder in helping the youngest Girl Scouts along the way towards understanding mastery. It doesn't have to be a "better than" approach (as in "I have X number of patches, thus am 'better than so-and-so'"). It can just simply be an "earned reward" one.

Don't forget, Juliette Low also said this (in reference to another mom asking about Girl Scouts): "Why should my daughter be a Girl Scout? FUN!"

So the point in the end is to prepare the girls, but the manner in which we're doing this is to frame it within FUN! And part of the fun is earning badges. Not just to show the world that she is prepared to help and give aid, but that she has completed steps necessary to earn a reward. At this age, the reward is a key factor, and while it may not be as important for some of the girls as the fun (or there may be an equal importance), it can be quite valuable.

Plus, this age is more about helping them memorize and understand the Girl Scout Law: setting the foundation for being prepared, gaining mastery, and continued work on individual responsibility. So we have petals representing each to help with this, but always in a (hopefully) fun way. This prepares them for Brownies and later stages.

While the stories and activities suggested in the official Girl Scout literature may be a perfect fit 100% of the time for many troops, it may not be for yours every single time, and that's okay. You adapt as needed, to meet the needs of your girls, and the situation and environment your troop is in. You make it as fun as you can, and (in my personal view) it's fine to have the badges be viewed as rewards, as long as it's not a competition, nor pointing out one child's accomplishments over another's in a way that can alienate anyone in the troop.

So don't be afraid to veer off slightly from the Girl Scout curriculum, as long as you are meeting your troop's needs, and at the same time instilling in the girls the lessons associated with each skill and petal represented by it.

Daisies: Blue Petal

Since we went out of order and did the red petal before the blue (see this post here on why, and what that meeting entailed), our third meeting focused on the "first" petal: the light blue one, for being Honest and Fair.

Before we started working on the blue petal, though, I wanted a quick review of the red one, which is about being Courageous and Strong.

I told them I'm not a very good singer, and sometimes singing in front of other people makes me nervous or a little scared. But because we all have earned our red petal and we know Girl Scouts are Courageous and Strong, I was going to sing a song for them, but maybe they could help a little?

And I taught them this song (thank you, GS of SD for posting a version online!):



After I'd sung it once, I had them all sing along (we didn't do the Daisy Circle for it; we waited until the end of the meeting for that and sang it again).

Then we moved on to the blue petal.

Most of the online resources I had found beforehand focused on the aspect of being Honest, and while many did give suggestions on addressing the Fairness aspect, I didn't feel they were the best fit for our group.

Most of the girls in our troop are six-years-old (a few have turned seven). If we were dealing with younger Daisies, I might've approached this petal a little differently.

As it is, though, these girls have a pretty good grasp on what it means to be honest, and why it's important to tell the truth. Instead of reading The Boy Who Cried Wolf, which many sites suggest, I just asked the girls why they felt it was important to always be honest. They didn't need that story. They'd heard it before. Since honesty was something they had a good grasp on already, we spent the bulk of the meeting covering Fairness. But not in a way you might suspect. . . .

Many online sites suggest activities like giving the girls an unequal number of treats, then talking about being fair, and then giving a treat to those who were left out.

I wasn't comfortable with this for a number of reasons:

1. It makes some of the girls feel left out (rightfully so) from the get-go. To me, that's not ideal at this age.
2. It ties the concept of Fairness to material objects only. But being fair goes beyond things; I wanted to focus on actions (and perhaps more importantly, reactions) as well.
3. Sometimes things aren't fair, or sometimes they are, but they don't feel fair. I wanted to give the girls a way to respond in that situation.

But the challenge for me was to keep things simple, because they are quite young still, while also focusing on this concept in a manner I was comfortable with.

After we finished talking about honesty, I stood in front of them and asked, "Has anyone here ever felt like something wasn't fair? Has anyone here ever done this?" and I stomped my foot, put my hands on my hips, and whined very loudly, "THAT'S NOT FAIR!" (I over-exaggerated, so it was a little funny, but at the same time, familiar. I'm pretty sure they've all done this. All kids at some point have. At least mine have.)

Then I said again, "Has anyone ever felt this way?" and I raised my hand to show I have.

Immediately the girls' hands shot up in the air.

I lowered my voice, almost to a whisper (this is a great trick -- they will be extra quiet to listen, in most cases) and said, "I'll tell you a secret . . . Girl Scouts don't do that."

They all stared at me.

I said, "Instead of stomping our feet and saying 'THAT'S NOT FAIR!' Girl Scouts stop and think of a way to make it feel fair."

Then I had two girls come up and asked them their favorite colors. One was purple; the other was gold. I gave a pretend example of what if the first one had a gold crayon and the second had a purple, and each wanted to use the other's crayon. Instead of saying "THAT'S NOT FAIR!" what could they do to make it fair?

My Daisies knew the answers immediately: "SHARE!" "TAKE TURNS!"

Yep. I reiterated Girl Scouts look for a solution to the problem. I also tried to let the girls come up with the answers themselves.

So while I wanted to introduce the concept of fairness beyond material things, I still had to use a scenario involving (imaginary) things to get the point across. But, my focus wasn't on everyone gets the same. My focus was on not whining about things feeling unfair, but acting on making them feel fair.

Our first craft was this coloring page, because it tied into the larger craft we were going to do after snack:

While they were coloring, I asked them to describe what they saw in the picture. It's tough to interact with the kids while they're doing crafts, so keeping it down to simple questions, or walking around and asking a few at a time, seems to help.

They described what they saw, and I repeated the answer loudly enough for all to hear, "Oh, they're making friendship bracelets? They're sharing their beads?"

They all responded, "Yes!"

I said, "Is that something YOU would like to do?"

"YES!" they cried.

I smiled and said, "Great! Because after snack, that's what we're going to do!"

And we did. Beforehand, I'd gathered enough small, colorful, wooden beads for each girl to have 18 (which were more than they'd need for bracelets, but I wanted extras just in case). I had a variety of colored strings, and had already tied one end and attached a small bead, to keep the beads from sliding off, when they started making their own. I'd separated the beads and strings so they were in groups of three and four (we have 16 girls total in our troop, but three were out that day). I used Chinese take-out plastic containers to hold them, so the beads could live in the bowl part or the lid. (Good way to show reusing in action, too!)

Because we'd already talked about sharing, and not fussing when things don't feel fair, there were minimal incidences of girls wanting something another girl had. In each (slight) case, we reminded them about Girl Scouts being fair, and to find a way to work it out so everyone was happy. I'm very proud to say they did. :)

The bracelets turned out great, and the moms helped tie the bracelets for the girls.

After craft cleanup, I read them the Lupe story from the blue Daisy book. (Note: Lupe is pronounced "LOO-pay," and Lupine is pronounced "LOO-pin," because it's the flower/noun, not the adjective.)

It's hard sometimes, to read a story aloud to kids. But the more animated you can be, the more into it you are, the more into it they will be. Don't be afraid to really throw yourself into whatever it is you're doing with your girls. They will LOVE it.

Anyway, this is a cute little story and touches on both being fair, and being honest. Afterward we talked about what if Lupe had made different choices, and what that would mean, etc.

The girls got it. And because this meeting fell on a week where so much was going on at school, there were no take-home activities required to earn this petal. At the end, I had them all stand and say they promised to try very hard to always be Honest and Fair, as a Girl Scout should be. They did. And with that, they'd earned their petal. :)

I included this coloring page (from this site) in their take-home folders, because we didn't have time to do it in the meeting (if we'd had time, it would've been after the story). I attached a note that they were not required to do it, but were welcome to, if they wanted.

And that's it for meeting number three!

Brownies & Daisies: Some Helpful Links and Online Resources

Here are some helpful links I've found thus far online (in very random order). I'll be editing this as I go, so check back often!  (You can also view some of my prior posts for more.)

Special thanks to other online troop leaders who've shared their experiences, ideas, and resources. :)

In addition to the main Girl Scout site and your own local Council site, check out Pinterest (just search for Girl Scouts or Daisies among Boards section) for ideas.

CRAFT/ACTIVITY/INFO RESOURCES:

Printable Daisy Petal Stickers - for use with color printer and Avery round labels.
Black and White Coloring Pages for Daisy Characters - this is a nice resource for troops using the blue Daisy notebooks and stories within.
Making Friends - this site has lots of craft ideas, kits, and fun patches.
Making Friends Coloring Pages - free printables.
Purchasable Crafts/Gifts - depending on your financial resources, you might find something here!
Coloring Page - good to have on hand in case you need a backup craft.
Icebreaker Games - adapt as needed for your girls' ages.
Make New Friends Video - I am not the most musical person (ha!) so having a video with the tune helped.
Friendship Circle/Squeeze Video - for those very new to GS, even the simplest videos can help!
List of Songs - I like this list because it includes "to the tune of" for songs.
Flag Ceremony Video - another good one for those of us new to GS. While your troop may choose to begin each meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance, it's nice to have a resource for when they're ready to begin a full ceremony.
Girl Scout Law Song with Hand Movements - this is a great video made by a troop, to help others learn the Law.
Good General Resource Guide with Many Links - here you'll find several helpful links to getting started on Daisies!
How to Memorize the GS Law - you might find some of these ideas helpful.
Kaper Charts - with lots of suggestions added on.
Patches/Badges - this site is laid out great, and based on the official Guide books you can purchase (the hardback ones for girls, with the illustrated stories inside)
Vintage Girl Scouts - this site has loads of info on the list of pins, etc.

Daisies: Red Petal

When it came to our troop earning Daisy petals, I'd planned on going in order (so we'd follow the petals' meanings as they're connected to the GS Law). Then a great opportunity arose, and even though it rearranged my plans, I jumped on it!

Always take advantage of any offers for help. It takes some burden off you, the Troop Leader, and also gives the girls a different experience.

I hadn't given the red petal much thought, honestly, because I assumed it wasn't on the agenda for a good while. But one of our wonderful Volunteer moms is a nursing student, and had a recent assignment to instruct a group on health and nutrition. The red petal is for being Courageous and Strong. Great! Yes, please! Come and instruct! (And let me sit and relax a few minutes with the girls, and learn something new, as well.)

This was a great example of using whatever resources we have access to, including people (don't rely on your local Council or Service Unit. Be willing to network, talk to your moms about what experience they have, or people they may know, and talk to other troop leaders who may have suggestions as well). So I asked her when she'd be available, and we set it up tout suite. Thus, blue petal got bumped from this meeting, and we'll start up on it the next time.

We did our regular troop activities (see this post), including some Journey coloring pages, and then I introduced her to the girls. I reminded the girls to be polite and quiet and listen very carefully. I did have to stand behind her at one point and raise my hand, to quiet the girls. They raised their hands and shushed. I sat back down; the speaker continued. (Note: Next time remind any guest speakers about the raise-hand-for-quiet trick.)

After involving the girls in questions about what healthy foods are, she talked to us about types of foods for meals, and portions too. (Did you know you shouldn't eat a piece of meat that is bigger than your fist? I did not know that!)

She brought in plastic play food (from her own kids' stash, I'm sure), and some handouts for the girls, as well as coloring pages from this site.

She passed out plastic plates for the girls to use, and had them select different foods to put on the plates, to represent portions of healthy foods. (She snuck in some play desserts as well, so the girls had to think. Sneaky! I loved it.) They had a great time working together in groups (that they formed themselves, just several at two tables), and were very proud of their plates.

Afterward, I told them what their main take-home activity for earning their red petal would be: They had to take THREE BIG BITES of a new, healthy food. It could be something they've never had, or something they haven't had in a long time, because your tastes can change. It could be one big bite of three different foods, etc.

Our guest speaker wrapped up her presentation, and by then it was time to clean up and head out! We did our Daisy circle, gentle squeezes, happy words, and headed out.


And so here's what I sent home with them (edited slightly for privacy):

Another meeting accomplished! Another good time. :) Now a bit of rest, then off to prepare for the blue petal for next time. . . .