Daisies: End-of-the-Year Party!

To celebrate our last meeting of the year, the girls decided they wanted to spend their cookie money on a trip to Build-A-Bear. We had given them several options for the party, and this was what they chose.

We had set a goal for each girl to sell an average of 50 boxes, in order to pay for the party. Any child whose parent did not wish to participate in cookie sales was given the option to pay out of pocket for her child to attend the party. All other girls -- even those who only sold 10 boxes -- were happily welcome to come. We are all sisters. We all helped out each other.

The girls did a great job, and had a wonderful time at Build-A-Bear! We opted to have it in the middle of the afternoon, and did not include a trip to any restaurants, just to keep cost down. But if you wanted to make a bigger to-do of it, you could call your local Build-A-Bear and ask what they recommend, since they do not allow food/drink in the stores. Most will be able to point you to a pizza or snack place nearby.

Anyway, we were able to purchase the special edition Thin Mints bear (though some girls chose different animals, which was fine), and stuff and dress each one in a Daisy uniform. (You can find other Girl Scout products at Build-A-Bear, here.)

We took lots of pictures to share on our Shutterfly site, got a great end-of-the-year troop picture, and the kids had an absolute blast!

How adorable are these? (And no, B-A-B is not paying me to advertise their items. I just think they're so darned cute, I can't help myself.)

Thin Mints Bear:

Daisy Uniform (sold separately):

Altogether:

Ours didn't come with shoes or shirt, though (my choice -- helped keep the cost in the $20s per girl, even though the website lists this bear ensemble at $41, because we had a coupon and opted for basic uniform only). But they did come with participation patches for the girls to put on the backs on their own uniforms, and troop number stickers for the bears, which was nice.

If you decide to take your troop to your local B-A-B shop, be sure to make reservations ahead of time, and give them your tax-exempt information. You can also ask about discounts for larger groups, etc. We had a 20% off coupon, which was an enormous help.

Next up! Bridging to Brownies, and How to Get Started with Brownies. 

See you soon! :)

Daisies: Petal Review

It's our next-to-last meeting and time for a petal review!

I cut construction paper into petal shapes and wrote the aspects of the Girl Scout Law on them, according to how many girls I expected at the meeting (you can adjust as needed for your troop). We cleared the tables and sat on the floor, in a circle, with me holding the Promise center.

Each girl had a petal and we went around the circle, with each girl giving an example of fulfilling the aspect of the Law that her petal represented.

We had snack, and then made friendship necklaces out of beads (Melissa & Doug has some great sets of wooden beads. These are what we used, but there are many other sets that are super cute), and I bought extra waxed cotton strands in the craft section at Walmart).

And lastly, we colored these pages:

Daisies: Violet Petal

Our last petal! Hooray!

Here's what we did:

Before the meeting, I'd spoken with a friend of mine who is a fellow Daisy leader, and lives across country. I got her troop number and address, and the number of girls so we had enough for them all.

Then I created "All About Us" handouts (which I'm not posting here, because they are very detailed about our troop, our service unit, and the area in which we live) for the girls to fill out. I got stickers with our Council name on them for the girls to include in the things they were making for the other troop.

And once our meeting started, we talked about the violet petal and what makes someone a sister. The girls were great. They offered up many suggestions, like if you have the same parents, or live in the same house, but we talked about things like step-families, and people who are not technically related to you, but are still considered part of your family.

We talked about how families love each other, they support each other, they stand up for and accept each other, too. And that it didn't matter if your family was near or far, they were still family. And that in Girl Scouts, we were family. We were all sisters.

The girls had a great time filling in their All About Us pages (which included a spot for them to draw or write their favorite thing about where we live), then had a snack.

After snack, we gave them construction paper and let them make special greeting cards for their sister troop way across the country.

And a few days later, I mailed it all off! We'll be excited to see what the other troop thinks of it. :)

Daisies: Pink (Rose) Petal

We've covered the dark green petal for Using Resources Wisely and I had to figure out something to come up with that wasn't environment-specific, necessarily, but would fit into Making the World a Better Place, for our pink petal.

After our initial activities (Kaper, Pledge, Promise, etc.), I had them gather into groups to work on this first bit.

We talked about how "caring for" can mean taking care of, or showing care (kindness, consideration, etc.) towards others. The girls brainstormed ways they can help care for the world around them.

After snack, we worked on some coloring pages for the Color-A-Smile organization. They provide the coloring page templates and your girls color them, then you mail them in to the organization, and they distribute the pages to nursing homes, VA hospitals, Meals on Wheels programs, etc. It's truly a wonderful organization!

Here are the pages we colored. I made sure the girls only wrote their first names, for privacy's sake:

We talked about how the simplest thing, like smiling at someone -- or coloring a picture for a strangers -- can help brighten a day and Make the World a Better Place!

Brownies & Daisies: Cookies Part Three--Arrival and Delivery

Once your cookies have arrived, organize a time for your Cookie Mom/Co-Leader to meet to pick up the cookies from your Service Unit. The sooner the better! Be sure that ALL of your parents know well in advance when cookie pick-up day will be, as well as what their totals due are.

Make sure wherever the cookies are to be stored has air conditioning and is enclosed so no pets/children have access. Remember that even in cold weather months, chocolate can melt if it's left in a sunny window or car.

You will likely need:
- sticky-notes
- pencils/pens
- calculator
- list of prices per box
- initial order list, including $$ totals due
- list of booth order cookies (if you ordered extras for a booth, and/or for add-on orders)


Be sure to set aside your Booth sale cookies immediately. That way if you have parents picking up cookies and asking (yay!) if they can pick up an extra box of Thin Mints, etc., then you will be able to keep a running list of how it affects your Booth inventory. And then once all the cookies have been picked up, you will have a good idea of whether you need to go to your Council's Cookie Cupboard for more.


Organize the rest of the cookies so that each girl's order is organized and ready for her parents.

Make each parent recount with you when s/he comes to pick up the cookies. Both of you should sign a receipt. In our troop, I made the parents write the troop a check for the total of their cookie orders. They post-dated it for the Friday before the date our Council started debiting money from our account. That gave the parents plenty of time to deliver the cookies, and helped reduce the time and confusion among the troop that otherwise would've been spent collecting money in bits and pieces along the way.

And it allowed parents to deliver at their own pace, as well. It also prevents any issues of parents not paying for cookies they ordered (unless a check bounces, but you can take that up with your local Council. There should be information detailing all this in your Cookie Training packet).

While some people call before delivering cookies, we just went around the neighborhood at the same time as we'd taken orders, and anyone who wasn't home got a note in their mailbox:

Everyone else got emails, PMs on Facebook, etc., and phone calls until finally all the cookies were gone! Don't forget to take change with you when you deliver. :)

Remember, if you have to ship any cookies, make sure to protect them well with bubblewrap, and label them well (fragile, perishable, do not heat, etc.).

Once your cookie sales are complete, be sure to double check all you incentive count and orders and make sure to get sizing information for any t-shirts earned.

EDIT: I wanted to address the "Money Leaves" badges Daisies can earn here. Girl Scouts requires that the leaves be split by year, meaning one set of two leaves the first year of Daisies, and the second set the second year. You can find more information on the leaves here. 

And don't forget the Cookie Sale Activity Pin:

Daisies: Dark Green Petal

How to explain the difference between green petal and pink petal?

This one stymied me. But, being a huge proponent of the three Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), I decided it really didn't matter. I'll just focus on all of it for both petals.

So here's what we did for the green one:

Who can tell me what Resources are? (Things we use.)

What are examples of Natural Resources? (Water, air, land, etc.)

What is being wise? (It's more than just being smart; it's also thinking ahead.)

How can we be wise about using resources?

Well, water is a resource. When you brush your teeth, do you think you should let the water in the faucet run while you're brushing? Or turn it off until you're ready to rinse? ("TURN IT OFF!" they all shouted.)

Right! If you turn it off, you're saving water. You're using water wisely.

I held up a piece of paper and said, "This is a resource too. Where does paper come from?" ("TREES!")

So if you are coloring, should you use one side of a page, or two? Which saves paper?

Since we meet in a classroom in our school, I always bring a recycle and garbage can with me. We always put our recyclables in our own can, and I take them home with me to recycle. It's even on our Kaper Chart, that one girl is in charge of making sure recyclables so in the right can.

So I showed them the recycle can and the garbage can and asked which is using resources wisely. Why?

Then I held up one side of our coloring page (from this site):

And I held up a plastic, disposable water bottle (the kind that crinkles when you squeeze it.)

Reduce means using only what you need. (Like the water when brushing your teeth. And I shook the water in the bottle.)

Reuse means using something more than once. (Like drinking from a washable water bottle instead of plastic ones that would melt in the dishwasher if you tried to wash them.)

Recycle means turning something old into something new. (I set down the paper, and held up the bottle and this pen.)

I'd found the pen the week before, and brought it in to show them. I told them that the best thing was to drink water out of a bottle that could reused and washed and reused over and over. But if you needed to drink from a non-reusable bottle, be sure to recycle it, because it can be melted down and made into other things (like this pen!). And when the ink runs out in my pen, instead of just throwing it away in the garbage, or taking it apart and recycling the pieces that can be recycled, I can buy a new ink cartridge and keep using the same pen!

They were amazed. (It was odd, because I remember ink cartridges from when I was a kid. Now everything's disposable...but we're changing that!)

Then I flipped over their coloring page to show them this side (from here):

We had a snack, passed out crayons, and the girls had a blast coloring both sides of the page. Be sure to not use markers for coloring pages like this though, as they can sometimes bleed through!

Daisies: Magenta Petal

We have worked on blue Promise center, light blue for Honest & Fair, yellow for Friendly & Helpful, light green for Considerate & Caring, red for Courageous & Strong, orange petal for being Responsible for What I Say & Do, purple for Respecting Ourselves and Others, and this meeting we worked on our magenta petal for Respecting Authority.

I asked the girls, "Who can tell me what Authority means?" (Someone in charge, a leader, someone who sets the rules, helps us follow rules, and/or keeps us safe.)

Then I asked, "What are some examples of people in authority?" (Parents, teachers, principals, firemen, police officers, etc.)

We talked about respecting not only people in authority, but following rules and obeying laws. Rules and laws can help keep you safe. I asked the girls to come up with some examples of rules that help keep us safe:

- Wear your seatbelt/sit in your booster

- Look both ways before crossing the street

- Don't run in the halls at school

- Walk with your family in a parking lot

(And so on....)

I had contacted our local police headquarters a few weeks prior, and asked if they had anyone who could come and speak with the girls.

They sent a School Resource Officer, who is a policeman and wears a slightly different uniform (it's not as intimidating-looking), and he was kind enough to come in and give a talk to the girls about Authority and Rules.

At the end of his talk, the girls asked him some questions, and he gave them scenarios asking if each one was about respecting authority or not.

Some interesting examples (these can vary for your own troop, based on age and maturity, obviously):

- If an older kid/teenager tells you to do something, but it's against the rules, is it respecting authority to do what he says? (This was a toughie for some of the kids.) We talked about bullying and the difference between a bigger person and someone who is a Person of Authority.

- Is it respecting authority to cooperate when your teacher or parents ask you to follow the rules?

- If you disagree with someone in authority, is that respectful? (I loved this one and explained it's fine to have your own opinion. For example, if I said, "Blue is the prettiest color," that was my opinion. And it was okay to say, "Well, I think yellow is the prettiest," and that's just fine. You can disagree over an opinion, and be respectful about it. That is not the same as arguing against the rules though. In the moment, you follow the rules. If you have a question about them, you can ask and talk about them in a respectful manner.

In the end, I was surprised at how in-depth the discussion went, and I think we wore out the SRO. ;) We gave him a box of Girl Scout Cookies in thanks, and then worked on some crafts and had a snack.

For crafts we worked on some fun trefoil/St. Patrick's Day ornaments. I'd hoped the weather would permit us to go outside and play Red Light/Green Light.

Since the weather didn't cooperate, we did a fun craft instead.

More to come!