Leaders, I just want to take a minute to say thank you. I think it's easy for people -- including ourselves -- to forget how much work goes in to being a Girl Scout leader. There's the meeting planning, paperwork, money handling, setting up for Fall Sale and Cookie Sale, planning field trips ... the list goes on and on. So when you have a bad meeting, don't worry. You're making a difference in these girls' lives, and they won't remember one meeting where things weren't perfectly planned and you were freaking out. They're learning life skills, and having lots of fun doing it. Give yourselves a pat on the back. Go ahead, I'll wait.
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Done? Awesome. Now, on to our third meeting, which, as you may have guessed, didn't go completely according to plan.
Pre-Meeting: We had the girls do the worksheets to earn their Money Counts badge, while we went around and helped them out. Fall Sale is a perfect time to think about earning one of your Financial Literacy Leaves! They're totally age-appropriate, too, so don't worry about it going over the girls' heads. We also decorated the front of our journals.
Opening: We played a name game, where you stand in a circle and say your name and something you like to do, then do an action related to that thing. Everyone repeats the action and says your name three times fast. Go around the circle. I like this game because it's quick and easy, and it gets everyone introduced and back to business. We also said our Promise, Law, and Pledge. The girls were given these freaking adorable
Promise and Law Daisy bookmarks that I had laminated. This way they each get their own!
Song: Our options were either "The Button Song" or "
Boom Chicka Boom". Our Song Chooser picked the latter, and they really liked it. Especially when we did "loud style," haha!
Circle: For our circle, we shared the worksheets we did in Pre-Meeting. We also talked about budgeting, and how much each girl would need to earn if we wanted to spend $100 on our Birthday in a Box field trip. One of our girls was amazing at the math!
Snack!
Activity: Originally, we were going to do more budgeting stuff, but it wasn't very interesting to the girls, and I completely forgot my store handouts, so we made
All About Me worksheets to put in our Time Capsule. They're pretty excited about that Time Capsule!
Game: We were going to do What's That Smell (where you put something in a paper bag and they have to guess what it is by its smell), but once again I forgot to bring things. My poor coleader, who did remember everything for this meeting! Instead, we played Fruit Basket: We sat in our chairs in a circle. Each girl was assigned a fruit (apple, orange or banana). When their fruit was called, they had to find a new chair. If I called "Fruit Basket" everyone had to find a new chair. I like this game because there are no winners and losers and nobody is left out. Just fun for everyone!
Closing: Our new girls received their Daisy Pins and welcome certificates, as well as their Daisy Circle. Everyone got their Money Counts leaf -- woohoo! We did Fists of Five -- not as good as other meetings, but not terrible. When we did the Friendship Squeeze, the girls had to say something they liked about the meeting.
Leaders, what do you do when things just don't work out like you had planned?
Activity: This is the only thing that didn't go entirely to plan. I would suggest doing this with older girls. I'm not sure if our leaves weren't pressed long enough or what, but they did not want to stick to the mason jars! The leaf lanterns did turn out pretty cute (we added flameless tealights inside), but I'm not sure how long the leaves stayed stuck on. Ah well, the girls really liked doing it and thought they were "beautiful!"
Closing: I put Secret Missions for Operation Lupe in the girls' mailboxes, and so I explained what they were all about in our closing circle. Basically, the girls were challenged to practice being honest and fair in two different ways before our next meeting. I hope they are excited about being secret agents!
