Our Third Meeting: October

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?

Meeting 8: December

Pre-Meeting: As the girls came in, we had them collaboratively draw a Bald Eagle for our animal mural, which we'll continue to add to throughout our 3 Cheers for Animals Journey (we had a photo of an eagle for reference). It looked so awesome! We also had them do the "What People Need" activity from the Making Choices financial literacy leaf. Finally, they drew a picture of themselves helping someone else, also part of the Making Choices leaf. 

Opening: Pledge, Promise, Law

Song: We had two options this meeting, "Pink Pajamas" or "Boy and a Girl and a Canoe"--both some of my favorites! Our song chooser picked "Pink Pajamas." I think they were rather shocked! :)

Circle: The girls had made a goal of selling 120 boxes as a troop. During our circle, we talked about how many boxes each girl has sold so far, and what incentives they have earned. Some girls hadn't sold any, and a couple had sold a lot already. We counted up the total number and colored in goal chart. Each girl got to color in about the same amount, to reflect that our goal is a group effort and everybody is helping to sell. So far, we've sold 61 boxes--more than half our goal! We reflect on our event shopping for Birthday Wishes, and the girls got to talk about how helping someone else made them feel. 

We took a quick break to play Daisy to Daisy, and then the girls stood back to back, locked elbows, and tried to sit down in pairs, then stand back up. So funny! We talked about our next Service Project (OperationPaperback), where we'll be collecting children's books for military parents to read to their children via webcam or DVD. We looked at a map to see where military people live, and how far away that is from their families. Then, we brainstormed about how the girls can help get books. They seemed a bit underwhelmed with the project, unfortunately, but hopefully as they see how many books they get, they'll get more excited. We'll be collecting for a few weeks.

Snack: We had gingerbread cookies and pretzels for snack. Yum!

Activity: We looked at pictures of bird nests, and talked about what we have that is like a nest. Then, we made our own nests out of paper bags and tissue paper. We put our pictures of helping other people inside. This is another activity from the 3 Cheers for Animals book.

Game: We played two rounds of Barnyard Bash. The girls each got a secret animal to act out, and had to find the girl who was also that same animal. It was pretty fun, but since we only had 6 girls at the meeting, the rounds went pretty quickly. We played Tiger, Cowgirl, Princess to finish the meeting.

Closing: Fists of Five showed that the girls all had fun at the meeting. They liked drawing the eagle on the mural, and making the nests. The girls got their Making Choices leaf, and girls who had signed up got their Early Bird patch. We did the Friendship Squeeze. 

We sent home the final activity for the Making Choices leaf, the Setting Goals Chart, for the girls to do with their parents and "officially" earn the leaf.

Meeting 7: December

I had a holiday party, so my lovely co-leader filled in for me. Here's what was on our agenda, though! Update: My coleader wrote about the actual meeting. Her thoughts in italics.

Premeeting: We made "Thank You" notes for customers from the Fall Sale. The girls enjoyed making Thank You cards, but most of them didn't really remember the fall sale. So, they made general TY cards for parents, or cards to give out to people who might buy cookies.

Opening: Pledge, Promise, and Law

Song: Our two choices for the kaper girl were Boom Chicka Boom or I'm a Girl Scout. Nora chose "Boom Chicka Boom" as the song. It was a big hit!! The girls especially loved "loud style" and "slow style."

Circle: We read the girls the Daisy Cookie Story, featuring the flowers from the Journeys. Then, the girls learned how much each box of cookies cost to earn their financial literacy leaf. They also made a group sales goal poster together and set their own sales goals. The girls LOVED the Daisy Cookie story. Lisa and I both read it. The girls really reacted positively -- they remembered the characters throughout the meeting and were able to answer questions about the story afterwards. Making the goal chart was ... interesting. It was a good chance to practice estimation and numbers, but it was hard for them to grasp how many boxes they might sell. Lisa was really nervous about the goal being unreachable and the girls being disappointed, so she encouraged them to aim low. We all agreed that we could re-evaluate and make a new goal if we thought we should later.

Snack Snack was AWESOME. Victoria's mom brought cheese and crackers, gingerbread cookies, tangerines, and cider. Also, there was a class going on in the kitchen, and the teacher of that class was a Girl Scout, so she came and talked to the girls about how much she loved selling cookies. It was so sweet! We also went over how to answer cookie questions.

Activity: The girls practiced answering questions about cookies to earn their financial literacy leaf. Then, they made their own obstacle course together. We did not get a chance to make an obstacle course, so that could be something to do for another meeting.

Game: The girls played Daisy Cookie Bingo. The girls REALLY liked the Bingo game!! Nell was a very good caller, and we had two different winners. They stayed really focused, despite the fact that it had been a pretty low-energy-style meeting. We played two long rounds, and then it was time to wrap up.

Closing: We did the Friendship Squeeze. Fists of Five revealed that the girls liked most of the activities for the day. They also had fun trying to make me fake-sad by rating everything badly, and then yelling about how they were kidding. It was very cute! :)