Final Ceremony

We had our final ceremony in June. Our sister Brownie troop had their ceremony at the same time, so it was really fun to get all the girls together. We had a potluck, which is always a good idea. As the girls came in, I had them put up decorations. We made a "bridge" out of chairs, crepe paper, and rainbow paper fans. They also taped up their animal mural they had been creating all year, plus other things we had done--cookie sales goal chart, the chart we made for the "3 Cheers for Animals" Journey and more. They really enjoyed participating in the event!

We also created a "photo booth." Basically, the girls cut crepe paper and taped it up to the wall. They LOVED doing this--and it kept them busy until we were ready to start! You can kind of see it in the background of the photo above.

Our ceremony was pretty simple. The girls all received their one-year membership pin, their Tula Award from the Journey, and a certificate. The girls who were bridging up crossed our bridge, and the Brownie leaders gave them their rainbow patch! My coleader had gone to the 100th Anniversary celebration in Washington, D.C., so she had swaps to give each girl as well--it was such a great idea and the girls were very excited about it!

Thanks to all the parents who helped out this year; I couldn't have asked for anything better! I'm looking forward to the summer off, but I will be posting some ideas for the "3 Cheers for Animals" Journey for leaders who are thinking about doing it next year, so stay tuned!

Meeting 20: June

This was our final regular meeting! We had a great year with Daisy Girl Scouts, and I'm a mix of sad to see the end of the year, excited for next year's plans, and ready to take advantage of a summer off! How did your year go?

Here's what we did at our final meeting:

Premeeting: As the girls came in, they did the final 3 pages of activities in their Journey books. I also had a Daisy Turtle Shell Activity ready for them.

Song: Our 2 choices were "One Bottle of Pop" or "Squirty Orange". We sang the former, which I love!

Circle: In our circle, we read the final story and the closing from our "3 Cheers for Animals" Journey. The girls really enjoyed storytime all year. We didn't have a story at every meeting, which I think made it more interesting and exciting for them when we did read from the books.

Snack!

Activity: We did the Elephant Walk activity from the Journey book. The girls all held hands in the line and closed their eyes. The girl in the front of the line kept her eyes open and led everyone through a short obstacle course made of chairs. We did this about three times with different leaders (I even led one round!). We definitely bumped into a few chairs, but the leaders did a really good job!

Game: We played Fishy Fishy Cross My Ocean. When a girl got tagged, she had to join the sharks in the ocean. The girls LOVE this game, and I purposefully have not played it at any meetings this year because that's all they would ever want to play! I didn't want to spoil the chance to play other games, but since this was the final meeting I figured it would be a fun way to end the year.

Closing: As we did our Friendship Squeeze, the girls each had to fill in the blank to the sentence "Caring for animals makes me feel ___." By being able to relate how taking care of animals makes them feel, they earned their Tula Award! We'll hand those out at our final ceremony.

What's your favorite memory of your year of Girl Scouts? Leave a message below!