February Field Trip

For February, we donated our Cookies for a Cause to the Jeanne Jugan Residence, a local nursing home. The girls sang some songs for the residents, then made Valentines with them and ate Girl Scout cookies. Such a fun time!

Our Eighth Meeting: January

Pre-Meeting: When did I stand up for something? in journal

Opening

Song: Can a Woman?

Circle: Talk about women scientists; share journal

Snack

Activity: Magnet Hunt -- guess if things are magnetic or not and put our hypotheses to the test!

Game: Dots Game

Closing: Give Petals!

Our Seventh Meeting

Premeeting: Journal: If you could change one thing in the world what would you change? Draw it.

Opening:

Song: Flea Fly or Little Green Frog

Circle: Share Journals. Read Sunny’s Story

Snack

Activity: Make a mural based on the story

Game: Poison Apples or Snowballs - Roll up newspaper into balls and wrap in duct or packaging tape to keep into "balls". You could also make "sock balls". Divide area into 2 teams/2 sides. Set a timer and teams throw "balls" across at other team. When timer goes off, team w/ fewest SNOWBALLS on their side of the divided room wins.

Closing: Secret Agent Task: Think of 3 Nice Things You Could Do. Do one before next meeting.

January Event: Bakery

For our January event, we thought it would be fun to give the girls a behind-the-scenes look at a bakery to correspond with their cookie sales. We went to Hi-Rise Bread Company, and they were fantastic!

The staff showed us how they make cookies, adding the ingredients to a giant mixer. Then, they pulled out the mixed-up dough already shaped into cookies and put them in the oven. We got to sample the fresh-baked chocolate chunk cookies! Yum!

Did you go on a field trip this month? Where did you go?

Meeting 10: January

Sometimes, a meeting just doesn't go as planned. Maybe you get a late start. Maybe you had too many activities planned. Maybe the girls are all feeling fidgety and don't want to sit still. Or maybe (as in my case this meeting), it's all three. So what do you do? It's hard to do, but try to go with the flow. Cut out an activity, and plan to make it up next time. Throw in an energizer get the wiggles out and refocus. Most of all, remember that the girls are here to have fun!

Pre-meeting: We colored in our final totals for the cookie goal chart. My troop sold a whopping 1,000+ boxes--amazing! The girls were very proud of themselves. Then, I had the girls draw a picture of themselves taking care of themselves for the 3 Cheers for Animals Journey. They came up with some creative ideas (with a bit of prompting)--everything from taking a shower to brushing their teeth to drinking water. Finally, we had them look at pages 6 and 7 in their Journey books to find the secret animals.

Opening: We said our Promise, Law, and Pledge

Circle: We had two new girls join this meeting, so we introduced ourselves through the Lucy Lemon game. We went around the circle and shared the pictures we drew earlier, and then each girl showed us one of the animals she found in the Journey book. (We had planned on reading pages 7-13 in the Journey book and adding a lion to our animal mural, but the sharing took much longer than planned and the girls were ready to move on!)

Song: This week's options were "Flea Fly" or "Boy and a Girl and a Little Canoe". They picked the second one. All the lyrics I found online ended with the girl swimmin' all around, but the way I learned it was the girl ended up paddlin', while the boy ended up swimmin'. The girls loved the twist!

Snack

Activity: For our activity, the girls made an obstacle course. We brought a few items from home, and the girls paired up. Each pair got to pick one item, and then had to use that item to make an obstacle station. They then had to show the other girls how to do the station. After they learned all the stations, the girls got to go through the course!

Game: The game we had scheduled to play was Animal Charades, but we didn't have enough time!

Closing: We did fists of five again, plus the Friendship Squeeze. The new girls also received their Daisy pins.

What do you do when a meeting goes off the rails? Leave a message below!

Meeting 9: January

Pre-Meeting: Color in cookie sales goal chart. Backup: Shape Hunt.

Opening: Pledge, Promise, Law

Song: Give 2 Options (Flea Fly or Boom Chicka Boom)

Circle: Introduce flowers, Read page 5 in 3 Cheers for Animals. Talk with the girls, asking: What’s one thing you like about animals? What animals have you seen where you live? Have you ever cared for animals (pets, birdfeeders, etc.)? What did you like about caring for a pet? What’s the most unusual animal you’ve ever seen? Where did you see it? What did it look like? Who takes care of it and how?

Snack

Activity: Make troop birdbath, per Journeys book

Game: Nose Jousting

Closing: Fists of Five/Friendship Squeeze. What are some ways people care for animals? Are any of these the same to caring for yourself?

Note: I was on vacation this meeting, but here's what was on the agenda!

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.

December Event: Birthday Wishes

Making birthday cards

For our December event, we focused on a service project. There's a great program in Massachusetts called Birthday Wishes, which provides birthday parties for homeless children. Since kids have to be at least nine to volunteer at a party, we decided to create a birthday in a box--purchasing all the items needed for a party. The child we were helping was a four-year-old girl hoping for a Disney Princess party--perfect!

We split the girls into two teams; each team had a list of items to find at Target. The lists included items like cake mix, frosting, plates, napkins, juice boxes, decorations, a tablecloth, and two gifts each. My team had a blast picking out a princess tablecloth and plates and napkins, plus a birthday banner, wands for party guests, and bracelets. Purchasing the gifts took some major direction. To encourage the girls to meet our budget (about $10/gift), I kept directing them to look at the price to stay on budget. In the end, we got a Disney princess Polly Pocket toy and a cute ABC book.

Our finished box! So pretty!

After both teams were finished shopping, we checked out, then went to a space to wrap the box. The girls (with some help from the adults) wrapped up the box and each made Happy Birthday cards that we included in the box.

All in all, the girls seemed to really enjoy this activity. Fists of Five showed that they all had fun, and they all liked helping other people. Hooray!


Have you planned a service project for your Daisys? Leave a message below!