HAPPY GIRL SCOUT THINKING DAY!

It's here!  February 22!  Girl Scout Thinking Day!  We are supposed to think about Girl Scouts around the world.  Check out yesterday's post on the GS USA blog: http://blog.girlscouts.org

Our troop always participates in our Service Unit's Thinking Day event.  Each troop studies and presents a different country, we try yummy food and have some fun with SWAPS.  As a troop, we also try to work on our Global Action Award.  The 2014 theme is Education Opens Doors for all girls and boys.  It's really easy for your girls to earn this award and the patch can be worn on the FRONT of their sash/vest because its an "official GSUSA" patch!@

So as you're cleaning up and organizing today (especially if you are snowed in!), start collecting all those extra children's books around your place and donate them to a local literacy group.  Here are some ideas:



Read to Grow




Reach Out and Read/










Better World Books




All Our Kin

Camping Scavenger Hunt

As you can see, our scavenger hunt included items found in nature, in the garbage, or items that might be found in the girls' overnight bags.

Not a lot of advance prep needed.  Our leader just wrote the lists out, but if you want to do it in advance, that's great!

Experience shows...
You will need to divide the girls into teams.  They love a competition!

Second Year Daisies

You survived the first year as a Girl Scout Leader.  Now what?

You're on easy street now, right?  Wrong.  Girls are a year older and now they have invited all their friends to join so all of the sudden, your troop size doubles!  It's time to recruit more moms and survey the skills and interests of all your volunteers!

Here's a suggested plan for the 2nd year of Daisy Girl Scout life:

September -- Review petals and 1/2 completed Journey

October -- Journey Session 4 & Investiture for new Scouts, Magenta: Respect Authority

November -- Journey Session 5

December -- Journey Session 6, Needle Arts (Vacation activity)

January -- Cookie Training "cookieland" role plays, Journey Session 7 & 8
February -- Yellow: Friendly & Helpful, Thinking Day, Flat Juliette project

March -- Orange: Responsible for What I Say and Do, Thinking Day, GS Birthday

April -- Light Blue: Honest & Fair, Rose: Make the World a Better Place, Earth Day

May -- plan Flying Up Ceremony, Violet: Be a Sister to Every Girl Scout (again)

June -- Flying Up/Bridging Ceremony

Wonders of Water Journey

Learning about the water molecole is more fun when it's with marshmallows!  Our resident scientist (co-leader) helped the girls learn about H-2-O with this fun edible craft!

Advance prep/supplies:
1. mini marshmallows
2. regular marshmallows
3. toothpicks
4. paper towels or paper plates

Activity plan:
1. demonstrate the making of a water molecule.
2. handout supplies and let the girls create.
3. let them eat!

The water journey continues with a little lesson about how one drop can make a difference:

Advance prep/supplies:
1. clear plastic jug
2. food coloring

Activity plan:
1. fill jug with water
2. talk about how every Girl Scout can make a difference, in their community, in their world.  They can make a difference trying to solve a problem.  For example, keeping our environment clean and waterways clear.
3. Have each girl drop a tiny drop of food coloring into jug, one at a time.
4. Results are quick: water gets cloudy and dirty.  Lesson: how one drop can dirty the water or make a difference.
5. Take home message: what can they do to make a difference in their homes and how can they help save water?

Making Cards for CityMeals on Wheels' Elderly

sample cards from our Brownies

NYC-based Citymeals on Wheels has a program where they invite individuals and  children (through schools and volunteer organizations) to decorate cards for their meal recipients.  A decorated card will get delivered with every meal to brighten the day of a lonely elderly person.  

You can see how far-reaching these cards have been so far at:

http://www.citymeals.org/food-for-thought/student-designed-cards

Citymeals provides the template which needs to be printed or taped to cardstock. Templates usually correspond to holiday themes and need to be delivered to Citymeals on Wheels volunteer coordinator by specified dates.

Advance prep/supplies:

1. Print templates from Citymeals on Wheels
2. Copy templates onto card stock (two cards fit on each 8.5x11 sheet of cardstock)
3. Collect stickers, markers, crayons
4. If you want you can also include magazines for collages and glue sticks

sample card from http://www.citymeals.org

Activity Plan:

1. Girls can decorate cards however they want but no glitter please!
2. Keep greetings general.
3. Sign cards "A Daisy Girl Scout" or "Daisy Troop XXXX".  Avoid last names or specific locations.
4. Collect the cards and mail together to Citymeals on Wheels

Experience shows:

• Girls don't always listen to instructions and they love glitter.  Double check and make sure you leave the glitter glue home.
• Simple is better (see Halloween sample above) and allows girls to create many cards instead of just one!

Alternatives:

1. Decorate cards for Holiday season for the military through the Red Cross Holiday Mail for Heroes.  You can recycle last year's Christmas card covers and the girls can make their own cards to send to Heroes. 

Girl Scout Promise Flower Pot

A great (and easy) Daisy project to reinforce the Girl Scout Promise.

Advance prep/supplies:
1. mini clay pots
2. self-sticking foam flowers & bugs (or any kind of flower stickers, but 3 dimensional are more fun)
3. green card stock
4. GS Promise pre-printed on mailing label stickers or paper
5. fun decorative scissors
6. green pipe cleaners (chenille sticks), popsicle stick or balsa wood stick.
7. styrofoam or floral foam precut and fitted into clay pots
8. fake moss or crinkly stuffing
9. masking or duct tape
10. markers

Activity plan:
1. Pass out card stock and Promise sheet only.  Have girls affix promise to card stock and then trim edges of card stock with decorative scissors.
2. Write names on back of green sheet.
3. pass out foam flower stickers and clay pot for girls to decorate green sign and pot.
4. use masking tape or duct tape to attach pipe cleaner to back of cardstsock.
5. Help each Girl Scout push pipe cleaner into floral foam and cover with crinkly paper or moss.

Experience shows...

Girls love to decorate!  Always have extras!

Alternatives:

1. cut out petals and create a Girl Scout Daisy with a blue promise center circle on green cardstock instead of making a bunch of flowers.
2. Buy bunches of fake flowers and have girls stick them into floral foam.  

Sure, I'm a Daisy Leader - but I need to do WHAT?

You know what it's like.  You've suddenly been made the Daisy leader when you thought you were just volunteering to help at the meetings.  What do you mean you have to collect paperwork, dues and plan meetings???  Isn't there a den mother to do that? Oops, that's Boy Scouts!  Well, we do it a little differently at Girl Scouts but don't despair!  There are lots and lots of resources out there, both free (blogs like these) and at your local Girl Scout Service Center or Daisy Knapsack.  In fact, if you live in a good Council area, you don't have to plan a single meetings -- you can plan your meetings around all the great events that Council organizes. But then again, that would mean you'd need to do Troop Trip forms (hmmmm).  

So reality has set in, you've reserved meeting location and times with the school office and now you are scrambling to organize the first meeting!  Well, here is Girl Scout Maniac to help you through it all - and don't worry - your first year of meetings will be crazy and unorganized, no matter how much you plan.  We are talking about 5 year olds, remember??!!!

So here is a sample meeting plan for your first year of Daisies.