Too many Daisies? Need Crowd Control? Try patrols.

How do you get control when you've got 20 Daisies in a room with lots of distractions?  No matter how many volunteers we had, our meetings were Fridays after school, which meant a triple whammy:  the girls are famished, wild, and they wanted to sit with their BFFs.  

Animal Patrols take 'control'

To solve our problem...

We assigned the girls randomly to "patrols" where they sat together each week.  Since we were doing the "3 Cheers for Animals" Daisy Journey, we brought 4 different stuffed animals for each patrol, put them on the table and also put a 'table tent' card listing all the girls in that patrol.  



They grumbled at first, but quickly got the hang of it and we found some peace for the rest of the year!  Each week, after Opening Ceremonies, the girls faithfully found their patrols and waited to devour their snacks.

Panda Jar

This project was inspired from in an old issue of Ranger Rick Jr. magazine.  They have since updated the project to use foam, but I prefer using felt.  (click here for Ranger Rick version of craft)

Panda Jar for Daisy Animal Journey

Advance Prep/Supplies:

1. Collect old jam and salsa jars with lids

2. Black,white & green felt-precut strips: circle for lid (white), long strip to cover edge of lid (black), small circle (black) for nose, ovals for eyes (black), 2 ears (black), 2 arms (black), bamboo shoot (green) -- all should be pre-packaged in sandwich bags for each girl.

3. Medium or large googly eyes 

4. Glue

5. Black markers 
6. Inexpensive candy to fill jars

Activity Plan:

1. Review the world map and talk about pandas: their habitat, food and habits.

2. Read Animal Journey about Pandas and China

3. Give each girl a jar and supply bag 

4. Offer gluing directions, step-by-step.  Jar lid becomes panda head, jar is body & arms.

5. When completed, girls can wait in line to get it filled with candy.

Experience shows...

1. Choose bottles that are cylinders (not octagons or hexagons or ridged!)

2. Choose your glue carefully. Super tacky or fabric glue work best with felt but you might want to test different glues on the glass also (in advance!).

Alternatives:

1. Make elephant, lion, birds, or other animals as needed.
2. Panda masks can be downloaded and printed from Girl Scout website too.