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

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.  

Daisy Banners

This Daisy decided to add a heart on top of
her blue promise circle!

We love to reinforce the Daisy petal theme with our Kindergarteners.  What better way than to give them a little take home banner?  

Advance prep/supplies:
1. yarn
2. sticks broken to approximately one foot lengths
3. "Daisy blue" felt or fleece
4. pre-cut flower petals and a promise circle to correspond to official Daisy petals, preferably sticker-backed felt.  To emphasize the promise circle, you may need to cut out an additional white circle slightly large than the blue promise circle.
5. fabric glue, preferably Fabri-tek.
6. Make a sample (see note below about glues).

Activity Plan:
1. Distribute blue felt/fleece, sticks and yarn.
2. Have girls fold felt over stick and apply strip of glue.
3. Help girls tie yarn to each end of stick
4. Turn over 'banner' so foldover is hidden (unlike this sample photo!).
5. Stick or glue petals (in any order) around a blue promise circle (if needed, adhere a white circle below the blue circle, for emphasis).

Experience shows...
It's really hard to work with glue and felt.  Buy the best fabric glue that you can.  I recommend Fabri-tek.  The felt absorbs the glue.  You should experiment at home first.

Alternatives:
You can buy felt letters and symbols, with sticker backs.  If you want, you can have the girls add their initials to their banner.