Daisy Chains

Mother's Day Project and Finishing a Journey!

2011-05-05T12:56:00.000-07:00

We have our last "classroom" meeting of the school year tonight. The girls will be finishing their second journey, "Between Earth and Sky" and receiving their journey patches.

I am excited about our Mother's Day craft tonight. I had bought some old teacup and saucer sets when the service unit was trying to decide what to do for Thinking Day. We ended up not using them and that left me with 9 sets to find a use for. I also have left over GS cookies my troop paid for to use up, so I'm throwing them into the mix. I decided to try making teacup bouquets with the girls.

You will need:
Teacups/Saucers -- they don't have to match
Hot Glue Gun
Styrofoam Balls cut in half -- use a bread knife
Coffee Filters
Spray Bottle of Water
Washable Markers
Plastic Cling Wrap
Popsicle sticks
Cookies
Lollipops

The only prep work that is necessary before your meeting would be to cut the Styrofoam balls in half and to hot glue the cups to the saucers.

To start, give each girl a coffee filter (I have a huge package I got at the dollar store), flatten it out and have them each color a design around the outside edge. Now this is where I recommend having a second adult on hand. If you have a spritz or spray bottle you can just mist the coffee filters with water, it will make the markers run and look very pretty. They dry pretty fast. If you don't have a spray bottle, the girls can lightly flick water drops onto the filter to get the colors to run. This should be done on a paper towel to save the work surface and extra hands can help dab off extra water to speed drying.

I then placed the coffee filter into the teacup, trying to leave a little bit out. Place one of the halved Styrofoam balls into the cup. Depending on the size of the cup and the size of the Styrofoam balls, you may have to put it in dome-up or dome-down. I don't think it really matters which. Press it firmly down in, the coffee filter should create a kind of ruffle around the opening of the teacup.

The next step was to stick the lollipops and cookies in as the "flowers." The lollipops don't need anything done to them but the cookies do. I used 1 cookie with a Popsicle stick and then wrapped it tightly in plastic cling wrap. I considered tearing the cling wrap in advance but then I realized I'd have a huge mess on my hands, so I'm going to draft one of the troop volunteers to tear them off and keep them orderly.

After putting all the "flowers" into my bouquet I was done! It was a fun and easy craft and I hope the girls will really have fun with it. I have a lot of cookies for them to use if they want so the bouquets can be much fuller than the one I have pictured here. The best part is, if the girls want a treat tonight, we'll have cookies on hand!

Our fashion projects are complete!

2011-04-12T14:52:00.000-07:00

I am so excited to announce that my girls have finished their fashion projects! Our last project was for each girl to design her own hat to reflect her personality. I was so pleased with how unique each girl's hat was.

If you'd like to see a little description of each girl's design, please just hold your mouse over their picture as it "falls" in the slide show!

A busy month!

2011-03-06T13:39:00.000-08:00

We've had a busy month selling Girl Scout cookies, but thankfully I will be turning in the money and reports tomorrow and we'll be officially done. The girls sold very well, exceeding my goals by far.

We celebrated World Thinking Day on February 22nd. I decided to head up the event to help our Event Coordinator. We decided to learn about Fiji, Australia, Mexico, India and Hong Kong. We chose the countries from the list of 145 countries in the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. We made leis for Fiji, paper fans for Hong Kong, Gods Eyes for Mexico, ate Pavlovas for Australia and decorated the girls' hands with "henna" tattoos for India.

We were able to send our pen pal troop in Wisconsin a letter with some SWAPs and a map about South Dakota to help them learn about us. I am excited to read their letter to my troop this week, and to hand out the SWAPs they sent. We also completed our flip-flop slippers, one of the last steps to finishing our Fashion patches. You can see the directions at the FamilyFun website here.

This week I would like to take a break from our journey book and have a review of the Girl Scout Law. We have been having some behavior issues at meetings and events and I would like to remind the girls of how they need to apply the Law to their everyday lives -- that it is not just something we say at the beginning of every meeting. I plan to play a game with the girls, reading situations to them and asking what parts of the Girl Scout Law were broken in each one. There is usually more than one answer and I think the girls will have an easy time figuring it out. For each correct answer I will put a marble into a jar and I will tell the girls if they can finish the game as a team with the jar full to a certain point, they will get a special treat. I will have a treat like cookies on hand to give them before they go home. The real treat will be the patches I have on order from MakingFriends:

To see the situations and answers for the GS Law Quiz, you can download a .pdf file here.

It's SWAP time!

2011-01-20T16:06:00.000-08:00

I am so excited about SWAPs this year! We were not able to have a council sponsored cookie rally this year, so the leaders decided to have our own rally and combine it with our SWAP. The theme of the SWAP is cookies. My girls made Cookie Monster!

I was fortunate enough to have my co-leader, Katie, cut out the little discs of brown cardstock on her new Cricut machine. Then using a hole punch, I made "bite" marks in each cookie (600 of them!) I found the blue pompoms on eBay, although I had to buy in quantity and we will definitely be using them in our crafts for some time.

We are also doing Leader SWAPs, and they don't have to be cookie themed. I decided to make a pin with Juliette Gordon Lowe's portrait on it.

My co-leader, Becke, just had a baby 2 months ago so I knew she wouldn't have time to make her own, so I found this adorable idea online, it's Clippy Longstocking!

And my other co-leader, Katie, works full time so I decided to help her out too. I made these simple Daisy Insignia Tabs in no time at all.

This week I finished sewing the girls' SWAP sashes as well as the 3 leaders' sashes. The girls will be carrying their SWAPs in their fleece water bottle bags. I think we're ready, now we just have to wait for the day of the SWAPs to get here!

2010/2011 Daisy Cookie Exchange

2011-01-20T15:58:00.000-08:00

When I planned our troop's Christmas party, I originally planned to have a small cookie exchange in my home and making "cookie" ornaments for the girls to put on their trees at home. Well, after the November leaders' meeting, I felt that I needed to invite the 2 other Daisy troops to our exchange. The girls in the other troops are all new to Girl Scouts this year and I wanted my girls to get to know them, after all, the law says: "...and be a sister to every Girl Scout."

I found a recipe to make play clay and color it with baking cocoa, my goal being that the ornaments look like gingerbread. Here is the recipe from FamilyFun magazine. The ornaments I made were basically a gingerbread girl and tinier gingerbread girl (I have a gingerbread family cookie cutter set.) Since our exchange was Mom & Me, I thought the ornaments should reflect that.

Our original date had to be canceled because of snow and because I had a bad case of the stomach flu. So finally we were able to hold the event after the first of the year. I was excited to have so many RSVPs but I was very upset to discover that I only had 16 usable ornaments -- and 22 RSVPs! At the last minute I went to Wal-Mart and found round treat containers, similar to tupperware that were only 12 for $1.00! So the girls decorated their new treasure boxes -- the funny thing was that exactly 16 girls made it to the exchange so we would have had enough ornaments after all.

We finished our first journey!

2010-11-05T11:12:00.000-07:00

Well, we finished our first Daisy Journey last night! I decided to try to finish Welcome to the Daisy Garden last night because my co-leader, Becke, is close to having her baby, and due to holidays and council events, the troop won't meet again until December. So I thought it would be nice to finish the book while she was still with us (she will be on maternity leave for the rest of the year.)

By finishing our journey book, our newest troop member earned her Daisy petals and the entire troop earned their journey patch. I am working today on sewing my daughter's to her vest. I actually decided to resew most of her fun patches on her vest. I had spaced them liberally and I was worried there may not have been room for the patches we earn this year in scouts. I took the opportunity to fix a few things that were bothering me -- I had sewn her petals on with a variegated rainbow thread that is cute on fun patches but just didn't work on the petals. I usually sew patches on with my sewing machine's zigzag stitch. If I can't match the patch's color with my thread, I try to use a contrasting thread from the patch itself, and if all else fails, I use my rainbow thread. It usually works out pretty well. My theory is, if you're going to see my stitches, then SEE my stitches. On the journey patch though, I decided to sew the background patch on with my machine and then hand-sew the 3 smaller patches on. It is so much easier to hide stitches when they are hand sewn.

Pom-Pom Pumpkins & Scrapbooking Freebies

2010-10-29T18:03:00.000-07:00

We finished up our fall sales last weekend. And our troop was about to put over $500 in the bank. I'm so proud of my girls. Our troop meeting this week was a simple one. Since we started the hat/scarf sets last time, we needed to finish this week -- which is good since the weather here in South Dakota has been cold, windy and wet. I decided that the scarves are really a lot of cutting and not a lot of hands on work for the girls, so I asked my co-leader to take the moms and dads into our work room and make finish the scarves while I read Chapter 5 of Welcome to the Daisy Garden to the girls. I loved how the flowers each represent a color of the daisy petals we learned last year! After our reading lesson we started working on our pom-pom pumpkins. I found the idea and directions at domestifluff.com. You can find the directions on that site.

The only thing we changed on the pom-pom pumpkins was that we used green and brown pipe cleaners to tie off the bundle, using the ends to create a stem and curl of vine. I thought the difference in color from the orange yarn would make it easier to keep the girls from accidentally cutting the wrong piece of yarn.

I'd also like to offer a free digital scrapbooking set to anyone who would like it. I tried to encompass all the levels of Girl Scouts with this set: Daisy, Brownie, Junior, Cadette, Senior, Ambassador and Leader. There are bridging embellishments, word art, and Girl Scout awards among other things. The last items to be finished was the "recycled" alpha. I tried to make something that looks like a craft project I might actually make with my girls. I think this alpha really looks like something a Daisy troop could make. Let me know what you think. If you make any layouts, send me a copy and I'll post it if you want.

Please go to my other blog to find the download link.

What a great meeting! No-Sew Hats project

2010-10-15T08:44:00.000-07:00

I thought we had a great meeting last night. We started our meeting off by a question and answer period about our fall sales, which we started last week. I regret that I forgot to go through the Promise and Law with the girls. I will do better next time!

In the Daisy Journey we read Chapter 3, learning about Amazing Daisy and her cousins from all over the world. It was at this point that I realized I'd forgotten to bring the herb gardens with me to the meeting! I will do better next time! The girls' homework for next time is to draw a picture of what they think our gardens will look like as they grow.

Our Fashion project for this week was our no-sew winter hats. I found the patterns in an amazing book by Judy Ann Sadler called, Making Fleece Crafts.

Most of the girls could not wait to get started on this project, but a few forgot their fleece. I was so proud of my girls! They offered to share extra fabric with each other and EVERYONE got to make a hat. It was so great! I don't have a picture to post yet because we weren't able to make our scarves last night. We will complete the set at our next meeting and get pictures I can post.
If you would like to download my instructions for this project in pdf format, please click here.

Much better!

2010-10-01T06:42:00.000-07:00

Our second meeting of the year was so much better than the first! We started out with practicing the Promise and the Law together. The girls are getting pretty good at them, although more than one has problems holding up the 3 fingers.

Next, the F. earned her "Animal Tracks" patch. She told us about her family vacation to North Dakota where they went to the National Fish Hatchery and on nature hikes. With the help of her mom, F. found the tracks of animals like deer. Then the made a circle out of poster board--using paper clips to hold it together, and then mixed plaster of paris. (F.'s mom brought the p.o.p. pre-measured in plastic bags, then added bottled water and mixed it when needed.) We were able to see the tracks of the deer very clearly.

We were able to read Chapters 1 and 2 from our journey books. The girls are assigned to do the workbook pages of those chapters as homework for our next meeting. I think I'll send out an email reminding them about a week before our next meeting. We also planted our herb gardens. I was able to buy 4 herb garden kits at a local store when they were clearanced at the end of summer. The herbs in each garden are Lavender, Oregano and Thyme. The girls worked together to plant the seeds. I will keep the gardens here at my house transporting them to each meeting so the girls can see the plants' progress.

Our craft this week was to finish the pincushion sewing kits we started last week. Last week the girls chose the fabric they wanted to cover the pincushion. We then glued it onto the Styrofoam and then to the lid of the little plastic containers. This week the girls glued a ribbon around the edge of the Styrofoam (pinning it in place until dry) and then I gave them each 2 tiny spools of thread for their kits. Here is a picture of my pincushion sewing kit.

I also handed out the fleece water bottle carrier bags. My daughter and I sewed them at home and then cut the fringe in for each girl. The girls' job now is to tie the fringes to complete the bag. Once they have brought it to show me they have completed it, they will receive a patch with their name and troop number to glue on to their bag. This will be the second of their 5 fashion projects towards earning their fashion patches.

The first meeting of the year is always the worst!

2010-09-27T09:24:00.000-07:00

We had our first meeting of the year last week, and I felt like it was pretty chaotic. The girls were excited to see each other and so I had a hard time getting them calmed down and focused on the meeting. We started out by talking about the summer and practicing the promise and the law. Then we started the Daisy Journey book, working through the character introductions and workbook pages. We officially started our simple sewing projects with our pin cushions and water-bottle carrier bags. The sewing machines were not all agreeing with us, so it was interesting to say the least.

I look forward to our meeting this week where Faith will earn her individual patch for animal tracks, we will read the first chapter of the book, plant our herb gardens and finish our pin cushions by gluing a fancy ribbon around them. I purchased a small sewing kit with enough mini-spools of thread to give the girls each 2 colors. I would like to give them each a needle-threader but have yet to find that many of them.

Rather than transport the sewing machines back and forth, which seems to upset how well they run, Sammi and I sewed the water-carrier bags and they are now ready for each girl to do her tying and glue on her patch identifying it as hers.

Starting our second year!

2010-08-27T11:43:00.000-07:00

We are getting ready to start our second year together as a troop! It's so exciting. There are so many ideas bouncing around in my head. We will start this year with our first Daisy Journey, "Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden". The journey book will teach us about becoming leaders.

We will also be learning to do basic sewing. Our first project will be making pincushions using this design:

Click here to see the full tutorial on CraftPudding.
The only difference is that I will be using small plastic jars instead of baby food jars. The plastic jars are much less breakable and so are better suited to the girls. I plan to have the girls work on their pincushions at our first meeting in September after we finish our work in the Journey books. I am also planning to have 2 or 3 sewing machines at the meeting so that the girls can start working on their water bottle carriers.
The carriers are made from fleece. I think fleece is nice to start with since it doesn't fray. The girls will sew a simple zig-zag seam to make the bag and then can cut the fleece to tie the sides into "tassles". You can click here to see a .pdf with instructions. They are rough instructions as I created the project as I went yesterday.
I think that our troop will have nice results taking turns working on projects. The projects will take more than one meeting but that is okay, since girls sometimes have to miss meetings.

Here are some of our goals for 2010-2011:
1. Complete "Welcome to the Daisy Garden" journey
2. Complete 5 simple sewing projects
a. make a pincushion
b. make a water bottle carrier
c. make a pillow
d. make a SWAP sash
e. make a bean bag frog
3. Complete "Between Earth and Sky" journey
4. Host a SWAP

Daisy/Brownie Camp 2010

2010-08-16T09:01:00.000-07:00

The first weekend of August 4 girls from my troop attended Daisy/Brownie camp with 20 other girls. It was quite an exciting 3 days! The Brownies and the older Daisies who are bridging to Brownie this year were working for 3 Try-Its, Art to Wear, Science in Action and Colors & Shapes. Each Try-It requires 4 projects to complete. My girls cannot earn Try-Its yet, so I found corresponding patches for them online: tie-dye t-shirts, science and painting (art).

We started Friday off with setting up camp and then assigning girls to the tents & tent moms. Each girl was also given a number to help us identify her projects. I had my daughter, 2 girls from my troop and the daughter of another leader who couldn't stay on the campsite (no dads are allowed to be tent dads.) We made our first project, permanent sand-castles (Colors and Shapes).
Then we had a very nice woman come and talk to the girls about constellations, they drew their own star charts and then she drew a large star chart on the sidewalk for them. Our snack was banana boats.

Banana Boats:
Large bananas still in the peel (greener ones work better)
Chocolate chips
Marshmallows
Granola
Berries
Slice the bananas length-wise, but not all the way through. Have girls fill the bananas with their choice of toppings -- not too full! Then tightly wrap the bananas in foil. Place bananas into the coals of the fire for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Friday night was a true test of our campers, the winds coming off of the lake were so strong! Carey's tent half-collapsed during the night and she moved her girls to Loretta's tent. In the morning her tent blew all the way down, and as it had been serving as a wind block for my tent, my tent went down too! Loretta's tent ended up collapsing too. We started the day with tie-dyed t-shirts (Art to Wear). I taught them and by the time I was done my whole left hand was purple! I showed the girls the different ways to tie their shirts and after they did the tying, the tent moms helped with the dying. We did learn that we should have washed the shirts first, as the sizing prevented the dye from soaking right in. After the shirts were dyed, we wrapped them in plastic wrap and marked them with the girls' numbers. They were left in the sun for the rest of the day to cure.

Nila came up from Sioux Falls and brought a bounce house for the girls. We tried to have stuff available to keep them busy during their downtime since laying down in the tents wasn't an option. While the girls were playing in the bounce house and blowing bubbles, I enlisted the help of Bridget and Emily in pulping the shredded paper I brought. We pulped the shredded paper and the wood shavings in 2 old blenders. Be sure to put a lot of water into the blender so it doesn't get locked up.

All the pulped paper was dumped into a large plastic bin to soak and soften until we were ready to start the project after lunch. After lunch 1/2 of the girls went to work on Pounded Flowers (Colors & Shapes), and the other half came to work with me on Paper Making (Science in Action). To give each girl a chance to make her own individual sheet of recycled paper, I started with 2 dozen wooden frames I picked up at the dollar store. Becke and I removed all of the glass and metal from the frames and then I stapled sheets of window screen to the back of the frames. I used animal screening because it was cheaper than aluminum screening but also because I was worried that the aluminum would have sharp edges. Each girl received 1 frame with her number written on it. Then I dumped 3 or 4 scoops of pulp onto it and let the girls spread it out and squeeze out as much water as possible. Once the girls felt their paper was perfect, they were laid out in the sun to dry.

The left-over paper pulp was dried as much as possible and then Carey, Nila and I formed it into balls (about the size of baseballs) to use as fire starters at camp.
That afternoon we took a nature walk with the girls, which was a nice treat, as the trails were much cooler thanks to all the shade. At the butterfly garden we found a leopard frog, which was the highlight of the hike.

Saturday evening we noticed the barometer dropping and were really worried about storms. The police told us the winds were supposed to drop off and the skies were supposed to be clear, so we stayed at camp. We did decide to try to finish up early the next day because the heat index was supposed to be in the high 90s. So the plan for Saturday night was to break the girls up into small groups and rotate through activities. Loretta taught the girls to make Mobiles (Colors & Shapes), Brandy taught the girls to make Friendship Bracelets (Art to Wear), Carey helped the girls rinse out their t-shirts,

and I taught the girls to make Lava Lamps (Science in Action) and Color Plates (Science in Action).

Lava Lamps:
Fill a pint jar 1/2 full with water
Add 2-3 drops food coloring
Fill jar to within .5 inches of the top with cooking oil or mineral oil
Drop in 1/4 tablet of alka-seltzer and watch the "lava" action
I used the lava lamps as a chance to talk to the girls about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and why it is so important to keep our oceans clean.
Color Plates:

The girls each colored a paper plate that had been divided into 8 sections and had 2 holes punched in it close to the center. Once colored a string could be put through the holes to create one big loop. The idea is to twist the string tightly so that as it unwinds the plate spins, creating the optical illusion of "mixing" the colors of the rainbow back into white. The demonstration plate didn't work out so well, but Jeanette, Emily and I were quick to come up with a solution. The plate was taped to a lazy susan and spun back and forth very quickly. The girls said they saw the illusion of white.

The next morning we needed to accomplish tearing down camp, finishing the Colors & Shape Try-it and the Science in Action Try-it. After camp was torn down I took the girls and had them start on autograph books. To incorporate colors and shapes, I had them each make a crayon rubbing of a small leaf on a page of the autograph book and sign their name. We passed the books around in a cycle to ensure every girl worked on every book.

It was time consuming but it allowed Loretta to make the Ooblek Goop for our last Science in Action activity. The girls loved the goop, especially since Emily had read Bartholomew and the Ooblek by Dr. Seuss to them the day before. It was probably the most popular project of the weekend. Thankfully the girls all got home before the heat set in and we had camp cleaned up before the heavy rains started.

Overnight Buddy Camp

2010-07-09T10:23:00.000-07:00

Sorry I didn't get it posted right away, but we had our first camp-out! It was a one night camp-out designed to give the girls a chance to meet older and younger troops. The girls had a great time, as did I. We arrived on Friday evening and after going over safety rules and setting up camp, the girls were put into mixed groups to talk about what kind of experiences they have had in Girl Scouts so far. Then we started the campfire and made some s'mores! I survived the night in a tent with 4 little blonde girls! There were lots of giggles and whispers, but they were good girls and went to sleep with no problem. Saturday morning we took the girls on a nature hike to do some bird watching. My little group saw a red shouldered black bird (I think that's what it was called.) Our afternoon project was to make fire-starters by stuffing cotton or dryer lint into pine cones. Loretta then dipped them in melted wax. The girls then helped pack up the camp and were ready for a water-balloon fight. Sammi and I had to leave a little early but we had so much fun! I hadn't tent-camped in years and it was Sammi's first time. I can't wait to go to our 2-night campout in August.

Great American Buffalo Adventure

2010-06-07T20:22:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness, I can't begin to tell you how much fun the troop had on our adventure! All of the girls except one were able to attend, and I had the help of 4 other troop volunteers. We drove 2.5 hours to Wessington, SD to the Christensen Buffalo Ranch.

We were in the first group to go on the hayride. The hayride was in a huge hay trailer pulled by a tractor.

Mr. Christensen drove us and acted as our tour guide. The pasture was about 5 miles from the ranch house, and very bumpy, which made for lots of giggly little girls!

When we first got to the pasture, the bison cows were near a small pond with the calves. They ran from us because they wanted to protect their calves from us. I got this great video of the herd moving away from us.
Click here to see the video clip.
Mr. Christensen would stop the tractor to show the girls plants native to the prairie. We learned about Sheep Shower--an edible purple flower,Yarrow--once used as a laxative, and Indian Potatoes--a tuber that grows on the prairie and was a staple in the Native American diet. He showed us a lot of plants and picked flowers for the girls, he even found a wild rose!

Mr. Christensen seemed to really enjoy teaching the girls. He stopped and let us look around for flowers while he dug up Indian Potatoes, which he then cleaned and cut up, allowing each girl and adult to taste. They really do taste like potatoes!

My girls were very excited about finding the shed hair of the bison, who are losing their winter coats. Little tufts were stuck to plants everywhere we looked. We found different kinds of hair, the light brown seemed to be softer and finer than the black hair. I even stumbled across a large intact piece of hair.

After seeing the bulls, who are separate from the herd this time of year, Mr. Christensen took us to see a tee-pee ring. All that remains of the nomadic homes are rings of stones, which were used to hold the hides down. We had the girls stand on the stones to make it easier to visualize.

Back on the ranch, we were treated to a wonderful early supper of bison meat sandwiches and Girl Scout Cookies! Then we were able to help make rope, the girls worked hard to turn the crank that twisted the rope.

Our last activity of the day was to make necklaces with colorful beads, and a surprise trip to see a dove's nest. My girls were wiped out, and I was very tired and just a little sunburned. The girls were given packets with a placemat telling them facts about bison, bison meat recipes, a piece of handmade rope, a tuft of bison hair and their Great American Buffalo Adventure patch. We had a fabulous time together, and I am very glad to have such a great bunch of girls and a great bunch of volunteers! I can't wait to do this again next year!

Just something fun!

2010-04-26T10:28:00.000-07:00

I have been working on a scrapbook page for my troop for the Service Unit book. I needed some embellishments and had the worst time finding what I wanted. So I created my own. I love this little Daisy. As you can see she has earned all her petals and is wishing you a Daisy Day!

Click here to download!

Month #8 -- Earning our Green and Rose Petals

2010-04-23T13:16:00.000-07:00

Our meeting this month was on Earth Day, and I thought it was the perfect day to learn about and earn our Green and Rose petals for using our resources wisely and making the world a better place. I started the meeting by talking with the girls about what Earth Day is. Most of them had learned about it in school and grasped the concept pretty well. We then started talking about recycling, I was very happy to hear that most of the girls do some sort of recycling with their families. I handed out recycling stickers for them to label their recycling bins. These stickers are available for free at our library and are sponsored by our Municipal Utilities. We then began to talk about reusing items that can't necessarily be recycled. An example I gave them was of the fairy house I made with my daughters out of an old orange juice jug. We hot glued all kinds of found objects to the jug, anything bright and shiny that our local fairies might like (glass pebbles, marbles, sea shells, old jewelry, beads, mirrors, etc). The girls then placed the fairy house outside and we waited for a garden fairy to move in. This project allowed us to use a jug in a new way, decorating our yard instead of throwing it in the local landfill.

The girls and I then talked about how taking care of the Earth can make the world a better place. If we practice good habits like picking up litter, we might brighten someone else' day or inspire them to pick up a piece of litter too.
Our craft project this week was to create Bird Nest Kits. We wanted to reuse a seemingly useless item from our everyday lives. The girls agreed with me that nests made out of sticks might be pokey to sit on, so we thought the birds could use our old dryer lint to line their nests. I found this project in an Earth Day Craft book, the original instructions saying to use milk cartons. Since part of the lesson was to use resources wisely, I explained to the girls that I didn't have any milk cartons, but I did have miniature cereal boxes. Before the meeting I asked the parents of the troop to save their dryer lint and bright pieces of string. I then cut "windows" into the broad sides of the cereal boxes. At troop meeting, the girls stuffed their boxes with their dryer lint. Some girls forgot their dryer lint or did not have enough to fill the box, so we shared. The boxes were then tied with hemp cord so that the girls could take them home and hang them from their trees.

Unfortunately, less than half of my troop attended this meeting, so I sent out e-mails asking them to work with their parents on a project that recycles or reuses household items we would normally throw away. The girls will officially earn their petals when they tell me about what they made with their mom and dad. The girls have no rules on these projects except that we don't want to pollute our yards if we can help it. We should try to use items that will degrade naturally like papers, cardboard, natural strings and glues.

Month #7 -- Earning our Violet Petals

2010-04-23T13:00:00.000-07:00

To earn our violet petals, my girls made a pen pal kit to send to our sister daisy troop in Kentucky. You may remember from previous blog entries that I met another beginning troop leader on Facebook who is from Kentucky -- the same town I lived in for 4 years before coming to South Dakota. We gathered a few things and sent them off to Kentucky to show our sister scouts what South Dakota is like. Our first item was a letter from myself to their troop. Here is the text:
Dear Troop 730,

Hi! My name is Sarah, I am the troop leader for Daisy Troop 50382 in Watertown, South Dakota. There are 9 girls in our troop, they are all in kindergarten. We are learning many new things in Girl Scouts this year. We have participated in a SWAP, we made cookies for “Love Our Community” Day and we just visited the fire station to earn our Red Petals.
We are excited to learn about Kentucky. Most of the girls in our troop have never been to Kentucky but my daughter S was born there! My family lived in Danville for 4 and ½ years. My husband worked at a local manufacturing company, I worked at a local veterinary hospital and we went to church at Centenary United Methodist.
We are enclosing a few things to help you learn about our town and our state. Watertown has some really great ways to keep kids busy. We have a zoo, a big library, a water park and an opera house that gets educational displays like dinosaur fossils. We also thought you might like some of our SWAPs!
Thank you so much for being our Sister-Troop and for helping us to learn how to be a sister to every Girl Scout!

The next item included in the pen pal pack was a picture drawn by each of my scouts of their favorite thing to do here in Watertown. Everyone drew swimming! I think it was a hint that the girls were sick of winter. Each girl signed the Pen Pal letter as well. We included enough of our SWAPs for each girl in their troop and a map/tourist information on Watertown. We are excitedly waiting their letter!

Month #6 -- Earning our Orange Petals

2010-04-23T12:51:00.000-07:00

I apologize, I missed a meeting in my blog entries! This should have been between the first cookie shop entry and the end of cookie sales.
Cookie sales gave us a nice opportunity to teach the girls about being responsible. During our March meeting we went over the basics of how to behave at the cookie shops. We talked about the rules and asked the girls for their ideas. Then we set up a mock cookie shop and I pretended to be the Girl Scout selling cookies. Becke was the customer. We showed the girls that they must speak politely to the customer if they want to sell cookies. We also showed the girls possible scenarios they might encounter at cookie shops. We discussed things like:
1. Speaking clearly to customers
2. Answering questions for the customers and not being afraid to ask Mom, Dad or the troop leaders for help.
3. Never following a customer to their car.
4. Always saying thank-you after speaking to a customer, even if they don't buy cookies from us.
Our goal was to help the girls be responsible for their own words and actions. I think it worked pretty well. We also talked with them about listening to the volunteer Moms, Dads & the troop leaders when we are selling in public. People might not want to buy cookies from a Girl Scout who does not respect authority, so we were able to sneak in an early lesson towards our Purple and Magenta petals.

We survived cookie sales!!

2010-03-30T06:44:00.000-07:00

I must say I am very excited to report that we made it through cookie sales and we did great! The girls did great individually and as a whole the troop sold 1764 boxes of cookies!! The girls each reached their personal goals and most went beyond that. Our cookie shops went well, thanks to being allowed to set up indoors. South Dakota doesn't have the most predictable weather, and it was cold and windy most of the days we were selling. We finished up with 21 extra boxes of cookies, not bad at all considering 8 have already been requested by troop moms! The girls earned so much money that we are "celebrating" by going on a buffalo adventure! It's actually a Girl Scouts event, but I am hoping my whole troop can go. It will be our first event out of town. Here is the link: The Possibility Farm
I am excited, with the cookie money we can afford to do some fun projects, camps and get patches! I love my troop a whole lot, I am so glad I decided to be a leader!

Our First Cookie Shop!

2010-03-14T17:02:00.000-07:00

I am so proud of how well my troop has done selling cookies this year. For a small troop of first-year Girl Scouts, they did great! Most of the girls reached their goals and all of the girls earned the basic cookie patch. Our cookies came in last week and we have been delivering ever since. Today was our first cookie shop at a local truck stop. We are very thankful to the truck stop because they have allowed us to set up or table inside -- out of the rain and cold -- and they have agreed to let us have 5 cookie shops over the course of the month. The cookie shops are broken up into 2 hour shifts. Saturdays from 9-11am, 11-1pm and Sundays 1-3pm. I asked the girls' parents to committ to 2 cookie shop shifts. The girls who have signed up are asked to work their shift with one of their parents. I am there as well. The girls also know they can work extra shifts to earn more incentives, since some were close to big prizes but just not quite there.
Today was hard at first because the girls were wound up and giggly. But at the end of our day we had sold 73 boxes of cookies. Becke, my assistant, and I have talked and we would like to spend some time at our next meeting learning how to behave at cookie shops. We'd like the girls to be more willing to ask people to buy cookies and to prepare the peoples' orders. Moms should just be there to supervise and make sure people are given the correct change. Overall, it went well and we're excited for next weekend.

Month #5 -- Earning our Red Petals

2010-03-14T16:49:00.000-07:00

We have had many opportunities to earn our red petals for being courageous and strong. The girls attended "Animal Yoga" in December to earn this patch as well as learning new exercises for their homework this past month. As an extra opportunity to try new things, I brought a hula hoop, a jump rope and an ankle skipping toy (sorry, I don't remember what it is called.) The girls enjoyed trying to hula hoop, though only a few were "pros", and jumping rope was by far the most popular activity. None of the girls was able to figure out the skipping toy, but everyone gave it a try. Our most recent opportunity to work on this petal was a trip to the fire station. We talked with Firefighter Troy about fire safety and how to be courageous and smart during a fire. The girls got a chance to walk through an ambulance and the big ladder truck! (Pictures to come, I promise!) We really enjoyed ourselves and learned a lot. At our next meeting the girls will be making a thank you card for the firefighters who talked with us.
Our craft project for the month was to make bead-ballerinas. The girls used beads, pipe-cleaners and paper muffin cups to make their ballerinas. We talked about being physcially strong and practicing a lot to learn skills like ballet, gymnastics, swimming and other sports.
To start the girls thinking about their next petal, Orange for Responsible for What I Say and Do, I read the girls some short stories from a book called, I Did It, I'm Sorry. The girls were given a set of multiple choices of how to correctly handle each situation, for example when something gets broken at home. I asked the girls to remember these lessons for the next month and try very hard to admit when they had done something wrong. I also asked them to remember to follow rules like wearing seatbelts.

Time to sell some cookies!

2010-01-29T08:37:00.000-08:00

The girls are very excited for cookie sales, and they can officially start today. We had a cookie rally a few weeks ago and the girls who were able to attend had a ton of fun! I helped with putting the girls' pictures on their own box of cookies. At our last meeting I went over all the rules of the cookie sales with the parents but I did not hand out the forms, since it was over a week before our sales could start. Our council has set the rule that early sales would result in the entire troop losing it's proceeds, so my assistant and I felt it was better to be safe than sorry. We discussed earning a badge by taking an online safety quiz and about our goals for this sale. I also asked the parents about ideas for locations for Cookie sales in the community. We had lots of great ideas and I am hoping that we will be able to set up a table indoors since the weather here is still so cold!

Month #4 -- Earning our Light Green Petals

2010-01-29T08:32:00.000-08:00

This month we needed to talk about earning our Light Green petals as well as prepare for our Red petals. Two of the girls in the troop missed the meeting in December, so I decided to read a story to the girls that had lessons about being considerate and caring as well as being brave and strong. I felt that the fable The Lion and the Mouse would fit perfectly. I started out by asking if the Lion was brave and strong, the girls agreed, but they also agreed that he didn't have to be nice to anyone if he didn't want to, since he is the king of the jungle. They thought the Mouse might be caring but since mice always run away and hide, they aren't very brave. At the end of the story the girls saw that the Lion had tried being considerate and caring and the Mouse had found courage. To back up the lesson, I created a bookmark as our craft. The girls colored and cut out the bookmark. When the bookmark is closed the Lion says, "I can be considerate and caring" and the mouse sits at his feet. When the mouse is pulled down, the message "and I can be courageous and brave." apears. Click here if you for the PDF would like to use this craft. For homework I asked the girls to find a new exercise to learn, reminding them that exercise makes their bodies strong. For example, Sammi wants to learn to hula hoop.

Month #3 -- Earning our Yellow Petals

2009-12-29T17:06:00.000-08:00

We started this meeting by practicing the Girl Scout Promise. For less than $1.00 I bought a sheet of poster board and wrote out the Promise and the Law. I read the Promise to the girls once and then asked them to read it aloud with me. To earn our Yellow Petals, for being friendly and helpful, the girls were supposed to help out around the house without being asked. Most of the girls were able to give specific jobs they had helped with at home. Their moms were usually able to tell me if they had done well or not.
We then moved on to a story to help them thinking about our next petal, light green for being considerate and caring. Since this was our December meeting I chose to read them a story about Christmas. I chose a wonderful book about a bear who stays up after everyone else has gone to bed and makes presents for all of his friends, even though he can barely keep his eyes open. I started the conversation with them about what we care about this time of year and how to be considerate to families who are less fortunate. Each girl was given $0.50 to place in a Salvation Army bucket. I will ask the girls at the next meeting whether they kept the money for themselves or if they shared it with a family who could really use it.
Our craft for this month was to make Christmas ornaments. I would like to start a tradition with the girls in my troop. Every year they will make a new ornament that symbolizes what we are working on that year. This year I fell in love with some penguins made out of socks. I did have to do most of the prep work -- stuffing and sewing the socks, cutting out the felt pieces and as a special gift to the girls I made bead daisies for their ornaments to wear as necklaces.
Here is a picture of Sammi with her ornament. She colored his gray parts with a black fabric marker, but he's still pretty cute.

And you can download the instructions to make this ornament here, it is a PDF file.

Month #2 Earning our light blue petals

2009-11-23T10:24:00.000-08:00

This month we had a whole lot of stuff to cover in not so much time!
We had all 8 of the original girls in the troop plus a new girl joined Girl Scouts and became part of our troop, and Becke's daughter (3 years old) got to come and take part in the fun!
Thank goodness for parents who were able to iron patches onto the girls' vests while the girls worked with Becke and I. We started off by talking a little bit about how the girls were honest and fair during the last month. We used the example of trick-or-treating at houses where a bowl of candy is set outside with a sign that says, "take one please". Sammi told how she had only taken one piece but her friend took two. We then played a fun game where the girls each started out with 10 pennies. I asked them 10 questions and they were told to answer honestly and put one of their pennies into the center if their answer was "yes". The girls knew at the end of the game one of them would receive the pennies but not if it would be the girl with most pennies at the end or if it would be the girl with the least. The ten questions were:
1. Have you ever ridden on an airplane?
2. Have you ever left this state?
3. Have you ever left America?
4. Have you ever swam in the ocean?
5. Have you ever ridden a horse?
6. Have you ever been inside a cave?
7. Do you sleep with a special stuffed animal?
8. Do you like to eat vegetables?
9. Have you ever been to see a movie at the theater?
10. Can you tie your own shoes?
At the end of the game I randomly chose an adult to decide if the girl with the least or the most pennies left would win the "pot". The girl with just 1 penny left won and everyone seemed okay with that. We also had a chance later in the meeting to display being fair. When the girl in charge of snacks this month was handing out her snacks, one girl said "No thank you." Then later the little girl changed her mind and asked for a snack. Other little girls started asking for more snacks and I told them that to be fair, each little girl could only have one snack since there wasn't enough for everyone to have two.
click here to see a picture of my daisies
(I blurred the faces of the girls whose parents have not yet signed the release forms to have their daughter's pictures posted online.)
We also made turkey crowns to celebrate Thanksgiving. My girls had wonderful things to be thankful for, some even said they were thankful for their troop leaders. I didn't get to tell them, but I am very thankful for my daisies and their parents who have been so helpful. To start the girls thinking about being friendly and helpful for next month, I read them a story about doing chores to help mom and dad and then I gave them little slips of paper to leave behind if they do a chore without being told. Mom and Dad are going to keep track of them and let me know if they did at least 6 chores without being asked during this month.

SWAPing good time!

2009-11-14T15:03:00.000-08:00

Today was our SWAP and I must say, I had a ton of fun. 7 of my 8 girls showed up and they were not shy about trading with the older girls. We played some fun games, and I think it went really well. I enjoyed helping the girls find SWAPping partners during the games, you wouldn't think it would be too hard to find another October birthday in a room full of girls, but it was. The kids liked the games like hook tag, we'll have to meet up with one of the other Daisy troops to play, since they only have 3 girls. I think I see a chance for a sister-troop playdate!
Sis had a little harder time. She felt like one of the older girls wasn't nice to her, but she has a hard time when she is in a new situation. She has a hard time jumping into anything new, and today EVERYTHING was new to her. To top it off it was so loud that she got a headache. So she had some quality time with the moms and then after the meeting I made sure to talk to her about not letting people get to you. The biggest thing to remember is that even if someone else is having a bad day, you don't have to let them ruin your day. This has been a great mantra for me in my working life. It makes it easy to overlook a crabby coworker and its a good life lesson for the troop. I promised them we would practice the friendship circle at the meetings, they liked it but it can be confusing at first!! Overall, Janet's troop hosted an A+ SWAP!!

SWAP Meet this weekend!

2009-11-10T16:58:00.000-08:00

I am getting very excited for our first SWAP (Share With a Friend) Meet. The idea is to make something unique to our troop and trade it with girls from other troops. Since we are Daisies, we needed to make something very simple not too hard for little hands. The solution is bag SWAPs. I looked on line at sites like these for ideas:
www.gsswaps.net
www.makingfriends.com/swaps
www.scoutingweb.com/scoutingweb/program/craftswaps.htm
We (Sis and I) tossed around ideas like rainbow seeds or friend seeds, and went to the store to see what was available. Sis saw some cute little white puffballs with silver tinsel sticking out of them and asked if we could please use those. But what to call them?? I thought about it for about a week and it occured to me that we could make our SWAPs into a wish for a silver lining when a friend feels down. Here is our finished SWAP.

The girls seemed to get the idea of wishing for a silver lining on a sad day and they were so fast at putting them together. I prepared for the meeting by counting out what each girl would need to make 20 SWAPs and seperating them into bags for each girl. They finished during the meeting so they didn't have to take any work home. There was also enough supplies to make SWAPs to send to our Sister-Troop in Danville, Kentucky.
I know the girls will have a great time meeting new girls and getting new SWAPs.

Month #1 -- Earning the daisy center.

2009-10-22T05:57:00.000-07:00

Tonight we're having our first official troop meeting. I will be working with the girls on earning our daisy center. Most of the online GS sites I've read recommend making bracelets with beads the color of each of the petals for this goal. I was planning to have the girls make nametags tonight, and it occurred to me that we could incorporate the beads into that project. I am also hoping to start working lessons like "use resources wisely" and "make the world a better place" into each project we do. For example, our nametags start with a recycled piece of plastic. The plastic comes from the library cards at work. When the cards come to us they are secured in a sheet of 6 -- each card actually being 2 pieces, a wallet card and a keychain card. We normally cut the plastic braces apart and discard. As a joke, a coworker suggested we should find a craft to make out of them. Inspiration struck at just the right moment, and I saw the beginnings of our nametags.
I cut and glued cardstock to the plastic braces using a craft glue, and then let it dry. Then I wrote the girls' names in the top section, leaving the large opening for the girls. My plan is to give the girls markers and ask them to do whatever they like on their nametag. They can write their name again or draw pictures or both. Whatever makes them happy. Then we will insert cords through the punched holes, stringing beads as we go. I prepared enough nametags for the girls, my assistant and for myself. As well as one extra, just in case.

You learn something new every day

2009-10-19T10:25:00.000-07:00

It really is true, that old saying. Yesterday I learned that my mom was a Girl Scout leader for my sisters when they were kids. My sisters are 9 and 7 years older than me, and by the time I was old enough to be in Girl Scouts, Mom was working full time. So unfortunately, she wasn't my scout leader. I can't say I'm not a little jealous but I also know that some Moms just don't have the time to give to a troop. It happens.

Today I made a new friend on Face Book. She's a first-time Daisy leader, like myself. But here's the funny part -- she is from Danville, Kentucky! Why is that worth all the excitement? My husband and I moved from Nebraska to Danville, Kentucky less than a year after we got married. We lived there for 4 years before moving to South Dakota 4 years ago. If we had stayed there, Sis might have been in Jill's Daisy Troop and I might have been her co-leader.

It goes to show what a small world we really live in! I am hoping my troop can be pen-pals with Jill's troop. What a fun way to see another part of the country! The Law says, "be a sister to every Girl Scout," and that goes for Girl Scouts all over the country and world, not just in our town.

The Adventure Begins!

2009-10-14T15:14:00.000-07:00

Well, Sis and I have decided to be Girl Scouts. Of course she's a Daisy and I'm the leader. At first I thought I'd be an assistant. Then I thought I'd be a co-leader. But as it turns out, my co-leader is just too busy and so I'm going to try my best to do this right all by myself. Ha ha! Not really, I am not alone in this. I am part of a service unit that has a whole lot of leaders who have been where I am. My troop of 9 kindergarten girls also has a few moms willing to step up if I need the help. I am lucky enough to have some great friends who are willing to help me out, one has never done this before and the other was a leader for years with her kids. I tease Becke (no experience in Girl Scouts) that I'm just training her for the day she takes over a Daisy troop of her own -- her daughter is the same age as Lola and so we'll need to get them started right away. We've managed to sell some nuts and candy and earn a few patches for Sis. This year I get to work with the girls earning their Daisy Petals, or teaching them the fundamentals of Girl Scouts and living a good life in general. Wish me luck!