Color a Smile

Our first service project was for Color a Smile. This organization collects drawings from schoolkids and Scouts like us, and donates them to nursing homes, Meals on Wheels, etc. We spent our activity time at this week's meeting in coloring over twenty pages!

Our Daisies are welcome to print out pages at home and bring them to the meeting for service credit. Please keep track of the time you've spent coloring, so that you can record it on your Inchworm of Service record and earn your next patch!

Inchworm of Service

The Inchworm of Service patch program is one of the ways in which GSCOC encourages Girl Scouts to provide service to our families and communities and teaches girls the value of helping others. Girl Scouts at all levels keep track of their service hours on the Inchworm form, and after completing the required number of hours they will have earned a patch, which they can wear on the back of their tunic or vest. The first patch is the head of the inchworm. Girls can earn as many Inchworm patches as they are able.

Daisies are required to complete 5 hours of service in order to receive a patch.

Service time can be earned as a troop or at home. Record your Daisy's time in 15-minute increments -- each Inchworm section on the form stands for 1 hour.

More information and printable Inchworm forms can be found here.

Halloween Apple Bites

Here is a silly snack that we made the week of Halloween -- the idea is from the October 2007 issue of FamilyFun magazine, and can also be found here.

Halloween Apple Bites

You will need:

• apples (1 apple will make four snacks)
• slivered almonds
• cutting board
• sharp knife
• napkins or plates to set the apple on
• small bowls to share the slivered almonds
• box or plastic bag to take home the apple trimmings for your compost pile!

One of the leaders can cut each apple into quarters. Core the quarters, and cut out a wedge from the skin side of each quarter. This makes the "mouth".

Have the girls press the slivered almonds into place for "teeth," at the top or bottom or both!

Two Very Silly Songs

The Penguin Song

"Penguins, attention!
Penguins, begin!

Have you ever seen
A penguin come to tea?
Take a look at me,
A penguin you will see!

[last repeat]
Penguins, attention!
Penguins, SALUTE!"

This is a cumulative song: you add in more and more motions as you sing. The more you do, the funnier it gets.

Sing-speak the introduction; the verse is simply a rising and falling scale, e.g., C-D-E-F-G, G-G-F-E-D-C, C-D-E-F-G, G-G-F-E-D-C.

Stand at attention when you sing the intro. Sing the first repeat of the verse standing still. Repeat the intro, and when you sing the verse again, slap your thigh with your right hand like a "penguin wing". The third time around, slap both thighs with both hands. On each successive repeat, add in your right foot, your left foot (in a "penguin waddle" standing still -- this can be tricky!), nod your head, and turn around. Finish with the salute.

Mother Gooney-Bird

Another cumulative song. The tune for this one is a variation of the old Sunday School song, "Father Abraham."

"Mother Gooney-Bird
Had seven chicks.
Seven chicks had Mother Gooney-Bird.
They couldn't fly,
They couldn't swim,
They could only go like this:

Right wing!"

Start each new motion when you call it out. Tuck your right hand in your right armpit and flap your elbow like a gooney-bird. The next time around, call "Left wing!" and do the same with your left elbow. Sing each repeat doing all of the motions you've accumulated. On the next verses, add right foot (in a kind of marching motion), left foot, "nod your head," and "turn around." You can end it, if you haven't collapsed already, by yelling, "Freeze!" or "Sit DOWN!"

Daisy Bracelets

For our activity this week, we made Daisy bracelets based on the Girl Scout Law bracelets from Making Friends.

Daisy Bracelets

You will need:

• elastic cord, about 10" per bracelet
• about 24 pony beads per bracelet in blue, yellow, and white
• white glue
• masking tape (optional)

Cost: Inexpensive

Ahead of time:

Cut the elastic into 10" lengths, and dab a bit of white glue on each end to keep it from fraying and to help the girls string the beads.

How to do it:

Have the girls count out their beads, and string them. If it gets awkward, tape one end of the elastic to the work surface to keep things steady. Tie off each bracelet with a square knot, and dab a bit of white glue on the knot. If you need to trim the long ends of the elastic afterwards, put another dab of glue on the cut ends.

Juliette Low Gravesite Restoration Project

Juliette Gordon Low was the founder of Girl Scouts of the USA, and it is for her childhood nickname that Daisies are named. A group of Girl Scouts in Michigan has volunteered to help raise money for the restoration of the Juliette Gordon Low gravesite in Laurel Grove Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia, and has created a patch for those who contribute $5 towards the project. As of January 2007, they have raised $5,000 towards their goal of $15,000.

For more information and photos of the project, as well as an order form for the patch, visit the Juliette Low Gravesite Restoration Project.

Investiture

Our first investiture ceremony was adapted from this one from the Girl Scout Council of St. Croix Valley, in Minnesota.

We had a simple flag ceremony, for which one of our girls had volunteered to hold the small flag. We all stood in a horseshoe formation with the flag at the curve, facing the audience.

"Today is a very special day for us. It is the day when we receive our Daisy Girl Scout membership pins and officially become Girl Scouts. To do this, we each make a Promise -- the same Promise that all Girl Scouts, everywhere, make. We hold up three fingers to remind us that our Promise has three parts: to serve God and our country, to be helpful to others, and to try to be the best persons we can by following the Girl Scout Law. Let us make the Girl Scout sign now and say our Promise together."

We recited the Girl Scout Promise, and the leaders presented the pins to the girls one by one, then we sang the "Daisy Smile Song" -- the "Brownie Smile Song" adapted, of course!

"Welcome to the world of Girl Scouting. We are all looking forward to having fun together, making friends, learning new things, and helping people. Wear your Daisy Girl Scout pin with pride and remember the Promise you made."

We made a friendship circle for the closing -- standing in a circle, the girls and leaders all crossed their right hand over their left, and took hold of the hand of the girls on either side. We sang "Make New Friends" to end the investiture.

Graphic courtesy GSUSA

Easy Snack Mix

Here is the snack we made at our first meeting --


Easy Snack Mix

You will need:

• Chex Mix (about 1/2 cup per serving)
• nuts (about 1/3 cup per serving)
• plain M&M candies (about 1/4 cup per serving)
• measuring cups in the above measures
• small bowls (1 for each serving)
• snack-sized plastic bags for individual leftovers, if desired

Pass around the ingredients, letting each girl measure them out into her own bowl.

This is good with apple juice!

Daisy Invitations

We made daisy invitations for our first investiture. (Observant Daisy leaders will recognize the daisy on the cover of the leader's guide as the inspiration!)

This is a bit fiddly, with all of the petals, but the effect is very pretty. The one in the photos is mine -- as there was not a moment during the meeting to take photos! -- and I'd had time earlier to round all of the petals and color on the center. Some of the girls preferred a more minimalist approach, so to speak, and some decided to cut their petals from the long side of the white strip, and as it turned out we didn't have time to color on the center at all, but, really, they all turned out well.

You will need:

• 1 piece of orange and/or yellow cardstock
• a few yellow and/or orange crayons
• "Daisy Blue" cardstock (1 per invitation)
• white cardstock
• scissors
• glue stick
• pre-printed invitation inserts

Ahead of time:

Trace 1-inch circles on the orange or yellow cardstock; cut out the circles, or even better, cut the cardstock into rough squares with the traced circle on its own square, so that the girls can cut their own flower center. Cut 1 strip of white cardstock 1 3/4 in. x 6 1/2 in. per invitation. Have extras of each just in case.

To make:

Have the girls fold their piece of blue cardstock in half crossways. This is the base of their card.

Have them cut out their flower center, and color it lightly with the crayon around the edge (or all over, if they like). Some of the cardstock color will show through nicely.

Have the girls cut the white cardstock into strips along the short length of the precut pieces, then trim one end of each strip into a rounded petal shape. Arrange the petals on the blue card in a daisy shape; if it helps, pencil in a 1 in. circle for a placement guide. Glue down the petals, then glue the daisy center over the bases.

Glue the invitation insert inside the card, and have each girl sign hers.

Daisy Girl Scout Uniform

This is what our Daisy Girl Scout tunics look like before investiture, when our Daisies will receive their pins.

The Daisy pin will go on the yellow insignia tab, and the Promise Petals that our Daisies earn this year will go on the front of the tunic, as they are earned.

Participation patches and service patches will go on the back of the tunic.

For more information, see GSUSA's "Where To Place Insignia on a Uniform (Daisy Girl Scouts)".

Pick-Up Sticks

This is a fun game for any number of players, and good for a pre-meeting activity. You can buy a set of pick-up sticks, but it's fun to make one at home, with ordinary bamboo skewers -- the kind you use for shish kebabs -- and Sharpie permanent markers.

You will need:

• 30 bamboo skewers
• permanent markers in black, red, blue, green, and yellow
• medium- or fine-grade sandpaper
  
  Run the sandpaper lightly along the sides of the skewers to remove any splinters or rough spots, and sand the tips so that they are not sharp.
  
  Color the top two inches or so of the flat end of the skewers in the following quantities: 1 black, 7 red, 7 blue, 8 green, and 7 yellow. If you'd rather, you can color the whole skewer.
  
  How to play: With all of the sticks in one hand, set them up on end on the table, and let them fall gently into a pile. The first player tries to pick up one stick without making any of the other sticks move. If she can do it, she gets to try for another stick, but when she makes a stick move, her turn is over. (The girls will quickly learn that the best "piles" are those that are nicely spread out but not too easy!) The game can be played using the black stick as a tool to winkle out another stick, or with the black stick included in the pile as the high-scoring stick. The winner is the girl with the most points at the end.
  
  The black stick scores 25 points; red is 10 points each; blue is 5 points each; green is 2 points each; yellow is 1 point each.

Welcome!

Welcome to the blog for Daisy Girl Scout Troop 101!

This is a site mostly for our leaders to share the things we do -- crafts, recipes, songs, and activities -- both with the parents of our Daisies and with other leaders. We are finding it very helpful to read about what other Daisy leaders have done, and so we would like to do this "good deed" in our turn!

In order to protect our girls' privacy, this is not a calendar of events for our troop, nor will the girls' names or photos be posted.