Thursday, February 28, 2013

World Thinking Day: International Bazaar

Our area group (consists of several different troops) put this together...an International Bazaar!

The concept is simple, each troop picks a country and makes a table display. They share what they learned with other scouts and possibly sell something country related (like jewelry, food, etc). The money raised gets donated to the fund that helps girls be able to afford being a scout, if they don't have the means.

This is our first year and we are NOT adopting a country but ARE attending. We will see how it all works and then, adopt a country next year. I am leaning towards an African theme as I scored a one gallon bag full of wooden beads that would make for amazing bracelets to sell....or Japan as several girls have access to a kimono and we could face paint ladies like a Geisha?

Here is an example of a table display and a Daisy (my daughter) holding their passport:
Girls looking for the trivia answer of the booth for their passport...then that country "stamps" it.
My Assistant Troop Leader and I, decked out with mustaches from "France" ... they sold them for $.25 each
Italy had a Mona poster that became a photo op. This is the Mona Sarah...
Australia had aboriginal face painting for a quarter. Simple, two colors and it used just one Q-tip to do! Simple, yet brilliant - no?
Hong Kong had paper fans for a quarter (or maybe it was $.50?)
We ended with a flag ceremony, Girl Scout promise and law, and then called all troops/countries up one-by-one to donate their earnings. All troops were clapped for as they did a SUPER job on their countries!
If you don't have anything like this in your area -- I hope it gives you enough ideas to get one started!
All girls had a BLAST, learned a lot and it was cool to have a little "down time" in the event to "network" with other girls from different troops.
 
Happy World Thinking Day!

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Investiture Ceremony

We are a second year Daisy Troop but never have done an Investiture Ceremony. So, we made a BIG deal out of this, to make it special for the girls.

At our last meeting we had the girls decorate the invites for their parents...after all, you need someone to clap for you when you earn something, right?

First things first.
The order of the ceremony.

Everyone will do the Pledge of Allegiance.

Leader Says: You are all Daisy Girl Scouts but we are "officially" stating that tonight. Together we will
explore all the fun and adventure of Girl Scouting. Let's look at some of the things we have done and might do.


(This is where the girls start to come up, one by one. They got a numbered index card when they arrived)

 #1 GS: The lady that started Girl Scouts was Juliette Gordon Low, her nickname was "Daisy". We are named after her.

#2 GS: Together we will learn more about Girl Scouting.

#3 GS: The Girl Scout Promise is the pledge that tells us how to live our lives. 


LEADER: In Daisy Girl Scouts, girls earn 10 Learning Petals. Each petal is a different color, which represents a different phrase from the Girl Scout Law. Our law starts out : I will do my best to:

#4 GS: Be honest and fair

#5 GS: Be friendly and helpful

#6 GS: Be considerate and caring

#7 GS: Be courageous and strong

#8 GS: Be responsible for what I say and do

#9 GS:   Respect myself and others

#10 GS: Respect authority

#11 GS: Use resources wisely

#12 GS: Make the world a better place

#13 GS:   Be a sister to every Girl Scout.


LEADER: In Girl Scouting, we have lots of fun things to learn. We will learn how to be safe and healthy. We will learn how and why things work. We will sing, dance, make things and put on plays. We will have fun outside and learn how to care for our world. We will learn how to be helpful people on this earth. The Girl Scout Promise tells us to help others. The Girl Scout Law tells us how to be good to each other and our world. Most important we have fun!
Let's all repeat our Girl Scout Promise.

It is now time to pin our girls! All of our girls have already worn their Daisy Pin.  

The daisy is a symbol of dedication to the Girl Scout movement, which was started by our founder Juliette Gordon Low and began in our country on March 12, 1912. Juliette Low’s nickname was Daisy. You are following in her footsteps as you become a unique and caring influence in today and tomorrow’s world.

Today, we are turning it upside down. It can be turned right side up by a parent after the Daisy Girl Scout has completed three good deeds.  We look forward to hearing all of the good deeds at our next meeting!  
 
We are also pinning on this year's membership stars!

In alphabetical order, please come up.
A, A, A, D, E, J, K, K, L, L, M, S, T
(each one pinned, Daisy pin turned upside down and handed a certificate)
These were the certificates I made in Publisher. It has 13 Daisy flowers on it because we have 13 Daisies in our troop!

Please welcome Daisy Troop #1123!

Now, it's award time!
All cookie awards passed out, along with a certificate.

Let's all join together for the Friendship Squeeze!

Refreshments.
(simple punch and Girl Scout cookies)

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Daisy Meeting Number 7: Valentine's

 Early Bird Activity: Working on the Investiture Ceremony Invites.(Our next normal meeting date is going to be our Investiture Ceremony)
 
Circle Time
We started with the Girl Scout Promise.

Petal Award Pass out (our first year Daisies are doing an independent study to earn their petals) The 2nd year girls applaud them!

Birthday Award Pass out (A card from me with a birthday "fun" patch)

Review the bank field trip -- what did we learn about money? We had everyone who made it to the field trip share something that they learned so the girls who couldn't go learned too!
 
Pass out Finance Leaf! We are doing all FOUR leaves this year as they didn't really sell cookies last year. They have done almost everything for all four and at our next "normal" meeting, they will get them.
 
What is an Investiture Ceremony? They have never been to one before so I explained what they could expect. We would do the pledge of allegiance, the promise, the law, get pinned and receive the cookie selling awards.
 
Valentines time!
They all got a craft kit that contained a foam heart, puffy heart stickers in different colors, lips confetti and a picture of them. They got to use markers too and make them as fancy as they wanted to.
 
Snack. We kind of mixed things up a bit here and deviated from our normal "healthy" treats. Candy bracelets, Capri Sun, Fruit Roll Ups and Fruit Chewies...yes, they got sugared up {sigh}.
 
Circle time 
Talk about Magazine sale. We did VERY well on cookies and didn't really need to do the magazine sale this year. I explained that if everyone fills out the post card packs and turns it in, we make $2.50 each. That is an EASY $35 for us! They also get a cute chalkboard and patch...which they got excited about.

We then ended with the Friendship Squeeze.




Thursday, February 7, 2013

Bank Tour!

We have been winding up things on "Finance" leaves and this was our last step - a tour of our local bank. Due to the weather, not everyone made it but we didn't reschedule.

The girls learned about money, how a bank works, and what some people need to know so they can work there.

They had fun, got a frisbee from the bank and a "fun patch".





 

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Ground Hog Day!

Sun Prairie is the Ground Hog Capitol of the World -- so why not celebrate?
It was COOOOOOLD so I packed cocoa in a thermos
and, Jimmy said "early spring"  
Yippee!