New Place, New Year

Aloha Everyone,

I completely lost track of my first year as a Daisy Leader.  Midway through the year we had to move (the life of an Army family) and my daughters had to be Juliettes for the remainder of the scouting year. I definitely missed my Daisies and Brownies, but we are happy to announce that our new scouting year is about to start and I have volunteer to be a co-leader for a Brownie troop and my Daisy daughter has a new troop. We are very excited!

With that being said, it's that time of the year -- we have our Brownie parent meeting and first troop meeting this weekend.

I spent my day working on both the parent folders and our Brownie folders.
You can find all of the documents that I have used in my Dropbox folder located here.

On the hand out side of our parent we folder we included:

(1) a welcome letter
(2) a handout listing what the troop accomplished. This includes journeys and badges earned last year and events they attended in 2014-2015. This handout also lists what awards, journeys and badges they still need to complete this year and a list of scheduled Service Unit and Council Events plus a list of possible locations for future activities (which the girls will narrow down and decide which ones they would like to do this year)
(3) What Brownies Do Handout
(4) Uniform diagram
(5) Their own copy of the Parent Promise and Law.

 On the paperwork side of our folder we included the following forms for parents to fill out and return: (1) The Parent Promise and Law, (2) a Ohana Talent survey (which is our take on the parent involvement forms we have found online. I ended up combining a Girl Scout parent involvement form with a Cub Scout parent volunteer form), (3) a financial assistance form (not many families are aware that their membership dues or camp fees may be eligible to be covered by FA) and (4) the most important form -- health record form!!!

Brownie Scout Folders

   

I had a lot of fun designing the Brownie folders.

On the left side of the folder we placed:

 (1) I Can't Wait To Paper
(2) the Barbie I Can Be Activity booklet.

We plan on having the girls fill out the I Can't Wait To paper while we talk with their parents. The Barbie booklet will be a take home activity that they can turn in at the next meeting for their first fun patch.

Other items in the binder include:
(1) Calendar pages,
(2) same handout as their parents received with what they accomplished last year and what can be accomplished this year
(3) a badge tracker
(4) their bridging requirements
(5) a money envelope (this is something new I've attended to our folders this year. I figured this would be an easier way to keep track of who turned in what and we can send the receipts back in it - last year we had plastic pencil pouches)
(6) Lil Elf reminder (I knew we needed to have the Promise and Law in our folder somewhere and fell in love with this! I thought it would look best as a sticker)

If anyone is curious, I use my Silhouette Cameo's print and cut feature for all stickers shown above.
- I order sticker paper off of Amazon because it is a lot cheaper (Best Print brand full sheet labels)
- I have a HP Officejet Pro and HP ink subscription (I should probably use less paper, but we all know we have to give out all this information on hard copies as well as posting on troop sites).

Happy 2015-2016 Scouting Season Everyone!

Glo Run

Every year our military base offers a free Glo Run during Military Appreciation month. This year we decided to brave the cold and make it a troop event. We had some girls from our Daisy and Brownie troops show up and they had a blast! We purchased all types of glow sticks from the dollar store and we also brought canned food donations which earned us more glowsticks. Our scouts nearly ran most of the two mile run and were still full of energy as we sat down and waited to get our free pizza. I am so glad we decided to make this a troop event, because I sure this is one they'll remember for the rest of the year!

Service Unit Event: FROG Dance

 Our Service Unit is predominately scouts who come from military families so having a FROG (Father, Relative or Other Guy Dance) is definitely something that is very special to our girls. I will admit that I got very emotional seeing my Daisy and Brownie dancing with their dad as I volunteered at the dance because we were very grateful that he was here this year and not deployed and was able to attend. Some of our other scouts weren't as lucky, but we're fortunate enough to have grandpas, other dads or brothers step up and be their dates. It was night full of dancing and they even had a knighting ceremony. 

Spooky STEM Monday

One of my all time favorite monthly events is our STEM Mondays. In September the girls made exploding rainbows, used straws and connectors and teamwork to build and use cut out tangram pieces to make tangram art. For the month of October, we wanted to stick with a Halloween them, so we had the girls make self-inflating ghosts (balloons with ghost faces, vinegar and baking soda) and they made their own homemade slime. Then while they had their snack outside we had an oozing pumpkin! Not only is this a great opportunity for our Daisies and Brownies to work together, but they also get to see how much science, technology, engineering and math projects can be! 

Sister Troops Event: Bonfire

 

We are definitely fortunate to have such an awesome sisterhood with our sister troops. Our Daisy, Brownie and Junior troop got together for a Back to Troop Bonfire at our Girl Scout Little House. The girls kicked off the night by roasting marshmallows at the fire pit and making s'mores.

After s'mores we played a few games and had some of our scouts teach the girls

some new songs. Then we had the girls split into ten groups (each group had a Daisy, a Brownie and a Junior) and they all picked a part of the Girl Scout Law and had to come up with a skit to perform in front of all the girls. After each girl performed their skit the other Girl Scouts had to guess which part of the law they had. This was definitely a great way for our scouts to remember the petals/Girl Scout law.

While we waited for parents to come and pick up the girls, one of our troop leaders got them together and they came up with a funny story -- each girl had to add on a part of the story. It was definitely interesting to see what they could come up with!

We cannot wait for our next Sister Troop event.

Farm Tour

During one of our Service Unit meetings we heard so many rave reviews about a local farm tour that we decided to take our troop and their families on a tour there before they stopped giving tours until spring. Our girls enjoyed learning about the process they go through to make the milk and butter and they especially loved seeing the newborn baby calfs and then going to pet the older cows. After their tour they were treated to milk samples and a soft serve. This was definitely a fun family event and our girls retained so much information and definitely impressed with their "pop quiz" at the end of the tour. 

Daisy Troop: Friendly & Helpful Petal

Our friendly and helpful petal activity was probably one of the girls' favorites so far. We had the girls help their Daisy sisters paint their hands. Once their hands were painted they had to leave a handprint on their friendly and helpful cards. Their cards said "a friendly and helpful Daisy was here". The girls were instructed to leave their cards at home or at school when they felt they did something that was friendly and helpful without being told to them. The next meeting we discussed what type of things they did :)