OUR FAVORITE DAISY PETAL IDEAS
Respect Authority
Game: The girls play a version of simon says. In this version, the girls only obey Simon if Simon is wearing a hat of authority, which we defined as a police hat, fire hat, or teacher hat. For the teacher hat, the leader took a cloth hat and labeled it “teacher.” The leader brought lots of dress-up hats and Simon kept swapping hats between hats of authority and silly hats (i.e. moose antlers, Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse, crown, hardhat, pirate hat). The girls enjoyed the game, enjoyed watching their leader wear a succession of silly hats, and really liked playing with the hats after the game.
Take the girls on a field trip to our local police station for a tour. The officer gave an age-appropriate tour,including the holding cell, the firing range and the motorcycle garage. It made a big impressionon the girls.
Have someone in authority (principal, police officer, fire fighter, etc.) talk to the girls aboutwhat it means to have their job and how people depend on them.
Take a trip to the fire department. They gave us a tour, allowed the girls to try on theiruniforms, and squirt the fire hose. They talked about fire safety. We made them a specialcard to thank them. We also decorated all of their chalkboards while we waited for them toreturn from a fire. As we were arriving - they were leaving. It was rather exciting for the girlsto see.
Courageous and Strong
The girls acted out the book Paperbag Princess, by Robert Munsch. In this book, the courageous princess rescues the prince by outwitting the dragon. First, the leader read the book to the girls. Then, the girls chose to be either princesses or dragons. The princesses wore construction paper crowns and grocery bags (with head and armholes cut out). The dragons wore a zig-zag cut piece of construction paper on their backs – like the ridges on a dragon. Then, each co-leader coached one of the two groups. Then, we acted out the story, with an adult playing the part of the prince, and an adult as narrator. The girls really had fun. The dragon part is actually more fun than the princess part because the dragon gets to do all the running around. If you do this, be prepared to let as many girls as want to be either princesses or dragons, as long as you have at least one of each. The girls really enjoyed this (and you can use the acting out a story as part of the read to lead patch).
An alternate version of this is to have a Junior troop come to your meeting and act out the story the Paperbag Princess and lead a discussion of the story. Your consultant can help you find a junior troop. Junior troops like to help daisy troops, and they need to do it to earn certain badges/signs.
Another troop used the story The Gruffalo for their read and act out activity for this petal.
The leaders told the girls stories of strong and courageous women (Florence Nightengale, Juliette Low, Mulan, etc.).
For being strong, the troop did exercises (sit-ups, stretching, jumping jacks or the standing broad jump).
A troop leader taught her girls basic Tae Kwon Do kicks and punches. You might be able to arrange a free tae kwon do or karate class for your troop.
The girls earned this petal as they practiced for their bridging ceremony. We talked abouthow it is sometimes scary to get up in front of people and that it takes "courage" and "strength". Then we practiced our ceremony until everyone felt comfortable with their parts.
The troop played a game called emotions. It requires the girls to pick out of a hat a paper that hasan emotion on it, like Happy, Sad, Mad, Glad, Excited, Hurt, etc. The adults help with the reading and each girl had to stand in front of the group and act outthe emotion without talking. If your girls are shy, it could take quite a bit of courage to stand upthere and do that in front of everyone
The girls did a field trip without their moms! We had parents from our sister Junior troop walk to McDonald's with us where we had dinner and then talked about one of the other petals whilethere. Then, we all (Jr. and Daisies) walked over to the ice cream place before walking back toour meeting place. The older and younger girls all had a good time.
The girls were courageous and tried new foods. We are also going to be learning about what it means to be strong not just by lifting weightsbut strong in mind too.
The troop went to one of our local athletic clubs where they were able to have a full hour classof gymnastics and complete a small agility course.
Dance Studio - The instructor spoke to the girls about eating right and exercise. They weretaught some dance steps and exercised with weights
Use Resources Wisely
The troop made maracas out of recycled materials (Pringle containers and beans). The girls made a girl scout game bag, largely out of recycled materials (paper, spoons, sytrofoam peanuts, paper bag, die, balloons).
The girls made candle holders out of baby food jars. They painted on thinned Elmers glue and placed colored tissue paper on the glue. Then they smoothed out the paper and painted some more glue over it to ensure that it was flattened. Then they tied on a ribbon and added a small candle. This was a nice craft for the girls, didn’t cost much, and illustrated how we can all re-use old stuff, even old tissue paper.
Recycling relay: The leaders brought bags of clean recyclables, mixed types. They also brought sorting containers. The girls were split into teams. They had a relay race, where each girl had to correctly “sort” the recyclables into the correct container.
If your troop has at least some Middlesex County members, contact the Middlesex County Improvement Authority (609-409-5033). They have a kid-oriented educational program called Catch the Blue Wave. A person will bring a robot to your meeting and make a 20-30 minute presentation about recycling. The kids will also be given a few items (we got pencils made of recycled money, and string for tying up newspapers).
To emphasize the value of re-using items, not just recycling, go to a garage/yard sale and buy childrens books (should cost around 25 cents each). Wrap the books in previously used wrapping paper. Give each girl one of the books and talk about how it saves money to re-use items (12 yard sale books cost less than 1 new book), uses resources wisely, and reduces garbage. Plus, the girls really enjoy getting a present.
The troop leaders brought stuff that would normally be thrown away (rolls of old fax paper, scraps of construction paper, shoe boxes, popsicle sticks) and miscellaneouscraft stuff left over from other projects, then set it out with NO instructions other than "makesomething." All 20 girls were almost instantly busy. Some worked together on a long muralwith the fax paper, others decorated shoe boxes, some made picture frames with the popsicle sticks.
Collect aluminum cans for recycling.
Visit a recycling center
Take a trip to the local library.
Make paper from all of our construction paper scraps
The girls decorated re-usable plastic cups for our meetings...we discussed recycling and littering.
Be a Sister to Every Girl Scout
The troop made the game bag (see using resources wisely) for another girl scout troop and wrote the troop a letter.
The troop made contact with a Rainbow (Daisy equivalent) troop in the UK and made a small book about our troop with a personal page about each girl and then general info. Then they sent us one about themselves. The girls loved it.
Make swaps for sister brownie troop
Have a Daisy party for all the Daisy troops in town (that’s assuming that there’s more than 1 Daisy Troop!)
For Thinking Day, a daisy scout troop can team up with a brownie troop, and assist that brownie troop with their activities. Also, in preparing to bridge to brownies, it is convenient to have the daisies attend a brownie meeting, in which the brownies discuss what it is like to be a brownie. Troops that did this either had the daisies later make thank you cards for the brownie scouts or made and distributed sister scout cards. Your assigned consultant can connect you with brownie troops from your school.
Help a junior troop earn badges by having them teach the daisies stuff.
Be sisterly by having a joint event with another troop. For example, go to Sayen Garden with another daisy troop from your school. Go caroling with another troop.
Honest and Fair
This one is actually suggested in the daisy leaders manual, only none of us used apples. The idea is to explain to the girls the concept of fairness, then give the girls the opportunity to divide up something fairly. First, we got a lot of a small inexpensive item. Then, we gave them to the girls and told the girls to divide them up fairly, while the leaders are outside the room. (One troop used daisy flower mini-erasers from Oriental Trading - we got a gross (144) for less than $5. Another troop used leftover Halloween candy. Another troop used pennies.)
The troop played various games (tug of war, egg and spoon race) – but the point was to use the games to demonstrate what is honest and fair. For example, the leader would demonstrate unfair ways to play the game before the game started. Also, the leaders showed the girls different ways to fairly make group decisions (voting, taking turns, drawing straws, flipping coins, drawing numbers from a bag). The girls seemed to enjoy the opportunity to draw straws, flip coins, and take numbers from a bag – and the techniques were used to set up groups for games, decide who goes first, etc.
Another troop played musical spots (musical chairs on spots instead of chairs) to talk about being a good loser and how games are not always fair.
Truth/Lie Game: The leaders discussed with the girls the difference between the truth and a lie. Then, the leaders posted a happy face on one wall and an unhappy face on another wall. Then the leader would say something (i.e. I’m wearing a green shirt, You girls are 14 years old). The girls ran to the happy face if it was the truth and to the unhappy face if it was a lie. Once the girls understood the game, each girl got to be the caller and say something that was either the truth or a lie (with the leader coaching girls who were hesitating). The girls enjoyed running back and forth, but really enjoyed being the caller.
Have an Egg Hunt for the "honest and fair" petal. Each girl was allowed to find 5 eggs.Once they reached their goal they had to assist the other girls until everyone found 5 eggs. They were little troopers. I think that they had more fun helping each other.
We read the book "The Emperor's New Clothes" and talked about being honest.We also made "Honest Pretzels" (checked out the book from the library) to eat for a snack.
Responsible for what I say and do
We played a game based on the book “What do you say dear?” You really have to have read the book to understand the silliness of this game. The leader put up signs in the room for the correct things to say (yes please, no thank you, thank you). Don’t have too many signs and draw supporting pictures if you can so that non-readers won’t be embarrassed. Then, the leader told the girls scenarios and asked them “what do you say dear” and they ran to the right response. The leader started with normal scenarios – like if your friends asks you if you would like a piece of candy – what do you say dear. Then, the leader gradually moved on into more silly scenarios, ending with a powerpuff girls story.
The girls each made a job chart. The leaders made a weekly blank job chart. The girls either wrote in or cut/paste jobs already written down by leaders onto the chart. Then, the girls would take home the job charts and mark each day when they had done their jobs. The marking could be done with pen, stickers, or one troop made WOW symbols, with velcro to attach them to the job chart.
The leader read the book “David Gets in Trouble” by David Shannon. David’s antics have consequences.
Leader read “Berenstain Bears Manners Book” interactively with puppets. The girls decorated paper bags with faces and a verbal expression (please, thank you, welcome).
Do a service project that helps the environment. Pick up trash around the school, parkor playground (wear gloves, of course!). Talk to the girls about how each person shouldhelp take care of the earth. Maybe plant a tree or some flowers.
Get a big sheet of paper and have the girls make a list of Troop rules.
Copy a picture from a coloring book. Have the girls color the picture. Have the girlscrumple the picture into a ball. Now smooth out the picture. Note all the wrinkles left on thepaper. Explain when you say something bad or mean it will always leave a mark on thatperson. Some marks don’t show but others do. A girl scouts job is to be responsible andnot say things that might hurt someone on the inside. Discuss what words hurt and whatwords are nice.
Responsible for what I do can be as simple as having the girls always wear their seatbelts when in a car.
Have the girls think about what chore they could do to help mom do around the houseand one that they can do at the Daisy meetings to help out, like take out the trash or pushin the chairs at the end of the meetings. They have a chart to take home and check off fortwo weeks.
Considerate and Caring
Two daisy troops joined together and sang holiday songs at a nursing home. It was good to have two troops. One troop made holiday cards with candy canes for the residents. The other troop made ornaments. It was a good experience for the girls to hand out their small gifts to the residents.
Secret pals! - Have each girl pick out of a hat and have them bring a special gift to thenext meeting - something they've made (if you go with a purchased item, make sure you put a $$ limit on the spending!)... Or even better – send the gift in the mail or drop it off onthe front porch – girls love getting mail. Then you could have each girl bring a card to thenext meeting to reveal herself.