I can't believe I've missed this thread! Daisy leader here, I have 8 girls, one of which will be bridging to Brownies at the end of the year.
So far we have earned:
1. Daisy Promise center
2. Spring green: we made 75 handmade christmas cards for the local (terrible) nursing home, then we sang carols and passed them out to the residents.
3. Green: the girls said on the first day they wanted to make pickles (why I don't know) so we made refrigerator pickles and used (clean, sterilized) old jelly jars to store them. Then we made necklaces out of old key and re-purposed string and beads to wear to meetings and to tie in with the story.
4. Yellow: I made each girl seven little business cards that said "A friendly and helpful daisy was here" and sent them home with them to do good deeds. Each time they did something friendly or helpful without being asked, they gave thier parents a card. If they gave away all the cards by the next meeting, they earned their patch. The parents *LOVED* this one!
5. Scouting North East Texas (council patch): this took two meetings, but the girls loved it. The first meeting we learned about Texas, the state flag, bird, tree, and song, we had a hoe-down and sang Yellow Rose of Texas, and we made Texas chili that the girls then got to take home. The second meeting we learned about the history of GS in our area, about the local service center, and about the "Gowns of the First Ladies of Texas" museum at a local university.
6. Halloween
we all dressed up, we bobbed for apples and played games, and just generally had a good time.
7. Christmas Party: My P.A. (my co-leader's Cadette daughter, so sweet!) planned all the games, and my wonderful co-leder brought snowman cupcakes. We sang Christmas songs and had a potluck.
8. Mardi Gras Party: We made masks, learned about the Krewes of Rex, Little Rascals, and Isis, learned the history of King's cake (and then ate some), the girls yelled for beads and we threw them so they could catch them, and listened to Zydeco music (my husband's family is cajun).
9. We are currently doing the Girl Scout Birthday Week patch, we spent Monday (our meeting) learning how to say "hello" "goodbye" and Thank you" in Spanish and ASL, then learned how to say Girl Scout in ASL. I gave them each a packet to take home with their parents explaining the things they need to do on the other days, which they will bring back to the next meeting. We also planned a birthday box that we will take to the local social services center, and I will get the supplies and such for them to put together in a HUGE gift box I have at the next meeting.
10. Journey Watering Can: We planted lettuce (I a a BIG container gardener) and have been tending it all winter. We are planning to serve a salad out of it at our closing ceremony.
We have planned for the rest of the year:
1. "Scouting our Past" I have arranged for the Executive Director of the local social services agency to come and speak with our troop about when she was a girl scout. She was also a troop leader here in America and overseas, so that should be interesing. The meeting before, the girls will come up with the interview questions.
2. Rose: We will do this the week of Arbor Day and Earth Day, to tie in with the environmental hoopla they will be getting at school. We will either plant lemon tree seeds, start worm composting (I may save this for Brownies) or make fancy note paper out of old newspapers.
3. Golden Honeybee: The last "official" meeting will be spent planning the details for their closing ceremony.
4. Amazing Daisy Award: Earned at the ceremony.
My fabulous co-leader had a great idea to give out perfect attendance awards, and we decided it would be a good idea to give "individual" patches at that time, too. Our own daughters will get "My mom is a troop leader", the high seller will get a patch, the twins will get "girl scout sisters", etc. At least one for each girl, so everyone feels special.
We have sold about 700 boxes so far, with booth sales starting (for our troop) in a couple of weeks.
We will also be going troop camping in April.
Does anyone have any idea what the next Journey will be? I'm trying to plan next year, because I will have another Daisy troop then, too (my younger daughter).