Monday, May 28, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
Not Your Cookie-Cutter Daisies
This entry, about our last meeting on May 3, was written by co-leader Kirsty Kerin.
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This
year we started our Girl Scout Journey curriculum program called “Between the Earth and Sky.” On the
surface, the Journey looks like a cute story and project work around the Daisy
characters. However, the actual goal of the Journey is to focus the girls’
attention on their own feelings and skills, verbalize these comfortably and
confidently, take into account the feelings and skills of those around them,
then move on to engage their larger community and teach and share their
skills.
We
have been working on our own feelings for several meetings. This week we began
the transition to discuss the feelings of others. The girls each had one 8-inch cardboard cutout of a Daisy Scout. Each girl secretly thought of an emotion to
draw on their Daisy’s face. When complete, they took it in turns to stand up,
show their cutout to the group, and choose Daisy friends to guess which emotion
they had drawn. The only one we couldn’t finally guess was “bonkers.”
We
discussed how difficult it is to guess what another person is feeling by just
looking at their face or listening for clues. We tried out lots of
different emotional facial expressions (see the wonderful photos). We discussed
how important it is to ask the other person direct questions and to listen to
them when they answer. The troop had to resolve two conflicts during the
meeting and we used our new term “Circle up!” to sit in a circle together and
ask questions about what happened, how we felt, how we could fix the situation.
For the first time, the girls mostly led this process themselves. That’s pretty
impressive for kindergartners!
The
goal of our
Girl Scout troop is not to create perfect little "cookie-cutter" Daisies who
can recite Girl Scout rules and regulations. Our goal is to create an
environment where the girls can grow safely together, express their needs, learn
new skills, articulate their strengths, and successfully manage a complete
range of feelings. We’re just glad they're doing these things while laughing
hysterically and pulling great faces!
For more information about encouraging these important skills in young girls,
see the book “The Curse of the Good Girl,” by Rachel Simmons.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
New photos added to Shutterfly
Click here to see some photos of the girls from the Girl Scouts 100th Anniversary Celebration earlier this month.
March 15 meeting recap, and summer opportunity
A Great Day for Exploring
Our meeting this March 15th was an extra hour long, since it was a parent-conference day, and we wanted to offer the opportunity for parents to schedule a meeting while the Daisies met.
We had a great meeting, starting with a picnic lunch on the floor in the hallway (no eating in the library), thanks to Michelle S. for the picnic blanket and extra snacks for moms who may have been late with lunch (ahem - me, for instance). The girls love sitting and eating in the hallway, and the talk floats between structured discussions led my Michelle S., and wonderful chattering (as quietly as possible, since conferences were going on as we ate).
After lunch, we had a great nature walk, looking for signs of spring. It was a little cloudy, but not cold -- a great day to spend some time outside. We split into three groups and went out to examine the world around the edges of the school. My group spent some time turning over some old logs in the wooded areas. We found some wonderful baby worms (so tiny!), millipedes, pill-bugs, and ants. Also, many of us were found by spring creates that are not so nice -- ticks. A reminder that the routine of daily checking for ticks is back! (Ick!!)
Kirsty made a wonderful map of the school grounds that the group used to orient themselves and to mark down our findings. After we came inside (and after a really thorough wash-up), we did some work on the Girl Scout Promise, which we're working on helping the girls memorize. The girls should have received a copy of the Promise for reference, and it would be helpful for families to go over it a few times to help them memorize it. (If you don't have a copy, it's written in the margin of this blog.)
Celebrating the Girl Scouts'100-Year Anniversary
Also during our meeting, Brownie Scout Molly B., sister of fellow Daisy Abby B. gave us a great presentation and spoke about her family's recent visit to Savannah, Georgia and the Juliette Gordon Low house. The historic house features many original Gordon family furnishings, including art by Juliette Gordon Low herself, and lots of Girl Scout history and memorabilia.
Molly's talk helped the Daisies learn about the 100-year anniversary of the founding of Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. Molly did a super job!
Summertime Opportunities!
In other news, we're starting to think about summer! Two news items:
Shameless Self-Promotion!
Just an extra word on the community garden, because I can't resist: You can even get your own plot, if you want. It is a wonderful summertime activity for kids. Both our kids have grown up gardening, getting nice and dirty and raising some great veggies. It's nice, because you can put lots of work into it if you want, or just a little. It's an extremely Zen way to spend time, and there are lots of nice folks over there to chat with.
We'd love to have more families involved!
Our meeting this March 15th was an extra hour long, since it was a parent-conference day, and we wanted to offer the opportunity for parents to schedule a meeting while the Daisies met.
We had a great meeting, starting with a picnic lunch on the floor in the hallway (no eating in the library), thanks to Michelle S. for the picnic blanket and extra snacks for moms who may have been late with lunch (ahem - me, for instance). The girls love sitting and eating in the hallway, and the talk floats between structured discussions led my Michelle S., and wonderful chattering (as quietly as possible, since conferences were going on as we ate).
After lunch, we had a great nature walk, looking for signs of spring. It was a little cloudy, but not cold -- a great day to spend some time outside. We split into three groups and went out to examine the world around the edges of the school. My group spent some time turning over some old logs in the wooded areas. We found some wonderful baby worms (so tiny!), millipedes, pill-bugs, and ants. Also, many of us were found by spring creates that are not so nice -- ticks. A reminder that the routine of daily checking for ticks is back! (Ick!!)Kirsty made a wonderful map of the school grounds that the group used to orient themselves and to mark down our findings. After we came inside (and after a really thorough wash-up), we did some work on the Girl Scout Promise, which we're working on helping the girls memorize. The girls should have received a copy of the Promise for reference, and it would be helpful for families to go over it a few times to help them memorize it. (If you don't have a copy, it's written in the margin of this blog.)
Celebrating the Girl Scouts'100-Year Anniversary
Also during our meeting, Brownie Scout Molly B., sister of fellow Daisy Abby B. gave us a great presentation and spoke about her family's recent visit to Savannah, Georgia and the Juliette Gordon Low house. The historic house features many original Gordon family furnishings, including art by Juliette Gordon Low herself, and lots of Girl Scout history and memorabilia.
Molly's talk helped the Daisies learn about the 100-year anniversary of the founding of Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. Molly did a super job!
Summertime Opportunities!
In other news, we're starting to think about summer! Two news items:
- Girl Scout Camp, and other stuff: I am getting ready to create some kind of resource so we can share what our girls are doing this summer (voluntary, of course). Myah's mom, Dawn, expressed interest in sending Myah and her older daughter Celia to Girl Scout Camp for a couple of weeks this summer, and so have a few others. If anyone has a suggestion about how to use a good (free) Internet tool to share this info (such as Doodle), let me know!
- A/B Girl Scout Organic Community Garden Project: Monica, Abby B.'s mom, is going to help run the Girl Scout plot at our local organic community gardens for the Acton/Boxborough service unit. The brochure contains personal contact info, so I won't include it here, but I will send it out in an email to everyone soon. Monica has developed an online schedule that covers May through early October where scouts can sign up for one or two -- or several -- hours of work in the garden. (My husband and I are managers of this garden, and we can attest it is lots of fun. Try it out!)
Shameless Self-Promotion!
Just an extra word on the community garden, because I can't resist: You can even get your own plot, if you want. It is a wonderful summertime activity for kids. Both our kids have grown up gardening, getting nice and dirty and raising some great veggies. It's nice, because you can put lots of work into it if you want, or just a little. It's an extremely Zen way to spend time, and there are lots of nice folks over there to chat with.
We'd love to have more families involved!
Monday, February 20, 2012
Meeting recap, Thursday Feb. 16th
Our growing troop had a great meeting, with a nice run and snack in the Big Guys playground, and then inside, where we went through the next chapter in our Journey book, and did an exercise on the Girl Scout Law.
The Journey: Between Earth and Sky
This week’s chapter in our Journey curriculum was about plants that can clean the soil, such as sunflowers, and urban gardens, and changing plans on a journey. The characters travelled via their petal-powered car to Pittsburgh, PA, where they were joined by a new friend, Sunny the sunflower, for their journey across the country.
The Daisy Craft
The girls also brought home a craft, where they arranged all the different-colored Daisy petals on a paper plate. The 10 Daisy petals all correspond to a part of the Girl Scout Law. Kirsty spoke with the girls about the meanings of the parts of the law, and the girls gave some great examples from their own lives. The object of the craft is to help the girls memorize the Girl Scout Promise and the Girl Scout Law, which are both displayed in the right margin of the blog.
To download a version of the activity, click here. (Choose "Download original.")
The Yellow Petal Worksheet
Next week, the girls will earn their yellow Daisy petal. The yellow petal stands for the part of the Girl Scout Law, “be friendly and helpful.” They brought home worksheet to help them record how and when they are helpful around the house (since we already know they are all friendly). Daisies and their families can use the worksheet as a thinking tool to help the girls understand how able and important they are.
The Journey: Between Earth and Sky
This week’s chapter in our Journey curriculum was about plants that can clean the soil, such as sunflowers, and urban gardens, and changing plans on a journey. The characters travelled via their petal-powered car to Pittsburgh, PA, where they were joined by a new friend, Sunny the sunflower, for their journey across the country.
The Daisy Craft
The girls also brought home a craft, where they arranged all the different-colored Daisy petals on a paper plate. The 10 Daisy petals all correspond to a part of the Girl Scout Law. Kirsty spoke with the girls about the meanings of the parts of the law, and the girls gave some great examples from their own lives. The object of the craft is to help the girls memorize the Girl Scout Promise and the Girl Scout Law, which are both displayed in the right margin of the blog.
To download a version of the activity, click here. (Choose "Download original.")
The Yellow Petal Worksheet
Next week, the girls will earn their yellow Daisy petal. The yellow petal stands for the part of the Girl Scout Law, “be friendly and helpful.” They brought home worksheet to help them record how and when they are helpful around the house (since we already know they are all friendly). Daisies and their families can use the worksheet as a thinking tool to help the girls understand how able and important they are.
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