Daisy Girl Scout: 3 Cheers for Animals Session 3 and Purple Petal!

Hey Troop Leaders!

Here is the third session for the 3 Cheers for Animals Daisy Journey! This session was actually a combination of two different dates. One was an offsite Yoga class that the girls got to participate in and one was a regular meeting session but both can be easily combined into one session!

Yoga party!

We visited a local yoga studio that specifically had a program for Girl Scout Daisies and Brownies. There are a lot of opportunities in your community, specifically yoga studios, which offer programs you just have to search their website.

Our specific yogi instructor was certified to teach yoga to children. The girls even asked the tough questions about what the sign hanging on the wall meant and in true Girl Scout fashion she answered beautifully!

"Yoga is not a religion, it's a practice and a way of life. Yoga is all inclusive and can be practiced by anyone. All paths lead to yoga = union of the souls to God."

The girls started off learning breathing exercises and how this can be helpful in handling difficult feelings. The conversation then turned to the importance of respecting our bodies by making sure we take care of ourselves through nutrition, exercise, and healthy habits (brushing our teeth and hair, picking up after ourselves, respecting others). 

Next, the girls learned the basic sun salutation and the different yoga poses!

Craft time!

Our troop loves crafts so when the instructor brought out the wooden beads the girls were so thrilled to have a take home keepsake to remember the day! This simple sweet and easy to assemble craft can be made with pipe cleaners and wooden beads from a craft store or even left over pony beads your troop has.

I AM painting

Some of you may have already seen this on Pinterest but Brave girls offers free printables for this wonderful activity!!

The purpose of this activity was to celebrate each girl's unique self and differences and how it's awesome to be different! The girls created their own self-portraits and used words to describe themselves.

To prepare for this activity I did ask each girl to think of what represents them and think of words they could use. I also provided them with some words for those that didn't bring their own. Identifying that they were all different also taught them the importance of respecting themselves and others, which affirmed their previous chat about the purple daisy petal.

The Scouts earned their Gloria (Purple) petal for respect myself and others! This also completed the Birdbath Award! The next session the girls prepare for their animal care fair and earn the Red Robin Award.

Looking for other ideas? 

• Balance meal menu
• Etiquette and manners tea party
• create an anti-bully poster or lead an anti-bully campaign
• Have an older Girl Scout come in to speak and talk about self care.

If you missed the first two sessions you can find them here: 

Session 1

Session 2

Follow along on Instagram!

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How to Tie Dye Shoes with Sharpie

I'm really excited to share with you Mamas this easy and fun activity your kids can do by themselves! My 4 year old was able to do this so the younger age's can do it too! 

What you need:

• Canvas tennis shoes (Walmart for $5.99)
• Assorted Sharpie Markers
• Spray bottle
• Rubbing Alcohol

Step 1: Take out the laces and decorate you shoes. 

I hinted to the girls that symmetry might look best but really let them design/color their own shoes. I do recommend sticking with 4-5 colors. You don't need to press in hard but you do want to fill in all the areas that you don't want white. This will give it the best tie dye look.

Step 2: Spray your shoes with Rubbing Alcohol.

I recommend doing this outdoors or in a well ventilated area. If you don't have a spray bottle you can use a dropper as well. Spray until you get the desired look. This might take a couple rounds of spraying.

Step 3: Allow to dry.

The girls REALLY enjoyed this activity! It was super easy for them and left room for creative mistakes. The best part, they did it all by themselves! They have been wearing these shoes nonstop and have been receiving so many compliments!

S'more Ice Cream Sandwich

It's Summer Solstice today and what a better way to kick off the new season with this summer treat! We recently went to a BBQ with some of our friends and these little goodies were a big hit! I LOVE ice cream and I knew that day was going to be a hot one so this tasty cold treat was just what the kids (and adults) had in mind.

Ingredients

• Graham Crackers
• Hersey's Chocolate Frosting
• Marshmallows
• Chocolate ice cream (in a cardboard box container)

Start by laying out your graham crackers for roasting the marshmallows. Gently break each cracker in half and arrange 12 on a baking sheet. Put one marshmallow on top of each cracker.

Broil on low for 3-5 minutes. Make sure to keep a close eye on them so the crackers don't burn. You might want to do a test run first to see what time works best depending on your oven. Five minutes worked perfectly to get the nice toasty glow. Once you have pulled your roasted marshmallows from the oven, allow to cool for 10 minutes. Set aside.

Lay out 12 more crackers on a another sheet or dish. Heat up your chocolate frosting in the microwave for 30 seconds. Use a spreader or spoon your frosting on the crackers to create a think layer of chocolate goodness. Place them in the fridge for 10 minutes.

Take out your chocolate ice cream and remove the sides of the container so you have one rectangular brick of ice cream. Use a knife and slice sheets of the ice cream about 1 inch thick. If it's too frozen you can let it thaw for about 10 minutes but you want it pretty solid. Cut your sheet of ice cream in half ( should be the size of your graham cracker). You might have to slice off a little to make it fit.

Assemble

Lay your chocolate frosted crackers down, put one slice of ice cream on top, and finish with your marshmallow cracker (facing down). Press down to slightly smash the marshmallow. Freeze the sandwiches until you are ready to serve. 

BOOM! These as super simple and so sweet! I hope you enjoy!

What are your favorite s'more recipes?

Daisy Journey: 3 Cheers for Animals session 2

Welcome back!

Last week I shared with you the fantastic start to the girls favorite Daisy Journey, 3 Cheers for Animals. We started off with a bang by visiting a local riding club and learning all about horse safety, care, and even a wonderful riding lesson. I found that the girls were much more engaged with the Journey programs with hands on experiences and outings so I continued those good vibes (and basically threw out the leader guide to this journey) with a visit to our local animal shelter.

Tip: Lots of shelters will offer tours that are tailored to the Girl Scout programs. Just look up the nearest shelters and look for a "Education" or "visit us" section. 

Double tip!: If you have a multi level troop, this journey works well with the pet badge for Brownies.

The shelter we visited was a nice bridge from learning about animal care to self care (requirements for the Birdbath Award). The spokesperson had a short presentation/conversation with the girls about our needs vs animals needs. They were very similar{wink}.

Happy.  Healthy. Safe.

She broke them down into three categories and had the girls list the ways they themselves feel happy, healthy, and safe. Once the lists were complete she explain how the animal's needs were similar such as, "animals need to feel safe and secure. They need to feel like they have a family and a home just like you do."

"You all mentioned that you need healthy foods, water, well check ups to be healthy. Well animals need that too so they visit the vet and get their vaccinations."

The girls also learned how they needed to practice safety around animals so both can feel secure. We learned about approaching pets in the park, what not to do with pets and warning signs to back off. The girls really absorbed what they learned and then came the fun part! We got to tour the facilities and see what actually goes into running the animal shelter.

Not only did the girls learn more about animal care and why shelter pets need love, it was an introduction to the second part of this journey which is learning to care for themselves.

After we had left the shelter, the girls have continued to ask about going back. They were very touched and moved by the stories of how the animals had come to the shelter. I won't go into too much into detail now about the RED ROBIN PROJECT but the girls did donate a large portion of their cookie proceeds towards buying wish list items for the shelter. Look at the picture below to see what an amazing contribution they made!

Stay tuned for next week's Session 3 of the 3 Cheers for Animals journey! We are having a yoga and painting party to finalize their Birdbath Award!

Bonus: There will be some FREE PRINTABLES! Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter so you don't miss it!

Daisy Girl Scout troop Necklaces

Hey Leader Friends!

So to be perfectly honest, I'm not a fan of leaders giving out end of the year gifts and I totally think it should be the other other way around but I really couldn't resist these! lol

The idea is pretty simple and affordable. It could also be used as a jewelry making badge if you have the girls make their own! 

Materials

• roll of ball chain with clamps
• Blank bottle caps w/jump rings attached ( I used 5/8" mini bottle caps from Hobby Lobby)
• E6000
• bottle cap image/Printable
• photopaper
• Magic dimensions

Optional:

• dangle beads (Hobby Lobby) and stampable plates

1) Print and Cut out your 16mm (diameter) printable circles. 

Print out your image on photo paper. Regular paper will not work and it will get wet. If you have a circle punch small enough for this that would be idea but I used scissors. Use E6000 to adhere your printable to the bottle cap. You can also use rubber cement but I find that E6000 works the best. Allow it to dry. It can take a couple hours. If you are doing it with a troop and are pressed for time you can use rubber cement but make sure you don't get it on the front facing image.

2) Apply Magic Dimensions

Word of advice, dispense a small amount of the dimensions goo on a piece of paper first to avoid air bubbles. Start in the center of the cap and in a circular motion fill the entire bottle cap. If you go a little over that is okay. When the dimensions goo dries, it sinks a bit. Use a tooth pic to get out any air bubbles... if you see below, the air bubbles will dry like air bubbles so get them out. Allow this to dry for 3 hours or overnight.

--->> Your can find the Custom Printable here <<---

3) Assemble your necklace

If you purchased the bottle caps that already have the punch with the jump rings then this will be easy. You can cut your ball and chain cord to the desirable length your girl prefers. I recommend 18 inches long. Attach your connectors and voila! 

If you want to go an extra step, you can add colored dangle beads link in the picture below. If you have a stamping set, they you can also add initial plate charms too.

Thanks for joining me today! Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter for all the goodies and updates!

3 Cheers for Animals Journey Series!

Who's ready for another Daisy Journey Series!!! This month we'll be venturing our way through the 3 Cheers for Animals Daisy Journey! I think fall is the perfect time to start this journey. We started our adventure with a visit to a local horse academy, followed by a visit to an animal shelter, and ended with a Yoga session that taught us about how we can take care of and respect our bodies! In between these super fun adventures we weaved in our regular Girl Scout meetings to take the time to discuss and share what we have learned and how we can use our Red Robin Project to make the world a better place!!

Our first session was kicked off with the horse riding and care lesson. If you are looking for a affordable riding club in the Chicago area, I would be happy to suggest a place. This riding club was small but so very wonderful!

Safety First!

Their program was specifically tailored to the Girl Scouts. Our session started off by learning about the safety rules of horses...

• Don't stand behind a horse
• Don't stand directly in front/under their face. Why, because of the way the horses eyes are set they can't see you in this position.
• Don't use loud noises like shouting (it startles them)
• Don't feed horses from your hands (they might mistake your hand as food)

Animal Care

Then our group split into two smaller groups and we got a lesson on horse care. The girls learned the different brushes you use to clean the horse and how to brush them. They realized fast that there is a lot of care in these large animals and it's not all fun and games. Brushing a horse takes some arm strength! 

Animals need care, I need care, I can do both!

After the brushing the beautiful creatures, the girls got a quality horseback riding lesson. They learned how to get on a horse properly, how to hold the reigns, how to direct and steer the horse and even got them in a trotting lesson! I was impressed with the quality of instruction!

Animal Nutrition

Lastly, the girls got a lesson in horse nutrition. They made horse treats (with honey, oats and some other stuff) and baked them up in the oven. While we were waiting for them to cook, we got to see real horse teeth and learned about how horses need dentists, too. Did you know horse teeth don't stop growing? I didn't either! Horses also can't eat regular potatoes but they can eat sweet potatoes! 

When they were finished they got to feed the horses from a bowl because we learned you don't feed from your hand or you risk getting chomped on.

It was such a great experience and the girls also got a fun patch (provided by the riding club)! The cost was $35 per girl which I think was so reasonable for the 2 hour program. We used our cookie money proceeds to fund this trip and it was money well spent. The girls keep asking to go back!

She preferred to eat the snack over feeding the horse.. lol She must have been really hungry!

Alternatives a riding lesson:

• Visit a farm
• Zoo trip (petting zoo would be perfect)
• Animal Shelter or hospital
• Bring in a small pet (guinea pig or hamster)

Easy Paper Carnation Corsage!

This was such a sweet idea that the girls to made for our Mother's Day tea party. It's also Daisy level approved for their little hands and they can complete this in under 10 minutes!

Materials

• 2 - 6 inch strips of white ribbon
• 2 - 6 inch strips of yellow ribbon
• 2 inch Yellow circles from construction paper or card stock (2 per girl)
• 12 in yellow ribbon
• Glue
• 5 cupcake liners ( we used white)
• Brass paper brads
• Pin or brooch pins (optional if you do a boutonniere)

What you do...

1. Have the girls put their name on one of the yellow circles and turn facing down toward the table. Put some glue on top of the circle and lay the 2 white pieces of ribbon making a v shape starting from the middle of the circle and extending past the yellow paper.
2. Add a dab of glue on top of the white ribbons and lay the yellow ribbons on top.
3. Add another dab of glue and take the other yellow circle and place directly on top like you are sandwiching the ribbons between the 2 yellow circles. Set aside to dry.
4. Take your brass brad and one of your cupcake liners. Punch the brad through the center of the liner with the liner coning the flat back. Do this with the rest of the cupcake liners. Open up your brass brad.
5. Fold and crinkle the liners closed to look like a blooming flower. Start with the first liner and fold and crinkle one by one around the previous liner. It doesn't need to be perfect because each flower is unique.
6. Glue the flat bottom of the cupcake liners onto the center of your yellow circle and allow to dry completely (couple hours).
7. For a corsage: take a 12 inch strip of ribbon and glue at the middle of the ribbon to the bottom of the carnation so you can tie it around a wrist. For a boutonniere: You can use a single pin or you can hot glue brooch pins to the back to create a pin. 

I thought this was such a cute idea and easy for any kid to do. It makes a great Mother's day gift too!

Daisy Girl Scouts: End of the Year Certificates!

Hey there troop leaders!

It's that time to wrap up the year! Last week I created these certificates that I wanted to share with you all. I'm planning the court of Awards and Bridging ceremony this week and we are going on vacation next week so this is a short and sweet post.

Here they are!

All files can be downloaded via our new Facebook community! Here is the link to submit your request: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MightyGirlsRock/