Daisy Girl Scout Leaders

[kelann7]

Hi, I read through another thread for Daisy Troop Leaders, but since it was started in 2008, I figure some of those people may have moved up to Brownies, so I thought I could start a new thread.

I just committed to being the Daisy Troop Leader for my daughter's troop - she is in Kindergarten. No one else would step up, so I agreed to do it. We are having our parent meeting next week.

I'm trying to plan meetings for the year and I would love to hear some new ideas for crafts and activities.

I would like to keep things simple this year since it is our first year. We will have meetings every other week.

Any advice or suggestions?

Thanks.

Kelly

 

[r4blessings]

Hi Kelly! I am a second year daisy leader! I started last year with my daughter when she started kindergarten b/c they needed a leader. It is me and another mom that I really like a lot. It is a lot of work, but a lot of fun. And I have three boys and one daughter so this really gives us some quality mommy/daughter time.

I am having our parent meeting this weekend (we got two new girls and a few changes so I want to meet with the moms) and then we start back to our meetings on 9/27. We only start school here after Labor Day though, so we are just now getting into the swing of things.

I just ordered canvas change purses that the girls are going to decorate with fabric markers and they can use them for their lunch/snack money at school. We usually decorate things like that and then swap them with the daisy next to them, which they really seem to like. We are also making daisy bead friendship bracelets with white, blue and yellow beads and stretchy cord.

We have fourteen girls in our troop and we meet every other week for an hour and 1/2. Last year we met for an hour, but it seemed so rushed so we decided to go longer. We can't meet every week b/c my schedule with my sons doesn't allow it, so going for a longer meeting worked best for us.

Good luck!!!

 

[kelann7]

Where did you get the canvas change purses? I like this idea.

I'm also looking for ideas to tie into the learning petals.

Thanks.

Kelly

 

[SLK1]

I'm a third grade Brownie co-leader. My advice to you is KEEP IT SIMPLE. It will make it better for you, the girls, and the parents. Second, get ALL parents registered and ask them for help. We meet every other week after school and rotate a snack schedule. We also have a mom coordinate World Thinking Day, another mom do swaps, another mom is a Cookie Mom, etc. It's also nice if you have one mom who can sew - she can be the sewing mom who sews on all those darned patches (I am awful - I pay for a tailer to do it for me!!!). Good Luck and have fun!

 

[kelann7]

So, what do you do for World Thinking Day?

Also, I thought the patches were iron-on - I didn't think they needed to be sewn on.

Thanks.

Kelly

 

[MandM-Mom]

I am just taking on my dd6's Daisy troop this year, last year we didn't get enough interest so it never panned out. My older dd is just bridging to juniors this year and we have loved every minute of it, but this will be my first run as a leader with this Daisy troop.

As for the patches they do iron on but fall off pretty quickly if they are not sewn too! Although one mom in my older daughters troop stapled hers on

I would love to check back and bounce ideas for our troops here, hope this thead takes off, we are having sign ups on Sept 22 hoping for a good turnout we have 5 girls so far!

 

[Familyof4lovesDW]

I have just became a Daisy co leader for my DD's troop. They are all in kindergarten at her school. I think only 5 girls signed up. My DD the leaders dd and 3 other girls. I heard it was hard to get people to step up so that is why I did, so she could be in it. The other leader was a GS for like 8 or 9 years and I was in it for 6, so at least we have a little experience.

We are planning on having our meetings every other week and for an hour. The leader wants to have it at her house, but I am not sure if that is even allowed anymore .

How much do you ask for dues each month? She was thinking $8 which seems a little high to me. It would include all of the patches/petals and snack each meeting. They would need to buy a vest and the book. I think that is $21 for both.

We are hoping to start in October once all of our references and background check stuff is complete. DD is looking forward to the leader daughter camping trip in November I cannot wait to hear all of the good ideas!

 

[Suellen]

Hi there! First year leader here too! We don't have any daisies other than my daughter at this point ~ but they have information night next week so we may get some girls (I hope).

I am still in need of co-leader and also have another training to do that they JUST added. I thought I was done! Looking forward to borrowing some ideas!

 

[r4blessings]

I ordered the change purses from Oriental Trading Co.

As far as dues go, I collect $40 from each parent for the year. They seemed to like paying up front as opposed to remembering each month to send in $5 and it gave me enough money to be able to pay/order things in advance. We do have parents rotate bringing snack into the meetings.

This year our girls just need to buy the book and the patch set, since they bought the tunic last year.

Another thing we did is that we took pics of everything! Me and my co-leader are both photographers so we always have our camera. At the end of the year we made a photo album for each girl. They loved it!

We've never done a swap though, whats involved in that?

 

[wonderapril2007]

Hi Kelly! I am a second year daisy leader! I started last year with my daughter when she started kindergarten b/c they needed a leader. It is me and another mom that I really like a lot. It is a lot of work, but a lot of fun. And I have three boys and one daughter so this really gives us some quality mommy/daughter time.

I am having our parent meeting this weekend (we got two new girls and a few changes so I want to meet with the moms) and then we start back to our meetings on 9/27. We only start school here after Labor Day though, so we are just now getting into the swing of things.

I just ordered canvas change purses that the girls are going to decorate with fabric markers and they can use them for their lunch/snack money at school. We usually decorate things like that and then swap them with the daisy next to them, which they really seem to like. We are also making daisy bead friendship bracelets with white, blue and yellow beads and stretchy cord.

We have fourteen girls in our troop and we meet every other week for an hour and 1/2. Last year we met for an hour, but it seemed so rushed so we decided to go longer. We can't meet every week b/c my schedule with my sons doesn't allow it, so going for a longer meeting worked best for us.

Good luck!!!

HI - I will be continuing a Daisy troop as we have four girls still @ Daisy level and the other 8 moved on to Brownies. This will be my first year as the official leader. I plan to add 6-8 new girls to my troop. My main concern right now is trying to come up with meeting plans that will allow the new girls to accomplish their petal requirements while keeping it interesting for the four girls (including my daughter) that earned all their petals last year. Any ideas?

 

[judeis]

I am loving this thread!!! I am a complete newbie- first year brownie leader. I am a LCSW child therapist, so I have alot of resources regarding the values, petals, etc. But am SO looking forward to the support and creative ideas. I feel like I just jumped in the deep end before learning how to swim!
Keep posting everyone!

 

[kelann7]

I want to keep this thread going. We had our parent meeting last night. Our school didn't have a Daisy troop, so we are just starting one now and are a little late getting started.

We have both Kindergarteners and 1st graders - we ended up with 9 girls - 2 Kinder and 7 1st graders. My child is in Kinder - so I'm a little disappointed that we didn't have more Kindergarteners join.

There are a few people that were interested that didn't show up at the meeting last night, so I'm going to call them and see if they are still interested, so I may get a few more girls.

I was supposed to have 2 co-leaders, but one of them backed out. The other one seems really nice and I think she will be a big help at the meetings, but I think I will have to do all of the planning - coming up with ideas and such.

Our first meeting will be October 1st - we are meeting every other Friday - right after school. I work full time, but I'm changing my schedule so that I can take a 1/2 day every other Friday to be there for the meetings.

Did anyone have a meeting (or 2) yet? What did you do?

For our first meeting, we are just going to have a getting to know each other day - I will talk to them about girl scouts and teach them the promise. We are going to make name tags using foam (I found flower shaped foam at Michael's) and ribbon.

I want to come up with ideas for each petal - one per meeting. Let's hear some ideas.

Thanks.

Kelly

 

[cerberus]

Great thread, thanks for postng. I am going to a GS parent meeting tonight for my area to learn more

 

[chivasdog1]

I am so excited about finding this thread! I am a new Daisy leader in Texas! Our area has not had Daisies before, so this is an exciting adventure! We our having our parent meeting next week and will have our first troop meeting in October. We already have SEVEN girls registered....and we haven't even had our recruitment meeting yet! My co-leader and I are very excited and can't wait for this adventure to get started!

 

[skw444]

I am a 3rd year Girl Scout leader with 2 troops. My older girls are 2nd grade Brownies and we've been together since K. My younger troop is a K Daisy troop. I have lots of ideas that we used as Daisies the first time through. Plus an idea of what worked or didn't work. I'm looking forward to this year's Daisy troop. The first time I was a new leader and didn't feel like I really knew what was going on. This time, I'm much more confident. Looking forward to following this thread and seeing what ideas everyone has!

We had our parent meeting 2 weeks ago and will have our first official meeting next week. I have my pre-activity, opening, business, activity and closing all planned for the first meeting. We had everyone buy the vests but chose not to have everyone purchase books. We collected $10 up front for Troop start up fees and will collect $2 at each meeting for meeting dues.

 

[cerberus]

I am a 3rd year Girl Scout leader with 2 troops. My older girls are 2nd grade Brownies and we've been together since K. My younger troop is a K Daisy troop. I have lots of ideas that we used as Daisies the first time through. Plus an idea of what worked or didn't work. I'm looking forward to this year's Daisy troop. The first time I was a new leader and didn't feel like I really knew what was going on. This time, I'm much more confident. Looking forward to following this thread and seeing what ideas everyone has!

We had our parent meeting 2 weeks ago and will have our first official meeting next week. I have my pre-activity, opening, business, activity and closing all planned for the first meeting. We had everyone buy the vests but chose not to have everyone purchase books. We collected $10 up front for Troop start up fees and will collect $2 at each meeting for meeting dues.

I would love here some of you ideas for Daisies and anyone else that had idea! I just volunteered to co-lead the troop and neither of us have any girl scout experience

I have read a ton about crafts and such, but can you gear activities to be more outdoor oriented whenever possible?

 

[angelbaby129]

I have the same problem as someone above. I have 1st graders who were in last year, 1st graders who weren't, and brand new kindergardeners. I'm not sure how to get the new girls their petals while earning the other awards for the older girls.

 

[midwestpat]

The Daisy Troop Organizer in our area sent a message 5 days ago saying she did not have enough 1st grade leaders, but it wound up in my spam folder so I just saw it a few minutes ago.

I was never in scouts, none of my three older daughters were ever in scouts, but my youngest is just ACHING to do this. So I'm considering it. I'm not a real imaginative crafty kind of person (and not much for singing), so I'm wondering if it would be an injustice to even attempt this.

Looking for someone who's done it and got out.... and willing to say why. And looking for some who also tried it and managed to get beyond the limitations of themselves.

In short..... HELP!!!

 

[skw444]

I would love here some of you ideas for Daisies and anyone else that had idea! I just volunteered to co-lead the troop and neither of us have any girl scout experience

I have read a ton about crafts and such, but can you gear activities to be more outdoor oriented whenever possible?

I would be glad to share my ideas. Is there anything specific you're interested in? We're having our first official meeting this week. I've already worked up the "lesson plan" for the meeting.

Pre-Activity 5 min - We are going to work on a craft involving the Promise. The girls are going to trace their hand on construction paper and then cut it out, then glue it next to the Girl Scout promise with the hands making the Girl Scout sign.

Opening 10 min - We start every meeting with the Pledge and Girl Scout Promise. We'll have each girl introduce herself. Then we'll learn the "I'm a Girl Scout Daisy" song. I downloaded it off the Girl Scout website so I don't have to sing and the girls can all hear it.

Business 5 min - We explain what the Daisy Circle is. We'll collect dues and talk about Kapers.

Activity 30 min - My co-leader is in charge of coming up with a craft that centers around the Girl Scout Promise since that's what we're focusing on this week.

Clean-Up 5 min - We'll discuss that Girl Scouts always leave a place cleaner than they found it.

Closing 5 min - We'll learn the Friendship Circle and Squeeze and end it with the song "Make New Friends".

Our next meeting we will start to focus on the Journeys. We've chosen to do the Daisy Garden Journey. Personally, I have not enjoyed the Journey's (prefer the petals) and would love to hear ideas of how everyone is incorporating the Journeys in their meetings!

 

[anl]

I am trying to organize a troop right now. I don't think any new troops around here have started yet. This is the first time I've done anything with Girl Scouts, so I'm pretty clueless. Looking forward to reading what others do/have done.

Your lesson plan sounds great! I might steal that when we get started...first I need to figure out what the promise, sign, circle, kaper, etc. is.