Question from a Girl Scout Leader:
Daisy Leader writes:
I am a second year Daisy leader and have 7 girls returning this year and 7 new girls joining. Last year we focused on the petal set, so all my returning girls have earned all their petals. What do I do this year so that the returning girls don’t get bored and the new girls earn their petals? Someone said I can incorporate the petals with the journeys. But I don’t know which petals go with which journey
Answers From Other Girl Scout Leaders Compiled from our Facebook Page
“The Garden Journey would work great. In the journey their are flower characters and each one represents one of the GS laws. I’ve done it in the past and will do it again this year.” JoAnne
“Our Troop did the same thing last year! Learn as we go thats for sure. This year we have decided to do a Journey with both 1st and 2nd year while teaching the first 5 petals. The 2nd year Daisies are going to receive a helper patch for helping the 1st year daisies learn all about the petals. After this year we plan to only do 5 petals each year.” Carmene
“You can incorporate the petals in just about any meeting you do. For example – any type of community service can qualify for friendly/helpful or considerate/caring. World thinking day covers “be a sister to every GS”, etc, etc. Just remember to spend some time discussing each value of the law and they will all be caught up by the end of the year!.” Carlee
“You can easily incorporate petals into fields trips as well!! For example courageous and strong/respect authority could be a visit to the police/fire station. Being a sister to every Girl Scout could be a Christmas book exchange between your troop. Honest and fair having the girls divide snack evenly among themselves.” Tiffany
“We did the journey’s and had our returning girls teach the petals. Great opportunity to build leadership skills and the girls brought their friends along with them. Did the same type of thing for learning the promise and law.” Ellen
“We did the journey’s and had our returning girls teach the petals. Great opportunity to build leadership skills and the girls brought their friends along with them. Did the same type of thing for learning the promise and law.” Ellen
“The Daisy Flower Garden introduces the values of the law, thus the petals. On the other hand, unless some of your new Daisies are 1st graders, you could leave earning petals for them until next year.” Julie
“I am not a leader for girl scout but for girl guides, usually I redo the “badges” that are mandatory (promise / law / Guiding in canada) with a different approach games or crafts, girls usually do not notice and it is a good revision on top of that I combined this with other badge / challenge. When wagggs or national events come along I integrate again “mandatory badges” e,g world centre always use different approaches. For us The program is on 2 years I divide it to make sure that it is a loop, rotation so the newest do what they need to do and the oldest guides do not get bored so what I am trying to say is probably next year when returning girls leaves you will get new girls again so you can do the badges that you could not do on this year.” Nathlaie
“If the new girls are K. let them work on petals next year. If not you can tie in ideals as you go, but don’t spend all the time on it.” Angela
“I have a few girl joining our troop and one has all petals done the other has only 1 or2 petal and two leaves since its their last year and hoping for new girls that just starting we are going to do all the petals that needed if different we will do journeys together badges separate its more like one on one” Melissa
“We had that this past year and we let everyone work on the journeys and then as we went through we had our worksheets from petals and gave out when they matched up to a petal as we saw fit… We also did activities to match up also.. you just need to be creative and have fun with it” Janice
“Do the Daisy Flower Garden Journey. A lot of fun for all girls. The new girls can work on the petals with their parents and have the parents sign off on the work and award the new girls with petal leaves. They could do 5 petals this year and save the remaining 5 petals for next year.” Debra
“All the petals “go with” all the journeys. Really… it’s not that hard to work in a quick 10-15 minute activity/discussion about the petals into >any< activity you are already doing. Playing a game? Spend 5 minutes talking about being ‘honest & fair’ — like if you get tagged or step out of bounds be honest abut it. Or ‘respect authority’ by not talking when the leader or guest speaker is talking. If you are stuck, you could follow the suggested activities in the Daisy binder but you don’t have to – most leaders around here don’t because they take too long…. it’s easier and more fun for the girls to work it into another activity” Deb
“I am a second year daisy leader. Last year my returning girls had earned 1 journey from the previous year and 5 petals. So we did a different journey and the other 5 petals. This year we will work on the petals and journeys that my returning girls from last year didn’t earn yet.” Ellen
“I usually do a journey and focus on the petals after. It also helps to have a refresher course for the girls that have already earned their petals” Brianna
“Buy the petal pack from making friends or have the moms buy it and do it on their own time. My new girls and their moms enjoyed doing that, the stories were quick and the making friends crafts were easy and had great instructions” Beth
We have the EXACT same problem! We had a mixed kindie and 1st grade troop this year. Next year, 2 of the girls will still be Daisies and the rest will move up to Brownies. We will be adding 4-6 New First grade Daisies for a full troop next year, but what do we do about the girls who have already earned all their petals and no journeys.
Here is what l decided. We are going to do all 3 journeys this next year and will just incorporate the petals into the journeys. I like the idea above, of having the parents fill in the gaps for the petals. We can send them home with copies of the flower stories from the daisy guide as well as asking them to discuss with their daughters and find some daily life examples. I think it will work out just fine.
Definitely going to make sure we stick with one grade in the troop, otherwise it causes such a dilemma later.
I love these ideas !!!!
I am a second year Daisy Volunteer !!! All of these ideas I can use for this year!!! Thank You