Zinni the Zinnia (Spring Green), Considerate & Caring Petal

Tessa also earned her Zinni petal during Thanksgiving break. We stuck to the suggested drawing activity in The Daisy Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting for this petal as well. Not overly exciting, I know, but we really would have needed at least a couple of other girls to do much of anything else.

What We Did

• Discussed the Zinni the Zinnia (Spring Green), Considerate & Caring petal.
• Read "Zinni's Story: The Art of Sharing" from The Daisy Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting.
• Talked about "Zinni's Story" per patch requirements.
• Tessa thought of ways she could be more considerate and caring. After discussing her ideas with me, she chose three to illustrate per patch requirements.
• Completed the "Congratulations!" portion of the Zinni the Zinnia (Spring Green), Considerate & Caring petal.

Tessa's illustration of what she could do to be more considerate and caring. She said she could turn down her music before anyone asks her to, share all of her crayons with me (something she doesn't like to do...she likes to hoard the "pretty" colors), and make sure everyone has equal supplies at her troop meetings.

Looking for more Zinni the Zinnia petal ideas?

Check out my Canvas for Caring - Girl Scout Daisies - Zinni - Spr. Green Petal (Steps 2 & 3) printable scouting helper.

Sunny the Sunflower (Yellow), Friendly & Helpful Petal

Tessa's Lupe petal was getting rather lonely, so we used our couple of days off from school after Thanksgiving to earn a few more petals for Tessa's vest. We stuck to the suggestions in The Daisy Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting for Sunny's petal. We really had a good time creating a mini mural of what happened at Buckley's party. I loved Tessa's idea of envisioning that the party was underground, so we ran with it. I was in charge of the background. Tessa drew the characters and then raided her craft basket for foam stickers, pom-poms and wiggly eyes.

What We Did

• Discussed the Sunny the Sunflower (Yellow), Friendly and Helpful petal.
• Read "Sunny's Story: A Warm Welcome for Suzy" from The Daisy Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting.
• Talked about "Sunny's Story" per badge requirements.
• Created a mini mural based on "Sunny's Story" per badge requirements. Tessa chose to illustrate what happened at Buckley's party.
• Practiced being friendly and helpful. Tessa helped me collect the trash (and change the bags) from our household trashcans. She also surprised me by filling up our napkin dispenser without being asked. She hadn't ever filled it up before. She was proud to tell me that she knew it was something she could do on her own, so she did it to be helpful.
• Completed the "Congratulations!" portion of the Sunny the Sunflower (Yellow), Friendly and Helpful petal.

Tessa went all out making a mini mural for her Sunny petal. After drawing the characters from "Sunny's Story," (which I think are absolutely adorable...especially Buckley, the gopher) she used foam stickers and pom-poms to decorate Buckley's party. Everyone received tiaras and castles as party favors. Suzy received an extra special tiara to help make her feel welcome. All Tessa's ideas, of course.

Looking for more Sunny the Sunflower petal ideas?

Check out my Friendly & Helpful Coupon Book - Girl Scout Daisies - Sunny Petal (Steps 2 & 3) printable scouting helper.

Earth Science: Weather, Unit 2

Clouds

Tessa learned how clouds are formed and the different classifications of clouds through a variety of picture books and learning activities. Many of the activities were a bit of a letdown. Tessa thought we were going to "cook up" a big puffy white cloud, not create a teeny puff of condensation in a jar. Hah!

Tuesday

• Read What Are Clouds? by Ellen Lawrence.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "Clouds: Sing a Song of Cloud Types" and "Cooking Up a Cloud" (page 9). 

Wednesday

• Read The Cloud Book by Tomie dePaola.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "Clouds: Clouds of Foam" (page 8). (This activity didn't work as well as I thought it would. Perhaps we used too much shaving cream?)

Thursday

• Read Clouds by Anne Rockwell.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "Clouds: Cloudy Weather Windows" (page 11).

Tessa's completed "Cloudy Weather Windows." She created various types of clouds with cotton balls, labeled them and then illustrated the resultant weather underneath them.

Following Monday

• Tessa read Clouds by Marion Dane Bauer during reading.
• Read Cloud Dance by Thomas Locker.
• Read Little Cloud by Eric Carle.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "Clouds: Clouds Up Close" (page 10).

All Week Long

• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "Clouds: Cloud Journal" (page 12).

...3 Cheers for Animals! - Session 4

It's Your Story - Tell It!: A Leadership Journey
Girl Scout Daisies

"Girls begin to explore how animals, like people, are unique, including in the ways they communicate and move."

Download ...3 Cheers for Animals! - Session 4 handout.

Session 4 - All Creatures, Great and Special

Opening Ceremony:
Animals Around the World, page 51 from "How To Guide"
(Cheetah: Kenya)

• Pointed out Mari, the marigold, on "The Flower Friends and Their Girl Scout Law Values" poster. (May also be found in the back of the "How To Guide.")
• Used ...3 Cheers for Animals! - Session 4 map to show where Mari is from and then located Kenya on a globe.
• Shared the italicized parts and other pertinent information from this section with Tessa.
• Visited National Geographic Kids: Animal Creature Features to enjoy facts, photos, sounds, a video and more pertaining to cheetahs.
• Cut out three cheetah spots from black cardstock for the Team Animal Mural. (The girls will add their spots to a cheetah cutout that I printed on gold cardstock.)

Earning the Birdbath Award, page 52 from "How To Guide"

• Congratulated Tessa and ironed her Birdbath Award onto her vest.

For the other girls, I created a Journey Award certificate, placed the background and Birdbath Award patches in a 3 x 5 in. plastic bag (purchased from Michael's with a coupon) with the zipper seal cut off and folded over, then stapled it to the middle of the certificate. Printing on cardstock works best. I also made a copy of the ironing instructions for their moms.

Want to design your own certificate? Visit Scrap World 2010 to download some really cute Girl Scout graphics for just $1 each. I used this version for the certificate. Other hair colors and skin tones are available.

Story Time:
“The First Stories” (continued), page 53 from "How To Guide"

• Completed pages 24-27 of the girls' book.

This section seemed too much like Session 3, so instead of making up another pourquoi tale, Tessa completed the remaining activities from "The First Stories" section of the girls' book. I still haven't found any place in the "How To Guide" instructing us to actually do so.

Tessa's completed work from pages 24-25 of the girls' book. The red robin picture is from the drawing lesson mentioned in the Closing Ceremony section below.

Get Creative!

Fantastical Animals Flip Book, pages 54-55 from "How To Guide"

• Completed flip book activity as directed.

Flip books can be tricky to create, so I designed a simple three-page flip book for the girls to color and use for this activity. Instead of using expensive binders, I used cardstock and brads that I already had on-hand to bind the pages. After printing the three animal pages, place a sheet of cardstock behind them and a one-inch strip of cardstock at the top. Use a three-hole punch to punch holes. Tightly fasten the brads through the holes.

Okay, it's not really quite as simple as that. The best way to do this is to pre-punch the holes. Punch the cardstock together. Punch the printed animal pages together. For the one-inch strips, it's easiest to punch the holes, then use a paper cutter to cut a strip. Punch holes again, then cut another one-inch strip and so on until you have enough. Have the girls color the animal pages and then cut to the "STOP" lines. Assemble the flip books as listed in my simplified directions above.

I had a very hard time coming up with animal clip art that matched up well enough to design a flip book. The animals have to be just so for them to work. In the end, I settled on three animals...a cheetah, zebra and alligator. They worked pretty well together.

This was Tessa's favorite flip-book animal. She called it an alcheze (get it...al-ligator, che-etah, ze-bra). She came up with the name on her own. I thought it was pretty clever. She decided that it gives birth to live babies, is good at kicking (with its hooves) and also chomping (with its big teeth). Tessa thought the world would be one heck of a boring place if all animals and all people were the same. She also said we wouldn't be able to tell people apart or have as much food.

Busy Squirrels Song and Dance, page 56 from "How To Guide"

• Completed activity as directed (minus coming up with a new version of the song).

Tessa loved "The Busy Squirrels Song." We sang and acted it out four times.


Closing Ceremony:
Moving Toward the Red Robin Award, page 57 from "How To Guide"

• Completed Learn to Draw a Robin.

This section was difficult to adapt to the home environment, but was too complex for the few minutes I spend with our Journey girls before each troop meeting, so I swapped the ceremony for the cute drawing lesson above. I think it sufficiently psyched up Tessa for the next part of the Journey. You can see her drawing in Story Time section photo above.

Looking for more activities to complement the ...3 Cheers for Animals! Journey?

Check out my Girl Scout Law Ring Book - Pets Version - Girl Scout Daisies & Brownies printable scouting helper.

...3 Cheers for Animals! - Session 3

It's Your Story - Tell It!: A Leadership Journey
Girl Scout Daisies

"The girls use their imagination and problem-solving skills as they continue to explore how the needs of animals are similar to their own."

Download ...3 Cheers for Animals! - Session 3 handout.

Session 3 - Tail Tales

Opening Ceremony:
Animals Around the World, page 45 from "How To Guide"
(Robin: Great Britain)

• Pointed out Sunny, the sunflower, on "The Flower Friends and Their Girl Scout Law Values" poster. (May also be found in the back of the "How To Guide.")
• Used ...3 Cheers for Animals! - Session 3 map to show where Sunny is from and then located Great Britian on a globe.
• Read “American Robin” (pages 6-7) from Birds, Nests and Eggs. Showed Tessa the picture of the robins on page 45 of the “How To Guide” and read the caption.
• Visited allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Robin/id for facts, photos, sounds, videos and more pertaining to robins.
• Crafted “Cheer-i Robin” to add to the Team Animal Mural. (I based my design on "Rockin' Robin" from Happy Hooligans.)

Tessa crafted a cheery robin with cardstock, crumpled red tissue paper and a wiggly eye for the Team Animal Mural.

Tessa's completed “Cheer-i Robin."

Story Time:

“The First Stories,” page 46 from "How To Guide"

• Read pages 16-23 from the girls' book.
• Discussed the story as directed in the “How To Guide.”

Spin-a-Tale, page 46 from "How To Guide"

• Tessa retold the story of how Robin, the red robin, became red in her own words.
• Shared information with Tessa about folk and pourquoi tales from this section of the “How To Guide.”
• Tessa created her own pourquoi tale by completing the “How the Zebra Got Its Stripes” drawing prompt.

Tessa's completed “How the Zebra Got Its Stripes” drawing prompt. First, she drew how the zebra looked before it got its stripes. Then, she drew how the zebra got its stripes...a striped snake slithered underneath the zebra's hooves. The snake's stripes transferred onto the zebra. The zebra graphic shows how the zebra looks today.

Fly, Fly Away, page 47 from "How To Guide"

• Tessa used homemade ribbon dance streamers and music from Girl Scouts Greatest Hits, Vol. 11: Amazing Daisies by Melinda Caroll to complete the activity as directed.

Tessa had a blast dancing with her streamers. I tied three three-foot-long pieces of grosgrain ribbon in their middles to two elastic pony tail holders. (Six pieces of ribbon in all.) Afterward, I sealed the edges with something akin to Fray Check. I created these dance streamers for each of our Journey girls. A simpler option would be to tape or glue strands of crepe paper to craft sticks or staple them to plastic straws. Even simpler...do what's listed the "How To Guide."

Tessa danced exuberantly during the Fly, Fly Away portion of the session.

Role-Play: Choices, Choices, page 48 from "How To Guide"

• Completed activity as directed. Tessa chose Scenario 1. Her completed cloud-shaped draw and write prompt is pictured above with her pourquoi tale.

Closing Ceremony:
Animal-Care Ideas, page 49 from "How To Guide"

• Tessa drew a picture of a favorite item that she uses to care for herself on a pink bird cutout. She placed the drawing (pictured above with her pourquoi tale) in her previously crafted “All About Me” nest.

Looking for more activities to complement the ...3 Cheers for Animals! Journey?

Check out my Girl Scout Law Ring Book - Pets Version - Girl Scout Daisies & Brownies printable scouting helper.

Atelier Art, Level 1 - Module B, Lesson 5

Zoo Animals

I had a hard time coming up with a large sheet of dark blue paper for Lesson 4, so we skipped forward to Lesson 5. We'll go back to Lesson 4 another time.

"Zoo Animals" is another lesson on media. Tessa primarily used glue and chalk to create a fairly unique piece of art. She learned to draw with glue and "color" by smoothing and blending chalk with her fingers.

This lesson must be completed over two days since it requires a full 24 hours for glue to dry.

After selecting a plastic antelope as a model, Tessa first sketched her design onto warm-up paper and then a sheet of black poster board.

Next, Tessa traced her sketch with school glue. We typically use glue sticks for our art projects, so she found this more challenging than we both expected.

After the glue dried and left an embossing of Tessa's antelope sketch, she "colored" in her design by rubbing and blending chalk with her fingers. She really enjoyed this part of the project.

Tessa completed zoo animal! She was very pleased with her final product. She thought it a neat project.

Earth Science: Weather, Unit 1

The Water Cycle

Evan-Moor doesn't offer an age-appropriate ScienceWorks book for weather, so I am drafting my own lessons for this segment of Earth Science with the help of The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3. It provides a great selection of experiments, demonstrations, paper activities, etc., but no actual lessons or schedules. So far, it's working out well and Tessa is enjoying it...just takes a little more planning time on my part.

First up was the water cycle. Having studied this before, Tessa already had a pretty good handle on the basics and components of the water cycle, so we focused on expanding her science vocabulary and zeroing in on details.

Tuesday

• Read What Is Weather? by Ellen Lawrence.

Wednesday

• Read What Is the Water Cycle? by Ellen Lawrence.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "The Water Cycle: An Itsy-Bitsy Water Cycle" (page 6). 
• Watched Bill Nye the Science Guy: Water Cycle DVD by Disney.

Following Monday

• Read A Drop Around the World by Barbara McKinney.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "The Water Cycle: Watching the Water Cycle" (page 4). 

Following Tuesday

• Read Follow the Water from Brook to Ocean by Arthur Dorros.
• Completed The Mailbox Investigating Weather, Grades 1-3 "The Water Cycle: Wonderful Puddle Project" (page 5).

Medieval Times, Lesson 12

The Feudal System

Tessa learned the hierarchy of the feudal system...Kings, Nobles, Knights, then peasants. 

Wednesday

• Read The Usborne Medieval World by Jane Bingham (pages 22-23).
• Made a chart of the feudal system as listed in HO Lesson 12, Main Lesson.
• Read "When Were the Days of the Knights?" (pages 8-11), "Where Did People Live?" (pages 36-38), "Did People Work Hard?" (pages 36-38), "Did Children Work?" (page 39) and "Who Worked in the Castle?" (pages 40-42) from If You Lived In The Days Of The Knights by Ann McGovern.

Friday

• Read A Medieval Feast by Aliki.
• Read The King Who Sneezed by Angela McAllister.

* HO = History Odyssey

Lupe the Lupine (Light Blue), Honest & Fair Petal

I have looked for a good character education program off-and-on for a couple of years now. Nothing has ever impressed me enough to buy. So, I was delighted to discover that earning the Daisy petals is just that...character education.

Our troop is informally earning petals this year during troop time, but I wanted to really take advantage of this opportunity, so we are earning petals on our own time as well. Tessa constantly flips through The Daisy Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting and can't wait to complete all of the Flower Friends' stories and activities.

What We Did

• Discussed the Lupe the Lupine (Light Blue), Honest and Fair petal.
• Read "Lupe's Story: A Fair Turn in the Flower Garden" from The Daisy Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting.
• Talked about "Lupe's Story" per patch requirements.
• Acted out "Lupe's Story" with Flower Friends craft stick puppets.
• Practiced being honest and fair by playing a cooperative flower friends drawing game that I designed based on the Pick and Draw game. I also had Tessa pass out napkins to every girl at a previous troop meeting.
• Completed the "Congratulations!" portion of the Lupe the Lupine (Light Blue), Honest and Fair petal.

Tessa and I acted out "Lupe's Story" with Flower Friends craft stick puppets. Tessa loved this part of earning Lupe's petal. It was her idea to use her wooden cheese as props.

To practice being honest and fair, Tessa and I played a flower friends drawing game where we took turns drawing and coloring parts of flowers. Tessa tends to be a poor sport while playing games. She really wanted to sneak the pink color card but I reminded her that wouldn't be honest nor fair. She instantly agreed. I was surprised how big an impact "Lupe's Story" made in her overall sportsmanship. Granted, this was a very low-key game, but I could tell a difference in her actions and attitude.

Our flower friend drawings after playing three rounds. Tessa was being fruity and sneaked into my pic.

Looking for more Lupe the Lupine badge ideas?

Check out my ...Three "Fair" Bears - Girl Scout Daisies - "Lupe - Light Blue Petal" (Step 3) printable scouting helper.

Girl Scouts Global Action Award 2013

For Daisies

One thing I love about Girl Scouts is how well it compliments homeschooling. I am super excited that the patch-earning opportunities provide reason and motivation for us to study important skills and issues that fall outside the realm of our standard curriculum.

When I learned of the Girl Scouts Global Action Award, I knew it was something I wanted to do right away with Tessa. Tessa is passionate and empathetic, so I knew earning this patch would make an impact. To me, the award embodies what Girl Scouts is all about...growing girls who as adults will have the confidence, motivation, skills and education to confront the major issues of the world.

There are several options for earning the Global Action Award. While the activities we completed touched upon several of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, we primarily focused on 1. Ending hunger and poverty. We completed activities one and nine from the Global Action Award for Girl Scout Daisies activities list.

Heifer International offers some wonderful learning resources that I think do a good job covering hunger and poverty for Tessa's age set. The lessons I chose to use revolve around the book Beatrice's Goat by Page McBrier.

 What We Did

• Completed Global Action Award for Girl Scout Daisies activity one, which involved discussing questions about hunger.
• Read Beatrice's Goat by Page McBrier.
• Completed "Understanding the Story of Beatrice and Her Goat, Lesson 1" by Heifer International.
• Used components of "The Places We Live: Comparing and Contrasting, Lesson 4" by Heifer International to help Tessa locate Uganda on our globe.
• Completed Global Action Award for Girl Scout Daisies activity nine, which involved Tessa drawing a picture of a girl (Beatrice) in another country. I extended the activity by having Tessa draw herself and items that symbolize how Beatrice's life differs from her own as well. I got this idea from the previously mentioned Heifer International lesson.
• Read A Good Trade by Alma Fullerton.
• Looked at pictures, read excerpts from, and discussed the African and United States sections of What the World Eats by Faith D'Aluisio.
• Purchased a share of a goat via Heifer International.
• Used "When Life Hands You Milk, Make Cheese" recipe to make cheese from milk.

Tessa drew a picture of how Beatrice's life differs from her own. It included items that symbolize the differences in the food they eat, how their houses are built, education and chores, among other things. 

Since Beatrice's goat made such an impact in her life, Tessa and I purchased a share of a goat via Heifer International in hopes of helping a family in need in a similar way.

Tessa helped stir the milk for our homemade cheese while it warmed.

We enjoyed our crumble cheese on crackers. Yum!

...3 Cheers for Animals! - Session 2

It's Your Story - Tell It!: A Leadership Journey
Girl Scout Daisies

"Girls explore the many ways that caring for animals is like caring for themselves."

Download ...3 Cheers for Animals! - Session 2 handout.

Session 2 - Caring That Counts

Opening Ceremony:
Animals Around the World, pages 37-38 from "How To Guide"
(Lion: Iran)

• Introduced the Flower Friends and then pointed out Tula, the tulip, on "The Flower Friends and Their Girl Scout Law Values" poster. (May also be found in the back of the "How To Guide.")
• Used ...3 Cheers for Animals! - Session 2 map to show where Tula is from and then located the Netherlands and Iran on a globe.
• Visited National Geographic Kids: Animal Creature Features for facts, photos, sounds, videos and more pertaining to lions.
• Wrote two facts about lions on orange strips to help form the lion's mane for the Team Animal Mural.

A sample of the lion I designed for the Team Animal Mural. The girls wrote two facts about lions on orange strips and then used them to create the lion's mane at the following troop meeting.

Story Time:

“A Purr-fect Surprise in the Garden,” page 38 from "How To Guide"

• Read pages 6-13 from the girls' book.
• Discussed the story as directed in the “How To Guide.”

Animals Safe and Sound
(with Guest Speaker), pages 39-40 from "How To Guide"

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) provides some absolutely wonderful teaching resources on their Web site. In lieu of a guest speaker, we used some of the Cats, Dogs, and Us materials for this part of the Journey.

• Watched Cats, Dogs, and Us video. (This super, high-quality 20-minute video is a near perfect fit. I highly recommend it! Scroll down to “Classroom Video” and then choose either “Vimeo” or “YouTube.” If you have problems streaming, Vimeo allows you to save the video to your desktop to play offline. I copied the video onto blank DVDs for the other girls in our Journey group.)
• Completed IFAW Animal Explorers: Dogs & Cats activity booklet. (Awesome! Fits with the aforementioned video. Please note that the file is graphic-intense. I ended up having to print it one page at a time. Otherwise, half of the pages printed funky for some reason.)
• Instead of creating an “Animals Safe and Sound” chart, completed “Team Talk” draw and write prompt cards to place in the Team Birdbath.

Tessa had a lot of fun with IFAW's "Animal Explorers: Dogs & Cats" activity booklet. She especially enjoyed making the simple origami dog on the last page.

Get Creative!

All About Me Nests, page 41 from "How To Guide"

• Read pages 14-15 from the girls' book.
• Used a paper lunch sack to create an "All About Me" nest as directed in the "How To Guide." (In the packets I provided to the rest of our Journey girls, I included brown paper lunch sacks and a variety of colored feathers, yarn, pom-poms, colored paper for cutting out leaves, and crinkle paper. They could use whatever else they might have on hand at home to craft their nests as well.)
• Tessa drew a picture of herself showing one way she takes care of herself on a blue bird cutout. She placed the drawing in her "All About Me" nest, which she took to the next troop meeting so others could view and enjoy her work.

Tessa remembered a sack of abandoned faux flowers in our basement that she decided to use to craft her "All About Me" nest. She learned how to use a hot glue gun at the fall camporee she attended a couple of weeks ago, so I let her have at it. This was her first time doing something like this, so I provided some pointers on floral arrangement along the way. 

Tessa's completed "All About Me" nest. I think it turned out pretty doggone cute...or, should I say pretty tweet!

Closing Ceremony:

Being Courageous and Strong, page 42 from "How To Guide"

• Colored "Courageous and Strong" coloring sheet. (This was an optional activity that Tessa did on her own time.)

The majority of Tessa's completed work from "...3 Cheers for Animals!" Journey, Session 2.

Looking for more activities to complement the ...3 Cheers for Animals! Journey?

Check out my Girl Scout Law Ring Book - Pets Version - Girl Scout Daisies & Brownies printable scouting helper.

Medieval Times, Lesson 11

100 Years War and the Black Death

I guess the morbid fascinates at every age. Tessa was completely enthralled by the Black Death. If there would have been more resources available, I think she would have gladly studied it for another week. Tessa also loved the story of Joan of Arc. I could tell she was craving more, so I probably should have taken time to read at least one more book to her. 

Wednesday

• Read Joan of Arc by Josephine Poole.

We read The Usborne Medieval World (page 21) that was listed in Main Lesson Part 1 as part of Lesson 10.

Thursday

• Read The Usborne Medieval World by Jane Bingham (page 44).
• Completed HO map work for Lesson 11, Main Lesson Part 2.

Friday

• Read "Black Death" (pages 14-15) and "The Plague Spreads" (pages 16-17) from Plagues, Pox, and Pestilence by Richard Platt.
• Read Run Far, Run Fast by Timothy Decker.

* HO = History Odyssey