BADGE INFO

We are buying badges for the ceremony, prices listed below. The Flag and Council Identification can be optional for you. Please email me at brandidave@gmail.com and let me know what you want for your child(ren). I will be placing the order on Monday, November 15th. Thanks!


Number Patch is $1.25 ea. Total would be $6.25

American Flag $1.75

Council Identification $4.00

Please note that if your daughter(s) stick with GS, you can remove the Council Identification and the American Flag to her next uniform.

Sports Basement Shopping Party/Fundraiser

THIS IS NOT A TROOP EVENT! I just wanted to let you all know in case anyone wants to get some Christmas shopping done with a 15% discount....

Would you like to get a jump start on your holiday shopping? Sports Basement, a
retail department store, has a great selection of clothing and a large variety of
sports equipment to meet every Girl Scout or family needs. Come to Sports Basement
Shopping Party on November 20 from 1-4 p.m. at the Walnut Creek Store or on November
21 from 1-4 p.m. at the Sunnyvale Store and San Francisco Stores and receive a 15%
discount on your purchases! GSNorCal will receive 5% back to support Girl Scouting in Norther California.

Click HERE for a link to the flyer...

NOVEMBER 5TH MEETING RECAP

Our girls were busy on Friday and loving every moment of it. Again I will apologize for the lack of photos, I brought my camera with the best intentions of documenting our night but the evening got away from me. I guess its true that time flies when you are having fun!

We started our evening off as usual with our flag ceremony and circle. Then we got right down to business. We set up three stations and divided our girls up. One station had turkeys to color and still warm playdoh that Miss Heidi had made that afternoon. Our second station is a secret because that is where we were working on our Christmas presents to you! Our final station had the girls designing their invitations to our Investiture ceremony. Needless to say the girls our excited to have their parents at a meeting and MORE excited to finally get some patches on the front of their tunics! (FYI - you will be receiving an email from me shortly regarding the cost of our troop number patches and the American flag. Also I am sending an evite out to all of you for the ceremony so that we can have a head count. It will make preparing the food easier on everyone.)

After a delicious snack, we closed our meeting by practicing the carols for our visit to Diamond Terrace. An extra special thank you to Caitlyn (Kayleigh's big sister) and Emily (Madison's big sister) for being our assistants during the meeting. You girls made our jobs so much easier!

OPERATION GRATITUDE

For the next two meetings, we will be collecting any leftover Halloween candy you would like to get rid of and a letter to our troops for the Operation Gratitude Care Packages. The troops will love it--for themselves and also to give out to the children in the communities they patrol!

All types of candy are acceptable, including chocolate this time of year.

Any girl who participates by bringing in a letter and candy will receive a SUPPORT OUR TROOP patch. Just by taking 5 minutes out of your day, you and your child(ren) will be putting smiles on the faces of tens of thousands of service members during a very difficult time away from home and loved ones. They and we will be forever grateful.

Guidelines for the letter writing is as follows...

What to Write About
Keep your message upbeat and positive
Be thankful ~~ share a little bit of yourself
Ask questions; however, do not discuss death or killing
Avoid politics completely and religion in excess
It’s all about appreciation and respect

If letter writing seems too hard, have your child draw a nice picture
Ask yourself: “Will this letter bring a smile to someone’s face?”

More Helpful Information
Sample salutations: Dear Hero, Dear Brave One
Include your own mail or email so recipients can choose to reply
No stamps or envelopes are needed
Hand Written letters or cards are most appreciated.
All letters will be screened—please do not seal envelopes

CHRISTMAS CAROLS

Below are the songs will we be singing at Diamond Terrace. Feel free to practice with your child!
JINGLE BELLS
Dashing through the snow
In a one-horse open sleigh
Through the fields we go
Laughing all the way.
Bells on bob-tail ring
Making spirits bright
What fun it is to ride and sing
A sleighing song tonight.

Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh, O
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh.

RUDOLPH
Rudolph the red nose reindeer,
had a very shiny nose,
and if you ever saw it,
you would even say it glowed.

All of the other reindeer,
used to laugh and call him names.
They never let poor Rudolph,
join in any reindeer games.

Then one foggy Christmas Eve,
Santa came to say:
"Rudolph with your nose so bright,
won't you guide my sleigh tonight?"

Then all the reindeer loved him,
as they shouted out with glee:
"Rudoph the Red Nose Reindeer,
you'll go down in history!"

DECK THE HALLS
Deck the halls with boughs of holly
Fa la la la la la la la la
'Tis the season to be jolly,
Fa la la la la la la la la
Don we now our gay apparel,
Fa la la la la la la la la
Troll the ancient Yuletide carol,
Fa la la la la la la la la.

See the blazing yule before us
Fa la la la la la la la la
Strike the harp and join the chorus
Fa la la la la la la la la
Follow me in merry measure
Fa la la la la la la la la
While I tell a Yule-tide treasure
Fa la la la la la la la la

SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN
You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town

He's making a list
And checking it twice;
Gonna find out Who's naughty and nice
Santa Claus is coming to town

He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!
O! You better watch out!
You better not cry
Better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town

He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!
O! You better watch out!
You better not cry
Better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town
Santa Claus is coming to town!

WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS
We wish you a Merry Christmas;
We wish you a Merry Christmas;
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Good tidings we bring to you and your kin;
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

We all want to play some Bingo
We all want to play some Bingo
We all want to play some Bingo
We won't go until we play some, so bring some right here.

We wish you a Merry Christmas;
We wish you a Merry Christmas;
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

MOVIE AFTERNOON AND PATCH!

There is an upcoming Girl Scout event where your daughter(s) could earn a fun patch and see a new movie. Please view the attached flyer and email Brandi if you have any questions.

POLICE STATION/CITY HALL FIELD TRIP

Our field trip was a lot of fun. We met a little before our tour started and went over the rules on how we should act in a place of business. Our girls had great ideas on how to be well behaved and followed thru with their ideas. We started our tour out with Hank Stratford (Clayton Mayor) and learned all about City Hall, its history and met everyone who helps run our city. We then met Dan Lawrence, our Chief of Police who showed us all around the station and had his fellow officers explain in greater detail their jobs, job duties and weaponry. It was a great trip that ended with the girls receiving police badges for their tunics.

OCTOBER 22 RECAP

Tonight was a great meeting! We were so busy that I forgot to take pictures of the girls having fun. We had a special guest helper, Caitlyn, Kayleigh's older sister. She was a HUGE help and is welcome back anytime!

As the girls arrived, they decorated their cloth bags while waiting for the meetings to start. Please remember to have your Daisy use this bag for every meeting! It will make it easier for their little hands to carry everything home to you. At 6:10, we started the meeting with our flag ceremony. The girls are really understanding our rituals and behaving so well for this. During first circle, we talked about our upcoming field trip and learned about 911. We talked about why we would use 911, what an emergency would be and than we role played for a little bit with one girl lying on the floor hurt while another one pretended to call a 911 operator (Miss Heidi) and what to say to them. We encouraged the girls to review their home addresses with you in case they ever had to make that call. We discussed authority figures and who they are in their lives. Our girls had great answers, with my personal favorite being Parents! We then played a quick game of Who Am I?, one Daisy held up a picture of an authority figure (without looking at it) and the other girls had to give her clues so that she could guess who she was holding.

We had three activities going on tonight. With me, the girls worked on Thank You cards for the Clayton PD and City Hall for our field trip on Wednesday. With Caitlyn, the girls colored wooden daisies that are meant to go into their grass pots. **FYI - No one had any luck with their grass, Heidi and I figure we either had bunk seeds or bunk dirt. We are going to make another attempt at gardening. In your new bags, we sent home some Marigold seeds (to go along with our journal story). Directions on how to plant and care for them will be at the bottom of this post** And with Heidi, the girls made tissue covered pumpkins in honor of Halloween.

After a delicious snack, we had our ending circle and discussed the songs we should sing for our carolling adventure at Diamond Terrace. The girls decided on Jingle Bells, Rudolph, Deck The Halls, We Wish You A Merry Christmas, and Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.

Just a reminder, please meet outside of Clayton City Hall at 2:45 on Wednesday. This field trip is helping our girls earn the magenta petal (Respect Authority).

MARIGOLD PLANTING INSTRUCTIONS - Carefully take your marigold seeds and place them on the top of the soil in the pots. Marigold seeds are long and light like a tiny blade of dried grass so when you handle marigold seeds be careful that you do it in a place that is not breezy. Marigold seeds are very light and can blow away easily. Even your own breath can blow them away. After you have places the marigold seeds on the soil pat the top of the soil with the seed in it lightly so the seeds get covered with soil slightly. Then water the seeds carefully so the seeds don't wash away. A very light sprinkling works well with marigolds. Keep the seeds watered so the soil never dries out and you should soon have little plants growing in your pots. It is important to keep the plants in the sun after they have sprouted. A good window with sun shining through it will work well or a sun lamp that is on for about half the day is good.

FYI - You will see in your Daisy bag an invitation to a Halloween party from another troop here in town. This is not a mandatory meeting but those who do go will receive a sister troop patch from the other troop. Please do not feel obligated, it is just a kind gesture from that troop.

NUT/MAGAZINE SALES aka 2 EASY WAY TO EARN 2 PATCHES AND A PURSE!

Just a reminder that while we are technically selling magazines and nuts (NO PRESSURE, we do not want any one to feel like they have to sell something!), your daughters can earn two patches and a sparkly peace sign coin purse just by providing the Girl Scouts with 12 email addresses and 12 home addresses. You can actually use the same people for this! I finally did this last night and it was so simple. I decided to break it down for people who might be feeling overwhelmed or just plain busy with life.

In the packet that Sandy provided to us, there is a home address booklet. By filling out the address booklet, your daughter will receive a CREATE OPPORTUNITY patch and the coin purse. Added bonus, our troop will receive $2 for every booklet that is completed. The Girl Scouts do not sell addresses so your friends and families will not be receiving any extra junk mail. I emailed the following email out last night to give my family a heads up and to make sure there were no objections to receiving our sales packet.

This year Maggie decided to try being a Daisy which is the beginning of Girl Scouts. Maggie is trying to earn a CREATE OPPORTUNITY patch but more importantly to her, a pink sparkly peace sign coin purse. By mailing you a package of the magazines we are selling, she will earn these two items. I just want to let you all know that we do not need you to buy anything!! If you want to, then that is fabulous but even if you don't she still gets her patch and purse. All she needs to do is mail you a catalog of magazines that are up for grabs. Please let me know if you are not interested and we will find someone else to send our junk mail too! Seriously, you are under no obligation to buy anything, she just needs your home address. And the Girl Scouts do not sell addresses so you don't have to worry about receiving more junk mail. Please let me know if there are any objections....

Next in your packet there is a sheet about the QSP Online Program. This is where you provide 12 email address and your daughter will earn the CAPTURE YOUR DREAM patch. Again the added bonus is our Troop will receive $2 for every 12 email addresses that are provided. I sent the same email out to 12 other people (but you can use the same)

This year Maggie decided to try being a Daisy which is the beginning of Girl Scouts. Maggie is trying to earn a CAPTURE YOUR DREAMS patch. By emailing you a link to the magazines we are selling, she will earn this patch. I just want to let you all know that we do not need you to buy anything!! If you want to, then that is fabulous but even if you don't she still gets her patch. All she needs to do is email you a catalog of magazines that are up for grabs. Please let me know if you are not interested and we will find someone else to send our junk mail too! Seriously, you are under no obligation to buy anything, she just needs your email address. And the Girl Scouts do not sell addresses so you don't have to worry about receiving more junk mail. Please let me know if there are any objections....

Once you have your 12 email addresses go to the following website and follow the directions

https://girlscouts.qsp.com/store/RegistrationGS.aspx

Its a little extra work for us parents but the girls love to collect as many patches as possible so please take a half hour out of your day to do this.

The packet with or without sales is due back by October 19th. Please return them to Sandy, Heidi or myself.

Thank you!

SNACK SCHEDULE

The following is the snack schedule. If you do not see your name on here, please leave a comment or send Heidi or Brandi an email regarding what day you would like to volunteer for snack. Thanks!

October 22 - Karen

November 5 - Patricia O.

November 19 - Dana

December 8 - Investiture Ceremony - Potluck - More details to come...

January 7 - Janice

January 21 - Sandy

February 4 - Laura

February 18 - Dana

March 4 - Patricia O

march 18 - Heidi

April 1 - Janice

April 15 - Sandy

April 29 -

May 13 - Heidi

May 27 -

June 10 & June 24 meetings could possible be combined into a large end of year meeting.

MDSUD Kiddie Race

Our girls represented and had a great time. Way to go Ladies!!

Meeting Recap

As the girls arrived, we previewed Chapter 2 in our story books by asking the girls to draw what they would like to find if they were digging in a garden. We opened up our meeting with our Flag ceremony and then our circle. During circle we practiced our "I'm A Little Daisy" song and we reviewed who the main characters were in our story. Then we read Chapter 2 in our Daisy books. They were great listeners! We also practiced the girl scout promise. We talked about being honest and fair (light blue petal) again and to really drive home the message, the girls had an egg hunt. This egg hunt was tricky because each girl was allowed only 5 eggs and then they had to wait for everyone to have their 5 before they could check out their treats. Needless to say our girls did great! Not only did everyone collect only 5, but everyone helped each other find their eggs.

We came back inside after the egg hunt to start our 2 activities. Outside with Heidi, the girls planted grass seed in their own individual pots. This is the beginning of learning how to Be Responsible for What I do and Say (orange petal). Please water your mini garden everyday and make sure it is placed in a sunny spot. Inside with Brandi, we did a fun pumpkin sticker activity in honor of Halloween. The girls loved getting their hands dirty and dealing with the glittery stickers!

After snack, our Daisy sister Kayleigh surprised the group with our first patch! The BFF patch should be sewn on the back of the tunic on the upper right side, near shoulder. THANK YOU KAYLEIGH for thinking of all of us and we are proud to be your BFFs!

Upcoming events- We will be starting our own garden project as soon as we locate a vessel for it to grow in. Our investiture ceremony will be sometime soon (possibly December with a fun potluck dinner). Our girls will earn their blue circle (knowing the girl scout promise) for the daisy and their insignia with pins, and possibly a petal or two (all depends on what we get done the next couple weeks!). A field trip to Clayton PD and City Hall (Respect Authority - magenta petal) is scheduled for Oct. 27th at 3 pm. We will meet outside of the Clayton PD building at 2:45.

Homework - Please have your entire Daisy Journal completed up to page 31 and bring it to the next meeting.

Thank you again to Karen for arranging our new meeting place. The girls were so much more focused in a neutral territory and we really got a lot done in a short period of time.

NEW MEETING PLACE

Until further notice we will be meeting at the Dana Farms Pool Cabana for our Daisy meetings. The address is 1244 Classic Way, Concord, CA 94521. A huge THANK YOU to Karen MacPherson for arranging a FREE neutral meeting place for us. We are still on the lookout for another neutral place so that we can alternate places and not take advantage of the good people of Dana Farms.

Please note that we will use the already established meeting sheet for snacks now. The date that you have marked for hosting a meeting, now turns into you being responsible for bringing a snack. We will provided cups and water, you will need to bring the food. The less crumbly the better since we are in charge of cleaning afterwards!

We will see you all at 6 on Friday. We encourage you all to take advantage of the hour or so of free time to get groceries, coffee, goof off on your Iphones, etc! Your daughters are in good hands!

SAVE THE DATES!!

We have some exciting times coming up! Please mark your calendar for the following events...

October 27th - Tour of the Clayton PD and Town Hall at 3 pm.

December 17th - Caroling at Diamond Terraceat 3 pm. We were also invited to play Bingo with them afterwards if you are so inclined!

Another successful meeting! Thank you all for your donations...we are ready to cut, color and glue to our hearts content!

Last night we introduced ourselves again and told the circle our favorite thing we did last week. After we all participated in the flag ceremony and fun songs, Heidi read the first chapter in our journal. We met the three BFFs and listened as they discovered a lone daisy in a garden full of weeds. After a delicious cupcake celebrating Madison and Mckenzie's birthday, we went back inside to start on our crafts. We talked about being honest and fair (light blue petal) while we made our own giant daises and pipe cleaner bracelets. By unevenly distributing the color beads to our girls, they had to figure out who had more/less and how to distribute all the bead evenly amongst themselves.

Upcoming events- We will be starting our own garden project very soon. Our investiture ceremony will be in the upcoming weeks where our girls will earn their blue circle for the daisy and their insignia with pins, and possibly a petal (all depends on what we get done the next couple weeks!). A field trip to Clayton PD and possibly City Hall is in the works for our Respect Authority petal. Also you should have already received an evite from Heidi regarding the Kiddie Walk on Oct.10th. This is a "if you feel like it" event. Please do not ever feel any pressure from us for the random get togethers we schedule. We will let you know when the event is important and we will apply pressure at that point!

Thank you so much for assisting in a successful first

meeting! I think we got off to a great start and that

your girls are ready and willing to learn more about being a

Girl Scout.

Next week's meeting is scheduled to be at my house,

however, we are going to look into using a neutral facility

(at no cost to the troop) to make it easier for our girls to

focus. We realized after the meeting that while we can

make the round robin meetings work, it would be easier on

our girls if we had a neutral room to go to every other

week. If it works out for us, we will be avoiding the

"newness" of each girls toys, backyard, etc.

Some of you asked about donating to the troop. Items

that we need are crayons, scissors, construction paper,

markers, really any crafty stuff you want to donate we will find a

way to use it. Please do a reply all to this email if

you plan on donating something so that we don't end up with

50 scissors. If you do not donate, please do not fret

about it! We are happy that you are donating your

daughter to us every other week!

One thing that Heidi and I are on the lookout for is a used wagon.

It will be used for a mobile garden. Because it will be more than

likely unusable after we are done with it, we are hoping to find an

inexpensive or better yet free one! Please let one of us know if you

happen to see one of a thrift store, garage sale, etc.

Homework - please read with your daughter(s) up to page 17 in your

journals. If they want to do any of the activities in those pages,

please feel free.

Thank you again for a great meeting! If you do not
hear. From me before Friday, our meeting on the 24th will be
at my house.

Daisy Details

Daisy Girl Scouts are named for Girl Scout founder, Juliet Gordon Low. In her kindergarten year she was given the nickname Daisy by an uncle.

Since Daisy Girl Scouts are in kindergarten, instead of the vest or sash worn by Brownie Girl Scouts and Junior Girl Scouts, Daisies wear a blue tunic. Daisies also wear an official Daisy Girl Scout pin on their insignia. Instead of earning patches and badges based upon completing tasks, the Daisies earn patches shaped like flower petals for participation in character education activities based upon the Girl Scout Law. The blue center patch of the daisy on the Daisy Girl Scout tunic is symbolic of the Girl Scout Promise. Each petal, in ten different colors, corresponds with the ten lines on the Girl Scout Law.

During meetings, we will discuss the meaning of the words in the law, and play games and make crafts to enhance the girls learning. Through activities, field trips, dramatic play and role-playing skits, the girls are given the chance to practice their new skill during the meetings. Once petals are awarded, they are sewn or ironed onto the girl’s tunic to announce her commitment to the principles each petal symbolizes.