Respect Authority – Gerri’s Petal Ideas

The seventh trait in the Girl Scout Law, respect authority, can be such a fun learning opportunity. This is Gerri’s story and matches the magenta petal. I found that our girls didn’t know the word authority. Consequently, this was something we needed to teach them. However, they did know ways to respect authority once they understood the word.

This is such a great time to plan that visit to the fire department or police department. Daisy scouts love these kinds of visits and you can also teach them that people police officers and firefighters are safe people in their community. We dive into how to earn the respect authority Daisy petal. Our agenda below follows the Daisy petal requirements to make earning this petal easy and quick. The respecting authority guide includes 10 activities for earning Gerri’s daisy petal.

Daisy Respect Authority Activities

Our sample agenda to assist leaders with planning the Daisy Girl Scout meeting on Gerri’s petal – respect authority. We encourage you to take a peek at the next petal you plan to help your scouts earn while planning out this petal. Why? So you can provide your girls 3 – 4 activities that you would like to try out with the next petal. Then your scouts can pick the 1 – 2 activities they would like to do. Providing choices is a simple way to keep our Daisy meetings more girl-led throughout the year. Be sure to take a peek at our post about Clover’s petal – use resources wisely.

Save a few minutes at the end of each meeting to preview the next petal you are planning to earn with your scouts. Give the scouts time to discuss the activity choices you present to determine which they would like to try. We found bringing in pictures was super helpful and gave the girls a focus and way to sort out the activities. They would move the pictures around and create a pile of activities that interest them and those that don’t. Then we could plan our next meeting based off of the girls’ recommendations and even reach out to parents to help with the planning.

As the year goes one, this activity can help you have a pretty good idea of which activities your scouts would like to try. You can better fine tune the choices you offer the girls and possibly even have an idea of which ones they will choose.

Gathering Activity

We continued with our coloring flower page since the girls were so good at doing this independently. Hopefully your scouts are able to get started on their own as well. This is such a blessing for a scout leader, especially on those nights you might be running a little late or need to leave right on time. As a result, we could check in with parents about cookies and upcoming events. Keep reading for specific respect authority Daisy petal ideas.

Hopefully you have an excellent flow for your meetings with clearly defined areas for each part of your meeting. If you would like some additional tips on setting up your scout meeting place for efficient meetings, be sure to check out Setting up your Room. This post describes specifics about having a place to greet scouts and parents, where to set up the gathering activity in relation to your communication table and so much more. Keep reading to learn how to earn the respect authority Daisy petal.

Gerri’s Story Girl Scouts

If you pair this petal with a firefighter or police officer visit, we suggest asking the officer to read the story to the girls. This can be a lot of fun for your girls to hear a new reader. However, if this isn’t possible for your troop, that’s okay. You can have the girls take turns reading, ask a family member to mystery read, or even watch the YouTube story.

The story is a great place to find all the different people who have authority and really talk about that word with the girls. For example, we had fun having the girls squat when they heard the word ‘car’ and stand and salute on the word ‘rules’. Our girls loved being able to stand and sit throughout the story. This helped them to keep their attention on the story even though this was our seventh story so far this Girl Scout year.

Step 2: Visit someone who has authority

This is a great time to plan that visit to the fire station or police department. Most importantly, call in advance. If you do, they often have a community meeting room that you can ask to use along with your visit. After the visit, it’s a great place to work on the parts of your petal that cannot necessarily be worked on in the tour.

Before the tour, we suggest reading Gerri’s story. This will allow you the opportunity to discuss the word authority with your scouts. Moreover, you can discuss how we behave and show respect for authority figures. This will help your girls to mind their manners on the tour and be on their best behavior.

There are many places we have loved visiting. For example, police department, fire station, helicopter medics, hospitals, local supermarket bakery, pet stores. Feel free to explore your community for some wonderful places to visit.

Respect Authority Daisy Petal Ideas

Respect Authority Daisy Petal Craft Ideas

1. Draw a picture of someone with authority in your community. Then, share why you respect them.
2. Make Thank You Cards for someone who is in authority. For instance, if you have a firefighter visit, send them a thank you card.
3. Create authority puppets – let girls decorate paper bags to be a person who has authority then put on a play. The scouts can write the script and even act it out for their families.
4. Make paper Geraniums for your Daisy Girl Scout flower garden. We created these from magenta and purple tissue paper and green pipe cleaners. We cut out 7 magenta petal shapes and 1 purple circle for each scout. Arrange the petals so they form the flower. Then glue the purple circle in the middle.
5. Create a mural of the community highlighting people in authority. You could trace a few of the girls on large butcher block paper. Then let the girls decorate themselves as police officers, firefighters, teachers, nurses, doctors, principals, and any other authority figures they can recall.

Group Activities for Gerri’s Petal

1. Discuss your family rules and why they are important.
2. Talk about the Girl Scout rules for your meetings. Next, share how they help you have fun.
3. Have a Mother-Daughter Tea Party to show respect for the girls’ mothers. The girls can create the invitations and invite their own mother or other authority figure to the tea party. If you have left over Girl Scout cookies, this is the perfect time to use some of those.
4. Play “Mother May I?” The scouts show they respect authority by accepting the steps they are allowed to talk. In addition, they respect authority by taking the correct amount of steps.
5. Host a Daughters and Dad’s sports night to show they respect their father’s or other authority figure. The girls can plan out the event with the different sports or activities they want to do. Be sure to include lots of water and a snack as well.

Ending the Daisy Girl Scout Respect Authority Meeting

We gave each of our girls a Gerri page with 3 lines to write down different ways that they have shown respect for authority since our last meeting. At the next meeting, each girl could then share one way she respected authority. Subsequently, she earned her magenta petal. By now your scouts will have quite a few of these. You can add a simple metal book ring to keep all their papers together. At the end of the year, you could bind them together into a Daisy Girl Scout memory book.

Girl Scout Leader Tips

For this blog post, we are going to take a look at planning Girl Scout field trips and getting your scouts into the outdoors.

Planning Girl Scout Field Trips

Now that your scouts are really getting into the swing of helping plan their meetings, you may see them wish to try additional trips and experiences. Our girls sure did! This is something that every leader will need to prepare for throughout the year.

Setting Up the Trip

1. When planning a trip, ask your Girl Scout families if they have any connections. If they do, that’s awesome. Maybe one of the parents will even arrange the trip for you.
2. If no one has a local connection, reach out to other leaders in your Girl Scout service unit. Most likely another Girl Scout leader has planned a similar trip and will have a contact for you.
3. Once you have a contact, reach out to them. Create a file for each contact. You will want the business name, best way to contact, secondary contact method, their address, the name of the person you spoke to, and a place to write any information they shared. This might include cost, special equipment or clothes to bring, and directions for arriving.
4. Call as soon as you can to set up the meeting. Try to call at least 2 weeks in advance, but a month is even better. However, many places can accommodate you last minute too. The worst that can happen is you have to reschedule your meeting to a later date.
5. Ask about a meeting space to use with your scouts. If there isn’t a meeting space, ask about an outdoor grass area to meet.
6. Log the trip with your service unit so they have a record of where you are meeting and when. This is often done by sending an e-mail to your service unit president or team.

Preparing for Your Trip

1. Double check your Volunteer to Girl Ratios for the trip. For Daisy Girl Scouts, you will need 2 unrelated adults for the first 6 daisy scouts. Then you will need an additional adult for every 4 extra scouts attending. So if your troop has 10 scouts, you need 3 adults. However, if your troop has 11 scouts, you now need 4 adults.
2. Be sure to have a copy for each girl of the following forms: Girl Permission Form and Girl Health History Form
3. Bring a copy of your troop roster so you have easy access to contact information for parents or emergency contacts.
4. Be sure to bring along Adult Health History Forms for any adult volunteers.
5. All adults who attend should be registered Girl Scout volunteers.
6. You will need at least 1 first aid/CPR responder for each outing. Don’t forget to bring your troop first aid kit.

Getting Scouts Outdoors

One of the goals of Girl Scouting is to get the scouts outdoors to enjoy hiking, fishing, camping, canoeing, or other such outdoor activities. Be sure to prepare for the activities so that you can enjoy them safely.

1. Start with local field trips before progressing to day trips. Once your girls do well with a few day trips, think about planning your first overnight trip or camping experience.
2. To ease you into day trips and camping trips, think of partnering up with an older Girl Scout troop. They can often assist you with the plans and guide you through these experiences.
3. Work with your girls to plan the trip. They can assist with determining the type of trip, location, and even necessary gear, including meals.
4. If there is anything gear that you need, check with your service unit. Often times the service unit has gear you can check out. And if they don’t, another troop leader just might.
5. Be sure to meet the volunteer to girl ratio recommended for your Girl Scout level.
6. Bring a copy of your troop roster, Girl Permission Forms, and Girl Health History Forms. Have Adult Health History Forms for any adult volunteers.
7. Double check that all scouts and volunteers are registered Girl Scouts.
8. Bring along at least 1 first aid/CPR responder as well as your troops first aid kit.

Connect with Us for More Great Girl Scout Tips

Now that you’ve met the Daisy respect authority petal requirements, which petal will you work on next? Similarly, please be sure to check out our other Girl Scout Daisy petal posts to learn how to earn Daisy petals. If you liked these activities, we offer a similar guide for each of the Daisy Girl Scout petals to assist you as your troop’s leader on their journey to earn all the petals. We encourage you to take a peek through each one.

Have your girls earned the Respect Authority Daisy Girl Scout petal? If so, we’d love to hear about your ideas for and how it went for your troops. If you tried any of these activities, let us know how they went for your girls and what your girls thought.

Hi, I’m Nicole.

Here at Creatingbutterflies we provide families with practical solutions to real life problems for everything parenting, scouting, dual language, and enjoying time outdoors. We are a family of 6 with 4 wonderful becoming bilingual children who loves scouting, camping, and hiking with their family. Mom is an educator and dad is a firefighter/paramedic.

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