Clover’s Daisy Petal Ideas – Use Resources Wisely
The eighth trait in the Girl Scout Law, use resources wisely, is such a fun petal to work on with your girls and can be a great petal to partner with an older troop. This is Clover’s story and fits to the green petal. Our girls are always looking for ways to use old things to turn them into something new. Therefore, this was the perfect opportunity to guide them in this endeavor.
This petal is a great way to use some of those items that you have leftover from crafts. Brainstorm ways to use up the extras with your troop. We dive into how to earn the use resources wisely daisy petal below. Our agenda below follows the Daisy petal requirements to make earning this petal easy and quick.
Daisy Petal Use Resources Wisely Activities
Below is our sample agenda with ideas to help Girl Scout leaders when planning their Daisy meeting on Clover’s petal – use resources wisely. While planning this petal for your troop, take a peek at the next petal you plan to teach. Why? This allows you to provide your scouts some choices so that you can keep your Daisy Girl Scout meetings girl-led. View our collection of ideas for meeting Rosie’s petal – make the world a better place. This can let you pick out 3 – 4 activities to present to your scouts so they can decide on which 1 or 2 activities they would like to try.
We usually had the girls choose the activities for the next petal at the end of each meeting. Take a few moments to introduce your next petal and some of your ideas. Then let the scouts pick out what activities they would like to do to earn this petal. We have found that bringing photos of each activity really helped our girls to sort the activities quickly, never taking very long at all. Then we would leave the meeting with the pictures they want to try. This made it really easy to recruit parents even before the meeting ended.
Before you dismiss the girls, ask parents for help. There might be a family willing to set up a gardening class or bring certain supplies. You may even want to ask the scouts to brainstorm the supplies they would like and have each family sign up for one. Be sure to snap a picture of your list so you don’t forget. We always have families texting or e-mailing asking us to remind them which item they signed up to bring.
Use Resources Wisely Gathering Activity
Again we used the coloring flower page to keep things simple for the girls and allow them to work independently. This is a great time for them to talk, guess what we will be work on, or just debrief after their day of doing other activities. We loved that our scouts could get their meeting started independently and they loved the responsibility. In addition, this gives you time to talk with parents. Having this time to answer questions, collect rsvps, settle up finances, and share useful information with families is so incredibly helpful to a well run troop.
If you are still working on your room set up for ease and flow of your meeting, be sure to head over to 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 easily earn the use resources wisely Daisy petal.
Clover’s Story Girl Scouts
This is such a cute story about being resourceful and our girls had so much fun finding all the different ways that the flower friends were resourceful. We suggest asking a girl or leader to keep a running list for the girls to see at the end of the meeting. The length of this list will really surprise the girls at all the wonderful things the flower friends did.
Creating a honey dip for apples is a great snack for Clover’s daisy petal as it is mentioned in the story. In the story, they mixed yogurt and honey to make their dip. We loved offering a snack during the story since we usually opened our meetings with a story and we found our scouts were rather hungry at the start of the meeting. This was probably because we hosted our meetings shortly after school so many of our girls came right here.
Remember to offer your scouts choices on how to access the story. Usually by now, your girls can read pretty well. So you have lots of ways your scouts can listen to the story. We loved having the girls take turns reading, bringing in a mystery reader, reading aloud, and even watching YouTube videos of the story. If you are working with an older Girl Scout troop, this might be a great time to ask one of the older girls to read the story, or even ask the girls to take turns reading the story.
Step 2: Make a collage using old magazines or postcards
We had a Brownie troop join us for this meeting. They brought in some old cereal boxes or other cardboard boxes, scrap paper, magazines, yarn, and some old notebooks. You could also use empty Girl Scout cookie boxes to make smaller journals. The girls used the cardboard to create a front and back cover for a journal which they decorated with the scrap paper and magazine pictures. Then the girls tore out some paper from the old notebooks to add to between their covers, which were hole punch and tied with yarn. What a great reusing of materials to create a keepsake journal. Plus our girls loved their new journals.
You could even ask the Brownie Girl Scouts to write a little note in each of the journals to share their favorite Brownie activities and tips. This can be so fun to reference during your Brownie Girl Scout adventures.
Daisy Petal Use Resources Wisely Ideas
Use Resources Wisely Daisy Petal Craft Activities
- Making a flower garden – create a physical representation of clover. Just gather some white and green construction paper, and green pipe cleaners. Then let the girls use their imagination and maybe a few pictures of clovers.
- Create wind chimes from materials that would otherwise be thrown away. Each girl needs an old hanger, some yarn, and lots of trinkets to make a wind chime.
- Decorate reusable water bottles to encourage the girls to bring a water bottle to each meeting.
Use Resources wisely Daisy Petal Trip Ideas
- Visit a local garden or farmer’s market to find out how they use resources wisely.
- Visit a local recycling center or learn about rain barrels from your local farm bureau.
- Learn about worm composting through your local nature center or garden programs.
Other Girl Scout Daisy Use Resources Wisely Petal Ideas
- Plan a leftover meal from another meal. This would be a great cookbook for girls and families if each scout added one meal plus leftover meal.
- Practice using resources wisely at your meeting place. For example, bring reusable water bottles to meetings, saving scrap paper instead of throwing it away, donating leftover patches/badges/girl scout materials to a new daisy troop.
- Recycle sort. First, bring in a variety of recyclable. Then, clean materials. Last, have the girls practice sorting them into glass, plastic, and paper. Additionally, this is a great way for girls to learn about what is recyclable.
- Girl Scout Scavenger Hunt – create a list of things that you could use for the upcoming year. After that, give each girl a copy of the list and ask them to hunt around their house for any of these items that they don’t need and bring to the next meeting. Great way to get supplies so you don’t need to spend money. Looking for ideas for Brownies so you can prepare the list? Be sure to check out our Girl Scout Brownie badge posts.
Ending the Daisy Girl Scout Use Resources Wisely Meeting
We keep our ending very simple too so that girls know what to do and can practice their new skill at home. Each girl received a Clover pages with 3 lines to write down different ways that they used resources wisely for our next meeting. To earn the green petal, each scout would share one way they used resources wisely since the last meeting. Our scouts love sharing how they practice their new skills and were quite proud of all the new things that they made over the last few weeks.
Girl Scout Leader Tips
For this tip, we are going to explore Take Action Projects. These are big in Girl Scouts and make a true impact in your community.
What is a Take Action Project?
A Take Action project creates a lasting effect on the community. For these types of projects, you look for an idea that will continue to give back to your community even after you finish the project. With a take action project, you should see a sustainable way that this project continues to benefit the community even after the girls finish their project. Ask your girls, how will this project continue to help?
Take Action Project Vs Community Service
A take action project looks at long lasting benefits to a community, while a community service project helps the community right now. Both are valuable and necessary in Girl Scouts. Community service projects can be a one and done project or a recurring weekly or monthly project. However, the benefits only extend to the time that the girls volunteer. On the other hand, take action projects look to sustain these effects even after the girls have completed volunteering. They usually have an education component or marketing component to get the word out.
How to Plan a Take Action Project?
Brainstorming
Begin by helping your girls find inspiration. Often times completing community service projects, taking day trips to local places that help others, and speaking with volunteers will be the foundation of building a take action project. Another great way to learn more about take action projects is to reach out to local Girl Scouts who are working on the Bronze, Silver, and Gold awards. These ideas take time to develop and your scouts will need many experiences before they find something that they feel passionate about.
These projects may stem from a problem they notice at their school. Sometimes they come from around the town, places girls love to visit or businesses that they frequent. Other times these ideas might come from the world around them. Girls hear the news, their families talk. Many times they might get an idea from an event occurring abroad.
Creating Your Plan
Once your scouts have an idea, we like to map out our path to success. This takes time and your girls will need some guidance; however, they should be in charge of the ideas. The more the girls take ownership of this project, the easier it will be to complete the project when the hard work starts.
We map out our project in 4 simple steps. Begin by defining your project goal. Then figure out the research your girls will need to complete and possible resources to get answers. This includes brainstorming questions the scouts have. Next plan your day of the project agenda. Finally plan out how the project continues to help. See our questions below to help guide you through this process.
Questions to Guide a Take Action Project
What is our project goal? What do we hope to accomplish? Who are we helping?
What information do we need to learn? What questions do we have now? Where can we find answers? Who can help us find answers?
What does our project look like? How we will organize our day? What materials or resources do we need to secure? Where will we get funds for the materials? Who can helps us with our project?
How will our project continue to help? What materials do we need to create to continue helping even after our project? Where can we distribute this information?
Prepare for Your Troop’s Take Action Project
The work doesn’t stop here. Now comes the fun and hard part. You troop will need to figure out the extra tasks that need to be accomplished and who will complete each step. This is super important and can be so hard for leaders to sit back and not take the reins. Try your best to let your girls do as much as possible, even if you need to plan extra impromptu meetings and gatherings to get the project ready.
We find it super helpful to invite families to these meetings so that girls don’t over promise something that they cannot accomplishment. Girls tend to think they can do everything, but families know just how busy they truly are and how much they can realistically tackle.
Once your have a plan, check in with your scouts often to ensure that things are running smoothly. Keep a list of what is completed, what still needs to be done, who needs a little help, and where we can support each other. Then put your project into action. Be sure to follow up with anything that needs to be completed after the project. This is usually the distribution of materials, education, and marketing that occurs to continue the project.
Girl Scout Take Action Project Ideas
Take action projects can focus on your community, local donation centers, your school districts, or even the world abroad. We have included more than 20 take action project ideas below.
Local Community Take Action Projects
Develop a plan to improve a local area of a town for many years to come. This can include increasing the signs to direct visitors, adding recycling or additional garbage cans to keep the park cleaner, making benches to distribute around your park, teaching people how to take care of fire hydrants for all seasons, work towards the installation of a stop sign or cross walk to improve safety, or even education on testing local water supplies.
Setting up a community garden and composting area. Work with your local farmer’s bureau, school district, or homeowner’s associations to keep this sustainable for years to come. Include education about the benefits and how to use the garden.
Take Action Projects for Donation Centers
Create a marketing plan and resources for places that accept donations throughout the year. This will help drive donations to these locations throughout the entire year not just a one time community service drive. These can include food pantries, churches, homeless shelters, programs that help women and children, youth services, hospitals, animal shelters, book drives, and so many more.
Take Action Projects to Benefit Schools
Improve your school or district. Maybe you want to physically improve the school by creating buddy benches, making improvements to the playground by adding outdoor games, planting a butterfly garden, creating a recycling program or beginning a beautification project. You could also look at creating resources for teachers or students, teaching something to the students, beginning a kindness campaign, or even asking to add positive mindset quotes to the morning announcements each day.
Global Take Action Projects
Check in with your local Task Force or FEMA team, National Guard or other military branch, or larger organizations that work with people in crisis for suggestions on helping around outside your community. They may have some great ideas for ways to help around your state or even the country. Plus many times these units assist in other parts of the world too.
Get the word out in your community about a great volunteering organization and how people can assist their efforts or even volunteer their time. We always have people looking to help others but sometimes these organizations can be difficult to find.
Teach people who to make something that will help others globally. Maybe they put together first aid kits that can be shipped overseas, create blankets or clothing for people, or make water testing kits.
Scouts could make resources for learning in English for children from other countries. Think digital resources, videos, songs, or even webpages. Digital products are great because they can be accessed anywhere with internet.
Connect with Us for More Great Girl Scout Tips
Now that you’ve met the Daisy use resources wisely petal requirements, which petal will you work on next? 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 Use Resources Wisely 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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