How-To Bridge from Daisies to Brownies

Congratulations! If you are here looking for tips for bridging, you have completed at least one year of Girl Scout daisies and possibly two. That’s an amazing task in itself. You are an amazing volunteer and it can’t be said enough. Thank you for taking the time to guide new Girl Scouts on their beginning years and inspiring a love of helping others, the outdoors, and learning. You have given these young girls an amazing experience. We are here to support you as you begin bridging to brownies.

As you near the end of the daisy experience and get ready to bridge to Brownies, you will want to do some wonderful preparing for the next year. It’s always best to speak with your girls before the end of the current school year to help you make plans for the following year. We end our Daisy Girl Scout year with a Brownie Girl Scout survey. This survey gives your girls a peek into the Brownie Girl Scout badges, journeys, and some special field trips too.

We highly suggest having the girls take the survey with their families. Many times our girls wanted to try new experiences that their families weren’t interested in allowing their girls to do just yet. By having the scouts and families complete the survey together, you can avoid getting hopes up. Additionally, you may find families who are willing to share their expertise.

Girl Scouts Bridging Traditions

There are a few traditional Girl Scout requirements to officially bridge to the next level. Just as with everything in Girl Scouts, these are more a recommendation. If your scouts are unable or can’t complete these bridging traditions, they can still move to their next level. The Girl Scout levels are by grade and any girl can join at any time.

These traditions are an important part of Girl Scouts. Each of these helps to pass along Girl Scout traditions. Additionally, your scouts will learn more about the level ahead of them and have an opportunity to share their love with those still to come.

Pass It On!

Scouts work with a troop who is one level before them. This allows your scouts to teach the younger girls a little about Girl Scouts and be a sister to every Girl Scout. What an amazing experience to let your girls be leaders. Additionally, they will remember all the amazing experiences they had over the last year or two.

For Daisy Girl Scouts this is a little tricky since they are the youngest group. Your girls can meet with an Ambassador group to help these girls to transition to adult girl scouts. Many of these scouts may wish to become Girl Scout leaders one day. What a better way to learn about this incredible role than talking with some Girl Scout Daisies. Your girls can share their incredible experiences and inspire a future Girl Scout leader.

Another option is to invite potential Girl Scout Daisies to join your troop. Your girls can share their experiences and help to foster the Girl Scout spirit in a few future scouts. Your troop can create a special activity to share with these potential scouts and teach them a few traditions too. This can be a wonderful way to help future Girl Scout troops get started but also a way to find new girls for your troop too.

Yet another way to pass your scouting knowledge on is to host a few future Daisy Girl Scout parents or leaders at your troop meeting. Your troop can share some of their awesome experiences and Girl Scout traditions with these adults. Maybe they will inspire one of the parents to step up and become a leader or even help encourage more parents to sign their daughters up for Girl Scouts.

Look Ahead!

Plan to work with scouts who are one level above your current troop level. This is the level your scouts will bridge up to. This allows the scouts to learn about the next level of Girl Scouts. They can start to brainstorm all the different activities they want to try. And maybe even learn a few additional Girl Scout traditions from the other troop.

Daisy Girl Scouts would meet with a Brownie Girl Scout troop. If you have some Brownie troops bridging up to Juniors, they may be eager to meet with a Daisy troop for their Pass It On! requirement. However, you can also meet with a Brownie troop that isn’t bridging. They just might not be looking for you as eagerly as a bridging Brownie Girl Scout troop.

Keep an eye out for opportunities to invite a Girl Scout Brownie troop to your meetings. Leader meetings are a great place to start when trying to find a partner. We loved saving Clover’s petal for our Brownie troop to help us use resources wisely. However, you could do this with any petal, badge, or even a Take Action project.

Work with a Brownie Troop

First, partner with a brownie troop to learn from their leaders and girls. Not only will their leaders be an excellent resource for questions, materials, and potential trips or experiences, but they will be a get help in planning out your year and the different experiences available. Further, if the troop is bridging to juniors, they might even offer you their Brownie planning materials and left over badges. In addition, the Brownie Girls will be a great help to keep your Daisy scouts motivated and engaged for the next year.

Plan a time for the Brownies to come talk with your Daisies about their favorite experiences and what they love about girl scouts. Moreover, meeting with a Brownie group is a requirement for Bridging up.

Some Common Questions:

1. What was your favorite badge?
2. Which event was your favorite?
3. Where is one place that you went that you thought was amazing?
4. What was your favorite thing to learn about?
5. What is your favorite Brownie song?
6. Which was your favorite Brownie Girl Scout journey?
7. What Take Action project did you do?
8. What was your favorite community service project?

Plan a Bridging Ceremony

If you are lucky, you will be able to join your service unit or council’s bridging ceremony. This helps to keep costs down and even makes the ceremony feel more nostalgic and empowering. However, some troops prefer or need to host their own bridging ceremony. If you find yourself planning a troop bridging ceremony, be sure to keep the ceremony girl-led as much as possible.

Find simple ways to let your girls make choices when planning your bridging ceremony. They can help decorate the symbolic bridge. Maybe they can decide if each girl will share a special memory while crossing the bridge. They can help decide how to purchase their new vests or sashes and even the menu for the ceremony. If your girls are so inclined, they could even write the script for the opening greeting and closing ceremony. Wherever you can, turn over the choices to the scouts.

Sample Bridging Ceremony Agenda

Most bridging ceremonies follow the same general outline. While we will present the general agenda below, remember, that there is no set agenda. You can change or modify things to best fit your troop.

Opening Greeting

This is a time to welcome the families and congratulate their girls on their hard work during the year. Many ceremonies open with a flag ceremony with a recital of the Girl Scout Law and Girl Scout Promise. Sometimes leaders like to say a few words to recognize their scouts’ achievements. This is a great time to recognize your girls hard work and remind parents of the wonders of scouting.

Cross Symbolic Bridge

Many troops have the girls walk across a bridge. Whether you make your bridge out of paper, cardboard, wood or another material is up to you. You can always buy a bridge too! We love this little wooden bridge and then decorate it with paper and flowers for the ceremony. Balloons can be a big hit too! Each scout should have their name read and then they can individually cross the bridge.

This is a great time to recognize each scout and share something remarkable about each girl. You could even ask each scout to share a special memory from their time as a Girl Scout Daisy. Let your scouts decide what they want to share or if they even want to share.

Girl Scout Handshake and New Level

After the girl walks across the bridge, they should meet one of their leaders on the other side. They can greet their leader with the Girl Scout handshake. The leader welcomes each scout to their new level on the other side of the bridge.

Present Gifts

Many Girl Scout leaders like to present their newly bridged girls a small gift. These gifts might include the traditional bridging kits from the Girl Scout shop with their bridging patches and certificates. However, you can also do something different too. Additionally, girls love receiving flowers or handmade gifts. These can be as simple as their bridging badges to a more complex plague or homemade bag. For example, many troops provide the girls their new uniforms, next level vest or sash, and books at the ceremony, which is very fun for the girls. Another gift that girls love is a photo album from their Daisy Girl Scout year.

Closing Ceremony

After all the girls have crossed the bridge, plan to say a few words. These can congratulate the girls on their wonderful years as a Daisy Girl Scout, remember all the fun they had, or even speak about the year to come. Often times your girls will be wonderful at helping you brainstorm what to say. This is a great time to invite your Girl Scout families to celebrate with you.

Pictures and Refreshments

Of course, provide lots of opportunities for families to take pictures and celebrate their daughters. In addition, most celebrations have some kind of food for the girls – cake, cookies, finger foods, anything you are comfortable serving. Your scouts may love deciding on the special foods for your celebration.

Survey your Daisies and Families

Next, we give our Daisies a survey to see which badges, journeys, and experiences interest them the most. Be sure to include your families in the planning process too. We had a group of girls who really wanted to camp and go on overnights and a group of families not quite ready for allowing their young daughters to spend the night away from home. This helps you to focus your year and see what the girls really want to do. See my store for a copy of my Daisy friendly survey.

Decide how you will have the girls purchase Brownie uniforms, badges, and materials. Would you like each girl to have their own book? This is nice for Brownie Girl Scouts, but definitely not necessary. Will each family purchase the new uniform or will you use troop funds to purchase the vests/sashes? Which would the girls prefer – vests or sashes?

Setting Cookie Goals

My troop has always decided to use cookie money to purchase the new vests/sashes and books as well as badges along the way. This allows you to set a goal for each girl to earn the cost of their supplies (the Council store has wonderful references for this) as well as badge costs (usually around $30 – $40 a year). And of course, the year you are not bridging, you can save that money to pay for badges in your bridging year. If this is your plan, be sure to communicate this to families.

If each girl in your troop can sell between 60 and 70 boxes, you will usually have enough money to purchase their uniforms from level to level and afford their badges. If you want to do more with troop funds, then you can set their cookie/fall product goal higher. And of course, if your troop doesn’t want to sell cookies, you could ask families to cover the costs.

Connect with Us for More Great Girl Scout Tips

Now that you’ve met the bridged up to Girl Scout Brownies, what will you work on next? Please be sure to check out our Girl Scout Brownie posts to learn how to earn Daisy petals. If you liked our Girl Scout Daisy petal guides, we offer a similar guide for Girl Scout Brownie adventures to assist you as your troop’s leader on their journey. We encourage you to take a peek through each one.

Have your girls Bridged up to Girl Scout Brownies? 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.