So, you guys know of our love of Girl Scouts, right? I’ve written quite a few posts of ideas for Girl Scout activities. Today I wanted to share another with you.
We are part of a large multi-level troop. That means we have every level of Girl Scout in our troop. I believe we started the year with over 100 girls and leaders registered with the troop. We meet on a weekly basis. Throughout the year we have fun events that are for all the levels to participate in together. Each level is responsible to plan one of these events. Last year, I was too scared as a new leader to take on this responsibility. This year, I knew I needed to step up and plan an event. It turned out to be quite easy.
The Daisy’s brainstormed their ideas. They then voted and came up with a plan. They decided to host a pottery night for the troop. It was really fun and really easy to both plan and implement. I’ve got all the details for you so you can plan a fun evening like this with your troop.
Our Daisy’s called their troop event the ‘Teddy Bear Pottery Night.’ Apparently a lot of Daisy troops host a Teddy Bear Tea, but my girls wanted to have a pottery painting night instead. They voted that they wanted to have three stations.
We had the following stations:
- Pottery Painting
- Games
- Snack
Pottery Painting Station:
First up, with the pottery painting station, it is a great idea to have the girls remove their vests, smocks or sashes so they don’t get paint on them.
One of the great perks of being in a large troop is that we have parents with all kinds of businesses and connections. One of the Moms in our troop owns a pottery painting studio/store. She volunteered to make trefoils for the girls to paint and she gave us an amazing deal on them. She brought them as well as paint and paintbrushes for the girls to use.
If you don’t happen to have someone in your troop that owns a pottery studio, you can still host a night like this. I have noticed that lots of craft stores now sell pottery pieces that you can paint. I believe you then bake them in the oven to set the paint. If that doesn’t appeal to you, they also sell ceramics and paints that can be used on ceramic. You probably won’t be able to get our amazing cost per girl, but it may be a great activity for the troop to use nut money or cookie money.
We gave each level 20 minutes at the painting station. We also bought plastic tablecloths to cover the tables. That way if paint got on the table it was on the cloth that could be thrown away at the end.
The girls ranged from taking 5 minutes to paint their trefoil to wanting more than the allotted 20 minutes. You will need to gauge your time based on your girls, their age level and their attention span.
Games Station:
I love coming up with fun ways to get kids moving, activity and to run off energy. I had used most of these ideas at the Girl Sports Night I planned last year or the Red Petal I did with the Daisy’s last year. They were fun then and made it easy to plan now.
50 Yard Teddy Bear Dash
First up was a new (not really) game. We had a 50 Yard Teddy Bear Dash. I figured that since this was a Teddy Bear Pottery Night, there should be teddy bears somewhere in the games. We just picked a portion of hallway in the school in which we meet. That was our 50 yard dash. It wasn’t really 50 yards. It doesn’t really matter. The girls raced 2 at a time carrying a teddy bear. As you can see above, they enjoyed the dash!
Deliver the Nuts Obstacle Course
This is a very simple to put together “obstacle course.” We are using that term very loosely here folks. To set this up you will want 3 jump ropes and 2 nut canisters (or you could change it to cookie boxes depending on the time of year). I have a much more detailed description of this activity in my post about the Daisy Red Petal for Courageous and Strong.
Leg 1 – Set out two of the jump ropes about 3 or 4 feet apart. The girls jump the river.
Leg 2 – They skip through this portion of the course.
Leg 3 – Use one jump rope. Pretend it is a rope bridge. The girls walk tightrope style across the jump rope to cross the rope bridge.
Leg 4 – It is getting late…gotta get those nuts delivered. Have the girls run to the end of the course and deliver the nuts.
Cookie Toss
I have this Cookie Shapes game (affiliate link). We used the cookies in the game that look like Girl Scout cookies. Use a box or other tub and have the girls try to toss as many cookies as they can into the container. Once again I have a much more detailed description of this activity in my post about the Daisy Red Petal for Courageous and Strong.
Long Jump
If time permits, you can use blue painter’s tape to lay out a long jump course for the girls. You would lay out one piece for the start line and another 2, 3, 4, or 5 feet from that line depending on the age and ability level of your girls. Have them stand on one side of the tape and jump to the opposite. You can see this in action in my Girl Sports Night post.
We had 20 minutes for our games station. The most popular games were the 50 Yard Teddy Bear Dash and the Deliver the Nuts Obstacle Course. I don’t think anyone played the Long Jump and only a few of the younger girls wanted to try the cookie toss.
Our main leader had to deliver some nuts as well. Here she is balancing on that rope bridge, but she seems to have dropped her nut canister…oh no!
Let me just take a minute to brag on Mrs. L. She is amazing! She is the main leader in charge of all the leaders and officially all the levels, though we have leaders for each level as well. Without her, I know our troop would not be what it is. She embodies what Girl Scouts is meant to be about. She does such an amazing job at passing that on not only to the girls but to the leaders as well. I feel so fortunate to have been able to be a leader under her. I know I am a better Girl Scout leader for it. I know I have learned in actions, words, and deeds the Girl Scout mission and how to be an excellent leader from her. I’m already starting to worry about 2 years from now when her daughter is off to college….deep breath now. Thank you Mrs. L. for all you do for our troop, for all you have taught me, and the amazing example you have been to my girls and hundreds of other girls.
Snack Station:
What fun night would complete without snacks? None that I know. With our large troop, we decided to split up the snacks by level. We requested certain things from each level. The Daisy’s were, of course, to bring teddy bear snack crackers. Perfect fit for our Teddy Bear theme. We try to keep it healthy, but everyone seems to have a different defintion of healthy, so if that is of concern to you, be very specific in your requests.
There you have it, our fun Teddy Bear Pottery Night. The Daisy’s were so proud of themselves that they planned this evening for all the big girls! I was so proud of them for all they did with the planning and the decorating. They did a great job.
Do you plan any fun events with your troop? I’d love if you would share ideas in the comments. It would help many others with ideas for their troops.
More Girl Scout Ideas For You:
It was a great night! Thank you for all of your hard work in the planing!
I’m a Daisy advisor and just looking for more information to pass onto my new leaders. These are some really cute ideas. The thing that I love the most is the Bear Pottery night. It sounds like the girls had a lot of fun, but it also didn’t seem like an overly stressful event. Sometimes leaders don’t want to host large events because it seems too overwhelming. We sometimes we limit ourselves based on our own expectations, not the expectations of the girls.
For myself, I would never sing because I am completely tone deaf and I’ve heard myself. When my second daughter started scouts, I let that go. We have so much fun singing especially silly songs. She is now a junior, the girls still haven’t called me out on my lack of singing ability. They love any new song I can teach them. I am onto my third troop and singing is a big part of us.
You are so right! The girls had tons of fun and it was pretty easy to put together. Love things like that!
That is so great that you have been so open to the fun that we can have at Girl Scouts and other places if we just let things go. Good life lesson…that is usually a work in progress for me. 🙂