A Smiling Bee and a Special Key

Today we worked on "Buzzing Toward Girl Scout Values." Since we are working on this journey from home we have integrated caring for the mini-garden into everyday life. This morning before breakfast we set the mini-garden, and the bean's flower she planted this year, out on the front steps to soak up some sun, and the bean watered them. It has been two weeks since they were planted and they are coming along nicely! We also had to pare them back, making sure that only the strongest 2 - 3 sproutlets stayed.

Before breakfast we also set up the base for our craft. We were making bumblebees from our footprints, so I painted her foot yellow and she stepped on a flat 8x10 canvas (them come in a set of 3 for something like $5 at the craft store). She painted my foot, and I pressed the canvas against my foot, as my size 9 feet could barely fit on the canvas, and I didn't want to miss. :-) We set them aside to dry, and I told the bean that what we were making with them was a surprise - which she loved.

After breakfast we read Chapter 2 in the Daisy Flower Garden book. We discussed what keys we had, and what keys she may want in the future, and she was so proud that she could write about it all by herself (with some minor spelling help) in her book. She then colored in the 'Draw it!' Activity, while my husband and I got ready for the Garden Scamper. 

Now the Garden Scamper is supposed to be where a troop of girls line up in two lines. A garden critter is called out and one girl each from of the far end of the lines is supposed to run down the center of the lines together, using the movements of that critter. In theory this is something that would be more fun with a group of  year olds, but I think the three of us could give them a run for their money. :-)

A Bird

(top left - Bumblebee, bottom left - Hedgehog, right - Grasshopper)

It felt a little ridiculous pretending to be different animals as an adult, for all the world to see, but only for a moment or two, then it was just a lot of fun. Some of the animals we tried were butterfly, frog, fox, bird, rabbit, bee, grasshopper, and hedgehog. The bean and I were called to be earthworms at one point, and somehow she turned into a snake, who tried to attack my husband - with love of course. <3

We finished working on our journey today by completing our crafts. Once we were done playing outside we finished our butterfly footprint paintings. She figured out it was going to be a bumblebee from the story, but wanted to pretend she hadn't figured it out, so it could still be a surprise. Once we started painting, the bean decided she wanted to flip hers upside down, and I think it is super cute that way!