Daisies: Very Hungry Caterpillar

My Daisy troop earned it's "Friendly and Helpful" petal in two ways.  First we arrived early at school and set up 2 tables, one in the gym where the buses unload and one at the front entrance where the car-riders enter the building.  I contacted the principal and she allowed 2 Daisies to announce the event on the morning announcements the day prior.  Next my Daisies created posters "advertising" that we were creating a Friendship Chain.  We asked that each Walnut Grove student pledge to be a good or better friend and the girls listed friendship qualities on the poster.  Then students wrote their names on the contraction paper links and we created a huge chain.  Tomorrow during the TV announcements they are going to lie the chain out and ask daisies to lie beside the chain and measure "How many Daisies it takes to equal the chain length?"  Also on Friday we are going to have a "Guess the number of links contest."  We will set out a jar during the lunch hours with scrap pieces of paper and a pencil and encourage students to guess how many links are in the chain for a chance to win a GS box of cookies.  Finally we intend on donating the chain to the school!

Thursday the PTO is hosting a Teacher Luncheon with a "Very Hungry Caterpillar" theme for the entire Walnut Grove staff.  So to earn our "Helpful" portion of the patch we volunteered to make placemats for the teachers. (Little did I know what I was getting myself into with this activity because they needed 70!)  So.... I asked each 1st grader to make 3 placements.  It was a bit tedious at times, but they hung in there and did a beautiful job.  I pieced together the activity and created individual zip-loc bags with all the pieces and tools necessary for each placemat and handed them out to the girls.  I then walked them through the process, step by step.  This was a good learning project as well because the girls were forced to follow directions if they wanted the end result to turn out like mine.  The placemats were created using legal size white paper, large construction paper, coffee filters, black markers, pencils, glue sticks, scissors and finally contact paper.  I stained the coffee filters to create the variegated look using spray bottles filled with food coloring and water.  Although this was a relatively easy process, it was somewhat time consuming.  I surfed the internet for pictures of the Hungry Caterpillar and found a great coloring page.  I printed the picture out on card stock and gave each girl the picture to cut and trace on the coffee filter, even better you can see through the coffee filter so the girls could simply trace all the details and cut out the pieces.  Doing one placemat was a challenge and I will say 3 was pushing them a bit.  However, this was a wonderful Daisy activity for Leaders!  I topped it off with a cute little sticker recognizing the girls' work and dedication for the teachers.