Respect Authority

Respect Authority: the Magenta Petal

The Respect Authority petal is followed by the Respect Myself and Others petal. The girls will be learning how to show respect to everyone. The people who tend to fall under the "Authority" description are parents, teachers, coaches, police officers, fire fighters, etc. When girls know how to demonstrate respect to these authority figures, they are more likely to learn from them and develop a positive working relationship with them.

At the Daisy level, the girls should have experiences that help them to:

• Identify their own feelings and the feelings of others

• Discuss how their actions and words might make someone else feel

• Identify authority figures and what they do

• Tell someone when their own feelings have been hurt

• Practice good manners

• Ask for help

Stories

• Gerri's Story - Girl Scouts has a flower friends story for each petal, available in the Daisy Girl's Guide to Scouting. Gerri the Geranium helps girls understand Respect Authority.

• Officer Buckle & Gloria by Peggy Rathmann - The students don't respect Officer Buckle's safety lessons until he gets Gloria the dog to help.

• The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter - Nutkin doesn't respect Mr. Brown (an owl) and he loses his tale because of it.

• What If Everybody Did That by Ellen Javernick - a fun way to look at the consequences of thoughtless behavior.

• The Way I Feel by Janan Cain - Helps children discover ways to use their words to express how they feel.

• The Berenstain Bears Forget Their Manners by Stan & Jan Berenstain - Mama Bear helps the family learn to use their manners instead of being so rude.

Games

• Simon Says - Play variations of this game where "Simon" wears hats of different authority figures. Only do what is said if Simon is wearing the hat.

• Mother, May I - One player is "mother" and stands at one end of the play area with her back to the "children." The children take turns asking "Mother, may I ____?" and make movement suggestions such as "take five hops forward." Mother replies with either "Yes, you may" or "No, you may not do that, but you may ____instead." The first child to reach mother wins, and gets to be mother for the next game.

• Red Light, Green Light - One person is the Leader. When the leader says "green light" the other players move forward. When the leader says "red light" the other players stop. Anyone who doesn't stop goes back to the beginning. The first person to reach the leader gets to be the leader for the next game.

• Follow the Leader - One person is the leader. For a set time, (one minute) everyone does whatever the leader does. They can be as silly as they like.

• Role Playing - Some examples would be a crossing guard helping students cross the street; a teacher talking to a student about talking while the teacher is talking; a parent talking to their daughter about cleaning her room. Let the girls come up with their own scenarios too.

Crafts

• Paper Doll Puppets - Making Friends has free printable paper dolls for many different careers. Let the girls decide which authority figure they would like to make.

• Plant or repot geraniums to give to a parent, teacher, coach, etc.

• Make a chart listing What Does Respect Look Like, and What Does Respect Sound Like

Trips/Speakers

• Visit the Police Station

• Visit the Fire Department

• We had a K9 officer and his dog come to our troop meeting. He read Officer Buckle and Gloria, then taught the girls what he and his dog did.

• Ask a teacher, principal, police officer, firefighter, doctor, etc. to come talk to the troop about their job and how people depend on them.

• Plan an event to thank police officers or other authority figures for the work they do. Thank you cards, cookie bake, ice cream social, or any other ideas you may have