How to Earn the Yellow Daisy Petal Friendly and Helpful With The Invisible Boy

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UPDATED OCTOBER 2019

While there is no particular order in which the Daisy petals need to be earned, after first earning the Blue Promise Center, one of the next ones that I feel should be taught is the yellow Daisy petal, Friendly and Helpful. One of your jobs as a leader is to foster positive relationships within your troop...to have the girls become sisters in scouting (another petal that should be among the first to be earned, in my opinion).  After all, you are going into this hoping to lead a troop of girls for many years to come. Even if the girls are not friends outside of troop time, while they are with you, they need to get along.

Photo from Pixabay and altered by the author in Canva

A book that simply touched my heart is The Invisible Boy by Tracy Ludwig. I guarantee it will pull at yours as well, as the author writes about experiences that most of us have had at one time or another during our childhood.

The Invisible Boy Available in Different Formats on Amazon

This book is the story of Brian, who is invisible to his classmates. When the book begins, Brian is drawn in black and white, while everything around him is in color. We read about two of his classmates, Sophie and Nathan take up a lot of space. You can ask the girls what does that mean?

My heart broke as I read...the author touches upon so many real life situations that children face and we adults are not there to protect them. Parents and leaders need to stop and talk as they read this book.

Other situations that Brian faces are:

• Not being picked for a team
• Talking about a party Brian was not invited to while sitting at lunch (is that being considerate and caring?)

One day, a new boy named Justin comes and the kids give him the once over. At lunch, he eats with chopsticks and the other children make fun of his lunch...all that is except Brian. He overhears what is happening, as he is sitting alone, and he wonders if it is worse to be laughed at or worse to be sitting alone-invisible.

Photo from Pixabay

Brian, who has a kind heart, draws a picture and writes a nice note on it and puts it in Justin's cubby. At recess, Justin thanks Brian, who is now illustrated with a bit of color. But, as Brian is once again left out in class, he is black and white...that is until Justin invited him to be a part of his group. This illustration jumps out as you can see how others make Brian feel like he does not matter.

After Justin gives Brian a compliment, he is in full color. At last, he is invited to sit with the others at lunch and becomes visible to everyone else.

Once you are done with the book, you can follow it up with a discussion of the story and this simple craft.

Materials

• White paper
• Pencils
• Markers or crayons

Have the girls fold the paper in half. Give each girl a pencil and have her draw her entire self and how she would feel if she were treated like Brian. 

When they are done with that, have them draw a happy picture of themselves in color.

To finish, ask the girls what they could do to make someone comfortable and included what if a new girl joined their troop. How would they make her feel colorful and not black and white?