Special Event: The Bigger Picture

It was time for the biennial NS Guider's Conference. The theme this year was The Bigger Picture and if you look for the hashtag #GGCNSBiggerPicture2015 on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, you can find lots of posts and pictures of all the goings-on!

We started on Friday with the opening ceremonies, which was MCed by Brenda Harvey. Our Twinning Leads, Lashauna and Janice, showed us a great SVG tourism video that got everyone on their feet and dancing.


Then we played Family Feud with #twinning2020 questions about our partner country, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Questions included: Which countries are paired with which provinces? What sports are most popular in SVG? What are the most important agricultural products in SVG? What are the names of the levels of Guiding in SVG? What are the 5 areas of focus in the SVG Ranger program? 

After the opening ceremony was over, we went back to our room and hung out with some young Guiders who are mostly university students. It was lots of fun and we got to meet some new people, which is a great reason to attend Conference!

There were dozens of sessions to choose from on Saturday and I enjoyed all 4 that got. 

Music for the Musically Challenged
I love singing campfire songs so it's always nice to learn some new ones, and there are always new ones to learn. 
Black Socks: I knew this one, but I learned new actions to go with it but they are on Becky's Guiding site if you scroll down.

Make New Friends: Again, I've done this in a round but not with actions. I can't find the actions but I'll try to describe it. Standing in a close circle, everyone puts their right arm in front of the person beside them. Then they take their left hand and hold the hand of the person two to their left. Everyone should have the same arm crossed over top all the way around the circle. The leader starts with both of her arms on top of the other arms. Then when you start singing, you bring your arms over the person's head and this goes around the circle until everyone has their arms around each other. Then you can go back the way you came you'll end up as you started. 

Herman the Worm craft

I Let Her Go Go: We learned this when we "travelled" to Curacao!

Herman the Worm: Always a fun one. We changed the people Herman eats into a Spark, a Brownie, a Guide, a Pathfinder, and a Ranger. We were also given a simple craft that could be done by the girls when you teach them the song.

It's Not Hard: This was new to me and should be fun to teach to my girls.

Singing in the Rain: I did this as a girl, and it's an old standby of mine, especially if we're camping in the rain!

Dum-Dum-Da-Da

Dum-Dum-Da-Da: This one was completely new to me. Here's a Youtube video which shows it being sung and with slightly different actions. I love the way this camp director uses a "Ready" call and repeat to settle everyone so he doesn't have to yell over them. I may need to try it!

Rain Storm

Canadian Girl Guides (yell)

Good King Wenceslas with Barnyard Choir: A video of us singing this at Conference closing! You could use any easy song to do this with the girls, like Jingle Bells.

It Isn't Any Trouble: On the fourth verse, you can just make a laughing sound and then you can sing it through and each line will end with S-M-I-L-E, then G-R-I-N, then L-A-U-G-H and then the last line you would laugh.

Say Why: One I never sang as a girl, but love it now that I've learned it as an adult. We sang this at our last camp!

It's a Small World: with Guiding verses

T.I.R.O: I've never heard this one before and it was another fun action-type song. Here's a video, because I could never describe it! The only difference is that we put our right leg in front of the neighbor's left, which put us even more off balance!

And then we ended with Linger and Zulu Farewell (Go Well and Safely).

SUPER GUIDER GREATEST HITS
Two of our Guiders got to attend the Super Guider Conference in Ontario last year and brought back some of their learnings to share. They also gave us each a flash drive with more info on it, because it's hard to condense two days worth of sessions into 75 minutes! 

Mary Louise talked about outside activities and easy ways to incorporate outside activities into your meetings and we had a fun game of Oh Deer. The space wasn't large, but it was perfect for Guiders who really don't want to have to run!

Caira talked about communication. We played a game where you draw on each other's back and the front person then has to draw it on paper (a form of telephone). Then we played in pairs (back-to-back) and one person had to describe it to the other using only words and the other person had to draw it. Then we did the activity where you say something mean and squirt out toothpaste. Then you say something nice and have to put the toothpaste back in the tube, showing how hard it is to take something back once it's been said. 

This was a great session and I can't wait to delve into all of the information on my flash drive.

TWINNING 2020
After lunch, I did a session with our Twinning Leads, Janice and Lashauna. They talked about the Twinning Resources on the NS Girl Guide page and what's been done so far and then what's in store leading up to Thinking Day. 

Then we did an activity from the WTD Activity pack. The theme this year is Connect, and we did #3: Connect with How I Learn. I like making origami, so I had a lot of fun with this activity. I'm a visual learning, so the heart origami where we only got to look at instructions, was my favourite way to do it. 

Finally we made some Caribbean punch from the Let's Meet SVG: Culture Sharing Activity.

PROMISE AND LAW
My next session of the day was on the Promise and Law and activities to incorporate activities into our meeting. I'm not good at touchy-feely stuff, so this was a good session for me to stretch my comfort. 

One activity was there were papers hanging on the walls with various places like Outdoors, Community, Friends, School. Then we had to write down things we can do each place that relate to the Promise and Law. 

BRIDGING
The last session of the day was a chance for Guiders of each branch to get together and discuss and share ideas. 

Cats on a bus

After our supper banquet, the Rangers led a number of games for the Guiders. There were 5 or 6 activities, and we rotated through 4 of them. We did the back drawing game of telephone, a drama game called Get on the Bus, a version of Headbanz, and Pictionary. They all did a great job running the activities--they'll be great leaders in the future!

All in all, it was a great weekend! I met lots of people, learned lots, and had lots of fun. Thanks to the Conference Committee for putting on such a great event. See everyone again in 2 years!