Meetins #21 & 23: Singing badge

Singing badge (S)

You and Others: Learn About Leadership in a Group (YaO1)

We used two meetings to complete the singing badge. The first meeting was a lot of planning and talking and the second meeting had a whole lot of singing!

Meeting 1:
6:30-7: Patrol Time--We gave them a worksheet to fill out, coming up with different types of songs required by the badge and each of them planned a short campfire we could do with the Brownies. (Singing worksheet, Word doc) (S#1, S#2, S#6)

7:00-7:30: Horseshoe and Discussion--Everyone got to share the songs they thought of (and we sang snippets of a lot of them). Then we voted in each category to decide which songs we would sing for the badge. To vote,we had the girls close their eyes and raise their hands, so they couldn't see what everyone else was voting for. (S#1, S#2)



7:30-8:00: Research! We brought laptops and tablets (and meant to tell the girls to bring their own if they had them, but forgot) and we had them draw names of Canadian singers to research. Ideas included Bryan Adams, Justin Bieber, Drake, Jann Arden, Anne Murray, Denny Doherty, John Allan Cameron, Classified, K-OS, Hedley, Alanis Morissette, Rita MacNeil. A number of ours were also from Nova Scotia. We had them find out some information about the singer--where they were from, what band/songs they were famous for, anything else they found interesting. After research time, each girl shared her information with the rest of the group. (S#7)

8:00-8:20: Planning--Finally, we planned a Teen Tween Idol contest. We asked them to get in groups of 2 or 3 so they could work on a song together over the next couple of weeks. For girls who didn't want to sing in the contest, they were to be judges and the judges were tasked with coming up with ideas for categories the groups win. They love doing Talent Shows at camps so we knew they would like this part of the badge. (S#5)

8:20-8:30: Clean-up and closing

Meeting 2:

Performing

6:30-7:00: We finished planning the Brownie campfire. We used the songs they had voted on the week before and since the Third Years had the opportunity to lead when we did Gym Games a few weeks ago, I wanted the 2nd years to have the opportunity to do the leading. We have one 2nd year who is new this year who didn't really know enough songs to lead (and is quite shy), we had her introduce each song and who would be leading it. They all did a great job teaching the songs. (S#6)

The Judges were very focused

7:00-7:30: The Brownies meet in the same school as us, so we invited them to come and sing some songs with us. They had a lot of fun and asked us for some names/lyrics of the songs they sang so they could sing them with their girls when they go to camp soon. (S#1, S#2, S#6)

7:30-8:30: Tween Idol! We let them have 15 minutes to rehearse/change while we consulted with the judges about what the categories were that they'd be judging them on. I made up awards to give out and suggested that the judges make sure everyone wins something. (S#5, S#8)

The girls did a great job! This group really loves to sing and perform. :)

Meeting #26: Performing Arts badge

Performing Arts badge (PA)

One of our Rangers wanted to present a meeting for the Guides on the Performing Arts badge so this is what she did.

6:30 - 7:00  Patrol Time: Character Study--The girls were given a sheet with a number of characteristics that they had to define for their character. (Character Study)

7:00 - 7:15  Horseshoe

7:15-7:30 They continued to work on their character study sheets (PA#8)

7:30 - 7:50 Skit planning--once their character studies were complete, they created skits to showcase their characters (PA#1)

7:50 - 8:20 Skit presentation -- They came up with some pretty interesting skits!

8:20 - 8:30 Clean-up and closing

 If we combine this with other activities we've done this year (puppets (PA#7), mime game (PA#4), and song performance (PA#6)), they've done enough to earn the badge.

Meeting #24: Art Production Badge Part 2

Art Production badge (AP)

Discovering You: Discovering Your Creativity

6:30-6:45--We knew the murals would take some time, so we didn't give them anything to do in Patrol Time and started Horseshoe early.

6:45-7:00--Horseshoe

7:00-7:50--We gave each Patrol a large piece of white paper. We told them to come up with a theme for their mural and to sketch it out on a small piece of paper to have an idea of what they were going to do. We also suggested that they could divide the paper into vertical sections for each girl to work on, and then if they wanted, we could cut the murals up at the end of the night for each girl to take home her own artwork. (AP#6)

We also gave them craft supplies--foamies, pompoms--that they could glue on after they had coloured it to enhance their designs.

Cartoon theme

Jungle theme

Solar System theme

7:50-8:10--Set up Art Gallery. We had all of their art work from the two Art Production meetings: dream drawings, prints, sculptures and murals. We arranged the room to display all of their artwork, and gave them the option of grouping them by project or by artist and they chose by artist. (AP#7)

8:10-8:30--We invited the parents to come back early so they could all come in and see the beautiful artwork the girls had created. Then they all took their artwork home with them.

Meeting #21: Art Production Badge Part 1

Art Production badge (AP)

Discovering You: Discover Your Creativity (DY2)

You and Others: Build Skills in Communication (YaO2)

Our meeting was cancelled last week due to a snow day. We were supposed have done this last week and then do the second part this week. Unfortunately, with March Beak and cookies coming up, our next available week to complete this will be the first week in April! Stay tuned!

6:30-7:00:  Patrol time--Create a picture based on a dream using pastels. On their Patrol Time sheets, we told them what they were to do, and they had to come to the front to get their paper and pastels once they understood the instructions. We wanted to make sure they were reading and understanding their instructions! And one group didn't read all the way through and started drawing all six pictures on the back of their Patrol time sheet! (AP#1, YaO2#5)

7:00-7:15: Horseshoe

7:15-7:20: Song to learn Primary and Secondary colours. I wasn't at the meeting for this part so I don't know the exact lyrics, but it was sung to If You're Happy and You Know It, and went "Yellow and blue make green". As the leaders sang the song, they mixed paint and let the girls say what the colour was. (AP#3, DY2#4)

Edited to add: I found the lyrics to the song. It's from "Barney and Friends": Mix a Color lyrics.

7:25-7:45: We gave the girls small plates and they each got to create one colour from the paint (blue, yellow, red, white, black). (AP#3) Using this colour, they created a print using stamps and dry pasta. I got the dry pasta idea from this blog: E Is for Explore (AP#4, DY2#4)

7:45-8:15: Create a sculpture using clay. We gave them 6 different colours of clay/plasticine and popsicle sticks for shaping and let them be creative--and they came up with some great designs.  (AP#2)

We kept all of their creations because when we do the second half of this badge, we're going to have an art gallery for the parents to see all of their creations (AP#7). 

This was a great meeting. The girls got to complete a lot of program work, but they also got to sit at their tables and talk and create. I don't plan crafts enough (and I'm trying to work on that!), but I always love watching the girls create and interact.