Oceans Sleepover

For our sleepover, we chose the OCEAN CHALLENGE from WAGGGS, to further our learning about SDG#14: Life Below Water. 

FRIDAY 

7:00-7:30 Arrival 

7:30-7:45 Orientation 

7:45-8:00 Ice Breaker: Evolution. We adapted it to be sea creatures. Everyone starts out as Plankton. You play Rock/Paper/Scissors and if you win you move up a level and if you lose, you move down a level. (Though as Plankton to start, you stay at Plankton until you win). You can only play R/P/S against someone who is at the same level as you.

Level 1: Plankton—hands make one eye in front of face (say "Karen", Plankton's wife from Spongebob Squarepants)) 

Level 2: Minnow—crouch down to walk around (Say "Gilligan"--the ship on Gilligan's Island was called the SS Minnow)

Level 3: Catfish—Make fists for ears and meowing sounds 

Level 4: Seal—clap hands with straight arms and bark like a seal

Level 5: Shark—Make a fin above head and dun dun sounds (from Jaws)

This was hilarious to watch!

8:00-8:20 Learn about oceans (A.01, A.10) 

We printed off a large map of the world to show where the world's oceans are and gave each girl a worksheet we found on the internet to fill in and label the oceans.
Worksheet to fill out ocean locations 

8:20-8:30 Brainstorm types of life (flora/fauna) in the ocean (B.01) 
We just had the girls come up with as many different types of ocean life as they could!

8:30-8:45 Talk about favourite seaside activities (C.01) 
Everyone got a chance to talk about what they like to do at oceans and lakes.

8:45-9:15 Mug up 

Fish and chips—goldfish crackers and potato chips, water 

9:15-9:45 Build a story (C.02) 

Start by talking about what a fisher does during the day. Think of plot points we can include. Then each girl adds a sentence to create the story. This was a lot of fun and the girls had a great time doing it. (What's Your Fish Story) (DY2#5)

9:45-10:00 Campfire singalong 

10:00-10:30 Get ready for bed 

10:30 Lights out 

SATURDAY 

7:00-8:00 Get up and pack up. Dress for a hike 

8:00-9:00 Hike with breakfast. There's a Cowboy Farm across the street from where we have our sleepover. We call ahead to ask permission to hike on their trails and it's a great start to the day (plus we get to see the horses and animals from their petting zoo.) We pack a paper bag breakfast to take with us and eat on the way. 

Unfortunately, it was really cold out that morning. We didn't cancel the hike--we just made sure everyone was dressed properly--with snow pants and hats and hoods and mittens) and we had our breakfast when we got back so they didn't have to take their mittens off to eat. 

Mini bagels, squeeze apple sauce, water bottles 

9:00-9:25 Round Robin 1

9:30-9:55 Round Robin 2

10:00-10:25 Round Robin 3

10:30-10:45 Snack Fish and Chips trail mix (Swedish fish, banana chips, chocolate chips and whatever else you want to put into your trail mix)

10:45-11:15 Round Robin 4

Round Robin activities

#1: Underwater Scope craft (A.08)

Materials: Yogurt containers, saran wrap, duct tape, aquarium/basin, rocks, shells, toys 
(DY2#6)

#2: Coral Reef (D.08) 

Background information: P56, P78

Materials: Plasticine

I am always blown away by how creative the girls are (you'd think I'd expect it at this point!) The coral reefs were so intricate and delicate and they did a great job replicating the polluted reefs.
(DY2#6, Art Production #2)

#3: Build a boat (C.06) 

Materials: Aluminum foil, basin, beans, various items

The girls were just given aluminum foil and told to make a boat! Once they had their designs, they tested them to see how much weight they could hold.
(BY3#4)

#4: Bean Count (E.06) 

Simulate how fish tagging works

Materials: bowl/jar, beans, markers

This was my activity and it turned out so cool. We had a large bin of beans. For each group that came through, I explained how tagging works and had them decide how many beans they wanted to tag and each girl got a chance to mark them. Once they marked all their beans, they mixed them back in and then each girl took a handful out and counted how many they had removed and how many of those were tagged. Using a formula, we could determine how many the group thought there were total.

The more beans each girl and group tagged, the closer they were to the number. The more beans each girl and group pulled, the closer they were to the number. 

While they were eating lunch, we counted up the actual number of beans. When averaging each group together so we have 14 samples, our estimate was 1566. The total number was 1577! Even though I know math and science work, it is so cool to see math and science work! (BY3#4)
(Link to activity: Counting Fish)

We had some time to fill at the end of my activity, so I challenged them to create one sea creature with their bodies (Be-a-Shark pantomimes). This turned out cool too. (DY2#6)

Top left: Octopus, Top Right: Lobster
Bottome Left: Shark, Bottom Right: Seal

   


11:30-12:15 Ocean Pollution skits

Background info: P53, P55, P57, P61, P64, P77-79

After a discussion about what causes ocean pollution, they came up with skits to show how pollution is bad and what changes can be made to prevent it. They always love doing skits!

12:30-1:00 Lunch Fish and Chips. There is a local fish and chips shop 5 minutes from our sleepover so we ordered in for lunch! The girls all loved the fish and chips!

1:00-1:30 We shared the bean results, we shared the pantomimes with everyone,  and then we played a game of Pass the Whale Charades (YaO2#2).

1:30-2:00 Closing

First Aid Badge

You and Others: Learn About Safety (YaO4)

Beyond You: Discover Your Community (BY1)

First Aid badge (FA)

Our sister Guide unit contacted us about how to complete the First Aid badge. We brainstormed together and came up with a 2 meeting plan--one night at our meeting space on Tuesday and then the second meeting at their meeting space on Monday. It all came together quite nicely!

Meeting #1:
With 40 Guides expected, we needed a bigger room to fit everyone, so we requested a room change at our school and were in the gym instead of the Family Studies room.

6:30-6:50--Since we were going to be sitting and listening, we thought a good opening game that could be joined in progress would be Hospital Tag. Everyone is IT and when you get tagged, you cover the spot you were tagged with your hand. When you get tagged a second time, you cover it with your second hand. When you get tagged a third time, you sit down. We played with a variation that if you're sitting down, someone (anyone) can run around you twice to "cure" you.

Be Prepared Kits from the Guide Handbook

6:50-7:00--We had a huge horseshoe! We had them line up in their patrols, so we did Horseshoe with 8 Patrols! They did well.

7:00-7:45--One of our leaders is a Dietician, so she recruited 2 nurse friends of hers to come present. They covered all of the requirements of the badge, except the first aid kit. (FA#1, FA#2, FA#3, FA#4, FA#5, FA#6, FA#7, FA#9, FA#10)

7:45-8:30--We moved to the cafeteria, after the Sparks had left, because  we wanted tables to make our Be Prepared kits. We call them Be Prepared instead of First Aid because we add more than just basic first aid things.

We used plastic containers from the Dollar Store and filled it with lots of good things. The book has a good starting point for what to put into a Be Prepared kit. (FA#8, YaO4#2)

MEETING #2
6:30-7:00 For our arrival activity, we had them use their Be Prepared kits to play Kim's game. They laid all the elements out on the table and everyone got a chance to study it. Then they covered it and tried to remember everything that was in it. Once they did this, we suggested that they have one person remove an item and everyone else had to try to figure out what was missing.

7:00-7:45--This was a great bridging meeting! The Pathfinders meet in the same building and they planned this portion of the meeting for us. They worked in groups and presented various First Aid scenarios for the Guides to try to help them with. They had 5 different scenarios for the Guides to cycle through. (YaO4#1)

7:45-8:15--Building Audit: The International Day of Persons with Disabilities Instant Meeting had an accessibility audit with pre-made forms to fill out. We had 8 groups so we sent 2 groups to each location and had them audit the locations. Then we got back together and each group reported their findings. This went fairly well and the girls had some great thoughts on what was provided and what would be needed to improve. (BY1#4)

It was better for us to use their building for the audit--we meet in a school that was built in the last 20 or so years, so it is quite accessible. The other Guide unit meets in an old church hall, with lots of stairs. It is partially accessible but it has lots of things you can think and talk about with regards to accessibility.

Special Event: Camp in a Year (Residential)

Nova Scotia Brownies 100th Anniversary Challenge

You in Guiding: Learn About Guiding (YiG2)
You in Guiding: Be Involved in Your Community (YiG4)

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

Discovering You: Discover What's Important to You (DY1)
Discovering You: Discover Your Creativity (DY2)
Discovering You: Stay Fit and Healthy (DY3)

 

Beyond You: Try New Things (BY3)

Campfire Leading badge (CL)

For our camp we completed the NS Brownie 100th Anniversary Challenge (full disclosure--I helped create the challenge!) and we had our theme as Camp in a Year. The two dovetailed nicely together and we had a wonderful time!

FRIDAY

7:00-7:30 Arrival

7:30-8:00 Orientation and Ice Breaker: The girls played the Human Knot as we waited for our last girl to arrive. Then we went over the rules and the plan for the weekend.

8:00-9:00 Glow Stick Ring Toss (4 groups)—

This was really fun. We had two different versions of the game--2 groups had a hoop made out of bracelets and 3 necklace pendants to throw into the hoops. The other 2 groups have 4 water bottles with necklace pendants in them and used bracelets to try to throw onto the water bottles. (STEM #2)

Supplies: 5 bracelets/hoop, 3 necklace pendants/hoop, 8 water bottles, 8 necklace pendants, 6 bracelets 

While we were outside, we also lit sparklers, then had our countdown to 1915 New Year's, and sang Auld Lang Syne.

9:00-9:30 Mug Up—Apple juice and Sprite in plastic champagne glasses. Appetizers of crackers, cheese and turkey kielbasa. They had a choice of either straight apple juice or apple juice mixed with pop.

9:30-10:00 Campfire—We had a campfire sing-a-long. (CL#1) We sang:

Fire's Burning

Buddies and Pals

Ging Gang Gooli

Sharks

Barges

On My Honour

Taps

10:00-11:00 Get ready for bed

11:00 Lights out

SATURDAY

7:00-8:00 Wake up and make valentines. Each girl made 2 valentines to give to the girl sitting on either side of her at breakfast.

Supplies: card making supplies or premade valentines 

8:00-9:00 Valentine’s Breakfast--Pink pancakes and fruit

After breakfast, the girls did their duties before we started our stations.

9:00-11:30 Four stations, 30 minutes each

STATION 1: Birthday boxes (SERVICE #1) (YiG4#3) Each group will make create 1 box with the supplies needed to have a small birthday party. 

Supplies: Cake mix, frosting, candles, cups, paper plates, decorations, party favours, napkins, small toy for birthday child (we got Beanie Boos, since our girls love stuffed animals so much), wrapping paper to decorate boxes, cookie boxes

STATION 2: Brownie History (HERITAGE)—One of our leaders still has her Brownie badges on a piece of yellow felt so she brought that and the girls had to guess what they thought the badges were for and then they searched through the Brownie Badge Archive from the Ontario Girl Guides that had been printed off to find out what they really were (YiG2#6)

STATION 3: Fractals (STEM #3)

In 1915, Waclaw Sierpinski describes the Sierpinski triangle for the first time, though the pattern had been used in decorations for years before.  Fractals are self-similar patterns that can be found in many places, but nature is a great place to start looking.  The Sierpinski triangle is the simplest fractal to recreate.

• Dots are the midpoints of the edges, half way between the corners.  Connect the dots as shown below to form a new triangle, pointing down.  Colour it in.
• You are now left with three white triangles.  Find the midpoints of each of these three triangles, connect them, and color in the resulting triangles (pointing down).
• Each of the 3 triangles now turns into 3 smaller triangles, leaving 9 small white triangles.  Connect the midpoints of each of the 9 white triangles to form 27 smaller triangles, pointing downward.  Colour them in.
• Continue this process if you wish, as long as you have patience.
• When you are done, cut the big triangle out and write your name on the back.
• Next join your fractal triangle with 2 other fractal triangles to form a bigger triangle.
• Then add 2 more groups of 3 triangles to form a bigger triangles made of 9 triangles

Supplies: Pre-printed triangles, markers/colour pencils (BY3#4)

STATION 4: Campfire songs (ARTS #1) For each of the four groups, I prepared a different set of songs from 1915 or earlier. With each group, we sang/learned all 7 or 8 songs in the set, and then each girl chose a song to lead at campfire that night. Then we practiced what they need to do to lead a song (say the name of the song, divide the group if it's going to be in rounds, explain if there are repetitive parts in the song). (YaO1#5, CL#2, CL#3, CL#6) (Songs with lyrics, Word doc)

9:00-9:30 STATION 1

9:30-10:00 STATION 2

10:00-10:30 Easter Snack—Snacks were put into Easter baggies (one of our Guiders has everything you'd ever want) and hidden outside for them to find.

10:30-11:00 STATION 3

11:00-11:30 STATION 4

11:30-1:30 LUNCH Cinco de Mayo—Tacos in a bag. We've started taking the camp stoves to residential camp as well as tent camping, to give the girls more exposure to using them. 

Cook hamburger on camp stoves, chop tomatoes and lettuce, grate cheese. Everything goes into a Ziploc bag with tortilla chips, salsa, sour cream

After lunch, we had a pinata for them. We had mostly non-candy--stickers, pencils, notepads, plastic rings--plus Welch's gummy snacks, chocolate bars, and rockets. They were told to take one of each non-candy thing and then they were allowed to have 2 food products. 

We lined them up from youngest to oldest, to take away the fighting over who got to go first. For the first time through, they were blindfolded and got to take one swing. The next time through, they weren't blindfolded but again, just one swing at the pinata. I think they all got 3 chances to hit it before it broke enough to spill its content. 

1:30-2:30 Quiet time/Free time--Now is the time that they can hang out in the bunk room. We also set out craft supplies for them to do with as they please and to make presents for their secret buddies.

2:30-3:15 Afternoon snack—Eid al-Fitr. We have a Muslim girl in our unit and wanted to include a holiday that's important to her as well. I emailed her mom for suggestions and they offered to bring the date squares for our snack. The date squares were DELICIOUS and every girl tried them and most of them loved them.

Date squares, carrots, cucumbers

3:15-4:15 Outside games  (ACTIVE LIVING #2) 

Playing Mousetrap

We organized some outdoor running games and had a beautiful afternoon for it. We started with some tag games, then played Mousetrap and Pip, Squeak, Charlie. Then we got some ropes and balls out and let them play some games on their own. 

If it had rained, we would have done some inside, since we had a fairly big space in our building. If we hadn't had a space, we would have played board games instead.

(DY3#4)

Supplies: jump ropes, hula hoops, balls

4:15-5:00 LBP Time line: I took the story of LBP that is in the BC Lady Baden-Powell challenge booklet and created 12 milestones in LBP's life, while also adding in when she visited Nova Scotia. I made 4 sets for the relay race. First, I read the story out loud to them, and then they had a relay race where they had to gather the 12 colour-coded pieces, and then put them into order. (LBP Relay race, Word doc) (YiG2#1)

5:00-6:30 Supper—Halloween-inspired food. We had Mummy dogs (crescent roll hot dogs), spider dogs (each end of the hot dog was sliced into four and then boiled, which makes the "arms" curl up), plus a pasta salad.

6:30-7:30 Quiet time/free time--More time on their own

7:30-9:00 Campfire

The girls all did a great job leading their songs at campfire that night. (CL#7, CL#8)

9:00-9:30 Mug Up – Christmas Eve. We roasted marshmallows over the fire and then everyone got Smore mix as well (Teddy grahams, mini marshmallows, and chocolate chips). Plus hot chocolate, which was much needed on the cool October night!

9:30-10:30 Get Ready for bed

10:30 Lights Out

SUNDAY

7:00 Wake up

8:00-9:00 Bags must be packed and outside before campers are allowed to have breakfast. Once finished breakfast, they can help clean the building.

Breakfast: Muffins, fruit, boiled eggs

9:00-10:00 Clean up

10:00 Guide’s Own Oh, they were so intrigued by the stockings! We filled them as though we were in 1915, with oranges, chocolate, a small toy (rubber duckie), and their earned badges. We started by singing Buddies and Pals, revealing our Secret Buddies, singing Say Why, sharing our Apples and Onion (2 things we liked about camp, 1 thing we didn't), singing Softly Falls, opening our stockings, and finally singing Daytime Taps.

International Day of the Girl 2015

International Day of the Girl (IDoG)

Discovering You: Discover What's Important to You (DY1)
Discovering You: Discover Your Creativity (DY2)
Discovering You: Stay Fit and Healthy (DY3)

You and Others: Learn How to Plan (YaO3)

I didn't plan this meeting, so I don't have all of the templates for it. 

We don't have our Patrols yet, so we didn't have Patrol time. 

Show and Tell (IDoG#5)

The week before, we told the girls to bring a favourite toy to this meeting. We went around the circle and each girl got to share what she brought and  why she liked it. 90% of the toys were stuffed animals, but we also had some other things. (DY1#6)

Designing a toy for boys and girls to play with

Then we had a great discussion about toys that girls play with, toys that boys play with, and if there is any difference. We decided that boys like stuffed animals too and there's nothing that girls or boys play with that can't be played with by anyone. We talked about my pet peeve: that McDonald's classifies Happy Meal toys as "girl toys" and "boy toys" and that girls can like Hot Wheels and boys can like Littlest Pet Shop and they shouldn't have to declare their gender in order to get a toy! 

Next we gave them large pieces of papers to draw a design for a toy that boys and girls would both like to play with. They did some great brainstorming and working together in their groups. (DY2#2)

Guider Lori's roadtrip to cake decorating success

Building a Roadmap to Success (IDoG#2)

Guider Lori created a large Roadmap to Success to show the steps she took to become a person who decorates cakes (and she makes beautiful cakes--Femmes Fondants). 

Then we gave the girls smaller versions and they needed to set a goal and decide the steps they will need to take to complete the goal. They have lots of great goals, including becoming artists and basketball players, to name a few. 

Then we gathered together again and everyone shared what their goal was and one of the steps along way. (YaO3#3)

My Name Is Me (IDoG#6)

Our final activity was to create Wordles from our names. You take your name and then choose adjectives for each letter of our name that describe us. The girls really enjoyed this activity. We had printed off lists of adjectives for every letter to help us think up some adjectives. (DY1#6, DY3#5)

And finally, for International Day of the Girl, we colour swapped our uniforms with the colours of St Vincent and Grenadines, our twinning partner. Everyone wore green, blue, and yellow celebrate the colour swap.

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 #13: Postal Badge/Postcard Exchange

You and Others: Build Skills in Communication (YaO2)

Postal badge (PB)

I got the idea for this badge meeting from Hollah Guiding--I wish they had posted more of their ideas on-line because I used almost everything they did!

6:30-7:00--Patrol Time: I made a worksheet for the girls to work on to figure out how much stamps costs, post office special services, and how to address a letter/postcard. All patrols were able to figure out the answers without asking for help. (PB#1, #2, #3) (Postal badge worksheet, Word doc)

7:00-7:15--Horseshoe: We discussed the answers to the worksheet, talked about where post offices were and talked about what the Postcard Exchange was. (PB#5)

7:15-7:40--Package wrapping game: Each patrol had to wrap a cookie case and a cookie box and address it to someone, but they all had to have one hand behind their back! We gave them paper to wrap with, tape, and markers. Some wrapping jobs were better than others! (PB#4, YaO2#4)

The winning team got to unwrap their cookie box and eat them (and share with the other Patrols!)

7:40-8:20--Postcard Exchange: We finished the meeting by addressing our postcards for the Thinking Day Postcard Exchange, which I'd discussed earlier. We had enough addresses for everyone to address 2 postcards. We discussed where in the world our postcards were going and coming from and explained that you wouldn't necessarily get the postcard from the country that you were sending out. The girls always like to sit at their tables and work and chat!

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

Meeting # 18: Cookies Rising

Cookies Rising (CR)

You and Others: Learn About Leadership in a Group (YaO1)
You and Others: Learn How to Plan (YaO3)

Patrol Time: Goal Setting (Financial)--I gave them the information on how many cases of cookies we had to sell and how much money our unit would earn. Then I gave them a list of activities we can do from now to the end of the year and had them choose what they wanted to do with the money. (Budgeting, Word Doc)

Horseshoe--We talked about what they had planned. 

Business (Etiquette)--Dos and Don'ts relay game--I modified a game the girls suggested last week. I wrote a number of things you should and shouldn't do while cookie selling onto clothespins. Then we gave them pieces of cardboard that had DO and DON'T written on them. The clothespin were put in a pile and they had to run up and pick a clothespin and put it in the right spot on their board. There were 3 of each item (one for each patrol), and they couldn't use the same one twice. Once they had finished, we went over each item and talked about why it was a Do or a Don't.

Social (Teamwork)--I searched for some new Team Building activities and found a booklet from 4-H Club. (Team Building Activities, PDF). We chose Team Body Spelling (YaO1#2): 

1. Divide into two teams. Decide on 1 or 2 judges. 

2. Three people at a time form the first letter with their bodies on the floor. We had the girls choose a word and they suggested G-U-I-D-E-S

3. Once accepted by judge(s), the 3 must run back to team, and next 3 leave to form 

the next letter. 

4. The winner is the team that finishes the word(s) first and sits down. 

GGC (Public Relations)

Make Cookie signs--We had the girls work in groups of two to make posters that we can use while cookie selling. (YaO3#2)