Meeting #6: Halloween Party

You and Others: Learn How to Plan (YaO3)

The Guides planned the party, so we didn't have to do anything! I love these kinds of nights!

6:30-7:00: They arrived and had fun looking at each other's costumes. When they got to rowdy, we corralled them into their patrol tables and told them to go over the activity they were leading that night.

7:00-7:10: We went down to the lobby and paraded around with the Sparks and Brownies units to see everyone costumes.

7:10-7:30: The Red Roses read the ghost story that they wrote the week before and then the Scarlet Tanagers led everyone in some Halloween songs.

7:30-7:50: Let the games begin! The Forget-Me-Nots brought in a drawing of a witch and made paper wands for everyone to play Pin the Wand on the Witch. Then they split the unit into two teams and they gave them five minutes to wrap the tallest girl in toilet paper to make a mummy. The girls had a lot of fun with both games.

7:50-8:20: Snacks! They brought in lots of good food and it was all delicious. There were cupcakes, brownies, cookies, fruit, and chips.

8:20-8:30: Cleanup and closing

They all did a great job with their assigned activities and they had lots of fun at the party that they created! (YaO3#1)

Meeting #5: Party Planning and Enrollment

You and Others: Learn How to Plan

You in Guiding: Understand the Promise and Law and Motto

The Guides requested that they could plan their Halloween party so we spent the first part of the meeting letting them do that.

6:30-7:15: Since we would be doing Horseshoe for Enrollment, we just got started with the planning right away. Each patrol drew an activity to plan: Games, Food, Ghost Story, Campfire Songs.

7:15-7:45: After planning, we rehearsed Enrollment. We used the Enrollment Ceremony from Hollah Guiding. We practiced putting together the puzzle pieces the Guides had made last week. We set it up on the floor in the middle of the Horseshoe and just went in order from #1 to #24. (We have 22 girls, so as Leaders, we just cut two pieces in half to get four pieces for us.)

7:45-8:15: We only have 4 first years this year, and 2 of them weren't there, so it was a small ceremony! We handed out everyone's Patrol Emblems and Year pins, and the first years earned their first little square. We did the Law with our actions and I'm impressed at how quickly they've learned the Law when before they always stumbled over it.

Then we served cake and juice. I made the cake into a puzzle piece, using a jelly roll sized cake pan and then cutting out jigsaw pieces and attaching them to the sides.

8:15-8:30: We started to learn Swinging Along in parts, and then repeated Magalina Hagalina and Tony Chestnut, then did closing.

Meeting #4: Understand the Promise and Law and Motto

Understand the Promise and Law and Motto (YiG1)

Discovering You: Discover What's Important to You (DY1)

Patrol Time: Another idea stolen from Hollah Guiding! We printed off pages with a picture of a bag and had the girls "fill them" with things they'd need to Be Prepared for that activity. Each Patrol had Guide Meeting, Choose a Sport, and Camp. (Be Prepared Template, Word Doc) (YiG1#3)

Horseshoe: With only 4 new Guides out of 23, we didn't need to teach horseshoe this year! We just did it and they followed along. Then we did the Promise and the Law with our new actions, which definitely helped us remember them without looking!

Once in Horseshoe, we talked about what we were doing that night, and then sat down and each group shared what they put in their Be Prepared bags for each activity. They did a great job and remembered a lot of good things!

Skits: The Patrols presented their puppet skits, using the puppets and skits they created last week. After they presented their skits, we guessed which Law they had chosen. (YiG#1)

Puzzle Pieces: I took their interest lists from last week and found clipart for everything. I printed them off, and gave them stickers and they had markers and they decorated their puzzle pieces that we had prepared from two pieces of Bristol board (explained at Hollah Guiding). They all turned out really well! (DY1#2)

Handshake Dance: We played a few rounds of Handshake Dance, where you dance to music and then when the music stops, find someone and shake left hands to remember how Girl Guides around the world shake hands. (YiG1#4)

Reef Knot race: Everyone had a scarf and each patrol had to tie them together using reef knots. (YiG1#5)

Songs: I've been looking at the Sing Ontario Sing 2013 challenge and wanting to learn some new songs. I compiled all the lyrics of the songs I didn't know and researched them on either YouTube or got the mp3 from tune.e-guiding.com.  I'll put the playlist on in the car to help engrain the tunes into my head. And since we had some time, we learned Magalina Hagalina and Tony Chestnut. The Guides actually knew some of these from in school. (Sing Ontario Sing Word doc).

Closing: The Guides asked about a Halloween party and want to plan it like they did last year. So next week, before we have Enrollment, we'll let them plan the party.

Nostaglia: Guiding Gear

A rare non-programming post. :)

At my parents' house this weekend, I found my Guiding gear from the early 80s.  I'm surprised to see the number of badges that haven't changed in 30 years!

Beside my Brownie enrollment pin is a pin that has a trefoil with a trillium flower that says GGC Ontario. I think I got it when we did an exchange trip with a group of Pathfinders in Ottawa. They came to see us one summer and we went up there the next one. My billet's name was Virginia. :)

I also found a tin full of my swimming badges and Canada Fitness test badges. So I have a lot of work to do on my camp blanket now!

I also found my camp hat. The best one (most representative of PEI) was this bag of potatoes:

Meeting #3: Law and Elections

You in Guiding: Understanding the Promise and Law and Motto (YiG1)

Since we don't have Patrols (yet), we let the girls just fill up four tables, with 6 girls at each table.

We gave them two activities to do:
1. Pick activities from the sections of the Fit for Life Challenge that they'd like to do so we can help plan how to do them.
2. Tell us 5 things that interest them. This is in preparation of our enrollment ceremony, which we are borrowing from Hollah Guiding.

We started the night by asking who wanted to be Patrol Leaders and who wanted to be Seconders. We have five 3rd years who wanted to run for PL, and we had seven 2nd years at first, but then 3 decided they didn't want to give speeches. So we ended up with 9 girls running for 8 positions, which is always sad for someone. (YiG1#2)

The girls gave great speeches--the third years were all prepared with speeches written down. We did the votes--each girl voted for 4 PL and 4 S, and had to write 8 different names down. The voting was really close and came within 1 vote for the girl who didn't get in. But she'll have another chance next year. The fifth place PL automatically became a Seconder, since it's her last year.

While the votes were being counted, we did another activity from Hollah Guiding. We made up actions for the Law. I generally got 2 or 3 suggestions (weeding out the silly ones) and then voted on each law for the favourite. Here's what we came up with. (YiG1#1)

The Guiding Law Challenges me to:
Be honest and trustworthy (make a unicorn horn with your finger, since unicorns are honest and trustworthy)
Use my resources wisely (spread arms out to show all our resources)
Respect myself and others (one hand on your heart and then sweep it around the circle)
Recognize and use my talents and abilities (dance action)
Protect our common environment (hold out hands like you're holding up the earth)
Live with courage and strength (flex one arm)
Share in the sisterhood of Guiding (make a heart shape with your hands in front of your chest)

Once we finished this, we named the PLs, and then the Seconders got to choose which PL she wanted to work with. Then we drew names and girls could pick their patrols. Once a Patrol had 6 girls, it was full and the Patrol sat down. The Patrol Leaders picked their Emblems (we have Red Roses, Forget-Me-Nots, Scarlet Tanagers, and Sparrows).

Law Puppet Skits (YiG1#1)

I found this idea on GuideyDiary and thought it would be nice to focus on the Law. Each Patrol picked a Law and we gave them 10 minutes to come up with their skit ideas.

Then we gave them 30 minutes to make the Paint Stick Puppets. Basically, it's a paint stick, with material to make a dress, yarn for the hair, pipecleaner for arms and then ribbons and such to decorate. They turned out really well!

Next week, we'll have time to show the skits. So we gathered in the puppets so they'd have them next week.

Then we cleaned up and had closing and handed out cookie cases!

Meeting #1: Welcome to 2013-2014

You in Guiding: Understanding the Promise and Law and Motto (YiG1)
You in Guiding: Lean About Guiding (YiG2)

We're back for another year!

We didn't break much new ground for the first meeting.

The girls arrived and assembled at the tables. We didn't take any paperwork from the parents. We had them give it to the Guides so we could gather it in an organized fashioned. While we were gathering paperwork, they had a Guiding History puzzle to work on. They found it difficult, but all of the answers are in their books. I had them put them in their binders to work on at a later time, when they have free time. (YiG2#2)

Then we gathered in a circle and did introductions. We only have 4 new girls out of 23, so that makes it easy for the leaders! We played the Yay You! game that we played at our Self-Esteem Camp last year.

Then we split up by level. The first years learned about the program book and what Guides is all about. The second years came up with rules for the meeting space. The third years discussed the LBP award and what was required and who wanted to complete it. (6 out of 7 are interested.)

Then we split them into three groups. I used the tried-and-true: get into groups of 2, get into groups of 3, get into groups of 5, get into groups of 7--to mix them up. We had three stations that they rotated through and all were activities we've done on the first night before.

Activity 1: Unscramble words that have to do with Guiding. (OUTDOORS, CAMPING, ENVIRONMENT, COMMUNITY, INDEPENDENCE)

Activity 2: Hangman for words that have to do with Guiding (OUTDOORS AND CAMPING, ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS, COMMUNITY SERVICE).

Activity 3: Promise Relays The promise is broken up and the girls have to run up to get a piece of the promise and then assemble the promise. (YiG1#1)

We all got back together and we went over the rules that the 2nd years came up with. We ended the night with a few songs (Ging Gang Gooli, Bubbles) and Taps.

Meeting #31: Games night

We had one week left at the school and nothing planned. So we thought we'd have a games night. If the weather was good, we could go outside onto the field to play, or we could stay inside in our meeting room or go to the gym.

Patrol Time: We asked each Patrol to come up with an indoor game and an outdoor game. Then we used some of their suggestions to fill out the night. The weather was good, so we went outside to play!

Rattlesnake: Everyone joins hands and one person stands with her free hand against a wall. The other end leads everyone under the arm of the first person, who then ends up turned with her arms crossed across her body. The end loops around and goes under the next person's arm, who ends up turned with her arms crossed and so on, until you've gone under each person's arm and everyone ends up with arms crossed. Then the two end people join hands to make a circle of people with their arms crossed. As this is going on, everyone is chanting over and over again:

Chant: R-A-T and a T-L-E and an S and an N and an A-K-E
That's how you spell RATTLESNAKE

Buddy Tag: (from Becky's Guiding Resource): Girls are in pairs scattered around the playing area, and you have a chaser and a chasee. When the chasee becomes tired, she can grab the hand of the one of the pairs and the other girl in the pair must start running. We also have the rule that the chaser can switch off when tired too. We also have a 10 second rule--i.e., the new person must run for at least 10 seconds before she can trade off with another pair.

Stormy Sea: Everyone is lined up on two lines facing each other about 15 yards apart. They are all assigned a category (tonight we used colours, so we had Pink, Orange, Blue, and Green). There are two free moving chasers in the middle. They call out a category and those girls have to run from one line to another. If they are tagged, they have to stay where they are in the middle and can't move their feet (we allowed a pivot foot). When more girls are running past, they can try to tag them without moving their feet as well. You can also get everyone running by calling a catch-all phrase (we used Rainbow). It goes until there is no one left running.

Mousetrap: We start with 4 people in the center, holding raised hands to make a circle, which is the mousetrap. Everyone else has to run through the trap. A leader is standing with her back turned and yells out "Spring the trap!" and the mousetrap people drop their arms. Whoever is caught inside becomes part of the mousetrap. This is continued until there is only one mouse left.

The blackflies were getting bad, so we went back inside.

Telephone: Everyone knows Telephone, right? One person thinks up a short phrase or sentence and whispers it to the person next to them. It goes around the circle and then the last person says what she heard out loud. This ends up with lots of giggles as the sentence changes repeatedly on its way around!

Poor Kitty: I played this as a Brownie and Guide many years ago. One person is It and is the poor kitty. She goes up to someone else sitting in the circle and meows and purrs. The girl in the circle has to pet her on the head and say three times "Poor Kitty!" without laughing or smiling. If she laughs, then she becomes the Poor Kitty. Lots of giggles for this game too!

It was a fun night!