Meeting #15: Ice Rescue/Safety

You and Others: Learn About Safety (YaO4)

Fit for Life challenge (FfL)

Ice safety is an important part of winter life in Canada. We did this topic the last time we did Fit for Life challenge and the girls really enjoyed it so we decided to do it again.

6:30-7:00 Patrol Time
We had the girls finish their What Makes Me Happy lists from last week, and it gave the girls who missed last week's meeting a chance to get it done. (FfL:F1)

7:00-7:15 Horseshoe
We had everyone share what Makes Them Happy. (FfL:F1)

7:15-7:30 Slideshow
I put together a PowerPoint presentation on Ice Safety and Rescues. Most of the information came from the Red Cross website. (Ice Safety Slide Show, PP)(FfL:H2, YaO4#6)

7:30-7:50 Ice Floe game
We got this game from Becky's Guiding Resource. We went to the gym and the girls worked in Patrols (about 5 to a team) to get from one side of the gym to the other. We gave them newsprint papers to stand on and if they ripped them, they could get a new one but would have to start over again. We also made them start over if they put their hands or feet "in the water". They really enjoyed this!

7:50-8:20 Ice Rescue Skits
We asked them to make a skit about rescuing someone from the ice. We had rope and some brooms they could use in their skits. After each skit, we talked about what they did right and what they did wrong. As the skits went on, they remembered more things. They did a great job with the skits!

8:30-8:30 Closing

Meeting #14: Gym Games

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

Fit for Life Challenge (FfL)

We're working on the Newfoundland Girl Guides Fit for Life Challenge this year. There are 10 activities that need to be completed, and we've been doing them here and there. Tonight, we were in the gym because the Sparks needed our regular room, so we decided to have some fun!

6:30-8:00--I looked through some websites (www.gameskidsplay.net and www.dragon.sleepdeprived.ca) to find some new games to try. Sometimes we have the girls pick and choose which games, but tonight we just taught them games, with the hope that they will enjoy some new ideas and will ask for them again. I picked more than we'd need. (Gym Games, Word doc)

We played:
Head Catch
Ball Lose-All (Ffl: D#5)
Caterpillar
Five Pennies (we used quarters)
Rattlesnake (we own a large stuffed snake that we used for this)

8:00-8:20--We returned to our room after the Sparks left and the girls listed and drew things that make them happy. (DY1#6, FfL: F#1)

While they were doing that, we collected their papers and money for our upcoming camp.

8:20-8:30--Closing

Meeting #13: Planning

You in Guiding: Be Involved in Your Community (YiG4)

Camp-Out (CO)

6:30-7:00: Patrol Time--We have camp coming up, so we had the Patrols plan what they wanted for meals and snacks.

7:00-7:30: Horseshoe
We had each Patrol tell us what food they planned. For each meal, each Patrol told us their thoughts, we gave out some suggestions, and then everyone voted. Our Quartermaster got a new Waffle Stick maker for Christmas and planned to have that for Saturday breakfast, but she was voted down for pancakes and bacon.They also requested tacos, which we had had at tent camping but wouldn't have thought of for residential camping (for some reason). And they suggested chocolate fondue for Saturday mug-up, which is a great idea! They get to practice lighting a match and it's delicious! (CO#1)

Then we needed to decide how to raise money for CWFF. Of course, before we could come to that decision, we had to talk about what CWFF was and ways that we've raised money in previous years. We've made water bottle money banks and done penny calendars and asked them what they wanted to do. After much discussion, they came up with taking back bottles to raise money. With GGC fundraising rules, we told them that they can't go door-to-door asking for refundables, but they could ask their friends and family and they could put up signs requesting people to bring their refundables to them. We will have a friendly competition between patrols to see who can raise the most. They are to return the refundables themselves and bring us the money. (YiG4#5)

The next decision they had to make was about what kind of hat traders did they want to make for Thinking Day. Our District has a party for Thinking Day and all of the units bring hat traders for the girls to trade. The WAGGGS theme this year is "Education" so our crafty Guider came up with some neat ideas for the girls to pick from. There was a backpack, a book and pencil, birthday in a bag, clipboard and pencil, jump rope. They decided that they liked that backpack and the book, so we decided to do both and put the book into the backpack. And the other ones that they liked would be available as a craft at camp to make.

7:30-7:50 Games
Then we decided that we'd been sitting and talking for long enough, so we played some games! We did the Caimarusa dance and I Let Her Go-Go that we learned last year while doing the Twinning Challenge.

7:50-8:10 I had some Canadian Guiding Trivia Questions that we challenged the patrols with. We gave each patrol an animal sound and one girl from each patrol competed at a time.

8:10-8:30 Singing
We ended the night with some fun songs and closing.

Meeting #11: Tool Time

Beyond You: Try New Things (BY3)

6:30-7:00--Patrol Time: We had the girls plan their Christmas party for next week. We only had enough girls for 3 groups, so they planned food, craft, and games.

7:00-7:10--Horseshoe

7:10-8:15--Tool Time (BY3#2)
I got this idea from the 1st Castlegar Guides page. It's an older site, based on the old program, but it has some really good ideas that are still useful with the new program.

Equipment required: Hammers, Nails, Sandpaper, Levels, Measuring tapes, Screwdrivers, Drills, Screws. We got scrap wood pieces by going to Home Depot and asking if they had any we could have. They gave them to us for free.

We set up 4 stations.
Station 1: Sanding. Each girl picked a piece of wood and some sandpaper. We talked about how there are different grades of sandpaper and you start with the rougher paper and then move to finer paper as it gets smoother.

Station 2: Hammering. The girls practiced hammering nails into pieces of wood.

Station 3: Levels and Measuring. We taught them how a level works and then had them measure and level various things around the room. (Measurement worksheet, Word doc)

Station 4: Drills. The girls used cordless drills to predrill 2 holes into a piece of wood. In the first hole, they screwed in a screw with a screwdriver. In the second hole, they used the drill to put the screw in. Then we asked them which was easier. Because the drills were new to them, they thought using the screwdriver was easier. Then we asked if they had to screw in 100 screws, which would be easier and they agreed that the drill would be faster and thus easier.

8:15-8:30: Cleanup and closing.

Meeting #10: Planetarium

Astronomy badge

Easy night! An outing to the Planetarium.

Dalhousie University has a program that promotes STEM with children called Supernova. They have a program where they will help Guide units earn science badges. We chose to do the Astronomy badge and it's a great experience.

The facilitator is a Dalhousie student and she showed us the stars and covered 6 pieces of the Astronomy badge. The program lasts a little over an hour and the girls seemed to really enjoy it. And then we got to hand out badges!

Special Event: Heritage Home Skills Sleepover

Heritage Home Skills badge (HHS)

On the kit list, we asked the girls to bring 2 large tomato cans (empty), a soup can (empty) and a shoebox sized container  to take their crafts home in.

7:00-7:30—Arrival

7:30-8:00—Orientation/Icebreaker

8:00-8:30—Half make freezer raspberry jam (HHS#1), half make butter (HHS#2)

Biscuits with homemade jam and butter

Freezer raspberry jam: we used the instructions in the pectin packaging, but it was basically just raspberries (we used frozen), sugar, and pectin. The girl mashed the raspberries with the sugar, stirred in the pectin, and then poured into jars.

Butter: whipping cream and salt in a Tupperware snack size container. The girls shook the butter in pairs. It took about 10-15 minutes, depending on the vigor of the shaking.  Once it separated into curds and whey, we poured off the liquid and then it only took a few more shakes to get it into smooth butter.

8:30-9:00—Switch on the jam and butter making

9:00-10:00—Campfire and mug-up.  Mug-up was biscuits with homemade jam and butter, plus cheese and hot chocolate.

10:00-10:30—Get ready for bed

11:00—Lights out

SATURDAY

7:00-8:00—Wake up and pack up gear. Let me say, our girls are well-trained. They rolled out of bed and started packing up immediately. So proud!

8:00-9:00—Breakfast (Continental—muffins, boiled eggs, fruit, yogurt)

Bottle cap candles

9:00-10:30—Three group round robin—bottle cap candles, straw weaving, stained glass

Activity 1: Bottle cap candles 

Melt crayons in tin can double boiler. Place wick in bottle cap. Pour crayon wax into bottle cap. (HHS#4)

Activity 2: Straw weaving  

Straw weaving

Tape three straws together. Run yarn through each straw. Tie in overhand knot at one end. Tie another piece of yarn to an outside straw. Weave the yarn over and under to the desired length and then tie off onto the straw. Gently push weaving off of straws and then tie off the bottom yarn. Voila! Bookmark. (HHS#3)

Equipment: 3 straws for each girl, variegated yarn, tape, scissors

Note: this activity may take more the 30 minutes to complete. The girls can come back to this if they finish another activity early or complete it at home.

Activity 3: Stained Glass: It was supposed to be contact paper, black yarn, and glitter, but the glitter was way too messy. We experimented and ended up using small pieces of tissue paper instead of glitter. The person leading this should discuss how to make actual stained glass. (HHS#6)

Hippo in progress

Completed project!

10:30-10:45—Snack

10:45-12:15—Three group Round Robin—Hat craft, glitter balls, tin can stilts

Activity 4: Hat craft

Equipment: Precut yarn, precut toilet paper rolls, scissors

Activity 5: Glitter ball: Pour Pledge into plastic ornament ball. Swish around gently (try not to create bubbles) to coat the inside. Pour excess out. Pour glitter into ball and swirl around until ornament is coated with glitter on the inside. Put top back onto ornament. Equipment: Pledge, ornament balls, glitter

Activity 6: Tin can stilts—punch holes in cans with can opener; tie string through cans—should come up to mid thigh. Learn to walk on stilts. Option: decorate paper to go on outside of can to personalize. Equipment required: cans, string, can openers (HHS#7)

The girls had so much fun on the stilts. They even choreographed a small routine together. We forget that sometimes it's the simple things that give them pleasure.

12:15-1:15—Lunch—pizza on English muffins, vegetables

1:15-2:00—Closing

Meeting #8 & #9: Sparks Campfire

Meeting #8

You and Others: Learn How to Plan (YaO3)

6:30-7:00--Patrol Time: We gave them evaluation sheets to evaluate the Halloween party last week. (YaO3#1)

7:00-7:30--Horseshoe: We talked about each activity from the Halloween party and what went well and what didn't. Each activity had some positives and negatives. We had a couple of girls who took the constructive criticism poorly, but we explained that no one did a bad job--we were just discussing what could be done differently next time to improve things. The main takeaways this year were that they would prefer a craft to a spooky story, and the spooky story wasn't very spooky.

7:30-8:00--A Sparks group meets at the same time as us down the hall. They have all new leaders (plus an experienced Junior Leader), so we offered to come teach them some Guiding songs. We spent time this meeting getting ready.

I gave the patrols the table of contents from my songbook that I've put together of songs that I know. I have them organized by campfire order, and asked them to pick 3 or 4 from each section that we could teach the Sparks. Becky's Guiding Resource has a great visual on how to organize a campfire.

Once each Patrol had a list, we went through them as a group to see what they came up with and then whittled them down into a small program for next week. We asked them to keep in mind that Sparks can't read well, so they have to be songs that Sparks can  learn fairly easily. This is what they came up with:

8:00-8:30--We sang some of the songs, to make sure we all knew them.

Meeting #9

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

6:30-7:30--We went straight to the Sparks meeting room. They had their opening, and then we joined them in a campfire circle. We had an indoor campfire, made from wood and Christmas lights.

We went around the circle and everyone introduced themselves and then we had some fun singing! We overplanned and had more songs than could fit in 30 minutes. We skipped the yells and chants and some of the silly songs. We finished with On My Honour and Taps.

After Taps, the Sparks group served everyone Smores. They toasted marshmallows in a toaster oven, and then put them between two chocolate chip cookies. Delicious!

7:30-8:30--We went back to our meeting room and played some games. We started with one we had prepared last year and never got around to using. It's from the Cookie Rising section under Teamwork. You put the letters of the alphabet on cards and spread them out in a defined area. Then the girls have to touch them in order and each girl has to touch at least one letter. They need to figure out how to do it on their own. They started by going in order around the circle, which resulted in girls having to reach far across the circle to touch a letter. It took them 56 seconds. Then we helped them think up ways they could improve their time. It took some effort and some prompting but eventually they figured out if they each took letters that were close to them, they could do it faster. Then we had to remind them that every girl had to touch one. We have some competitive girls, so when some girls were slower to touch their letter, others touched it for them and then not everyone touched a letter. But eventually, they all touched a letter and could do it in 23 seconds! (YaO1#2)

Then we tried another "teamwork" game, which is really hard. The girls sit in a circle and can't discuss strategy. Then they have to count, but only one girl can talk at a time. There are some that insist on always saying a number or trying to say it faster than anyone else (again, the competitive ones) and some who never said a word, waiting for others to go first. I think the highest they got to was 8. (YaO1#2)

Then we tried "What Are You Doing?" again, but it seems to work better with 10-12. With 19 girls, the ones who are waiting get too disinterested. We tried splitting them into 2 groups for it, but by then they weren't interested so we regrouped.

Since they were lined up opposite each other, we tried doing Caimarusa. We could sing the song and mostly remembered the movements, but I think we had one step missing. It was still fun though!