Thursday, December 10, 2015

Resources - Books

I thought, since I don't have any more meetings until January to talk about, to share with you some of the books that sit snugly next to my Brownie and Sparks leader books.  It's important to look for resources and people to help where you can - you can't Guide as a Guider if you're totally burnt out!

Another good idea is to check out your local library non-fiction section.  Try under 306 (world cultures), or between 700 and 709 (arts and crafting, knitting, crochet etc).  It's amazing the resources you can find just by browsing around the shelves!



This book isn't arranged like many others - but it comes up with several different cultural ideas based around a theme.  For example it'll talk about farming in England, then suggest you take a trip to a cheese shop and try a variety of different cheeses from around the world.  Or you'll learn about New Years' day customs from five different countries.


This one divides the world into regions, then suggests 2-5 dishes from that region, along with a little bit of history of that particular foodstuff.  The instructions are simple enough for Sparks too!


I love this book - it divides the games into icebreakers, water games, running games, etc.  There are also tons of suggested variations for small and large groups, as well as variations for various ability levels.


This really isn't a great field manual, but it's wonderful for brushing up on your own outdoor skills, as well as giving some great ideas for camping with Brownies and getting out there!


This book is fabulous because it not only gives great songs from around the world, BUT it also comes with a CD, so that you and the girls can hear the proper accent/tune for the songs as well.


If you're doing Guides, and not Brownies or Sparks, this also comes in a Grade 4-6 book as well.  I like these because they're a bit more involved than regular crafts, but would be great for a sleepover or longer event.


This divides into countries, then by project.  Some of the ideas are a little simple - but  are sometimes just what you need for Sparks.  You could even have the girls choose something for a Bridging meeting with Sparks.



All of these books are available on Amazon - or check out your local library!

Friday, December 4, 2015

Giving Tuesday

There's American Thanksgiving, then Black Friday (which lasts through the Saturday and Sunday), then Cyber Monday - but there's the wonderful new tradition of Giving Tuesday.  The idea being that the Tuesday after the American Thanksgiving you do something giving.

For our Giving Tuesday the girls went to our local senior's centre and spent some time with the seniors there.  They sang, listened to them, and played simple board games and card games.  It's always nice to see what a lift they bring to the residents.

If you're looking for other ways to incorporate giving into the season, you could always have your unit buy some gifts for their local angel tree, have them bring in supplies for Operation Christmas Child in November, or try their hand at going door to door for food bank donations (both actual food and financial donations).  

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Woodworking Party!

DThis week the girls all earned their Wood Works Badge.  One of the dads made the outside holders, but the girls put the rest together themselves for a gift for their families.  They got a how-to on how not to hurt themselves with the tools they were using, and then got to decorate the memo pad holder.



They also made a fun ornament for a Christmas tree.  For this craft you need to weave the ribbon into the lace, then pull it tight around the top of the bulb.





We had a bit of a party for the girls since we have a field trip next week and service in December.  The above are Santa Hat snacks - 1/3 of a banana, 1/3 of a large marshmallow, a strawberry and a mini marshmallow on top.  I added the Skittles early, but they bleed into the banana.  I suggest adding them just before serving. Also, one of the girls completed their Family Heritage badge, and used the occasion to bring in Mincemeat Tarts.


Thanking Veterans

At the beginning of October I followed a link from Veterans Affairs Canada's Facebook page to a page where you can ask them to send you educational materials for kids for Remembrance Day.

Two weeks ago the girls read through Tales of Animals in War, and Take Time to Remember.  Then they wrote a postcard to a veteran, and also decorated a card and note for a veteran.  


The take time to remember was great for the girls - and would also be wonderful for Sparks.

(Unless you plan on reading Tales of Animals in War, it is too advanced for Brownies.  For Guides and Pathfinders it would be wonderful!)



Friday, November 13, 2015

Remembrance Day 2015

The 11th in Canada is Remembrance Day - where we honour our past, present and future soldiers.

Just outside of our town in October they raised 116 Canadian Flags along the highway - one flag for every 1000 Canadian soldiers killed in service since 1900.  It's amazing to think that we've lost 116,000 people.


The girls went to the local Remembrance Day ceremony.  If you've never taken your unit to a Remembrance Day ceremony, I suggest it!

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Cupcakery Fun!

Last night the girls got to go to a local cupcake shop and try their hands out at decorating cupcakes.  They had a blast!

They got to tour the kitchen (the mounds of butter they use every day shocked them), and got a demonstration of how to decorate the cupcakes then got two cupcakes to decorate themselves.  They had plastic piping bags for buttercream icing, balls of fondant to roll out (and moulds to shape it in), candies, and a variety of shaping tools to use on the fondant like clay.

The shaker is for cornstarch - you need to sprinkle it over the mould and over the fondant as otherwise it can (and will) stick to everything.


A few tips for fellow leaders - ask the girls NOT to wear their sashes and scarves.  Either they get icing on them, or end up touching them to adjust them and then need to wash their hands again.  Also, the place we went has a lot of experience giving these kinds of programs for birthday parties, so they were really on the ball - but you wouldn't want inexperienced bakers with the girls.  Finally, make sure that you have a few skintight rubber gloves on hand.  We had a girl who had a band-aid on her hand and we had to replace it thrice!

All the fun of decorating on a tray!

My efforts :-)




Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Hallowe'en Party!

If you want to order this crest - click here!
Last night the Guides came to the Brownie meeting.  Guides have program areas where they have to create and run events for younger girls - and the Guides had decided to run a Hallowe'en party for the Brownies.  They charged each of the Brownies $4 for coming - they're trying to earn the money they'll give to the CWFF.  (We decided as Brownie leaders to top it up a bit and give the Guides unit money to cover their costs of throwing the bash.)

The Guides came up with 8 stations, each run by two Guides that the Brownies rotated through.

1) Face Painting
2) Colour/Decorate a paper bag for all their stuff.
3) Touch station (where they got to touch things like cold cooked spaghetti or peeled grapes)
4) Fishing for prizes
5) Cupcake decorating
6) Make a Hallowe'en themed suncatcher
7) Build a spider in a web
8) Hallowe'en game/song

The Brownies had an absolute blast!  At the end the leaders gave a small treat of candy/chips for each girl along with some juice, and all the Brownies and Guides went home with the Day of the Dead crest from e-patches (click just under the crest to go to their website).

The Guides came in a little early to get everything all set up.  Everyone was in costume.  It was awesome.


Feel free to comment with what your unit did for Hallowe'en!



Thursday, September 17, 2015

A Garden Update


Well... the marigolds got run over by the petunias, and the morning glories have refused to bloom - but the garden still looks pretty awesome.

I'm moving!  I'll be joining a new Brownie unit in my new town (still Girl Guides of Canada Huzzah!)  Check back at the end of September for news of the new unit and what we're up to!

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Planting Out

Yesterday afternoon we spent our meeting time planting a flower bed at the church where we meet.


The girls added the potting soil and peat moss, mixed them together, then planted the flowers and got them out of the pots by themselves!  The back row is morning glories, plus a small trellis to help them get up to the ironwork above the planter, then pink (for Sparks) spreading petunias, and the front row is marigolds.  Because deer hate marigolds and we're hoping they'll protect the rest of the plants!



Name Change

You may have noticed that the name of this blog has changed.  It's now Sparkling Sparks and Bouncing Brownies.  Next year I'll be leading Brownies, but we'll still be doing lots of stuff with the Sparks.  Anything we do with the Sparks will be so noted and added to the side bar, and Brownie stuff will be added as something you can search for.

For Brownie Keys, they will be noted as BK name of key.  Ex - BK Brownies
For Brownie Interest Badges, they'll be noted as BIB name of badge.  Ex BIB Be a chef.

I hope you'll like the new content.  Don't worry - I'll be back to Sparks soon enough.  I have another little person approaching that age right now!

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Park Cleanup

Instead of staying inside today, the girls and I went down to the local waterfront/park property to do a cleanup.  I've found with the ages of Sparks (5-6), they need a reward after doing cleanups like that.  So after we picked up garbage for about forty minutes, we let them run around the playground after that.


For the trash pickup itself, I brought enough recycled bags for all the girls to have one, as well as plastic gloves (as I didn't want them getting dirty from the stuff they picked up).

Monday, April 27, 2015

Advancement 2015

As part of the Brownies and Beyond Keeper, girls should participate in an Advancement ceremony.


It is at this time that we give all the new girls (because if it's their second year in our Sparks unit, they already have it) their Brownies and Beyond Keeper.  This caused some debate between myself and my coleader the first year, as we wanted to make sure that girls who earned keepers got them, but how could we give the keeper to girls who weren't going Brownies and Beyond the next year?

We have erred on the side of caution.  If she's earned it, the girl gets it, even if it's her first year.  What happens if she decides not to do Sparks for a second year?  What it it doesn't work out for scheduling?  She earned it - she gets it.  Second year girls get their Fun and Friendship pin anyway.


For Advancement this year, we asked the girls to tell us what they'd like to make for decorations, and they chose Rainbow Clouds.  We drew the outline on half sheets of poster board, and they painted them.  I've cut them out since, and we attached them to the floor with painter's tape.

Here's our advancement layout -




Brownies sit by the toadstool by the mirror pond.  Sparks sit on the rainbow.  Each Spark gets called up, gets their Sparkling Certificate and badges, a small bag of goodies and sits back down on the Rainbow.  The advancing Sparks come up, get their certificate and badges, and then I tell them a little poem before they leave.  I got the poem from Becky at Dragon Sleep deprived (if you haven't checked out her songbook, you totally should).

You've learned to share and be a friend
but this by far is not the end.
Across the pond, not far away
Is where the Brownies come to play.
So now to cross the stepping stones
and meet the fairies, elves and gnomes.
The Brownie ring is where you'll land.
It's where you'll learn to lend a hand.

Then they cross the stepping stones, where our Guide helper is waiting, and the Guide spins them while holding onto one of their hands.  Twist me and turn me and show me an elf.  I looked in the water and there saw..." and the Spark responds myself.

The two Brownies then shout "welcome to the Brownie ring" and hand her the small bag of things she can use to get a badge over the summer.

Here's a look at what's in the bags this year.  The Advancing Sparks always get a bag of stuff they can use to earn a badge.  Last year was the Hiking badge, which had a pair of good socks, a water bottle, and a bunch of maps and guides for our area's walking trails.  This year is the All About Art badge, so girls are getting play-doh, suncatchers to paint and wooden stuff to paint as well.  Sparks get the same bag, but without the instructions for the badge.



At the end of the ceremony, I remind parents that they need to turn in their camp forms and thank them for a great year!

Then we break and have cupcakes and sparkling lemonade.

Instead of buying pop, I buy frozen pink lemonade, and mix it with a bottle of lemon sparkling water.

We do have three meetings left this year, all outside and doing stuff.

Monday, April 20, 2015

Preparing for Advancement 2015

Every year we spend a meeting preparing for Advancement.  This is also a chance for the girls to help put their own touches on it.

Every year I set up one section of the rainbow we use for enrollment in the fall, boarderd by the white clouds.  I also have the girls decorate their own cloud in rainbowland.  So that's the first thing we did this week - painting our own clouds.  I cut white posterboard in half, and draw a cloud shape in sharpie on each half.

While half are busy painting away, the other half practice either coming up, getting their certificate and goody bag and going back, or crossing the stepping stones into Brownieland across the river (more on that next week).

Goodybags this year are themed around the Brownie badge "All about art".  We try to theme it every year, and give the girls the requirements for the badge so that the advancing girls can complete the badge over the summer, and bring it in in the fall and get a badge right away!

This year they have a small amount of playdough, a window suncatcher to paint and a magnet to paint.  Girls who are going up to Brownies also get the Brownie Promise on a business card sized piece of cardstock (so they can get started memorizing early).

After practice and painting, we had the girls complete the "what I want out of Sparks/Brownies next year".  Two Stars and a Wish.  (Again with two large pieces of cardstock - pink for Sparks and orange for Brownies).

Then we played girls' choice games and went home.

Monday, April 13, 2015

Wheels

Instead of an inside meeting today, we decided to take advantage of some great weather and go bike riding.

Remember SafeGuide - kids need to be wearing helmets.  We also had a Guide helper with us, who led us in a fun game of follow the leader with the bikes.  For the girls, I asked that they bring something wheeled.  Skateboard, Rollerblades, Scooter, Bike, Trike etc.

So we got there first, and had all the girls show us how well they can put on their own helmet.  We demonstrated (with our Guide helper) how to properly put one on, and made sure everyone's helmets were on properly.  Then we looked at other safety equipment.  Knee and elbow pads, some people have mouth guards, some brought padded gloves in case they fell on their hands.

When we were finished, we looked at how to keep our bikes/trikes etc in tip-top condition.  Rubbing them down if they were wet, oiling chains, pumping up the tires and all.

We then played follow the leader on the bikes, in a line, with the Guide leading around the parking lot.  They were to practice their hand signals as they went.

Then we had about a half hour of free time.  I had a bunch of bubble wands, some sidewalk chalk, and, of course, we had the bikes to play with.


Tuesday, March 31, 2015

A Planning Meeting

We don't have another Sparks meeting planned until April 13th.  This week is March break, next week is an Easter holiday.  So instead of moping about, my fellow leaders and I got together around a kitchen table and started planning next year!

Part of Guides is about being girl-lead, which we're building into the program.  For example, we'll have a week where we have most of it planned, but we've asked the kids to plan how they'd like to complete X activity, and we'll do that.

Next year I will not be leading Sparks.  Sparks is actually moving nights to Wednesday, to coordinate with the Brownie meetings then.  I'll still be continuing this blog, but it'll become Sparkling Sparks and Bouncing Brownies - or something along those lines.  I will be moving up to Brownies.

We spent tonight as Sparks and Brownie leaders together.

We planned so that Enrollment, Advancement, the start and end of the year matched.  We planned several nature and town walks.  We planned a few ideas for community service to do together.  We planned to celebrate International Day of the Girl,  We planned when the Sparks would visit the Brownies, and a great end-of-year trip.

When we started the meeting, I thought I'd be home within the hour - but we spent three hours talking, laughing, and planning together.  Which was really nice.  It was great having the focus being the girls - but not having to corral them at the same time.

If you can, try to have time with your fellow leaders - even if you spend a half hour after a meeting to plan together, or to do things as leaders together.  It makes you remember that you're not in this alone.  That other people care as deeply about Guiding as you do.  It strengthens not only the bonds between leaders, but the bonds between the women who Guide.



As always - remember that wonderful LBP quote - "If it's not fun, it's not Guiding."

Friday, March 20, 2015

Zoe's trip to New Zealand

At the beginning of the year I sat with our Sparks and pointed out (with pins) on a world map all the places that Zoe went on her round the world trip.  They decided to do New Zealand and Kenya.  The other countries they could explore are - France (Paris), China (Beijing), Trinidad (Port of Spain) and Brazil (Rio de Janeiro).  For leaders looking for the Challenge Crest it's in My GGC, under Program Resources, Challenges.

Tonight was also the second bring-a-friend night that we held.  We decided to give two nights where it would be easy to stretch craft materials for more girls.

New Zealand is gorgeous.  I was lucky enough to go with my family in High School (before Lord of the Rings), and spent a month touring round the north island in an RV, staying at campgrounds and eating mussels every time we passed a by the road stand.

I brought a picture to the girls, and explained that the national bird of New Zealand is the Kiwi bird.  I also told them that we don't have a national bird of Canada, but the provincial bird of Alberta is the Great Horned Owl.

And then we made Kiwi Birds.  I used the basic premise from Guiding Jewel's site, and made a few modifications.  We added feathers to our paper bags, and painted them on.  Here's my example bird -



Then we washed up and had our snack - kiwi fruit!  I just chopped them in four and let the girls pick out one or two to eat.  

While they ate the snack I passed around pictures of New Zealand surfing, the Maori people, and some landscapes of New Zealand.  I also printed out a few pages about the Girl Guides of New Zealand, their badges and how their program works.  They all said that they needed a paddle or surfboarding badge.

Our next task was to learn how to surf, so we had the girls pretend to catch the perfect wave and ride it down to the beach.

Pippins care, Pippins share with other children everywhere.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Hat crafts 2015


Every year I try to do a meeting where the girls create their own Traders.

Traders are hat crafts that girls can trade with each other.  Many of the other units (who have older girls) just either send them home, or send home ideas and have the girls bring them to camp independently.  With Sparks, however, we thought that it'd be a great idea to do it as a mother/daughter thing.  The parents seem to really enjoy making the crafts with their kids.




When I make up the crafts I purchase all the stuff that will be needed, and divide it between different bags.  I also make up an example of the craft itself.

The girls arrive, with their moms/aunties/sisters etc, introduce them in circle, and we draw names out of a hat on who gets to choose their craft first.  I show them my camp hat (covered in traders), and show them the paper bags (one for each girl) lined up on the side.  When they have enough to put one in each bag, they're done.

About a half hour in I pull out our indoor campfire and we sing some of the songs they've learned with their guests.

This year we created:  magic wands, kites, artists' pallets, popsicles, eyes in the night, bandaids, mirrors, butterflies, ladybugs, hearts, suns, elves and dragonflies.

Monday, March 9, 2015

Zoe's trip to Kenya

On top of our regular meeting this week we had five little guests.  It was bring a friend night!  If any other leaders haven't tried this out, you should!  The "new" girls had a grand old time, and one, at least, was very vocally telling her pickup person that she WAS going to join Brownies next year (the girl who brought her is a second year Spark).

Zoe's trip is a great Canadian Challenge Crest given out by the National Council.  We decided that the story component was a little bit long for the girls, so we were going to give the story in smaller increments, and mixed in with the action stuff.

We started by talking about the Nairobi National Park & Animal Orphanage.  Here's their website.
We also read the first half of Day 1 and Day 2 of Zoe's Trip to Nairobi Kenya.

We showed some of the pictures from the website, then played Lion King Tag.  Lion King Tag is where each person chooses a different African animal and one person becomes the lioness.  We played African drumming music and when the music stopped, the lioness had to catch an animal, who then becomes a lioness as well.  We played until everyone was a lion.


Then we read the second part of the first day of Zoe's trip, then tried some Kenyan foods.  I made Ugali and Chai.  We had ketchup to dip the Ugali in (not African, but far more likely to get the kids to try it).  We actually had some girls go back for thirds!  Absolutely made up for the kids who poked with a finger and declared they didn't like it.


We then read Day 3 of Zoe's trip.  Then we made some African drums.  Here are a few pictures of the process.  Yes, those are shot glasses.  I also used paint for mine, but the girls used crayons and markers.





There is a new level of Guiding in Kenya - Rainbow Guides.  They use the old Rainbow opening from the UK.  So we learned the Rainbow opening.

Rainbow Opening
(to the tune of "This Old Man")
Rainbows care, Rainbows Share,
With other children everywhere,
So come and join us, and you'll see,
Rainbows is the place to be,
Ha ha ha, hee hee hee,
Rainbows is the place for me,
Lets join hands and gaily sing,
In our friendly Rainbow ring.

Wonder of wonders we had extra time tonight, so we sang "If I were not a Girl Guide" and did the "Lion Hunt" chant.

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Fort Edmonton Park Sleepover

We had the wonderful fortune to be invited along with another Spark unit to a Fort Edmonton Park sleepover this weekend.  WHICH WAS AWESOME!

I've always loved pioneer villages.  Fort Edmonton takes it one step further in that you can also learn about the First Nations Peoples of the Edmonton area!  Here is their website.


On the left is our morning facilitator showing the girls an old fashioned telephone.  On the right - one of the Sparks trying her hand at chopping wood!  (With a wooden axe and a log held together with magnets.)

We got to spend some time learning parlour games, playing dressup and carding wool, making cinnamon buns from scratch, taking a walking tour of the "town" at night, then again in the morning with a quick stop at the hardware store, made a historical toy and some great stories around a campfire made of tea lights on a buffalo blanket.

The girls had a fabulous time, both of our facilitators were wonderful to work with, and firmly held to their 1900s personna in their dealings with the kids.  The facilities were clean, in good condition and, as many other who know about Northern Alberta can appreciate - WARM.

I had a great time, and from the chatter from the girls on the way home they did too.



Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Alberta Arts Challenge 2015


This year's Alberta Arts Challenge theme is Beauty.

For the Sparks' level, they need to do four different activities.  These are the ones we chose -

Masks

We had the girls paint their own wooden masks in any way they thought was beautiful.  I was able to find these masks at the dollar store.



Songs

We learned a few old chestnuts.  We first did the brownie smile song, then land of the silver birch, then we sang the yodelling Austrian (when I was a Brownie I remember it as the yodelling ostrich, which always confused me).

Of the three songs, the girls like the yodelling Austrian best.  I have always done it with hand movements.  Slapping thighs at the first yodell eh i whooo, then thigh slap, hand clap finger snap and, at the end of each yodel, all the things that interrupt him.  We did the cuckoo bird, an avalanche, a bear and a pretty girl.  (The girl goes yoo hoo!)

Skits/Charades

We had the girls as a group tell us what they found beautiful in the form of charades.  We had lots of flapping butterflies, babies and birds.  Then we divided them up into two teams to come up with a short skit about something they thought was beautiful, and they all used their masks, which was awesome!

Dance Party

Then we told the girls that dancing is beautiful, no matter how you do it.  I brought a cd of music and we bounced around for the last ten minutes.  Our playlist was as follows- I'm blue, Let it go, safety dance, dancing with myself, and girls just want to have fun.

I hope you all try the arts challenge!  It's always a blast!

Monday, February 23, 2015

Thinking Day 2015 - Guiding Lights

So the theme for this year's Thinking Day (according to the Canadian Girl Guides) is Guiding Light.  I decided to run with the theme, so here's what we did to celebrate Thinking Day 2015!


When we arrived, I gave the girls page 58 out of the Spark book and asked them to imagine themselves as A BROWNIE and to draw what they thought they'd look like.  Several had rainbows across their shirts - very cute.  Since we opened our doors and had some Brownies attending, they drew themselves as Guides.




Then I told them the story of Lord Baden Powell and Lady Baden Powell from the Spark Leader's guide.  It's the story of those very first Girl Scouts who showed up at the Crystal Palace Jambouree.  One of the Sparks asked me if it was a real story or made up.  :-)

Then it was time for our craft.  We made our own little Guiding Lights to shine around the world.  For this craft I went onto Ebay and bought 500 random world stamps.  There are dealers who will just ship you 500 for about $5, shipping included.  These are really rare or valuable stamps, but we got a good selection of stamps (the mess of stamps below).  There were stamps from all the different continents!


Then I passed out modge podge and paint brushes, and let the kids pick out their own stamps.  The trick is to put the glue on the glass, add the stamp, then paint over the whole thing with more glue.  The Brownies loved this (they were also earning their terrific trash badge), and we asked the girls other ways they could recycle stuff in their homes.  Some had great ideas like painting a chipped plate so it was more like a painting and hanging it up, to composting.  

Here are some pictures of the process.





Oh, then we added glitter on top of the stamps and glue - because everything is better with glitter.
The light is one of the flickering battery-operated tea lights from the dollar store.

Then we sang a Guiding Light song - to be perfectly honest, it was "this little light of mine", but with the words changed to be "This Guiding Light of Mine".

Finally, since the Brownies were there, they showed us their puppet play, for their badge, since they'd completed the rest of it the previous meeting at Brownies.  They showed us the Guides of New Zealand climbing a mountain to light the first campfire of Thinking Day, starting the light of Guiding as it moves around the world.



Monday, February 9, 2015

Our Cabana & Lord and Lady Baden-Powell

Tonight we had a half Lady Baden-Powell and half Our Cabana meeting.  We started by going around the circle.  We asked the girls what they'd liked the best about Sparks so far.  We also looked at some pictures of Our Cabana. 

Then we made quesadillas.  We gave all the kids a half tortilla, and had them add their own toppings.  Most chose a bit of salsa, cheese and some black beans.  While we were waiting the 10 minutes or so for the quesadillas to cook, we read the kids the story of the Baden-Powells, and the Night Walk story from the Go Sparks Go book.

After we ate, we split the girls into two groups.  We have two Brownies with our Sparks this year.  The time for Brownies just didn't work for them.  Next year they'll spend their year with the Guides, then stay with Guides until they're ready for Pathfinders.

So the Sparks went with Emerald and I and made Paper Bag Ponchos out of grocery store paper bags cut up the sides and a hole for the head.  Then they made God's Eyes.  I'm always on the lookout for ways to make traditional Guide crafts easier for our smallest members.  For the God's Eyes, I bought large popsicle sticks and hot glued them together.  I also found a type of chenille-yarn for them to use for their God's Eyes.  Here's some examples.




For the Brownies, we decided to do the puppet play badge, so today they made a theatre for their puppets, painted some toilet paper rolls orange for their marionettes, and made some finger puppets.

Finally, for our next meeting (which is the 23rd), we asked the girls to bring in a recycled glass jar.

Thursday, February 5, 2015

A great idea

So, like many great ideas, I had this one in the dollar store.  I was trying to think of a way to have Sparks do sculpture without clay/plasticine/salt dough.  So take a block of something and whittle it down.

Before I share this with you - though a great idea, Sparks just don't have the wrist strength for this - Brownies and up would definitely be able to though, and it's totally safe.

So you need a bar of soap and a paper scorer.  My local dollar store sells them in the scrapbooking aisle.

Use the scorer to carve into the soap.  The scorer is dull, and won't hurt them if they miss or accidentally hack at themselves with it..  Soap, however can crack along lines in the bar itself, and if a girl has a hard time because their sculpture is cracking, she should try a negative image (carve out a shape in the centre, leaving soap around the outside edges).

Here's my daughter's sculpture - she's 1st year Brownie.


We put down a paper towel so that the bits of soap didn't go everywhere.


She put a heart in it.  :)

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Girl Guides in Belize

We ran into a circle, then went around, asking where everyone was from.  We then scooted over to our trusty World Map (please, find a map that isn't a Mercator Map).  We marked where all the girls came from, the four world centres, our town, and the country we'd be studying today - Belize!

Belize is awesome.  It's tiny, with a great set of Girl Guides who work there.  We showed the girls pictures of the coast of Belize, as well as pictures of Girl Guides there.

We then set up the girls at a table, gave them five rocks each and handed out glitter glue - they were going to make their own set of the Five Marias Game - it's a pretty common game in Central America.  A player gets five small rocks.  They throw the first in the air, pick up a rock from the ground and then catch the falling rock.  Continue until you're throwing four and picking up the fifth.  The girls decorated theirs with glitter glue, then picked up five stones and a partner to try the game out!

While Emerald was supervising the glittering of rocks, I made some more Fry Jacks.  We had these at our New Year's sleepover this year, and they were a great hit.

After the girls had eaten their snack, we cleaned up, and then I set up two logs in the middle of our meeting place.  The girls took turns, two at a time, to move the boards from one side to another.



We had time at the end, so we played a make believe you are an animal in the rainforest of Belize game.  Jaguars, monkeys, toucans, iguanas and butterflies roamed our meeting room until it was time to get home!