Backwards Camp

Our Brownie Camp this year is Backwards Camp!

When we broke the girls up into their groups for camp chores, we had them pick Palindrome names.  Palindromes are phrases or words that are the same backwards and forwards.

The group names we gave the girls to pick from are as follows -

TACO CAT  -  CAMP MAC  -  DR AWKWARD  -  EVIL OLIVE  -  GO DOG  -  I DID DID I?  -  KAYAK  -  LLAMA MALL  -  NURSES RUN  -  RACECAR  -  STAR RATS  -  TOP SPOT  -  TUNA NUT  -  WE FEW

The girls chose Top Spot and Go Dog as their team names.

Friday night we had campfire, mug up and went off to bed.

Saturday we - set up a 28 sign trail signs course for the girls and had them complete it in pairs (it was through the woods, so each pair had a leader following them to make sure they were ok), practiced our knots (slip knot, bow, reef, half hitch and sheetshank), made suncatchers by melting plastic pony beads in metal cookie cutters, practiced our lashings, and then make a weaving out of them and wove in feathers and grass from camp, made memory bags on a sewing machine, had an egg hunt, wrote messages backwards on paper for a partner, made our own dinner and snack, had two campfires (one run by our Guide helper so she could get her campfire leader badge), and had two flag ceremonies!

Since it was backwards/break the rules camp the girls got to have their dessert first for every meal, and we also had breakfast for dinner and dinner for breakfast.

With the suncatchers, we had each girl make two - one to keep and one to give away.  We're dropping off the suncatchers at meals on wheels in our community to drop off when they drop the meals off.

Our suncatchers - use an old cookie tray, they leave bits of plastic behind!

Weaving and Lashing

Another weaving and lashing - the girls could choose three sticks or four.

Our campfire!

We had the best weather!  Oftentimes Alberta in April is either rainy or snowy, which ends up giving the girls a bit of cabin fever!  It was +19 on Saturday, so we spent 90% of our time outdoors soaking up the fresh air and sunshine!

New Year - New Sleepover!

So my coleader and I decided to host a sleepover at our meeting place.  I've found it so much easier to plan around a challenge crest - so we decided to do the habitat for humanity challenge crest!

We started off the evening by playing with cloud sand.  Our recipe calls for 9 cups of flour and a cup and a quarter of baby oil.  The kids built the foundation for a house in the cloud sand.  We had them think about how big the digging machine had to be.  Then we had fun pretending to be the massive digger.  Beeping all the way!

We then talked about the steps of building a house, and put the different steps in order.  The steps come with the challenge crest on the National website!

Then we played a game where I played music, and when the music stopped I'd yell a profession (electrician, plumber, roofer, plasterer, landscaper etc). Then they had to perform the action we'd made for that job.  

We then set up our bedrolls user tables (like a fort!) and changed into our pyjamas.  While one of us supervised, the other of us made a few cans of tomato soup.  After they were done we ladled out the soup and had a small campfire.  We sang songs while we drank our soup.  

Then we sent the girls to brush their teeth while we did the dishes.  Then I read a couple of stories.  I brought "we'll all go exploring" and "not all princesses dress in pink".  We sent the kids to bed and let them whisper for about a half hour before we started to shush them.

For breakfast the next morning we made yogurt and berry parfaits, and fry jacks.  (From Central America - great recipes by googling!). 

We then combed hair, brushed teeth, did camp chores and packed up.

After packing up we made a welcome home banner that I'll drop off at habitat for humanity on my next trip into the city.

Hope that helps others looking for a fun sleepover!

Sledding Outside

Wow - have I ever neglected this blog!

I'm going to start with our latest meeting, then work both backwards and forwards until I've caught up!



So this week we went sledding.  The big thing about sledding with Sparks is making sure they are dressed appropriately for spending an hour outside.  So the week before we reviewed with the girls what they'd need to wear, and it seemed to work.  Of the 10 girls who showed up, 9 were dressed appropriately, which is far better than our big bridging event that we had in October (more on that later).

Our kit list for sledding/fort building:  snowpants, winter jacket, warm boots, hat, two pairs of mittens and a scarf.

We sled at our local middle school.  There are two really great places to go sledding there, as well as a couple of large mountains of snow.

We started by sledding.  That also gave the girls something to do after their parents had dropped them off and we were waiting for a few stragglers.

After the sun went down we stopped for a circle picnic in the parking lot and drank down some hot chocolate, or Chai tea.  I made the hot chocolate extra strong and hot, so they filled their little cups up with clean snow, then the hot chocolate was poured overtop.  While they were drinking we talked to them about keeping their sleds at home, and how to clean them and store them so they would last a long time.

Then we headed to the big snow hill.  It's a hill that's created by plowing the school parking lot.  The girls made some tunnels through the center of the hill and had a great time.

Afterwards we split the girls up for the last ten minutes.  If they wanted to go sledding again, they went with me, and if they wanted to continue on with the fort, they stayed with Emerald.  They split evenly between the two groups (yay).  Please note for guiders - our snow hill and the sledding hill were less than 20 meters from each other, and were in full view to the other guider.

Parents started to arrive soon after to pick up their kids.  You know that it's gone well when the chorus is "do I have to go?"  "awww...." and "just one more run!!"


We did hand out badges on the way out.  They got our district and area badges, as I\d just picked them up from our area meeting, their Being Healthy Keeper and their Passport to Fun and Fitness Alberta (we completed it last week).

We decided this year to give out badges just once a month.  I staple them to a 3x5 index card with the girls' name on it, and write where each badge is supposed to go on the sash.  Very few of our parents were in Guiding when they were young, so they really appreciate it!

Swimming

This week we wanted to finish up our Camping Keeper with style.

Instead of a boring old "water safety" lecture to the girls, we decided to go to the pool!

We're very lucky in our town, that there is a pool to begin with!  Along with the larger pool, there is also a hot tub and a training pool.  The training pool goes from .6 meters to .9 meters, so it's great for all those non-swimmers in your unit.  We spent about 20 minutes getting some brief pool and lake safety from a lifeguard.  Then we got the pool's small training canoe out and the girls paddled that around the pool in pairs.  Then we just let them go a little nuts and pay around for a half hour.

We stopped them twice from free playing to break up the time a bit with some actual games.  We tossed a ball around a circle, as well as playing "what time is it Ms. Shark?"

The girls had a great time!  Next week we're working on our WAGGGS 5 regions Challenge - Africa Region.  Should be a blast!  We're studying Kenya!

Camp Blankets

We made up our camp blankets today.

We cut two pieces of fleece for each girl.  One in Sparks Pink and one in Girl Guide Blue.  We took the blue side to an embroiderer and had their names embroidered on with gold thread.  Then we sewed around the outside, then cut the outside into strips (for the girls to tie together).

It creates a great place to sew on all those fun crests that the girls get, and on the other side, a great place to sew on their sashes, so that they don't get lost after their Sparks year.  It's a great way to keep everything together.

We had some great mom helpers today - it made tying go so much faster!  It let us have enough time to pull out our campfire inside and sing some campfire songs.