Muttart Conservatory and Alberta Girl Guide House

Sorry I haven't kept up this month - I had houseguests!  But now they're gone and I can get back to it!

A few weeks ago we went to Edmonton's Muttart Conservatory in the morning, and then the Alberta Girl Guide House in the afternoon.

Amazingly enough, our facilitator at the Muttart was ALSO a Spark leader!  So she knew exactly what the girls would like to learn, and had a great way about her.  The girls were happy and relaxed with her from the very beginning.

We did the Ladybugs & Friends program.  We got a tour of each of the four pyramids (Rainforest, Desert, Temperate and Feature), and there was a game for the girls to participate in in each pyramid as well.  They got to put on glasses that made the world look like it does to a bee, search for matching ladybugs, learn about the different shapes of cacti, learn about plants that humans can eat, and, in the feature pyramid, they got to release their very own ladybug!

My ladybug - I called her Emily.

The feature pyramid had the theme of Chinese New Year - Year of the Monkey.

The girls also got to pot a small plant to take home with them.  Mine are currently sitting on my windowsill and growing really well!  All the girls earned the Key to the Living World: Special Interest Badge for this!

This was a WONDERFUL program.  The girls were happy and engaged for 2.5 hours, and it wasn't expensive either!

We ate lunch on the bus between the Muttart and Alberta's Girl Guide House.  Once we got to the Girl Guide house, the girls learned a bit about how the House got built, and why it's important to Alberta Girl Guides.  We learned that you can spend the night in the basement (which sounds awesome).  Then the girls got to put on historical costumes.  We had enough girls, and the right sizes to have everything from the early mustard dresses with bucket hats to the 2005 uniform of blue and orange shirt with a sparkly Brownies across the chest and a skort.

They also got to find Fiona Mouse, and had a scavenger hunt through the archives.

Alberta Arts Challenge 2016

It's that time of the year again - the Alberta Arts Challenge!  Every year they come out with a new theme, which makes this a great challenge crest for every year.  This year's challenge is centred around Canada, which makes this a great time for us, as we've just completed the All About Canada badge.

We had the girls decorate some cookies for Valentine's day.  We had them draw Canadian symbols on at least one.

Songs - we had Nana Owl come in tonight - she's a retired Guider, but she's also a wonderful songsmith, and does a lot of music education, and graciously came in to sing with the girls.  

She sang the Our Cabana song, the Our Chalet song, along with a song in Spanish and another in German.

She also had the girls make a few musical instruments.  They made a clacker with a long stick, electrical tape, and tin with holes in them, as well as a wooden spoon rattle, with two bells to make noise.

Then we did some dancing.  The girls were taught a polka, the Mexican hat dance, and a gigue.

Finally we passed out Valentines between the girls, and gave Nana Owl a great howl sendoff.

STEM Challenge

Today we finished up the STEM challenge.  We decided to do a modified version of this challenge - but for the full challenge click on the badge above!

To begin - we did some astronomy last week (and counted it for this challenge).

This week we started by making goop with cornstarch, water, and a few drops of food colouring.  We mixed it, allowed the girls to poke at it, then put it over a speaker and turned up the bass.  It's a non-Newtonian substance.  So it's solid when you poke at it/hit it with soundwaves and it's a liquid when it isn't.


Then we divided into three groups.

Sparkle Owl helped the kids fold themselves paper airplanes and had the girls run races with them down the length of the room.

Tawny Owl ran the microscope.  Our local library (after having you sign that if you break it you bought it) will allow you to borrow their really nice microscope, along with 25 pre-prepared slides.  The girls got to look at a blood smear, corn root tip, a penicillum and some other cool slides.

I ran the snap circuits station.  We can also borrow one from the library, and I have a copy, so in our groups we were able to have the girls work in pairs to complete some of the experiments.  Here's the link.  Using the kit they were able to make some electrical circuits - minimally they all got through making a light turn on, a motor spin and a sound start.

C'est la Fete!

The Quebec Girl Guides have a Challenge Crest out right now called "C'est la Fete".  Here's the link.  This week at Brownies we had bring a friend night, and also completed the C'est la Fete Challenge.  It's always fun to run Bring a Friend night like a party - and this badge gave us the perfect excuse!

We first taught the girls as they arrived a few French songs.  Alouette was the favourite.  If you don't speak French, here's the link to a Youtube version of this song for the lyrics and pronunciation.  For us, we do actions as we go along the song, creating a beak for bec, and turning round and miming a tail when you sing "derriere".

We had all but two girls bring friends last night, which was wonderful - but loud at the same time!

Because the girls had almost all brought a friend, we just had them go with their circles from station to station.

At the first station, we read a short picture book about the Maple Sugar Shack, then had the girls try La Tire (hot maple syrup on snow).

At the second they learned about Ceinture Fleshee and tried their hand at making bracelets that look like them.

At the third they made a cute little snowman.  To make this, you need to cut the toe off a sock, then tie the sock around the ball of the foot, and turn it inside out.  Add beans to the bottom as a weight, then stuff it with stuffing.  tie off the top, then use some felt to make a scarf.  Use the toe you cut off as a toque, and a hot glue gun to add the eyes on.  Finally, use a sharpie to add the smile, eyelashes, and buttons down the front, as well as about 1" of orange pipe cleaner for a carrot nose.

My daughter has plans to add arms of brown pipe cleaner.

Then we got together in a group again and we set up some cardboard box sleds and had the girls try some indoor people-sledding.  Sparkle Owl took some empty apple boxes and added string to the ends so the girls could pull each other around.

Finally we let the girls take turns wrapping the leaders in toilet paper.  Those wrapping Baby Owl won.  They were given two rolls of toilet paper and told to cover as much of the leader as possible.  We had them do it as a relay, so they weren't stepping all over each other.


At the end of the night 3/4 of the friends were begging to join!  Which was pretty darned awesome!

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.

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.

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!

Be Prepared, Not Scared

This week we completed the Be Prepared, Not Scared Challenge Crest.  Available from the Alberta Region here.  

We have always enjoyed doing Challenge Crests with our Sparks.  First, because we like the skills it teaches, and secondly, because our kids love showing them off when we go to camps.  Nothing like a proud five year old with a sash full of completed challenges.  I always enjoyed earning badges when I was in Brownies, and since six year olds are (now) Sparks and not Brownies, they enjoy earning some too!

Our town is close enough to Slave Lake that we were one of the towns to handle people who were fleeing the Great Slave Lake Wildfire of 2011.  Though most of our Sparks were wee babes or toddlers during this, it gives us a starting point.  I checked out a book about the Slave Lake Fire from my library.  It's a local publication, but it has great pictures to use while talking about the dangers of a wildfire.  If anyone else is looking for it, it's  The Sky was on Fire: Slave Lake's Story of Disaster, Exodus and New Beginnings.  It's well worth the read.  I ended up putting post-it notes on pages that I thought the girls would find interesting, including the RCMP flagging down traffic and helping deal with the exodus, as well as pictures of our town housing some of the refugees.

There is a wonderful quote by Mr Rogers that I shared with the group.  “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” It's a good quote to use in this kind of badgework.  The goal isn't to scare the girls, it's to prove to them how they can be prepared in a disaster, and be the helpers Mr Rogers was talking about.

So to complete the badge, you have to complete two activities in two sections, learn and do.

So we started with that wonderful Mr. Rogers quote, and the emphasis placed on being helpers.  Then we went around in a circle, and each girl got to share what she has done in an emergency to help her family/parents/friends.

Then we went through the book I'd borrowed.  The kids were pretty sober through that.  Then we talked about the big Calgary flood that happened just a few years ago.  I brought a few articles and pictures I'd printed from the online newspapers.  Then we talked about ways that we could help in an emergency.  Emerald and I gave big ideas, and then we asked each girl to contribute another way she could help.

Then I laid out kraft paper.  I had the girls draw two pictures, one on each piece of craft paper (as a mural).  One is the disaster, what they were thinking of, flood, fire, insects, danger etc.  The other was a way THEY could help out in that kind of situation.  From filling sandbags to getting water ready for firefighters.

Then we talked about ways that we could be prepared for an emergency at home.  I felt it was best to be specific about this one, so we talked about housefires.  How do we react?  How do we keep ourselves safe?  Who will come and help us too?  Then we played a game of it.  We practised climbing out a window by climbing on a chair, lowering ourselves over the edge and dropping down.  Then we practised going through a house filled with smoke by crawling, remembering where the door is, and getting out.  We crawled over to the door of the meeting room, checked the door for heat, and then went in and out.  Then we asked about firemen.  Do we hide in closets from firemen?  No!  We keep calm, keep close to the ground, and get to the fireman when he comes into the room so he can help us.  Even if he looks scary.

Then we played a few rounds of hide and seek.

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!

Alberta Passport to Fun and Fitness Challenge

So this week we completed the Passport to Fun and Fitness Challenge.

We decided to tie this into our Being Healthy Keeper.  This was also my new coleaders first ever meeting that she planned all on her own!  I'm so proud of her.  She was never in girl guides, but her daughter has just started and loves the program!  Here's to many more years!

We started with the girls doing a bit of Yoga.  This is made a little easier for us, because the local Yogi is also an elementary school teacher, and did a unit with most of the school on Yoga last month.  We concentrated on the breathing, and relaxing, as having a healthy mind is also so important.

After Yoga, we learned a little bit of hip-hop.  We have a Brownie this year in Sparks, as the time conflicts with her dance classes, so she got to earn the Show Your Talent for Dance Badge while everyone else was learning a bit of hiphop.  She demonstrated a few moves, then helped the Sparks try them out.  We did something she called the reverse cowboy, as well as the Zombie Walk.  Before the Sparks started to dance we had them take the pulse and then take it again after dancing.  Then we told them a little about how the heart is a muscle and it has to exercise too!

Then we played tag.  Just plain old regular tag.  Then we had the girls give ideas of how to make it a new type of tag, and vote on which one we'd play.  It has to do with some markers, everyone carrying around some paper and a rubber chicken.  They loved it.  They called it Spark Tag, and I think that it might end up a regular kind of thing!

Finally we laid out supplies for parfait, and had they make up their own parfait.  Emerald brought yogurt, granola, and three different kinds of berries.  That being said, if we had to do it again, we would have bought more yogurt!

While eating, we sat in a circle and talked about breakfast, why it's important to eat a breakfast and what's in a healthy breakfast.

Africa Region WAGGGS Challenge

This week we decided to complete the Africa Region section of Alberta's 5 Region Challenge.  We've already completed Asia, Europe and Western Hemisphere at a camp last October.

We started off by looking at a map.  We identified for the girls where we were in Canada, then where Africa is, then I traced the outside of Africa Region.

Then we sang a song from Africa Region.  We sang "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".  The girls really liked it.  They remember the song from The Lion King, which is kind of interesting.  To complete the challenge we also had to play a game from Africa Region.  We originally wanted to play the snake game, which we'd played already on another day and the girls enjoyed.  However, there was no outdoor recess today and the girls were... a little bit wild.  So we played a skit game and had them run around pretending to be different types of African animals.  Giraffe, elephant, lion, antelope, hyena, meercat, wild boar, hippopotamus and crocodile.

My coleader found a colouring page with a South African Teddy on it (their level of guiding in South Africa) which also has their motto and promise on it.

Then we completed a craft.  I cut the centres out of paper plates, and we showed then a few pictures of Maori warriors with their beautiful necklaces.  They then got to colour in their necklace.  I think they had a little bit of trouble really understanding what the necklaces represent, since my daughter decided to cover hers with heart stickers, but I think they had fun!

We capped off our evening by eating some snacks from Africa.  I made a chickpea rattle in the oven.  Chickpeas tossed with curry powder and baked for an hour.  Then I also cut up some fruit that is originally from Africa - one of the girls' favourites - watermelon!

My coleader gave out the badges.  The Going Camping Keeper (they finished water safety last week) and the WAGGGS Africa Region badge.

At the end of next month we're doing the Arab region.  Should be awesome!

Here's my daughter's attempt at the necklace -

Here are the badges they've been earning - all together they make a flower if you put them together in a circle.  Arab region is in purple!