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.
