Special Days Badge

We did the Special Days badge last week.  Hey - Leap Year only happens once a year, so why not have them work on it now?

We first talked about different Special Days for all of us.  Birthdays, anniversaries, first and last days of school, holidays etc.  Then we split into two groups.

Brown Owl and Tawny Owl talked to the girls about China, and made a Chinese lantern.

Sparkle Owl and I took the other group.  Sparkle Owl is from the Lakes district in the UK - I spent three years in India.  We had pictures of our travels and talked about special days that happen in those countries.  Sparkle Owl talked about Guy Fawkes day and recited the rhyme "Remember Remember" and I talked about Holi.  If you're looking to talk to your girls about those holidays, search terms "India, Holi" or "England, Guy Fawkes" on Youtube!

Then we switched!

The girls got to vote on how they'd like to celebrate their "bonus day" in 2016.  They decided leap frog was the best idea on how to celebrate leap day.  So we played leap frog.

All About Canada Badge

Tonight the girls completed the All About Canada badge.  We decided during planning that we'd like to complete one badge from every key that we're getting this year, and All About Canada seemed like a good fit.

We started with circle and singing O Canada as well as God Save the Queen.  Then we talked a little about how cool and wonderful it is to live in a country like Canada.

Then we split into circles, and rotated centers.

Tawny Owl and I ran the center where the kids got to draw Canadian symbols on fabric.  We asked them at the same time what other symbols they think represent Canada to the wider world.  We also taught them the chorus to the Canada in my Pocket song.

The Canada In My Pocket song my Michael Mitchell.  The lyrics are easily google-able.  This is a way more fun way to talk about the coins and symbols they represent than just talking about them.

Sparkle Owl printed out lots of copies of Alberta's provincial mineral (petrified wood), flower (wild rose), bird (great horned owl), animal (big horned sheep) and tree (lodgepole pine).  The girls got to colour them in, cut them out and glue them together.

Brown Owl's station ran something a little bit different.  We're doing a STEM night next week and since you can't predict the weather, she talked about stars, constellations, the stories we tell about them and had them make their star sign out of marshmallows and toothpicks (she drew the star signs on paper and each girl got to make their own star sign).

Finally we got back together in circle and the girls sang the chorus of Canada in my Pocket and I sang the verses while showing pictures of the coins.  I just found pictures of the penny, nickel, dime, quarter, loonie and toonie online and printed them out so they were on 8x11 paper (big enough for the girls to see).

The song only goes to the quarter, so we passed around the loonie and toonie coins, as well as paper money.  We had a five, ten, twenty, fifty and a hundred.  We told the girls what the bills used to look like as well (five dollar used to have hockey players on it, now has the Canadarm) and why we pick different things as the years go by.

Closing and good night!