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!
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
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.
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.
Saturday, January 18, 2014
A Night at the Observatory
So what do you do on a Friday night with a whole bunch of Girl Guides?
If you're me, you organize a night at your local university, so that you can look through the telescope.
We went to the university, and took a walk out to their telescope right after school, where we were even allowed to climb inside of it. There was a small hatch on the side, about two feet by one, and the girls climbed in to take a look at the telescope and the camera mounting behind it.
Then we went back to the university and took over one of their rooms for a little while - we looked up Roberta Bondar, learned about the Canadarm, read a story about constellations, did a craft about constellations, ate our dinner, and then it was finally dark enough to look through the telescope.
We saw a couple of videos about the Aurora Borealis, about the ISS, and then spent some time moving the telescope around to look at some of the stars that would be quite bright.
It was pretty awesome. What was even more awesome was that all the Sparks, Brownies and Guides were there - it was a fabulous unit visit as well!
If you're me, you organize a night at your local university, so that you can look through the telescope.
We went to the university, and took a walk out to their telescope right after school, where we were even allowed to climb inside of it. There was a small hatch on the side, about two feet by one, and the girls climbed in to take a look at the telescope and the camera mounting behind it.
Then we went back to the university and took over one of their rooms for a little while - we looked up Roberta Bondar, learned about the Canadarm, read a story about constellations, did a craft about constellations, ate our dinner, and then it was finally dark enough to look through the telescope.
We saw a couple of videos about the Aurora Borealis, about the ISS, and then spent some time moving the telescope around to look at some of the stars that would be quite bright.
It was pretty awesome. What was even more awesome was that all the Sparks, Brownies and Guides were there - it was a fabulous unit visit as well!
Monday, January 13, 2014
Dreamcatchers
My coleader and I decided to go for the Alberta Arts Challenge this year. One of the requirements is that the kids do a craft from Native Canadian culture. Beading a moccasin, building a drum, or weaving a dreamcatcher.
We chose the Dreamcatcher. But how to create an interesting craft that's attainable for 5 and 6 year olds, while still remaining true and respectful to Native culture?
This craft and story took the full hour to complete.
First we read a story that I found in my compendium of Native stories about the history of the dreamcatcher and the story of the weaving of the first one.
We used a paper plate, cut out the center then punched holes around the inside, one on the top, for the hook, and three on the bottom. We had the girls take a pre-cut length of string to weave in the center, as well as some plastic beads to string onto the yarn. We had them attach pony beads and feathers to the bottom and put a dab of glue on each one to keep them on.
Here are some of our masterpieces, starting with the example, which I made.
We chose the Dreamcatcher. But how to create an interesting craft that's attainable for 5 and 6 year olds, while still remaining true and respectful to Native culture?
This craft and story took the full hour to complete.
First we read a story that I found in my compendium of Native stories about the history of the dreamcatcher and the story of the weaving of the first one.
We used a paper plate, cut out the center then punched holes around the inside, one on the top, for the hook, and three on the bottom. We had the girls take a pre-cut length of string to weave in the center, as well as some plastic beads to string onto the yarn. We had them attach pony beads and feathers to the bottom and put a dab of glue on each one to keep them on.
Here are some of our masterpieces, starting with the example, which I made.
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Saying Thank You
We started a new small segment in our Sparks group tonight - sharing time. Since when the girls go up to Brownies they'll be asked to share the badges and other projects they'll be working on with the other girls. We brought in a talking stick and had the girls tell us stories of their winter vacations. We'll be asking them more questions over the next few weeks and then start having them do a kind of show and tell.
Then we did another of the Being Healthy Keeper activities and moved to the beat. I had about twenty different things that they could do around the room and they got to choose then switch about every twenty seconds or so. We had hula hoops, bean bags, jump ropes, exercise balls, tons of different balls to play with etc. We went for about ten minutes. That got the girls all nice and tired out.
Then we made thank you cards. We broke out the bin of stamps, ink, stickers, crayons and markers. This was for their Mouse Around the House challenge. We asked that they make one thank you card for sparks, then one for whomever they wished.
Monday, December 9, 2013
The Season of Giving
We started our meeting tonight with newspaper skate tag. We gave the girls sheets of newsprint to put under their feet and had them "skate" across the floor with the paper under their feet. One girl was "it" and had to try and tag the others. It was great fun and the girls had a fabulous time giggling around. What was even more fun for them was that we had three moms there as volunteers tonight, so their moms were also skating around!
After we finished skating and the wiggles were firmly out of the girls, we started putting together the birthdays in a box.
Here's the link to the checklist we used:
http://www.albertagirlguides.ca/Documents/AB/Birthday-Party-in-a-Box-Checklist.pdf
We asked the girls to either buy some of the requests in the box or go door to door and ask for donations from neighbours, friends and/or family. Many families just decided to go to the dollar store and pick up some necessities.
I also asked my church to donate. The church in and of itself created four birthdays in a box.
Then my coleader and I packed up a bunch of them in boxes before we set the girls upon them.
The girls packed 8 together, and my coleader and I packed 7 before our meeting.
Then we wrapped them all and they'll be getting into the local food bank on Wednesday. Some lucky boys and girls whose families use the food bank will be able to have modest birthday parties. AWESOME.
In our little unit of 10 girls - we made 15 Birthdays in a Box.
After we made a huge pyramid of the packed boxes and took some pictures of the girls goofing off around them we calmed them with a soothing cup of camomile tea. We one-lumped or two'd with proper etiquette (for the Mouse Around the House challenge) and tried to be proper ladies while lifting our little fingers.
Finally we sang our closing song, gave the girls the bag they decorated last week with their banana bread, a candy cane, a Christmas ornament, some pictures of what they've been up to this year, markers and lip balm and sent them home tired but happy.
See you again in January - we're done early this year - December's too busy with everything else anyway!
After we finished skating and the wiggles were firmly out of the girls, we started putting together the birthdays in a box.
Here's the link to the checklist we used:
http://www.albertagirlguides.ca/Documents/AB/Birthday-Party-in-a-Box-Checklist.pdf
We asked the girls to either buy some of the requests in the box or go door to door and ask for donations from neighbours, friends and/or family. Many families just decided to go to the dollar store and pick up some necessities.
I also asked my church to donate. The church in and of itself created four birthdays in a box.
Then my coleader and I packed up a bunch of them in boxes before we set the girls upon them.
The girls packed 8 together, and my coleader and I packed 7 before our meeting.
Then we wrapped them all and they'll be getting into the local food bank on Wednesday. Some lucky boys and girls whose families use the food bank will be able to have modest birthday parties. AWESOME.
In our little unit of 10 girls - we made 15 Birthdays in a Box.
After we made a huge pyramid of the packed boxes and took some pictures of the girls goofing off around them we calmed them with a soothing cup of camomile tea. We one-lumped or two'd with proper etiquette (for the Mouse Around the House challenge) and tried to be proper ladies while lifting our little fingers.
Finally we sang our closing song, gave the girls the bag they decorated last week with their banana bread, a candy cane, a Christmas ornament, some pictures of what they've been up to this year, markers and lip balm and sent them home tired but happy.
See you again in January - we're done early this year - December's too busy with everything else anyway!
Birthday Party in a Box
Alberta’s 100th Anniversary Service Project for 2013
Birthday Boxes for Food Banks
Alberta is celebrating 100 years of Guiding and we want to share in
our celebrations. What better way than to make “Birthday Parties in a Box”
for your local Food Bank.
Sadly, because of various reasons, there are many children whose birthdays
will pass without any celebration. Receiving that special gift, enjoying a slice of
birthday cake after blowing out the candles, and the knowledge that someone
remembered you and took the time to let you know they care can make a difference.
The Birthday-Party-in-a-Box Service Project can provide normalcy, joy, and hope in
the lives of those who may not otherwise have a birthday celebration.
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
A wonderful wintery day!
We continued with our program of the Being Healthy Keeper today. We opened with a group activity with hula hoops and jumping. Jumping takes an incredible amount of energy! A good thing to wear off when you're dealing with five and six year old girls.
The trick with Heartbeats is to have the girls understand how exercise effects their heartrate. So we started by putting our hands over our hearts and counting beats for 10 seconds. We talked a little about all the things we can do to get that heartrate up! Running, jumping, swimming, dancing and snowmobiling took the top spots by the girls.
We put on some Kidzbop (Funkytown) and divided the girls into two teams. I spread out four hula hoops on the floor in front of each team and we jumped through them five or six ways. Then we spent four minutes just running around in follow the leader.
The we stood in a circle again and measured our heartrate. The girls noticed (surprise!) that it was faster than it was before. We explained that the heart is a muscle - just like those in our arms and legs and it's important to exercise it every day for at least 20 minutes.
Having worn them out we divided our Sparks into two groups.
My co-leader took one group and made banana bread, then decorated some shortbread cookies with icing and sprinkles.
My group made some vaseline and Kool-Aid lip gloss and then decorated some gift bags for their banana bread (they'll go home next week).
Then we switched out.
We finished a minute before the end of our hour.
The trick with Heartbeats is to have the girls understand how exercise effects their heartrate. So we started by putting our hands over our hearts and counting beats for 10 seconds. We talked a little about all the things we can do to get that heartrate up! Running, jumping, swimming, dancing and snowmobiling took the top spots by the girls.
We put on some Kidzbop (Funkytown) and divided the girls into two teams. I spread out four hula hoops on the floor in front of each team and we jumped through them five or six ways. Then we spent four minutes just running around in follow the leader.
The we stood in a circle again and measured our heartrate. The girls noticed (surprise!) that it was faster than it was before. We explained that the heart is a muscle - just like those in our arms and legs and it's important to exercise it every day for at least 20 minutes.
Having worn them out we divided our Sparks into two groups.
My co-leader took one group and made banana bread, then decorated some shortbread cookies with icing and sprinkles.
My group made some vaseline and Kool-Aid lip gloss and then decorated some gift bags for their banana bread (they'll go home next week).
Then we switched out.
We finished a minute before the end of our hour.
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