Volunteering!

This week we went to our local senior's centre to volunteer.

The girls made a simple craft, sang a few standard Christmas songs (we have a few Francophone girls so we also sang a verse of Petit Papa Noel).

Then the lodge gave the girls a small snack and then we went home.

Je Me Souviens

Click here for crests.

We went to our community Remembrance Day today.  The girls were able to help others to their seats, place a wreath and before we left an active service member came over and told us that she used to be in Guides and answered the girls' questions.

All in all, a day full of remembrances.

Brownie Stomp

Since our Brownies have a long weekend over Remembrance Day, we decided to hold a sleepover Wednesday/Thursday for the girls.  We had a great turnout - I put that on us having told the parents about the date of the sleepover when they first registered with us in September.

Click here for the crest we gave the girls.

Our Brown Owl calls a sleepover like this a stomp - because we get all over town :-)

Brown Owl also is a bus driver, so we got a really sweet deal on our bus to get to all the stops.

We asked our parents to make sure the girls had eaten before they arrived.  They arrived at 630 - set up their beds, and then we were on the road at 7.  First stop?  Our local vet.  They took the girls on a tour of the clinic, then showed them all the surgical equipment they use, and the wall of things they've pulled out of dogs and cats' stomachs.

Second stop - RCMP

The girls got to take home a pack of RCMP stickers, a Safety Bear Activity Book, and a paper hat.  They got a tour of the RCMP detachment, they got to interview a female RCMP member who was there, and they got to go back into cells and see the jailer.

Then we went bowling.  Some girls loved it, some hated it, but they all had a fun time.  The girls were getting hungry by this point -

So then we went to our local pizza place, made our own individual pizzas and took them back to the church to eat.

Then we got the girls to bed.  The whispering didn't stop until after midnight, and the girls were up at 630 the next morning.  After making sure the leaders had their coffee, we laid out breakfast while the girls packed up their things and put them down by the front door for easier pickup by parents.

Our church charges a small fee for overnights, but more if we use their kitchen.  Because we ate pizza the night before and had a cold breakfast in the morning, our costs were lowered by about 50%.  Huzzah!  We had apple juice boxes, muffins, yogurt and a couple of fruit platters for the girls to dig into.

If you're planning a night like this yourself, this is how we kept costs down.
-most places will give tours for free.  RCMP and Vet Clinic were free.
-ask your parents if any of them drive bus.  Our Brown Owl is able to use a community bus, but a school bus driver may be able to ask about borrowing the bus to their bus line, or be able to drive a bus that you rent yourself, saving you money that you'd have to pay the driver.
-ask about the place you're staying over giving you a discount if you don't use all the facilities.  (ie kitchen).  It's great to cook with the girls, but we will be doing that at our spring camp out, and they still got to make their own pizza.
-the bowling alley has a discount for schools or groups.  You could always ask if they have a special discount, or are able to give you a discount because Guides is a non-profit.

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!

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!

Remembrance Day 2015

The 11th in Canada is Remembrance Day - where we honour our past, present and future soldiers.

Just outside of our town in October they raised 116 Canadian Flags along the highway - one flag for every 1000 Canadian soldiers killed in service since 1900.  It's amazing to think that we've lost 116,000 people.

The girls went to the local Remembrance Day ceremony.  If you've never taken your unit to a Remembrance Day ceremony, I suggest it!