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.

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!

Woodworking Party!

DThis week the girls all earned their Wood Works Badge.  One of the dads made the outside holders, but the girls put the rest together themselves for a gift for their families.  They got a how-to on how not to hurt themselves with the tools they were using, and then got to decorate the memo pad holder.

They also made a fun ornament for a Christmas tree.  For this craft you need to weave the ribbon into the lace, then pull it tight around the top of the bulb.

We had a bit of a party for the girls since we have a field trip next week and service in December.  The above are Santa Hat snacks - 1/3 of a banana, 1/3 of a large marshmallow, a strawberry and a mini marshmallow on top.  I added the Skittles early, but they bleed into the banana.  I suggest adding them just before serving. Also, one of the girls completed their Family Heritage badge, and used the occasion to bring in Mincemeat Tarts.

Cupcakery Fun!

Last night the girls got to go to a local cupcake shop and try their hands out at decorating cupcakes.  They had a blast!

They got to tour the kitchen (the mounds of butter they use every day shocked them), and got a demonstration of how to decorate the cupcakes then got two cupcakes to decorate themselves.  They had plastic piping bags for buttercream icing, balls of fondant to roll out (and moulds to shape it in), candies, and a variety of shaping tools to use on the fondant like clay.

The shaker is for cornstarch - you need to sprinkle it over the mould and over the fondant as otherwise it can (and will) stick to everything.


A few tips for fellow leaders - ask the girls NOT to wear their sashes and scarves.  Either they get icing on them, or end up touching them to adjust them and then need to wash their hands again.  Also, the place we went has a lot of experience giving these kinds of programs for birthday parties, so they were really on the ball - but you wouldn't want inexperienced bakers with the girls.  Finally, make sure that you have a few skintight rubber gloves on hand.  We had a girl who had a band-aid on her hand and we had to replace it thrice!

All the fun of decorating on a tray!

My efforts :-)

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.

Our Cabana & Lord and Lady Baden-Powell

Tonight we had a half Lady Baden-Powell and half Our Cabana meeting.  We started by going around the circle.  We asked the girls what they'd liked the best about Sparks so far.  We also looked at some pictures of Our Cabana. 

Then we made quesadillas.  We gave all the kids a half tortilla, and had them add their own toppings.  Most chose a bit of salsa, cheese and some black beans.  While we were waiting the 10 minutes or so for the quesadillas to cook, we read the kids the story of the Baden-Powells, and the Night Walk story from the Go Sparks Go book.

After we ate, we split the girls into two groups.  We have two Brownies with our Sparks this year.  The time for Brownies just didn't work for them.  Next year they'll spend their year with the Guides, then stay with Guides until they're ready for Pathfinders.

So the Sparks went with Emerald and I and made Paper Bag Ponchos out of grocery store paper bags cut up the sides and a hole for the head.  Then they made God's Eyes.  I'm always on the lookout for ways to make traditional Guide crafts easier for our smallest members.  For the God's Eyes, I bought large popsicle sticks and hot glued them together.  I also found a type of chenille-yarn for them to use for their God's Eyes.  Here's some examples.

For the Brownies, we decided to do the puppet play badge, so today they made a theatre for their puppets, painted some toilet paper rolls orange for their marionettes, and made some finger puppets.

Finally, for our next meeting (which is the 23rd), we asked the girls to bring in a recycled glass jar.

Girl Guides in Belize

We ran into a circle, then went around, asking where everyone was from.  We then scooted over to our trusty World Map (please, find a map that isn't a Mercator Map).  We marked where all the girls came from, the four world centres, our town, and the country we'd be studying today - Belize!

Belize is awesome.  It's tiny, with a great set of Girl Guides who work there.  We showed the girls pictures of the coast of Belize, as well as pictures of Girl Guides there.

We then set up the girls at a table, gave them five rocks each and handed out glitter glue - they were going to make their own set of the Five Marias Game - it's a pretty common game in Central America.  A player gets five small rocks.  They throw the first in the air, pick up a rock from the ground and then catch the falling rock.  Continue until you're throwing four and picking up the fifth.  The girls decorated theirs with glitter glue, then picked up five stones and a partner to try the game out!

While Emerald was supervising the glittering of rocks, I made some more Fry Jacks.  We had these at our New Year's sleepover this year, and they were a great hit.

After the girls had eaten their snack, we cleaned up, and then I set up two logs in the middle of our meeting place.  The girls took turns, two at a time, to move the boards from one side to another.

We had time at the end, so we played a make believe you are an animal in the rainforest of Belize game.  Jaguars, monkeys, toucans, iguanas and butterflies roamed our meeting room until it was time to get home!

A Happy Unbirthday Party

A part of The World Around Me Keeper is learning about birthdays around the world.  So to complete this part of the keeper, we decided to do a little Mad Hatter throwback and have a happy UnBirthday Party!

We bought the girls an awesome patch from epatches.  If you'd like to get it, click here!

We sang our opening song, collected dues and asked them to talk about how their family celebrates their birthday.  Then we talked a little about how people in other countries celebrate their birthdays and had a small snack.  We ate hundreds and thousands (slices of bread, crusts removed, with butter and sprinkles) that are common in Australia, and sesame noodles from China.

Then we made ourselves birthday crowns.  We took a toilet paper tube, wrapped it in washi tape, cut the top to be points, and then used twine and a yarn needle to put a string through it.  They were awfully cute.

Here's an example -

And had some hundreds and thousands (also known as fairy bread) - which is served in Australia for birthdays.

It's white bread, crusts off, spread with butter and sprinkles.

Then we sang our I'm special song, to the tune of "If you're happy and you know it".

I'm special and I know it clap your hands!

I'm special and I know it clap your hands!

I'm special and I know it and I really want to show it.

I'm special and I know it clap your hands!

Then one girl sang a line of

"I'm special and I know it because I know how to hop!  Hop!  Hop!"

Then we went back and sang the verse as well.

We built some towers out of toothpicks and marshmallows.  (We let the girls eat three each!)

Finally we broke out the pinata and had the girls try and crack it.  We used a mini hockey stick.  We did fill the pinata, but we didn't really want to send the girls home with a ton of candy, so we filled it with some rockets (what Americans call smarties), stickers and a few birthday party grab bag toys.