SSSS Badge

We had a special guest tonight at Brownies - Nana Owl.  Nana Owl is a retired teacher (and trefoil guild member) that comes into Brownies about once a year when we do something music-related.  The SSSS badge worked well for her.  We asked her what she'd like to do this year, and she mentioned that she'd love to bring in her West African Drums and drum with the girls.  That reminded me of a craft that I did with my Sparks a few years ago, and after a few tweaks we decided to run with it!

When we originally did this craft we used shot-sized red solo cups.  The Dollarama sells their own brand of wine-sized cups that are slightly bigger, though not as big as solo cups, and are a perfect size!  Secondly, instead of masking tape, we used duct tape (and I found sparkly tape at Dollarama as well and the girls had a field day with it) - three pieces of duct tape about two inches longer than the opening works best.  I pre-hot glued them together before Brownies.  Gives the glue enough time to dry.

Then we made Brownie Phones.  We used cotton wool from Wal-Mart.  A small ball was enough for 21 Brownies. And we used about two yards for each phone.

Then Nana Owl arrived for the last half hour.  She went through drumming with the girls, answered their questions about her time in West Africa, and talked about what we can hear anywhere.

Finally - we've been working with our Brownies on their knots.  They've all mastered their Reef Knots, so we decided that the next knots should be a stopper knot (chose the double stopper) and the two knots for flags, Sheet Bent and Clove Hitch.  I made up three sets of these, one for each sixes' box.

Traditional Enrollment

Twist me and turn me - those are some powerful words to me, and I have to admit that I tear up every year during enrollment.


This year with the girls we chose a traditional enrollment.  The toadstool sitting on a carpet of grass, surrounding a small pool of water with a mirror inside it.  We doubled our brownies from last year to this year (proof we are doing something right, right?) so all the new girls came up with their sixers and seconds, and were enrolled by them one at a time.

After twisting and turning they got to shake hands with the District Commissioner, then our Area Commissioner, then Brown Owl.

They got certificates, their title tape, enrollment pin, year pin and circle patch.


Around the toadstool we put two of the crafts they've done with their key to Brownies (and then they got to take them home).

The first was a toadstool made from recycled egg cartons.

The second were pinecones stuffed with cotton balls and two googly eyes.

Which Way Badge

A few weeks ago we went to a local corn maze.

A wonderful thing about the world of Guiding is finding a sister Scout who has a great idea for your Brownies at a corn maze.

Before we got there, she sent her Eagle Scout into the corn maze and had him create a compass map for the girls to use.

The girls were divided into groups, and went into the corn maze with a leader, two compasses and a compass map.  The map basically read "go to the first fork and then go" insert compass point directions.  Halfway through the maze they ran across Brown Owl, who took back the compass map and gave them an overhead view of the maze, with a North pointing arrow and a "you are here" dot.


Once they got out of the maze we showed them how to find south using moss on trees, and how to tell time using the sun.


Then they got to run off to the jungle gym that bordered the maze and play.



On the way back the bus ride was full of laughing, chattering, singing Brownies.

Opening

Our first week started with learning the Brownie song, as well as the songs for all of our sixes.  Our numbers doubled this year!  Wow! We must be doing something right!  As leaders we want the sixers and seconds to do a little bit more of the leading this year, so wanted to give them each their own space.

Each board was made out of one of the three-fold boards that you can use for science fair projects, I found pictures of each of the creatures, and we put the promise, motto, law, sign, how to tie your tie, along with the Brownie song and the circle song for that circle.  This year we have Elves, Fairies, Gnomes and Kelpies.  (Which reminds me, why are kepies in red hats when they're horse mermaids?)

Brown Owl took them when I was done to mac-tac the pictures down.  

Then we had the girls make themselves Promise cards out of this owl pattern.  We had all the hearts precut for them, and the center of the belly had the promise printed on them.  We used leftover foam sheets and construction paper - trying to use our resources wisely!

Random End of Year Musings....

Last week the Sparks visited the Brownies and the Brownies visited the Guides.  Since my daughter is a second year Brownie, I went with the Brownies to Guides to keep ratio.  

At Guides, the girls did half of the Guide science badge.  They made a polymer, a lava lamp, and started a seed gestating.

I got home after the Guide meeting, and a long week, to find a present in my mailbox from Girl Guides Alberta - a key ring with two removable coins for shopping carts.  It brightened my whole day and I decided to pay that forward.

Our unit's Brown Owl has a hard time finding a tuque that fits - so using the pattern from the Fall 2015 Canadian Guider - I made her a hat!  I made it quite a bit bigger than the original pattern - and I also added the words Brown Owl after the trefoil design.

Backwards Camp

Our Brownie Camp this year is Backwards Camp!

When we broke the girls up into their groups for camp chores, we had them pick Palindrome names.  Palindromes are phrases or words that are the same backwards and forwards.

The group names we gave the girls to pick from are as follows -

TACO CAT  -  CAMP MAC  -  DR AWKWARD  -  EVIL OLIVE  -  GO DOG  -  I DID DID I?  -  KAYAK  -  LLAMA MALL  -  NURSES RUN  -  RACECAR  -  STAR RATS  -  TOP SPOT  -  TUNA NUT  -  WE FEW

The girls chose Top Spot and Go Dog as their team names.

Friday night we had campfire, mug up and went off to bed.

Saturday we - set up a 28 sign trail signs course for the girls and had them complete it in pairs (it was through the woods, so each pair had a leader following them to make sure they were ok), practiced our knots (slip knot, bow, reef, half hitch and sheetshank), made suncatchers by melting plastic pony beads in metal cookie cutters, practiced our lashings, and then make a weaving out of them and wove in feathers and grass from camp, made memory bags on a sewing machine, had an egg hunt, wrote messages backwards on paper for a partner, made our own dinner and snack, had two campfires (one run by our Guide helper so she could get her campfire leader badge), and had two flag ceremonies!

Since it was backwards/break the rules camp the girls got to have their dessert first for every meal, and we also had breakfast for dinner and dinner for breakfast.

With the suncatchers, we had each girl make two - one to keep and one to give away.  We're dropping off the suncatchers at meals on wheels in our community to drop off when they drop the meals off.

Our suncatchers - use an old cookie tray, they leave bits of plastic behind!

Weaving and Lashing

Another weaving and lashing - the girls could choose three sticks or four.

Our campfire!

We had the best weather!  Oftentimes Alberta in April is either rainy or snowy, which ends up giving the girls a bit of cabin fever!  It was +19 on Saturday, so we spent 90% of our time outdoors soaking up the fresh air and sunshine!

Building Birdhouses

Our local Home Depot no longer offers Birdhouse Building classes for kids.  They do, however, have boxes of these birdhouses in the back and were more than happy to let us build some on our own!

We used this as a great opportunity for our Brownies to bring their parents with them to help build the birdhouses.  We did ask them to make sure that the Brownies were doing the work - not their parent!

Brown Owl, bless her, had a bunch of different high-quality paints to paint them with.