Meeting #27: Learn About Guiding

You in Guiding: Learn About Guiding (YiG2)

6:30-7:00 Patrol Time: Read program book and come up with trivia questions. I wanted them to read the sections of the book on Lord and Lady Baden-Powell and Guiding in Canada, but I knew if I just told them to read, they wouldn't want to. So I tasked them with coming up with trivia questions that we could use later in the meeting! How Guiding Began pages 34-36 and About Guiding pages 291-293 (YiG2#2)


7:00-7:15 Horseshoe and read Participation Stories I found two participation stories on Becky's Guiding Resource and we did both to reinforce the story the guiding. (YiG2#1)
The Crystal Palace Rally
How Guiding Began

7:15-8:00 Lapbook cutting and pasting--We finished off our Lapbooks! They each got a page with pictures of Lady B-P and the story of Guiding that they could colour and use to decorate their books. I got them from Lee-Anne of the Owl and Toadstool blog. Comment on her lapbook post and she'll send you all the files you need for your lapbook! (YiG2#1)

8:00-8:30 Trivia game: We played Grab the Flag trivia, though our space was small so we removed the "tag back" rule--whoever grapped the stuffed owl first got to answer. The trivia questions the girls came up with were hard--they were all "What year was..." I had taken some back up ones from this History Game, and they were more doable for the girls. I still feel the initial task of having them write the trivia questions was worthwhile. (YiG2#2)

Meeting #29: Community Heritage outing

Beyond You: Discover Your Community

We were looking for a way to cover off another piece of the Discover Your Community square. We live in a rural suburb, with a number of subdivisions that have been around for less then 20 years, with a lot of older houses on the main road through our community.

We got in contact with Blue Barn Farms through a community heritage society and it was a really interesting night. When we first arrived, the girls got to into the chicken barns and see the baby chicks under the heat lamps.

Then we went into the barn, which was over 100 years old. The owner's father-in-law was there, and his great-grandfather had first bought the land in 1849. So it was a family farm and was still in the family. He told us all about how the farm used to be, before there was electricity and what our community was like all those years ago. (BY1#1 or #6)

Then we got to into the cow section and see the calves with their mothers and watch them drink their milk, and there were also more chickens in the barn, which were a few weeks older than the other ones we saw and didn't need heat lamps any more.

All of the animals on the farm are grain- or grass-fed and they are free range, which also ties in nicely with the work we did with Operation Earth Action and buying locally produced food.

Then we went back outside and played Stella-Ella-Ola while we waited for the parents to come pick them up.

Meeting #26: Famous Women

You and Others: Learn about Leadership (YaO1)

Famous Five Challenge

We scheduled the same activity we did a few years ago, with some tweaks to the format.

6:30-7:00: Patrol Time--The girls worked on the Word Search from the Famous Five Challenge. I transferred it to Excel, so it would print out individually. (Famous Five Word Search (Excel))

7:00-7:10 Horseshoe

7:10-7:45: Wall of Fame--Each Patrol had a laptop with access to the internet. We sent them to the Famous Canadian Women site, where they could look up a famous Canadian woman who shared their birthday. They read the short bio outloud to their patrol and then wrote down on construction paper that they cut into a shape, the woman's name, thing she's famous for, and birthday/year and death (if applicable). Then they had to make one for themselves and come up with a short description of themselves.

When everyone made their placards, we got back into Horseshoe and each person said their famous woman's name and description and their own, and then taped them up onto a blank poster to create our Wall of Fame. (YaO1#4)

7:45-8:20--Then the girls took the scripts from the Famous Five challenge and performed them for everyone else so we could learn all about the Famous Five and other Canadian women trailblazers. After the skits, we discussed what we learned about how it was to be a woman in Canada in the 1800s and 1900s, compared to the opportunities they have now.

8:20-8:30--Closing

Meeting #25: Chocolate Challenge

We had 16 second year Brownies coming to visit, so we decided they should come on the day we planned to do the chocolate challenge!

6:30-6:45--When the Brownies arrived, we divided them up between our 5 patrols.

6:45-7:00--We did Horseshoe and let the Brownies watch. Normally, I'd let them take part, but we barely have enough space for our 24 girls to march into formation, without adding another 16! Once the horseshoe was formed, the Brownies came up and joined us and we discussed the Guide program a little bit.

7:00-8:00--We set up 5 stations for the girls to go through, to earn the Chocolate Challenge

Station #1: Smore craft--Our crafty leader came up with another great idea! Cork for graham crackers, socks for chocolate, makeup cotton pads (pre-singed) for the marshmallow.

Station #2: Kim's game with chocolate bars. Our Guider did a great job finding 10 chocolate bars that were peanut free! I could guess 8 out of 10 correctly. After each group guessed, they got to sample one piece each. (Nut free bars we used: KitKat, Skor, Coffee Crisp, Twix, Big Turk, Cookies n Cream, Aero, Bounty, Mars)

Station #3: Pudding Painting. They helped shake up the pudding, and then they each got about 2 T of pudding to finger paint with and then they could eat what was leftover. They were also responsible for cleaning out the dishes for the next group.

Station #4: Chocolate taste testing.  They got little shot glasses full of different types of chocolate chips--milk, semi-sweet, white, bitter--and then decided which one they liked best.

Station #5: History of chocolate. We found a video on the making and production of chocolate. I think they started watching the video partway through. Chocolate video (YouTube)






8:00-8:25--We divided them into 8 groups and then split into 2 groups of 4 groups. We gave them topics to create skits. They are also so imaginative!

8:25-8:30--Closing. We gave out the Chocolate Crests and thanked the Brownies for coming. After a night like that, how can they not want to come to Guides next year?!

Meeting #18: Food Bank Volunteering

You in Guiding: Be Involved in Your Community (YiG4)

Outing! We went to Feed NS and spent 90 minutes sorting food into various categories. They sorted 2 and a half pallets of food that will be distributed to families across Nova Scotia. The girls had a great time and worked hard all night. I always love this as a Community Service Project. (YiG4#3)

Special Event #4: District Thinking Day Swimming Party

You in Guiding: Learn About Guiding (YiG2)

For Thinking Day, all levels--Sparks to Pathfinders--were invited to a Swimming Party! We booked the Wave Pool, and the girls  were in the pool for about an hour.

After swimming, we had the Community Room for our party. The Third Year Guides each created Lady Baden Powell posters to hang around the room as part of their LBP award.

When the girls first arrived in the room, we handed out Get to Know You Bingo cards. We paired the Sparks up with Guides to help with the reading. We also gave them all Girl Guides pencils to keep (Thinking Day Bingo Word doc) (YiG2#3)

Then we had pizza and juice for everyone, and ended with cupcakes. We sang Happy Birthday to Lord and Lady Baden Powell.

A good time was had by all!

Meeting #17: You and Others--Safety Posters

You and Others: Build Skills in Communication (YaO2)
You and Others: Learn About Safety (YaO4)

6:30-7:00--Patrol Time: The girls brought in their CWFF Banks that they made in the fall, but now they were full of pennies! Each Patrol rolled their pennies and each group shared and compared how much they each collected at Horseshoe.

7:00-7:10--Horseshoe

7:10-7:25--We talked about making a poster and how to effectively communicate an idea. We talked about use of colours, size of text, etc. (YaO2#3)

7:25-8:00--The girls broke up into groups of 2 or 3. They could pick any topic of safety that they wanted. We talked about safety ideas--water safety, street safety, on-line safety, car safety, etc. (YaO4#3)

8:00-8:15--Each group presented their poster and then the rest of the group guessed what their message was and talked about what was effective and what wasn't effective. Again, we talked about colours and text and what works in a poster. The girls did a great job of critiquing each poster, and we emphasized constructive criticism and giving positive feedback with the negative. (YaO2#3)

8:15-8:30--We sang a few songs before closing.