January & February with the Pathfinders
January and February were busy months for the Pathfinders with Thinking Day, Winter Camp and Pathfinder-led Modules.
Our first meeting after the holidays had very low attendance so the girls watched a movie.
Our next meeting had nearly everyone present and the evening was spent planning camp activities and the all-important menu. The Pathfinders planned to spend part of their weekend outside and part inside, with all of the cooking being done inside.
The next meeting was split into two parts, with the first part spent planning the activities for Thinking Day and the other have spent working on the Broaden Your Horizons Module (needed for the Canada Cord by our one 3rd-year Pathfinder). For Thinking Day, the girls decided on a foam teddy bear craft, colouring sheets, Mosquito Tag, Active Living, Making a Water Filter and a campfire. For the Broaden Your Horizons Module, we compared the Promises and Laws of Canada, Venezuela, Finland, Poland, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Brunei and New Zealand, and also talked about things that all Girl Guides and Girl Scouts have in common. We had a discussion about Girl Guides being an all-girl organization and attempted to debate the pros and cons of this, unfortunately, this didn't go very well, so we ended the debate portion. We will learn how to debate properly later on and try again with a different topic.
Our final meeting of January was the Secret Agent 007 Module run by two of the Pathfinders. The led the group through fingerprinting and a challenge to figure out which prints belonged to which Pathfinder; the education and job requirements to be a forensic scientist; creating codes and solving coded messages; creating mazes; and a scavenger hunt around the meeting place using clues to get from one spot to the next.
February started off with a two-part meeting. The first half of the meeting was spent preparing craft supplies for Thinking Day and reviewing plans, and the second half was based on the Active Living Module and led by the two Pathfinders who had chosen this module. The first active living activity included an exercise session covering flexibility, stretching, pushups, situps, endurance activities, skipping, and jumping jacks. After they were "warmed up" each girl was asked to lead an exercise or game. The second activity was a discussion about what active living is and brainstorming a list of non-sporting activities that they could do to keep active.
Our next meeting was also a two-part meeting. For the first half of the meeting, we shopped for the groceries for winter camp and then came back to the hall for more on Active Living. Tonight's activities were a discussion about the barriers to being active and ways to over come them, and having each girl create a plan to be more active over the next month. We will check in each week to see how everyone is doing with their plans.
Our annual winter camp was held on Family Day weekend - see the Winter Camp post for details.
February 19th was our town-wide Thinking Day event run by the Pathfinders. Unfortunately only 4 Pathfinders were able to attend, but they were still able to run a successful event with a bit of help from the Rangers and Guiders. See the Thinking Day post to read about the activities we did.
The last meeting in February was a bridging meeting with the 3rd year Guides. The theme for the evening was Time Travel and the activities were planned to complete the It's About Time Module. Each girl was asked to dress up as a character from history or as a person living in a different time period. We had cowgirls from the Old West, girls from the 1980s, pioneer girls, a Greek goddess, a 1920s flapper, and a scientist. Our first activity was a brief overview of clocks, timepieces and calendars through history including sun clocks, water clocks, hourglasses, mechanical clocks, Stonehenge, and the Sumarian, Egyptian and Mayan calendars. Next we explored archaeology with a Powerpoint presentation about the Colony of Avalon in Newfoundland, a game about the importance of context in archaeology (the girls had to identify each other's bedrooms from a list of 5 items), and a mini-archaeological dig where the girls had to find beads in a basin of soil. After cleaning up each girl shared about their costume and we made hot chocolate. Our last activity was an accordion book with decorated covers and ribbon to tie it shut, which was then filled out as a personal timeline. The Guides learned a bit about how Pathfinder meetings are run and everyone had a fun!
