As the girls arrived, they went to their Patrol corners and marked their attendance and dues books. We started with our usual opening ceremony and then moved right into our activities.
We started with Changing Places to get the girls thinking about equality. Everyone stands in a circle, with one player in the centre. A Guider read out the statements one at a time. If a girl agreed with the statement, she had to leave her spot and cross the circle to try to find a new place. At the same time, the player in the centre tries to 'steal' a spot so that there will be a new person in the centre. We also added a rule that girls could not move into a spot immediately beside them to ensure the player in the centre had a chance of getting a spot. After the game finished, we had a discussion about the various statements and the types of stereotypes about boys and girls they have heard. Here are the statements we used:
- Boys and girls can wear pink clothing
- Housework (cleaning, ironing, cooking) are chores for both men and women
- Both women and men can play football
- Both men and women can dance ballet
- Men are good at caring for children and other family members
- Girls can do anything they want to do
- Equality makes all people happier
- It's OK for boys to cry in public
Our next activity was Discussing Gender Equality. Everyone moves around the room and listens for a Guider clapping. When they hear clapping, they need to form groups based on the number of claps (i.e. if the Guider claps 4 times, then they need to form groups of 4). Once the groups are formed, a question was asked, and the group had a few minutes to discuss it and then share the results of their discussion. This is repeated with different sized groups for each question. The questions we used were:
- Are girls and boys treated equally at your school? Why or why not?
- Do you think there are any jobs women cannot do? Why or why not?
- Imagine there is a science club at your school, but only boys are allowed to join. How could you convince the school to let girls join in too?
Next up, we did the From a Picture to a Story activity. We printed and cut out the pictures from the challenge pack and had each person pick one before we started. Everyone was introduced to Maria, a 10-year old Girl Guides. We then went around the circle and each person added an event or experience to Maria's life based on the picture they had chosen. Maria had a very interesting life, climbing trees in the woods, riding her bicycle to school, exploring welding as a career, eventually becoming a famous singer, and traveling around the world!
The final activity of the night was Team Girl Are Superheroes! Everyone split up into pairs/small groups and created a new superhero, including dressing up a team member using newspapers. Here are the latest team of superheroes!
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Name: Flashgirl Powers: Speed Message: "If you need help, I'm on the run" |
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Name: Noob Powers: Turning things into blocks Message: "Even though I'm a Noob, I can do things too!" |
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Name: Tea Lady Powers: Shoots tea from her eyes, Makes people happy by giving them hot tea Message: "All you need is an imagination" |
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Name: Ronald McDonaldette Powers: Can Fly Tools: Burger of Truth, Whip of Encouragement, Sword of Happiness Message: "I will feed you all" |
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Name: Galaxy Girl Powers: Mind reading, telepathy, teleportation Message: "You can do anything you put your mind to" |
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Name: Hero Heart Powers: Speed, Flight, Making people fall in love Message: "Spread love and kindness around the world" |
We closed with reminders for next week (the Power of Positive Thinking) and Taps.
- #TeamGirl 2018 Challenge (WAGGGS)
