Winter Wonderland

We spent the first two weeks of March working on a combination of winter-themed activities, activities to complete the Alberta Polar Challenge, and planning for the remainder of the Guiding year.

Week 1 as the girls arrived, we asked each Patrol to brainstorm a list of activities we could do, theme ideas for meetings, badges they were interested in working on, etc. We then had our usual opening followed by an active game.

Our first activity was Countries of the Arctic. We spread out a world map on the floor and had the girls find the Arctic Circle and then find the countries that are located within the Arctic (Canada, USA, Greenland, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland (border)). We also talked about Antarctica and how it is not owned by any country, but that a number of countries claim parts of it and there are many research teams that visit there.

Next we had an active game - Dog Sled Races. In this game, the girls line up in teams at one end of the room. The first girl in the team runs the length of the room and back to her team. When she reached her team, she picks up the second girl on the team (second girl holds onto the waist or shoulders of the first girl) and they both run to the end of the room and back. They then pick up the third girl, and continue until the whole team runs the length of the room and back together.

We then moved on the Animals of the Poles, where we identified some animals that live in the Arctic and/or in Antarctica and made two 'critters' - a Snowy Owl and a Penguin.

This took up most of the remainder of the meeting, and we ended with an action song and Taps. Each girl was then given a "take-home" craft - Crystal Snowflakes. They were given all of the supplies needed except for a glass container and hot water.

 

Week 2 started out with each girl indicating her preferences on a "I Want To Do..." list of activity suggestions based on the ideas the patrols had come up with last week. The ideas were: (1) Vet visit and learn about pet care; (2) Build birdhouses; (3) Visit The Aviary to see exotic birds and go on a hike; (4) Have a Chilean meeting; (5) Baking night; (6) Dress-up night and learn about real princesses. We then had our usual opening and played an active game - Unicorn Tag.

We then had a discussion about life in polar regions and how different animals have adapted to life there - i.e. the larger paws on a lynx or arctic hare that allows them to walk on top of the snow like they are wearing snowshoes, and how certain animals coats change to white so that they blend in with the snow. We also talked about the challenges that animals in the polar regions face, with the lack of vegetation, melting ice packs, and human encroachment.

Next we played a Polar Game called Owl Hop. The goal of this game is to hop as long as possible on one foot. All the players choose a foot to hop on and place their other foot behind the knee of the hopping leg. Players cannot change legs and must hop completely clear of the floor.

A planning session was next, and we split up into groups for this. The 3rd Years made plans for a meeting they will run for the rest of the unit (Sweets Night), and the 1st and 2nd Years brainstormed ideas on different themes - Animals, Oceans-Waves-Sand, Body, and Other People. Lots of good ideas were generated and we have lots of material to work with to plan the next two-and-a-half months of meetings.

We moved onto an Arts activity next, where the girls worked in small groups to create a dance to celebrate the return of the sun after a long, dark winter.

Our final activity of the evening was to learn the song "40 Years on an Iceberg". We then ended with Taps.

Winter Camp 2015

On the weekend of February 6th to 8th the 2nd Caledonia Guides, 8th Brantford Guides, and 1st Caledonia Rangers went to Camp Teka in Paris for a Winter Camping Weekend. We had 19 Guides, 4 Rangers and 4 Adults in attendance.

As the girls arrived on Friday night, they spent time getting to know each other and made Warm Fuzzy Bags. Warm Fuzzy Bags (or envelopes) are often used at summer camp and the idea is that each girl has a bag and tries to put a nice, friendly note or drawing into everyone else's bag over the course of the camp. We had decided to have a very relaxed camp, so the girls were free to chat, make friendship bracelets, use the supplies on the activity table (activity sheets, books, craft supplies) for the rest of the evening.

We were all up bright and early on Saturday and after packing up all the bedding and stacking the mattresses, sat down to a breakfast of pancakes, bacon, eggs and fruit. Once the morning duties were finished, we headed outside. While the Rangers went geocaching, the Guides started off with two activities from the Alberta Polar Challenge. The first activity was called Polar Scientists. For this activity, the girls split up into smaller groups and chose an area of snow to examine - the coolest find was some tiny insects crawling in the snow near the flagpole. The second activity was a Polar Game called Animal Sounds. Cards with the names of animals and the sound they make were placed in the middle of the playing area. On a signal, the girls had to get a card and start making the animal sound until they found their partner. After these activities, it was time to go for a walk and tobogganing!

Next up was lunch, so we headed inside and the cook patrol began preparing lunch - grilled cheese, soup, and veggies. After lunch and duties, we moved on to our main craft of the weekend - decoupage candle holders. We made these out of glass tumblers, and used modge podge to stick on tissue paper and provide a finish to everything. Battery-operated tealights were added later.

Once we were cleaned up from crafting, we started another activity from the Alberta Polar Challenge - Climate Change in Polar Regions. For this activity, we created an island out of clay on the base of a plastic cake pan lid and added some water. A line was drawn using a toothpick to show the water level, and then we added ice cubes to represent icebergs and left them to melt. While the ice cubes were melting, the Guides were taught the phonetic alphabet and finger spelling. We checked the progress of our island twice, drawing lines on the clay island to show the rising water levels as the icebergs melted, and talked briefly about why the melting of icebergs and polar ice caps is a concern. During this time, the Rangers headed outside again, this time to go cross-country skiing.

Everyone then had some free time while dinner was prepared (tacos). After dinner we had more free time and then the Guides went outside to play a game of night eyes arranged earlier by the Rangers. The Rangers stayed inside, but went out tobogganing at midnight once the Guides were in bed.

Sunday morning was busy with breakfast, packing and cleaning up the building ready for pick-up. Everyone had a good time and girls were asking when we would do it again!