September & October with the Rangers

The Ranger year started off with a barbeque on September 6th. We made chicken kebabs, baked potatoes and chocolate brownies. After we finished eating, we made a list of activities to do this year and also planned the menu for fall camp.

Our first regular meeting of the year was held the following week and we reviewed the camp menu and planned camp activities (Minute-To-Win-It Activities, Geocaching, shelter building, and the Camp Orenda Challenge). We also looked into local geocaches and talked about planning a day to visit them. Later in the evening, we started planning a new cookie display board as the current one has photos from when the Rangers were Guides!

September 20th to 22nd was our Fall Camp - see this post.

October started with a planning meeting to plan meetings for October, November and December. We looked at the badges available from the UK as part of the Badges for Thinking Day program and decided to work on the Chocolate and Confectioner's Badges. One of the planned meetings is a craft night and the chosen crafts are dry erase boards made from paint chips in a frame and toothbrush/toothpaste holders made from washcloths - both ideas found on Pinterest.

Saturday, October 19th was Cookie Day at Sears and we teamed up with the Pathfinders to sell 6 cases of Spring Cookies and 14 cases of Fall Cookies.

Our last meeting of October was a Global Awareness Night where we explored strange but true laws and laws around the world that impact women. Discussion included how various laws affect women's lives - for better or for worse and what it would be like to live in a country with various laws.

September & October with the Pathfinders

Our year started off at the end of August with a barbeque and planning session. We made chicken and veggie kebabs, baked potatoes and chocolate brownies. Our first formal meeting was held on September 11th and was spent planning activities and meals for camp. At the next meeting, we went grocery shopping for camp and talked about last-minute camp preparation and up-coming meetings.

Our third meeting was devoted to the 'We're A Team' module and learning to work together

as a group. We did a number of team challenges and Minute to Win It Games. Challenges included:

• Change Over - Ask the team to stand together on a tarp. Without stepping off the tarp, players must turn the tarp over completely and remain standing on the tarp the entire time. Repeat with a smaller tarp.
• Everybody Up - Hold hands in a circle, with feet pressed against the feet of the people on either side. While keeping hands clasped and feet together, the whole group must sit down on the ground. Then stand up again!
• Pass the Can - Players sit in a circle with a coffee can on one player's foot. Tell players to pass the can around the circle using only their feet. If the can falls to the ground, they must start over.
• All Aboard - Spread out a cloth or tarp in front of the group. When "All Aboard" is called, everyone is to get both feet on the tarp (platform). Once this is done, everyone steps off the platform. The tarp is then folded in half and the actions repeated. Continue until the group is unable to get everyone onto the platform.

October started off with a meeting on "Cookies, Code of Conduct and Choosing Your Own Direction" to cover the Cookies Rising and Choosing Your Own Direction Modules. Two of the activities we did were re-writing the Promise in text and designing Cookie Selling brochures with tips for Sparks and Brownies.

At our second meeting in October we celebrated the International Day of the Girl. We learned about what the Day of the Girl is and about The Girl Effect. Activities included "Who Are the Lucky Ones?", "How is the World Divided?" (from the Equitas Play It Fair Toolkit), and "Minefield". Each girl then completed a postcard answering the question "We need girls in the lead because..."

Our next meeting was a Board Game Night. We played Twister, Checkers and Taboo, as well as active games - Blob Tag, Fetch, Arches, and Duck, Duck, Goose.

We participated in the annual Cookie Day at Sears on October 19th where we teamed up with the Rangers to sell 6 cases of Spring cookies and 14 cases of Fall cookies.

Our October 23rd meeting was "The Arts From A to Z" module. We started off with two drama games - "Emotion Actions" (charades with emotions) and "Imagination Walks" (moving in a certain way - i.e. walking as if you were on the moon, as if your pinky finger weighed 100 pounds). Next we went on to dance, with girls sharing steps from the different types of dance they have taken. Keira shared the "Coffee Grinder" from Hip Hop, Lynsey shared "Jazzy Blues" from Jazz, Taylor shared steps from Highland and Meaghan shared "Laundry" from Hip Hop. Then we moved onto music, with people sharing their favourite songs and music genres. Our final activity was crafting, making beaded spiral bracelets using coiled wire and small beads.

The last meeting of October was a Hallowe'en Party. We had a wide variety of costumes - a Pathfinder, a Hockey Fan, a Gummy Bear, a Scarecrow, a Devil, a Zombie, a Nerd and an 80s Rock Star. We made two edible crafts - Lollipop Ghosts (lollipop covered with a napkin tied under the lollipop and a face drawn on) and Dead Surgeon's Hands (plastic glove [mine were blue] with candy corn in the fingers as nails and then filled with caramel corn). We also shaved balloons (cover inflated balloon with shaving cream and try to shave with a plastic knife without popping the balloon) - very, very messy! We created toilet paper mummies, and layed "Pin the Tail on the Zombie Unicorn". The evening ended with snacks and drinks.

Hallowe'en Party

Our Hallowe'en party had full attendance, with many interesting costumes!

Our arrival activity was a craft - Lollipop Ghosts, made by tying a napkin over a lollipop and drawing on eyes and a mouth.

We had our usual opening and then started the evening off with a costume parade - while everyone's costume's were still intact! Then we started into a series of Hallowe'en-themed games:

• Pass the Creature - Girls are in patrols and must pass the creature (a rubber toy) along the line without using their hands.
• Goblins & Ghouls - Girls are divided into two teams and line up facing each other. One team is Goblins, the other Ghouls. Call out Goblins or Ghouls, the team called chases the other team to the back of their playing area. Anyone tagged joins the other team.
• Pumpkin Ball - similar to Prison Ball. Girls are in two teams and face each other. an area behind each team is marked at the 'pumpkin patch'. Girls throw balls from opposite sides of the room and try to hit other players below the knees. If you are hit, you go to the pumpkin patch behind the opposite team. If a player in the pumpkin patch catches a ball, she frees everyone in that pumpkin patch and they rejoin their team.

Towards the end of the evening we did a creepy murder story. The girls sat around in the circle with the lights off and were told that sadly Mr. Hal O. Ween had been murdered and that his remains had been recovered (I don't recall where the original story came from - we modified some of the items). Dishes were then passed around for the girls to touch:

• This is his brain, which no more shall think (soaked torn up paper towel)
• These are his eyes, frozen in surprise (2 peeled grapes)
• This is his hair, once so fair (an unraveled piece of string)
• Some drops of his blood, the rest turned to mud (ketchup mixed with water)
• One hand alone, just rotting flesh and bone (plastic glove filled with water and put in the freeze at the beginning of the meeting)
• Worms are all that's left, for them 'twas a lovely meal (cold cooked spaghetti)

We ended the evening with another edible craft - Dead Surgeon's Hands (blue plastic gloves with candy corn for finger nails and filled with caramel corn), followed by treats.

International Day of the Girl 2013

At our October 8th meeting we celebrated the 2nd International Day of the Girl. As they arrived, each girl was asked to add to a Graffiti Wall (made using a large roll of paper) by writing or drawing her thoughts on what it means to be a girl.
After our opening ceremony, we played a game of Band Aid Tag, then discussed what the International Day of the Girl is, organizations that help girls, and how life is different for girls in other parts of the world. 
Other activities included "Who Are the Lucky Ones?", "Minefield", and "How is the World Divided?"

• Who Are the Lucky Ones? - This game uses chance cards to show how life can differ for families around the world. Cards can be found here -
  www.shurdington.org/Downloads/ChanceCards.pdf‎
• Minefield - In this game, papers are spread out around the playing area to represent hazards. Around the edges of the playing field are papers with warnings written on them (i.e. Danger, Stay Away, Keep Off Property). Players are divided into pairs and one partner stands at each end of the playing field. The players at one end are blindfolded. The partner at the other end tries to guide her partner safely across the field by giving verbal directions. If the blindfolded partner steps on a hazard, she goes back to the starting line. The blindfolded partner can't read, so she doesn't understand that she is about to walk through a dangerous area (representing the challenges faced by girls). The other partner represents education, literacy, etc. and how these can help a girl overcome challenges.
• How is the World Divided? - Activity 38 in the Equitas Play It Fair Toolkit

The final activity of the evening was to create postcards answering the question - "We need girls in the lead because..."

Promise & Law

Our first meeting in October was devoted to Promise and Law activities to get our new members ready for enrolment and to review the promise and law with everyone. As the girls arrived, they were asked to write down ideas for the Hallowe'en party at the end of the month and then each patrol was asked to imagine that they were stuck on a desert island and to decide on rules that they thought would be needed there.
After our opening, the girls played an active game and then came together to discuss what a Promise is and to go over their 'desert island rules'. At the same time, we talked about the Code of Conduct and how the rules they had chosen for their desert island covered many of the same things.
Next, we played a game - BURRPLS Laws (BURRPLS is an acronym made using the first letter of each law). Players stand in a circle and each is given a law. A leader or player stands in the centre. The players in the circle pass a ball around the circle. When the player in the centre calls out 'BURRPLS!', the player holding the ball sits down with her legs straight out in front of her and calls out her law. Play continues until all players are sitting down. 
We then sat down to come up with unit guidelines - topping the list were "No Whining!" and "Smile!".  The girls came up with a list of 10 guidelines for behaviour at meetings.
We then did an activity in small groups where each group chose colours (using suckers) to represent each guide law. This was followed by demonstrating the sign and handshake and reading a brief story about why Guides and Scouts use the left handshake.
We ended the meeting by planning the Hallowe'en party.