World Thinking Day Celebrations

On Tuesday, February 24th all of the units in Caledonia got together to celebrate World Thinking Day. As the girls arrived, they made World Thinking Day bookmarks to trade with
each other later in the evening.

We began our evening with the Spark, Brownie and Guide openings and a brief welcome and introduction to the theme for World Thinking Day - "We Can Create Peace Through Partnerships" and our service project for the evening. As a service project, we made bookmarks for the Student's Rebuild Literacy Challenge. By making 95 bookmarks, the Bezos Family Foundation will donate $95 to Save the Children's Literacy Boost Programs in Peru, Mali and Nepal. We will also be forwarding $55 to the Canadian World Friendship Fund.

The girls were divided into 5 colour groups and the Guiders led their groups through the 5 planned activities. Through our activities, we explored World Guiding, the World Centres, and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). There was approximately 10 minutes for each activity, with a few minutes at the end to finish up crafts.

Activity A - World Centres - Sangam
Craft - Rangoli Art
At this station, the girls located the World Centres on a large world map, then created their own Rangoli designs using chalk on black card stock.

Activity B - MDG 2 - Education
Service Project - Celtic Knot Bookmarks
At this station, we worked on our service project for the evening. The girls were reminded that not all children are able to go to school and that by making bookmarks we were helping to children in other countries learn to read and write. The bookmarks we made had a celtic knot design, which the girls coloured and then glued onto a piece of card stock and added a piece of ribbon as a tassel.

Activity C - MDG 1 & 7 - Poverty & Environment
Activity - Plastic Bag Ball & African Handball
At this station, it was explained that not all children have money to buy toys and electronics, and they often make their own games from scrap materials. One object that is commonly made is a ball. The girls were shown how to make a ball using a wad of newspaper and plastic bags, then used a pre-made ball to play African Handball. In this game, the players are divided into two teams. Each team tries to keep control of the ball for as long as possible by tossing it back and forth between players - at the same time, the other team tries to intercept the ball. The player holding the ball cannot 'travel' with it and must throw it to another player before moving. When a player catches the ball, the other players on her team clap their hands and stamp their feet.

Activity D - MDG 8 - Partnerships
Activities - There's No I in Team
At this station, the girls practiced working together through three team building activities. The first activity was Pass the Can - in this activity, players sit in a circle and pass a coffee can around the circle using only their feet. If the can falls off someone's foot, the group starts over. The second activity was Sardines - in this activity, all the girls in the group stand on a tarp, making sure no one's feet are touching the floor. Everyone then gets off, and the tarp is folded in half. Continue folding the tarp in half and see how small it can be before the group can no longer fit onto it. The third a activity was Tarp Turn-Over - in this activity, a group stands on a tarp and tries to turn it over without anyone stepping off.

Activity E - WAGGGS - Twinning 2020: Ontario & Chile
Game - Corre, Corre la Guaraca 
At this station, the girls located Chile on a world map and learned that Ontario will be twinning partners for 2015-2016. The girls then played the game "Corre, Corre la Guaraca". In this game, the group sits in a circle while one player jogs around the outside with a handkerchief. Trying not to be felt, the runner drops the handkerchief on a players back and runs. If she makes it around the circle before the seated player realizes the handkerchief is on her back, the runner picks up the handkerchief and goes around the circle again. If the seated player catches on, she must get up and try to tag the runner. If she succeeds, the runner sits down and the second player becomes the runner. If she fails to catch her, they play again.

After the stations were completed, the girls had a few minutes to finish up their bookmarks for trading, the bookmarks for the service project and/or their rangoli art. They then had the opportunity to trade bookmarks with another girl.

We ended the evening with a snack (cupcakes and juice boxes) and singing "Fire's Burning" in a round, followed by Spark, Brownie and Guide closings.

Happy World Thinking Day!

Happy World Thinking Day from the Caledonia Guides, Pathfinders and Rangers
#WTD2015
#guidinglight

Learn About WAGGGS

The third meeting in February was spent learning about WAGGGS and international Guiding in preparation for World Thinking Day.

We started the evening with our usual opening and an active game. Before starting our program we spent a few minutes talking about the World Centres, the World Flag and the World Trefoil. Our first activity was a Relay Game based on a Guiding board game. We made each of the squares on the game board into a question and gave each patrol a set of answer cards. When a question was called out, each patrol had to choose a card and send a runner up. The first patrol to arrive with the right answer card received a bead (point). Some questions had 'shout it out' as part of the instructions - these didn't have points or cards attached, and for the Good Turn squares, a different member of each patrol had to come up each time and share a good turn they had done within the past week (all received a bead).

Next we moved on to comparing the uniforms and enrolment pins of different countries. For this activity, I had printed out cards with a picture of a Guide, the name of the country, what Guides are called there, and the age group. I coloured in each Guide and then pinned the enrolment pin onto the card (If I didn't have the actual pins, I could have printed images.) We passed the cards around so everyone could have a look and then put the cards in the middle and talked about the similarities and differences.

Next up was a game - African Handball. In this game, the goal is for one team to try to keep control of the ball from the other team. Players cannot travel while holding the ball, and when a player catches the ball, their team claps their hands and stamps their feet.

The last part of the meeting was spent preparing presentations. The 3rd Year Guides created a presentation about Lady Baden-Powell as part of the Lady Baden-Powell Challenge, while the other Guides were divided into two groups and made commercials to advertise World Centres - Pax Lodge and Sangam. After the presentations, we had closing and said good night.

Exploring Our Roots

The second meeting in February was spent learning about Guide History and Guiding in Canada.

As the girls arrived, each Patrol was asked to make up a short skit on a theme - Guide Meeting, Cookie Selling, Guide Camp, and Helping Others. As were were missing quite a few girls this week, we combined the girls and eliminated the Helping Others Skit.

We started the meeting with our usual opening followed by an active game, and then had the girls finish presenting their creative creations from last week.

This week's program was started off with a short discussion about people in Guiding. We went through the 5 youth branches and also talked about Lones and Adult roles (Link, Trefoil Guild, Unit Guiders, Trainers, Administrative Community Leaders).

Next we played two games. The first was a relay game found in an issue of The Guide magazine from 1921. The girls lined up in patrols and the player at the front of the line was given a ball. The ball is passed along the line on alternating sides (first player passes to the right, second to the left, and so on). We added a second ball to each team and also had the last player in line come to the front once she had both balls. The second game was found in an issue of The Guide magazine from the 1930s. The girls sit in two straight lines with their legs stretched out towards the other line. The first player in each line is given a ball. She has to bounce the ball on the outside with one hand, pass it to her other hand and bounce it on her other side before passing it to the next player who repeats the actions until the ball reaches the end of the line. We added a second ball starting at the opposite end and also had the balls go along the line one way and then back the opposite direction.

After our games we moved on to a badge quiz using old Guide badges. Badges were passed around one at a time and the patrols asked what they thought the badge might be called or what it might be for. As the girls guessed at each badge, we told them what the image on the badge was, what the badge was called, and a couple of things that a Guide would have needed to do in order to earn it.

As time was running out, we then moved on to our skits and facts about Guiding History.

First Fact - Guiding began in Canada in 1910, with groups forming in Toronto, St Catharines, Moose Jaw, Sardis (BC), Vancouver, Winnipeg and Dawson City. Girls were excited to try new activities and learn about first aid, tracking, nature lore, and outdoor cooking and camping.

Skit #1 - Guide Meeting (the girls were very quick to tell us that this did not represent our meetings!)

Second Fact - The first Guides choose a uniform of a loose white blouse and navy blue skirt. This changed to a blue dress in the 1920s, and with slight changes in shade and style, this would remain the uniform for nearly 80 years.  (At this point I passed around two Guide dolls - one in a 1970s uniform and the other in the 2000s uniform.)

Did you know that Girl Guides have been selling cookies since 1927? That's nearly 90 years! The first cookies were baked by Christine Riepsame of Regina and sold by the 4th Regina Guides.

Skit #2 - Cookie Selling

Third Fact - We have been selling chocolate and vanilla cookies for over 60 years and the chocolatey mint cookies for over 20 years. One of the things cookies help to pay for is camping. Guides have been camping since 1911 - over 100 years!

Skit #3 - Guide Camp

Fourth Fact - Every few years a National camp is held with girls from across Canada and around the world. The next National camp is Guiding Mosaic in 2016, which is being held at Sandy Lake, Alberta. These large camps always involve a service project of some sort. service and helping others has been a part of Guiding since the beginning. During the First World War, only 4 years after Guiding began, Canadian Guides gave service by working in factories and government offices, volunteering in hospitals, knitting socks, making dressings and bandages, and collecting supplies and donations for the war effort.

(We would have had Skit #4 - Helping Others here)

Fifth Fact - Today, Guides take part in service projects around the themes of Community, Environment, and International. This year, we have collected items for the Food Bank and a Women's Shelter (Community), will be making bookmarks to support educational projects in Africa, South America and Asia (International), and will be working on an environmental project as well.

With that, it was time to say goodnight and good bye until next week.

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!

Discover Your Creativity

Our first meeting in February was devoted to creativity and creative expression. The girls
were allowed to choose from a variety of activities and to do as few or as many different activities as they wished.

Each activity area had a theme and some activity suggestions (with badge connections) to help the girls create their own activity options. We provided a CD player, paper, markers, and assorted craft supplies.

Dance

• Create a dance that expresses a mood. Think about how people act and move when they feel a certain way. (Dancing #8)
• Make up your own dance routine. (Dancing #5)
• Chose a piece of music that you like and make up a dance to go with it. Explain why you chose that particular song. (Music Fan #2)

 Storytelling

• Tell a scary story. (Make sure your audience knows this before you start!) (Folklore #8)
• With a group of people, take turns having each person make up part of a whole story. (Folklore #6)
• With a group of friends, write a fun story. The first person writes down one sentence and shows it to the second person. That person writes down one sentence and shares only that sentence with a third person. When everyone had had a turn, read the whole story aloud. (Writing #8)
• Think about something funny that has happened to you. Make up a story about it and tell it to others. (Folklore #7)

Arts & Crafts

• Create a work of art based on a dream or fantasy that you have had. Create a picture of collage that relates to your dream. (Art Production #1)
• Design a package for a product such as a breakfast cereal, a CD, DVD or a product you invent. (Art Production #5)
• Experiment with colour by learning about primary and secondary colours. Practice mixing colours to develop new colours. Make a picture that uses what you have created. (Art Production #3)
• Create a piece of art in 3-D that represents your heritage. (Creative Crafts #3)
• Make a craft that you would be able to display in a room in your house. (Creative Crafts #8)
• Create a poster for a movie, play or other performance (Performing Arts #4E)
• Make a piece of jewelry using materials that are not precious metals or gems. You might make a pin, necklace, bracelet or hair ornament. (Creative Crafts #4)

Music & Drama

• Write and produce a skit or puppet show demonstrating at least two emotions. (Performing Arts #1)
• Perform a solo poem, monologue or public speech for an audience. (Performing Arts #4F)
• Create a unique character, such as an actor from the movies or TV, an animal, a clown, or a rock star and tell a story or act out a scene from their live and have others guess who or what it is. (Performing Arts #8)
• With a group or on your own, perform a song for an audience. (Performing Arts #6)
• Make a puppet and use it for a performance. (Performing Arts #7)

 Creative Writing

• Create a cartoon based on a funny incident from your life. (Reporting #7)
• Write a 250 to 500 word story on any subject. (Writing #1)
• Write an imaginary interview between you and a famous character in a book. (Writing #2)
• Choose a well-known story and write a different ending for it. (Writing #5)
• Write an account of an event you have attended and report all the details. Use the five W's: who, what, when, where and why to describe the event. (Reporting #3)
• Write a verse, rhyme or poem. (Writing #4)
• Create three different story starters such as - opening lines of a story, play or poem. (Writing #6)
• Write an exaggerated story that would be fun to tell at campfire. (Writing #2)
• Write a letter of not less than 100 words describing a humorous incident or exciting event that happened to you. (Writing #3)
• Write a brief announcement for a future Guide event, such as Guide-Scout Week, camp, registration, enrolment, advancement, etc. It should be either suitable for publication in a newspaper or to be read on radio or television (100 words of less). (Reporting #2)