Heritage Home Skills Night

On November 27th we had a special evening event to earn the Heritage Home Skills Badge. Participating were 10 Guides and 1 Pathfinders, along with 2 Guiders and 4 Helpers. Lots of hands were needed to help with the games, crafts, and cooking activities we had planned!

As the girls arrived, they decorated a paper bag to hold their finished crafts and baked goods, then we headed into the kitchen to start making bread. The girls worked in groups of 2-3 to prepare the starter mixture by placing 1/2 cup white flour, 1 package of dry yeast, 1 tbsp white sugar and 1/2 cup warm water in a large ziplock back and mixing it together by squishing the bag. The starter then needed to sit for 15 minutes before continuing.

While the starter was sitting, we played a game called Bear in the Pit. To play this game, players in a circle holding hands and with their eyes closed. One player is in the middle - she is the Bear. The bear tried to get out of the circle (the pit) by going under or over the arms of the other players. If she is able to escape from the pit, all of the other players chase her and the girl who catches her becomes the bear for the next round.

Back in the kitchen, the girls added 1 tbsp white sugar, 2 cups whole wheat flour, 1 cup white flour, 1 tbsp vegetable oil and 2 tsp salt to their bags and then sealed them up to mix until the dough started to pull away from the sides and form a ball. Once the dough was removed from the bags it was kneaded for 5-6 minutes and then divided into three mini-loaf pans. The pans were left to rise for a hour.

We then divided the girls into 3 groups - one would go into the kitchen to bake while the other two worked on crafts. Our baking groups each made a different treat:

Group 1 - Ginger Cookies
Mix together 1/2 cup white sugar, 1/2 cup molasses, 1/3 cup vegetable oil, and 1/3 cup water. Beat in 1 egg. Combine 3 1/2 cups white flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp ginger. Add to wet mixture, stirring well. Shape dough into 1 inch balls and place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-12 minutes.
 
Group 2 - Applesauce Bars
Cream 1/2 cup butter and 1 cup white sugar. Add 1 egg and 1 cup applesauce. Add 1 1/2 cups white flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, dash of cloves, and 1/2 cup raisins. Spread in a 9x13x2 pan that has been greased and floured. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Cut into squares while still warm.
 
Group 3 - Oatmeal Cookies
Cream 1 cup butter, 1/2 cup white sugar and 3/4 cup brown sugar. Add 2 eggs, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla, and 1/2 cup milk. Add 2 cups white flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 2 cups rolled oats, and 1 cup raisins. Drop by teaspoonful on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-12 minutes.

Our crafters were kept busy with 3 different crafts:

Quilt Block Design Notebook Covers - made by covering a small notebook with plain paper and then arranging squares and triangles of scrapbooking paper to make a 9-square quilt pattern.

Woven Bookmarks - made using a straw loom and multi-coloured yarn. Warps are placed through the straws and then the girls weave the yarn around the straws to form the bookmark (or bracelet), and finally the woven yarn is pushed off the straws onto the warps (the hardest part!)

Whirly Gigs - this classic children's toy was made using circles of cardstock that the girls decorated and string.

Towards the end of the evening, we put some whipping cream into 4 small jars and everyone took turns shaking the jars to form fresh butter. The girls received a loaf of bread, some butter, cookies, squares, and their crafts to take home at the end of the night.

Explorations in STEM - Engingeering Badge (Part 2)

Our final meeting of November was split into two parts, the first spent working on a craft brought by the grandmother of one of our Guides and the second finishing up the Engineering Badge and working towards completing the BC Engineering Challenge.

As the girls arrived, they collected dues and complete their patrol jobs for the week. We opened with our horseshoe, followed by an active game chosen by our Active Living patrol for the week.

The first half of the meeting was spend working on an angel craft brought by a former Guider, and grandmother to one of our Guides. The angel is made out of paper doilies, with a styrofoam ball for the head. The girls enjoyed the craft and had fun doing it!

After cleaning up the craft supplies, we continued with our Engineering activities. Each patrol was challenged to built a raft that would float and support weight (coins). They were provided with the following supplies: a piece of tinfoil, 2 plastic spoons, 3 pipe cleaners, 4 Q-tips, 10 straws, a piece of string, masking tape and scissors. All of the patrols were successful in building a floating raft that could support 27 coins without sinking. Two rafts were beginning to take on water at this point, but the third was still high and dry.

Our final activity for the evening was making the Hoop Gliders (from the BC Engineering Challenge). We flew the gliders around our meeting space before closing with reminders for Friday night and next week followed by Taps.

Explorations in STEM - Engingeering Badge (Part 1)

Our November 17th meeting was spent exploring Engineering and design. As the girls arrived, each had to work together to complete a matching quiz to identify the different jobs involved in building construction.

We opened our meeting with our usual horseshoe, followed by an active game (Everybody's It Tag) led by the Active Living patrol for the evening.

After the game, we took up the Job Match Quiz and discussed the different jobs and skills needed to build a house. The contents of this quiz come from Go For It! Construction (Girlguiding UK):

• A. Carpenter and Joiner = 5. Positioning and fixing timber materials and components. This will include roofs, doors and stairs.
• B. Roof Slater and Tiler = 8. To do this job, you need to know ow to create waterproof coverings for buildings.
• C. Bricklayer = 1. Using bricks and blocks to build the inside and outside walls of buildings.
• D. Painter and Decorator = 12. Applying paint, inside and out.
• E. Plant Operator = 6. Could include driving cranes, excavators and forklift trucks or specialized earthmoving equipment.
• F. Scaffolder = 3. Putting up scaffolding or working platforms for workers to use, and making it safe so that people and objects don't fall off the side.
• G. Plumber = 4. Installing, maintaining and repairing water supplies. This includes drainage and heating systems in houses and buildings.
• H. Estimator = 10. This job requires you to calculate how much money a project will need.
• I. Site Engineer = 2. Making sure that technical aspects of construction projects are correct and that everything is built correctly and to the right standard.
• J. Geospatial Modeler = 7. Includes making 3D models of natural and built landscapes.
• K. Construction Manager = 11. Running a construction site or part of a big project.
• L. Landscape Architect = 9. Designing and managing outdoor spaces.

The girls were than challenges to design an Eco-friendly house.Some ideas included composting facilities, recycling centres, solar panels, and tree planting.

Our final activity, which wound up taking nearly an hour (other planned activities have been postponed until next week!), was a patrol challenge: "Your Patrol has been shipwrecked on a desert island. You have managed to send an SOS message, but there is a big storm moving in so you can't be rescued until tomorrow morning. Can you build a shelter that will keep you all dry overnight?" Each patrol was given 5 newspapers, 4 metres of string, a garbage bag, scissors and masking tape, and the additional instruction that the shelter could not be secured to any furniture, walls, doors, etc.

After cleaning up, the girls shared their Eco-Houses with the group and the meeting ended with reminders for next week and Taps.



The activities done this week cover part of the BC STEM Challenge - Engineering - Job Match Quiz (Discover Engineering) and Shipwreck Shelter (Build a Shelter). We will finish this challenge next week.

Pathfinder Day!

Friday, November 13th was a PA day for all of the girls so we held a 'Pathfinder Day' to work on a variety of projects and activities.

We started the day by working on the Web Surfin' Module and WAGGGS Surf Smart Challenge.
Activity #1 Your Online Footprint - We made a list all the different ways the internet has a positive affect on our lives (including favourite websites/apps) and a second about ways that the internet can have a negative impact on our lives. This led into a discussion about social networks/media, online privacy, how once a picture is posted it's out there permanently, and cyberbullying. (Connect #1, Respect #1 & 11)

Activity #2 Tweeting - We chose 3 objects (an IPhone, Tablet and Laptop) and each girl hadto write a story including all 3 items in 140 characters or less. We talked about how social media that limits the number of characters may not always give you all the information you need about an event, issue or situation. (Connect #2)
Activity #3 - Online Safety Top-Tips - As a group we game up with a list of top tips for staying safe online and then created a commercial (Protect #1)
Activity #4 - Avatars - As we all spend time online, the girls designed their own avatars. (Protect #6)
Activity #5 - Safety Pledge - Finally, we wrote our own safety pledge.

I pledge to make sure that my Guardians know about any site that I go on. I will make responsible choices and go on sites that I know are safe/appropriate. I will not speak to anyone on a site that I don't know and I will do my best to help others stay safe.

We then moved on to a snack. We baked cookies and had fruit and yogurt dip.

Our service projects for the day were filling Birthday Bags and making Super Hero Capes for a women's shelter. We filled 10 bags with cake mixes, frosting, balloons, streamers, napkins, and a small gift. We made 10 capes that double as fleece blankets, but can be worn like a superhero cape.

Lunch was perogies with bacon, cheese and sour cream. The girls explored plate presentation before eating.

After lunch, the girls then planned out activities they could do to help younger girls learn about Healthy Eating (We Are What We Eat #6). The came up with a game about different serving sizes, an activity to make meal plates using pictures from flyers, and a classification game to help girls learn what foods are in which food groups.

The day ended with finishing up work on the blankets and cleaning up before everyone headed home.

Black-Out Party

As our second meeting of November fell on the day before Remembrance Day, we held our own 'Black-Out Party', featuring games and activities from the 1940s to celebrate and remember.

Our meeting opened with our usual horseshoe, followed by an active game (Ladders) chosen and led by our Active Living patrol for the night.

We started out with a discussion where the Guides shared what they had been learning about the wars and Remembrance Day at school. They then wrote Postcards for Peace that will be sent to veterans and members of the Canadian Forces. (see www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/get-involved/remembrance-day/learning-resources for more information)

The first game we played was the "Balloon Game" from UK Homefront (www.ukhomefront.co.uk/kids_page_41.html). In this game a piece of string is stretched between two chairs and players kneel on either side (like in volleyball). They have to hit the balloon back and forth using the backs of their hands. Points are scored when the balloon touches the ground on the opposite team's side. (We played this game using soft balls and it was hilarious!)

We then moved on to a game in the dark called "Hunt the Ghost" from the Girls' Own Annual 1941. In this game, one player is the ghost and has a flashlight. All players scatter around the room and the lights are turned off. The ghost flashes her light on and off and the other players try to catch her. The player who catches the ghost becomes the ghost for the next round. (This was fun until we had a big collision - I would try this again but outdoors in twilight so shadows and silhouettes could be seen, and grass would be softer to fall on than the floor.)

Next we had an active story called "Mary's Day Out" from The Guide, December 7, 1939.
For this, the Guides spread out around the room and acted out all the parts of the story as they were read out to them:

"It was Mary's day out, and she was in a great hurry to get ready. She walked around the room, combing her hair with one hand and pulling up her stocking with the other! The bell rang. 'Bother,' said Mary. She proceeded to run down the stairs. There were twenty steps and she counted them as she ran. Now she had only one shoe on, so she had to hop along the corridor. She could do it in five hops, she knew, as she had done it before! She opened the door and there was no one there. 'Bother,' said Mary. She hopped back along the corridor, five hops, ran up the stairs, twenty steps, and bent down to put on her other shoe. She then put on her coat, hat, and hung her gas mask over her shoulder - the right shoulder, as she had been taught. she then ran downstairs again, twenty steps, putting on her gloves the while. She opened the door and ran out and found that she had just lost her tram. 'Bother,' said Mary. She slammed the door and was lost in the black-out."

After all this activity, we had a brief storytime and the Guides listened to a diary entry, "Camping in 1943" from Like Measles, It's Catching! (Girl Guides of Canada, 1974, pages 68-69).

The last part of the meeting was spent singing songs that Guides would have enjoyed during the 1940s - and still enjoy today: "Fire's Burning", "Kookabura", "Ging Gang Goolie", "My Paddle", "Land of the Silver Birch", and "Make New Friends".

We ended the meeting with reminders for next week and Taps.

Guide Enrolment

November started off with our Enrolment ceremony to welcome 7 girls into our Guiding family.
The beginning of the meeting was spend practicing forming the horseshoe facing the opposite end of the room, going through the ceremony so everyone would know their parts, and setting up chairs, tables and the flag ready for parents to arrive.

Once everyone's guests had arrived, we opened by forming a horseshoe followed by a welcome to parents and family members.

7 returning Guides/Pathfinders had been chosen earlier in the evening to hold balloons and be part of the ceremony. One at a time they stepped into the centre of the horseshoe to read their piece and form a rainbow:

This balloon is red for all the happy campfires that Guides have.

This balloon is orange for sunset when we sing Taps.

This balloon is yellow for the sun that shines over all the Guides in the world.

This balloon is green for nature that Guides look after.

This balloon is blue for the sky that Guides see everywhere, everyday.

This balloon is violet for all the girls all over the world, who are in Guiding.

This balloon is white, for peace, which Guides around the world try to spread in their homes and communities. 

The rainbow we see in the horseshoe represents the rainbow that appears often in nature. When you make your promise as a Guide, it should become part of your life, as the rainbow is part of the natural environment.

Tonight we are excited to welcome 7 new members into our Guiding family.

(This ceremony is based on one found online from Australia - unfortunately, I have been unable to trace the source.)

Each Patrol was then called up to present their new Guides, who were enrolled using the standard ceremony. Lastly, each Guide & Pathfinder was called up individually to receive their year pin, badges and challenge crests that have been earned so far this year. 

We ended with juice and apple crumble bites, photographs and clean-up.