Happy Holidays!

Tonight was our final meeting of 2016 and we celebrated with a holiday party. The hall was decorated for Christmas, we had carols playing, and some of the girls even dressed up in holiday-themed attire or pyjamas.

Our first activity was decorating homemade gingerbread.We provided white icing and lots of toppings - then let the girls decorate to their hearts content!

Everyone then had an opportunity to work on three different crafts - some girls did them all, while others spent the entire evening on a single item. We had fimo ornaments, shink art pictures, and a 'free crafting' table for the girls to explore their creativity.

At the end of the night, everyone received crests and challenge crests, as well as a special Christmas crest. We closed with reminders that tonight was our last meeting of 2016 and Taps.

International Human Rights Day

Tonight we celebrated International Human Rights Day. This is the 3rd GGC Make a Difference Day for 2016-2017.

International Human Rights Day is celebrated every year on December 10th, commemorating the day in 1948 when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations. This declaration was created to help all people achieve dignity, freedom and equality. In honour of this special day, Girl Guides of Canada produced an Instant Meeting to encourage units to take part in activities to learn more about human rights. We chose to use activities from the Instant Meeting and from Right Now!, a resource from Girlguiding UK (2007).

Download the GGC Instant Meeting

As the girls arrived, they played a tag game, after which we held our usual opening ceremony and played an active game.



We started out by discussing what human rights are and shared the following explanation:

"Human rights are basic, fundamental rights that belong to everyone. They are freedoms, opportunities, and ways of treating one another that all human beings deserve." (GGC Instant Meeting)

Our first activity was called Picture Your World (Right Now!, page 26). The girls were divided into 3 groups and given supplies to draw a picture of something that is important to them. Here's the catch: the groups were uneven and not given equal supplies. The girls could only use the supplies provided and could not visit or speak to the other groups - they could, however, observe.

• Group 1: 2 girls, 1 sheet of paper per girl, a pencil with an eraser for each girl, a full set of sharpened pencil crayons. 
• Group 2: 4 girls, 2 sheets of paper, 2 pencils without erasers, a handful of pencil crayons, some unsharpened and not covering every colour.
• Group 3: 7 girls, 1 sheet of scrap paper, one pencil without an eraser, a handful of pencil crayons and markers - most unsharpened or not working.

After a few minutes we brought everyone back together so they could all see the supplies and results for each group. We talked about how they felt during the activity: How did they feel when they saw groups with better/worse materials? Was there time for everyone in the large group to have a turn? Did the better equipped groups want to share their materials even through they weren't allowed to? Was it fair? How do you think this activity might reflect the reality of life around the world?

The next activity was Gagged! (Right Now!, page 141). Each girl drew a slip of paper with a '1' or a '2' on it. The girls with a 2 on their paper were not allowed to speak or make themselves heard during the following discussion. We then talked about food storage and water purification as another clause towards the Outdoor Cooking badge that we started at camp. Once we finished, we discussed how the people who couldn't speak felt to be unheard, how they reacted when they wanted to respond to a question or what someone else had said, and how those who could speak felt about having a voice when others did not. We then moved the discussion onto groups or individuals who are unable to make themselves heard and who looks after their rights. (Ideas about groups that might not have a voice included people living in poverty, the position of a particular group within a larger society, being a girl or woman, having no voice - such as animals or the environment.)

We then had a break for an active game - Ladders, followed by Everybody's It Tag.

Afterwards, we started an activity called Right Old Journey (Right Now!, page 10). Each Patrol received a sheet of paper with 20 rights, based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. They then had to discuss and come to agreements on which rights they felt were the least important until they were left with only one right. As a group, we discussed the right that each group had kept - Peace, Safety, Health Care, and Education. We also talked about which rights they gave up first, and what it might be like to actually live without them.

Food, Own Culture, Money, Clothes

Transport, Shelter, Peace, Water

Safety, Religion, Education, Privacy

Play/Leisure, Health Care, Family, An Opinion

The final activity of the evening was Guide Rights (GGC Instant Meeting). As a group, we came up with a list of Rights that we have as members of our Unit. 

The meeting ended with a sing-song, announcements and reminders for next week, and Taps.

December Camp 2016

On December 2nd, the Guides, Pathfinders and Rangers headed to Camp Teka in Paris for a weekend camp. We were joined by two Guiders and one Guide from the 1st New Dundee Guides, making our total numbers 11 Guides, 1 Pathfinder, 1 Ranger, and 4 Guiders. Our program was very relaxed, but we still managed to work on the Alberta Camp Challenge - Fall Segment, Camp-Out Emblem, Explore the Outdoors and Nature and the Outdoor Cooking Badge.

Once all the girls had arrived on Friday night, we sat down to decorate Warm Fuzzy bags. These are paper bags that the girls put their name on (and decorate) and leave on a table for the weekend. The challenge is for each girl to put something nice - a "warm fuzzy" - into the bag of every other girl over the course of the weekend. The bags also make a handy place to store drawings, activity sheets, friendship bracelets, crafts, etc. We reviewed the rules for the weekend, discussed how to stay safe at camp, why we do head counts, and what to do in the event of a fire. Snack was bagel cheese pizzas with veggies and dip. Afterwards, the girls spent the rest of the evening playing card games, drawing and colouring, and talking.

Saturday morning started late due to a late night beforehand, and we started the day off with a breakfast of waffles, fruit, scrambled eggs, blueberry muffins and yogurt. After breakfast, the girls tackled their camp chores - washing dishes, sweeping floors, wiping tables, replacing toilet paper rolls, etc, and then we were ready to move on to our program. We started the morning off with a craft - clothespin candle holders. We made ours with small round cardboard boxes from Michaels, clothespins, battery operated tealights and paint. They turned out very well - and apparently double as hats...

The remainder of the morning was spent building a massive chair and blanket fort in the middle of the room.

Before lunch, our Ranger and one Guider showed the girls how to make a box oven and how one works. They removed all of the old tinfoil and duct tape from the box and rebuilt it ready to use to make brownies!

Lunch involved outdoor cooking. The girls were sent off to find tinder, kindling and wood for our fire, practiced separating the wood (although it was a rather scattered woodpile...), lit the fire and kept it burning. They also learned how to operate and light a camp stove, which we used to cook Chicken Noodle Soup. Once the fire was burning well, everyone cooked hot dogs, and once it burnt down, we were able to toast marshmallows and make S'mores! After we finished eating, the box oven was set up to bake the brownies for after supper. We all cleaned up the cooking supplies, washed dishes, and went back inside for quiet time. The fort building continued, along with colouring, drawing, card games, and working on challenges. Later in the afternoon, our Ranger and one Guider took the majority of the girls on a hike before supper.

Supper was the ever-popular taco salad (tortilla chips, meat, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, salsa and sour cream). The evening was spent with more activities chosen by the girls, and also an enrolment ceremony. We enrolled both our Pathfinder and Ranger into their respective branches by candlelight.

We had our "Worms and Dirt" (Brownies, chocolate pudding and gummy worms) as a nighttime snack, about 10pm, before getting ready for bed. Although we had bedding out and pyjamas on, it was closer to midnight before we actually went to bed!

Sunday morning was busy, with packing and cleaning. We had leftovers, fruit, chocolate chip muffin cake and toast for breakfast (who would have thought tacos for breakfast would be so popular?) Our Ranger and one Guider did camp evaluation while the other Guiders worked on checking off the cleaning tasks on the list so that we would all be ready to leave once all the girls had been picked up.

Food Bank Visit (NSP: Action on Poverty)

This week we visited the Caledonia & District Food Bank as part of the National Service Project: Acton on Poverty.

We met at the Church as usual and then walked to the Food Bank, where we were met by Dorette and Anne.

First we learned a bit about the services provided by the Food Bank and how it operates. They are open for service every Friday and people can access food, hygiene supplies, clothing, and find out about other community resources.

When a person arrives at the Food Bank, they take a form and a number. The form asks for some basic information (number of people in the family, male/female, ages of children) and then has a section where people can circle 12 items that they need. Another section at the bottom has other items that they can request. They put their number on the form, hand it in and wait to be called. While they are waiting, they can visit 'Linda's Closet'. Linda's Closet is a clothing closet that has all sorts of different items, including winter clothing and prom dresses. They also run a Backpack program in the fall so that children have the supplies they need to go back to school.

If there are school-age children in the family, each child receives a supply of snacks for school, which could include drinking boxes, yogurt, pudding cups, cheese strings, granola bars, apples, gold fish crackers, and/or individual hot chocolate packets. For infants, items such as formula, food, cereal and diapers are available.Each family receives the items they've requested and may also receive items from the "Goodie Shelf". These are extra items such as cookies, Sidekicks, ketchup and salad dressing. (This was an eye opener for the girls!) The Food Bank also runs a Christmas Hamper program where families receive a turkey, a food basket, fresh veggies (potatoes, carrots and onions), toiletries, hats and mitts, and a gift for each member of the family.

During our visit, we were able to help out with two tasks.

One area has been set aside for breaking down larger packages into smaller amounts - such as flour, sugar, rice, powdered milk, pet food and teabags. The girls worked on dividing up boxes of tea bags. They had to count check for the best before date on the package to make sure they were fresh, then count out 12 tea bags, put them in a bag and label the bag with 'Tea' and the best before date.


The second task was to assemble toiletries bags for the Christmas Hampers. The girls used sheets with the ages and sexes of family members to make up packages for various families. When the sheet was given to the group, they had to record the family's number on the bag, then add items according to the age/sex of each family member. Each family received a bottle of shampoo, a bar of soap and a tube of toothpaste, then each person received a toothbrush and teens and adults received deodorant and razors.


At the end of the visit, the donations we had brought were weighed and we found out that we had donated 100.5lbs! We then thanked Dorette and Anne and walked back to the Church for pick-up.

BC STEM Challenge: Math!

Did we really spend an entire meeting talking about Math? Yes! This week we explored STEM with the Math Challenge from BC. 

As the girls arrived, they completed their attendance and dues books and started colouring their Flextangle patterns. We then had our usual opening, followed by a Tag game. 

The girls then split up into their patrols and rotated through 4 challenge activities. 

Activity #1 - Tangrams

A tangram (page 23-24) is an ancient Chinese puzzle using 7 pieces made out of 3 shapes (triangle, square and parallelogram). The patrols had two challenges: first, they had to divide the pieces up among their members and try to make a square using all the pieces - and only touching their own pieces. Some patrols found this activity very easy, while others struggled. The second challenge was to see what other shapes they could form with the pieces. We had some creative results here, including a cabin and a tree.

Activity #2 - Code Breakers

For this activity, we used the Code Breakers activity sheet from the Challenge Pack (pages 25-28). The girls had to work with their patrols to solve a cryptogram where numbers stood in for letters, a block cipher, and code using a Cryptograph Wheel. 

Activity #3 - Nim

Nim (page 42-43) is a mathematical game, where players take turns removing pieces but trying not to take the last one. There are a few different variations of this game. We played using beads instead of sticks. The beads were laid out in a grid of three rows of five. The players then take turns removing beads. They can take 1, 2, 3 or 4 on each turn. After picking up the first bead, the next must be above, below or beside the first, not diagonal.

Activity #4 - Matchstick Puzzles

To solve the match stick puzzles, the Guides had to use their problem solving skills! We supplied a copy of the page of puzzles found in the Challenge Pack (page 34-35) and straws for the girls to work with. 

After clearing up from these activities, we played the Norwegian Number Game (page 30-31). In this game, girls make a large circle and link arms with a partner. One player is in the middle. The player in the middle runs and links onto the end of one pair. the player in the pair she doesn't link on to then runs to find a new partner, and so on. Girls cannot link onto the pair beside them. Whomever is left in the middle at the end of the count (30) is the "Old Maid". (We played it that they were the player to start in the middle for the next round.) While playing, everyone sings:

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten

eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty

One and twenty, two and twenty, three and four and five and six and twenty

Twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty!

Our final activity was to finish up our Flextangles. Not everyone finished their colouring, but we showed them the completed examples and the instructions on folding their flextangle were on the bottom of the page. We downloaded and printed the template from Babble Dabble Do.

We closed with an enrolment of our last Guide, reminders for next week (dress warmly!) and Taps.

Enrolment 2016

Tonight we welcomed 11 new Guides (one girl was absent) into our Guiding family! We also presented Membership Pins, badges and challenge crests.

The first half of our meeting we spent finishing up artwork, doing our usual opening ceremony, playing a game (Squirt), setting up and practicing for the ceremony.

Family members were invited to return at 7.30pm for our ceremony. We arranged the four Patrols into a horseshoe with the Guiders and Pathfinder at the bottom - all facing our audience. A table was placed at the top of the horseshoe with candles for the ceremony.

One Guider welcomed everyone and then the enrolled Guides/Pathfinders each read a piece and lit the corresponding candle:

The PINK candle stands for truth and honesty. The Guide Law challenges me to be honest and trustworthy. 

The ORANGE candle stands for thrift and sensibility. The Guide Law challenges me to use my resources wisely.

The GOLD candle stands for trying and doing your best. The Guide Law challenges me to recognize and use my talents and abilities.

The LILAC candle stands for respect, kindness and understanding. The Guide Law challenges me to respect myself and others.

The GREEN candle stands for the outdoors and nature. The Guide Law challenges me to protect our common environment.

The BURGUNDY candle stands for bravery and overcoming challenges. The Guide Law challenges me to live with courage and strength.

The BLUE candle stands for fun, friendship and adventure. The Guide Law challenges me to share in the sisterhood of Guiding.

Each Patrol was then called up and the Patrol Leader presented the girls who were to be enrolled. We used the standard enrolment ceremony from the program book, but everyone repeated the Promise together for each Patrol so no one had to say it on their own or was embarrassed if they forgot the words.

We then presented our newest leader with her Chief Commissioner's Gold Award (I think this is the first time this has ever been awarded in our town), and made her "one of us" my presenting her with her name tag. One of our Guiders was then presented with her 12 Year Membership Pin (she came along to help one night 9 years ago...). The last part of the ceremony was calling up each girl individually to receive her Membership Pin, Patrol Emblem, PL/PS stripes, Title Tape, badges and challenge crests. The families were thanked for coming, and we moved on to juice and treats.

Guides had to serve their guests first, and were then able to serve themselves. We had fruit punch, lemonade and cherry crumble bars. Here is the recipe:

Cherry Crumble Bars
2 cups       Rolled Oats
2 1/2 cups Flour
2 cups       Butter, softened
1 cup         Brown Sugar
1 can         Cherry Pie Filling (or other Fruit topping)

Mix rolled oats, flour, butter and sugar together. Pat into a lined or lightly greased 9" x 12" pan to form the base. Spread the pie filling on the top. Bake for 30-45 minutes at 350F. Makes 32 bars.

Emergency Preparedness

This week our Pathfinder and Ranger led a meeting all about Emergency Preparedness based on the "Be Prepared, Not Scared" Challenge from Alberta.

As the girls arrived they found out which Patrol they will be in and the Patrol Leaders had their first chance to fill in the attendance and dues books. We had two runs at forming a horseshoe and then had an active game - Hotdog Tag.

The first activity was a group discussion about what types of items you might have in an emergency or survival kit and what the items could be used for in different situations. The group talked about different types of natural emergencies and being prepared at home. Girls shared what they thought their family would do in different situations. They also discussed the necessities of survival - food, water and shelter - and why each is critical.

We then played Kim's Game using items that should be found in a 72 Hour Emergency Preparedness Kit. Pictures of all the items were spread out on the floor. All of the Guides had 30 seconds to look at the pictures and then they were covered with a sheet. Each group then had to write down as many items as they could remember.

Next we split up into groups to create skits about different scenarios. After each skit, we discussed each scenario so the girls would know what to do in an emergency. Our scenarios were: Fire, Injury While Hiking, Rescuing a Pet, Tornado Warning, Canoe Accident. We talked about fire safety, personal safety, caring for pets in an emergency, getting help, water safety, and what to do in the event of a weather warning.

Our final activity was the "What to do in a Natural Emergency" Game from the Ontario Emergency Preparedness Challenge. This game uses different actions to help girls learn what to do in different emergency situations. While practicing each action, the reasons for the actions were explained. Here are the actions:

• Lightning Storm - Crouch into a leap frog position and protect your head.
• Tornado - Lie flat (pretend you are in a ditch so you do not get hurt by flying debris) and protect your head.
• Flash Flood - Pretend to climb up a hill (get to higher ground immediately when rivers and streams swell due to heavy rain)
• Heat Wave - Fan yourself with your hand and pretend to drink water
• Wind Storm - Grab a partner so that one stands still like a shield and the other girl crouches down sheltered by her partner

We ended with a few action songs, reminders for next week (Enrolment!) and Taps.

Girl Guides in Space!

On November 1st, a group of 35 including Guides, Pathfinders, Rangers, Guiders and family members visited the W.J. McCallion Planetarium at McMaster University for a presentation on space. The Guides earned the Astronomy Badge, the Pathfinders completed the Galactic Adventures Module, and the Rangers finished a challenge from the Environment, Camping and Outdoors section of their program.

Our presenter, Fraser, showed us the night sky above Hamilton, how the North Star stays fixed in place, the Milky Way, and then took us on a tour of the solar system from the Sun to Neptune, and beyond. 

We learned some cool facts about our solar system:

• We saw photos taken on the surface of Venus by the longest-surviving probe to land there - it only survived for 2 hours due to the heat!
• The current robot on Mars is "Curiosity". The planet looks red because the surface is covered in rust.
• Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system and also has the most moons. The Giant Red Spot on the planet surface is a gigantic hurricane. Three of its moons are Io (which is covered in volcanoes), Europe (which is covered in ice with a giant ocean underneath) and Ganymede (the biggest moon in the solar system).
• Saturn is famous for its rings, but also has a really cool moon. Titan is the only moon in the solar system that has had a probe land on its surface other than Earth's. It is also the only place other than Earth with standing liquid on the surface (in this case, methane).
• All of Uranus' moons are named for Shakespearean characters.  
• When lightning strikes the methane on Neptune, it rains down tiny diamonds. 

We also got to look at some really cool stars, nebulae and galaxies:

• M31 - Andromeda Galaxy (the closest galaxy to the Milky Way)
• Ring Nebula (has a White Dwarf Star at its centre)
• M101 - Pinwheel Galaxy (a spiral galaxy)
• Hubble Deep Field (a piece of space that seemed empty, but is actually full of galaxies!)   
• Einstein Cross (a galaxy behind a galaxy)
• Little Ghost Nebula
• California Nebula
• Interacting Galaxies (two galaxies that are about to collide)
• Egg Nebula
• Hubble V
• Hubble X
• Cassiopeia A
• Chi & h Per
• NGC6946
• M13        

More information about the Planetarium can be found at http://www.physics.mcmaster.ca/planetarium/

Happy Hallowe'en!

Tonight the Guides, Pathfinders and Rangers had their annual Hallowe'en Party! This year, we did things a bit differently and challenged the girls to gather clues (and curses) in order to solve a mystery. We used the "Clues, Spells, and Curses Scavenger Hunt" from PartyPlus (www.queen-of-theme-party-games.com/scavenger-hunt-clues.html) (I found this activity somewhere online for free, but I'm afraid I can't remember where!)

As everyone arrived, they showed off their costumes to each other and some girls talked while others played a game of tag. We skipped our usual opening and started the program off with reading the letter from the wicked witch. This set the tone for the evening, and everyone was eager to get started. After going over the rules, the girls were divided up into 5 teams (one of Pathfinders/Rangers and four of Guides).

Before the meeting, we had gone outside and hidden 10 Clue Cards (1 of each per Group), 10 Curse Cards, 10 Cure Cards and 10 Magical Objects. The girls were set loose outside the church to gather as many of these items as they could. As Curse Cards were found, groups acted them out! Once everything was found, we headed back inside for the second part of the game.

Each group went through their findings and sorted out the Clue Cards. They then shuffled any Curse and Cure Cards and took turns turning them over. Anyone turning over a Curse Card had to take on that curse until they group cured them. In order to cure someone, you needed both the appropriate Cure Card and any Magical Objects that were listed. For example, here is the set of cards for the Frog Spell:

Each girl was given a supply of play money and the groups got right into swapping and selling Cure Cards and Magical Objects! Once the Curses were broken, the groups turned their attention the Clue Cards. Each card provided a pair of letters to spell out the name of the wicked witch. With a few hints along the way, two groups came to the answers at the same time and shouted out the name three times to break the final curse! The 'money' everyone had collected would be used later to bid on items.

Before we moved on to our auction, one of our leaders had made an amazing Hallowe'en mystery box where the girls put their hands in to feel four different "body parts". We had teeth (popcorn kernels), fingernails (sunflower seeds), hair (steel wool), and a dead hand (glove filled with water and cooled in the freezer). The girls had to guess what each 'body part' was and also what was actually in the box.

Our final activity of the evening was the auction. We had a variety of items from the dollar store and out of the prize drawer (sparkly notebooks, hardcover notebooks, giant pencil, relaxation colouring books, sewing kits, craft kits, body wash and lip balm). The girls had a great time bidding on items - and then trading among themselves until everyone was happy with what they were taking home.

We closed our meeting with reminders for next week and distributing newsletters and camp forms. As each girl left she received two small treat bags to take home.