Heritage Hike & Scavenger Hunt

Tonight was our annual Urban Hike and this year's theme was "Caledonia's Past" (aka "The Heritage Hike"). We met at the church as usual and as the girls arrived they were asked to share their ideas for working on different badges - Science, Outdoor Cooking, Heritage, Plants & Animals, Performing Arts, and Career Awareness.

The Guides split themselves up into groups and each group was given a clipboard, a pen and a scavenger hunt sheet. Before heading outside, each group had to create a Be Prepared Plan explaining what they should take with them on a hike, how they make sure no one got lost, what to do if someone did get lost and what to do if someone needed first aid.

Before leaving, we quickly reviewed appropriate behavior on public and private property and explained how the scavenger hunt would work. As we walked, we would be stopping at different places in town to learn something about their history. In some places there would be a question for the girls to answer based on what they could see. Midway through our outing, we planned to stop in the park where the girls could answer some nature questions and find traditional scavenger hunt items - as well as play on the play structures, before heading back to the Church.

Time was against us and we had to cut out certain parts of the walk, and only had about 15 minutes in the park instead of the planned half-hour.

So, where did we go?



The girls had to find answers specific to different locations (such as the original address of Jones Baker (26 Old Plank Road), the year the Toll House was built (1875), the temperature on the sign outside the Credit Union). A number of the questions in the scavenger hunt could be used anywhere:

• Where is the nearest mailbox to the Church?
• What do you see that is made of wood? List as many items as you can.
• Do you see any living creatures? Note any birds, insects, reptiles or mammals that you see.
• What are people doing? How many different things do you see people doing outdoors? Are these jobs or fun activities?
• Where would be a good place to sell cookies? Find 3 places that would be good cookie selling locations and explain why you chose them.
• Explore the Park and find out what lives here (remember: living things include plants, animals, birds, insects, etc.)
• As a group, choose 5 things in nature that you find interesting and explain why you chose each thing.
• Find 3 different flowers. What do they look like? Where are they found?
• Find each of the following in nature:
• Something soft
• Something smooth
• Something rough
• Something circular
• Something square
• Something triangular
• Something red
• Something brown
• Something yellow

We arrived back at the church just after 8.30 and everyone headed home after turning in their scavenger hunt sheets. 

Fall Cookie Sales

We spent Saturday morning at Zehrs in Caledonia selling cookies. Only 6 girls were able to make it, but between them sold 15 cases!

International Day of Peace

Tonight we celebrated the International Day of Peace! Each year, Girl Guides of Canada choose 5 special days to be recognized by Guiding members as "Make a Difference Days". This was the first day for the 2016-2017 Guiding Year.

The International Day of Peace was established by the United Nations to be “devoted to commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace.” The first International Day of Peace was observed on September 21, 1982. Until 2001, the International Day of Peace was held on the 3^rd Tuesday of September, and since 2001 has been held on September 21^st.  Since 2011, each year’s International Day of Peace has had a theme. The theme for 2016 is “Building Blocks for Peace”. 

The activities we did were inspired by the International Day of Peace Instant Meeting found on the Girl Guides of Canada website, however, we went with activities that we thought our girls would enjoy.

Things were a bit hectic as the girls were dropped off as we were short a Guider and had cookies to distribute at the same time.

One Guider organized an active game to keep the girls busy and then everyone was asked to add their ideas for different themes - Games, Neon Night, Crazy Night, and Technology Night. These themes came from the list of suggestions developed last week.

We then had our first attempt at forming a horseshoe and did quite well, especially as only 6 out of 16 girls had made a horseshoe before!

Our Peace-themed activities started with a quick discussion about the International Day of Peace and what the girls thought of when they thought about peace.

The first activity was to make individual peace poles. The Peace Pole project was started in Japan in 1955 by Masahisa Goi. A Peace Pole is a hand-crafted monument that displays the message "May Peace Prevail on Earth" on each side, usually in different languages. Peace Poles can be found in 180 countries around the world. Each girl painted a wooden garden stake to take home and display in a plant pot or garden.

After cleaning up from painting, we played a game to learn more about people working for peace. The girls were asked if they could think of anyone who worked for peace and then everyone was given a slip of paper with part of a description of a notable person who has worked for peace in a non-violent way. They had to find the other three people who had the rest of the description. Once everyone found their groups, they read out the information so we all learned a bit more about Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Golda Meir and Aung San Suu Kyi. This activity comes from the BC Instant Meeting - Give Peace a Chance.

We broke up the evening with a game, "Chicken in the Coop", explained and led by one of the Guides.

For our final activity, the girls broke up into groups to come up with skits about how they could work for peace at home, at school, or in the community.

We played a final game, followed by reminders for next week, and closed with Taps.

Welcome Back & Information Night

Our first meeting of the new Guiding year was a joint event for Guides, Pathfinders and Rangers, and also included an Information Night for girls interested in visiting Guides. We had 18 girls join us for the evening (1 Ranger, 1 Pathfinder, 5 returning Guides, 5 advancing Brownies, 2 new-to-Guiding, and 4 visitors).  

As the girls arrived, they were signed in and parents were given newsletters, copies of the uniform order form and Health Form. We also provided information and answered any questions parents had. 

While we were talking to parents, and for the first part of the evening, the girls were able to move through 5 different self-directed activities:

Guiding Thinga-ma-jig
When I was a kid we called these 'cootie catchers' and I've seen them called 'crunchers', but Guiding calls it a 'Thinga-ma-jig'! This is a great piece of Guiding PR material that highlights Girl Greatness. We had enough copies so that each girl was able to make her own. 

Design a Hover Car 
This activity comes from the BC Girl Guides STEM-Engineering Challenge. Girls were provided with paper, straws, paperclips and masking tape and had to design a car that could be moved with only their breath.
 

Create a Sun Catcher 
The instructions for this activity were simple, colour the outside of a clear plastic cup with Sharpies and then bake in the oven for 3-4 minutes. The cup is supposed to melt down and flatten. Well, it didn't quite work that way! We used it as a learning experience about how experiments don't always work out and talked about what did happen - the some of the cups did get shorter, the rims spread out and the bottom turned white and got really hard. What went wrong? I believe that when this craft was designed, plastic cups were made out of #6 plastic (which will melt), but they are now made out of #1 plastic (which basically turns white and gets hard).
 
Tie a Reef Knot 
As this is a necessary knot for tying the Guide Tie, we provided instructions and ropes so everyone could practice tying a reef knot. 
 
Girl Guide Book Club
We provided colourful sticky notes and asked the girls to tell us about their favourite book or story.

As the activities were finished up, we played Everybody's It Tag to use up some energy, and then some getting-to-know-you games to help everyone get acquainted. 

The Guides were then divided up into smaller groups, with at least one returning Guide in each group. They were asked to write down ideas for activities, themes and things they would like to do this year. We'll be using these lists in the next few weeks to plan out future meetings and events.

One of the girls then led a game of What Time Is It Mr. Wolf? and we finished with some action songs and Taps. 

Guiding Information Night - September 13/16

GUIDING INFORMATION NIGHT

Girl Guides is a safe, all-girl environment that invites girls to challenge
themselves, find their voice, meet new friends and make a difference in the world. Today’s Girl Guide program helps girls learn about global and cultural awareness, career exploration, science and technology and the arts.

Tuesday, September 13, 2016
6.30pm to 7.30pm
Grace United Church (Grand Room)
174 Caithness St E, Caledonia

Come and explore the fun, friendship and adventure that Guiding offers!
Girls and parents can try out activities, learn more about the different branches, and find out how to register.

LEADERS NEEDED!
Are you looking for a challenging and rewarding volunteer opportunity? Do you enjoy trying new things, being silly and having fun? Do you want to make a difference in your community? Then being a Guider could be the role for you! Volunteers do not need to have a daughter or past involvement in Guiding!