Fun with the Promise & Law

This week we focused on learning about the Promise and Law and worked on the Understanding the Promise, Law and Motto section of the program.

As the girls arrived, anyone we distributed uniform orders and had everyone try on their shirts so that any exchanges that are needed can be done quickly. The girls then worked on creating displays for the artwork they created at our "Arts in the Outdoors" meeting.

We had a brief opening and talked a bit about what we were going to be doing during the meeting, followed by an active game.

Our first activity was to talk about Patrols and Patrol Leaders. After a short discussion, each girl was given a ballot where she could vote for 4 girls to become Patrol Leaders, indicate who she would like to be in a patrol with, indicate if there was anyone she would rather not be in a patrol with (we don't promise to make this one happen), and also say who she would like for her Patrol Second if she was elected as a Patrol Leader. As there wasn't time to go through all the ballots at the meeting, the girls will find out about their new Patrols next week!

One of the Guides had requested a hat craft for her new camp hat, so that became our next activity. Each girl coloured and folded a mini-booklet of the Promise and Law (adapted from the 2nd Kingsbridge Guides Tiny Guide Promise Book). The booklets were then put into a craft baggie. We then had plastic lacing, which was folded in half and a knot tied to make a loop at the end. The girls then strung on beads to represent the Promise (a special bead), and each law: Be honest and trustworthy (orange), Use my resources wisely (yellow), Respect myself and others (pink), Recognize and use my talents and abilities (light blue), Protect our common environment (green), Live with courage and strength (red), and Share in the sisterhood of Guiding (dark blue). This pieces was then attached to the baggie with a safety pin.

We then had an active game to get everyone moving again. To work on remembering the Guide Sign and Handshake, we played freeze tag, where in order to be 'unfrozen', someone had to come and do the proper sign and handshake with you.

After the game, we had a bit of extra time where the girls could choose to continue working on their artwork, play another game, or just talk.

Our final activity was Law skits. To prevent arguments about who would work with who, we put numbered slips into a bowl and each girl drew a slip. They then had to find the other girl with the same number (we had 14 girls present, so there were 7 pairs). The girls with #1 did a skit on Be honest and trustworthy, those with #2 did Use my resources wisely, and so on.

After the girls had presented their skit, one girl led 'Herman the Worm' and another led 'My Aunt Hoover'. We closed with details about next week's Hallowe'en Party and Taps.