Happy Lunar New Year 2017!

Tonight we had a Chinese New Year Party hosted by our Pathfinder and 4 3rd-Year Guides to earn the Chinese New Year Challenge created by the 12th Swindon Guides in the UK - Download the Challenge Pack. The girls did a great job and completed their Event Planning badge and part of the Learn How to Plan section of the program.
We started out with our usual opening ceremony and then moved right into the program for the evening with an active game - "Dragons, Roosters and Dumplings" (similar to 'Wizards, Giants and Elves') - explained and led by one of the 3rd Year Guides. While the group was playing, we finished setting up for the first craft, painting Chinese symbols on stones. Our Pathfinder explained this activity, and showed examples of stones she had painted at home.

As the girls finished their craft, they were directed to signs at the back of the room that identified the different animals in the Chinese Zodiac. They had to find the animal for the year they were born, taking into account the different New Year dates. We had found some information about common traits for each animal, lucky numbers, famous people, and things people should focus on this year. We have Tigers, Goats, Snakes, Roosters, Dogs, Monkeys, and Pigs in our group! (Guides, Pathfinders, Rangers, Guiders) Download our Chinese Zodiac Posters (pdf file) - information derived from ChinaHighlights.com

We then played two more games, each led by a different 3rd Year Guide, Rooster Tag (when you are tagged, you have to make wings with your arms until someone frees you) and Hawk Chases Roosters (where one player is the Hawk who tries to catch the Rosters, when a Rooster is caught, they become a Hawk).

The Guides were then given the choice of two different dragon crafts, each led by a 3rd Year Guide - they could either make a dragon puppet or a dragon mask.

The Dragon Puppet Template can be downloaded from Kids Activities and the Dragon Mask Template is part of the Challenge Pack.

Our final activity was food sampling! We served dumplings, spring rolls, breaded chicken, and breaded pork with plum sauce, oranges, and fortune cookies. We used a red table cloth, red plates and red napkins to make our feast as lucky as possible!

We closed with Taps and each girl received a Red Packet with chocolate coins as she left.

The activities we chose to completed this challenge were:

• Discovery - Year of the...; Red Envelopes
• Decoration - Dragon Mask or Dragon Puppet
• Entertainment - Our Own Games (Dragons, Roosters and Dumplings; Rooster Tag; Hawk Chases Roosters)
• Cuisine - Dumplings, Spring Rolls, Breaded Chicken, Breaded Pork, Plum Sauce, Oranges, Fortune Cookies
• Celebration - Our Party!