The Guides finished part of the Learn How to Plan section of the program while learning about different forms of payment, spending habits and money management. The Pathfinders completed the Moneywise module and learned about borrowing, global currencies, and how to budget for camp!
As the girls arrived, the Guides worked with their Patrols to complete a quiz about payment and banking terminology (adapted from the "Word Scramble Relay" activity) and create a skit about one spending type. The Pathfinders and Rangers talked about earning and spending money, then created skits about borrowing and what to do when you don't have enough money for something you want.
We had our usual opening, quickly took up the Guide Quiz and then moved onto the skits. The Guide skits used the descriptions of different types of spenders ("What Kind of Spender Are You?" activity) - Hey Big Spender (a girl who loves to spend her money as soon as she earns it), Future Planner (a girl who balances saving and spending) and Money Avoider (a girl who doesn't care about money and lets her parents take care of everything). The Pathfinder skits were both scenarios where a girl didn't have enough money for something she wanted ("How Much Can I Borrow? How Much Can I Buy?" activity). In Skit #1 the girl babysits but gets paid on Mondays and wants to buy a new top before her friend's party on Friday - the girls resolved this by having the girl rake leaves and do other odd jobs to earn some extra money. In Skit #2 the girl walks a neighbour's dog when he has to work late, but she never knows how often she will walk the dog and needs $25 more to buy the running shoes she wants - the solution was to borrow the $25 from her parents and pay them back as she earns money dog walking.
After our skits, the groups separated with the Guides staying in the main hall and the Pathfinders and Rangers heading upstairs.
GUIDES
The Guides started off with a relay game adapted from the "Playing With Payments" activity. Each Patrol was give 6 labeled cards - Credit Card, Debit Card, Gift Card, Cheque, Cash, and Interac e-Transfer. They Patrols lined up at one end of the room and the Guiders stood at the other end and read out the scenarios one at a time. When a scenario was read out, the Patrols had to decide what methods of payment they could use and send a runner to the Guiders with the appropriate cards.
We then moved on to the "Money-opoly" game and played it with a few modifications. Each girl was given a plate with 50 beads to represent money. They had to decide how they wanted to divide their $50 between Spend, Save and Share. Once this was done, we explained that Share funds could only be used to make donations and that Save funds could only be used once all of their Spend funds were gone. Two plates with extra beads were placed in the middle. We had the girls sit in their Patrol and as each card was read out, one Patrol had to follow the instructions. We pre-stacked the deck of cards to ensure that each Patrol had a variety of expenses, earnings, donations and free activities. We also spent time throughout the game reassuring the girls that it was OK if they had to use funds from their Save pile. The discussion after the game was good and the girls left with a much better understanding of how money works - and that although it would be great to put all of our money into Save and/or Share, life costs money so we always need something in the Spend pile!
As we still had a bit of time, we had the girls work in Patrols to create a business. They had to come up with a name, decide on their product or service, determine how much they would charge, and design some advertising for their new business.
PATHFINDERS/RANGERS
The Pathfinders and Rangers found out about some of the different types of currency used around the world - and some World Guiding trivia with the "World Currency Trivia" game. We printed out the World Region maps with the pictures of different currency in colour for reference. The game is played like Jeopardy, with teams taking turns choosing the category and question value. Scores are recorded on a separate sheet.
The second activity was "Budgeting For Camp" which was a great eye-opener about the costs of going to camp, and also the challenges we have as a small Unit. The whole group worked together to make budgets for a winter camp and a spring camp. We did have to explain to the girls that the costs are based on averages and some of our costs are very different, including the cost of renting a building or campsite and transportation. The challenge pack provides options for the girls to choose from and a budgeting sheet to do their calculations. Categories are:
- Where will they go? (Facility Rental)
- How will they get there? (Transportation)
- What will they eat? (Food)
- What will they do there? (Equipment, Crafts)
- What other supplies will they need? (Gear, First Aid Supplies, Crests)
We all came back together at the end of evening and closed with reminders for next week and Taps.
Links
- Girls Count Challenge Program (Girl Guides of Canada) - external link
