Update on the Pathfinders & Rangers

Although they haven't featured much this year, we do have an active Pathfinder/Ranger Unit of 7 girls! Our Unit is unique in that their meetings are held without a Guider in constant attendance. The girls head off to a separate room from the Guides and run their own meetings with a Guider popping in occasionally to see that there are no problems. Meetings are planned by Guiders and girls, but are run by the girls themselves. Our Ranger makes sure things go smoothly and takes on a key leadership role. Although this arrangement was born of necessity due to a lack of Guiders, turning things over to the girls has been mostly successful!

September

Friday, September 8th - Welcome Back BBQ
To celebrate the start of a new Guiding year, we had a BBQ (unfortunately it rained, so we were indoors!) and started doing a bit of planning.


Tuesday, September 12th - Welcome Back Meeting
For our first meeting of the year, everyone took part in a scavenger hunt where girls had to get others to sign their cards if they could say 'yes' to a question on it and the goal was to fill your entire card (i.e. someone who likes pizza, someone who has a brother). The Pathfinders then led a game of Everybody's It Tag for the whole group. Afterwards, the Pathfinders and Rangers worked on planning and identifying activities that they would like to do this year.

Tuesday, September 19th - Mini Messy Night and SWAP Making 
The Pathfinders & Rangers joined the Guides for an evening of messy fun and swap-making for the upcoming Campfire at Hamilton City Hall. Read about the meeting here - Mini Messy Night & SWAP Making

Tuesday, September 26th - Scavenger Hunt
This year's annual scavenger hunt was "The Selfie/Photo Team Scavenger Hunt". The girls are sent out around town to find - and photograph - as many of the items on the list as they can, including their team members!

Downloads:

• The Selfie/Photo Team Scavenger Hunt
  

 

Thursday, September 28th - WE Day Toronto 2017
WE Day was AWESOME! This was the first time we attended, and though we were small in numbers we had a great time. Read all about the event here - WE Day Toronto 2017

October

Tuesday, October 3rd - Campfire Sing-Along at Hamilton City Hall
Unfortunately, none of the Pathfinders or Rangers could join us for this event, but the Guides had a great time!


Saturday, October 7th - Cookie Selling at Zehrs
The Guides, Pathfinders and Rangers all sold Cookies at our local Zehrs store.

Tuesday, October 10th - International Day of the Girl
For the International Day of the Girl we worked on the WAGGGS #TeamGirl 2017 Challenge. We learned about rights vs needs, barriers girls face in accessing education, and explored human rights and the rights of the child. The girls talked about issues they care about and did some brainstorming around possible service projects for this year.
Read all about our meeting here - International Day of the Girl 2017

Friday, October 13th to Sunday October 15th - Nighthawk Goes to Platform 9 3/4 
The latest Nighthawk Camp was all about Harry Potter! At this camp, the activities take place through Friday night until 6am Saturday morning, and start again Saturday afternoon. Despite the rain and mud, we had a great time.
Read all about the camp here - Nighthawk Goes to Platform 9 3/4

Tuesday, October 17th - Leadership Skills
Our Ranger, a graduate of the LDP 4 program at Camp Woolsey, shared some of the skills she has learned by leading the Pathfinders through different activities to complete the Find Your Inner Leader Module. Lynsey planned an led activities about leadership styles, teamwork, problem solving and planning, which included role play, skits, and challenges.


Tuesday, October 24th - Pumpkins Galore
As Halloween fell on a Tuesday this year, the Pathfinders had a pumpkin-themed meeting the week before. They planned the activities and our Ranger did the shopping. They baked pumpkin muffins, spray painted pumpkins, snacked on muffins and chocolate, and played a huge game of hide-and-seek around our meeting space.

November

Tuesday, November 7th - Enrolment
Although it wasn't planned, our new Pathfinders were enrolled with the Guides. We also took part in our first Girls First! activity about badges shapes and designs and the importance of interest badges in the program.
Read about our ceremony here - Enrolment 2017

Saturday, November 11th - Remembrance Day
Unfortunately I have no photos, but as Remembrance Day fell on a weekend this year, 1 Ranger, 3 Pathfinders and 2 Guides were able to be at our local Cenotaph to lay a wreath on behalf of Guiding.


Tuesday, November 14th - Initiation With Lynsey
The girls earned the We're A Team Module while taking part in a series of silly and teambuilding activities with Lynsey, our Ranger, to welcome our new Pathfinders into the Unit.
 
Tuesday, November 21st - Introducing the Canada Cord
Tonight the girls were joined by a Guider for the first half of their meeting to talk about the Canada Cord. We did an overview of what is involved in earning the Canada Cord, the different modules and projects that need to be undertaken, and determined that the girls are interested in working towards this award! We reviewed what Modules they have already completed (Choosing Your Own Direction, Find Your Inner Leader, and We're A Team!), looked at what we need to cover for our 3rd Year Pathfinder (Cookies Rising, First Aid, Outdoor Bridging Activities, 4 hours of Service and her leadership camp or event) and a few modules that interest the group as a whole (Survivor Girl; Knots, Knives and Outdoor Lore; and Now You're Cooking). The second part of the meeting was spent taking part in a series of challenges - Role Play Activities on problem solving and behaviours; Game Inventors to create new games; and Energizers - 60-second active living activities.

Downloads:

• Canada Cord Overview
• Challenge Activities  

Tuesday, November 28th - Girls Count!
Financial Literacy is an important skill to learn, so since November is Financial Literacy Month, we all took on the Girls Count Challenge. To earn this challenge, girls take part in activities about Currency Awareness, Purchasing Power and Money Management. As an added bonus, the Pathfinders also earned their Moneywise Module!
Read all about our meeting here - Girls Count!

December

Tuesday, December 5th - By Girls, For Girls
This week each girl was asked to bring a 10-15 minute activity to lead for the rest of the group. Some girls worked together and led more than one activity, while others worked on their own.


Friday, December 8th to Saturday, December 9th - Sleepover
For our annual December sleepover, we had crafts, a service project, games and baking on the agenda. For our main craft, we glued yarn onto canvases in different patterns the covered everything with tinfoil. The tinfoil was pressed firmly over the yarn so that it made raised lines. The areas between the yarn lines were then coloured with Sharpies. The effect is like stained glass! We then moved onto our service project - making hygiene kits. We made 20 packages that consisted of a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, kleenex and moist wipes wrapped in washcloth and secured with hair elastics. After that, it was time for some baking, we made chocolate chip cookies and chocolate chip oatmeal muffins (breakfast!). We ordered pizza and continued crafting for awhile. The girls played games and stayed up into the early hours of the morning, long after their tired Guider had fallen asleep!

Useful Links:

•  Tin Foil Line Relief Art by Becker Middle School

Tuesday, December 12th - Elftastic Challenge
The Elftastic Challenge makes a perfect theme for a combined Guide/Pathfinder/Ranger holiday party. The girls made crafts, decorated (and ate) cookies, and played games. 
Read about the Elftastic Challenge here - Holiday Party


Tuesday, December 19th - Holiday Party
Tonight was our final activity of 2017. We ate pizza and veggies, baked cookies, had a gift stealing exchange and played Twister. The cookies are our favourite Chocolatey-Mint Chip Cookies, made by breaking up a row of mint Girl Guide cookies to use instead of regular chocolate chips. The gift exchange spending limit was $5 (but regifting and handmade were encouraged!) and we had a good time rolling a large die and passing or 'stealing' gifts around the circle. It has been a busy four months and it will be nice to have a bit of a break and come back refreshed and ready for more fun in January!.

Holiday Party

Our last meeting of December is always a holiday party. This year we earned the Elftastic Challenge from Girlguiding
Aviemore in the UK.

As the girls arrived, the Patrol Leaders took attendance and collected dues, then each Patrol made up an 'elfish skit'. One Patrol led a Christmas-themed game of tag (that seemed a bit complicated!) and then we moved onto our main program.

The first activity was to give everyone their elf names - theses were created using the formula found in the challenge pack with a few adjustments so everyone's name was unique. Once everyone had their name, they were free to move through the other activities - cookie decorating and a number of different crafts.

A large supply of craft supplies was provided for free crafting, as well as supplies to make two specific crafts - an elf and a candy cane mouse. The group enjoys crafts and this went over really well! The Pathfinders and Rangers had one craft of their own, as well as the others that were provided. They made pinecone ornaments by decorating pinecones using small beads, pompoms and ribbon - and they turned out really well.

Decorating cookies (and later eating them...) is always a success and tonight was no exception. Everyone had the chance to ice and decorate 3 cookies. The Guides took theirs home while most of the Pathfinders and Rangers ate theirs!

After cleaning up, we played a silly game called Candy Cane Hook. Basically, players take turns holding a regular-size candy cane in their mouth and trying to scoop up mini candy canes from a box and drop them in a cup. The goal is to be the first team to fill the cup. We made it a rule that no one could run with a candy cane in their mouth and this game was funny to watch!

To end the evening, we gave out badges and crests, then closed with reminders that Guides will not meet again until January and that the Pathfinders and Rangers have their own holiday party next Tuesday. Everyone also received some holiday treats to take home.

Downloads and Links:

• Elftastic Challenge Pack
• Elftastic Challenge Pinterest Page 

Eco-Guides

This week's meeting was spent working on the Ecology Badge. One of the things we often do is to created our own requirements to meet the purpose of the badge, and this was no exception.

As the girls arrived, the Patrol Leaders took attendance and collected dues. Each Patrol then did some brainstorming and made two lists - things to eat at camp and things to do at camp - as we look ahead to our winter camp in February.

Following our usual opening, we played a Find Your Match Game with animal noses. Each girl is given the name of an animal (cat, dog, chicken, snake, bumblebee) and has to find the other person who has the same animal by making the sound that animal makes.

We then sat down for a short discussion. We talked about what ecology is (the study of how animals and plants depend on each other, the weather, sunlight and water) and ecosystems (environments and the plants and animals that live there). As we have a new subdivision being built just outside of town, we also talked about what happens to animals when humans build roads and houses where the animals live. This led to talking about the animals that are seen as 'pests' in the community (raccoons, rabbits, rats) and why we are seeing them more often.

The next activity was a Food Chain Game. I believe this game is often called Amoeba or something similar. Everyone starts as a Bumblebee and moves around the playing area 'buzzing'. When they meet another Bumblebee, they play "rock, paper, scissors". The winner moves up the food chain and the loser moves down the food chain, unless they are already at the bottom (Bumblebee), in which case they stay there. So, when two Bumblebees play each other, the winner moves up to become a Sparrow. Players can only play someone who is at the same level of the food chain as they are - i.e. Sparrows can only play other Sparrows. The goal is to moves up the food chain - Bumblebee, Sparrow, Fox, Eagle, Human - although we kept the game going by having the Humans play each other to remain at the top.

The group then split into two, with one group making milk carton birdfeeders and the other learning about vermicomposting.

The birdfeeders were simple, made out of 500mL milk cartons with a hole cut in the front and and a popsicle stick for a perch. We filled them with a mixture of birdseed and sunflower butter and talked about what birds eat and why it is good to leave some plant life (i.e. dead sunflowers) in the garden over the winter as a food source.

One of our Guiders has a vermicomposter that she brought in to show the girls. Vermicomposting is a form of composting that uses red wriggler worms to breakdown food scraps into rich compost that can be used in your garden. What's neat about vermicomposters is that they can be kept indoors and as long as they are cared for, they don't smell! The girls were able to see the composter (worm poop!) and handle some of the worms.

As our final activity, we divided the girls up into two groups and had each create and lead a game. The first group was
asked to come up with a game about living things and their surroundings. In their game one player is the Germinator and one is the Gardener. When the Germinator tags a player, they become a Weed and have to sit down on the floor. The Gardener can 'water' the weeds to turn them back into plants who can then rejoin the game. The second group was asked to come with a game about recycling. In their game, one person leaves the room and the others sit in a circle. One player has a water bottom and the person who was out of the room has to guess who has it. They made up and sang a song called 'Who's the Litterer?' to the tune of 'Make a Circle'.

We ended with reminders for next week and closed with Taps.

Useful Links

• Vermicomposting - Cathy's Crawly Composters