Teamwork & Communication Skills

As our Unit has ongoing challenges with listening - to Guiders and to each other - we decided to spend another night working on teamwork and communications skills.

As the girls arrived, they collected dues and marked their attendance books. We had our usual opening and then moved into our first activity, adapted from "Take A Vote" (in Right Now!, Girlguiding UK, 2007). 

We asked a few girls for suggestions of games we could play, and then had everyone vote for the one they wanted. Instead of playing the chosen game, we announced that we were going to play 'Duck, Duck, Goose' and had everyone sit down in a circle. We fussed over making the circle perfect and how everyone was to be careful and gentle while playing (playing up a bit as if we were talking to much younger girls). Once the girls were thoroughly bewildered, instead of starting the game we asked how they felt. It took a few minutes, but soon the girls were expressing their thoughts - they were confused, upset, angry and wanted to know why we bothered to have them vote if we weren't going to play the game they picked. We explained that was the point of the activity, and emphasized that when we make a decision as a group, it's important to respect that decision - even if it's not what you wanted. We then played their chosen game - Wax Museum.

Our next activity was adapted from "Gagged" (in Right Now!, Girlguiding UK, 2007). Each girl was given a number - 1 or 2. Those with a 2 were not allowed to speak as we had a discussion about ideas for activities to do with World Guiding for an upcoming meeting. After finishing the discussion with the #1s, we asked everyone how they felt - we got a variety of responses, frustration and anger from the 2s, and a bit of superiority but also feeling bad from the 1s. We talked about how this is something we see happening, when people aren't always being given a chance to give their input to group and Patrol discussions, and the importance of giving everyone a chance to share. Of course, we then asked the 2s for their input so everyone got to participate.

Next up was a fun activity called "Play Your Part" (in Right Now!, Girlguiding UK, 2007), where each Patrol has to invent a new machine. The machine is then made up of the bodies of the Patrol members - each person needing to have an action and a sound as part of the machine.

We the moved onto a planning activity, adapting "Token to Talk" (in Right Now!, Girlguiding UK, 2007), by asking each Patrol to come up with themes and then choose one to plan activities for a meeting. Each Patrol was given a dish with 3 beads for each person. Each girl took her beads and every time she spoke, she had to put a bead into the dish. Once everyone was out of beads, they could be redistributed. The point of the activity was to ensure that everyone had an equal chance to speak and be heard. It worked quite well and as the activity progressed, the girls stopped using the beads but continued giving everyone a turn.

The last activity for the evening was Girl Guide Taboo (adapted from "Stop! You Can't Say That!" (in Right Now!, Girlguiding UK, 2007)). The cards had Guiding-themed words and girls played the game in small groups, with players helping the asker when needed. To play, one person draws a card and tries to get the player on her right to guess the word without saying any of the 'do not say' words. We did not use a timer and used teamwork to help players guess the word or phrase they were being given hints about.

We closed with reminders for next week and Taps.

Links & Downloads:

• Girl Guide Taboo Cards 

Super Cookie Challenge/Cookies Rising Badges

This week we tried the Super Cookie Challenge from BC and earned our annual Cookies Rising badges!

As the girls arrived, they were provided with paper and markers to design new boxes for Girl Guide Cookies. 

After our usual opening ceremony, we played an active game called Chicken and Toasters that was posted on a Girl Guide Facebook Group. To play the game, one person is it. The other players squat, chirp and flap their wings like chickens. When they are tagged, they pose like a toaster. If a toaster is tagged by another chicken they pop up (like toast) and become chickens again. 

We then had a short discussion about cookies - how the cost of a case breaks down between Dare Foods, National, Province and out Unit, and about cookies in other countries. The USA tops the list, selling 11 different flavours, but Australia, New Zealand and Singapore each sell 3 different kinds, and Ireland has one type for sale.

Cookies in Australia Vanilla, Shortbread, Chocolate Chip	Cookies in Ireland Chocolate Chip
Cookies in New Zealand Original, Chocolate, Mini Chocolate	Cookies in Singapore Chocolate Mint, Chocolate Cream, Malt Chocolate

Cookies in the USA S'mores Graham Cracker, S'mores Sandwich, Caramel, Peanut Butter Sandwich, Chocolate-covered Peanut Butter, Shortbread, Lemon, Shortbread dipped in Fudge, Toffee, Cranberry, Cranberry Citrus, Chocolatey Mint

We then played Cookie Jeopardy to test our cookie knowledge.

The girls then designed Cookie Posters. 

Our final activity was to make up Girl Guide Cookie games. Each Patrol created a game and we played one of them - we'll play the others over the next couple of weeks. 

• Cookie Bake - Four corners are labelled flour, milk, butter and chocolate. Players work in Patrols and in relay formation, one at time race around the corners. At each corner they perform an action - 5 jumping jacks (flour), spin around 5 times (milk), act like a seal (butter), 5 star jumps (chocolate). The winners are the first Patrol to get all their players around the course.
• Cookie Cheeks - The ends of the room are cookie jars. Players are cookies and 'it' is a hungry human. Cookies run from one end of the room to the other, trying not to be tagged. If they are tagged, they become cookie crumbs and can tag other players - but cannot move from the spot where they were tagged.
• Dizzy Cookies - Two players are It and each has a soft ball. To tag other players, they throw the ball and try to hit them below the waist. If a player is hit, they sit on the ground and spin in a circle until they are tagged by another player.

We ended with reminders for next week and Taps.

Links & Downloads:

• Super Cookie Challenge (BC Girl Guides) - external link 
• Cookies Rising: Playing With Cookies Instant Meeting - external link (contains the Cookie Jeopardy Game)

Girls First - Diverse Connections

Happy New Year! We started 2018 off with a meeting testing activities for the Girls First

program! The theme for the evening was "Diverse Connections". As we are asked to keep the details of the test activities confidential, I can't share exactly what we did - but here is an overview of how the evening went:

As the Guides arrived, each Patrol was asked to make a list of things they like for use in one of the later activities. They took attendance and collected dues before our usual opening.

In our first activity, the girls were asked to move to different places in the room based on how much they liked or disliked an item (i.e. YouTube, Broccoli, Math, Stranger Things). This activity went fairly well and the girls commented that they had learned things they didn't know about each other. 

Next, we did an activity that was very similar to one from we did last year as part of the NSP: Action on Poverty. Girls were given a coloured card and had to move according to the instructions given with various statements about socio-economic factors. This activity went fairly well, with some interesting comments about how the girls felt in the different positions. 

Although these activities involved some movement, the girls were getting restless so we paused here for a game break and played Squirt.

For the next activity, the girls were divided up into small groups and had to find something they all had in common and something they all felt differently about. This was repeated with the groups getting progressively larger. The first round of this activity went well, but later rounds were 'boring' (doing the same thing) or 'frustrating' (too many people to find things in common and something that makes each of them unique). The girls did comment that it's good for people to think differently and like/dislike different things as it would be pretty boring if we all thought/felt the same way.

Our final activity was making up skits - which most of our girls enjoy. Before starting, we brainstormed a list of situations where people could be teased or excluded. Each Patrol had to pick one of the scenarios make up a skit showing the problem and a skit showing how they could resolve the problem. Overall these were well done and stayed on topic. 

We ended by evaluating the activities and the discussions we had throughout the evening. The results were mixed and although we didn't run into any major problems, the overall feeling was that these weren't 'fun' activities - the phrase 'school-like' was used by some. Our feedback has been submitted and will be looked at by the Girls First Team as the new program is created!

To keep up with what is happening, follow the Girls First Page!