May & June with the Rangers

Our last regular meeting was spent working on the Ready, Steady, Glasgow! Challenge which focuses on the Commonwealth Games to be held this year in Glasgow, Scotland. The first part of the evening was spent learning some basic Highland dancing, including demonstrations of sword dancing and the Highland fling. The girls then created an obstacle course and guided each other through it while blindfolded. We will complete the challenge by making Shortbread.

We ended the year by attending Rally Day at Canada's Wonderland. We enrolled Ocean-Lee as a Ranger at the end of the night.

May & June with the Pathfinders

Scavenger Hunt
May started off with our annual Scavenger Hunt. This year, we completed a photo scavenger hunt around town. The list had two categories - take a picture of the entire team and take a picture of a person, place or thing. Items included:
Entire Team

• On a spiral slide
• Doing the YMCA
• Playing leap-frog
• Doing Super Hero Poses
• Wearing tin foil or napkin hats

Person, Place or Thing

• Calculator spelling a word
• "Caution: Wet Floor" sign
• Dog in clothing
• Colourful tongues
• A pink or purple vehicle
• Human bridge
• House with Christmas lights

Be A Star!
Our next meeting was based on the Be A Star Module and included our own awards show.

The first activity was to create Red Carpet Outfits using newspaper, flyers and tape. Outfits included dresses, purses, hats, and accessories.
Next, we did a 'Who Am I?' Quiz with facts about famous people. Girls had a numbered sheet and there were facts about different people stuck up around the room. They had to go around the room and write down the names of people who they thought each fact described. After the game, we discussed the different reasons why people become famous.

1. Abraham Lincoln - I was the 16th President of the USA. I freed the slaves. 
2. Albert Einstein - I was a physicist. I am famous for the formula E=mc². 
3. Ludwig van Beethoven - I was a famous German composer. I became deaf, but continued to compose music. 
4. Benjamin Franklin - I was a founding father of the USA. I flew a kite and verified that lightning was electricity.
5. Beyonce Knowles - I am a famous pop singer and fashion model. I starred in Dreamgirls.
6. Bill Gates - I am the founder of Microsoft. I am the richest man alive.
7. Eddie Murphy - I am a famous American comedian. I played Doctor Doolittle in the movies.
8. Adolph Hitler - I was the dictator of Germany during WWII. I was the leader of the Nazi Party.
9. Elvis Presley - I was a famous singer. I am often called the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King". I am often impersonated.
10. George Washington  - I was the first President of the USA.
11. Harry Houdini - I was a famous escape artist.
12. Sir Isaac Newton - I was a physicist in England. I discovered gravity when an apple fell on my head.
13. Jane Austen - I wrote many novels, including Pride and Prejudice.
14. Leonardo da Vinci - I painted the Mona Lisa.
15. Louis Carroll - I wrote Alice in Wonderland.
16. Mark Twain - I am an American novelist who wrote Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
17. Mother Teresa - I was a nun who served the poor in Calcutta, India for many years.
18. Steven Hawking. I am a physicist. I am famous for my book, A Brief History of Time.
19. Thomas Edison - I am a famous American inventor. I invented the light bulb.
20. Walt Disney - I created Mickey Mouse. I am the founder of Disney.
21. William Shakespeare - I was a playwright. I wrote Hamlet and Romeo & Juliet.
22. Sir John A. Macdonald - I was the first Prime Minister of Canada.

We then had nominations for favourites - books, actors, actresses, movies, tv shows, subjects, etc. and created ballots to vote on the unit favourites in all categories.

We ended the meeting with an awards show with a variety of categories made up ad-lib.

We Are What We Eat

Our final regular meeting of May was spent in a visit to Zehr's for a tour with the Dietitian. We learned about identifying ripe fruits and vegetables, the differences between fresh, canned and frozen foods, food labelling, food groups and servings, different nutrients, and how to read the Nutrition Facts panel on products. We also made a dip to eat with pita slices. The dip was made from plain Greek yogurt, mayonaisse, grated cucumbers, chopped fresh chives, fresh dill, and onion flakes.

We completed our work on this module at our final meeting, where we made kebabs and baked potatoes on the barbeque.

Advancement
The last week of May was Advancement with the Guides and Rangers - see the Advancement post.

Camp Skills
Our last regular meeting of the year was held in the first week of June and we focused on Camp Skills. We practiced setting up one of the unit tents, building a fire in a foil dish and trying to toast a marshmallow, and practiced tying knots.


Medieval Mayhem Camp
We ended the year by attending the Medieval Mayhem Camp hosted by Community 12.

Medieval Mayhem Camp

Three Pathfinders attend the Medieval Mayhem Camp hosted by Community 12 and held at Camp Marydale on June 13th to 15th. The girls were able to participate in a variety of activities with girls from many different units.

Based on the activities chosen by the girls, each unit was able to participate in four different sessions. We took part in Lantern Making, Tye-Dye Madness, Covergirl, and Knots, Knives & Lore.

 

Knots, Knives & Lore included learning different knots and string games, and a challenge to unwrap and cut chocolate while wearing oven mitts.

Lantern Making was tin can lanterns. Cans are filled with water and frozen, then a pattern can be placed on the can and a hammer and nail used to make holes. Once the ice has been removed, a tealight can be added and the light will shine out through the nail holes.

In the Tye-Dying session, we learned about making natural dyes and then used pre-made dyes to tye-dye t-shirts that were being remade into bags.

Our last session was Covergirl, where we learned about make-up and beauty projects used in the Middle Ages and made natural lipbalm.

Other sessions were: Games Galore, Water Games, Canoeing, Fishing, Archery, Medieval-themed Crafts, Astronomy and Pond Study.

Rally Day 2014

Guiding in Ontario held a Rally at Canada's Wonderland on May 31, 2014, with over 8,000 Members in attendance. Activities included swapping with other units, dancing, curling, reptiles, giant gadgets, weaving milk bag mats, wheelchair basketball, netball, abilities awareness, the Rally Day: One Voice presentation on the main stage, a drumming circle, and crafts.

 Curling

 Adding to the Giant Beast (giant gadgets)

 Working on the milk bag mats

 Playing Wheelchair Basketball

 Part of the Crowd in the Kingswood Theatre

 Drumming Circle

While the Rally ended at 4pm, the Pathfinders and Rangers stayed at the park until 10pm. At the end of the night, we enrolled Lynsey as a Pathfinder and Ocean-Lee as a Ranger in front of the fountain.

Advancement & Awards

We ended our Guiding year with our annual Advancement & Awards Ceremony. In the first part of the ceremony, we recognized all of the Guides, Pathfinders and Rangers present with the badges and challenges they have earned in the last part of the year.

We then performed a ceremony based on 'Keys' to say goodbye to our advancing Guides as they moved up to Pathfinders.

The final part of the ceremony was to present Ocean-Lee with her Chief Commissioner's Bronze Award. Ocean-Lee is a Junior Leader with the Guide unit, so this was an appropriate time to recognize her achievement.

We ended the evening with cake and juice, while parents looked at the work we had displayed around the room and watched a PowerPoint presentation of our year's activities.

Arts & Crafts & Scrapbooking

Our last meeting in April and last meeting in May before Advancement were spend working

on the UK Guide Craft Badge, the Art Production Badge, and making Paper Bag Scrapbooks as a memory of the year.

April 29th
After our opening and an active game, we moved onto stamping, calligraphy and scrapbooking.

For stamping, the girls made their own stamps using fun foam and bottle lids. Each girl was given a foam trefoil to make a stamp, and then created their own - including hearts, stars, swirls, paw prints, and diamonds. Different coloured ink pads were provided so they could decorate their scrapbooks.

For calligraphy, we had samples of alphabets in different lettering styles and the girls choose a style and wrote their name on a card. Some of the girls took this further and used the lettering for titles and descriptions in their scrapbooks.

The majority of the meeting was spend working on the paper bag scrapbooks we started back in September. Each girl was given pages of printed photographs and clipart, and we had stickers, markers, coloured paper, etc. for them to use.

For instructions on making a paper bag scrapbook, visit the Owl & Toadstool Blog.

May 20th
Most of the meeting was spent working on the paper bag scrapbooks and making SWAPS for Rally Day.

As the girls finished, they were given a choice of activities:

• Making Friendship Bracelets
• Creating a work of art based on a dream or something from their imagination
• Mixing colours to make new colours and shades
• Designing a new box for Girl Guide Cookies or packaging for another product

World Guiding Goes to Hong Kong

The 35th World Conference is being held this July in Hong Kong. To celebrate, we decided to work on the World Guiding Goes to Hong Kong Challenge at our second meeting in May. The challenge has 3 required sections - Welcome to Hong Kong, Welcome to WAGGGS, and Welcome to the World Conference, and one optional section - Welcome to the Commonwealth Chief Commissioners' Conference (which is being held in Malaysia this summer).

As the girls arrived, they looked at a display board with information about Guiding in Hong Kong and chose an interesting fact to share with the rest of the Unit.

Welcome to Hong Kong
For this section, we played two outdoor games.
Chase the Dragon's Tail is played with all of the girls in a line, holding onto the waist or shoulders of the player in front of them. The girl at the front of the line is the Head and the girl at the end is the Tail. The Head chases the Tail and tries to catch her. If she catches her, both the Head and the Tail join the line in the centre, leaving new players as both the Head and Tail.

Catch the Broom is a game played by Brownies and Guides. All of the girls stand in a circle and are given a number. One girl is chosen to stand in the middle and hold the broomstick. She calls out a number and lets go of the broom. The girl with that number runs to catch the broom before it hits the ground. If she catches the broom, she returns to the circle, if she doesn't, she changes places with the girl in the centre.

The third activity was Toe Drawing. Each patrol was given the name of an object (i.e. cake, chair) and each member of the patrol had to draw the object using a pencil held by their toes. The other patrols then tried to guess what the object was.

Welcome to WAGGGS
In this part, we talked about how many countries there are who are members of WAGGGS (145) and how Guide-age girls have different names in different countries. Each girl was then given a card with either a country or the name for 9-11 year old girls. They then had to find their partner. Once everyone had a partner, they called out the country and name. Pairs that were right sat down, everyone else tried again until we had all the pairs.

Argentina          Guia en Caravana (Caravan Guide)         age 10 to 12

Denmark           Juniorspejder (Junior Guide)                  age 10 to 12

Finland             Seikkailijat (Adventurer)                         age 10 to 12

Georgia            Tsi Tsi Natela (Firefly)                            age 10 to 13

Iceland              Falkaskatar (Falcon Scout)                    age 10 to 12

Israel                Nachschonim (Pioneer)                          age 10 to 11

Norway             Stifinnere (Pathfinder)                            age 10 to 12

Peru                 Guias de Luz (Light Guides)                   age 10 to 13

Portugal            Guia Aventura (Adventure Guide)            age 10 to 14

Sweden            Upptackarscout (Discoverer Scout)        age 10 to 12

The second activity was about Responsible Citizenship. We discussed how we all have rights and responsibilities. Each patrol then made a list of rights and the responsibilities that go along with them.
 
Welcome to the World Conference
In this part, we asked the girls to design their own logo for Guides or for a Guiding event. We discussed things to think about - words, special symbols, colours and then allowed the girls to create.

Welcome to the Chief Commissioners' Conference
For this section, we played Semut, Orang, Gajah, which is the Malaysian version of Rock, Paper, Scissors. The words mean Ant, Person, Elephant. Girls start in pairs, holding one hand behind their back, and on the count of three, show their hand making one of these actions:

• Semut (pronounced suh-MOOT) means ant. Girls point their little finger towards their partner. 
• Orang (pronounced orr-AHNG) means person. Girls point their index finger towards their partner. 
• Gajah (pronounced gha-jah) means elephant. Girls point their thumb towards their partner.

The semut (ant) beats the gajah (elephant) because the semut can crawl in the gajah’s ear and tickle him to drive hiem crazy. The orang (person) beats the semut (ant) because the orang can stomp on the semut and squash it. The gajah (elephant) beats the orang (person) because the orang can get trampled by the gajah.

CSI Challenge

Our first meeting in may was spent working on the BC CSI Challenge. As the girls arrived, they were asked to write the word 'Suspect' on two slips of paper, with their name on the back for an activity later in the evening.

To take advantage of the good weather, we went outside to play games at the beginning of the meeting. The first game was Crabs, Crows and Cranes. In this game, the girls are divided into two groups, one team is the crows and the other is the cranes. The teams line up facing each other and the game leader calls out 'Crows', 'Cranes' or 'Crabs'. On 'Crows', the Crow team chases the Crane team, on 'Cranes', the Crane team chases the Crow team, and on 'Crabs', everyone stays still. Anyone tagged, or caught moving on 'Crabs', joins the other team.

Our second game was a version of How Good a Witness Are You?. Girls lined up in pairs, facing each other. On a signal, the girls turned their backs and each girl changed three things about her appearance. When everyone was ready, the girls faced each other and tried to figure out what their partner had changed. We did this a few times as it was popular with the girls.

Going back inside, we started with Fingerprints. Each girl used talcum powder to put her thumbprint on a piece of black card and then covered it with clear tape. Using pictures, they identified if their print had loops, arches or whorls.

Next, we used the slips of paper the girls wrote on when the arrived for Handwriting Analysis. Each girl was given one two slips of paper and had to find the people who held the matching slips. This was more difficult than the girls thought it would be as many people's handwriting looked very similar.

Our final activity of the evening was to extract DNA from strawberries. The instructions for this activity can be found in the activity pack for this challenge. This is a really neat activity to do and the results are tangible.

Cookie Selling

Some of the Guides sold cookies at Sears in April.

We also spent the first Saturday in May selling cookies at our local LCBO store.

March & April with the Rangers

In March the Rangers continued to work on their toothbrush/toothpaste holders and on in the last week of the month we had a movie night to watch the movie Frozen and made our own pizza.

In April, we sold cookies at Sears with the Guides and Pathfinders.

March & April with the Pathfinders

March started off with a craft night to make no-sew felt purses and to play our Murder Mystery night for the 3rd Year Guides.
The felt purses were made by cutting a fringe around three sides of two pieces of felt and knotting the pieces together.

The following week was March Break, so we didn't have a meeting. After March Break, we had a a Survivor Night. The girls were divided into two teams and each team had to come up with a name and make a team flag.

Next, we had a quick quiz on the three elements necessary for survival (water, fire, shelter), and a challenge to guess the contents of a first aid kit. Each team was then given a bucket of supplies to build a shelter, lay a fire, and put together a water filter.

April began with a Murder Mystery Night with the 3rd Year Guides. Each person had a character to play -

We used activities from the Secret Agent 007 Module and the BC CSI Challenge to solve the 'crime'.

• Lifting fingerprints using talcum powder, black paper and tape
• Comparing handwriting samples and trying to find their matches
• Extracting DNA from strawberries

Our next meeting was a planning night where the girls came up with plans for a PJ Night and an Awards Show Night. PJ Night was scheduled for the next week, however, no one remembered so one of the girl's mom's brought over the movie 'Frozen' to watch.

The next meeting was devoted to science and the Everything Comes From STEM module. We looked at the scientific method and then did some chemistry and engineering activities.
The Chemistry activities were both magic tricks:

1. Coloured Water - This trick requires a little bit of set up. You will need: 4 glasses, 4 teaspoons, water, white vinegar, food colouring, and baking soda. To prepare, fill 3 glasses half full with water and 1 glass half full with white vinegar. Place one drop of food colouring on 3 of the spoons. Fill all 4 spoons with baking soda, making sure to cover the food colouring. Arrange a tray with the 4 glasses and a spoon in front of each glass (the spoon with just baking soda is placed in front of the glass of vinegar, the 4th glass). Ask girls to come up and stir the white powder into the glass. The first 3 glasses will change colour (which is pretty cool, especially if you use different colours of food colouring), but the fourth will bubble up and overflow the glass!
2. Put a Candle Out With Air - Mix a small amount of vinegar and baking soda together in a glass. Light a candle and then put it out by 'pouring' the air out of the glass. (The vinegar and baking soda have produced carbon monoxide, which is heavier than oxygen, so it stays in the glass until it is 'poured' out and suffocates the flame on the candle.)

Our engineering activity was building catapults using popsicle sticks, tape, elastic bands and spoons. The creations were all different and very effective!
April ended with an Art Meeting to work on the Rembrandt & Co Module. We started out by talking briefly about Andy Warhol and how his art focused on mass culture items, such as packaged goods and celebrities. Each girl then made a set of 25 coloured circles using 5 different colours and created a design or pattern. This activity was based on the lifesavers art activity.

Next, each girl created a Warhal-inspired drawing. Our last activity was to look at urban art and graffiti. Each girl designed her own piece of art based on the examples we looked at.

Earth Day

As our fourth meeting of April fell on April 22nd, we had a meeting to celebrate Earth Day - in the dark!

When the Guides arrived, their first task was to work in Patrols to create a list of ways they can be a conservationist at home. Ideas included turning off the tap while brushing their teeth, turning off lights when leaving a room, putting on a sweater instead of turning up the heat, and using fans instead of air conditioning.

After our opening, we went outside to participate in Pitch-In by cleaning up the parking lot and grassy areas around the church where we meet.

Once we had finished our clean-up, we came inside and turned on our flashlights. Our first activity was The Endangered Hoppit Game (follow the link for complete instructions). In this game, the girls take on the role of Hoppits, imaginary creatures that hop around gathering materials from the ground (food, water, items to build shelter). Through the course of the game, their survival becomes more difficult - Bad weather strikes and decreases their food supply (Hoppits can only hop on one leg) and humans build a shopping mall on their home (Hoppits no longer have a home where they can stop and rest). We then discussed how changes to an environment impacts the creatures that live there and what we can do to help.

The next part of the meeting was spent completing an Energy and Accessibility Audit as part of the Operation: Earth Action Challenge. The girls worked in patrols and went around the church using flashlights to checkout the various categories on the audit form. For the Energy Audit, they were asked to look at lighting, drafts around windows and doors, water flow, major appliances, and themostats. The Accessibility Audit asked the girls to describe the building itself, to look for entry ramps, designated parking spaces, buttons for opening doors, ways to move between the different levels of the building, features that could help people with different needs (i.e. wheelchair user, visually impaired, cane or walker user), and finally what accessibility features they would include if they were designing a building.

The last activity of the evening was about water conservation. We did two active quizzes about water facts and water conservation - the walls of the room were labeled A-D and True/False, girls ran to the one they thought was the correct answer. There were then two puzzle pages, one involved coded messages about surface water and groundwater, and the other involved a word wheel and tips about using water wisely.

Zentangles

Our next April meeting was spent learning about Zentangles and creating Girl Guide Zentangle Art! The grandmother of one of our Guides teaches Zentangle to classes and came to teach the Guides.

As the girls arrived they completed their physical activity logs for the week. We then had our usual opening and an active game. 

The girls then settled down at the tables to create their own Zentangle works of art. Each was as unique as the girl creating it. I would recommend this activity to any unit. Our girls are usually very active and they sat and worked on their Zentangles for at least an hour without getting restless.

To learn more about Zentangles, try these websites:
http://www.zentangle.com/
http://tanglepatterns.com/
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Zentangle
or just type 'zentangle' into your web browser.

 

Going Global - Service & Awareness

Our second meeting in April was spent earning the Going Global Service Bar and learning more about education and Fair Trade. We started the meeting off by filling in physical fitness logs for the week, followed by our usual opening and an active game.

The first activity was called Picture Your World and comes from the Right Now! resource book from Girlguiding UK. The Guides were divided into 3 uneven groups and given supplies to draw pictures of their favourite parts of Guiding. Group A had 2 girls, 2 sheets of paper and a box of new markers. Group B had 4 girls, 2 sheets of paper, and a mixture of markers and pencil crayons (some not working well). Group C had 10 girls, 1 small sheet of paper, and a mixture of markers and pencil crayons (most not working well). The groups could look at what the others had, but couldn't borrow items or get supplies that they weren't given. We ended the activity with a discussion where the girls shared how they felt with the supplies they received and what they observed about the other groups. We also discussed the differences in education around the world.

Our next activity was to Assemble School Kits from the supplies that were collected at Thinking Day. Supplies, including notebooks, pencils, erasers, rulers and pencil crayons will be sent to the Mennonite Central Committee for distribution around the world.  

The rest of the meeting was spent on an activity called The Trading Game, also from the Right Now! resource. In this activity, the Guides were divided up into 6 groups representing 2 wealthy countries, 2 middle countries, and 2 poor countries. Each country was given supplies to make bracelets. The wealthy countries received 3 colours of beads, string to make one bracelet, tape, ruler, scissors, and 6 bank notes; the middle countries received 1 colour of bead, a different type of bead, string to make two bracelets, tape and 4 bank notes; the poor countries received 1 colour of bead, string to make many bracelets and 2 bank notes. The countries then had to start making bracelets that met the game requirements (25cm in length, 3 different colours of beads). The Guides soon realized that they would need to trade and/or purchase supplies from each other in order to complete their bracelets and began coming up with strategies to get the supplies they needed. We ended the activity with a brief discussion about Fair Trade and how the bracelets they had made will be donated to Sangam, where they are sold for $0.20 to $0.25 in the shop to raise money to support community programs.