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)

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!.

Cookies Rising

We started off February with our annual Cookie night to complete the Cookies Rising Badge.

As the girls arrived, they started working on a Cookie Banner (Financial - Goal Setting) with information about cookies and cookie sales and ideas for how we could use the money we earn from our cookie sales. We then had our usual opening ceremony and an active game before moving into the rest of our program for the evening.

Our first activity was to learn a bit about Girl Guide Cookie History (GGC - History of GGC Cookies). We learned that:

• Girl Guide Cookie Sales start when Christina Riepsamen and the 4th Regina Guide Company bake cookies to raise funds for camping. These cookies are sold for $0.10 per dozen.
• Cookie Sales started in Ontario in 1929. At first, cookies are baked by the girls and their mothers.
• Cookies in the 1930s are made with fruits, nuts and spices, but the recipe is lost when production stops due to the War
• Vanilla cream, maple cream and shortbread cookies are available in 1946, changing to a Scotch-crunch cookie in 1949. 
• The chocolate and vanilla cookies we love were first made in 1953, and became our annual spring cookie in 1966.
• We sold peanut butter cookies for one year only - 1988 (when M. was a Brownie!)
• Cholately Mint cookies came along in 1993 and we started having two cookie campaigns per year. 

Read the blog post "Cookies in Canada" to learn more!

We then moved on to inventing Cookie Mascot Puppets (Social - Creativity). Each girl was asked to think of a character and create a puppet using construction paper, markers and coffee stirrers. The girls then got into groups to invent advertisements for cookies using their mascot puppets. (Business - Marketing)


The second half of our meeting was spent preparing for WAGGGS Night next week. Each Patrol had chosen a country and worked on creating a poster about the country and Guiding there, and choosing and practicing a game from their chosen country to teach to the rest of the Unit.

We ended with clean-up, announcements and Taps.

Fall Cookie Sales

We spent Saturday morning at Zehrs in Caledonia selling cookies. Only 6 girls were able to make it, but between them sold 15 cases!

March & April with the Pathfinders & Rangers

March and April were busy months for the Pathfinders and Rangers! We took part in activities for National Engineering Month, visited Ripley's Aquarium, earned the Cookies Rising, Up Close and Personal With Nature, and Be a Model Citizen Modules, and had lots of fun along the way!

Engineering
March stated off with a meeting to celebrate National Engineering Month! Two Pathfinders took part in the NEM Crazy Contraptions program with the Guides. See the post here http://caledoniaguiding.blogspot.ca/2016/03/nem-2016-crazy-contraptions.html


Minute-To-Win-It Challenge!
The week before March Break, we decided to have some fun and spend an evening challenging ourselves with Minute-To-Win-It Challenges. All the necessary supplies were provided and the girls took turns drawing cards from a pile. To see the challenges we tried, download the PDF File.

Planning Meeting
Coming back from March Break, we turned to planning out our activities for the rest of the year. Our 3rd Year Pathfinder needs some specific Modules for her Canada Cord, and we are also looking forward to an Outdoors Night, taking part in the Great Canadian Shoreline Clean Up, and Camp in June.

Save the Banana!
March ended with a meeting devoted to bananas. The girls found out about Fair Trade Bananas, Organic Bananas, and the risk of the most commonly eaten bananas no longer existing. They were challenged to find out fast facts about bananas (did you know that more than 100 billion bananas are eaten every year worldwide?) and create a poster to share their new knowledge and inform younger girls. They also had to learn the words and actions to "Bananas of the World Unite" and sing it as a group, as well as sing any other banana-related songs they could think of, and create the 'best dressed banana'.

Cookies Rising
April started off with a Cookie meeting. The girls learned about the different types of cookiesGirl Guides have made and sold over the years. They then made a Fruit &
 Spice type cookie for everyone to try. While the cookies were baking, the group worked on budgeting for a Unit activity, creating a cookie selling plan and determining the roles needed for the cookie campaign and what skills could be applied to each task.

Girl Guide Cookies Through the Years

• The original 1927 cookie was a basic Sugar Cookie.
• In the 1930s, cookies were rich in fruits, nuts and spices. 
• In the 1940s and 1950s there were vanilla creme, maple cream, and shortbread cookies.
• Vanilla and chocolate sandwich cookies made their first appearance in 1953.
• 1960 saw the introduction of a sugar-topped cookie.
• We had peanut butter cookies for one year in 1988.
• Chocolatey mint cookies arrived in 1993.

Ripley's Aquarium

The Pathfinders and Rangers joined the Guides and groups from Brantford and Binbrook on a day trip to Ripley's Aquarium! See the post here http://caledoniaguiding.blogspot.ca/2016/04/ripleys-aquarium.html

Reporting
Two Pathfinders joined the Guides on their visit to the Grand River Sachem. See the post here http://caledoniaguiding.blogspot.ca/2016/04/be-reporter.html

Canadiana
Mid-April was spent working on the Be a Model Citizen Module and the Citizenship Certificate. A number of challenges were combined into a board game, with trivia questions and group challenges. Each player is a candidate in an upcoming election. They gain votes by correctly answer trivia questions in three categories - "Running the Country", "I Am Canadian", and "Exploring Canada". Election squares (red) allow players to move on extra spaces, or be sent back for following or forgetting about electoral processes. Group Challenges are added to cover larger activities. Download the game instructions, cards and information sheets in a PDF File.

Happy 50th Birthday Sangam!
April ended with a meeting to celebrate Sangam, held with the Guides. See the post here http://caledoniaguiding.blogspot.ca/2016/04/happy-50th-birthday-sangam.html

November & December with the Pathfinders & Rangers

The arrival of November meant it was time for Enrolment! The Pathfinders took part in the Guide Enrolment Ceremony and receives badges and Membership Pins. They have chosen to have 'unique' enrolments, which will be unannounced and in interesting locations (past enrolments have included Canada's Wonderland and the top of a slide - in winter - at midnight). See more on the Guide Enrolment here - caledoniaguiding.blogspot.ca/2015/11/guide-enrolment.html

The second meeting of November was themed "Colourful" as we started work on our Crayola Colorcycle Service Project. The girls reviewed the information about the program, designed an information flyer to send home with the Sparks, Brownies and Guides, prepared a short talk to give to the other units about the project, and decorated large zip-lock bags for the units to use to collect their used markers.
More information about the program can be found on the Crayola website - www.crayola.com/colorcycle.aspx 

Friday, November 13th was a PA day for everyone, so we had a 'Pathfinder Day'. Read all about it here - caledoniaguiding.blogspot.ca/2015/11/pathfinder-day.html

The last two meetings of November could be called "Outdoors Indoors" as we worked on the Finding Your Way, Out on the Trails, Survivor Girl and Outdoor Know-How Modules by building on our existing outdoor skills. The first week we played an active living board game using giant dice and learning exercises that would help us prepare for a hiking trip, explored different scenarios that could occur while hiking, played a map symbol memory game and did a map creation activity (using map symbols and compass directions). The second meeting was spent exploring different survival situations and what could be done to help you survive the elements, followed by a session of shelter building outside.

At the end of November, one Pathfinder joined the Guides for their 'Heritage Home Skills Badge Night'. Read more about that event here - caledoniaguiding.blogspot.ca/2015/11/heritage-home-skills-night.html

For the first two weeks of December, the Guides and Pathfinders met together, including cookie selling on the Saturday in-between!
Diversity Night - caledoniaguiding.blogspot.ca/2015/12/disability-awareness.html
Cookie Selling - caledoniaguiding.blogspot.ca/2015/12/cookie-selling.html
Holiday Craft Night - caledoniaguiding.blogspot.ca/2015/12/holiday-craft-night.html

Our final meeting of December was a Holiday Party. We made glass ball ornaments by pouring nail polish into the empty balls and letting it flow around to coat all the glass inside, then letting them drain in plastic cups with paper towel to catch the drips. This was followed by chocolate fondue (1/2 cup of whipping cream heated to steaming in a double boiler then 2 x 200 gram bars of chocolate melted into the cream and stirred until the mixture was a creamy chocolate) with fruit and cookies. We ended with a gift exchange ($5 maximum) and talked about everyone's plans for the holidays.

We had a sleepover planned for the last Friday of school that wound up with just one Pathfinder and one Ranger attending. The girls sponge painted glass candle holders, baked cookies, ate pizza, watched movies and talked most of the night.

Cookie Selling

On Saturday, December 5th the Guides & Pathfinders sold cookies at Zehrs' in Caledonia. We successfully sold the majority of our remaining fall cookies in just 3 hours!

Fall Cookie Sales

In mid-October we took part in Cookie Day at Sears to sell Chocolatey Mint Cookies.

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.

Cookie Capers

 

April is cookies season, so we decided to start the month off with a meeting to complete our annual Cookies Rising badge and take part in cookie-themed activities.

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

Our first activity was to design cookie costumes. Each girl had paper and markers to create a costume, clothing, or wearable display board for selling cookies. 

Next, we played a 'fruit salad' game using cookie flavours - chocolate, vanilla and mint. Each girl is given the name of a type of cookies. One player stands in the centre and the others stand on mats or sit on chairs in a circle.  The game leader calls out one or more types of cookies and those players have to change places. The girl in the centre tries to get a chair regardless of what type of cookie is called. When 'Cookie Box' is called, all players get up and try to find a new seat.

The rest of the meeting was spent creating cookie marketing campaigns. Some girls worked alone, others in pairs or small groups. Each girl or group had a series of questions to guide them and help them become more knowledgeable about Girl Guide Cookies. The end results included posters, songs, commercials, and skits.

We ended the meeting with a new game - Romeo & Juliet. For this game, players stand in two lines, on opposite sides of the playing area, facing their partner. The game leader calls out the actions and the last pair to perform the action is out. Play until only one couple is left. The actions are: Romeo & Juliet (One partner sits on the others knee), Wheelbarrow (Players form a wheelbarrow with one player holding the other players legs), and Siamese Twins (Players stand back to back and bend over to clasp hands between their legs).

November & December with the Rangers

November was a busy month for everyone and we were unable to meet. Two Rangers assisted at the Grace United Church House Tours & Bazaar on November 16th, one Ranger joined the Guides and Pathfinders at the McMaster Planetarium, and one Ranger and one Guider sold cookies with the Sparks at the end of November.

December started off with our annual Pathfinder/Ranger Service Project Sleepover. We made 8 dozen cookies for the church to pack into boxes for people spending Christmas alone, 5 plates full of decorated sugar cookies for an assisted living facility, and Soup-in-a-Jar and Cookies-in-a-Jar for Martha House, a Women's Shelter in Hamilton. We ordered pizza and the girls spent time crafting and socializing.

We got together again on December 21st for a movie night and watched "The Grinch" with Jim Carrey and ate sweet & salty popcorn, hot chocolate, chocolate covered almonds and lemonade.

Over the Christmas holidays, we got together on December 29th to spend time crafting. We made dry erase boards using frames and squares of card stock (in place of paint chips) and prepared the washcloths to make toothbrush/toothpaste holders at our next meeting. Both ideas are from Pinterest and can be found by clicking on the images.