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)

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.

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