Fun With Gardening!

This week we explored gardening and made our own Zen Gardens! If the girls want to earn the Gardening Badge, they will just need to take care of their own garden of plants and/or vegetables for a season. 

As the girls arrived, they started decorating their Zen Garden containers. We had our usual opening ceremony, and talked about the plan for the evening. We started out with an explanation about Zen Gardens and how some people find making patterns in them to be relaxing. Once they had finished their decorating, we helped the girls to fill their container half-way with salt and added a toothpick as the 'rake'. The girls then chose pebbles to add to their gardens. These gardens were very popular and the girls were excited to take them home and show them to their families.


Our second activity was to Design A Garden. Each girl had a sheet of paper and had to decide what she wanted to grow, and where to plant each item. Some girls got very creative, adding topiaries, ponds, paths and other decorative features. 

One of our Guiders is an active gardener, so she talked to the girls about Sites, Soils and Plant Protection. We learned about choosing where to place our plants based on how much sun or shade they need and the different soil types in our area. We had brought in soil samples from our garden and the girls were able to touch and feel clay soil, loamy soil that has been enriched over several years, peat with seaweed from the garden centre, compost from our backyard composter, and horse manure! The girls found out how to protect their plants, the importance of watering early in the morning or in the evening so the water has a chance to be absorbed into the soil rather than evaporating, and the need to cover plants when nights are cool in case of frost and providing shade on very hot days.

We broke for an active game at this point - Squirt - before moving on to our final activity.

The last activity of the evening was to make Reflective Garden Ornaments from old CDs. We provided glue, sequins and gems and let the girls be as creative as they wished! Wire was added so that the CDs can be hung up in a garden or window.


We finished with reminders for next week (Great Canadian Shoreline Clean-Up) and closed with Taps.

Mini Messy Night & SWAP Making

For our second meeting we had some messy fun outdoors and a session of SWAP making to get ready for the Campfire Event in October.

As the girls arrived they organized a game of Everybody's It Tag (I mentioned it was a favourite, didn't I?!). Once the Guiders were finished talking to parents, receiving forms, etc. we had a short opening to explain the plan for the evening.

We had forgotten the baking soda so one Guider went to get some, while everyone else headed outside. We started the evening off with Slime! It was pre-made for the Guides due to the amount of time it would have taken to do at the meeting, but the Pathfinders and Rangers went into the kitchen for their own slime making session. The recipe we used was:

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp of Metamucil (or generic version - we used Life Brand from Shopper's Drug Mart)
• 3/4 Cup of Water

Directions:

• Mix Metamucil and Water together in a large microwavable dish for about 1 minute, or until all the powder is dissolved. 
• Place the dish in the microwave and cook on high for 5 minutes. (The large bowl is needed here as the mixture will bubble up!)
• Take the mixture out of the microwave and stir. Let cool for a few minutes and pour out onto a piece of plastic wrap or into a ziplock bag.
• Let cool and enjoy! (One batch makes enough for 2 girls)

We put the slime aside for a game of Hide and Seek around the church property, and once the baking soda arrived we moved on to making film canister rockets. We had some pretty good 'bangs' from the rockets as the girls experimented with the baking soda to water to vinegar ratios. To make the rockets, place some baking soda on the inside of a film canister lid. Add a tiny bit of water, just enough to make the baking soda stick to the lid. Fill the canister with vinegar. Press the lid tightly onto the canister and quickly flip upside down on the ground or a table. When the vinegar mixes with the baking soda it creates carbon dioxide. The pressure from the carbon dioxide will 'pop' the canister off the lid, and, hopefully, up into the air!

As we had reached the mid-point of our meeting, we headed back inside for one more activity - Chocolate Unicorns! In this activity, each girl was given a Girl Guide Chocolately Mint Cookie to place on her forehead (the unicorn horn). She then had to move the cookie into her mouth without using her hands. Girls were then sent to clean up before we started crafting.

The remainder of the meeting was spent making SWAPS. We showed the girls some sample SWAPS and let them create! We provided twigs, pipecleaners, pompoms, string, beads, feathers, fun foam, googly eyes, foam cups, markers, glue, and scissors.

Clean-up took a bit of time, so we ended with a couple of songs led by the Pathfinders and Taps led by our Ranger helper.

Happy Holidays!

Tonight was our final meeting of 2016 and we celebrated with a holiday party. The hall was decorated for Christmas, we had carols playing, and some of the girls even dressed up in holiday-themed attire or pyjamas.

Our first activity was decorating homemade gingerbread.We provided white icing and lots of toppings - then let the girls decorate to their hearts content!

Everyone then had an opportunity to work on three different crafts - some girls did them all, while others spent the entire evening on a single item. We had fimo ornaments, shink art pictures, and a 'free crafting' table for the girls to explore their creativity.

At the end of the night, everyone received crests and challenge crests, as well as a special Christmas crest. We closed with reminders that tonight was our last meeting of 2016 and Taps.

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.

Holiday Craft Night

Our final meeting for 2015 was our annual craft night. As the girls arrived, they played a game and we then began with our usual opening, followed by an active game led by the Active Living Patrol.

The first craft was a snowman made from a glass vinegar bottle. The girls used sponges to paint the bottles white and then painted faces with orange and black paint. The hats are made from a piece of felt hot glued into a tube and then tied with a piece of elastic cord. The tops of the hats were cut into a fringe.

Our second craft was a candy cane mouse made from felt and ribbon. The girls cut out an oval from light coloured felt and ears from some wide ribbon. The ears were inserted through slits in the felt, tiny pompom eyes and nose glued on, and a candy cane inserted through two slits to form the tail.

Last of all, we made tealight snowmen. The girls glued a piece of Christmas ribbon around the outside of the battery-operated tealight, then glued on a piece of pipecleaner and pompoms to form earmuffs. Googly eyes were added and black paint used to add the mouth.

As we had some time left at the end of the meeting, the girls made Christmas cards and we sang some Christmas carols before closing with Taps.

September & October with the Pathfinders & Rangers

This year, our Pathfinder Unit will be almost completely girl-led as the Guider responsible for Pathfinders, is also the main Guider for the Guide Unit and the units will be meeting on the same night due to space and leadership constraints. This means that it may take us longer to complete activities, but will also mean that the girls will tackle all aspects of leadership!

Our Guiding Year started off with a Pizza and Planning night Friday, September 11th. Time was spent socializing and catching up as well as starting to make plans for the year.

The first regular meeting was held on Tuesday, September 15th where we made decoupage notebook covers. While crafting, the girls discussed roles and responsibilities within the unit, items needed for the 'Pathfinder Supply Box', and activities to focus on over the next few weeks. they also planned some night games for next week.

Our second meeting of September was spent at Seneca Park with the Guides where we started to work on the Finding Your Way Module and led night games. See more here -  caledoniaguiding.blogspot.ca/2015/09/geocaching-hike-night-games.html

We finished September with a Photo Scavenger Hunt around town.

October began with the International Day of the Girl where we made Wordles using our first names and learned about Women in STEM through a discussion and matching game. The Pathfinders joined the Guides at the end of the meeting to take part in our 'practical STEM' activity - making Armpit Fudge!

The next week, we had a Planning Meeting to determine activities up to the Christmas holidays, including a 'Pathfinder Day' to be held in November.

Movie Night was next and the girls settled in to watch "The Nightmare Before Christmas" to get themselves into a Hallowe'en-y mood. This was followed by a Hallowe'en party to finish off the month. At their party, the girls ate donuts off strings, played a Scent Kim's Game, had Hallowe'en-themed snacks, and did Mad Libs.

Arts & Crafts

Our final meeting of March was devoted to Arts and Crafts as requested by the girls.

We began with our usual opening and an active game, then moved right into crafting for the rest of the evening. The girls had the choice of 3 different craft activities, and could choose to do as few or as many as they wished.

(a) Floral Baskets - Girls were provided with a wicker basket and flowers and ribbon to decorate it.

(b) Painting - Girls were given a 4" x 6" stretched canvas on wood to paint in any way they wished.

(c) SWAPS - A variety of craft supplies were made available and the girls could create their own small crafts. Girls attending Tekarama 8 in June were encouraged to start making SWAPS.

We ended with a thorough clean-up of the room and Taps.

Holiday Craft Night

Our final meeting before the holidays was our annual Holiday Craft Night. This year we made painted wooden gingerbread ornaments, holiday cards and sock. snowmen. Each girl made at least one holiday card to be given to a service project. The highlight for most of the girls was definitely the sock snowmen - they were none other than Olaf, from Frozen!

The instructions and template for Olaf's features came from http://onecreativemommy.com/olaf-sock-snowman-tutorial/

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.

January & February with the Pathfinders

January started off with a craft night where we made decorated badge boxes and ribbon-covered pens.  The boxes were plastic photo cases decorated with craft paper/cardstock, stickers and drawings. The pens were made by wrapping a length of ribbon around the pen and gluing it at both ends. Then a felt 'tuft' was added the end.

Our second meeting was spent making plants for our January, February and March meetings. We looked at all the different places in town we could go to and tried to think of things we could do there, then we made lists of things we could do for different amounts of money. Later, we started planning activities for Thinking Day, using the WAGGGS Activity Pack and other resources. Our last activity for the evening was to come up with a schedule of meetings until the end of March. We had lots of ideas and were able to come up with a good list, with some activities being held over until the spring.


On January 22nd we had a Movie Night and watched Cheaper By the Dozen 2. The girls enjoyed the movie, snacks and lots of social time.

Our final January meeting was spent working on the Fashion Sense From Head to Toe Module. The girls were asked to wear their favourite outfit and then tell why it is their favourite (or if they weren't wearing it, to tell what their favourite outfit is). We looked at the "stylebook" that was created by Pathfinders about 3 hears ago and talked about how styles and fashions have changed in that short a period of time - hairstyles, make-up, clothing - everything came in for comment. Some of the girls had brought fabric and/or pieces of clothing that could be altered and they busied themselves in creating new fashion designs from old. We finished the meeting by talking about current fashions - are they good for everyone? What makes them popular?

February was a busy month with Winter Camp and Thinking Day. We had to cancel our first meeting of the month due to bad weather - a snowstorm that came in during the day.

Because of the cancellation, our first meeting was held on February 12th. This was to be our planning meeting for camp activities, the Murder Mystery evening and Thinking Day. Unfortunately, only 4 girls were present. First, we made a list of activities to do at camp. We are camping with the Guides and Rangers, but each branch will have time to do their own programming. The rest of the meeting was spent going through the activities planned for Thinking Day. This way, the girls became familiar with the activities they would be leading at our town-wide Thinking Day event.

On Friday night, we were off to Winter Camp! See the post - Guide/Pathfinder/Ranger Winter Camp 2014.



Tuesday, February 18th was our town-wide Thinking Day celebration. Unfortunately, only 2 Pathfinders came, but fortunately the Rangers pitched in to help make sure the event was a success. See the post - World Thinking Day 2014

Our final meeting of February was about Respect, Responsibility, Manners, and Etiquette. Again, we had a small attendance so some activities have been held over until everyone is present. We started the meeting with social time and then a group puzzle to change the word 'thank you' into the word 'please'. We then talked about Thinking Day - what went well, what didn't, and what could we do differently next time. The two girls who were at the event expressed their frustration with the other girls for not being there and we talked about the importance of taking responsibility for your actions. Next, we did a team quiz about manners and then had a snack (thank you Emily!). The last part of the meeting was spent making up skits about responsibility in pairs. Some of the scenarios were:

• You are watching your favourite television program and you remember that you have a science project due tomorrow.
• Your grandmother asks you to watch your younger brother while she goes to the store to get milk.
• Your row in class has been assigned a group project. You are supposed to do research, but would rather play soccer after school than go to the library
• Your sister isn't feeling well and your parents ask you to take over her chores for the weekend.
• It's supper time and you're in the middle of an important texting conversation with a friend.
• Your coach asks you to come to practice on time and you'd rather hang out with your friends.

Guide Craft Night

January for the Guides started off with our rescheduled holiday craft night. (Our last meeting of 2013 was cancelled as there was no power at the church - or in most of the town that evening!)
We had three crafts planned for the evening: a candy sleigh, a mini-plant pot snowman, and a melted snowman. The girls divided into their patrols and rotated through the three stations. 

The candy sleigh is made using a Kit Kat bar as the base, candy canes as the runners and mini chocolate bars as the presents. A ribbon is tied around the whole sleigh at the end.

The snowman is made from a mini-plant pot painted white, a styrofoam ball for the head, felt for the hat and scarf, ribbon or cord to tie around the hat and tiny buttons for the front.

The melted snowman is made with a base of stiff black felt, white fun foam as the melted snow, pipe cleaners for stick arms, felt for the scarf and hat, and a styrofoam ball for the head.

 
The girls had a good time and everyone completed all three crafts to take home.

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.

2nd Caledonia Guides Review

September started off with a Getting to Know You meeting to help everyone meet new friends. This was followed by an Outdoor night and hike preparation. The next week we went for a Hike along the Rotary Trail at Seneca Park and then played night games in the park (Flashlight Tag, Night Eyes, etc).

In October we began by learning and reviewing the Promise, Law and Motto, holding Patrol Leader Elections and planning the Hallowe'en Party. At the next meeting we celebrated the first annual International Day of the Girl by learning about issues that affect girls around the world. This meeting was followed by two weeks spent earning the NEDIC Challenge, which focuses on body image and self-esteem. The month ended with our annual Hallowe'en party, with each patrol leading an activity.

We began November with our Enrolment Ceremony where we welcomed 5 new Guides into our unit and presented Membership Pins and Badges to all of the girls. The following week we earned the Plants and Animals Badge and the week after learned all about Girl Scouts in the USA in honour of their 100th Anniversary. The last meeting of the month was our Happy Unbirthday Party where we played party games, had cake, and collected items for the Birthday Box Project undertaken by the Pathfinders. In mid-November our 3rd Year Guides volunteered at the annual Church Bazaar. They served soup and sandwiches, refilled milk jugs and relish plates, and cleared tables.

December was short but busy! The first meeting was a Newspaper Challenge. The girls had to design and create a hat to wear for the evening, dress a member of their patrol in a newspaper outfit, use teamwork to travel across the room using two sheets of newspaper, and go on a scavenger hunt in the newspaper. Our final meeting of the year was our annual craft night. This year we made beaded snowflakes, fimo pins and layered cards. December was also the time for our annual sleepover. This year we worked on the Fashion Badge and the girls learned how to use a sewing machine to make their own hooded camp blanket.