What Have the Pathfinders & Rangers Been Up To?

Although they haven't featured much this year, we do have an active Pathfinder/Ranger Unit of 4 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 Rangers make sure things go smoothly and takes on key leadership roles, while helping the Pathfinders to develop their own leadership skills. Although this arrangement was born of necessity due to a lack of Guiders, turning things over to the girls has been mostly successful!

September

Tuesday, September 11th - Welcome to Girls First!
For our first meeting of the year, everyone took part in sample activities for the new Girls First program. Afterwards, the Pathfinders and Rangers worked on planning and identifying activities that they would like to do this year. Read all about our meeting here - Welcome to Girls First!

Tuesday, September 18th - Program Planning
The Pathfinders and Rangers headed off armed with the Unit's Program Area Cards, the Idea Cards from last week and lots of planning materials to work on coming up with a plan for what they would like to do this year.

Thursday, September 20th - WE Day Toronto 2018
WE Day was AWESOME! This was the second time we attended, and though we were small in numbers we had a great time. Read all about the event here - WE Day Toronto 2018

Tuesday, September 25th - Program Planning
Program planning continued and a plan for October to December arranged.  

October

Tuesday, October 2nd - Community Scavenger Hunt
This year's annual scavenger hunt was "The Community 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!

Tuesday, October 9th - Hamilton City Hall Campfire 2018
One Pathfinder joined the Guides for a Campfire and completed the Sing Ontario Sing 2018 Challenge! Read about the event here - Hamilton City Hall Campfire 2018

Tuesday, October 16th - International Day of the Girl
For the International Day of the Girl we worked on the WAGGGS #TeamGirl 2018 Challenge. This year, we learned about diversity, gender equality, gender power and being our own superheroes! Read all about our meeting here - International Day of the Girl 2018

Tuesday, October 23rd - Promise, Law & Planning
The Pathfinders joined the Guides for some Promise and Law activities, voting on options for the new uniform, finalizing the details of their Hallowe'en party and discussing The Shoebox Project for Shelters as a possible project for this fall. Read about this meeting here - Promise, Law & Planning.

Tuesday, October 30th - Hallowe'en Party
Hallowe'en was celebrated by dressing up in costumes, eating candy and watching a movie. 

November

Tuesday, November 6th - Social Time
This week we took a break and had a social session and clarified the details of some up-coming meetings as the Pathfinders and Rangers will be leading outdoor games for the Guides and having an arts meeting this month. 

Tuesday, November 13th - Leading Outdoor Games with Guides
Tonight we didn't have access to our regular meeting space, so we all headed off to the park and the Pathfinders and Rangers led a series of outdoor games and activities for the Guides. Read about our meeting here - Outdoor Games Night
 
Tuesday, November 21st - Art-Tastic
Tonight was all about creativity. The planned project was to melt crayons onto canvases, but instead the girls raided the cupboard and used up some of our excess craft supplies. They made floral headbands, decorative items, and some Christmas ornaments instead.

Tuesday, November 27th - Baking Brownies
We tried our first Build Skills activity tonight by baking brownies. We have done quite a bit of baking in the past, but this particular group of girls hasn't done as much and has run into problems following recipes in the past. They were also responsible for cleaning up the kitchen - something that is sometimes neglected, but was very well done this time. Tonight's recipe was a great success and the brownies were delicious!

December

Tuesday, December 4th - Food Bank Visit
As part of the Take Action program area, we visited the local Food Bank and learned about the services they offer and how they operated. We also assisted with two jobs - packing toiletry bags for the Christmas hampers and repackaging dry pet food into smaller bags. Read about our meeting here - Food Bank Visit.



Tuesday, December 11th - Chocolatiers
We all ended the hear with the Chocolatiers Instant Meeting from the Girls First Platform. Creating, designing, envisioning and tasting of chocolate were all involved. Read about our meeting here - Chocolatiers!
Tuesday, December 18th - Holiday Party
Tonight was our final activity of 2018. We ate enjoyed appetizers and desert, along with a gift game. Appetizers included pineapple-chicken-bacon skewers, garlic Parmesan rolls, spring rolls and plum sauce, honey garlic sausage bites, and mini mozzarella pizzas. Desert was personal apple pieces (apple, brown sugar and cinnamon in crescent rolls) with vanilla ice cream. Instead of a gift exchange, we played the 'parcel game'. Small treats and gifts are wrapped in many layers and newspaper liberally held in place with packing tape. Girls take turns rolling large dice and when they rolled a 7, they got to work on unpackaging as much as they could until someone else rolled a 7 and then the package was passed to the new person. Everyone received chocolate, crests, pins and pencils. It was quite a challenge to get into the parcel and it was funny to watch each other working on it!

International Day of the Girl - #TeamGirl 2018 Challenge

This week we celebrated the International Day of the Girl (October 11th) with the WAGGGS #TeamGirl 2018 Challenge. This Challenge ties in well with the Gender Power theme badge under the Explore Identities program area. 

As the girls arrived, they went to their Patrol corners and marked their attendance and dues books. We started with our usual opening ceremony and then moved right into our activities. 

We started with Changing Places to get the girls thinking about equality. Everyone stands in a circle, with one player in the centre. A Guider read out the statements one at a time. If a girl agreed with the statement, she had to leave her spot and cross the circle to try to find a new place. At the same time, the player in the centre tries to 'steal' a spot so that there will be a new person in the centre. We also added a rule that girls could not move into a spot immediately beside them to ensure the player in the centre had a chance of getting a spot. After the game finished, we had a discussion about the various statements and the types of stereotypes about boys and girls they have heard. Here are the statements we used:

• Boys and girls can wear pink clothing
• Housework (cleaning, ironing, cooking) are chores for both men and women
• Both women and men can play football
• Both men and women can dance ballet
• Men are good at caring for children and other family members
• Girls can do anything they want to do
• Equality makes all people happier
• It's OK for boys to cry in public

This activity was followed up with a brief discussion about things the girls thought or have heard boys can do but girls can't. We found that our group is well aware that girls and boys can do the same things and that they should have equal opportunities.

Our next activity was Discussing Gender Equality. Everyone moves around the room and listens for a Guider clapping. When they hear clapping, they need to form groups based on the number of claps (i.e. if the Guider claps 4 times, then they need to form groups of 4). Once the groups are formed, a question was asked, and the group had a few minutes to discuss it and then share the results of their discussion. This is repeated with different sized groups for each question. The questions we used were:

• Are girls and boys treated equally at your school? Why or why not?
• Do you think there are any jobs women cannot do? Why or why not?
• Imagine there is a science club at your school, but only boys are allowed to join. How could you convince the school to let girls join in too?

We paused here for an active game - Everybody's It Tag!

Next up, we did the From a Picture to a Story activity. We printed and cut out the pictures from the challenge pack and had each person pick one before we started. Everyone was introduced to Maria, a 10-year old Girl Guides. We then went around the circle and each person added an event or experience to Maria's life based on the picture they had chosen. Maria had a very interesting life, climbing trees in the woods, riding her bicycle to school, exploring welding as a career, eventually becoming a famous singer, and traveling around the world!

The final activity of the night was Team Girl Are Superheroes! Everyone split up into pairs/small groups and created a new superhero, including dressing up a team member using newspapers. Here are the latest team of superheroes!

	Name: Flashgirl Powers: Speed Message: "If you need help, I'm on the run"
	Name: Noob Powers: Turning things into blocks Message: "Even though I'm a Noob, I can do things too!"
	Name: Tea Lady Powers: Shoots tea from her eyes, Makes people happy by giving them hot tea Message: "All you need is an imagination"
	Name: Ronald McDonaldette Powers: Can Fly Tools: Burger of Truth, Whip of Encouragement, Sword of Happiness Message: "I will feed you all"
	Name: Galaxy Girl Powers: Mind reading, telepathy, teleportation Message: "You can do anything you put your mind to"
	Name: Hero Heart Powers: Speed, Flight, Making people fall in love Message: "Spread love and kindness around the world"

We closed with reminders for next week (the Power of Positive Thinking) and Taps.

• #TeamGirl 2018 Challenge (WAGGGS)

International Day of the Girl 2017

At this week's meeting we celebrated the International Day of the Girl (October 11th) with the WAGGGS #TeamGirl Challenge and began making plans for this year's service projects!

Team Girl Gets Rights on Their Side
The first activity we did was aimed at helping the girls understand their right to an education and differentiating between needs and wants. We printed out 3 sets of the Needs/Wants Cards (see download below) and played a relay game. The cards were placed at the far end of the room and the members of each Patrol took turns to run up and get a card and decide if it was a Need or a Want. Once all the Patrols had sorted their cards out, we talked about a few of them to see if everyone agreed. As part of this discussion we noted that the basic needs for survival are food, water and shelter, but in order to thrive, we need other things as well.

Pathway to Education
This activity introduced the girls to some of the barriers to education that girls face, as well as a number of fun challenge activities! We used a slightly modified version of the game provided in the Challenge Pack and marked out a large gameboard on the floor with painter's tape. The girls played in Patrols and used water bottles and shoes as markers and large foam dice. The Patrols took turns rolling the dice and moving their counter around the board. Depending on where they landed, they had to complete tasks - sing a song, stay silent, name 7 countries starting with the letter B, name 10 different fruits, etc. It was very interesting to see which Patrols worked best together and how the Pathfinders interacted with the Guides.

At this point in the evening we separated, the Pathfinders and Rangers went upstairs and the Guides continued in the main room.

GUIDES

Get Set to Break Barriers
Our third activity further explored barriers to education, but also challenged the girls to start thinking of ways to overcome them. We chose three of the characters and scenarios from the Challenge Pack and gave a character to each Patrol. They had to come up with the character's back story - name, family, hobbies, feelings. They were then given a scenario that described a barrier to the character's education. Each Patrol then made up and presented a skit about their character and how the barrier affected her ability to get an education.

Team Girl Speaks Out
The final activity was about making a difference, so we asked each Patrol to make a list of issues they care about and any ideas they had for service projects. We had a variety of ideas and will be choosing some of them to work on later this year!

PATHFINDERS/RANGERS

Making a Difference
Our Ranger talked about her experiences at WE Day in September (it was awesome!!) and the group worked through some of the WE Resources to come up with a list of issues they care about and potential service projects. We will be putting their plans into action over the course of the year!

Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Article 26
(1) Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the UN for the maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Convention on the Rights of the Child - Article 28
You have the right to a good quality education. You should be encouraged to go to school to the highest level you can.

Convention of the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women - Article 10 
Countries must end discrimination against women and girls and ensure equal rights in education. This includes equal access to education and vocational training at all levels. Women and girls must be provided with the same curricula, examinations, standards for teaching, access to scholarships, and equipment.

Downloads:

• Needs/Wants Cards
• Pathway to Education Game Board 
• #TeamGirl 2017 Challenge Pack (WAGGGS Website) 

International Day of the Girl 2016

Tonight we celebrated the 5th Annual International Day of the Girl!

In honour of this special day, Girl Guides of Canada produced an Instant Meeting focusing on Girls and Women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) that had lots of interesting activities. As our unit regularly runs STEM-related activities, we decided to work on the WAGGGS #TeamGirl Challenge instead.

Download the GGC Instant Meeting
Download the WAGGGS #TeamGirl Challenge

As the girls arrived, they played a tag game, after which we practiced forming a Horseshoe. One of the Guides led a game of Hot Dog Tag before we started our evening's program.

The #TeamGirl Challenge is divided into three parts: Team Discover, Team Build and Team Action. We completed Team Discover and Team Build, and began work on the Team Action section.

Team Discover
To begin our program, we talked briefly about the 17 Global Goals set by the United Nations in 2015 to end poverty, fight climate change and tackle all forms of inequality by 2030. We explained how Guiding members around the world were taking part in the #TeamGirl Challenge to learn more about these issues and make a difference in their own communities. We then introduced the NSP: Action on Poverty and talked about how through this project, Canadian Guiding members are addressing Goal #1 No Poverty.

Our first activity was Factors Leading to Poverty from the GGC NSP Instant Meeting.  We divided the girls into 3 colour groups - 70% yellow, 20$ red and 10% blue. Everyone then lined up across the centre of the room and we read out a series of statements from the meeting plan. For each statement, the girls had to take a certain number of steps forwards or backwards, depending on the colour of their card. Once we had finished, we had a reflection discussion about what the girls thought and felt during the activity and what statements stood out the most to them.

Our second activity was What Is Poverty Like? from Together We Can (Girlguiding UK, 2011). For this activity, the girls were divided up into groups of four and asked to describe poverty using their senses.

• Sight - How do others see you? What are your surroundings?
• Sound - What do others say to you? What background noises surround you?
• Smell - What kind of food is cooked around you? What is happening around you?
• Taste - What kinds of food do you eat?
• Feel - Where do you live? What is it like there? What emotions do you feel?

Although not an entirely successful activity, it did get everyone thinking about how poverty could affect a person's environment and living situation.

Team Build
For the Team Build section, we tried three of the activities from the #TeamGirl Challenge Pack. First up was Crocodile River. In this activity, girls are divided into teams and provided with newspaper. Their challenge is to get their whole team across a river full of crocodiles! The only way to get across the river is by stepping on floating logs or stones (the newspaper). Only one person may stand on a log or stone at a time. The logs and stones can be picked up and moved, but not thrown. The instructions said to provide each team with a number of pieces of newspaper equal to 1/3 the size of the group - i.e. 3 squares for 9 people, however, in order for this activity to work, the group needs a minimum of 3 squares regardless of the group size. We had four groups of four so that the activity wouldn't take too long (where girls might get bored).

The second activity was In Balance, where everyone stands in a circle and holds hands. The idea is that they can then lean backwards and the circle will help everyone stay upright. The second part is to have alternate girls lean inwards and outwards, and, again, the circle will help everyone stay upright. I have to label this activity as USE WITH CAUTION. If your girls are different sizes and strengths, they may hurt each other as the strain placed on hands and arms can be too much. It may work better if the girls linked arms rather than holding hands - but we didn't try this.

The final activity was the most popular - Tallest Tower. Each team was provided with straws and tape and given the goal of creating the tallest possible free-standing structure in the allowed time.


Team Action
To end our program, each group of girls was asked to use the last five minutes in order to come up with a list of ideas of how we could take action on poverty. The ideas were varied and we will use them going forward to complete both the #TeamGirl Challenge and the NSP: Action on Poverty.

The meeting ended with reminders for next week, distributing forms for the Planetarium trip on November 1st, and we closed 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.

International Day of the Girl 2015

October started off with the annual celebration of the International Day of the Girl (October 11th).

As the girls arrived, they were asked to write down jobs or careers they would like to have when they grow up and each Patrol made a list of activity ideas for our Halloween party. We then had our usual opening and the 'Active Living'* Patrol led a game of Wax Museum.

We talked a bit about what the International Day of the Girl represents and why it is important, then moved into our first IDG activity - making Wordles. Each girl wrote her name on a piece of paper and then added words starting with each letter that described themselves. The results were colourful and interesting to read. Below is a Guiding Wordle I made online at tagxedo.com using words from this blog!

Our next activity was a game of charades using the careers and jobs the girls had written down at the beginning of the meeting - along with a few additions by the Guiders of non-traditional jobs (i.e. firefighter, scientist, engineer, computer programmer). We then had a discussion about STEM and why the girls enjoyed Math and Science or why they didn't like them, followed by a memory game using cards with information about Canadian women who excelled in non-traditional fields.

For our final activity of the evening, we did a practical science activity to show the girls that STEM can be fun. We made, as requested by a number of girls, armpit fudge! The fudge is made via a chemical reaction using heat to combine the ingredients. The recipe we used was:
1/2 cup Icing Sugar
2 tsp Cream Cheese
2 tsp Cocoa Powder
1 tbsp Butter
1/2 tsp Vanilla

Put all of the ingredients into a Ziplock Bag. Squeeze out as much air as possible and seal. Smoosh all of the ingredients together until they are blended and the mixture is coming away from the bag (it will be more like thick frosting than fudge). Use the heat from your hands, or armpit, to help mix the ingredients.

We ended the meeting with reminders about next week and Taps.

*In our unit, the Patrols are assigned a job at each meeting. This year we have three Patrols, so the jobs are Active Living (plan and lead an active game, have a second game ready if needed), Ceremonies (lead the Promise and Taps, plan songs for campfire), and Be Prepared (help get out and put away supplies, sweep floor, hand out supplies, any other job requested by the Guiders). Everyone is still expected to help with clean up!

International Day of the Girl 2015

We started October by celebrating the International Day of the Girl and holding Patrol Leader elections.

As the girls arrived, they were asked to sign the Unit Contract that we created last week. We then held our usual Opening followed by an Active Game.

Our first activity of the evening was Patrol Leader elections. Each enrolled Guide who wished to be considered for election made a brief statement about why they would make a good Patrol Leader and then each Guide was able to vote for the four girls they thought would be the best leaders. After casting their ballots, each girl was able to write down the names of girls they would like to be in a patrol with and we tallied the results and announced the new patrols at the end of the meeting.

We moved onto the IDG activities, beginning with a brief discussion of what makes someone a hero and then creating our own Hero Tree. Each girl wrote names or drew pictures on leaves to show people who they consider heroes and we made a 'tree' on the back of a door from all the leaves.

Next we had an active break and played 'Romeo and Juliet'. In this game, players stand in two lines, across from a partner. The game leader calls out actions and the last pair to perform the action is out. The actions are: (1) Romeo and Juliet (one player kneels on one knee and the other player sits on her knee); (2) Wheelbarrow (one player holds the other player's legs); (3) Siamese Twins (players stand back-to-back and gasp hands between their legs).

We then moved on to having the girls fill out a paper showing or telling how they are a hero!

Here's what they wrote:
How are YOU a Hero?

• "I am a hero because I am in the Karma Cameleon Club and we have fundraisers to help the needy."
• "I am a hero because I cut me hair for cancer."
• "I am a hero because I saved a girl from drowning, her friends sister pushed her under the water and put all of her weight on her shoulders and she stayed under. I pushed the girl off her shoulders and grabbed her. I saved by BEST friends life."
• "I am a hero because I am thin but strong. I can help people by sharing and caring."
• "I am a hero because I bring my mom stuff when she is sick."
•  "Every morning I feed my cat and fish, in the afternoon yesterday I helped my brother with his homework and at night, before bed, I sometimes read to my brother."
• "I am a hero because I am so friendly. I care for others. I can be a great friend. My personality is so great. My spirit is great. That is how I am a hero."
• "I'm a hero because I care about people and I help my mom she she's sick. I also am a hero because I always put others first and give girl guide cookies to everyone."
• "I am a hero because I am nice to all of my friends at Guides. I don't judge a book by its cover and you shouldn't too. Always be a nice friend to everybody you know."
• "I am a hero because I help others when they are hurt or being bullied and stand up for them."
• "I am a hero because I help people when they are hurt and I am kind."
• "I am in Karma Cameleons at school and we have fundraisers to help the needy."
• "At school I try to solve arguments because I am nice and helpful. I hate fighting so I help stop it between my friends."
• "Giving to the poor."
• "I try to be kind and help other people. I also try to clean things up so that others don't have to (ex. sink in bathrooms, garbage outside...). And I try to be like Jesus/God."
• "I am a hero because my school has fundraised and we have made a school in Kenya.

The last activity of the evening was to create superheroes. The girls divided up into small groups and came up with a variety of characters with different superpowers.

September & October with the Pathfinders

Our year started off at the end of August with a barbeque and planning session. We made chicken and veggie kebabs, baked potatoes and chocolate brownies. Our first formal meeting was held on September 11th and was spent planning activities and meals for camp. At the next meeting, we went grocery shopping for camp and talked about last-minute camp preparation and up-coming meetings.

Our third meeting was devoted to the 'We're A Team' module and learning to work together

as a group. We did a number of team challenges and Minute to Win It Games. Challenges included:

• Change Over - Ask the team to stand together on a tarp. Without stepping off the tarp, players must turn the tarp over completely and remain standing on the tarp the entire time. Repeat with a smaller tarp.
• Everybody Up - Hold hands in a circle, with feet pressed against the feet of the people on either side. While keeping hands clasped and feet together, the whole group must sit down on the ground. Then stand up again!
• Pass the Can - Players sit in a circle with a coffee can on one player's foot. Tell players to pass the can around the circle using only their feet. If the can falls to the ground, they must start over.
• All Aboard - Spread out a cloth or tarp in front of the group. When "All Aboard" is called, everyone is to get both feet on the tarp (platform). Once this is done, everyone steps off the platform. The tarp is then folded in half and the actions repeated. Continue until the group is unable to get everyone onto the platform.

October started off with a meeting on "Cookies, Code of Conduct and Choosing Your Own Direction" to cover the Cookies Rising and Choosing Your Own Direction Modules. Two of the activities we did were re-writing the Promise in text and designing Cookie Selling brochures with tips for Sparks and Brownies.

At our second meeting in October we celebrated the International Day of the Girl. We learned about what the Day of the Girl is and about The Girl Effect. Activities included "Who Are the Lucky Ones?", "How is the World Divided?" (from the Equitas Play It Fair Toolkit), and "Minefield". Each girl then completed a postcard answering the question "We need girls in the lead because..."

Our next meeting was a Board Game Night. We played Twister, Checkers and Taboo, as well as active games - Blob Tag, Fetch, Arches, and Duck, Duck, Goose.

We participated in the annual Cookie Day at Sears on October 19th where we teamed up with the Rangers to sell 6 cases of Spring cookies and 14 cases of Fall cookies.

Our October 23rd meeting was "The Arts From A to Z" module. We started off with two drama games - "Emotion Actions" (charades with emotions) and "Imagination Walks" (moving in a certain way - i.e. walking as if you were on the moon, as if your pinky finger weighed 100 pounds). Next we went on to dance, with girls sharing steps from the different types of dance they have taken. Keira shared the "Coffee Grinder" from Hip Hop, Lynsey shared "Jazzy Blues" from Jazz, Taylor shared steps from Highland and Meaghan shared "Laundry" from Hip Hop. Then we moved onto music, with people sharing their favourite songs and music genres. Our final activity was crafting, making beaded spiral bracelets using coiled wire and small beads.

The last meeting of October was a Hallowe'en Party. We had a wide variety of costumes - a Pathfinder, a Hockey Fan, a Gummy Bear, a Scarecrow, a Devil, a Zombie, a Nerd and an 80s Rock Star. We made two edible crafts - Lollipop Ghosts (lollipop covered with a napkin tied under the lollipop and a face drawn on) and Dead Surgeon's Hands (plastic glove [mine were blue] with candy corn in the fingers as nails and then filled with caramel corn). We also shaved balloons (cover inflated balloon with shaving cream and try to shave with a plastic knife without popping the balloon) - very, very messy! We created toilet paper mummies, and layed "Pin the Tail on the Zombie Unicorn". The evening ended with snacks and drinks.

International Day of the Girl 2013

At our October 8th meeting we celebrated the 2nd International Day of the Girl. As they arrived, each girl was asked to add to a Graffiti Wall (made using a large roll of paper) by writing or drawing her thoughts on what it means to be a girl.
After our opening ceremony, we played a game of Band Aid Tag, then discussed what the International Day of the Girl is, organizations that help girls, and how life is different for girls in other parts of the world. 
Other activities included "Who Are the Lucky Ones?", "Minefield", and "How is the World Divided?"

• Who Are the Lucky Ones? - This game uses chance cards to show how life can differ for families around the world. Cards can be found here -
  www.shurdington.org/Downloads/ChanceCards.pdf‎
• Minefield - In this game, papers are spread out around the playing area to represent hazards. Around the edges of the playing field are papers with warnings written on them (i.e. Danger, Stay Away, Keep Off Property). Players are divided into pairs and one partner stands at each end of the playing field. The players at one end are blindfolded. The partner at the other end tries to guide her partner safely across the field by giving verbal directions. If the blindfolded partner steps on a hazard, she goes back to the starting line. The blindfolded partner can't read, so she doesn't understand that she is about to walk through a dangerous area (representing the challenges faced by girls). The other partner represents education, literacy, etc. and how these can help a girl overcome challenges.
• How is the World Divided? - Activity 38 in the Equitas Play It Fair Toolkit

The final activity of the evening was to create postcards answering the question - "We need girls in the lead because..."