Welcome to Guides!

Welcome to another great Guiding year!

The Caledonia Guides, Pathfinders and Rangers had their first official meeting on Tuesday, September 12th with 12 Guides, 4 Pathfinders and 1 Ranger. Since then, we have gained 2 more Pathfinders and still have lots of room for new Guides!
 
As everyone was arriving, they were given a scavenger hunt card and challenged to get the initials/signature of everyone else on their card. This gave the Guiders time to check off/add girls to our list and talk to parents.
 
The Pathfinders led an active game - Everybody's It Tag - which is a favourite. Afterwards, the Pathfinders and Rangers headed off to do some of their own planning for the year and the Guides had a brief welcome discussion and shared some important things about Guides with our new members.
 
We then played a getting-to-know-you game with toilet paper. Each girl took 3-8 squares of paper and for each square shared something about herself. We limited the squares to 8 as some girls would have take many more! Moving on, we split the girls up into small groups and gave each group a sheet of paper with a heading - Outdoors/Camping, Arts/Crafts/Drama/Music, International/World Guiding/Cultural, Anything Goes. Each group had 2-3 minutes to write down their ideas and then we switched the papers, so each group had a chance to add ideas to each page. We now have lots of great ideas to work with!
 
The Guides then played Everybody's It Tag again, followed by a teamwork activity, Pass the Can. For this activity, the girls take off their shoes and sit in a circle. A large empty coffee can is placed on the right foot of one girl. Using only her feet, she has to move the can to her left foot and then pass it to the right foot of the girl beside her. The goal is to pass the can all the way around the circle without letting it fall or touch the floor or hands.

Our final activity of the evening was Guide Law Skits. The girls had to find a partner and each pair was given a Guide Law to act out. As we had 6 pairs, we omitted 'Share in the Sisterhood of Guiding'. The evening ended with a campfire led by the Pathfinders, handing out newsletters and Goodnight.

Downloads:

• Scavenger Hunt Card

Introduction to Guiding Night

Are you ready for another great Guiding year? 

Come out and join the Caledonia Guides, Pathfinders and Rangers at our first meeting!

When: Tuesday, September 12th from 6.30pm to 8.30pm

Where: Grace United Church, Caledonia

We'll be talking about our plans for the year, trying out some fun activities, and getting to know each other!

Guides is for girls born in 2006, 2007 and 2008
Pathfinders is for girls born in 2003, 2004 and 2005
Rangers is for girls born in 2000, 2001 and 2002

Registration is now open at http://register.girlguides.ca!

Welcome Back & Information Night

Our first meeting of the new Guiding year was a joint event for Guides, Pathfinders and Rangers, and also included an Information Night for girls interested in visiting Guides. We had 18 girls join us for the evening (1 Ranger, 1 Pathfinder, 5 returning Guides, 5 advancing Brownies, 2 new-to-Guiding, and 4 visitors).  

As the girls arrived, they were signed in and parents were given newsletters, copies of the uniform order form and Health Form. We also provided information and answered any questions parents had. 

While we were talking to parents, and for the first part of the evening, the girls were able to move through 5 different self-directed activities:

Guiding Thinga-ma-jig
When I was a kid we called these 'cootie catchers' and I've seen them called 'crunchers', but Guiding calls it a 'Thinga-ma-jig'! This is a great piece of Guiding PR material that highlights Girl Greatness. We had enough copies so that each girl was able to make her own. 

Design a Hover Car 
This activity comes from the BC Girl Guides STEM-Engineering Challenge. Girls were provided with paper, straws, paperclips and masking tape and had to design a car that could be moved with only their breath.
 

Create a Sun Catcher 
The instructions for this activity were simple, colour the outside of a clear plastic cup with Sharpies and then bake in the oven for 3-4 minutes. The cup is supposed to melt down and flatten. Well, it didn't quite work that way! We used it as a learning experience about how experiments don't always work out and talked about what did happen - the some of the cups did get shorter, the rims spread out and the bottom turned white and got really hard. What went wrong? I believe that when this craft was designed, plastic cups were made out of #6 plastic (which will melt), but they are now made out of #1 plastic (which basically turns white and gets hard).
 
Tie a Reef Knot 
As this is a necessary knot for tying the Guide Tie, we provided instructions and ropes so everyone could practice tying a reef knot. 
 
Girl Guide Book Club
We provided colourful sticky notes and asked the girls to tell us about their favourite book or story.

As the activities were finished up, we played Everybody's It Tag to use up some energy, and then some getting-to-know-you games to help everyone get acquainted. 

The Guides were then divided up into smaller groups, with at least one returning Guide in each group. They were asked to write down ideas for activities, themes and things they would like to do this year. We'll be using these lists in the next few weeks to plan out future meetings and events.

One of the girls then led a game of What Time Is It Mr. Wolf? and we finished with some action songs and Taps. 

Welcome to Guides & Pathfinders!

GUIDES
Our first Guide meeting of the year was held on Tuesday, September 8th. Girls were invitedto bring a friend and we had 16 girls join us for the evening, despite it being the first day of school. We try to cover a variety of different program areas and activities at our first meeting to give everyone an idea of what we do at Guides. The weather did not cooperate and we had to forgo some of our active games due to the heat and humidity.

As girls arrived they made a name tag and started working on the Unit Banner, which we are making as part of the One by One by One Challenge from BC (Arts). We had a brief opening, where everyone introduced themselves, followed by a Ball Toss game to help the girls learn each others names (Ice Breaker).

Next up was an active game, Blog Tag, which we knew to be a favourite from last year (Active Living). (Basically, one player is It and chases the others around the playing area. When she tags someone they join hands with her and become part of the 'blob'. Play continues until only one player is left. The blob can be left as one big group - having to stop anytime it breaks - or can be split each time it becomes larger than say 6 or 8 players.)

As it was a very hot and humid evening, after the game we stopped for a breather and talked about some of the girls' favourite activities from last year and what they would like to do this year.

We then moved on to a Math game called Nim from Germany (STEM). To play, the girls split up into pairs and each pair was given 9 beads. The beads are arranged in three rows like this:       x x
            x x x
           x x x x
Players take turns removing beads. They may take as many as they like, but they can only be from one row. So during a turn, they can take one or two from the first row OR one, two, or three from the second row OR one, two, three or four from the third row. The person who is left with the last bead loses. This game requires strategy and creative thinking in order to avoid being left with the last bead.

After cleaning up, we played Kim's Game (Outdoor Skills) with objects found around the hall. Some groups were more successful than others, but everyone did well as it was the first time playing for many girls.

Our final planned activities was to make the Fortune Tellers that are found in the Free Being Me activity packet (Personal Growth). Girls fold and decorate the fortune tellers, and under each flap finish the statement "I like my...". By playing the game with others, they learn more about each other.

We had planned to play a game from Ireland as this is the country we are linked with as part of the Badges for Thinking Day program, however we omitted the game due to the heat and humidity in the hall. We did talk briefly about how we will be learning more about Ireland and earning a badge from there later in the year.

We ended the meeting by talking about the activities that are planned for the next few weeks and by singing some favourite songs.

PATHFINDERS
The Pathfinders & Rangers had a 'welcome back' pizza and planning night on Friday, September 11th. Time was spent socializing and catching up as well as starting to make plans for the year.

Introduction to Guiding

The month of May started off with an Introduction to Guiding Event. We had two adults and 1 girl pre-register for the event, unfortunately none attended. We did end up recruiting two potential Guiders and hopefully they will complete the paperwork soon and we will be able to start planning for the new year!

Despite not having any visiting girls, the Sparks and the Guides still had a fun evening. As the girls arrived, they worked on bookmarks for the Students Rebuild Literacy Campaign. We then had the Sparks opening, followed by the Guides opening. One Patrol led an active game - Romeo and Juliet - and then the Sparks were divided amongst the Guide Patrols for the evening.

Our first activity had 3 parts. 3 Patrols started working on a collage, drawing pictures or using words to describe things they like about Guiding or they would like to do in Guiding. The fourth Patrol set out to follow a trail around the inside of the church (trail signs were drawn on cards and placed on the floor). While on the trail, they had to collect 3 pieces for a craft - a felt flower, felt center, and felt bracelet band. When the first Patrol arrived back in the main room, they started gluing their bracelets together and a second Patrol was sent out to follow the trail. As Patrols returned, they would make their bracelets and then return to working on the collage.

Next, we moved into the kitchen for a quick science experiment. We decided to do Magic Milk as it is fun, colourful and can have lots of girls do pieces. Basically, a thin layer of milk is poured onto a plate, then drops of food colouring are added. Drops of dish detergent are added, causing the colours to flow and swirl (the detergent reacts with the milk proteins and lowers the surface tension of the milk, so the food colouring can move freely.)

After cleaning up, we moved on to the international portion of our evening. As it was May 5th, we learned a little bit about Cinco de Mayo and Guiding in Mexico. We played :a Gallinita Ciega (The Blind Hen). In this game, one player is chosen to the the blind hen. She is blindfolded and all the other players scatter around the playing area. The hen has to try to tag the other players, who make noises and call out things like 'Here I am', while trying to eade the hen. When the hen tags another player, she gives them the blindfold and they become the blind hen.

We then had a piñata (made from a gift bag and strung onto a broomstick. Inside, were baggies with PR materials (bookmark, tattoo, postcard) and a mini-sticky notepad with 'Guiding is FUN-tastic! written on it and a roll of rocket candies (each girl received 1 baggie).

We ended the meeting with a participation - Mosquito Hunt (in Campfire Activities, page 86) and a short campfire, followed by Spark Closing and Taps.

Guide Open House

We held our first meeting of the 2014-2015 Guiding Year on Tuesday, September 9th. After the success of last year, we decided to hold an open house to encourage new members to join us. We had 4 returning Guides, 2 transferring Guides, 4 advancing Brownies, and 2 girls who were new to Guiding join us for the evening.

We were also fortunate to have our Administrative Community Leaders join us to speak to parents about the need for Guiders. Unfortunately, we did not recruit any new leaders for Brownies, Guides or Pathfinders, but we did find a new Spark leader.

As the girls arrived, they made name tags with index cards, markers and stickers. They were then given a Human Bingo Card and went around the room asking other people to sign squares on the card.

Next up were a series of Find Your Place activities, where the girls had to get into a line according to first name, height; date of birth, month of birth, age, shoe size, etc. After this, we played Blob Tag to get everyone moving and to use up some extra energy.

We then divided the girl up into small groups and gave them the challenge of building a bridge between two chairs one metre apart. The only supplies were newspaper, scissors, tape, and a ruler. We tested the bridges to see which could hold the most weight. We were able to place 100 markers on one bridge before it was jarred - so it may have held more!

Our final activity was a compass story, The Wedding, where the girls had to go to points in the room whenever a compass point was named in the story.

With everyone worn out from this last game, we ended the meeting with a snack and showed a slideshow of activities from last year and talked about plans for Guides this year.

Welcome to Guides!

We held our first meeting of the 2013-2014 Guiding Year on Tuesday, September 10th. This year, we decided to hold an open house to encourage new members to join us. We had 4 returning Guides, 5 advancing Brownies, and 4 girls who are new to Guiding join us for the evening.

Our first activity was "Who Am I?", a game where players have a card on their back (in this case, animals) and they have to ask other players 'yes' and 'no' questions to help them guess what their animals is. (This game has several different names)

Next, we tried a little science. We tried to do the lemon powered light bulb, but were unsuccessful - we'll try this one again later in the year. The girls also wrote invisible ink messages using lemon juice.

After this, it was time for a game - Doughnut Tag! 

Our next activity took us around the world to visit Guides in 16 countries. Each girl was given one or more cards with a picture of a Guide in uniform on it and had to find the matching country on the map. We talked briefly about WAGGGS and its 145 member countries, as well as about the Canadian Twinning Project with Grenada and Curacao. This station ended with a sampling of mango.

More games were next and the girls played the Name Game with balls and Hot Potato (at their request).

Our final activity of the evening let the girls explore their creativity by making paperbag scrapbooks and decorating the front covers. We will go back to these later in the year and add pictures and embellishments inside.

The evening ended with some songs, a thank you to everyone for coming, and a hope that they would all come back next week!