Guiding Traditions

This week we had our annual Guiding Traditions (or Guiding History) night. We borrowed one of the Heritage Boxes from Ontario Council and used some of the activities, along with some of our own.

As the girls arrived they each made two Semaphore Flags using white cardstock, blue construction paper and straws. (Heritage Box). These were put aside for use later on. We then spent some time learning and practicing how to form a horseshoe and singing the Guide Marching Song. (I was prepared this year and had the words to the song written out on a sheet of Bristol board!)

Next up was a game from a 1922 issue of The Guide magazine called "Pork and Green Peas". This game is very similar to "Darling If You Love Me" - and can have hilarious results depending on the questions asked. Players sit in a circle and one person is 'It'. 'It' goes up to a player and asks her a question - any question she wishes. The questioned player must answer "pork and green peas", no matter what she has been asked, without smiling or laughing. If she is successful, 'It' moves on to another player. If she smiles or laughs, she trades places with 'It'.

We have been having some difficulty getting the girls attention, so we tried some of the hand and whistle signals from an older Guide Handbook (not that old - it was mine!). I don't particularly like using a whistle, but it was certainly effective! We tried signals for stop, look. listen; come here; scatter; form two lines; form a circle; and never mind.

Next up, we split into Patrols and did a round robin of three activities:

Name That Badge!
For this activity, girls explored a camp blanket (mine) containing Brownie, Guide and Pathfinder Badge Sashes, as well as numerous crests and patches from all over. They were challenged to identify some of the different badges and to find the crests from 1 Territory and 8 Provinces.

Be Prepared Card Game
Using the Memory Game Cards (Heritage Box) we had the girls play a game like "Go Fish". There were 28 cards in the deck, with two of each card. Each girl was dealt 4 cards to start and the remainder were placed face down in a pile in the centre. They played by taking turns asking another player if they had a matching card (i.e. compass, fire lighting, throwing a life line). If the asked player had the card, they gave it to the other player, who placed the pair on the floor in front of her. If the asked player didn't have the card, they said 'Be Prepared' and the asking player had to draw a card from the pile in the centre. The winner was the player with the most pairs.



Semaphore
Each girl used the semaphore flags she had made at the beginning of the meeting and the replica Semaphore cards from the 1950s (Heritage Box). They practiced signaling the alphabet, their names, and 'Be Prepared'.



After cleaning up, we played a team game - Bean Bag Toss (Heritage Box).


Our final activity involved skits and a potted history of Guiding. Each Patrol was assigned a theme for their skit and we interspersed them with bits of Guiding history. The skit themes were Cookies, Camping, and Helping Others.

Guiding began in Canada in 1910. Early groups formed in Toronto, St. Catharines, Moose Jaw, Sardis (BC), Vancouver, Winnipeg, and even Dawson City in the Yukon! Girls were excited to try new activities and learn about first aid, tracking, woodcraft, outdoor cooking and camping. The first Guides chose a uniform of a loose white blouse and long navy blue skirt. This changed into a dark blue dress in the 1920s and, with slight changes in shade and style, this would remain the uniform for nearly 80 years.

Did you know that Girl Guides have been selling cookies since 1927? That's 90 years! The first cookies were baked by Christina Riepsame of Regina and sold by the 4th Regina Guides.

Cookie Skit

We have been selling chocolate and vanilla cookies for over 60 years and chocolately mint cookies for over 20 years. One of the things cookies help pay for is camping. Guides have been camping since 1911 - over 100 years!

Camping Skit

Every few years a National Camp is held with girls from across Canada and around the world. The last National Camp was Guiding Mosaic in 2016, which was held at Sandy Lake, Alberta. These large camps always involve a service project of some sort.

Helping Others Skit

Service and helping others has been a part of Guiding since the beginning. During the First World War, only 4 years after Guiding began, Canadian Guides gave service by working factories and government offices, volunteering in hospitals, knitting socks, making dressings and bandages, and collecting supplies and donations for the war effort. Today, Guides take part in service projects around the themes of Community, Environment and International.

We then ended with reminders for next week and closed with Taps.


Downloads:

• List of Activities in the GGC Ontario Council Heritage Box for Guides
• Link to GGC-Ontario Council Heritage Boxes

Exploring Our Roots

The second meeting in February was spent learning about Guide History and Guiding in Canada.

As the girls arrived, each Patrol was asked to make up a short skit on a theme - Guide Meeting, Cookie Selling, Guide Camp, and Helping Others. As were were missing quite a few girls this week, we combined the girls and eliminated the Helping Others Skit.

We started the meeting with our usual opening followed by an active game, and then had the girls finish presenting their creative creations from last week.

This week's program was started off with a short discussion about people in Guiding. We went through the 5 youth branches and also talked about Lones and Adult roles (Link, Trefoil Guild, Unit Guiders, Trainers, Administrative Community Leaders).

Next we played two games. The first was a relay game found in an issue of The Guide magazine from 1921. The girls lined up in patrols and the player at the front of the line was given a ball. The ball is passed along the line on alternating sides (first player passes to the right, second to the left, and so on). We added a second ball to each team and also had the last player in line come to the front once she had both balls. The second game was found in an issue of The Guide magazine from the 1930s. The girls sit in two straight lines with their legs stretched out towards the other line. The first player in each line is given a ball. She has to bounce the ball on the outside with one hand, pass it to her other hand and bounce it on her other side before passing it to the next player who repeats the actions until the ball reaches the end of the line. We added a second ball starting at the opposite end and also had the balls go along the line one way and then back the opposite direction.

After our games we moved on to a badge quiz using old Guide badges. Badges were passed around one at a time and the patrols asked what they thought the badge might be called or what it might be for. As the girls guessed at each badge, we told them what the image on the badge was, what the badge was called, and a couple of things that a Guide would have needed to do in order to earn it.

As time was running out, we then moved on to our skits and facts about Guiding History.

First Fact - Guiding began in Canada in 1910, with groups forming in Toronto, St Catharines, Moose Jaw, Sardis (BC), Vancouver, Winnipeg and Dawson City. Girls were excited to try new activities and learn about first aid, tracking, nature lore, and outdoor cooking and camping.

Skit #1 - Guide Meeting (the girls were very quick to tell us that this did not represent our meetings!)

Second Fact - The first Guides choose a uniform of a loose white blouse and navy blue skirt. This changed to a blue dress in the 1920s, and with slight changes in shade and style, this would remain the uniform for nearly 80 years.  (At this point I passed around two Guide dolls - one in a 1970s uniform and the other in the 2000s uniform.)

Did you know that Girl Guides have been selling cookies since 1927? That's nearly 90 years! The first cookies were baked by Christine Riepsame of Regina and sold by the 4th Regina Guides.

Skit #2 - Cookie Selling

Third Fact - We have been selling chocolate and vanilla cookies for over 60 years and the chocolatey mint cookies for over 20 years. One of the things cookies help to pay for is camping. Guides have been camping since 1911 - over 100 years!

Skit #3 - Guide Camp

Fourth Fact - Every few years a National camp is held with girls from across Canada and around the world. The next National camp is Guiding Mosaic in 2016, which is being held at Sandy Lake, Alberta. These large camps always involve a service project of some sort. service and helping others has been a part of Guiding since the beginning. During the First World War, only 4 years after Guiding began, Canadian Guides gave service by working in factories and government offices, volunteering in hospitals, knitting socks, making dressings and bandages, and collecting supplies and donations for the war effort.

(We would have had Skit #4 - Helping Others here)

Fifth Fact - Today, Guides take part in service projects around the themes of Community, Environment, and International. This year, we have collected items for the Food Bank and a Women's Shelter (Community), will be making bookmarks to support educational projects in Africa, South America and Asia (International), and will be working on an environmental project as well.

With that, it was time to say goodnight and good bye until next week.

Canadian & World Guiding

The first two weeks of February were spent learning about Guiding in Canada and around the World. 

Our first meeting opened with an activity in patrols as the girls arrived. Each patrol had to create a list of all the things they use at school. We then started the meeting with our usual opening and an active game. 

As an introduction to our Going Global Service Project (and our Thinking Day Service Project), we discussed education around the world, including facts from the 2014 World Thinking Day Activity Pack. Then we went through the lists the patrols had made and narrowed the list down to the bare necessities that are collected and made into School Kits by the Mennonite Central Committee. (Each girl took home a flyer about donating these supplies - notebooks, pencils, erasers, pencil crayons and rulers.)

Next we did a participation story about the history of Guiding, followed by a relay game about the youth branches of Guiding in Canada. Each patrol had to gather and match cards to show the branch name, t-shirt, age group and enrolment pin for Sparks, Brownies, Guides, Pathfinders and Rangers.


After this, we sat down to discuss people and roles in Guiding. We learned about Lones, Pathfinders, Guiders, Link, Trefoil Guild, ACLs, and Trainers. We ended the evening with the 3rd Year Guides starting to work on a poster about Agnes, Olave and Robert Baden-Powell while the 1st and 2nd Year Guides played a Guiding Symbols Board Game.


Our second meeting started with an arrival activity where each patrol looked through magazines and found out some of the things that Guides did in the 1950s. The girls were surprised to find out that we still do many of the same things, just in different ways. We then had our usual opening and an active game (Link Tag).

We then learned about the history of Guiding in Canada, with each girl reading out one fact - we have 16 girls, so there are 16 history facts:

1910	Guiding begins! Companies are started in Toronto, St Catharines, Moose Jaw, Sardis (BC), Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Dawson (YT)
1911	The first Guide Camp is held. Guides from the 1st Toronto Company camp on the banks of the Credit River in June.
1914 to 1918	During World War I, Canadian Guides give service by working in munitions factories and government offices, volunteering in hospitals, knitting socks, and making dressings and bandages.
1924	35 Canadian Guides, Rangers and Guiders attend the first International Camp at Foxlease in England
1927	The first Girl Guide Cookies are sold. They are baked by a Guider, Christine Riepsame of Regina, and sold by the 4th Regina Guides to raise money for their activities
1928	The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts is formed with Canada as a Founding Member. Today, there are 145 member countries.
1935	Lord and Lady Baden-Powell visit Canada. While in Alberta, Lady Baden-Powell meets members of the Sarcee Nation and is given the name “Otter Woman”.
1945	The Canadian World Friendship Fund (CWFF) is set up. The Fund is used to support Guiding projects and programs around the world, including the World Centres, the World Thinking Day Fund, and projects in developing countries designed to improve the lives of girls and young women within their communities.
1953	Chocolate and Vanilla Girl Guide Cookies are first sold.
1962	The National Office at 50 Merton Street, Toronto is opened. Brownies, Guides, Rangers and Guiders ‘built’ the office by purchasing square inches for $0.10 each
1979	Pathfinders begin. The age groups are now Brownies 6 to 9, Guides 9 to 12, Pathfinders 12 to 15 and Senior Branches (Rangers, Cadets and Junior Leaders) 15 to 17+
1988	A new branch for 5-year-olds is started. They will be named Sparks in 1989.
1992	Girl Guide and Astronaut Dr. Roberta Bondar becomes the first Canadian woman in space. She takes her Brownie Wings and Girl Guide Cookies into space on board the Space Shuttle Discovery.
1993	Chocolately Mint Cookies are first sold.
2005	The new Guide Program, “Guides on the Go” is introduced. The highest award for Guides is the Lady Baden-Powell Challenge.
2010	Guiding worldwide celebrates 100 years. Since 1910, over 7 million Canadian girls and women have been at part of Guiding.

Next we played a 'find your partners' game using the World Thinking Day Focus Countries - Armenia, Bangladesh, Benin, Egypt and St Vincent & the Grenadines. Each girl had a card with either the National Flag, Guide Uniform or Guiding Logo for one of these countries. We then had the girls make groups by type (flags, uniforms, logos), something in common (i.e. colours), and finally for each country, so that we could look at and compare the flag, uniform and logo for each country. 

We then divided into groups, with the 3rd Year Guides continuing to work on their poster about Agnes, Olave and Robert Baden-Powell, while the 1st and 2nd Year Guides divided into four groups to make posters about the World Centres - Our Chalet, Pax Lodge, Our Cabana and Sangam. We also talked about the 5th World Centre Pilot Project in Africa. All of the girls will finish their posters at our February 25th meeting.

Our last activity was a game from New Zealand called Sheep Tag. In this game, one girl is 'it'. When she tags another girl, they have to lie on the ground on their bag and wave their feet in the air while saying "baaa baaa" in a pitiful sheep voice. Other players can free them by tagging their foot and saying "She'll be right Mate!" ("She'll be right Mate" is a saying that basically means everything will work out fine in the end.)

At the end of the meeting we had just enough time to sing a couple of songs and so we sang Kookaburra (which everyone knew) and Tzena (which only a few people knew).

We continued our World Guiding theme at our Chemistry Badge meetings. The girls finished up their posters at the first meeting and then presented them to the rest of the unit at the second meeting. Here are the girls' posters:

 

 

Guide History Night

On Tuesday, March 27th the 2nd Year Brownies from the 3rd Caledonia Brownie Unit visited the 2nd Caledonia Guide Unit to find out what Guide meetings are like.

Our theme for the evening was "Guide History" and included dress up, games, a craft, participation story, and opening and closing ceremonies.

Our first activity was dressing up in heritage uniforms for the evening. We had Brownie, Guide, Pathfinder and Ranger uniforms from the past and most girls choose to wear a uniform for the evening. It was fun to see the girls try to manage active games wearing a dress or skirt - which few of them are accustomed to!

After our opening Horseshoe, one of the patrols led an active game and then we went into our first activity which was to learn about how our unit fits into the structure of Guiding, about the 5 youth branches of Guiding, adult roles and Canadian Units on Foreign Soil. (All parts of the Canadian Guiding badge!)

Next we did an active quiz about Lones (more Canadian Guiding badge!). Each corner of the room was labelled with a letter (A,B,C,D) and the girls had to run to the corner they thought was the right answer. After we finished the quiz, we talked briefly about why a girl might join Lones rather than an active unit.

            Lones Active Quiz

1. What are Lones in Girl Guides of Canada?

(A) Money borrowed                               (B) Girls who cannot attend a regular meeting

(C) Non-member                                    (D) Unit dues

2. What Branches of Guiding have Lone Units?

(A) All Branches                                   (B) Guides and Pathfinders

(C) Rangers                                           (D) Sparks and Brownies

3. How can a regular Unit help a Lone?

(A) Let her know what District she lives in            (B) Adopt her

(C) Send her funds                                             (D) Smile when they see her

4. Where can a Lone wear the Lone Pin?

(A) Camp hat, blanket                            (B) Girl Guide uniform

(C) Jeans                                              (D) School jacket

5. Lones are eligible to attend what local events?

(A Community                                       (B) Local

(C) Camping                                          (D) All of the above

6.Who can adopt a Lone?

(A) Units                                               (B) Communities

(C) Trefoil Guilds                                    (D) All of the above

7.What months does the Lone program operate?

(A) September to August                      (B) September to June

(C) September to April                            (D) September to May

8.How does a Lone work on her program with her Lone Guider?

(A) Email                                               (B) Video and cassettes

(C) Fax and telephone                            (D) All of the above

Our next two games and our craft came from Guide magazines from 1921 and 1922, so were authentic games form Guiding's past.

Game #1 was a passing relay similar to games we play today. The girls had to pass a ball along their patrol going over the head of the first girl, then between the legs of the next girl, and repeated until the last girl had the ball, then she had to run to the front of the line. After the whole patrol had done this, they had to pass the ball sideways. The first girl passed the ball around her left side, the next girl around her right side, and so on. This added an extra bit of challenge as the girls had to think about left and right which wasn't as simple as over and under.

Our craft was a Geometric Guide Card that could be put on a camp hat. Each girl received shapes to make an early Guide in uniform - black rectangles for the shoes and legs, a navy triangle for the body, a white square and a white rectangle for the top, red triangles for the tie, navy circle for the hat, brown rectangle for the stave, and beige circles forth head and hands. The cards were really cute when done and we covered them with mactac so they will last longer.

Game #2 was called "Pork and Green Peas". It is played similarly to 'Darling if you love me won't you please, please smile'. In this game, the girls who are "It" go around the circle asking questions to different girls. The girls in the circle have to answer "Pork and Green Peas" without smiling or laughing, no matter what the question is. This created some very funny moments as the girls became more creative with their questions.

Our final activity was a participation story about the beginning of Guiding and Thinking Day. Instead of having each group just say the phrase associated with their word, they had to stand up before saying it. For "Thinking Day" everyone had to get up, spin in a circle and shout 'Happy Birthday!'

We ended our meeting with Taps and everyone received an Easter treat before they left.