Earth Day

As our fourth meeting of April fell on April 22nd, we had a meeting to celebrate Earth Day - in the dark!

When the Guides arrived, their first task was to work in Patrols to create a list of ways they can be a conservationist at home. Ideas included turning off the tap while brushing their teeth, turning off lights when leaving a room, putting on a sweater instead of turning up the heat, and using fans instead of air conditioning.

After our opening, we went outside to participate in Pitch-In by cleaning up the parking lot and grassy areas around the church where we meet.

Once we had finished our clean-up, we came inside and turned on our flashlights. Our first activity was The Endangered Hoppit Game (follow the link for complete instructions). In this game, the girls take on the role of Hoppits, imaginary creatures that hop around gathering materials from the ground (food, water, items to build shelter). Through the course of the game, their survival becomes more difficult - Bad weather strikes and decreases their food supply (Hoppits can only hop on one leg) and humans build a shopping mall on their home (Hoppits no longer have a home where they can stop and rest). We then discussed how changes to an environment impacts the creatures that live there and what we can do to help.

The next part of the meeting was spent completing an Energy and Accessibility Audit as part of the Operation: Earth Action Challenge. The girls worked in patrols and went around the church using flashlights to checkout the various categories on the audit form. For the Energy Audit, they were asked to look at lighting, drafts around windows and doors, water flow, major appliances, and themostats. The Accessibility Audit asked the girls to describe the building itself, to look for entry ramps, designated parking spaces, buttons for opening doors, ways to move between the different levels of the building, features that could help people with different needs (i.e. wheelchair user, visually impaired, cane or walker user), and finally what accessibility features they would include if they were designing a building.

The last activity of the evening was about water conservation. We did two active quizzes about water facts and water conservation - the walls of the room were labeled A-D and True/False, girls ran to the one they thought was the correct answer. There were then two puzzle pages, one involved coded messages about surface water and groundwater, and the other involved a word wheel and tips about using water wisely.

March & April with the Rangers

We began March by working on a follow-up activity to this year's World Thinking Day Theme. We began by researching the aspects of a healthy pregnancy and looked into what resources and services are available locally for mothers and young children. All of this information was combined into a large poster featuring an illustration of a stork carrying a baby. (Healthy Living #14 Young Mothers)

At our second meeting in March we watched the movie "Mean Girls". At the following meeting, we discussed social aggression and bullying to complete Community Connections #24.

Out last meeting in March was spent planning the 2013-2014 Sing Ontario Sing Challenge - In the Key of Guiding over a dinner of Chinese food. We decided on different categories and found songs that would fit the different sections. Our first meeting in April was spent sourcing all of the songs and activities, both online and in books and finalizing our challenge plans, ready for submission to the Program Committee. Our categories were In the Key of ... Me, Active Living, Outdoors, Our Community, Our World, Fun, Cookies, the Arts, and Leadership Skills. Watch the Ontario webpage for the challenge to be posted - www.guidesontario.org.

March and April are also Cookie Months, so we sold cookies on the Saturday of Easter weekend at the LCBO with the Guides and at Sears on National Cookie Day at Sears in April with the Pathfinders.

As part of the NSP Operation: Earth Action, we had planned out a meal using as many local foods as possible and decided to have a dinner party from our planned menu. Our meal started with bruschetta bread and punch, followed by a main course of chicken, mashed potatoes, carrots and corn, and ended with a dessert of chocolate brownies and ice cream. We are fortunate in that all of the items on the menu except for the punch and the chocolate brownies are produced locally.

The next meeting was spent planning a Guide meeting for May. The topic was camping and outdoor skills and included the following activities: Food & Activity suggestions for camp, Camp Scenario Skits, Kim's Game, Cat's Tails Game, Guess What's in the Bag - Nature Edition, a snack and campfire.

At our last meeting in April we discussed perceptions and media. This discussion was prompted by a new video posted by Dove - http://realbeautysketches.dove.ca/
We talked about what the girls thought of the video, the words people used to describe themselves and others, the demographics represented, and what was included/omitted from the video. Afterwards, we made a poster showing the perceptions and stereotypes associated with Guiding versus what we are really all about and discussed how we can change these ideas.

We ended April with our annual participation in the Great Toronto Scavenger Hunt. This year's theme was The Wizard of Oz and we spent the day travelling through the "Oz" top reach the "Emerald City". In our adventures, we visited the PATH system, Simcoe Park, Roy Thomson Hall, St. Andrew's Church, Mirvish Row, Canada's Walk of Fame, Queen Street, Osgoode Hall, Old City Hall, Nathan Phillips Square, The Eaton Centre, Yonge-Dundas Square, Ed Mirvish Theatre, Massy Hall, Elgin Theatre and Union Station.

 "We're Off to See the Wizard..." Outside Roy Thomson Hall

Sculpture in Simcoe Park

Saying the Promise at Old City Hall

Under the Clock on Queen Street

"Milking the Cow" at Brookfield Place in the PATH system

Fun in the Outdoors!

For our April 23rd meeting we spent the evening outside and we were lucky enough to have beautiful weather!

As an arrival activity, each Patrol was asked to make a list of all the ways they use water in a day. After opening, we went through the lists and talked about the importance of water for life and the challenges faced be people in countries where the water supply is limited or unsafe.

We then went outside for our patrol-led game (tag) while one Guider set up for the Treasure Hunt that had been requested. Coloured cue cards were cut into quarters and each piece had a letter written on it. The cards were placed all over the church grounds (always in plain sight, but not always obvious). Each patrol had to find all of the cards in their colour and then come back and sort them out to spell the phrase - "FUN & FRIENDSHIP".

Next we had a nature exploration activity. The girls were split into pairs and each pair given a ruler, a pencil and a piece of paper. They then had to find a plot of ground 12" x 12" (or one ruler length each way) and discover what was there. The plots had to be on the grass/garden/treed area of the property and the girls were challenged to list everything they found. At the end of the activity, we discussed what the girls had found and talked about being observant.

Our last outdoor activity was 3-on-3 Soccer. Basically, the unit was split into 2 groups and each girl given a number within her group (i.e. 1-7 on each team). We then called out 3 numbers (i.e. 1, 2, 3) and those players had to try to get past the other team's players and score a goal. When a goal was scored, or after about 30 seconds to 1 minute, we changed players. This was fun and no one kept score.

We ended our evening by making bug houses - described in the Operation: Earth Action post.

Operation: Earth Action

The 2012-2013 National Service Project is Operation: Earth Action, which looks at different environmental issues and how girls can help. We worked on the challenge over three weeks, including both activities listed in the challenge and related activities of our own.

On April 9th our arrival activity was called "What Do You Think?" We posted sheets of paper around the room with different questions or statements and asked each girl to write on each page what she thought about it. The questions and statements were:

1. What interests you about the environment?
2. What would you like to change or improve in our local environment?
3. We can help the environment by using reusable water bottles whenever possible.
4. We can help the environment by using reusable shopping bags whenever possible.

After our opening and patrol-led game, we discussed the girls responses to these questions and statements.

As our craft, we recycled bottle cap into critters using water and pop bottle lids, fun foam, goggly eyes and other left over craft supplies. While this was happening, the girls were taken into the kitchen one patrol at a time to make Natural Lip Balm (1tsp Petroleum Jelly, 1tsp Aloe Vera Gel and 1/2tsp Coconut Oil) which was then poured into individual containers to set and each girl was able to take home her own container of lip balm.

Next, we worked on the Map Your Meal portion of the challenge, which was finished up at our April 16th meeting. We asked each patrol to come up with a dinner of their favourite foods using pictures from grocery store flyers. They then had to figure out where each item came from and how far it travelled to get to their table. We then had a discussion about local foods and found substitutes for the items they had chosen that would still be tasty but can be found much closer to home.

Our final follow-up activity was done on April 23rd, when we made bug houses out of empty water bottles, corrugated cardboard (cookie cases!), paper clips and yarn. The full instructions can be found on the EcoKids website.

January & February with the Rangers

With only two meetings in January and two in February, we still managed to get lots done!

January started off with a meeting about finding a summer job.. We were able to cover a number of different challenges by talking about resumes, cover letters, job searching, and how their Guiding experience can be applied to job applications.

Our second meeting was spent planning activities and the menu for winter camp, to be held in February. The girls decided that they definitely wanted to sleep outside in a tent and cook outdoors over a fire. We started talking about what they would need in order to sleep outside comfortably and how to keep a fire going in the snow.

We cancelled our next meeting due to exams.

Our first meeting in February was a celebration of the completion of exams with a trip to the Mandarin for dinner. The Rangers love Chinese food so this was the perfect outing!

We had to cancel our pre-camp meeting the next week due to the weather, but managed to discuss what needed to be done before camp, packing and sleeping warm via email.

Winter Camp was held on Family Day weekend at Camp Teka in Paris. The weather was cold but clear and everyone had a great time! See the Winter Camp post for more details of our adventures.

Our town-wide Thinking Day event was held on February 19th, and two Rangers attended to help with the younger girls. See the post on Thinking Day for how we celebrated.

Our last meeting for February was spent working on the National Service Project - Operation: Earth Action. We talked about the importance of using reusable bags and water bottles and took the pledge. We also planned out a meal and mapped it, then re-planned it using local foods. We will be having a dinner party in April to cook and eat our local meal.