On November 1st, a group of 35 including Guides, Pathfinders, Rangers, Guiders and family members visited the W.J. McCallion Planetarium at McMaster University for a presentation on space. The Guides earned the Astronomy Badge, the Pathfinders completed the Galactic Adventures Module, and the Rangers finished a challenge from the Environment, Camping and Outdoors section of their program.
Our presenter, Fraser, showed us the night sky above Hamilton, how the North Star stays fixed in place, the Milky Way, and then took us on a tour of the solar system from the Sun to Neptune, and beyond.
We learned some cool facts about our solar system:
- We saw photos taken on the surface of Venus by the longest-surviving probe to land there - it only survived for 2 hours due to the heat!
- The current robot on Mars is "Curiosity". The planet looks red because the surface is covered in rust.
- Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system and also has the most moons. The Giant Red Spot on the planet surface is a gigantic hurricane. Three of its moons are Io (which is covered in volcanoes), Europe (which is covered in ice with a giant ocean underneath) and Ganymede (the biggest moon in the solar system).
- Saturn is famous for its rings, but also has a really cool moon. Titan is the only moon in the solar system that has had a probe land on its surface other than Earth's. It is also the only place other than Earth with standing liquid on the surface (in this case, methane).
- All of Uranus' moons are named for Shakespearean characters.
- When lightning strikes the methane on Neptune, it rains down tiny diamonds.
We also got to look at some really cool stars, nebulae and galaxies:
- M31 - Andromeda Galaxy (the closest galaxy to the Milky Way)
- Ring Nebula (has a White Dwarf Star at its centre)
- M101 - Pinwheel Galaxy (a spiral galaxy)
- Hubble Deep Field (a piece of space that seemed empty, but is actually full of galaxies!)
- Einstein Cross (a galaxy behind a galaxy)
- Little Ghost Nebula
- California Nebula
- Interacting Galaxies (two galaxies that are about to collide)
- Egg Nebula
- Hubble V
- Hubble X
- Cassiopeia A
- Chi & h Per
- NGC6946
- M13
More information about the Planetarium can be found at http://www.physics.mcmaster.ca/planetarium/
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.
We started November with a planning meeting. The girls present planed activities on different arts to share at the next meeting. We had activities covering Drama, Writing, Drawing and Art. We also did a challenge activity - list 10 body parts of 3 letters (this is harder than it sounds). The last part of the meeting was spent planning activities for our upcoming sleepover in December.
The second meeting in November was devoted to the Arts, with the girls leading activities that they had planned.
- Game with character cards, players have to interact according to the instructions on their card
- Two Truths and a Lie using character details
- Cooperative story where each person added one sentence at a time.
- Freeze - an improv game where two players start a scene and someone else calls out 'Freeze' and takes the place of one player and starts a new scene
- Bullying prevention skits
- Skits showing the best parts of Guiding
- One paragraph stories and skits
On November 19th, 5 Pathfinders joined the Guides at the McMaster Planetarium, earning the Galactic Adventures Badge - see Guide post here
Our last meeting in November was spent learning to crochet. The goal is to make a blanket that can be donated, but the first step was learning how to do it!
December started off with a meeting all about Animals. Everyone had been asked to choose and animal and bring 5 facts about it. Using the facts, the rest of the group tried to guess the animal. The chosen animals were Cat, Polar Bear, Penguin, Red Panda, Fox, Water Bear and Dog. The next activity was a memory game played with animal tracks. This was followed by animal charades and a game of Capture the Flag. The last activity of the evening was to create an animal cartoon character.
Our annual Pathfinder/Ranger Service Project Sleepover was held on the first Friday of December. 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 Christmas cards for a group home. We ordered pizza and the girls had lots of time to play games, listen to music and socialize.
The second week of December was our Christmas Pot Luck Dinner. Everyone brought food and we spent the evening eating and ended by playing some active games to stay warm as the hall was very cold that night.
Our last meeting of the year was spent visiting the Hamilton-Burlington SPCA. We had a tour of the facility, learned about the work done by the SPCA, and got to visit with the therapy rabbits.
On November 19th, a group of 34 including Guides, Pathfinders, Guiders, Rangers and family members visited the McMaster University Planetarium for a presentation on space. The Guides earned the Astronomy Badge and the Pathfinders completed the Galactic Adventures Module.
The presentation began with constellations in the sky at this time of year, including locating the Dippers and the North Star. We then explored the solar system and looked at objects in the Milky Way Galaxy and beyond.
On November 1st, a group of 35 including Guides, Pathfinders, Rangers, Guiders and family members visited the W.J. McCallion Planetarium at McMaster University for a presentation on space. The Guides earned the Astronomy Badge, the Pathfinders completed the Galactic Adventures Module, and the Rangers finished a challenge from the Environment, Camping and Outdoors section of their program.
