LEGO Night

We spend the first week of April rounding our Design Space and Engineering activities with a LEGO Night!

We brought in the supply of LEGO that I have from when my brother and I were younger as we had plenty to go around! Guides could work alone or in groups and build whatever they were inspired to - as long as they shared the supplies. There was lots of creativity and the end results were all unique. This was super easy to prepare and was very popular with the Guides - they were reluctant to put the LEGO away at the end of the night!

Pets & Animals and Culture Night

February ended with our second "By Guides, For Guides" night. We started out with our usual opening ceremony, then the Thistles led the first half of the meeting on the theme of Pets and Animals, followed by Daisies and their Culture Night. 

The Thistle Patrol had planned three activities about Pets and Animals for their half of the evening:

• Big Dog Tag - In this game, "It" is the "Big Dog". The Big Dog chases other players, if someone is tagged, they sit on the floor with their legs out in front of them. In order to be un-tagged, two other players have to come and sit on the floor as well, using their legs to make a T. After counting to 5, all three players rejoin the game. Players cannot be tagged if they are squatting or if they are sitting in a T.
• Lost Pet Skits - Guides were asked to form small groups and each group made up a skit about a losing and finding a pet. 
• Twag - In this game, "It" is an Owl and everyone else is a mouse. When a mouse is tagged, they become a baby owl and go and sit in the Owl's nest (a corner or section of the playing area). One player is an "Eagle" who turned the baby owls back into mice.

The Daisy Patrol had chosen Culture Night as their theme and had four activities:

• Facts About the Philippines - One Guide shared some information about the Philippines.
• Scotland Trip - One Guide shared pictures and told about her trip to Scotland to visit family.
• Luksong Tinik - We then played a traditional game from the Philippines. Two players sit on the ground with their legs out and soles of their feet touching. The other players jump over their feet. One of the seated players then places her foot on top of the other players foot, heel to toe, and the other players jump over this increased height. The height in the centre continues to be raised using feet and then hands until other players are unable to jump over it. For better instructions, visit Filipino Games. 
• Tinikling - We tried Tinikling, a traditional folk dance from the Philippines. We have lots of bamboo poles for gadget making, so were able to split up into groups of 3-4 Guides. Two people kept the rhythm with the poles, going slowly, and the remaining girls learned to dance in and out of the poles without getting their feet caught! Download the instructions and watch a video under "Downloads" at the bottom of this post.
• Food! - The final activity was a taste test with Licorice All-Sorts from Scotland and Sausage and a Fruit and Milk Salad from the Philippines - all very yummy!

Everyone had done a great job preparing their activities and had a lot of fun trying some new activities. We ended with reminders for next week and closed with Taps. 

Downloads: 

• Tinikling Instructions
• Filipino Cultural Dance Troupe (YouTube Video)

Time Machines & Memes

This week we did our pre-Thinking Day activity and learned about memes with the Forget-Me-Not Patrol. 

We started with our usual opening ceremony, and then moved straight into our three activities for the evening. First up, each Patrol had to finalize their plans for their "meetings" (each Patrol will be running half a meeting or about 45-60 minutes of activities for the rest of the Unit). 

Our second activity was to make time machines for Thinking Day! Each girl has been given a cassette case and a template to make a mini-girl to put inside the case. We used sharpies to decorate the time machines. 
  
Finally, at 7.30pm, we turned the meeting over to the Forget-Me-Not Patrol and their Memes and Glow-in-the-Dark Meeting. The Patrol had planned four activities for their meeting, which filled up the second hour of the meeting. 

1. Meme Tiles - Each Guide created her own meme using markers on a half-sheet of cardstock. 
2. Manhunt - In their version, two players are it and the game is played with the lights off. (Basically a big game of tag as we were indoors, the game is usually played in a wooded area where there are lots of places to hide and outfox the players who are it.)
3. Mama Bear - A game made up by the Patrol: One player is the bear and they hide in the dark. Everyone else waits for the bear to hide and then comes into the room and say "I'm not scared of bears tonight; my daddy got them all last night". They then try to find the bear in the dark and when someone finds her, they say "Beep" and run to the door. Play continues until most/all of the players have found the bear.
4. Charades: Meme Edition - The Patrol came up with some different memes and the slips of paper were drawn by small groups and used to create a charade for the rest of the group to guess. 

Everyone had fun and the Forget-Me-Nots did a great job leading their activities!. We ended with reminders for next week (Pets/animals with the Thistles and Culture Night with the Daisies) and closed with Taps.  

Program Planning & Active Games

Our first meeting of 2019 was spent brainstorming and making plans for our meetings until March Break - and also playing some active games!

As the girls arrived, they were asked to fill out a slip of paper with four questions for ideas for Guide activities:

• Something I would like to do ...
• Somewhere I would like to go ...
• A topic I would like to learn more about ...
• A theme I would like to explore ... 

This generated some really good ideas, and encouraged the Guides to come up with their own ideas rather than copying or agreeing with other people's. 

We had our usual opening ceremony, followed by an active game led by one of our Patrols. 

Each Patrol was then given two sheets of paper with four broad themes, based on their earlier suggestions:

• Girl Guides Go Tropical
• Girl Guides in Space
• Art-tastic
• Build. Create. Invent.

Patrols then brainstormed ideas for activities related to those themes. 

We then had a break for an active game, then sent the Patrols off to separate parts of the room to come up with a theme for a partial meeting to be run by the Patrol. Once their theme was checked out by the Guiders, the girls came up with activity ideas to fill 45 minutes of meeting time. Working back and forth, with Guider input as needed, each Patrol came up with a unique plan for their program time, including activity instructions and supply lists. In February, we will be exploring memes with the Forget-Me-Nots, pets and animals with the Thistles, and global cultures with the Daisies.

We finished with a final active game, reminders for next week, and closed with Taps.

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!

Promise, Law & Planning

Tonight was a bit of a catch-up night with a review of the Promise and Law, planning for our Hallowe'en Party, beginning to organize our Patrol-Planned meetings and activities, voting on the new uniform designs, and talking about a holiday service project.

As the Guides arrived, the Patrols marked their attendance books and collected dues. They were also challenged to see if as a team they could remember the words to the Promise, Laws and Motto. We opened with our usual horseshoe and then checked in with the Patrols - everyone knew the Promise, but the Motto and Laws were a mystery to most of the group. We talked a bit about the Motto and then practiced BURRPLS for the Guide Law. (BURRPLS is an acronym using the first letter of each Law and can act as a memory aid when trying to recall all of the Laws!) We then moved onto an active game before diving into our program for the evening.


Our first, and longest, activity was to plan our upcoming Hallowe'en Party. Each Patrol was responsible for brainstorming ideas, choosing an activity and making a plan. The Patrols will have 20 minutes next week to set up, run and clean-up from their activity. As we are working on planning as a skill, we asked the Patrols to follow a step-by-step process:

1. Brainstorm activity ideas - write down everyone's ideas.
2. Choose your favourites (no more than one per Patrol member) - everyone has an equal vote!
3. Run your list by the Guiders to make sure all are do-able in our meeting space and the time given. 
4. Make your final choice. You might be able to combine more than one idea into a single activity. 
5. Create a plan - What supplies are needed? What are the instructions/rules? Who will explain the activity? How long will you need to set-up/clean-up your activity?

For some Patrols, this was an easy activity and they moved on to coming up with ideas for activities they could lead at other meetings. Other Patrols needed more assistance, but we managed to come up with three unique Patrol plans. 


While the planning was taking place, we visited each Patrol to conduct a survey on the New Uniform Designs. We used a tablet to show images of all of the options, and each Guide was given a ballot and voted for her favourite options for the front of the shirt, back of the shirt, sleeve logo, sleeve length and fit style. Each person was also able to provide any additional comments they had. All of their votes and responses will be entered into the survey site so they can be part of the National Uniform Team's data!


Once planning was completed, we moved on to Guide Law Skits. Each Patrol was given two of the Guide Laws and had to come up with one or two short skits demonstrating the Laws. Skits are always entertaining and the Patrols did a good job as the rest of the Unit was able to guess which Law they were acting out.


Our final activity was a discussion about a service project we've been asked to participate in - The Shoebox Project. This is a program that provides gifts to women in need through shelters and community groups. Each box is packed with items to help the recipient feel good about themselves and to let them know that people care about them. Donors are asked to choose items that they would like to receive as a gift, or that they would buy for a family member or close friend in order to keep the quality of items in the boxes high. We were specifically approached to see if we would like to make a box (or boxes) as part of a batch for young women aged 15 to 18 living in a transitional housing program in Brantford. After explaining the project, the Guides and Pathfinders decided we should take part, and we will be collecting items to pack two shoeboxes over the coming weeks.

We closed with reminders for next week (Hallowe'en Party!) and Taps.


Links:

• The Shoebox Project (external link)

By Guides, For Guides: Leading Ladies & Dark Night

This week we turned the Unit over to our third Patrol for the second half of the meeting for their planned activities, the theme? Dark!

As the girls arrived, they played an impromptu game of tag, checked their attendance books and collected dues. We started with our usual opening and then moved onto two activities from the Leading Ladies Challenge while we waited for it to get a bit darker outside. 
 
For the first activity, we talked briefly about the first Guide Handbook, How Girls Can Help to Build Up the Empire (1912) by Agnes and Robert Baden-Powell and the upcoming changes for Guiding with the new Girls First program. One of the changes is that the program will be online rather than paper-based. Each Patrol was asked to Design a New Handbook and let us know what they think should be included in a Guide Handbook for 2018. Ideas ranged from links to Instagram and Snapchat, to details instructions for camp skills, to more information about WAGGGS. 

Our next activity was inspired by an article in the most recent Canadian Guider about Summertime Unit Activities. We asked each Patrol to make a list of things they would like to do if Guides ran during the summer. While we haven't decided if this is something we'll try, we did get a great list of ideas for activities!

At this point, we turned the meeting over to the Daffodil Patrol for their "Dark Night"! Everyone had been asked to wear dark clothing and to bring a flashlight, so we turned out the lights and got started! The first game was Everybody's It Tag - when one girl tags another, they play 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' and the loser sits down until she is tapped by another player to rejoin the game. We then moved on to Graveyard - everyone finds a spot in the room and freezes in position while the person who is 'It' walks around. If she sees someone moving, she calls their name and they are our of the game. While her back is turned, the other players are expected to move and change positions. Our next game was Flashlight Tag - the person who is It tags other players by shining her flashlight on them and calling out their name. Next up was Flashlight Freeze Dance - with music provided by the voices of the Patrol themselves! Our final activity was Four Corners - a flashlight was placed in each corner, girls choose a corner to run to and the person in the center closes her eyes, spins around and points at a corner. Anyone in the corner that is pointed to is out.

To end, we turned the lights back out, handed out badges, talked about next week and closed with Taps.

By Guides, For Guides: Unicorns & Starburst

About a month ago we asked each Patrol to pick a theme and plan activities for a meeting. This week, we turned the Unit over to the first two Patrols and had an evening of unicorn and starburst themed activities. 

The first Patrol had picked a Unicorn theme and planned two activities. The first was Pin the Horn on the Unicorn. One girl had made a picture of a unicorn, a paper blindfold and a set of horns. She also brought the tape needed to hang the picture up and stick the horns on. Their second activity was Unicorn Musical Chairs - though I think it wound up being more of an action chairs game as there was no music and the chairs were scattered around the room (the girls had fun though!).

The second Patrol decided to plan activities around Starburst Candies and planned four activities. The first was to find out a bit about the History of Starburst Candies, researched by one girl in the Patrol and shared with the rest of the group. It turns out that Starburst were invented by the Mars Company in the UK, and were originally called Opal Fruits when they were first introduced in 1960. The original flavours were strawberry, lemon, orange and lime. For the next activity, they asked everyone to Design New Starburst by coming up with at least one new Starburst flavour and also designing a wrapper for their new flavour(s). Next up was Starburst Tag, a game invented by the Patrol where the two players who are 'It' have small soft balls (Starbursts) and they have to use them to tag other players by throwing them at their legs (some girls are very adept at jumping out of the way!). When a player is tagged, she sits down and has to be tagged by another player in order to rejoin the game. The final activity of this group was, of course, Eating Starburst!


We talked a bit about the activities, which most of the girls enjoyed, and about the planning process. There wasn't too much feedback about planning and leading, but the girls did realize just how much work goes into planning enough activities to fill a meeting!

As we had some time left at the end of the meeting, we split the girls up into their Patrols and had them do an Accessibility Audit of our meeting place.  The Guides had to look for accessibility features in the parking lot, entrance, washrooms and overall building design. They were also challenged to find other features and suggest new features that would make a building more accessible to all. The girls were surprised to discover that the church we meet in had an elevator - in fact not everyone recognized it as one! They decided that while there were some additional accessibility features that could be added, overall the church is accessible, especially considering that the building is about 100 years old.

We closed our meeting with reminders for next week and Taps.

Downloads:

• Accessibility Audit Form

This & That

This week we spent some time planning, working on the latest Student's Rebuild Challenge, and playing active games. We started the meeting with our usual opening, followed by an active game. 

The first part of the night was spent working in Patrols to finish planning their meeting activities. In the coming weeks, we will be having a Dark Night, Unicorn Night and Starburst Night!

The next part of the meeting was spent working on self-portraits for the Student's Rebuild Facing Difference Challenge. This challenge asks participants to think about what makes them unique and create a self-portrait. For every portrait submitted, the Bezos Family Foundation will donate $3.00 to support peace-building programs in Nigeria, Sri Lanka and the South Caucasus region of Eastern Europe.

We finished the evening off with some active games and gathering ideas for upcoming meeting themes - CSI, Art, International Women's Day, World Food, and the 2nd Year Brownie Visit. We closed with reminders for next week and Taps.


Links:

• Student's Rebuild Facing Difference Challenge 

Update on the Pathfinders & Rangers

Although they haven't featured much this year, we do have an active Pathfinder/Ranger Unit of 7 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 Ranger makes sure things go smoothly and takes on a key leadership role. Although this arrangement was born of necessity due to a lack of Guiders, turning things over to the girls has been mostly successful!

September

Friday, September 8th - Welcome Back BBQ
To celebrate the start of a new Guiding year, we had a BBQ (unfortunately it rained, so we were indoors!) and started doing a bit of planning.


Tuesday, September 12th - Welcome Back Meeting
For our first meeting of the year, everyone took part in a scavenger hunt where girls had to get others to sign their cards if they could say 'yes' to a question on it and the goal was to fill your entire card (i.e. someone who likes pizza, someone who has a brother). The Pathfinders then led a game of Everybody's It Tag for the whole group. Afterwards, the Pathfinders and Rangers worked on planning and identifying activities that they would like to do this year.

Tuesday, September 19th - Mini Messy Night and SWAP Making 
The Pathfinders & Rangers joined the Guides for an evening of messy fun and swap-making for the upcoming Campfire at Hamilton City Hall. Read about the meeting here - Mini Messy Night & SWAP Making

Tuesday, September 26th - Scavenger Hunt
This year's annual scavenger hunt was "The Selfie/Photo Team 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!

Downloads:

• The Selfie/Photo Team Scavenger Hunt
  

 

Thursday, September 28th - WE Day Toronto 2017
WE Day was AWESOME! This was the first time we attended, and though we were small in numbers we had a great time. Read all about the event here - WE Day Toronto 2017

October

Tuesday, October 3rd - Campfire Sing-Along at Hamilton City Hall
Unfortunately, none of the Pathfinders or Rangers could join us for this event, but the Guides had a great time!


Saturday, October 7th - Cookie Selling at Zehrs
The Guides, Pathfinders and Rangers all sold Cookies at our local Zehrs store.

Tuesday, October 10th - International Day of the Girl
For the International Day of the Girl we worked on the WAGGGS #TeamGirl 2017 Challenge. We learned about rights vs needs, barriers girls face in accessing education, and explored human rights and the rights of the child. The girls talked about issues they care about and did some brainstorming around possible service projects for this year.
Read all about our meeting here - International Day of the Girl 2017

Friday, October 13th to Sunday October 15th - Nighthawk Goes to Platform 9 3/4 
The latest Nighthawk Camp was all about Harry Potter! At this camp, the activities take place through Friday night until 6am Saturday morning, and start again Saturday afternoon. Despite the rain and mud, we had a great time.
Read all about the camp here - Nighthawk Goes to Platform 9 3/4

Tuesday, October 17th - Leadership Skills
Our Ranger, a graduate of the LDP 4 program at Camp Woolsey, shared some of the skills she has learned by leading the Pathfinders through different activities to complete the Find Your Inner Leader Module. Lynsey planned an led activities about leadership styles, teamwork, problem solving and planning, which included role play, skits, and challenges.


Tuesday, October 24th - Pumpkins Galore
As Halloween fell on a Tuesday this year, the Pathfinders had a pumpkin-themed meeting the week before. They planned the activities and our Ranger did the shopping. They baked pumpkin muffins, spray painted pumpkins, snacked on muffins and chocolate, and played a huge game of hide-and-seek around our meeting space.

November

Tuesday, November 7th - Enrolment
Although it wasn't planned, our new Pathfinders were enrolled with the Guides. We also took part in our first Girls First! activity about badges shapes and designs and the importance of interest badges in the program.
Read about our ceremony here - Enrolment 2017

Saturday, November 11th - Remembrance Day
Unfortunately I have no photos, but as Remembrance Day fell on a weekend this year, 1 Ranger, 3 Pathfinders and 2 Guides were able to be at our local Cenotaph to lay a wreath on behalf of Guiding.


Tuesday, November 14th - Initiation With Lynsey
The girls earned the We're A Team Module while taking part in a series of silly and teambuilding activities with Lynsey, our Ranger, to welcome our new Pathfinders into the Unit.
 
Tuesday, November 21st - Introducing the Canada Cord
Tonight the girls were joined by a Guider for the first half of their meeting to talk about the Canada Cord. We did an overview of what is involved in earning the Canada Cord, the different modules and projects that need to be undertaken, and determined that the girls are interested in working towards this award! We reviewed what Modules they have already completed (Choosing Your Own Direction, Find Your Inner Leader, and We're A Team!), looked at what we need to cover for our 3rd Year Pathfinder (Cookies Rising, First Aid, Outdoor Bridging Activities, 4 hours of Service and her leadership camp or event) and a few modules that interest the group as a whole (Survivor Girl; Knots, Knives and Outdoor Lore; and Now You're Cooking). The second part of the meeting was spent taking part in a series of challenges - Role Play Activities on problem solving and behaviours; Game Inventors to create new games; and Energizers - 60-second active living activities.

Downloads:

• Canada Cord Overview
• Challenge Activities  

Tuesday, November 28th - Girls Count!
Financial Literacy is an important skill to learn, so since November is Financial Literacy Month, we all took on the Girls Count Challenge. To earn this challenge, girls take part in activities about Currency Awareness, Purchasing Power and Money Management. As an added bonus, the Pathfinders also earned their Moneywise Module!
Read all about our meeting here - Girls Count!

December

Tuesday, December 5th - By Girls, For Girls
This week each girl was asked to bring a 10-15 minute activity to lead for the rest of the group. Some girls worked together and led more than one activity, while others worked on their own.


Friday, December 8th to Saturday, December 9th - Sleepover
For our annual December sleepover, we had crafts, a service project, games and baking on the agenda. For our main craft, we glued yarn onto canvases in different patterns the covered everything with tinfoil. The tinfoil was pressed firmly over the yarn so that it made raised lines. The areas between the yarn lines were then coloured with Sharpies. The effect is like stained glass! We then moved onto our service project - making hygiene kits. We made 20 packages that consisted of a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, kleenex and moist wipes wrapped in washcloth and secured with hair elastics. After that, it was time for some baking, we made chocolate chip cookies and chocolate chip oatmeal muffins (breakfast!). We ordered pizza and continued crafting for awhile. The girls played games and stayed up into the early hours of the morning, long after their tired Guider had fallen asleep!

Useful Links:

•  Tin Foil Line Relief Art by Becker Middle School

Tuesday, December 12th - Elftastic Challenge
The Elftastic Challenge makes a perfect theme for a combined Guide/Pathfinder/Ranger holiday party. The girls made crafts, decorated (and ate) cookies, and played games. 
Read about the Elftastic Challenge here - Holiday Party


Tuesday, December 19th - Holiday Party
Tonight was our final activity of 2017. We ate pizza and veggies, baked cookies, had a gift stealing exchange and played Twister. The cookies are our favourite Chocolatey-Mint Chip Cookies, made by breaking up a row of mint Girl Guide cookies to use instead of regular chocolate chips. The gift exchange spending limit was $5 (but regifting and handmade were encouraged!) and we had a good time rolling a large die and passing or 'stealing' gifts around the circle. It has been a busy four months and it will be nice to have a bit of a break and come back refreshed and ready for more fun in January!.

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.

Fall Fun With the Rangers

Our Ranger Unit has an irregular schedule and makes full use of Facebook to plan meetings and events. We may not meet often, but when we do, we always have fun!

We started the year off in September by ordering Chinese food and watching the movie "Brave". After the movie was over, we started making plans for our weekend in Toronto in November.

In October, we had a baking night to make shortbread and complete the requirements for the
"Ready, Steady, Glasgow!" Challenge. Baking is always fun - especially when there are such tasty results!


Recipe for Brown Sugar Shortbread (Scottish)
1 cup (250 mL) Butter (no substitutions)
1/2 cup (125 mL) Light Brown Sugar, packed
2 cups (500 mL) All-Purpose Flour
1/4 tsp (1 mL) Salt
1/4 tsp (1 mL) Baking Powder

Cream the butter thoroughly. While beating, gradually add the sugar.
Set aside 1/4 cup (60 mL) flour for rolling the dough. Sift the rest of the flour with the salt and baking powder. Add the butter mixture, mixing well. The dough should feel like putty.
Flour the rolling out surface lightly. Roll the dough out to an even 1/2 inch (1.3 cm) thickness. Cut into fingers, squares, or rounds. Prick each with a fork several times.
Place on an ungreased baking sheet and bake in a 350 F (180 C) oven until lightly browned, about 20-25 minutes (thinner pieces may take as little as 15 minutes). Remove to a wire rack to cool.
Store in a tightly covered tin. Makes approximately 24 pieces.
(Source: This recipe was published in the Hamilton Spectator a few years ago, unfortunately the date and any author information has been cut off the copy I have.)

The remainder of this meeting and our other meeting in October were spent planning our weekend in Toronto. We also spent time talking about College/University preparations and choosing a career. This was a spontaneous conversation as 3 out of 4 Rangers are in Grade 12 and will be heading onto their next adventure come September.

November saw us traveling to Toronto for 3 packed days - see post here.

December was a short month with the holidays. We spent our meeting time brainstorming and making plans for the Ranger Service Project - the last piece needed to complete the Chief Commissioner's Gold Award, and also to earn the Commonwealth Award. The service project list has been narrowed down and a final project will be chosen in the new year. For the Commonwealth Award we will be learning more about Fiji, and are looking forward to finding recipes and enjoying a Fijian meal.

January & February with the Pathfinders

January started off with a craft night where we made decorated badge boxes and ribbon-covered pens.  The boxes were plastic photo cases decorated with craft paper/cardstock, stickers and drawings. The pens were made by wrapping a length of ribbon around the pen and gluing it at both ends. Then a felt 'tuft' was added the end.

Our second meeting was spent making plants for our January, February and March meetings. We looked at all the different places in town we could go to and tried to think of things we could do there, then we made lists of things we could do for different amounts of money. Later, we started planning activities for Thinking Day, using the WAGGGS Activity Pack and other resources. Our last activity for the evening was to come up with a schedule of meetings until the end of March. We had lots of ideas and were able to come up with a good list, with some activities being held over until the spring.


On January 22nd we had a Movie Night and watched Cheaper By the Dozen 2. The girls enjoyed the movie, snacks and lots of social time.

Our final January meeting was spent working on the Fashion Sense From Head to Toe Module. The girls were asked to wear their favourite outfit and then tell why it is their favourite (or if they weren't wearing it, to tell what their favourite outfit is). We looked at the "stylebook" that was created by Pathfinders about 3 hears ago and talked about how styles and fashions have changed in that short a period of time - hairstyles, make-up, clothing - everything came in for comment. Some of the girls had brought fabric and/or pieces of clothing that could be altered and they busied themselves in creating new fashion designs from old. We finished the meeting by talking about current fashions - are they good for everyone? What makes them popular?

February was a busy month with Winter Camp and Thinking Day. We had to cancel our first meeting of the month due to bad weather - a snowstorm that came in during the day.

Because of the cancellation, our first meeting was held on February 12th. This was to be our planning meeting for camp activities, the Murder Mystery evening and Thinking Day. Unfortunately, only 4 girls were present. First, we made a list of activities to do at camp. We are camping with the Guides and Rangers, but each branch will have time to do their own programming. The rest of the meeting was spent going through the activities planned for Thinking Day. This way, the girls became familiar with the activities they would be leading at our town-wide Thinking Day event.

On Friday night, we were off to Winter Camp! See the post - Guide/Pathfinder/Ranger Winter Camp 2014.



Tuesday, February 18th was our town-wide Thinking Day celebration. Unfortunately, only 2 Pathfinders came, but fortunately the Rangers pitched in to help make sure the event was a success. See the post - World Thinking Day 2014

Our final meeting of February was about Respect, Responsibility, Manners, and Etiquette. Again, we had a small attendance so some activities have been held over until everyone is present. We started the meeting with social time and then a group puzzle to change the word 'thank you' into the word 'please'. We then talked about Thinking Day - what went well, what didn't, and what could we do differently next time. The two girls who were at the event expressed their frustration with the other girls for not being there and we talked about the importance of taking responsibility for your actions. Next, we did a team quiz about manners and then had a snack (thank you Emily!). The last part of the meeting was spent making up skits about responsibility in pairs. Some of the scenarios were:

• You are watching your favourite television program and you remember that you have a science project due tomorrow.
• Your grandmother asks you to watch your younger brother while she goes to the store to get milk.
• Your row in class has been assigned a group project. You are supposed to do research, but would rather play soccer after school than go to the library
• Your sister isn't feeling well and your parents ask you to take over her chores for the weekend.
• It's supper time and you're in the middle of an important texting conversation with a friend.
• Your coach asks you to come to practice on time and you'd rather hang out with your friends.

November & December with the Pathfinders

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.