This week we explored the History of Guiding to finish up the Our Story theme badge.
As the Guides arrived, they gathered in their Patrols to check attendance and collected dues. This week, they also had to gather supplies and put together their Patrol Box. Each Patrol will be responsible for their own supplies this year. They also had to put together a short presentation about one of the B-Ps - Robert, Agnes and Olave.
After our opening, each Patrol shared their presentation so everyone could learn about Robert, Agnes and Olave Baden-Powell. This answered some of the questions from last week:
- Who started Guiding and why?
- When was Guides started?
- Where did Guides start?
We then spent a bit of time answering the other questions the Guides had come up with:
Why are Patrols named for flowers and birds?
The original Scout Patrols were birds and animals, and each Scout was expected to learn about their chosen emblem, where it lived, what it ate, etc., and also to use its cry as their Patrol call. Now, the idea of girls going around roaring and hissing like lions or snakes wasn't going to go over well, so B-P and Agnes suggested flower, and later bird, emblems for Guides. Patrol calls stopped, but Guides were still expected to learn all about their chosen emblem.
Why don't we wear dresses as uniform anymore?
The same reason we don't wear long skirts and blouses - times change, and so does fashion. The Guide Uniform has changed many times, becoming less formal and more comfortable over the years. The dress was discontinued about 2001 as very few girls were choosing it as a uniform option, instead going for pants and a t-shirt or sweatshirt. If you like skirts and dresses, you can always wear a skirt with your Guide t-shirt - or find an old Guide uniform and wear it instead!
We also spent a few minutes looking at a Guide Uniform from the 1970s and talking about the challenges of running and playing games in a skirt and how t-shirts are much more comfortable for meetings. I actually wore the same uniform (skirt and blouse) in the early 1990s and could speak from experience! A few of the girls are determined to find old uniform dresses to wear now.
Next we played an active game, Twos and Threes, from Sixty Indoor Games for Scouts by J.B. Collyns (Brown, Son & Ferguson Ltd: Glasgow). In this game, players make a large circle that is two-deep (Guides stand in pairs, one in front of the other). One pair steps out of the circle, with one player going inside the circle and the outside. At 'go', the girl in the circle chases the other girl. To change places with another player, the runner or the chaser stands in front of a pair of girls, and the girl at the back takes her place.
Our next activity was to make Guiding Collages. We had paper, clippings from Guiding publications, and some old Canadian Guider magazines. Each Patrol had supplies to make two collages with the theme "Spirit of Guiding". Everyone got really into this activity and we will be finishing it up in two weeks time.
After cleaning up, we played Kim's Game. This is a classic observation and memory game that has been played by Guides and Scouts since the beginning. Patrols have one minute to look at a tray of items (we used Guiding-themed items), the tray is then removed and players have a short time to try to recall everything they've seen. The Patrol that remembers the most items wins.
Our final activity was to learn Why We Are Called Guides. We read the excerpt from How Girls Can Help to Build Up the Empire (the first Guide Handbook) and found out that we are named for the Corps of the Guides in India. These Guides can turn their hand to anything, are brave and determined, skilled at woodcraft, homecraft, and outdoor lore.
We closed with reminders for next week (City Hall Campfire) and Taps.
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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.
A
s 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.
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This week we explored the History of Guiding to finish up the Our Story theme badge.
