Girl Guide Day Camp

Taking advantage of a Friday PA Day for all schools in our area, we planned a Day Camp for Guides! We wound up with our 3 3rd Year Guides who had slept over, a 2nd Year Guide, 2 1st Year Guides, and our Ranger Helper. 

Everyone arrived bright and early at 7.30am to cook breakfast. We headed outside with buddy burners to cook bacon, while the tater tots went in the oven and pancakes were cooked on the stove. We also sliced up fruit and had left over juices from the sleepover. This fulfilled a common request to do more cooking, as opportunities are sometimes limited at camp due to the number of girls.

For the rest of the morning, we took part in the Students Rebuild 2019 Ocean Challenge. We attempted to watch the videos, but only parts of each were able to be played on my tablet, so we discussed the information that was contained in each video and shared how we felt about the oceans. Then it was time to get right into the heart of the challenge - creating sea creatures from paper products! We have a supply box of random crafting items so were able to provide white and coloured paper, newsprint, paper plates, tubes, streamers and masking tape, along with markers, scissors and glue. This was a highly successful project and we created and submitted a total of 27 pieces of artwork, raising $84 for ocean protection and recovery initiatives! Check out our ocean creatures on our team page - https://www.studentsrebuild.org/teams/8Y8Z7VTFHXL5.

Lunchtime meant it was time for more cooking! We made taco salad using Doritoes, including ground chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, salsa and sour cream. After eating and cleaning up, we moved onto our afternoon activities. 

Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating, so we were unable to go outside and had to have fun indoors. We started by making popcorn over tealights. We set up each pair with two tealights on a metal or foil tray, two tart pans, clothespins, popcorn, oil and matches. The first task was to put about a tablespoon of oil in one of the tart pans along with the popcorn kernels, then make a container by inverting the other tart pan on top of the first and using the clothes pins to clip the two tins together. They then had to light the tealights. This took a while for some groups, but we also managed to help some Guides get over their fears. The tart pan popper was then held over the tealights, about 1-2" above the flames by holding onto the clothes pins. Patience is required as this does take a few minutes, but once the kernels started popping, everyone got very excited and into counting how many 'pops' they had! We are told the popcorn was very tasty as well!

Our next activity was board games, including King of Tokyo and Dungeons & Dragons. 


Once we'd finished gaming, the weather had cleared up a bit, so we headed outside for a scavenger hunt and active games. With the return of the rain, we went back inside and worked on an Advocacy Activity. The group was asked to work together and imagine they were planning an event in support of Saving the Oceans. They had to create a playlist for the event, come up with a slogan and chant for their campaign, and make a poster to share facts and information. 


We ended the day by cleaning up and putting away furniture before heading home to enjoy the rest of the weekend. 
 
Links:

• Students Rebuild 2019 Ocean Challenge

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.

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.