Giving Tuesday

In honour of Giving Tuesday, we spend the evening assembling and making gifts for others. 

We began with our usual opening ceremony, followed by an active game. 

Our main activity for the evening was creating and decorating a Card, Gift Bag, Canvas Tile Magnet and Bath Salt Ball to give to someone special in their lives. While many of the cards had a Christmas theme, the gift bags were move eclectic! The canvas tiles were painted with a variety of designs and colours and plastic ornament balls decorated ready to hold the bath salts. The bath salt receipe we used was vary simple, using equal amounts of fine sea salt and Epsom salts (4 cups of each made enough to fill 13 ornament balls with a bit left over). 
Our service project over the past month was collecting items for The Shoeboxes for Shelters Project. This program collects shoeboxes filled with high quality items as gifts for women in shelters. Boxes are collected and distributed locally and each is intended to have a value of approximately $50. We were able to collect enough items to fill 3 Shoeboxes and are very excited that our boxes will be going to young women aged 15 to 18 living in transitional housing in Brantford.  

We ended our meeting with reminders about our sleepover on Friday and visit to the Food Bank next week, then closed with Taps.

Art-Tastic! Drawing & Sculpting

Tonight we explored our creativity with the help of one of our Guiders who studied Fine Arts. 

We began with our usual opening ceremony and an active game, then moved right into our activities for the evening. 

We started our with Still Life Drawing and Perspective Drawing using a display of teddy bears and flowers. These were challenging activities for the Guides, and also something most hadn't tried before. The next activity was from the Girls First platform called "Draw, Don't Stop" where the girls created drawings without lifting their pencils from the paper. 
   
Our next activity was Clay Pictionary. We made the easy clay recipe on the Girls First platform (mix 1 cup flour, 3/4 cup salt and 3 oz hot water together and knead into a dough-y clay). Each Patrol had a glob of clay, a plate to make their pictures and a set of cards. As they played, the Guides discovered it's much harder to work with clay rather than markers in this game! 

We ended the evening with time for free drawing and sculpting, resulting in some really neat creations. 
After cleaning up, we ended with reminders for next week and closed with Taps.

Outdoor Games Night

This week we didn't have access to our regular meeting space, so we headed out to a local park for some outdoor fun!

The Pathfinders and Rangers had planned the evening and led us in a Glowstick Scavenger Hunt, Glowstick Tag, Sardines, and Flashlight Tag. Before heading back to the church for pick-up, we had some time to play on the swings, teeter-totters, slide and play structure. Everyone had a great time - and running around helped us all stay warm! 

 

The Power of Positivity

This week we dabbled in the My Mighty Mind theme by talking a bit about stress and positive ways of handling it, including being creative, mindfulness and yoga. 

As everyone arrived, the Patrols marked attendance and collected dues. We had our regular opening with horseshoe formation and then played an active game. 

Our first activity was a Discussion About Stress. We used the information that GGC put out for National Mental Health Week in 2016 (see link at the bottom). The girls who wished to had an opportunity to share about times they have felt stressed, how it made them feel and what they did to work through it. 

We then moved on to creativity as a way of handling stress by Painting Tiles. We had gotten cheap tiles form the Habitat Reuse Store and provided paints and brushes so that the girls could create their own designs and/or messages. 

After cleaning up from painting, we did a mindfulness exercise using the Chocolate Meditation using peanut-free mini Aero bars. The script is in the GGC National Mental Health Week 2016 package (see link below). This was a lot of fun, as well as being tasty!

Our final activity was Yoga, again using some of the suggestions from the GGC National Mental Health Week 2016 package (see link below). We have a fairly large meeting space, so everyone was able to spread out and have their own area. 

We closed with reminders for next week (Outdoors Night) and Taps.


Links:

• GGC National Mental Health Week 2016 (external link)

Hallowe'en Party & Enrolment

This week was our annual Hallowe'en Party - and also our Enrolment Ceremony. Each Patrol was responsible for planning and running an activity as part of the part. 

Our first Patrol was the Forget-Me-Nots who led a Costume Contest. Each Guide walked along the "catwalk" and then everyone voted on their favourite costumes and the winner received a paper crown made by the Patrol. 

This was followed by a game of Charades led by the Daisy Patrol and Wax Museum (in the dark with glow sticks) led by the Thistle Patrol.

We had a short rehearsal, and then held our Enrolment Ceremony once the families of our new Guides arrived. We enrolled 3 new Guides and gave out badges and insignia to everyone. 

We closed with reminders for next week (Positivity) and Taps.

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)

International Day of the Girl - #TeamGirl 2018 Challenge

This week we celebrated the International Day of the Girl (October 11th) with the WAGGGS #TeamGirl 2018 Challenge. This Challenge ties in well with the Gender Power theme badge under the Explore Identities program area. 

As the girls arrived, they went to their Patrol corners and marked their attendance and dues books. We started with our usual opening ceremony and then moved right into our activities. 

We started with Changing Places to get the girls thinking about equality. Everyone stands in a circle, with one player in the centre. A Guider read out the statements one at a time. If a girl agreed with the statement, she had to leave her spot and cross the circle to try to find a new place. At the same time, the player in the centre tries to 'steal' a spot so that there will be a new person in the centre. We also added a rule that girls could not move into a spot immediately beside them to ensure the player in the centre had a chance of getting a spot. After the game finished, we had a discussion about the various statements and the types of stereotypes about boys and girls they have heard. Here are the statements we used:

• Boys and girls can wear pink clothing
• Housework (cleaning, ironing, cooking) are chores for both men and women
• Both women and men can play football
• Both men and women can dance ballet
• Men are good at caring for children and other family members
• Girls can do anything they want to do
• Equality makes all people happier
• It's OK for boys to cry in public

This activity was followed up with a brief discussion about things the girls thought or have heard boys can do but girls can't. We found that our group is well aware that girls and boys can do the same things and that they should have equal opportunities.

Our next activity was Discussing Gender Equality. Everyone moves around the room and listens for a Guider clapping. When they hear clapping, they need to form groups based on the number of claps (i.e. if the Guider claps 4 times, then they need to form groups of 4). Once the groups are formed, a question was asked, and the group had a few minutes to discuss it and then share the results of their discussion. This is repeated with different sized groups for each question. The questions we used were:

• Are girls and boys treated equally at your school? Why or why not?
• Do you think there are any jobs women cannot do? Why or why not?
• Imagine there is a science club at your school, but only boys are allowed to join. How could you convince the school to let girls join in too?

We paused here for an active game - Everybody's It Tag!

Next up, we did the From a Picture to a Story activity. We printed and cut out the pictures from the challenge pack and had each person pick one before we started. Everyone was introduced to Maria, a 10-year old Girl Guides. We then went around the circle and each person added an event or experience to Maria's life based on the picture they had chosen. Maria had a very interesting life, climbing trees in the woods, riding her bicycle to school, exploring welding as a career, eventually becoming a famous singer, and traveling around the world!

The final activity of the night was Team Girl Are Superheroes! Everyone split up into pairs/small groups and created a new superhero, including dressing up a team member using newspapers. Here are the latest team of superheroes!

	Name: Flashgirl Powers: Speed Message: "If you need help, I'm on the run"
	Name: Noob Powers: Turning things into blocks Message: "Even though I'm a Noob, I can do things too!"
	Name: Tea Lady Powers: Shoots tea from her eyes, Makes people happy by giving them hot tea Message: "All you need is an imagination"
	Name: Ronald McDonaldette Powers: Can Fly Tools: Burger of Truth, Whip of Encouragement, Sword of Happiness Message: "I will feed you all"
	Name: Galaxy Girl Powers: Mind reading, telepathy, teleportation Message: "You can do anything you put your mind to"
	Name: Hero Heart Powers: Speed, Flight, Making people fall in love Message: "Spread love and kindness around the world"

We closed with reminders for next week (the Power of Positive Thinking) and Taps.

• #TeamGirl 2018 Challenge (WAGGGS)