24/09/15
I was slightly late to the meeting today so I don't know what they were doing for the first 20 minutes or so but, once I had got there, we handed out their badges for Pack Holiday for them to colour in. I sat on a table with one of the sixes and coloured in my own badge. We then used a machine to turn them into 'proper' badges, which the girls as usual thought was absolutely amazing!
When they were done, we invited the parents in for the parent's meeting for Pack Holiday and we attempted to keep the girls occupied but quiet. One of our Young Leaders ran a PowWow for them, as it was the only thing she had left to complete for her YLQ. She asked them which badge they would like to do over the next term, and had them suggest and then vote on a few activities that they could do as part of it.
Finally, we handed out the teddies to go home with girls, gave a few seconders badges out, and sang Brownie Bells before sending the girls home. It was a fairly peaceful meeting today, which was nice.
Monday 28 September 2015
Wednesday 23 September 2015
Board Games and Chocolate
17/09/15
This week there was a picnic to celebrate the 50 birthday of the local primary school, which most of our girls attend. As such, we only had 10 girls. We had asked the girls the previous week who was going to the picnic so we already knew it was going to be a depleted meeting.
We bought 2 board games for the girls to play in groups of 2 or 3. The first was a version of snakes and ladders, called worms and fleas. You jumped up the fleas and slid down the worms. There was also the added complication of pills (don't slide down the next worm you land on) and flea drops (move forwards to the next flea and jump up it). The other was a Paddington Bear game. Each girl had 2 slices of bread and a jar of marmalade (as tokens) which they placed on any square on the track. Each time they rolled the dice they had the choice of going forwards hat many, or backwards (not both). By the end of the track, they had to have collected 2 slices of bread and a jar of marmalade each (not necessarily the ones they had put on the board), so that Paddington could make himself a marmalade sandwich!
At the same time, we decorated chocolate disks. Our Young Leaders melted some chocolate, and spread it in thin disks on greaseproof paper. They let it set a bit and then the girls came in to decorate them with all the left-over decorations we had from various other cooking evenings. We had white chocolate buttons, smarties, and various shaped sprinkles. All the girls were really good at only taking a few, and not just loading it up with as much sugary stuff as possible (as we've had in the past). Can't quite say the same for us Leaders after the girls had gone though, and we were left with some bars of chocolate and a tube of smarties!
When they were all done we played a game of Chinese Charades. We found that it was a good game with fairly short lines of girls; we added in a few leaders and had 2 lines of 6 girls. The girls seemed to enjoy it too. We also sang a couple of songs: 'There Was an Old Man', and 'Cookie Jar'.
Finally we let the girls go home, which was far less complicated with a small number! Sometimes it is nice to have a meeting with a few girls as you get to spend some time with them more one-on-one, however I wouldn't want to do it every week - there are some things that are designed for more people.
This week there was a picnic to celebrate the 50 birthday of the local primary school, which most of our girls attend. As such, we only had 10 girls. We had asked the girls the previous week who was going to the picnic so we already knew it was going to be a depleted meeting.
We bought 2 board games for the girls to play in groups of 2 or 3. The first was a version of snakes and ladders, called worms and fleas. You jumped up the fleas and slid down the worms. There was also the added complication of pills (don't slide down the next worm you land on) and flea drops (move forwards to the next flea and jump up it). The other was a Paddington Bear game. Each girl had 2 slices of bread and a jar of marmalade (as tokens) which they placed on any square on the track. Each time they rolled the dice they had the choice of going forwards hat many, or backwards (not both). By the end of the track, they had to have collected 2 slices of bread and a jar of marmalade each (not necessarily the ones they had put on the board), so that Paddington could make himself a marmalade sandwich!
At the same time, we decorated chocolate disks. Our Young Leaders melted some chocolate, and spread it in thin disks on greaseproof paper. They let it set a bit and then the girls came in to decorate them with all the left-over decorations we had from various other cooking evenings. We had white chocolate buttons, smarties, and various shaped sprinkles. All the girls were really good at only taking a few, and not just loading it up with as much sugary stuff as possible (as we've had in the past). Can't quite say the same for us Leaders after the girls had gone though, and we were left with some bars of chocolate and a tube of smarties!
When they were all done we played a game of Chinese Charades. We found that it was a good game with fairly short lines of girls; we added in a few leaders and had 2 lines of 6 girls. The girls seemed to enjoy it too. We also sang a couple of songs: 'There Was an Old Man', and 'Cookie Jar'.
Finally we let the girls go home, which was far less complicated with a small number! Sometimes it is nice to have a meeting with a few girls as you get to spend some time with them more one-on-one, however I wouldn't want to do it every week - there are some things that are designed for more people.
Monday 14 September 2015
Friendship Bookmarks
10/09/15
This week we did a craft which was suggested to us by Brown Owl's sister, who did it at a District event with her Brownies.
Each girl was given a printout of her name in bubble writing. They coloured in the letters and decorated round the outside. Then they cut it up so all the letters were separate. We then tasked them with finding people to swap all of their letters with, so they could still spell their own name but with letters that someone else had coloured it. Most of them managed it, we had a 'u', 'z', and 'j' left that we couldn't swap anywhere! We then gave them a piece of coloured card that they could stick their letters to, to make it into a bookmark.
When they were done, we tidied up (which took ages) and then we sang a few songs. We sang 'Oh You'll Never Get To Heaven' and 'Cecil is my Caterpillar'. The District Commissioner also made an appearance at the end of the meeting, to present one of our Young Leaders with her badge and certificate. She then told us about a trip for Senior Section members to London which the group of us who help out at Brownies are going to go on in October (so look out for that post!).
During the circle at the end, I was tasked with handing out receipts to the vast majority of the girls, which was a real test of my knowledge of their names (I only mixed up 2 in the end)!
This week we did a craft which was suggested to us by Brown Owl's sister, who did it at a District event with her Brownies.
Each girl was given a printout of her name in bubble writing. They coloured in the letters and decorated round the outside. Then they cut it up so all the letters were separate. We then tasked them with finding people to swap all of their letters with, so they could still spell their own name but with letters that someone else had coloured it. Most of them managed it, we had a 'u', 'z', and 'j' left that we couldn't swap anywhere! We then gave them a piece of coloured card that they could stick their letters to, to make it into a bookmark.
When they were done, we tidied up (which took ages) and then we sang a few songs. We sang 'Oh You'll Never Get To Heaven' and 'Cecil is my Caterpillar'. The District Commissioner also made an appearance at the end of the meeting, to present one of our Young Leaders with her badge and certificate. She then told us about a trip for Senior Section members to London which the group of us who help out at Brownies are going to go on in October (so look out for that post!).
During the circle at the end, I was tasked with handing out receipts to the vast majority of the girls, which was a real test of my knowledge of their names (I only mixed up 2 in the end)!
Tuesday 8 September 2015
First meeting, third year!
03/09/15
Apologies that this was a bit late, completely forgot I needed to write it..!
This week was our first meeting back for the new school year. As always, the girls were slightly hyper so we didn't plan on doing anything particularly strenuous! We let them all have a turn for show-and-tell this week (usually we do one six a week) and told them they had to be quick or we'd miss them out.
We started off by playing a game to try and get rid of some of their energy (and to give the Adults and Young Leaders a chance to catch up themselves!). We played the game where you sit in a circle, with one girl in the middle and you call out something such as 'who has a brother' or 'who's wearing blue shoes' and anyone who fits that description has to swap chairs with someone else, and the girl in the middle has to sit down somewhere.
We then split the girls into those who are going on Pack Holiday in October, and those who aren't. The ones who aren't were given some wordsearches and puzzles to do together. We took the ones who are going and split them into sixes. We chose three girls who had been before to be the sixers and then spread out the other girls so they were with friends but we also had a fairly even mix of girls who had and hadn't in each six. They were then tasked with choosing a name for themselves, around our theme of superheroes. Once they had done that, we got them to sit in their sixes and asked the older ones to tell the younger ones what Pack Holiday is like and what things we do, as we have a lot of younger girls who've never been before. The girls got bored discussing that though, and started having their own conversations. I joined in one with a few of the newer girls, which resulted in two of them tying my shoe laces to prove that they could (it took me a while to undo them again later on!).
To end the meeting, we sang a few songs because we realised that we haven't done that in a while and we have a lot of new girls who don't know the songs that we will be singing on Pack Holiday around our campfire. We sang 'Cecil is my Caterpillar', 'Cookie Jar', and 'Three Little Angels' before letting the girls go home.
It was a chaotic meeting, as is usually the case with the first meeting back, but I enjoy those kind of meetings because the girls seem a lot chattier than at the end of a term which is the part I enjoy about Brownies.
Apologies that this was a bit late, completely forgot I needed to write it..!
This week was our first meeting back for the new school year. As always, the girls were slightly hyper so we didn't plan on doing anything particularly strenuous! We let them all have a turn for show-and-tell this week (usually we do one six a week) and told them they had to be quick or we'd miss them out.
We started off by playing a game to try and get rid of some of their energy (and to give the Adults and Young Leaders a chance to catch up themselves!). We played the game where you sit in a circle, with one girl in the middle and you call out something such as 'who has a brother' or 'who's wearing blue shoes' and anyone who fits that description has to swap chairs with someone else, and the girl in the middle has to sit down somewhere.
We then split the girls into those who are going on Pack Holiday in October, and those who aren't. The ones who aren't were given some wordsearches and puzzles to do together. We took the ones who are going and split them into sixes. We chose three girls who had been before to be the sixers and then spread out the other girls so they were with friends but we also had a fairly even mix of girls who had and hadn't in each six. They were then tasked with choosing a name for themselves, around our theme of superheroes. Once they had done that, we got them to sit in their sixes and asked the older ones to tell the younger ones what Pack Holiday is like and what things we do, as we have a lot of younger girls who've never been before. The girls got bored discussing that though, and started having their own conversations. I joined in one with a few of the newer girls, which resulted in two of them tying my shoe laces to prove that they could (it took me a while to undo them again later on!).
To end the meeting, we sang a few songs because we realised that we haven't done that in a while and we have a lot of new girls who don't know the songs that we will be singing on Pack Holiday around our campfire. We sang 'Cecil is my Caterpillar', 'Cookie Jar', and 'Three Little Angels' before letting the girls go home.
It was a chaotic meeting, as is usually the case with the first meeting back, but I enjoy those kind of meetings because the girls seem a lot chattier than at the end of a term which is the part I enjoy about Brownies.
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