04/04/19
This was our last meeting before Easter so we decided to do one of the girls favourite Easter activities - decorating Easter eggs. We had been out and bought a Cadbury's Buttons egg for each girl and then provided them with various sprinkles and writing icing with which to decorate their egg. They always have great fun doing this (although we do say that they cannot eat anything until they have got home and their parents say they can!). It is always interesting to see how the girls choose to decorate their egg - the leaders circulate to make sure no one is just putting as much as they possibly can on to their egg but usually they come up with some really interesting designs. The eggs usually have a pattern on them so some girls choose to go over the various patterns and pictures with the icing pens and other girls design their own scene using the sprinkles and mini buttons.
This year we stopped them after about 50 minutes as a few girls had got bored and started squirting writing icing over the top of everything. We had them put all their eggs safely on the window sills and tidied up a bit before playing 2 games, chosen by the girls (we pull lolly sticks with names on out of a pot and that girl can choose what we play). We started with a game of Pirates and then played the Iranian Smiling Game (Alternative version).
The girls were all slightly hyper tonight as they break up for the holidays tomorrow so we spent a lot of the evening asking them to stand still and listen, but that is understandable at their age! It did make me smile though that one girl was upset she couldn't come to our sponsored swim because she was going to be on holiday...in Malta!
As it is now the Easter holidays, we have 2 weeks break from our regular meetings. I have 2 blogs lined up for you over the holidays though, one on the process of organising our Thinking Day trip last month and the other on a Scout and Guide survival weekend that I volunteered at recently.
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Monday, 8 April 2019
Wednesday, 24 December 2014
Home for the Christmas party
18/12/14
Tonight was the last meeting of the term for my unit back home and I was home from university so I went to the Christmas party. This year, instead of having each girl bring an item of food, as we usually do, we used up a lot of food that was left over from various other events (biscuits and sweets) and bought some grapes, melon and pineapple to go with them.
When I arrived, I helped set up all the food with the two Young Leaders and spoke to a few girls who were happy to see me! I was also introduced to the 4 new girls who've joined since I left.
The evening was run, as it usually is, by a group of the older girls who has organised a game of pass the parcel, wrapping up a girl as a snowman in toilet paper, and a game of Honeypot (instructions here). The game of pass the parcel didn't go particularly well because the CD player they had brought wasn't loud enough for us to distinguish between the end of a song and it actually being paused.
While the girls wrapped a couple of girls up in toilet paper, the Leaders took it in turn to go into the kitchen and sign the Christmas cards for the girls. I then sat in there putting them into the envelopes while catching up with a Young Leader for a bit.
We then had the food and so I stood by the table, making sure the girls weren't taking more than their fair share and eating some food myself! I also ended up on spillage duty as 3 girls spilt their drinks (one right next to me while I was cleaning up her friends'!).
We ended the meeting with our circle and gave out cards to the girls and a few presents for the leaders before wishing them a Merry Christmas and letting them go.
It was a very relaxed evening and meant I could catch up with some Leaders and a couple of girls and I am looking forwards to the meetings and trips I am going to be able to go on in the New Year as my 2nd semester timetable still doesn't allow me time for Brownies at university.
Tonight was the last meeting of the term for my unit back home and I was home from university so I went to the Christmas party. This year, instead of having each girl bring an item of food, as we usually do, we used up a lot of food that was left over from various other events (biscuits and sweets) and bought some grapes, melon and pineapple to go with them.
When I arrived, I helped set up all the food with the two Young Leaders and spoke to a few girls who were happy to see me! I was also introduced to the 4 new girls who've joined since I left.
The evening was run, as it usually is, by a group of the older girls who has organised a game of pass the parcel, wrapping up a girl as a snowman in toilet paper, and a game of Honeypot (instructions here). The game of pass the parcel didn't go particularly well because the CD player they had brought wasn't loud enough for us to distinguish between the end of a song and it actually being paused.
While the girls wrapped a couple of girls up in toilet paper, the Leaders took it in turn to go into the kitchen and sign the Christmas cards for the girls. I then sat in there putting them into the envelopes while catching up with a Young Leader for a bit.
We then had the food and so I stood by the table, making sure the girls weren't taking more than their fair share and eating some food myself! I also ended up on spillage duty as 3 girls spilt their drinks (one right next to me while I was cleaning up her friends'!).
We ended the meeting with our circle and gave out cards to the girls and a few presents for the leaders before wishing them a Merry Christmas and letting them go.
It was a very relaxed evening and meant I could catch up with some Leaders and a couple of girls and I am looking forwards to the meetings and trips I am going to be able to go on in the New Year as my 2nd semester timetable still doesn't allow me time for Brownies at university.
Monday, 17 February 2014
Valentine's crafts
13/02/14
This week, as it was the day before Valentine's Day, we decided to do some Valentine's themed things. We bought some red card and then got out all the spare crafty things left over from other evenings (lots of stickers, sparkly things and coloured paper!) and let the girls loose with it all! They were told they could make a card for their boyfriend, if they had one, or a friend or family member if they didn't. They all got stuck in really quickly and there were some really good looking cards by the end of the evening. I sat at a table of older girls and I was surprised at the number of them who had boyfriends or had been asked out and turned them down. When I was their age (10 years ago - now I feel old!) I had no interest in boys and was never asked out so I was quite surprised there were so many of them... I did also have to convince one girl that making her card as a way of breaking up with her boyfriend on Valentine's Day wasn't a very nice thing to do!
The other activity we had was making giant white chocolate coins. Our Young Leader and Guide were in charge of this in the kitchen. They melted the white chocolate and put spoonfuls into the lids of Pringles tubes. They left them to cool down a little bit so they were soft but not runny and then the girls were given different kinds of sprinkles and Love Hearts to decorate theirs with. We had them one six at a time in the kitchen and, when I went in at the end, there were lots of really good ones - our girls are always really good at crafty type things and they come out with nice things on a regular basis!
The girls then played a game of 'get the keys' (instructions here) while the Young Leader, Guide and I 'tidied' the kitchen - which generally consisted of us licking out the bowl of melted chocolate and eating the spare sprinkles and Love Hearts while chatting! One of our girls was leaving so she was given her certificate and Brownie Bear keyring as a leaving present in the circle at the end.
It was quite a low-maintenance evening tonight; the girls just got on with things and I could sit and talk to them, which is one of my favourite things about Brownies. I still can't decide if I agree with doing things for Valentine's Day with 7-11 year olds because I've always thought it was something for couples in steady relationships and I don't think they understand true love at that age. However, they all seemed to enjoy the evening whether they were making cards for boyfriends or people they just wanted to show their appreciation for and that is what guiding is all about, in my opinion.
Now we have a week off for half term although there will be another post about our Thinking Day celebrations at some point.
This week, as it was the day before Valentine's Day, we decided to do some Valentine's themed things. We bought some red card and then got out all the spare crafty things left over from other evenings (lots of stickers, sparkly things and coloured paper!) and let the girls loose with it all! They were told they could make a card for their boyfriend, if they had one, or a friend or family member if they didn't. They all got stuck in really quickly and there were some really good looking cards by the end of the evening. I sat at a table of older girls and I was surprised at the number of them who had boyfriends or had been asked out and turned them down. When I was their age (10 years ago - now I feel old!) I had no interest in boys and was never asked out so I was quite surprised there were so many of them... I did also have to convince one girl that making her card as a way of breaking up with her boyfriend on Valentine's Day wasn't a very nice thing to do!
The other activity we had was making giant white chocolate coins. Our Young Leader and Guide were in charge of this in the kitchen. They melted the white chocolate and put spoonfuls into the lids of Pringles tubes. They left them to cool down a little bit so they were soft but not runny and then the girls were given different kinds of sprinkles and Love Hearts to decorate theirs with. We had them one six at a time in the kitchen and, when I went in at the end, there were lots of really good ones - our girls are always really good at crafty type things and they come out with nice things on a regular basis!
The girls then played a game of 'get the keys' (instructions here) while the Young Leader, Guide and I 'tidied' the kitchen - which generally consisted of us licking out the bowl of melted chocolate and eating the spare sprinkles and Love Hearts while chatting! One of our girls was leaving so she was given her certificate and Brownie Bear keyring as a leaving present in the circle at the end.
It was quite a low-maintenance evening tonight; the girls just got on with things and I could sit and talk to them, which is one of my favourite things about Brownies. I still can't decide if I agree with doing things for Valentine's Day with 7-11 year olds because I've always thought it was something for couples in steady relationships and I don't think they understand true love at that age. However, they all seemed to enjoy the evening whether they were making cards for boyfriends or people they just wanted to show their appreciation for and that is what guiding is all about, in my opinion.
Now we have a week off for half term although there will be another post about our Thinking Day celebrations at some point.
Monday, 10 February 2014
Chinese New Year celebrations
06/02/14
This week I ran the meeting. I made a comment last week to Brown Owl about whether she'd planned anything to celebrate Chinese New Year with the girls and she said no but, if I wanted to do something, I was more than welcome, so I did! I started out by Googling Chinese New Year traditions and games. One of the first things I picked up on was the giving of red envelopes and I thought it would be nice if each girl got an envelope with something in it. I then saw these dragon mobiles on Baker Ross and decided that we could do those. I thought it would be nice for the girls to try some Chinese food as well so that was next on my list. Originally I decided that they could try eating the food with chopsticks but I thought that could get a little difficult so I turned it into a game instead. Finally, I had a game and a song up my sleeve if needed and I was ready to start collecting everything I would need.
First I started planning the dragon mobiles. I decided that it would be cheaper for me to make my own mobiles instead of buying them from Baker Ross. I played around with a couple of different sizes before I settled on this, which is A5 size:
Mum took them to work and photocopied them onto card for me. I coloured one in to show the girls what it would look like in the end and also to give them some ideas for colours:
The next thing I planned was the red envelopes. The envelopes themselves were fairly easy to source and then I created a sheet to go in them on Word. I took the words from here (and simplified them a little bit for the girls) and added a photo of their animal to it. I also left a couple of boxes blank so I could write in their name, date of birth and draw their name in Chinese. Mum also photocopied those at work and then I wrote in the boxes. For the names, I used this website. I copied the names into a Word document, made sure they would fit in the box and then printed them. I then traced each one onto the sheet - it took me about 30-40 minutes to do them all but they looked quite impressive once I was done! This was the final product of an evenings work:
The hardest thing to source was cheap disposable chopsticks, surprisingly! It took a friend and me almost 2 hours of walking round numerous pound shops and other shops (and Costa because it was cold and raining..!) before we finally found some in Wilkinson's at 5 sets for 60p. I then bought some dried pasta and peas. The aim of this game was for the girls to move as many items from one plate to another in a minute, using the chopsticks. They were then given one point per piece of pasta and 5 points for every pea and their score was added to their sixes total.
Finally all that remained was to buy the food and head to Brownies. I settled on microwavable duck pancakes and prawn crackers with a mild chilli dipping sauce.
The first thing we did at Brownies was to give out the envelopes. They were a little upset that they didn't have any money in them (Chinese tradition) and, in retrospect, I should probably have put in some chocolate coins or something. Some of the younger ones didn't understand the paragraph about their animal so we had to spend a while explaining parts, although lots of them were comparing with their friends to see who was the same animal and whether they suited their animal. Only one girl asked me what the Chinese said but she seemed quite impressed that it was her name.
We then got the girls to get out tables and I told them about the craft. I was surprised at how many of them seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it because we've done quite a few crafts recently and they seemed to be getting a bit bored but this week we really struggled to get them to tidy up at the end! Most of them coloured it in really nicely, on both sides and some of them even copied mine exactly! Some of them had trouble cutting out the head as it was a little bit fiddley but most of them had a pretty good go at it and then the leaders helped with the final bits.
While they were doing the craft, our Young Leader and Guide took a six at a time into the kitchen to have a go and the 'chopstick challenge'. They decided to allow the girls to use the chopsticks in anyway they liked because not many of them could use the properly and there wasn't time to teach them all. There were a lot of girls who were holding one in each hand, which worked out to be quite effective in some cases! The only rule that was enforced was "you have to actually pick it up to move it, you can't just scoop it from one plate to the other!" I was surprised at the number of girls who managed to pick up a dried pea with the chopsticks as I struggled a little to begin with and I find using chopsticks fairly easy. In the end, the winning six got around 70 points!
Finally, we ate the food. Two of the leaders had microwaved the duck pancakes while the girls were doing their dragon mobiles and we allowed each girl to try one. They weren't forced to but we encouraged them to at least try a little bit even if they then threw the rest in the bin. Some of the older ones were messing around a bit and pretending to throw up in the toilet but lots of them tried one and all the spare ones were eaten pretty quickly by girls who wanted seconds! We had bought 4 packets of prawn crackers and they were all gone within 5 minutes of opening them! Some of the girls tried the chilli sauce but found it too spicy (we'd bought the mildest they had!) and went to get drinks pretty quickly.
Overall, I think the evening was a huge success even if we did run out of time to play the game and sing the song I had up my sleeve and there's always next week (and next year - when I'll be at uni and with a different unit) to try out new ideas and improve upon those from this year.
This week I ran the meeting. I made a comment last week to Brown Owl about whether she'd planned anything to celebrate Chinese New Year with the girls and she said no but, if I wanted to do something, I was more than welcome, so I did! I started out by Googling Chinese New Year traditions and games. One of the first things I picked up on was the giving of red envelopes and I thought it would be nice if each girl got an envelope with something in it. I then saw these dragon mobiles on Baker Ross and decided that we could do those. I thought it would be nice for the girls to try some Chinese food as well so that was next on my list. Originally I decided that they could try eating the food with chopsticks but I thought that could get a little difficult so I turned it into a game instead. Finally, I had a game and a song up my sleeve if needed and I was ready to start collecting everything I would need.
First I started planning the dragon mobiles. I decided that it would be cheaper for me to make my own mobiles instead of buying them from Baker Ross. I played around with a couple of different sizes before I settled on this, which is A5 size:
Mum took them to work and photocopied them onto card for me. I coloured one in to show the girls what it would look like in the end and also to give them some ideas for colours:
The next thing I planned was the red envelopes. The envelopes themselves were fairly easy to source and then I created a sheet to go in them on Word. I took the words from here (and simplified them a little bit for the girls) and added a photo of their animal to it. I also left a couple of boxes blank so I could write in their name, date of birth and draw their name in Chinese. Mum also photocopied those at work and then I wrote in the boxes. For the names, I used this website. I copied the names into a Word document, made sure they would fit in the box and then printed them. I then traced each one onto the sheet - it took me about 30-40 minutes to do them all but they looked quite impressive once I was done! This was the final product of an evenings work:
The hardest thing to source was cheap disposable chopsticks, surprisingly! It took a friend and me almost 2 hours of walking round numerous pound shops and other shops (and Costa because it was cold and raining..!) before we finally found some in Wilkinson's at 5 sets for 60p. I then bought some dried pasta and peas. The aim of this game was for the girls to move as many items from one plate to another in a minute, using the chopsticks. They were then given one point per piece of pasta and 5 points for every pea and their score was added to their sixes total.
Finally all that remained was to buy the food and head to Brownies. I settled on microwavable duck pancakes and prawn crackers with a mild chilli dipping sauce.
The first thing we did at Brownies was to give out the envelopes. They were a little upset that they didn't have any money in them (Chinese tradition) and, in retrospect, I should probably have put in some chocolate coins or something. Some of the younger ones didn't understand the paragraph about their animal so we had to spend a while explaining parts, although lots of them were comparing with their friends to see who was the same animal and whether they suited their animal. Only one girl asked me what the Chinese said but she seemed quite impressed that it was her name.
We then got the girls to get out tables and I told them about the craft. I was surprised at how many of them seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it because we've done quite a few crafts recently and they seemed to be getting a bit bored but this week we really struggled to get them to tidy up at the end! Most of them coloured it in really nicely, on both sides and some of them even copied mine exactly! Some of them had trouble cutting out the head as it was a little bit fiddley but most of them had a pretty good go at it and then the leaders helped with the final bits.
While they were doing the craft, our Young Leader and Guide took a six at a time into the kitchen to have a go and the 'chopstick challenge'. They decided to allow the girls to use the chopsticks in anyway they liked because not many of them could use the properly and there wasn't time to teach them all. There were a lot of girls who were holding one in each hand, which worked out to be quite effective in some cases! The only rule that was enforced was "you have to actually pick it up to move it, you can't just scoop it from one plate to the other!" I was surprised at the number of girls who managed to pick up a dried pea with the chopsticks as I struggled a little to begin with and I find using chopsticks fairly easy. In the end, the winning six got around 70 points!
Finally, we ate the food. Two of the leaders had microwaved the duck pancakes while the girls were doing their dragon mobiles and we allowed each girl to try one. They weren't forced to but we encouraged them to at least try a little bit even if they then threw the rest in the bin. Some of the older ones were messing around a bit and pretending to throw up in the toilet but lots of them tried one and all the spare ones were eaten pretty quickly by girls who wanted seconds! We had bought 4 packets of prawn crackers and they were all gone within 5 minutes of opening them! Some of the girls tried the chilli sauce but found it too spicy (we'd bought the mildest they had!) and went to get drinks pretty quickly.
Overall, I think the evening was a huge success even if we did run out of time to play the game and sing the song I had up my sleeve and there's always next week (and next year - when I'll be at uni and with a different unit) to try out new ideas and improve upon those from this year.
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