This blog is going to detail the planning process of District Thinking Day 2019, which I planned as part of my Queen's Guide.
It had been suggested to me by my mentor that I could volunteer to assist with the planning as my Service In Guiding Element 3. I brought it up at a District meeting and somehow ended up being asked if I would plan the whole thing..! At this meeting, we also gathered a few ideas from other leaders which I went to investigate. I pulled up a shortlist and found out the various prices. I also contacted a few local coach companies to get quotes for travelling to each of the chosen venues. From this information, I created a Google Form questionnaire, asking leaders which of the options they wanted to do, and what dates they were available. I also asked them whether they wanted to have 3 separate coach meeting points, as we usually do, or whether they wanted a single central meeting point. It had been suggested by a fellow leader that a single central point would make much more sense as it would mean that parents with girls in different sections would only have to drop off at one place, rather than 2 as has happened in the past (and parents have previously not registered this and dropped both girls off at one stop, incorrectly).
I gave the leaders 2 weeks to reply to my questionnaire and the results were clear cut - and almost unanimous vote to visit Techniquest in Cardiff and there were 2 dates which had equal votes so I chose one of them, Saturday March 9th. The coach situation was more puzzling, almost all the leaders had voted to continue as we had been doing, with 3 separate coach pickups, even though to me this was more work for the parents. I put this on the back burner for now, and emailed out the date, location and price for the trip. I asked for a £10 deposit for each girl, to secure their place, and then the final balance closer to the time, of £5 per girl and £9 per adult.
I collected the deposits and kept track of the numbers over the course of the month we allowed for deposits to be paid. At the end of this time, we had 116 girls and 28 adults booked on the trip across 9 units! I also made a decision on the coach company and confirmed our booking with them. I then returned to thinking about the coach pickup location. I still thought it would be a good idea for all the girls to be picked up from the same place so I consulted another leader and she also agreed. I decided that we would give it a go, even though a large proportion of leaders didn't think it was a good idea. My logic was that we could trial it this year and, if they didn't think it went well then they could go back to their original method next year, when I will have moved out of the district! I also asked my Queen's Guide mentor if she would be able to be our home contact for the day as she doesn't run any units. She said she was more than happy so I got some contact details for her to send to all the leaders.
As it got closer to the trip date, I sent out more final details, relating to where we would be stopping for dinner, how much spending money girls should bring, and exact pick up and drop off times. I then visited Techniquest with my fiancé so that we could gather information for my risk assessment. He writes lots of risk assessments at work so I thought he would be best placed to help me with that as I have never written one for a large scale event before. Techniquest were very nice and allowed us to visit free of charge. We were there for about 2 hours, although part of that was us having a go at some of the activities! We made lots of notes about areas which would need to be covered on the risk assessment, such as a dark area with flashing lights and the coach drop off area.We also stopped on our way home at the services where we will be having dinner, to assess what options were available, their prices, and what was available for gluten free girls, which was a concern raised by several other leaders.
Once we had completed our visit, I wrote up a detailed risk assessment which was emailed out to all the leaders. I also spent some time creating details sheets for all the leaders to carry on the day. I made an A5 sheet, one for each unit, giving details of the number of girls expected to be on their coach, a timetable of the day (including lunch slot and times of the free show that they could book onto on arrival), and the phone numbers of me, the District Commissioner, and the Home Contact. Finally, I created myself some sheets with important information on, including phone numbers for all the units, which unit was on which coach, a detailed timetable with additional notes where needed, and a signup sheet for visiting the shop (it is a small shop so we spread the units out throughout the day).
The full blog on the details of the trip is here. The trip went incredibly smoothly, several leaders came up to me to tell me I had done a great job of organising it. The single coach pickup point worked perfectly, hopefully they will continue to do it that way as I think it was a great idea, and made life so much easier for the parents. Organising a large scale trip was more stressful than I had anticipated, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
Showing posts with label planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label planning. Show all posts
Monday, 15 April 2019
Monday, 19 October 2015
Posters
Apologies for these being a bit behind - life has really got in the way these last few weeks. Stay tuned over the next short while though as I will be getting up-to-date which will involve Pack Holiday and another exciting adventure!
01/10/15
This week the girls coloured in posters for pack holiday. It was a fairly relaxed evening as all I needed to do was to sit with some of the girls and colour in my own picture.
When they were done, we played a quick game of 'Trains' and then sent them home - a nice easy meeting!
01/10/15
This week the girls coloured in posters for pack holiday. It was a fairly relaxed evening as all I needed to do was to sit with some of the girls and colour in my own picture.
When they were done, we played a quick game of 'Trains' and then sent them home - a nice easy meeting!
Monday, 28 September 2015
Badges, Parent's Meeting, and PowWow
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.
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.
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.
Monday, 29 June 2015
Fayre Planning, Banana Animals, and Promises
25/06/15
This week we had two activities for the girls to do. The first was to draw the posters for their stalls at our fayre next week. The other was to make banana penguins. Our two Young Leaders, and an Adult helped with that, by melting the chocolate in the microwave and allowing girls in a few at a time as we only have a small kitchen to do it in. I helped in the main hall by supervising the girls doing their posters.
We also had 2 more girls make their promises, and I helped the hostess again. This time we only had to make 2 black teas, which made my life slightly easier! Our only issue was that the girl doing her badge wasn't strong enough to lift the kettle so I had to pour the water for her. Other than that, she was one of the better ones I've helped, and was particularly thorough when it came to washing and drying up!
It was a fairly relaxed evening, the last of those we're going to have this term..!
In other news, I have been going through some more of my Look Wider Qualification and typing up parts I've done. I'm getting close to finishing a few more Octants, I think, and have plans for how to complete a few more Phases so keep an eye out for that! I have updated the Look Wider page so you can see how close I am to completing each Octant.
This week we had two activities for the girls to do. The first was to draw the posters for their stalls at our fayre next week. The other was to make banana penguins. Our two Young Leaders, and an Adult helped with that, by melting the chocolate in the microwave and allowing girls in a few at a time as we only have a small kitchen to do it in. I helped in the main hall by supervising the girls doing their posters.
We also had 2 more girls make their promises, and I helped the hostess again. This time we only had to make 2 black teas, which made my life slightly easier! Our only issue was that the girl doing her badge wasn't strong enough to lift the kettle so I had to pour the water for her. Other than that, she was one of the better ones I've helped, and was particularly thorough when it came to washing and drying up!
It was a fairly relaxed evening, the last of those we're going to have this term..!
In other news, I have been going through some more of my Look Wider Qualification and typing up parts I've done. I'm getting close to finishing a few more Octants, I think, and have plans for how to complete a few more Phases so keep an eye out for that! I have updated the Look Wider page so you can see how close I am to completing each Octant.
Monday, 15 September 2014
Pack Holiday Sixes and Puzzles
11/09/14
This evening we started our planning for pack holiday. On last pack holiday, our Young Leader and Guide were looking through the scrapbook and came across a detective themed weekend. They decided they wanted ours to be a detective one this year so have been planning over the Summer. Our first task was to split the girls into their sixes. We split the girls into the ones who are coming and the ones who aren't. The ones who aren't coming started the evenings activity and the others organized their sixes. We asked them to get into pairs with a girls they wanted to be with. The three oldest girls were then given the position of sixer and the other pairs were put in their sixes. We try to have a girl who's been before in each six so that the other girls know what is expected of them. The sixes worked out quite nicely this year. The Young Leader and Guide then gave them options for six names, all names of detectives. One six immediately claimed Pink Panther and the other two both wanted James Bond so we said that neither could have it and they eventually settled on Johnny English and Sherlock.
All the girls then worked on this evenings activity; puzzles from their handbooks. There was a wordsearch and a 'fit-word' (a sort of crossword where you have to fit the given words into the right places) and the Leaders mingled helping them while discussing our own names for pack holiday. All the Leaders are going to be villains but there was quite a long list for us to decide from. I think we have settled on:
Brown Owl: The Queen of Hearts
Snowy: Feathers McGraw
Me: Elphaba (Wicked Witch of the West)
Cooks: Dastardly and Muttley
Young Leader: Moriarty
Guide Helper: Cruella De Vil
Leader's children: Darth Vader and The Joker
Once the girls had finished, we tidied away and played a quick game of Fruit Bowl. We started it off by just getting the girls to swap seats and then we started to remove chairs and get girls out. It was going fine, even if Brown Owl was slowly running out of things to choose from, until we got down to the last two girls. If it was me, I would have just said they were both the winner and left it at that but it was decided that the first to a third chair on the count of three would be the winner. The two girls (let's call them A and B) then got ready to go with all the other girls lined up either side. They then started cheering except it was clear that all the girls were cheering for A and not B so B got upset. Brown Owl told them all to stop yelling and counted down. A got to the chair marginally before B so B got more upset and walked off crying in a strop. Brown Owl had a quick word with both girls and then the pack in general. She picked up on the group of girls who'd started the cheering and made them all apologise to B for being mean and luckily that was the end of the matter.
We ended the meeting by saying goodbye to one of our girls and then they all went home.
This meeting was a mix, parts of it were really good and the girls were really nice, if a little hyper, and other parts are just best forgotten.
We have also scheduled a meeting for the Leaders so we can finalise the programme for pack holiday and sort out the menu before I go off to University (I am coming home for pack holiday weekend - I wouldn't miss it for the World!).
This evening we started our planning for pack holiday. On last pack holiday, our Young Leader and Guide were looking through the scrapbook and came across a detective themed weekend. They decided they wanted ours to be a detective one this year so have been planning over the Summer. Our first task was to split the girls into their sixes. We split the girls into the ones who are coming and the ones who aren't. The ones who aren't coming started the evenings activity and the others organized their sixes. We asked them to get into pairs with a girls they wanted to be with. The three oldest girls were then given the position of sixer and the other pairs were put in their sixes. We try to have a girl who's been before in each six so that the other girls know what is expected of them. The sixes worked out quite nicely this year. The Young Leader and Guide then gave them options for six names, all names of detectives. One six immediately claimed Pink Panther and the other two both wanted James Bond so we said that neither could have it and they eventually settled on Johnny English and Sherlock.
All the girls then worked on this evenings activity; puzzles from their handbooks. There was a wordsearch and a 'fit-word' (a sort of crossword where you have to fit the given words into the right places) and the Leaders mingled helping them while discussing our own names for pack holiday. All the Leaders are going to be villains but there was quite a long list for us to decide from. I think we have settled on:
Brown Owl: The Queen of Hearts
Snowy: Feathers McGraw
Me: Elphaba (Wicked Witch of the West)
Cooks: Dastardly and Muttley
Young Leader: Moriarty
Guide Helper: Cruella De Vil
Leader's children: Darth Vader and The Joker
Once the girls had finished, we tidied away and played a quick game of Fruit Bowl. We started it off by just getting the girls to swap seats and then we started to remove chairs and get girls out. It was going fine, even if Brown Owl was slowly running out of things to choose from, until we got down to the last two girls. If it was me, I would have just said they were both the winner and left it at that but it was decided that the first to a third chair on the count of three would be the winner. The two girls (let's call them A and B) then got ready to go with all the other girls lined up either side. They then started cheering except it was clear that all the girls were cheering for A and not B so B got upset. Brown Owl told them all to stop yelling and counted down. A got to the chair marginally before B so B got more upset and walked off crying in a strop. Brown Owl had a quick word with both girls and then the pack in general. She picked up on the group of girls who'd started the cheering and made them all apologise to B for being mean and luckily that was the end of the matter.
We ended the meeting by saying goodbye to one of our girls and then they all went home.
This meeting was a mix, parts of it were really good and the girls were really nice, if a little hyper, and other parts are just best forgotten.
We have also scheduled a meeting for the Leaders so we can finalise the programme for pack holiday and sort out the menu before I go off to University (I am coming home for pack holiday weekend - I wouldn't miss it for the World!).
Monday, 8 September 2014
First meeting, second year
04/09/14
This week was our first meeting back after the Summer. We didn't have any new girls starting so it was a pretty straightforward meeting, even if the girls were all a little hyper as some of them hadn't seen each other for 6 weeks!
We started off playing a game to try and wear off some of their energy. We let them choose and they decided to play Wigwams (instructions here). I was surprised they didn't choose Fishes, as they did most of last term, but they all seemed happy to play this one instead. As this only really needs one Leader to run the game, it gave the rest of us a chance to catch up quickly as we also haven't seen each other in quite a while!
After the game finished, we got out the tables and let them get on with planning their stalls for a fundraiser we are doing in a few weeks. Fairly regularly (every 18 months or so) we have a sale to raise money for a different charity: in the past we've done the RSPCA and the Blue Cross. This year we are raising money for the National Star College after our visitors last term. The girls get into small groups and plan a stall together. We then invite the parents and friends along and the girls run their own stall as well as taking it in turns to go and have a go on all the other stalls. We have had a wide variety of stalls in the past; from the traditional cake sales and raffles, to the less traditional obstacle courses and fortune tellers! We let the girls choose their groups as it gives them a little more independence but we do suggest that girls who've never done a sale before have someone in their group who has, to point out things they might have forgotten about. I spent the evening going between groups, writing down their ideas and helping them resolve disputes in their groups. We have a nice mix of stalls this year; nails and spa, lucky dip, hook-a-duck, fortune telling, cakes, loom bands, among others, so hopefully we will raise a fair amount for the National Star College (usually we make £150-£200).
We ended the meeting by handing out the Agility badges the girls earned at the penultimate meeting last term and then let them loose on their parents, still no less hyper than when we started the meeting!
I didn't end up doing much of my Look Wider Qualification over the Summer, but I am still noting down things to fill up gaps so I'll hopefully make a start on typing stuff up soon! I am also off to University soon so it may get a bit disjointed for a couple of weeks while I settle in and find myself a new unit to help at, although I will still be returning home occasionally and going to meetings, but I'll keep you updated on that as it unfolds too.
This week was our first meeting back after the Summer. We didn't have any new girls starting so it was a pretty straightforward meeting, even if the girls were all a little hyper as some of them hadn't seen each other for 6 weeks!
We started off playing a game to try and wear off some of their energy. We let them choose and they decided to play Wigwams (instructions here). I was surprised they didn't choose Fishes, as they did most of last term, but they all seemed happy to play this one instead. As this only really needs one Leader to run the game, it gave the rest of us a chance to catch up quickly as we also haven't seen each other in quite a while!
After the game finished, we got out the tables and let them get on with planning their stalls for a fundraiser we are doing in a few weeks. Fairly regularly (every 18 months or so) we have a sale to raise money for a different charity: in the past we've done the RSPCA and the Blue Cross. This year we are raising money for the National Star College after our visitors last term. The girls get into small groups and plan a stall together. We then invite the parents and friends along and the girls run their own stall as well as taking it in turns to go and have a go on all the other stalls. We have had a wide variety of stalls in the past; from the traditional cake sales and raffles, to the less traditional obstacle courses and fortune tellers! We let the girls choose their groups as it gives them a little more independence but we do suggest that girls who've never done a sale before have someone in their group who has, to point out things they might have forgotten about. I spent the evening going between groups, writing down their ideas and helping them resolve disputes in their groups. We have a nice mix of stalls this year; nails and spa, lucky dip, hook-a-duck, fortune telling, cakes, loom bands, among others, so hopefully we will raise a fair amount for the National Star College (usually we make £150-£200).
We ended the meeting by handing out the Agility badges the girls earned at the penultimate meeting last term and then let them loose on their parents, still no less hyper than when we started the meeting!
I didn't end up doing much of my Look Wider Qualification over the Summer, but I am still noting down things to fill up gaps so I'll hopefully make a start on typing stuff up soon! I am also off to University soon so it may get a bit disjointed for a couple of weeks while I settle in and find myself a new unit to help at, although I will still be returning home occasionally and going to meetings, but I'll keep you updated on that as it unfolds too.
Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Games and Voting
7/11/13
This was our first meeting back after the holiday. Next year is the Big Brownie Birthday as Brownies are going to be 100 years old and there is a badge that all girls can complete to show they were a Brownie during the centenary year. You must do 9 things to get the badge, 1 compulsory and 2 chosen ones each from 3 different topics (You, World, and Community) so we decided to let the girls vote on what they wanted to do as the chosen activities. Knowing our girls as we do though, we knew that we couldn't just sit them down and do all the voting in one go; they would go crazy! We decided instead to intersperse it with playing various games, which we also let them choose.
We started off by playing fishes (instructions here) which is always requested by the majority of girls. It went well for once although we did have one girl in tears because she tripped over when she was caught out. When we were done we sat the girls down for the first of the votes.We handed out the choices for the 'You' section of the badge and then Brown Owl went down the list explaining to the girls exactly what each thing entailed. Each girl was told to mark each item with either a line through (don't like at all), one tick (would do without objection) or two ticks (really like) and there was no limit on the number of ticks they were allowed. It took a while to get through all the things (there were about 10 of them) because the girls were talking quite a bit but we eventually reached the bottom of the list and collected them all in.
Then we sang 'The Thousand Legged Worm' (lyrics here) which we used to sing when I was a Brownie but haven't done for a while so none of the current girls knew it. They seemed to quite like the song though, which is good because I really enjoy it too.
We did the second round of voting which was slightly quicker although I did notice that some girls (mainly the older ones) seemed a bit bored and were just ticking and crossing randomly without listening to what they actually meant.
The final game we played was wigwams (instructions here) which was also a request from the girls and then we did the final load of voting before the girls went home.
It was quite a relaxed evening because I didn't have to do too much beside talk to girls and hand out pens for the voting. When we got home though, I volunteered to count up all the votes which turned out to be more complicated than I first thought..! Most girls had voted in the way they had been instructed which made it fairly easy to add up their votes but a handful of girls either hadn't listened or didn't understand because some of them had put more than 2 ticks (which I counted as 2) and some of them had gone down and put 2 ticks next to every item on the list! A fair few girls had also crossed something out and then changed their mind and ticked it too which made their voting slips quite complicated. I eventually finished counting them up, after a lot longer than I had anticipated, and marked the two highest (or 3 in one case) which we will now do over the next few months so the girls can get their badge.
This was our first meeting back after the holiday. Next year is the Big Brownie Birthday as Brownies are going to be 100 years old and there is a badge that all girls can complete to show they were a Brownie during the centenary year. You must do 9 things to get the badge, 1 compulsory and 2 chosen ones each from 3 different topics (You, World, and Community) so we decided to let the girls vote on what they wanted to do as the chosen activities. Knowing our girls as we do though, we knew that we couldn't just sit them down and do all the voting in one go; they would go crazy! We decided instead to intersperse it with playing various games, which we also let them choose.
We started off by playing fishes (instructions here) which is always requested by the majority of girls. It went well for once although we did have one girl in tears because she tripped over when she was caught out. When we were done we sat the girls down for the first of the votes.We handed out the choices for the 'You' section of the badge and then Brown Owl went down the list explaining to the girls exactly what each thing entailed. Each girl was told to mark each item with either a line through (don't like at all), one tick (would do without objection) or two ticks (really like) and there was no limit on the number of ticks they were allowed. It took a while to get through all the things (there were about 10 of them) because the girls were talking quite a bit but we eventually reached the bottom of the list and collected them all in.
Then we sang 'The Thousand Legged Worm' (lyrics here) which we used to sing when I was a Brownie but haven't done for a while so none of the current girls knew it. They seemed to quite like the song though, which is good because I really enjoy it too.
We did the second round of voting which was slightly quicker although I did notice that some girls (mainly the older ones) seemed a bit bored and were just ticking and crossing randomly without listening to what they actually meant.
The final game we played was wigwams (instructions here) which was also a request from the girls and then we did the final load of voting before the girls went home.
It was quite a relaxed evening because I didn't have to do too much beside talk to girls and hand out pens for the voting. When we got home though, I volunteered to count up all the votes which turned out to be more complicated than I first thought..! Most girls had voted in the way they had been instructed which made it fairly easy to add up their votes but a handful of girls either hadn't listened or didn't understand because some of them had put more than 2 ticks (which I counted as 2) and some of them had gone down and put 2 ticks next to every item on the list! A fair few girls had also crossed something out and then changed their mind and ticked it too which made their voting slips quite complicated. I eventually finished counting them up, after a lot longer than I had anticipated, and marked the two highest (or 3 in one case) which we will now do over the next few months so the girls can get their badge.
Monday, 16 September 2013
Posters and Games
12/9/13
This week we started off the meeting with a game, to try and calm to girls down a bit before starting colouring posters for pack holiday while we had the parents meeting. It was decided that we should play Wigwams (instructions here) however we then had a job settling them down so we could play the game as they couldn't decide on their partners (and two of them desperately wanted to be the other Young Leader's partner!). We finally started playing but we only had time for 4 rounds before we had to stop to allow for the parents meeting to take place.
Before we go on pack holiday, we have a parents' meeting for any parents of girls who've never been on pack holiday before so they can find out what will happen. We have to have it in the corner of the hall so we always colour in posters for pack holiday during the meeting so the girls aren't too noisy. We gave them a choice of a variety of Despicable Me 2 pictures which they could choose from and pretty much left them to it. We ended up having a few arguments though because one table didn't want to share the new pens with the other girls and another table was hoarding yellows (which are kind of essential for colouring in minions...). After we had broken up the minor arguments though, we actually got a lot of surprisingly good pictures; some of the girls had definitely thought about what they were colouring in and hadn't rushed or messed about. The posters will be stuck onto card and put up around the house on camp and then returned to the girls afterwards.
This evening, whilst being quite taxing on my voice from all the shouting to break up arguments, was actually quite enjoyable. I love sitting and talking to the girls and hearing about what they've been doing (especially as I went to the same primary school as most of them so I can find out about my old teachers!) and I hear some rather entertaining stories!
This week we started off the meeting with a game, to try and calm to girls down a bit before starting colouring posters for pack holiday while we had the parents meeting. It was decided that we should play Wigwams (instructions here) however we then had a job settling them down so we could play the game as they couldn't decide on their partners (and two of them desperately wanted to be the other Young Leader's partner!). We finally started playing but we only had time for 4 rounds before we had to stop to allow for the parents meeting to take place.
Before we go on pack holiday, we have a parents' meeting for any parents of girls who've never been on pack holiday before so they can find out what will happen. We have to have it in the corner of the hall so we always colour in posters for pack holiday during the meeting so the girls aren't too noisy. We gave them a choice of a variety of Despicable Me 2 pictures which they could choose from and pretty much left them to it. We ended up having a few arguments though because one table didn't want to share the new pens with the other girls and another table was hoarding yellows (which are kind of essential for colouring in minions...). After we had broken up the minor arguments though, we actually got a lot of surprisingly good pictures; some of the girls had definitely thought about what they were colouring in and hadn't rushed or messed about. The posters will be stuck onto card and put up around the house on camp and then returned to the girls afterwards.
This evening, whilst being quite taxing on my voice from all the shouting to break up arguments, was actually quite enjoyable. I love sitting and talking to the girls and hearing about what they've been doing (especially as I went to the same primary school as most of them so I can find out about my old teachers!) and I hear some rather entertaining stories!
Monday, 9 September 2013
First meeting back...
5/9/13
This week was the first meeting back after the summer break and the girls, as always, were hyper! Sadly, I could only attend the first half an hour of the meeting due to a meeting at school (which I could have missed but still...) but I still managed to catch up with a lot of the girls and heard many stories of holidays.
This week was the first meeting back after the summer break and the girls, as always, were hyper! Sadly, I could only attend the first half an hour of the meeting due to a meeting at school (which I could have missed but still...) but I still managed to catch up with a lot of the girls and heard many stories of holidays.
We started the meeting as usual, with the girls singing the song and then their own six songs, while skipping round the toadstool (yes, we are a very traditional unit), and one six did show-and-tell. We then had a PowWow to plan the theme for our camp in a few weeks. Usually we would have chosen the theme well before we broke up to give us a chance to come up with some ideas for crafts and games but our Snowy Owl is running it because she wants her camp permit so we are letting her find some of these things out herself (although admittedly she's been getting some very strong hints that she's leaving things a bit late now). She has decided that we are going to do the Toymaker badge while we're there so she gave the girls the choice of a recent film, clothing designers or toymakers. Brownies, being Brownies, obviously chose the recent film theme and, when asked which one, the unanimous decision was 'Despicable Me 2'! I actually think this is a really good idea because there's a lot of different characters for all the leaders and sixes to be and there are loads of activities that can be based around it easily so I'm thoroughly looking forwards to this camp (even if the girls did decide I should be Gru after I had left..!).
The girls were then split into their sixes for camp which caused much upset, as usual, because friends had been split up. We try to put the oldest 3 as sixers and then have a few girls who've been before and a few who haven't in each six because we've found that, if we let them choose, we end up with a group of younger girls who don't know what they're doing. This way, there are some girls in each six who know what is expected and can help the younger girls out.
At this point, I had to leave. The rest of the meeting was taken up with games and songs, which is our standard first meeting back because they're never able to sit down and do crafts while catching up with friends they haven't seen for a few weeks! Apparently I missed some excitement though because one girl accidentally hit another in the face and caused a nose bleed while another fell over in game and a third started crying because she lost a game (quite a regular occurrence in our unit with girls who seem to think that's the only way to get attention...)! Part of me is glad I had to leave although I would never actually choose to miss a meeting.
All in all, quite an eventful evening!
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