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)!
Showing posts with label singing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label singing. Show all posts
Monday, 14 September 2015
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.
Sunday, 14 June 2015
Father's Day and Promise Ceremony
11/06/15
This week, although Father's Day isn't until June 21st, we did our Father's Day crafts as the craft for this week didn't arrive in time (we're doing it next week instead).
The girls coloured glass jars and made cards. We bought some pens that would draw on glass and some small jars and then the girls were given free rein on what they wanted to draw on them. Here is mine:
The girls then filled them with mint imperials, and took them home to give to their Dads (or any other man in their life).
We also bought some white card and some stickers of cars. Each girl was allowed 3 vehicle stickers and 2 wordy stickers which they could stick on the card and then draw/write anything else they wanted around it. I spent a lot of time sat on a table with some of the younger girls, peeling stickers off their backing as the stickers were quite hard to get off!
We had 6 girls making their promise tonight, and two girls doing their hostess badge so it was a little crazy for the second part of the meeting. While most of the pack were tidying up, a YL and I helped the hostesses set up their decorations and cakes on some tables. The rest of the pack then sang a few songs to entertain the parents while I supervised the hostesses to make tea and coffee for the parents. It went relatively smoothly and then the 6 girls made their promise.
To end the meeting, the District Commissioner also came to visit, to present me with my Independent Living badge and certificate! We had a chat afterwards about how much I've done for the other Octants and it's inspired me to knuckle down and type up some more sections I've done to see if I can get any more badges before I go back to uni.
All in all, this was a pretty successful meeting, if a little chaotic - but who wants a boring meeting!?
This week, although Father's Day isn't until June 21st, we did our Father's Day crafts as the craft for this week didn't arrive in time (we're doing it next week instead).
The girls coloured glass jars and made cards. We bought some pens that would draw on glass and some small jars and then the girls were given free rein on what they wanted to draw on them. Here is mine:
The girls then filled them with mint imperials, and took them home to give to their Dads (or any other man in their life).
We also bought some white card and some stickers of cars. Each girl was allowed 3 vehicle stickers and 2 wordy stickers which they could stick on the card and then draw/write anything else they wanted around it. I spent a lot of time sat on a table with some of the younger girls, peeling stickers off their backing as the stickers were quite hard to get off!
We had 6 girls making their promise tonight, and two girls doing their hostess badge so it was a little crazy for the second part of the meeting. While most of the pack were tidying up, a YL and I helped the hostesses set up their decorations and cakes on some tables. The rest of the pack then sang a few songs to entertain the parents while I supervised the hostesses to make tea and coffee for the parents. It went relatively smoothly and then the 6 girls made their promise.
To end the meeting, the District Commissioner also came to visit, to present me with my Independent Living badge and certificate! We had a chat afterwards about how much I've done for the other Octants and it's inspired me to knuckle down and type up some more sections I've done to see if I can get any more badges before I go back to uni.
All in all, this was a pretty successful meeting, if a little chaotic - but who wants a boring meeting!?
Friday, 24 October 2014
Camp Fire Songs
Here are the songs we sang on pack holiday (which we would have sung round the campfire if it wasn't so wet!). They can be sung to pretty much any tune you like! You can also see them all, along with other songs we sing regularly, here.
Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar:
All girls: [Name of a Brownie] stole the cookie from the cookie jar!
Girl: Who me?!
All girls: Yes you!
Girl: Couldn't have been!
All girls: Then who?
Girl: [names another Brownie]
Repeat until all the Brownies have had a chance-the last one 'stole the cookie'.
Cecil is my Caterpillar:
One of our unit's favourites! It's generally spoken although you could make up a tune if you wanted to.
Cecil is my caterpillar,
Cecil is my friend,
The last time I saw Cecil he was this big (hold fingers a short distance apart)
I said 'Ooh, Cecil! What have you done?',
He said 'I've eaten all the leaves in [insert small local area such as the name of the town], that's what I've done!'
Repeat, increasing the size of 'Cecil' gradually along with the area of leaves he's eaten. In our unit it usually goes something along the lines of campsite -> town -> county -> UK -> Europe -> world -> universe.
Final verse:
Cecil is my caterpillar,
Cecil is my friend,
The last time I saw Cecil he was this big (hold fingers a short distance apart again)
I said 'Ooh, Cecil! What have you done?',
He said 'I've been sick!'
If I were not here in this room:
If I were not here in this room somewhere else I'd like to be,
If I were not here in this room a washer woman I would be:
Wishy washy, hanging out the smalls,
Wishy washy, hanging out the smalls.
[move hands back and forth as if washing clothes then peg onto a line]
If I were not here in this room somewhere else I'd like to be,
If I were not here in this room a market boy I would be:
Ripe tomatoes, 10p a pound,
Ripe tomatoes, 10p a pound.
[hands round mouth and sung in Cockney accent]
Wishy washy, hanging out the smalls,
Wishy washy, hanging out the smalls.
Other verses include:
Bus conductor: Any more fares please, any more fares please, pass down the line. Ting! [winding motion with one hand then pull ticket out machine]
Secretary: Typing letters, typing letters, sitting on the bosses knee, ooh! [typing on keyboard then cross one leg over for 'ooh']
Doctor: Bandaging up the cuts and bruises, pulling the appendix out; plop [wrapping bandage around hand then pulling something up and dropping it]
For each verse, sing back through all previous verses too (gets harder the longer the song goes on but you can have as many verses as you like!)
Last verse:
If I were not here in this room somewhere else I'd like to be,
If I were not here in this room I don't know what I'd be!
Hole at the Bottom of the Sea:
There's a hole at the bottom of the sea,
There's a hole at the bottom of the sea,
There's a hole, there's a hole,
There's a hole at the bottom of the sea.
There's a whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea,
There's a whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea,
There's a whale, there's a whale,
There's a whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea.
There's a tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea,
There's a tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea,
There's a tail, there's a tail,
There's a tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea.
There's a bone in the tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea,
There's a bone in the tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea,
There's a bone, there's a bone,
There's a bone in the tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea.
There's a nerve on the bone in the tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea,
There's a nerve on the bone in the tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea,
There's a nerve, there's a nerve,
There's a nerve on the bone in the tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea.
Actions for each thing:
Hole: Arms make circle in front of you
Bottom: Point down
Sea: Draw waves in air
Whale: Arms out as wide as possible
Tail: Hands together and wiggle
Bone: Hold out first finger
Nerve: Arms above head and wiggle body
As you are singing, get slowly faster and faster through each verse - it makes it far more entertaining trying to pair up the correct actions!
My Ship Sailed From China:
My ship sailed from China with a cargo of tea,
All laden with presents for you and for me,
They gave me a fan,
Just imagine my bliss,
When I found myself going like this, like this, like this, like this
Each repeat wave another body part - we do right hand, left hand, right leg, left leg, head
Last verse say 'like this' once and slump forwards
Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar:
All girls: [Name of a Brownie] stole the cookie from the cookie jar!
Girl: Who me?!
All girls: Yes you!
Girl: Couldn't have been!
All girls: Then who?
Girl: [names another Brownie]
Repeat until all the Brownies have had a chance-the last one 'stole the cookie'.
Cecil is my Caterpillar:
One of our unit's favourites! It's generally spoken although you could make up a tune if you wanted to.
Cecil is my caterpillar,
Cecil is my friend,
The last time I saw Cecil he was this big (hold fingers a short distance apart)
I said 'Ooh, Cecil! What have you done?',
He said 'I've eaten all the leaves in [insert small local area such as the name of the town], that's what I've done!'
Repeat, increasing the size of 'Cecil' gradually along with the area of leaves he's eaten. In our unit it usually goes something along the lines of campsite -> town -> county -> UK -> Europe -> world -> universe.
Final verse:
Cecil is my caterpillar,
Cecil is my friend,
The last time I saw Cecil he was this big (hold fingers a short distance apart again)
I said 'Ooh, Cecil! What have you done?',
He said 'I've been sick!'
If I were not here in this room:
If I were not here in this room somewhere else I'd like to be,
If I were not here in this room a washer woman I would be:
Wishy washy, hanging out the smalls,
Wishy washy, hanging out the smalls.
[move hands back and forth as if washing clothes then peg onto a line]
If I were not here in this room somewhere else I'd like to be,
If I were not here in this room a market boy I would be:
Ripe tomatoes, 10p a pound,
Ripe tomatoes, 10p a pound.
[hands round mouth and sung in Cockney accent]
Wishy washy, hanging out the smalls,
Wishy washy, hanging out the smalls.
Other verses include:
Bus conductor: Any more fares please, any more fares please, pass down the line. Ting! [winding motion with one hand then pull ticket out machine]
Secretary: Typing letters, typing letters, sitting on the bosses knee, ooh! [typing on keyboard then cross one leg over for 'ooh']
Doctor: Bandaging up the cuts and bruises, pulling the appendix out; plop [wrapping bandage around hand then pulling something up and dropping it]
For each verse, sing back through all previous verses too (gets harder the longer the song goes on but you can have as many verses as you like!)
Last verse:
If I were not here in this room somewhere else I'd like to be,
If I were not here in this room I don't know what I'd be!
Hole at the Bottom of the Sea:
There's a hole at the bottom of the sea,
There's a hole at the bottom of the sea,
There's a hole, there's a hole,
There's a hole at the bottom of the sea.
There's a whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea,
There's a whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea,
There's a whale, there's a whale,
There's a whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea.
There's a tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea,
There's a tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea,
There's a tail, there's a tail,
There's a tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea.
There's a bone in the tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea,
There's a bone in the tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea,
There's a bone, there's a bone,
There's a bone in the tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea.
There's a nerve on the bone in the tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea,
There's a nerve on the bone in the tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea,
There's a nerve, there's a nerve,
There's a nerve on the bone in the tail on the whale in the hole at the bottom of the sea.
Actions for each thing:
Hole: Arms make circle in front of you
Bottom: Point down
Sea: Draw waves in air
Whale: Arms out as wide as possible
Tail: Hands together and wiggle
Bone: Hold out first finger
Nerve: Arms above head and wiggle body
As you are singing, get slowly faster and faster through each verse - it makes it far more entertaining trying to pair up the correct actions!
My Ship Sailed From China:
My ship sailed from China with a cargo of tea,
All laden with presents for you and for me,
They gave me a fan,
Just imagine my bliss,
When I found myself going like this, like this, like this, like this
Each repeat wave another body part - we do right hand, left hand, right leg, left leg, head
Last verse say 'like this' once and slump forwards
Monday, 19 May 2014
Promise activity, games and songs
15/05/14
This week we started by doing an activity from the new adventure badges. We split the girls up into the three badges (based on which badge they were on previously) and gave them a different activity to complete. The younger group were doing a page from the handbook on keeping the promise and doing good turns and the two other groups were doing a quiz on how they would act in different situations to find out how well they keep their promise. I was helping the middle group which basically just consisted of explaining a few things and then discussing with the afterwards their answers to some of the questions. The vast majority of the girls had put mostly 'b's (which was the 'keeps promise well' section) and there were one or two 'a's and 'c's. The most common 'c' was the one which said "you watched too much TV last night and didn't do your homework, what do you do?" and almost all the girls selected 'c': "get my friend to help me with it quickly in the morning"! I found that quite amusing.
We then thought we would let them run off some steam and, as it's been really nice weather, we decided to make use of the grass outside the hall. The girls played stuck in the mud for quite a while, with a few stops to change over who was 'it' (including, at one point, our Guide running in yelling "I'm 'it' too now" and tagging several girls in quick succession!).
Finally we came back inside and sang two songs, "Cecil is my Caterpillar" and "Oh, You'll Never Get To Heaven" (lyrics here) before sending the girls home.
It was a nice relaxed evening tonight, as quite a few evenings have been recently.
This week we started by doing an activity from the new adventure badges. We split the girls up into the three badges (based on which badge they were on previously) and gave them a different activity to complete. The younger group were doing a page from the handbook on keeping the promise and doing good turns and the two other groups were doing a quiz on how they would act in different situations to find out how well they keep their promise. I was helping the middle group which basically just consisted of explaining a few things and then discussing with the afterwards their answers to some of the questions. The vast majority of the girls had put mostly 'b's (which was the 'keeps promise well' section) and there were one or two 'a's and 'c's. The most common 'c' was the one which said "you watched too much TV last night and didn't do your homework, what do you do?" and almost all the girls selected 'c': "get my friend to help me with it quickly in the morning"! I found that quite amusing.
We then thought we would let them run off some steam and, as it's been really nice weather, we decided to make use of the grass outside the hall. The girls played stuck in the mud for quite a while, with a few stops to change over who was 'it' (including, at one point, our Guide running in yelling "I'm 'it' too now" and tagging several girls in quick succession!).
Finally we came back inside and sang two songs, "Cecil is my Caterpillar" and "Oh, You'll Never Get To Heaven" (lyrics here) before sending the girls home.
It was a nice relaxed evening tonight, as quite a few evenings have been recently.
Monday, 17 March 2014
Evening in the Dark!
13/03/14
This week we did more towards the Big Brownie Birthday badge. We had a small glitch in that Brown Owl's car broke down so we had to walk to Brownies with all our stuff but it's not too far and we took as little as we could so it was quite pleasant!
Once we got there, we shut all the curtains and blacked out the windows in the doors with black paper. We turned off all the lights and the girls used their torches to see. We did our Brownie circle in the dark and then the girls near Brown Owl shone their torches on her folder so she could do the register (usually we do this by sight as the girls come in and then just ask where missing girls are in the circle but that was too complicated today).
The first thing we did was a nice quiet game while their eyes adjusted to the dusk (and the Sun went down properly). The girls all stood in a circle and Brown Owl went round the circle giving random girls pieces of fruit or vegetable. There were 10 pieces in total so not everyone started with one. They had to hold it behind their back and try and guess what it was and, when Brown Owl said 'change', they had to pass it to their right. We carried on with this until all the girls had had each item. They then went into the six corners and tried to write down as many of the 10 as possible as a six. Brown Owl had chosen some obvious ones and some less obvious ones - we had potato, carrot, parsnip, lemon, lime, onion, apple, pear, garlic, and root ginger. One six managed to guess all of them except the root ginger. One word of advice is that carrots get rather disgusting after being passed round a few girls!
We then went on to play a game our Guide had played at her dark evening at Guides, which she ran with our Young Leader. It was called lighthouses (instructions here) and the girls seemed to enjoy it, although they got a bit bored when most of them had crossed the room and there were a few still coming, and going slowly but quietly. We played several variations on the basic game including in sixes (only one girl could come at once), in pairs (had to remain holding hands and both go back when caught) and freezing whenever the torch was on. There were a few girls who found it unfair because they kept getting caught but the majority seemed to really enjoy it.
We then did some Morse code, as suggested by one of the girls last week. Each six split into two and sat on opposite side of the hall. Both halves were given a sheet telling them the alphabet and were tasked with sending a message to the rest of their six, using their torches. It seemed to go OK, although it took far longer than it should have done for the girls to split their sixes in half and sit opposite each other - possibly not aided by the fact no one could see who was who and sixers kept getting lost! Once they were ready though, they seemed to get quite into sending messages.
We finished up the meeting by singing 'This Little Guiding Light', 'Alice the Camel' and 'Alive, Alert, Awake' (lyrics here) as we haven't really had a singing session with our girls for quite a while, unless you count Cookie Jar. It took us a while to remember the actions to 'Alive, Alert, Awake' but the girls kept asking us if we could do another verse so I think it paid off.
This was an interesting experience for us as leaders as well as for the girls. The girls seemed to enjoy the fact we were in the dark and they got to each have a torch (although we did have to make sure they knew not to point them at faces) but it created a few issues we hadn't foreseen as leaders. The most notable was that we couldn't tell the girls apart so yelling across the hall wasn't an option, you had to go over and figure out who you were talking to first. It is also harder to keep track of where everyone is when you can't see them - we have a few girls who sometimes need a bit of encouragement to join in if they don't like the game and, if they go and sit in a corner, it can be hard to spot them. I would also encourage leaders to make sure you have a decent torch (you don't need to be using it throughout the meeting but it would come in handy in an emergency).
You may have noticed that I have created a games page and a songs page and am no longer putting lyrics and instructions at the bottom of the post. I thought it was getting quite complicated to locate anything we had done so I decided to put it all in one easy to find place, so if you're looking for a specific game that's the place to start!
This week we did more towards the Big Brownie Birthday badge. We had a small glitch in that Brown Owl's car broke down so we had to walk to Brownies with all our stuff but it's not too far and we took as little as we could so it was quite pleasant!
Once we got there, we shut all the curtains and blacked out the windows in the doors with black paper. We turned off all the lights and the girls used their torches to see. We did our Brownie circle in the dark and then the girls near Brown Owl shone their torches on her folder so she could do the register (usually we do this by sight as the girls come in and then just ask where missing girls are in the circle but that was too complicated today).
The first thing we did was a nice quiet game while their eyes adjusted to the dusk (and the Sun went down properly). The girls all stood in a circle and Brown Owl went round the circle giving random girls pieces of fruit or vegetable. There were 10 pieces in total so not everyone started with one. They had to hold it behind their back and try and guess what it was and, when Brown Owl said 'change', they had to pass it to their right. We carried on with this until all the girls had had each item. They then went into the six corners and tried to write down as many of the 10 as possible as a six. Brown Owl had chosen some obvious ones and some less obvious ones - we had potato, carrot, parsnip, lemon, lime, onion, apple, pear, garlic, and root ginger. One six managed to guess all of them except the root ginger. One word of advice is that carrots get rather disgusting after being passed round a few girls!
We then went on to play a game our Guide had played at her dark evening at Guides, which she ran with our Young Leader. It was called lighthouses (instructions here) and the girls seemed to enjoy it, although they got a bit bored when most of them had crossed the room and there were a few still coming, and going slowly but quietly. We played several variations on the basic game including in sixes (only one girl could come at once), in pairs (had to remain holding hands and both go back when caught) and freezing whenever the torch was on. There were a few girls who found it unfair because they kept getting caught but the majority seemed to really enjoy it.
We then did some Morse code, as suggested by one of the girls last week. Each six split into two and sat on opposite side of the hall. Both halves were given a sheet telling them the alphabet and were tasked with sending a message to the rest of their six, using their torches. It seemed to go OK, although it took far longer than it should have done for the girls to split their sixes in half and sit opposite each other - possibly not aided by the fact no one could see who was who and sixers kept getting lost! Once they were ready though, they seemed to get quite into sending messages.
We finished up the meeting by singing 'This Little Guiding Light', 'Alice the Camel' and 'Alive, Alert, Awake' (lyrics here) as we haven't really had a singing session with our girls for quite a while, unless you count Cookie Jar. It took us a while to remember the actions to 'Alive, Alert, Awake' but the girls kept asking us if we could do another verse so I think it paid off.
This was an interesting experience for us as leaders as well as for the girls. The girls seemed to enjoy the fact we were in the dark and they got to each have a torch (although we did have to make sure they knew not to point them at faces) but it created a few issues we hadn't foreseen as leaders. The most notable was that we couldn't tell the girls apart so yelling across the hall wasn't an option, you had to go over and figure out who you were talking to first. It is also harder to keep track of where everyone is when you can't see them - we have a few girls who sometimes need a bit of encouragement to join in if they don't like the game and, if they go and sit in a corner, it can be hard to spot them. I would also encourage leaders to make sure you have a decent torch (you don't need to be using it throughout the meeting but it would come in handy in an emergency).
You may have noticed that I have created a games page and a songs page and am no longer putting lyrics and instructions at the bottom of the post. I thought it was getting quite complicated to locate anything we had done so I decided to put it all in one easy to find place, so if you're looking for a specific game that's the place to start!
Monday, 10 March 2014
Codes and Promises
06/03/14
This week we did some more for the Big Brownie Birthday badge. We decided to do codes. The girls were given a photocopy of a page from the Adventure book which had a code on for them to crack. It was just a basic a=26, b=25 etc. but it took some explaining to the girls about how they could go about cracking it. They had been given some letters to start with so we were getting them to write the alphabet out (some girls had problems with that, which surprised me...) and put in the numbers underneath so they could spot any patterns. Eventually, they did pick up on what we were getting at and, once they knew the code, it was easy for them to then solve it and find all the words.
We then gave them another piece of paper with two codes explained on. One was Pig Pen and the other was the mobile phone code. They were then told they could write a message to their friend who would then have to decode it. Some girls decided to carry on using the basic substitution code to write messages and a couple tried to use the Pig Pen cypher. One of the Young Leaders also wrote out two messages in Pig Pen for the girls to try and decode. None of them asked me about the mobile phone code and I don't think any of them did it - probably because they didn't understand; I'm not sure how many of them actually have mobiles.
The codes in the Adventure book photocopy were all about Iranian New Year (which incidentally is some time soon) so we decided to play the Iranian smiling game (instructions here) because we had some spare time. Brown Owl chose the two girls who were making their Promise that night to start off and one of the Young Leaders and I went with them to the first person as they're both quite shy. The girl I was with really didn't want to make a fool of herself making girls smile so we didn't even get the first girl to smile but the other girl got a few people to smile. The game went very well - now that we've steered away from playing fishes continually, the girls seem to enjoy playing games more and play fairly - and this is a fairly popular one too because it gives the girls an excuse to be a little bit silly without getting told off!
We then had the Promise ceremony for the two new girls. One of them managed her Promise with a little bit of prompting from Brown Owl (and an interesting amalgamation of the old and new one at one point!) but the shy-er girl (who I was with in the game) got hers out with no prompting and it was nice and loud despite a few tears when her parents arrived because she didn't want to do it.
We finished off the meeting with a quick song: 'Hole at the Bottom of the Sea' (lyrics here) and then sent the girls home. It was a good meeting and fairly low maintenance as we were just pointing the girls in the right direction. They complained initially when we told them we were doing codes this evening but they all seemed to enjoy it and even requested that we do Morse Code at some point, with torches, so it must have been a success on some parts!
This week we did some more for the Big Brownie Birthday badge. We decided to do codes. The girls were given a photocopy of a page from the Adventure book which had a code on for them to crack. It was just a basic a=26, b=25 etc. but it took some explaining to the girls about how they could go about cracking it. They had been given some letters to start with so we were getting them to write the alphabet out (some girls had problems with that, which surprised me...) and put in the numbers underneath so they could spot any patterns. Eventually, they did pick up on what we were getting at and, once they knew the code, it was easy for them to then solve it and find all the words.
We then gave them another piece of paper with two codes explained on. One was Pig Pen and the other was the mobile phone code. They were then told they could write a message to their friend who would then have to decode it. Some girls decided to carry on using the basic substitution code to write messages and a couple tried to use the Pig Pen cypher. One of the Young Leaders also wrote out two messages in Pig Pen for the girls to try and decode. None of them asked me about the mobile phone code and I don't think any of them did it - probably because they didn't understand; I'm not sure how many of them actually have mobiles.
The codes in the Adventure book photocopy were all about Iranian New Year (which incidentally is some time soon) so we decided to play the Iranian smiling game (instructions here) because we had some spare time. Brown Owl chose the two girls who were making their Promise that night to start off and one of the Young Leaders and I went with them to the first person as they're both quite shy. The girl I was with really didn't want to make a fool of herself making girls smile so we didn't even get the first girl to smile but the other girl got a few people to smile. The game went very well - now that we've steered away from playing fishes continually, the girls seem to enjoy playing games more and play fairly - and this is a fairly popular one too because it gives the girls an excuse to be a little bit silly without getting told off!
We then had the Promise ceremony for the two new girls. One of them managed her Promise with a little bit of prompting from Brown Owl (and an interesting amalgamation of the old and new one at one point!) but the shy-er girl (who I was with in the game) got hers out with no prompting and it was nice and loud despite a few tears when her parents arrived because she didn't want to do it.
We finished off the meeting with a quick song: 'Hole at the Bottom of the Sea' (lyrics here) and then sent the girls home. It was a good meeting and fairly low maintenance as we were just pointing the girls in the right direction. They complained initially when we told them we were doing codes this evening but they all seemed to enjoy it and even requested that we do Morse Code at some point, with torches, so it must have been a success on some parts!
Monday, 3 March 2014
Design a Room
27/02/14
This evening we did some more of the Big Brownie Birthday badge by getting the girls to design their future bedrooms. This can also count towards their Brownie Adventure badges as one of the challenges. We gave them several options for how they could design their room - either by drawing it on a piece of paper as if they were stood by the door, looking in; by drawing a floor plan from above; or by creating a 3D model of it. The 3D model was an idea Brown Owl had which she thought might be more interesting for the girls to do but it turned out to be far harder than we had anticipated... Most of the girls had a pretty good go at using the templates that Brown Owl had photocopied but they hadn't copied very well so some of the girls were getting confused as to which lines were dotty and therefore needed cutting along and which lines they needed to fold along. That meant that us leaders were kept quite busy helping the girls because the vast majority wanted to do the 3D model! Most of them turned out quite well though - even if most of them weren't coloured in because it took too long to make them.
We finished and tidied up with a few minutes to spare so we decided to sing the song I'd planned for my Chinese New Year evening - 'My Ship Sailed From China' (lyrics here). The girls found it quite funny!
It was a good evening tonight - I got to sit and help the girls which is one of the things I love about Brownies. And they all got stuck in and tried even if they couldn't really do it all, which is why we decided it could count towards their Brownie Adventure challenge section too.
This evening we did some more of the Big Brownie Birthday badge by getting the girls to design their future bedrooms. This can also count towards their Brownie Adventure badges as one of the challenges. We gave them several options for how they could design their room - either by drawing it on a piece of paper as if they were stood by the door, looking in; by drawing a floor plan from above; or by creating a 3D model of it. The 3D model was an idea Brown Owl had which she thought might be more interesting for the girls to do but it turned out to be far harder than we had anticipated... Most of the girls had a pretty good go at using the templates that Brown Owl had photocopied but they hadn't copied very well so some of the girls were getting confused as to which lines were dotty and therefore needed cutting along and which lines they needed to fold along. That meant that us leaders were kept quite busy helping the girls because the vast majority wanted to do the 3D model! Most of them turned out quite well though - even if most of them weren't coloured in because it took too long to make them.
We finished and tidied up with a few minutes to spare so we decided to sing the song I'd planned for my Chinese New Year evening - 'My Ship Sailed From China' (lyrics here). The girls found it quite funny!
It was a good evening tonight - I got to sit and help the girls which is one of the things I love about Brownies. And they all got stuck in and tried even if they couldn't really do it all, which is why we decided it could count towards their Brownie Adventure challenge section too.
Saturday, 22 February 2014
Thinking Day Celebrations
16/02/14
Happy Thinking Day to all!
Last Sunday we had our Thinking Day celebrations because we couldn't get the hall today. We had all the Rainbows, Brownies and Guides from our district all at a local leisure centre - which came to around 100 girls plus leaders all in one sports hall (let's just say noisy was an understatement!). For those of you who don't know what Thinking Day is, it's a day where all Girl Guides in the World all think of each other and Guiding across the World. The day was chosen because it is the birthday of Lord and Lady Baden-Powell, the founders of the Guiding and Scouting movements. Districts traditionally get together and carry out activities to celebrate.
At our event, the girls had two activities to do - an external company came in and did a roller disco and each unit supplied a craft for their girls. Each unit spent an hour rollerskating and the other hour doing their unit's craft.
Our girls were doing the craft first. We had bought some little jugs and permanent pens so they could colour them in:
There were a variety of designs (including 2 girls copying me again - so flattering!) and they all looked really good laid out on the table when they were done.We think it would have been a good idea to have picked up a filler (a word search or something similar) though because the girls who had finished were getting restless because they could see the other girls skating and wanted to go and join in but they had to wait until the swap over time because there were limited skates available.
Eventually they were told to swap over which was a huge logistical challenge for the leaders, trying to make sure the girls who'd been skating put their skates in the right place and went to the correct unit table while also trying to help all the other girls to put on their skates and guards. It was compulsory for girls to wear wrist guards (the most common injury is broken wrists) and then they could choose to wear elbow and knee pads and helmet so there was a lot to co-ordinate! Eventually we had all the girls in the right places and then the next challenge began - helping a group of 18 girls on their feet when many of them had never skated before. I helped a few of them find their feet and then got some skates on myself - I'm a figure skater so I figured that I could more easily help the girls if I was also on skates (and also enjoy myself!). I didn't realise quite how different roller-skating is from figure skating but I managed to adjust enough to be able to hold onto girls to keep them upright without falling over myself whenever they did! The hour went by really quickly and suddenly it was time for our girls to take their skates off.
Another tradition for Thinking Day is for the girls to all remake their Promise, and we are no different. However, in this case the girls weren't just remaking their Promise, they were all making the new one for the first time. We have 3 candles in our District, a red, a yellow and a blue. When each is lit, the corresponding section remake their Promise, starting with the Rainbows. I have to say that, while I totally agree with the changing of the Promise to encompass all girls, it really doesn't roll off the tongue as well as the old one! Once everyone had remade their Promise, we sang 'This Little Guiding Light of Mine' (lyrics here) and then the girls were told to go back to their table and collect their things and their parents would come over to collect them. Surprisingly, that went very well and we got rid of all our girls really quickly. We did a quick tidy up and then all went home, exhausted but happy!
All in all, it was a very successful Thinking Day and all the leaders and girls enjoyed themselves.
Happy Thinking Day to all!
Last Sunday we had our Thinking Day celebrations because we couldn't get the hall today. We had all the Rainbows, Brownies and Guides from our district all at a local leisure centre - which came to around 100 girls plus leaders all in one sports hall (let's just say noisy was an understatement!). For those of you who don't know what Thinking Day is, it's a day where all Girl Guides in the World all think of each other and Guiding across the World. The day was chosen because it is the birthday of Lord and Lady Baden-Powell, the founders of the Guiding and Scouting movements. Districts traditionally get together and carry out activities to celebrate.
At our event, the girls had two activities to do - an external company came in and did a roller disco and each unit supplied a craft for their girls. Each unit spent an hour rollerskating and the other hour doing their unit's craft.
Our girls were doing the craft first. We had bought some little jugs and permanent pens so they could colour them in:
Eventually they were told to swap over which was a huge logistical challenge for the leaders, trying to make sure the girls who'd been skating put their skates in the right place and went to the correct unit table while also trying to help all the other girls to put on their skates and guards. It was compulsory for girls to wear wrist guards (the most common injury is broken wrists) and then they could choose to wear elbow and knee pads and helmet so there was a lot to co-ordinate! Eventually we had all the girls in the right places and then the next challenge began - helping a group of 18 girls on their feet when many of them had never skated before. I helped a few of them find their feet and then got some skates on myself - I'm a figure skater so I figured that I could more easily help the girls if I was also on skates (and also enjoy myself!). I didn't realise quite how different roller-skating is from figure skating but I managed to adjust enough to be able to hold onto girls to keep them upright without falling over myself whenever they did! The hour went by really quickly and suddenly it was time for our girls to take their skates off.
Another tradition for Thinking Day is for the girls to all remake their Promise, and we are no different. However, in this case the girls weren't just remaking their Promise, they were all making the new one for the first time. We have 3 candles in our District, a red, a yellow and a blue. When each is lit, the corresponding section remake their Promise, starting with the Rainbows. I have to say that, while I totally agree with the changing of the Promise to encompass all girls, it really doesn't roll off the tongue as well as the old one! Once everyone had remade their Promise, we sang 'This Little Guiding Light of Mine' (lyrics here) and then the girls were told to go back to their table and collect their things and their parents would come over to collect them. Surprisingly, that went very well and we got rid of all our girls really quickly. We did a quick tidy up and then all went home, exhausted but happy!
All in all, it was a very successful Thinking Day and all the leaders and girls enjoyed themselves.
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, 4 November 2013
Campfire Songs
These are some of the songs we sang around our campfire on pack holiday last month. You may be able to find the tunes on the Internet but they can all work with any tune with the right number of beats in, do some experimenting! You can also see them all, along with other songs we sing regularly, here.
Campfire's Burning
This one is good as a starter (particularly if your campfire is taking a while to get going!). It can also be sung as a round with the second group coming in as the first group start the third line.
Campfire's burning,
Campfire's burning,
Draw nearer,
Draw nearer,
In the glowing,
In the glowing,
Come sing and be merry!
Cecil is my Caterpillar
One of our unit's favourites! It's generally spoken although you could make up a tune if you wanted to.
Cecil is my caterpillar,
Cecil is my friend,
The last time I saw Cecil he was this big (hold fingers a short distance apart)
I said 'Ooh, Cecil! What have you done?',
He said 'I've eaten all the leaves in [insert small local area such as the name of the town], that's what I've done!'
Repeat, increasing the size of 'Cecil' gradually along with the area of leaves he's eaten. In our unit it usually goes something along the lines of campsite -> town -> county -> UK -> Europe -> world -> universe.
Final verse:
Cecil is my caterpillar,
Cecil is my friend,
The last time I saw Cecil he was this big (hold fingers a short distance apart again)
I said 'Ooh, Cecil! What have you done?',
He said 'I've been sick!'
3 Little Angels
3 little angels, all dressed in white,
Tried to get to heaven on the end of a kite,
But the kite string was broken,
Down they all fell,
They couldn't get to heaven so they all went to
2 little angels, all dressed in white,
Tried to get to heaven on the end of a kite,
But the kite string was broken,
Down they all fell,
They couldn't get to heaven so they all went to
1 little angel, all dressed in white,
Tried to get to heaven on the end of a kite,
But the kite string was broken,
Down they all fell,
They couldn't get to heaven so they all went to
Don't be mistaken,
Don't be misled,
They couldn't get to heaven,
So they all went to bed!
Other verses include:
3 little devils (or Rainbows), all dressed in red, tried to get to heaven on the edge of a bed.
But the bed springs were broken, down they all fell, they couldn't get to heaven so they all went to...
3 little Brownies, all dressed in brown, tried to get to heaven, but their knickers fell down,
The elastic was broken, down they all fell, they couldn't get to heaven so they all went to...
3 little Girl Guides, all dressed in blue, tried to get to heaven on the edge of the loo,
But the loo seat was broken, down they all fell, they couldn't get to heaven so they all went to...
3 Blind Jellyfish
(sadly)
3 Blind Jellyfish,
3 Blind Jellyfish,
3 Blind Jellyfi-ish,
Sitting on a rock.
(spoken)
And one fell off. Oh no!
2 Blind Jellyfish,
2 Blind Jellyfish,
2 Blind Jellyfi-ish,
Sitting on a rock.
(spoken)
And one fell off. Oh no!
1 Blind Jellyfish,
1 Blind Jellyfish,
1 Blind Jellyfi-ish,
Sitting on a rock.
(spoken)
And he fell off. Oh no!
(very sadly)
No Blind Jellyfish,
No Blind Jellyfish,
No Blind Jellyfi-ish,
Sitting on a rock.
(spoken)
And then one jumped back on again. Yay!
(happier)
1 Blind Jellyfish,
1 Blind Jellyfish,
1 Blind Jellyfi-ish,
Sitting on a rock.
And another one jumped back on. Yay!
2 Blind Jellyfish,
2 Blind Jellyfish,
2 Blind Jellyfi-ish,
Sitting on a rock.
And the third jumped back out again. Yay!
(really happily)
3 Blind Jellyfish,
3 Blind Jellyfish,
3 Blind Jellyfi-ish,
Sitting on a rock.
Campfire's Burning
This one is good as a starter (particularly if your campfire is taking a while to get going!). It can also be sung as a round with the second group coming in as the first group start the third line.
Campfire's burning,
Campfire's burning,
Draw nearer,
Draw nearer,
In the glowing,
In the glowing,
Come sing and be merry!
Cecil is my Caterpillar
One of our unit's favourites! It's generally spoken although you could make up a tune if you wanted to.
Cecil is my caterpillar,
Cecil is my friend,
The last time I saw Cecil he was this big (hold fingers a short distance apart)
I said 'Ooh, Cecil! What have you done?',
He said 'I've eaten all the leaves in [insert small local area such as the name of the town], that's what I've done!'
Repeat, increasing the size of 'Cecil' gradually along with the area of leaves he's eaten. In our unit it usually goes something along the lines of campsite -> town -> county -> UK -> Europe -> world -> universe.
Final verse:
Cecil is my caterpillar,
Cecil is my friend,
The last time I saw Cecil he was this big (hold fingers a short distance apart again)
I said 'Ooh, Cecil! What have you done?',
He said 'I've been sick!'
3 Little Angels
3 little angels, all dressed in white,
Tried to get to heaven on the end of a kite,
But the kite string was broken,
Down they all fell,
They couldn't get to heaven so they all went to
2 little angels, all dressed in white,
Tried to get to heaven on the end of a kite,
But the kite string was broken,
Down they all fell,
They couldn't get to heaven so they all went to
1 little angel, all dressed in white,
Tried to get to heaven on the end of a kite,
But the kite string was broken,
Down they all fell,
They couldn't get to heaven so they all went to
Don't be mistaken,
Don't be misled,
They couldn't get to heaven,
So they all went to bed!
Other verses include:
3 little devils (or Rainbows), all dressed in red, tried to get to heaven on the edge of a bed.
But the bed springs were broken, down they all fell, they couldn't get to heaven so they all went to...
3 little Brownies, all dressed in brown, tried to get to heaven, but their knickers fell down,
The elastic was broken, down they all fell, they couldn't get to heaven so they all went to...
3 little Girl Guides, all dressed in blue, tried to get to heaven on the edge of the loo,
But the loo seat was broken, down they all fell, they couldn't get to heaven so they all went to...
3 Blind Jellyfish
(sadly)
3 Blind Jellyfish,
3 Blind Jellyfish,
3 Blind Jellyfi-ish,
Sitting on a rock.
(spoken)
And one fell off. Oh no!
2 Blind Jellyfish,
2 Blind Jellyfish,
2 Blind Jellyfi-ish,
Sitting on a rock.
(spoken)
And one fell off. Oh no!
1 Blind Jellyfish,
1 Blind Jellyfish,
1 Blind Jellyfi-ish,
Sitting on a rock.
(spoken)
And he fell off. Oh no!
(very sadly)
No Blind Jellyfish,
No Blind Jellyfish,
No Blind Jellyfi-ish,
Sitting on a rock.
(spoken)
And then one jumped back on again. Yay!
(happier)
1 Blind Jellyfish,
1 Blind Jellyfish,
1 Blind Jellyfi-ish,
Sitting on a rock.
And another one jumped back on. Yay!
2 Blind Jellyfish,
2 Blind Jellyfish,
2 Blind Jellyfi-ish,
Sitting on a rock.
And the third jumped back out again. Yay!
(really happily)
3 Blind Jellyfish,
3 Blind Jellyfish,
3 Blind Jellyfi-ish,
Sitting on a rock.
Thursday, 3 October 2013
Place Cards
26/9/13
This evening the girls were quite hyper because we're going on pack holiday tomorrow. We started the evening by playing games of charades in two groups while Snowy Owl sorted out what she wanted to do this evening. I was helping her so I'm not 100% sure how well that worked but it seemed to be quite good. We also sang 'Pass The Didgeridoo' (lyrics here) which the girls always request.
The girls were then designing their place cards to go on the table on pack holiday. Every mealtime we shuffle up the cards and place them out randomly on the table so that the girls sit next to different people, not just their friends (it also helps split up the noisy ones!). Each girl was given a piece of card folded in half to write their name on and then decorate however they wanted. The girls who aren't going on pack holiday were given a piece of card to write a leader's name on and decorate instead, as we only had enough for everyone going on pack holiday. I spent that time sat on a table with some of the girls, just talking about random things... I also collected in all the place cards and made sure we had enough for everyone.
It was quite a sedate evening, even with 18 hyper girls excited for tomorrow!
This evening the girls were quite hyper because we're going on pack holiday tomorrow. We started the evening by playing games of charades in two groups while Snowy Owl sorted out what she wanted to do this evening. I was helping her so I'm not 100% sure how well that worked but it seemed to be quite good. We also sang 'Pass The Didgeridoo' (lyrics here) which the girls always request.
The girls were then designing their place cards to go on the table on pack holiday. Every mealtime we shuffle up the cards and place them out randomly on the table so that the girls sit next to different people, not just their friends (it also helps split up the noisy ones!). Each girl was given a piece of card folded in half to write their name on and then decorate however they wanted. The girls who aren't going on pack holiday were given a piece of card to write a leader's name on and decorate instead, as we only had enough for everyone going on pack holiday. I spent that time sat on a table with some of the girls, just talking about random things... I also collected in all the place cards and made sure we had enough for everyone.
It was quite a sedate evening, even with 18 hyper girls excited for tomorrow!
Monday, 23 September 2013
Badges and Brownie Adventure
19/9/13
We started off this evening by making the badges for pack holiday. The girls are split into sixes and choose what character they are going to be (we have Agnes, Lucy and Dave this year) and then the Leaders all choose their own characters for the weekend too. Each girl makes a badge to wear for the weekend so we know what six they are in as do the leaders. Our district owns a badge machine (an absolutely ancient one!) which is loaned out to units who want to make badges. Basically the girls colour in a design (which we had pre-printed from the internet) and then it is placed in the machine, you pull a handle and it creates the badge for you - it fascinates the girls every time! We collect in the badges once they've been made so that they don't get lost between this meeting and next weekend, when pack holiday is. Any girl who is not going on pack holiday can also make a badge, either using a spare design we had printed or colouring in a blank circle however they like, and they are allowed to take it home there and then. I quite enjoy sitting and colouring with the girls because you get to know some of them a bit better as they'll just start to talk about their life and school and stuff. It helps me keep in touch with them too which makes planning evenings a bit easier.
Once the girls had finished, we tidied away the tables and they did a challenge from their Brownie Adventure or Brownie Adventure On book. If you don't know what these are, they are books that the girls have for their first and second halves of being a Brownie respectively which contain stories and activities for them to complete. You can also get a badge for doing a variety of the activities from the book along with a few other things, including doing interest badges, attending extra events and doing various other meetings. The girls were split into two groups; the younger ones and the older ones. I was helping the group of younger girls, who were learning to sign their names, as I can sign the BSL alphabet. I helped a few of them to work out their name from the pictures in their book and then I challenged them to guess my middle name after I had signed it to them. Most of them were really good at it and it turned out that they had had a partially deaf boy in their class for a while so a lot of them had learnt some basic words and phrases. I was quite surprised at this because I never had the opportunity to learn that sort of thing at primary school - I picked it up with a friend for fun a few years back (although I'm looking into doing a course to learn more).
We finished off the evening by singing one of the girls' favourite songs-'Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar' (lyrics here).
This was a good evening because I got to sit and talk to the girls which is one of my favourite parts of helping at the unit. I also found out things about the girls that I didn't already know. It was a nice, relaxing evening - reminding me why I do this.
And finally, just a bit of housekeeping: we are going away on pack holiday on Friday so my next post won't be up next Monday (although you can console yourself with the fact that there will be a couple of posts in the week afterwards about pack holiday!)
We started off this evening by making the badges for pack holiday. The girls are split into sixes and choose what character they are going to be (we have Agnes, Lucy and Dave this year) and then the Leaders all choose their own characters for the weekend too. Each girl makes a badge to wear for the weekend so we know what six they are in as do the leaders. Our district owns a badge machine (an absolutely ancient one!) which is loaned out to units who want to make badges. Basically the girls colour in a design (which we had pre-printed from the internet) and then it is placed in the machine, you pull a handle and it creates the badge for you - it fascinates the girls every time! We collect in the badges once they've been made so that they don't get lost between this meeting and next weekend, when pack holiday is. Any girl who is not going on pack holiday can also make a badge, either using a spare design we had printed or colouring in a blank circle however they like, and they are allowed to take it home there and then. I quite enjoy sitting and colouring with the girls because you get to know some of them a bit better as they'll just start to talk about their life and school and stuff. It helps me keep in touch with them too which makes planning evenings a bit easier.
Once the girls had finished, we tidied away the tables and they did a challenge from their Brownie Adventure or Brownie Adventure On book. If you don't know what these are, they are books that the girls have for their first and second halves of being a Brownie respectively which contain stories and activities for them to complete. You can also get a badge for doing a variety of the activities from the book along with a few other things, including doing interest badges, attending extra events and doing various other meetings. The girls were split into two groups; the younger ones and the older ones. I was helping the group of younger girls, who were learning to sign their names, as I can sign the BSL alphabet. I helped a few of them to work out their name from the pictures in their book and then I challenged them to guess my middle name after I had signed it to them. Most of them were really good at it and it turned out that they had had a partially deaf boy in their class for a while so a lot of them had learnt some basic words and phrases. I was quite surprised at this because I never had the opportunity to learn that sort of thing at primary school - I picked it up with a friend for fun a few years back (although I'm looking into doing a course to learn more).
We finished off the evening by singing one of the girls' favourite songs-'Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar' (lyrics here).
This was a good evening because I got to sit and talk to the girls which is one of my favourite parts of helping at the unit. I also found out things about the girls that I didn't already know. It was a nice, relaxing evening - reminding me why I do this.
And finally, just a bit of housekeeping: we are going away on pack holiday on Friday so my next post won't be up next Monday (although you can console yourself with the fact that there will be a couple of posts in the week afterwards about pack holiday!)
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