11/10/18
We had read about penny hikes on various Guiding facebook pages and wanted to give it a try so we thought the autumn term would be perfect - light enough to see as we left the hall but dark enough for them to find it exciting as we finished. We picked this week as the Scouts that meet in the small hall at our church have their annual AGM and so we offer up our significantly larger hall and do something either out of the hall or in the smaller one.
When we arrived at the meeting, one of the girls who had come on pack holiday came up to us and handed each of us a chocolate with a thank you note stuck on the back! She even gave me one to give to my other half. It was entirely unexpected and made the whole weekend (and the following week after little sleep) worth it.
We then got out the hi-vis that Specsavers gave us a few years back (Brownie sized!) and got all the girls to put one on, as well as their coat. We then split the unit into 2 and set off, one group followed by the other. Our group decided that TaiLs would be Left and therefore Heads was Right. At each junction, we picked a different girl to toss the coin and decide which way we would be going. There was a lot of throwing the coin into the air and letting it land on the ground! We also added coin tosses for crossing at the pedestrian crossing and going into the park for 5 minutes. Surprisingly enough, the coin landed Tails, meaning we went into the park! The girl then 'confided' in Brown Owl that she had done it deliberately! We knew she had but we didn't really mind spending a few minutes in the park if it meant the girls had a good time. We then continued on our penny hike until 6:50 when we turned and headed back to the hall so we were there for about 7.
We then sat the girls down in a circle and handed out all the pack holiday crafts and posters which we had forgotten to do on the Sunday as they all went home. As we got to the end, a cry suddenly went up "there's a bear in the foyer!" and all the girls immediately got up and ran to the door to see. We calmed them down and got them out of the way of the door so the bear could actually get in. The bear was Winston Bear from Winston's Wish - the girls had raised money for them in the summer term (when I wasn't there) and he had come to collect his cheque. We had got hold of one of the giant cheques and had Winston and the Brownies pose for a photo. One of the girls announced proudly to the Mum from Winston's Wish that we had raised £14,637 so we had a good laugh and then corrected her - we had actually raised £146.37! We took a second photo with just me and the daughters of the Mum who works for Winston's Wish (who was there) and one of the other leaders, as we knew we had photo permissions for all of them to go on the Winston's Wish website if needed.
Winston Bear then left and we finished off the meeting quickly and then let all the girls go. We then had girls coming back in dribs and drabs because they had forgotten their coats! By the time they had all gone, we only had one left, and a Brownie hoodie. I think the girls enjoyed this meeting - they loved the fact that the penny was choosing where they went and that they had a really lucky penny because it took them to the park! We did however realise on the way home that we hadn't actually given Winston Bear the cheque that can be put into the bank (as opposed to the giant one!) so we'll have to slip it to the Mum next week...
Showing posts with label visitor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label visitor. Show all posts
Wednesday, 17 October 2018
Monday, 21 May 2018
Air Ambulance Visit | University
10/05/18
This week we had a visit from the Great Western Air Ambulance Charity (GWAAC). A volunteer speaker, Richard, came to the hall and set up his projector and banner while we played a quick version of The Chair Game to keep the girls occupied. Once they had finished, we sat them on chairs in a row in front of the screen and introduced Richard.
Richard then gave a half an hour talk about what GWAAC do and what area they cover. He explained that they cover 6 counties across the South West of England, with a population of about 2.1 million but that they recieve no government funding (including the National Lottery) even though they need about £3million a year to operate. He talked about the equipment on the helicopter and that they can perform minor surgical procedures on board. He also talked about the amount of space the helicopter needs to land in (20m square, about the size of our meeting hall!) and the fact that they fly to various hospitals in the area, including Bristol's BRI where the helipad is on top of a tall building. He showed a couple of videos of the helicopter landing in different places.
Once he had finished his talk, he handed out a quiz and wordsearch for the girls to do. We let them work on them for a bit with a break for a drink and biscuit in the middle. We had to do a bit of explaining for some of the questions as they were not really worded in a child-friendly way but once we had explained the girls could usually remember the answers from the talk. I did have one girl say that there were only 6 people living in the area that they cover though!
We then told them the answers to the quiz and had time for a few questions. We had some sensible ones like "have you ever been in the helicopter?" ("no, only really sick people get to go in the helicopter"), and "how long have you worked for GWAAC?" ("2 years as a volunteer speaker") but then we got a few more obscure questions like "have you ever had to do an amputation on the helicopter?" ("yes, very rarely") and "can you do organ transplants on the helicopter?" ("no, but we can do blood transfusions").
During the course of the quiz and question/answer session, we had one girl lose 2 of her teeth so we wrapped them up in paper ready to give to her mum at the end! While I've dealt with many lost teeth, I'm not sure I've ever had a girl lose two teeth in one meeting before!
Once the girls had exhausted their questions, Richard handed out a colouring sheet and a GWAAC pencil to each girl (we had to pay for the pencils but did it from unit funds). We then played a game of Splat to fill the remaining time before handing out some adventure books to the girls who made their promise last meeting, and some Science Investigator badges to the girls who had earnt it from last term.
This week was a nice and simple one from a leaders perspective, we got to sit and listen to the talk and only had to organise a few games to fill a bit of time. The girls also seemed to be fairly interested in the talk and actually remembered a lot of it for the quiz. I think it helped that it was something they are unlikely to learn about anywhere else so they found it interesting.
This week we had a visit from the Great Western Air Ambulance Charity (GWAAC). A volunteer speaker, Richard, came to the hall and set up his projector and banner while we played a quick version of The Chair Game to keep the girls occupied. Once they had finished, we sat them on chairs in a row in front of the screen and introduced Richard.
Richard then gave a half an hour talk about what GWAAC do and what area they cover. He explained that they cover 6 counties across the South West of England, with a population of about 2.1 million but that they recieve no government funding (including the National Lottery) even though they need about £3million a year to operate. He talked about the equipment on the helicopter and that they can perform minor surgical procedures on board. He also talked about the amount of space the helicopter needs to land in (20m square, about the size of our meeting hall!) and the fact that they fly to various hospitals in the area, including Bristol's BRI where the helipad is on top of a tall building. He showed a couple of videos of the helicopter landing in different places.
Once he had finished his talk, he handed out a quiz and wordsearch for the girls to do. We let them work on them for a bit with a break for a drink and biscuit in the middle. We had to do a bit of explaining for some of the questions as they were not really worded in a child-friendly way but once we had explained the girls could usually remember the answers from the talk. I did have one girl say that there were only 6 people living in the area that they cover though!
We then told them the answers to the quiz and had time for a few questions. We had some sensible ones like "have you ever been in the helicopter?" ("no, only really sick people get to go in the helicopter"), and "how long have you worked for GWAAC?" ("2 years as a volunteer speaker") but then we got a few more obscure questions like "have you ever had to do an amputation on the helicopter?" ("yes, very rarely") and "can you do organ transplants on the helicopter?" ("no, but we can do blood transfusions").
During the course of the quiz and question/answer session, we had one girl lose 2 of her teeth so we wrapped them up in paper ready to give to her mum at the end! While I've dealt with many lost teeth, I'm not sure I've ever had a girl lose two teeth in one meeting before!
Once the girls had exhausted their questions, Richard handed out a colouring sheet and a GWAAC pencil to each girl (we had to pay for the pencils but did it from unit funds). We then played a game of Splat to fill the remaining time before handing out some adventure books to the girls who made their promise last meeting, and some Science Investigator badges to the girls who had earnt it from last term.
This week was a nice and simple one from a leaders perspective, we got to sit and listen to the talk and only had to organise a few games to fill a bit of time. The girls also seemed to be fairly interested in the talk and actually remembered a lot of it for the quiz. I think it helped that it was something they are unlikely to learn about anywhere else so they found it interesting.
Monday, 26 March 2018
Easter Baskets and Guide Visit | University
22/03/18
The girls
then bought their chairs over to the tables and the parent ran through the
craft. They were making Easter Bunny Baskets so she showed them the templates
and all the decorations she had bought for them to use. We had a brief moment
of panic as we realised one of the girls had somehow (accidentally or
otherwise) cut a chunk of her hair off. The other girls said she had done the
same thing at school so we tidied up and made a note to alert her Mum at the
end of the meeting. The girls then started making their baskets – I spent most
of my time helping one of the girls cut out her template and then holding
together flaps as they all stuck them together. They then had free reign with pompoms,
pipe cleaners, googly eyes, glue, and pens with which to decorate their
baskets. We had some very interesting looking ones and even a chick made out of
one of the remaining pompoms!
Once the
girls had finished their baskets, we had a drink and biscuit and then sat them
in a circle. Two Guides had come to visit to talk to the girls about Guides as
part of one of the other Leaders ALQ so we left them to it (with a small amount
of prompting) while we tidied up the bombshell that was the tables after the
craft! The Guides then ran some games that they play at Guides while us Leaders
chatted about plans for next term.
We ended up
having to stop the games as we had run out of time. After we had ended the
meeting, the girls collected their baskets, picked up a piece of tissue paper
and then came up to a Leader who gave them a handful of Mini Eggs as an Easter gift.
We spoke to the Mum of the girl who had cut her hair and she confirmed that she
had done it at school too and she wasn’t cross with us as none of us were aware
at the time but was furious with her daughter. We will be keeping a closer eye
on her every time we have scissors out now!
This was a
fairly nice and relaxed meeting, especially the second half, and the girls
seemed to really enjoy decorating their baskets and definitely enjoyed the eggs
at the end! This was our last meeting before Easter and, as we meet every other
week, we now have quite a long break before the next meeting, although I am
going home and hopefully visiting my old unit next week.
Monday, 14 September 2015
Friendship Bookmarks
10/09/15
This week we did a craft which was suggested to us by Brown Owl's sister, who did it at a District event with her Brownies.
Each girl was given a printout of her name in bubble writing. They coloured in the letters and decorated round the outside. Then they cut it up so all the letters were separate. We then tasked them with finding people to swap all of their letters with, so they could still spell their own name but with letters that someone else had coloured it. Most of them managed it, we had a 'u', 'z', and 'j' left that we couldn't swap anywhere! We then gave them a piece of coloured card that they could stick their letters to, to make it into a bookmark.
When they were done, we tidied up (which took ages) and then we sang a few songs. We sang 'Oh You'll Never Get To Heaven' and 'Cecil is my Caterpillar'. The District Commissioner also made an appearance at the end of the meeting, to present one of our Young Leaders with her badge and certificate. She then told us about a trip for Senior Section members to London which the group of us who help out at Brownies are going to go on in October (so look out for that post!).
During the circle at the end, I was tasked with handing out receipts to the vast majority of the girls, which was a real test of my knowledge of their names (I only mixed up 2 in the end)!
This week we did a craft which was suggested to us by Brown Owl's sister, who did it at a District event with her Brownies.
Each girl was given a printout of her name in bubble writing. They coloured in the letters and decorated round the outside. Then they cut it up so all the letters were separate. We then tasked them with finding people to swap all of their letters with, so they could still spell their own name but with letters that someone else had coloured it. Most of them managed it, we had a 'u', 'z', and 'j' left that we couldn't swap anywhere! We then gave them a piece of coloured card that they could stick their letters to, to make it into a bookmark.
When they were done, we tidied up (which took ages) and then we sang a few songs. We sang 'Oh You'll Never Get To Heaven' and 'Cecil is my Caterpillar'. The District Commissioner also made an appearance at the end of the meeting, to present one of our Young Leaders with her badge and certificate. She then told us about a trip for Senior Section members to London which the group of us who help out at Brownies are going to go on in October (so look out for that post!).
During the circle at the end, I was tasked with handing out receipts to the vast majority of the girls, which was a real test of my knowledge of their names (I only mixed up 2 in the end)!
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!?
Monday, 8 June 2015
Visitor from Wildlife Hospital
04/06/15
I am finally home from university so I can go to Brownies again!
This week we had a visitor from Vale Wildlife Hospital & Rehabilitation Centre come and speak to the girls as part of the Friends to Animals badge which they started before half term. I was 15 minutes late as I got stuck in traffic on the way home from work and when I got there, the girls were all sat around the woman, who was talking through the different animals they see come through the hospital at this time of year and what is usually wrong with them. She was very good at engaging the girls by asking them little questions as she went, such as 'what kind of bird is this a picture of' (owl), 'what do you think happens to deer if they walk on a road' (they get run over), and 'what animal do you think laid this egg' (one girl answered dragon!).
When she was done talking about the animals, she got them to sit in a circle and then brought out a hedgehog that they've been looking after. He has just reached what they call release weight which means they are going to release him back into the wild in the next few days so he was a pretty chunky fellow! She carried him round the circle while he was curled up and let all the girls get a glimpse of his little nose poking out and then she put him down in the middle of the circle to let him run around a bit. He spent a bit of time sniffing the air to make sure it was safe and then walked towards one of the girls (coincidentally a girl who is leaving tonight!). Our visitor scooped him back up before he reached her and put him back in the box before letting the girls have a look at her table of things which included some skulls, a snake skin, a dissected owl pellet, and a tarantula skin.
She then packed up and left and we played a game of Fishes before finishing the meeting and sending the girls home.
It was a good meeting to come back to, but it feels odd to be back as there's a lot of new girls who I don't recognise. It's going to take some time for me to get my head round all their names!
I am finally home from university so I can go to Brownies again!
This week we had a visitor from Vale Wildlife Hospital & Rehabilitation Centre come and speak to the girls as part of the Friends to Animals badge which they started before half term. I was 15 minutes late as I got stuck in traffic on the way home from work and when I got there, the girls were all sat around the woman, who was talking through the different animals they see come through the hospital at this time of year and what is usually wrong with them. She was very good at engaging the girls by asking them little questions as she went, such as 'what kind of bird is this a picture of' (owl), 'what do you think happens to deer if they walk on a road' (they get run over), and 'what animal do you think laid this egg' (one girl answered dragon!).
When she was done talking about the animals, she got them to sit in a circle and then brought out a hedgehog that they've been looking after. He has just reached what they call release weight which means they are going to release him back into the wild in the next few days so he was a pretty chunky fellow! She carried him round the circle while he was curled up and let all the girls get a glimpse of his little nose poking out and then she put him down in the middle of the circle to let him run around a bit. He spent a bit of time sniffing the air to make sure it was safe and then walked towards one of the girls (coincidentally a girl who is leaving tonight!). Our visitor scooped him back up before he reached her and put him back in the box before letting the girls have a look at her table of things which included some skulls, a snake skin, a dissected owl pellet, and a tarantula skin.
She then packed up and left and we played a game of Fishes before finishing the meeting and sending the girls home.
It was a good meeting to come back to, but it feels odd to be back as there's a lot of new girls who I don't recognise. It's going to take some time for me to get my head round all their names!
Monday, 7 July 2014
Flower arranging and games
03/07/14
Next weekend the church we meet at is having a flower display and they asked the unit if we would provide an arrangement for it. We agreed, provided someone came along and taught the girls because we all know next to nothing about flower arranging! So, this week, June from the church came along. The girls worked in their sixes and each created a replica Brownie badge from flowers. June had bought lots of yellow flowers with her which the girls put into old takeaway containers. They surrounded them with a border of blue paper and one girl in the six was given the task of cutting out a photocopy of a badge which they then balanced on the top. The sixes did this one at a time so, to keep the others occupied, we also made a banner with our unit name on. We printed out lots of little triangles each with one letter on (our full unit name is 37 letters long!). The girls were told they could colour the letter any colour they wanted but the main part of the triangle had to be pale pink, blue or yellow to match the handbook. We had a couple of the early finishers helping Brown Owl thread the onto a piece of wool and the rest coloured in the left over triangles (we don't have 37 girls!). Some of them were getting a little bored after having done a couple though so we set them to tidying up.
June had to leave before the end of the meeting so we thought we would play a few games to fill up the rest of the time. We started off with fishes (instructions here) which went surprisingly well considering the issues we've had in the past. We then tried playing the game I was planning to play at my Chinese evening a few months back. It was called 'Dragons Tails' and basically involved the girls in a long line (we split ours into two lines) and then the front has to try and catch the back of the line. It didn't really work though as some girls were holding onto each other too violently and then the lines split up and they all ended up running aimlessly around the hall so we aborted that idea and played wigwams instead!
For the next two weeks (up to the end of term) Brown Owl, our YL and I are all on holiday so Snowy Owl is running the meetings. I will still post on the Mondays what they've done but I won't be able to say exactly how the meeting went.
Next weekend the church we meet at is having a flower display and they asked the unit if we would provide an arrangement for it. We agreed, provided someone came along and taught the girls because we all know next to nothing about flower arranging! So, this week, June from the church came along. The girls worked in their sixes and each created a replica Brownie badge from flowers. June had bought lots of yellow flowers with her which the girls put into old takeaway containers. They surrounded them with a border of blue paper and one girl in the six was given the task of cutting out a photocopy of a badge which they then balanced on the top. The sixes did this one at a time so, to keep the others occupied, we also made a banner with our unit name on. We printed out lots of little triangles each with one letter on (our full unit name is 37 letters long!). The girls were told they could colour the letter any colour they wanted but the main part of the triangle had to be pale pink, blue or yellow to match the handbook. We had a couple of the early finishers helping Brown Owl thread the onto a piece of wool and the rest coloured in the left over triangles (we don't have 37 girls!). Some of them were getting a little bored after having done a couple though so we set them to tidying up.
June had to leave before the end of the meeting so we thought we would play a few games to fill up the rest of the time. We started off with fishes (instructions here) which went surprisingly well considering the issues we've had in the past. We then tried playing the game I was planning to play at my Chinese evening a few months back. It was called 'Dragons Tails' and basically involved the girls in a long line (we split ours into two lines) and then the front has to try and catch the back of the line. It didn't really work though as some girls were holding onto each other too violently and then the lines split up and they all ended up running aimlessly around the hall so we aborted that idea and played wigwams instead!
For the next two weeks (up to the end of term) Brown Owl, our YL and I are all on holiday so Snowy Owl is running the meetings. I will still post on the Mondays what they've done but I won't be able to say exactly how the meeting went.
Monday, 16 June 2014
Visitor from National Star College
12/06/14
This week we had a visit from a local charity, National Star College. One of the girls suggested it as her mum works there and she came, along with a colleague, to tell the girls about what they do and do a couple of activities. They first sat the girls in a circle and told them all about what the College does. Basically, it is a college for children and adults with disabilities where they can "realise their potential as equal and active citizens in control of their lives". They asked the girls if they knew what a charity was, what it meant to have a disability and then talked about the various kinds of disabilities. I was very surprised at the answer given when they were asked what a disability is: "when someone can't do something because the part of their body that helps them do it doesn't work any more"! When I was 9, as the girl who said this is, I would never have been able to say it so concisely and cover all possibilities in one sentence...
They then got the girls to get into groups to do some activities revolving around removing the use of a certain part of the body and trying to do basic tasks. They had to:
They then got the girls back into a circle and discussed how they found the activities and how they would feel if they had to live like that all the time. Most of the girls said that it made them feel frustrated and they wouldn't like to live like that. They then said that any money we raise (we've had to postpone our fundraising to September because we ran out of space in the term to do it, sadly) will go towards helping the students feel more independent and less frustrated as they'll be able to buy specialist equipment to help them.
This week we had a visit from a local charity, National Star College. One of the girls suggested it as her mum works there and she came, along with a colleague, to tell the girls about what they do and do a couple of activities. They first sat the girls in a circle and told them all about what the College does. Basically, it is a college for children and adults with disabilities where they can "realise their potential as equal and active citizens in control of their lives". They asked the girls if they knew what a charity was, what it meant to have a disability and then talked about the various kinds of disabilities. I was very surprised at the answer given when they were asked what a disability is: "when someone can't do something because the part of their body that helps them do it doesn't work any more"! When I was 9, as the girl who said this is, I would never have been able to say it so concisely and cover all possibilities in one sentence...
They then got the girls to get into groups to do some activities revolving around removing the use of a certain part of the body and trying to do basic tasks. They had to:
- Pick up a coin with a sock on their hand
- Put a sock on with one hand in a sling
- Talk to a friend while holding a lollypop stick in their mouth and see how much they could understand
- Tell a friend something by pointing at letters on an alphabet sheet
They then got the girls back into a circle and discussed how they found the activities and how they would feel if they had to live like that all the time. Most of the girls said that it made them feel frustrated and they wouldn't like to live like that. They then said that any money we raise (we've had to postpone our fundraising to September because we ran out of space in the term to do it, sadly) will go towards helping the students feel more independent and less frustrated as they'll be able to buy specialist equipment to help them.
They finished up by giving the girls some stars to colour in and said they could do it any way they liked as long as they didn't use their normal writing hand! We had some girls colouring with their non-dominant hand, some with their feet, some with their mouths and one girl who held the pen between her elbows! Some of the colouring wasn't too bad either.
The girls seemed to thoroughly enjoy the evening as it was more hands on than previous visitors we've had. Most people seem to forget what age group they're talking to and give the talk they would give to adults which just makes the girls bored and thus restless and disruptive. These two women though kept them interested by asking them questions and giving them an activity to break things up. It also gave me an insight into what the girls know about disabilities - a surprising amount!
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