Sew What?

On Saturday,  a few of our girls went out to Bryerswood to learn how to Sew. We made Knotted Pillows with name tags, weaved owls that are pouched and little purses.  The girls had a great time and are looking forward to the next one.  Here are some photos of the event. 

Congratulations Emily!!!!

Emily is one eager Brownie! She completed the Brownie Be a Chef  badge.  She made rainbow chip cupcakes at home one day and took pictures of her accomplishments.  Emily said that her cupcakes were really yummy and can't wait until she makes a new batch.   The next meeting, she is going to bring her work in to present to the unit so she could get her badge.

Emily is looking forward to doing more badges out of the book.  To check out some badges that the girls could work on they could look through the Brownie book or check the page on this Brownie blog called "Badge Challenges.  Then when the badge is complete, bring it to the meeting and we will give you time to present it.   Keep up the good work! 

Happy Badge Doing!

Love Yourself Challenge

A few months ago, our girls did the International Day of the Girl challenge where they focused on why we need girls in society today. Two meetings ago, we worked on the NEDIC Love Yourself Challenge.
Girls Guides of Canada and NEDIC (National Eating Disorders Information Center) worked together to create a challenge for each branch to teach them about Self-Esteem, Body Image, and Health and Nutrition. At the Brownie level, the girls have to complete 1 activity in each section.

Our Brownies tackled this challenge by kicking off the meeting with a game of  "tag your cool" where the person that was it would tag somebody but instead of saying "tag your it" they said "tag your cool."  We then, gathered in a circle and each person mentioned something that they like about themselves, and different qualities about themselves. Some of the girls, even said what they liked about one of their friends in Brownies.  

Our craft for the night was creating door hangers.  Each girl received a foam heart where they put their name on the middle and then positive words that described them such as unique, pretty, funny, smart etc. I laid out cue cards with these words on the table so the girls knew how to spell them when they were writing it.  When they were completed, each girl chose a ribbon that they were able to thread through their heart so that they could hang it where they could see it at home.

The next activity was a partner activity. Each girl chose a partner and a piece of paper with some markers.   The girls each took a turn drawing their partner.  The Brownie that was being drawn was able to pose.  When her partner was finished drawing her, she wrote positive words around the picture of what she thought of her friend. When they were done, they switched. One drew and one posed.   The girls drawings turned out really well and they had some great describing words on their picture.

The meeting ended with some fun active songs that the girls like to sing such as: the penguin song, the animal song, and Hey Hey Bodiddley Bop! We also had some fun playing with some new inflatable balls as well for the healthy living section.  At our sleepover in a few weeks, we are anticipating to play a few active games to wrap the healthy living section up. The girls are hoping to play crab soccer.

Ringing in the New Year

Happy New Year Everybody!

We are back to regular Brownie meetings. A lot of us were happy to find out that our Holiday break was extended due to the extreme cold and all the snow that we got. (Minus having to cancel the Brownie meeting).

We began our new year last week by having a pajama party where everybody wore their pajamas's to the meeting and brought their favorite thing that they got for Christmas.   We went around the circle and shared what we got, along with our favourite part of Christmas break.  The girls shared their favourites with us such as: seeing family, eating the turkey, playing in the snow, and of course having no school.  Each of them shared their favourite thing that they got for Christmas as well such as: dolls, Monster High dolls, Rainbow Loom, and their favourite pair of pajama`s.

While everybody was excited to see each other, we thought that it would be fun to do a board game night.   We set out Guess Who, Monopoly, a few card games as well as the Chinese Jump Rope for them to play with.  The Brownies formed groups, and played a variety of these games.  Some of them even played with the toys that they brought in with their friends`. Giggles was happy when she finally got to see how the Rainbow Loom worked.

We are beginning to get ready for Rally Day in 2014.  This is an exciting event that is at Canada`s Wonderland with 10,000 other Girl Guides.  We will be participating in activities Saturday May 31st at the park and then after closing ceremonies the girls will be able to go into the park to do the rides. We are looking forward to a great time.  I can not wait to see what memories I make with the girls at this special event.

Girls in the Lead

One of the challenges that our girls have been working on is International Day of the Girl. The girls have had the opportunity to talk about female role models, and why we need girls in the lead.  For one of the activities to the challenge, they were able to create postcards that included words and pictures on why they think it is important to have girls in the lead.   Here is some of the ideas that they have come up with.

WOW! We've been busy

It has definitely been a while since the last post.   Our girls have been very busy with lots of activities in the community, becoming a brownie and completing badges and challenges.  The past couple of months the girls have been learning their Brownie promise.  They did a fabulous job in learning it, and now all them are officially Brownies.

To recap the past couple of months here is a summary of all the activities that have been done.

One of the keys that the girls have been working is Key to the Community. The goal of this keys to teach the girls about their community and allow them to get involved.   We talked about types of things are in a neighborhood, what other types of neighborhood there is, and jobs that are in the community. The girls were able to create their own community on pieces of construction paper.   They also created posters that illustrated different types of jobs in the community.  In the Spring, we will hopefully be taking a walk to the Local Library in the neighborhood for a fun field trip and to  take a walk in our community.

Before Thanksgiving, our girls learned about diversity and how everybody has differences and abilities.  We focused of learning a little of different types of disabilities and experiencing what they can be like.  We began by passing around different paper dolls.  The girls named what differences they had and the similarities that they had with the doll.   Then, each doll went around but they had to name one thing that a person with a disability can do that they like to do.   The options were endless for them to choose from.  We discussed various types of disabilities that the girls asked about it.  Some of the activities that the girls got to do we're putting mittens on their hands and attempting to pick up as many pennies as possible for a physical disability such as Cerebral Palsy.  They read a book backwards and upside down for dyslexia.  Lastly, the girl's favorite activity was being able to blindfold a partner   The other partner had to guide and give direction.  They had fun guiding their friends and getting a small glimpse of what it is like to be visually impaired or blind.   The message that I wanted for the girls to take out of this meeting is that everybody is different and different talents that shine through.

What is a Halloween without at least one party to celebrate the only Holiday where anyone gets to dress up in any costume and get candy.  Our Sparks joined us for this event.  The girls painted their own pumpkins, wrapped a ghost in gauze and make little jack o'lanterns out of baby food jars.  They also got to have their face painted and snack on some sugary treats.

This year, we completed the International Day of the Girl Challenge. We focused on girl empowerment and what it means to be a girl for the first half of the meeting.   The girls created posters in groups about what it means to them to be a girl, and were also asked to draw anything that girls can do.  Some of the ideas were: skating, playing hockey, becoming a teacher, becoming a doctor, skateboarding and many more.   In a discussion, the talked about being able to become engineers, and construction workers when they are older. One of the girls suggested that they would like to be an astronaut.

Here are some of the posters that the girls created:

It has been a busy year so far, tonight we will be getting ready for Christmas by having a Christmas round robin of crafts and maybe a couple treats to go home with.  Stay tuned for posts about the outings that we have been on so far, and maybe some craft and games ideas to take back to different units.   There are new badges posted on the badge challenge page.  Feel free to complete the badges over the Holiday break and bring them back to present to the unit in the new year.   

Learning about Brownies and the Community

The excitement grew as each Brownie walked in the door for the meeting this past Monday. The girls were taught a game called “I wrote a letter to my love.”  The girls enjoyed walking around the circle, and dropping the puppy`s notes behind someone and be chased until she was able to sit in the empty spot in the circle.   We also learned a new song this called Canadian Girl Guides. I wrote it on a chart paper so the girls could follow along with the words.  They loved the song especially when they were allowed to yell BANG at the end of the 2^nd verse.  After our opening activities, Snowy Owl read the Brownie story to the girls.   It is a story about how two friends discover how they can be brownies by lending a hand to others and being kind.  We learned how to the grand howl.

How to do the Brownie Howl:

To do the Brownie Howl start with squatting down, knees bent, arms between your legs with two fingers of each hand touching the floor. At the same time everybody say “Tu-whit, tu-whit, tu-whoo softly. Rise a little, and then return to the squatting position.  Then, everybody rise again a little higher and repeat Tu-whit, tu-whit, tu-whoo. Rise a third time, even higher. Say only “Tu-whit, tu-whit,” but louder. Then leap in the air and clap your hand above your head as you yell, “Tu-whoo”!

One of the keys this year that we are focusing is Key to the Community.  To get started we asked the girls what country they lived in and what the flag looked like. Then, we asked them to draw it as well as 6 different jobs people can have in the community. Some of the ones that they came up with police, firemen, a paramedic, a doctor, a post woman, and a teacher. 

Congratulations to the girls that completed their smile girl badge this week.  Badges are very easy, and fun to do for the girls.  On the page that says Badge Challenges there are the requirements to complete the badge.  If you finish the requirements, bring in what you have done, and you present the badge.  

After everything was cleaned up and put away, we did our Brownie closing and said good-night for the night.

For the lyrics to Canadian Girl Guides and game description/rules of “I wrote a letter to my love” see Activities.