Elizabeth's Guiding Corner

 Hi everyone! I'm back with another activity sheet for Sparks and Embers. This would be a great activity when preparing for enrollment, or learning about your branch.  I'm a Spark! activity sheet Je suis une Spark! activity sheet I'm an Ember! activity sheet Je suis une Ember! activity sheet

 Here are some colouring pages that I made based on the new GGC clipart. There are four different designs, all in one file for easy downloading.  GGC Colouring Pages Disclaimer: The images that these are based off are owned by Girl Guides of Canada, I just traced them to turn them into colouring pages for personal/Unit use.

  This week we combined science and the arts to learn about the science of sound! 7:00pm - Opening and Welcome 7:15pm - Sound Waves We looked at some diagrams of sound waves (From this  slide deck ) and talked about how echoes work, and why small instruments make high sounds and big instruments make low sounds. 7:25pm - Videos We were going to watch some videos of people playing boom whackers and glass bottles (in the slide deck), but to be honest I completely forgot about them. We had some technical difficulties that resulted in the meeting starting a few minutes late, and the girls were ready to start experimenting so we just went straight to that. 7:30pm - Experimenting Once we were done with all the talking, we sent the girls off to experiment. They all brought cups and they filled them with water to make different pitches. I also suggested that they try tapping the cups with different objects to see if they could make different sounds. Then we all shared the songs we...

One of my favourite Guiding activities is a campfire. Singing together is the perfect way to end a day at camp, or to close a weekly meeting. We can't sing in person due to the Covid-19 precautions, but that doesn't mean that we can't have a campfire online! Here are the steps that I go through to plan a virtual campfire. Step 1: Choose your song list For Brownies I like to keep it simple. One or two opening songs, some energetic favorites, a few traditional songs, and then taps. Repeat-after-me songs are great, especially if you are inviting other family members to join in. I've found that we can usually do a few more songs online than we would in person. Step 2: Create a slide deck with the lyrics If your video conferencing platform allows you to share your screen, then I would suggest putting the song lyrics into PowerPoint, Google Slides, or other format where everyone can see them. This makes it easy to teach new songs, and it's great for family members who mig...

This year for Remembrance day we learned about how Girl Guides contributed to the war effort, and we made poppies. The Dad of one of our Brownies is in the Army, so he came and spoke briefly about what he does and why he joined the Army. For some of the Brownies this was their first time seeing a soldier in "real life" (through a computer screen), and I think it helped them better understand what remembrance day is all about. Next we moved on to what Girl Guides did during the wars. I showed them some pictures of Girl Guides doing first aid, handing out clothing to displaced families, making supplies for soldiers, and acting as messengers. I took the photos from this blog post and put them into a slideshow:  https://owl-and-toadstool.blogspot.com/search?q=remembrance+day . When we were looking at the photo of the air ambulance I asked the Brownies how much they thought an airplane costs, and one of them said "Probably a lot, like twenty dollars!". Finally we moved o...

This week we used some odds-and-ends to make miniature fairy gardens. We supplied everything except for glue, and they are super simple to make. The Brownies enjoyed it, and some even said that they were going to make more after the meeting! The GTA is in the middle of a heat wave right now, so we thought it would be appropriate to talk about sun safety. We talked about signs of heat exhaustion, and what to do if you or someone else isn't feeling well. Don't forget to slip on a shirt that covers your shoulders, slap on a  hat with a brim, slop on some sunscreen of at least SPF 15, and stay hydrated!