Elizabeth's Guiding Corner

 This week we learned about First Aid and emergency preparedness. We learned about what Paramedics do, when you should call 911, and how to apply a bandaid.  7:00pm - Welcome and Opening 7:10pm - Peel Paramedics Virtual Tour Peel Paramedic Service has put together a series of virtual tours for different age groups. We watched the one aimed at grades 3-5, and in it a paramedic gives a tour of the ambulance, talked about what paramedics do, and gave some safety tips.  7:25pm - How to Apply a Bandaid We went through the steps of how to clean a small cut and put on a bandaid on a stuffed animal. 7:35pm - When to Call 911 We used this  Slideshow  by Anna Cole to talk about when to call 911. The slideshow has a series of scenarios, and we worked as a group to decide what to do in each one. We also talked about what to do if you accidentally call 911 .  7:55pm - Closing This meeting was a lot of fun, and it was a great way to finish off the How To theme.

  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...

 This week was my first week back after a long break, and we did the Shining Rights activity from the World Stage theme. We started by reviewing the difference between needs and wants. What are things that are nice to have and make our life more fun and exciting, and what are things that we need need. Some of the wants were toys and watching TV, and some of the needs were clothes and food. Next we moved onto the Shining Rights activity from the platform. We talked about the Rights of the Child (Food, shelter, play/rest, education, safety), and what they look like in our lives.  If you'd like a template for making the star, you can find it in the World Stage activity book  that I posted last year.

Here's another resource for Pathfinders and Rangers. Last time I gave my tips for planning a meeting, and this time I've used my experiences to put together a step-by-step guide.  Meeting Planning Guide for Pathfinders and Rangers I've summed up planning a meeting into five steps: Pick your badge Pick your activities Finalize the details Run the meeting Evaluate your meeting The guide also includes a graphic organizer to organize the details of the meeting, like the opening activity, main activities, and closing activity, and questions to help evaluate the meeting once it's done. I hope that this helps anyone who wants to plan a meeting but doesn't know how! 

 This week my Brownie unit had a special guest. My mom, a Community Guider in our area, came to our meeting and lead us in some chemistry experiments. We learned about ink chromatography, and the difference between baking soda and baking powder. For those who don't know: Baking soda is a base and when combined with an acid (like vinegar or lemon juice) it produces carbon dioxide. This is what causes the bubbles in a baking soda and vinegar volcano. Baking powder, on the other hand, contains both an acid and a base, and produces bubbles when combined with any liquid.  Here's some more information on the difference between them.   Here's some information on the pH scale. 7:00pm: Opening and welcome 7:10pm: Baking soda and baking powder To show the difference between baking soda and baking powder we did three experiments on each one, mixing them with water, juice, and vinegar. Here's what you'll need for this experiment: Six bowls or glasses Spoons Baking soda Baking p...

 Pathfinders and Rangers, this one's for you! I've lead many meetings throughout my time in Pathfinders and Rangers, and I've also seen many meetings lead by my peers (and myself) that didn't go exactly as planned. So, here's my tips on how to plan a fun and engaging meeting! 1. Prepare questions to guide the discussion Sometimes everyone is engaged in the discussion and it kind of guides itself, but have some questions or prompts ready just incase your unit isn't feeling that talkative. Open ended questions tend to work best as they leave room for many different answers and opinions. 2. Don't be afraid to do "kid" things Just because you are in Pathfinders or Rangers doesn't mean that you can't do crafts, play games, and sing songs. Before the holidays I lead my unit in making SWAPS and singing campfire songs, and we had a great time. 3. Take advantage of online resources A popular attitude right now is that there are so many things that w...

This week we finished up the My Physical Self theme by talking about healthy eating. I took me a while to figure out how to address healthy eating without talking about "good food" and "bad foods" and also make it fun, but I finally got it and the girls had a great time. 7:00 pm: Opening and Welcome 7:10 pm: Fun food vs fuel food We started off the night by talking about different kinds of food, and whether or not they are a fun food or a fuel. Fun foods are foods that are fun to eat, but they don't have a lot of the nutrients that our bodies need. Fuel foods on the other hand have lots of nutrients that help us grow big and strong. Once we were all familiar with the concept, we played a  guessing game to practice identifying fun foods and fuel foods. I showed the Brownies pictures of food and had them give a thumbs up for fun food or make big muscles with their arms for fuel food.  7:25 pm: Video At he end of the game we watched a  video from Kids Learning Tu...

This past weekend we had our second virtual camp. Our first one was last spring and it went over very well with the girls and their parents, so we decided to do it again! Here's the schedule and the booklet that we sent out to the Brownies and their families: Virtual Winter Camp Booklet Friday Night: 6:30 pm - Camp opening and tent tours All the girls built blanket forts for our night of camping, so we started camp by giving each other tours.  It wasn't that cold so I slept outside 7:00 pm - Camping scavenger hunt Our girls really like scavenger hunts so I included a camping scavenger hunt in our activities. This one was pretty basic, just a list of things we might bring on a camping trip like a flashlight, mittens, a winter hat, and a sleeping bag. 7:30 pm - Edible campfire One of our girls specifically asked to learn how to make a campfire and this was a fun way to do this that didn't involve any actual fire. In the booklet I included a list of suggestions for the differe...

 This week we finally got around to introducing the Discovery Badges to our Brownies. We decided that the best way to teach them how to earn a badge at home was to earn one as a group. As we did the activities I shared my screen and filled out the Maker badge activity sheet (from the  Discovery Badge activity sheets ) so that the Brownies knew which activities went where. Here's what we did: Connect:  For the connect section we learned about NASA aerospace engineer Tiera Fletcher. We also learned a bit about what aerospace engineers do, and how the things they make help us in our daily lives (like the satellites that make our car GPS work).  Here's the slide deck I used. Create: For the  create section we made paper airplanes. We made two different designs and compared how well they flew ( Here's the instructions for the planes we made ). The plan was that the Brownies would make a modification to one of the planes and see if their modification made it fly bette...

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...

Hi there! The holidays have really snuck up on a lot of us this year, so here's a list of winter/holiday themed activities that you can do at your virtual holiday party that don't require a lot of preparation. Paper Snowflakes : Super easy, and all you need is scissors and paper. You could make it an upcycling craft by using old newspaper 3D Paper Snowflakes : I learned how to make these in Brownies and I still love making them. All you need is paper, scissors, and tape or a stapler. Like the paper snowflakes, you could use old newspapers as well Have a pajama party! Everyone could show off their favourite pajamas/comfy clothes and introduce their favourite stuffed animal Make decorations for new years eve, You could use these  printable new year party hats  or just make your own decorations with whatever supplies you have on hand. While you make them you can talk about your wishes for the new year Winter bingo : This card in particular has a lot of winter clothes on it, ...

We've done a lot of crafts and arts activities so far this year, so we decided to mix it up a bit with an engineering challenge. As I suggested to my co-Guiders, "Let's launch some stuff!". Before we got into designing and building, I showed them what a catapult is and how they work. We looked at some homemade designs and discussed what items would make a good base, and what we could use as the arm of the catapult. At first I got a lot of blank stares, but they slowly started to come up with some ideas. I put the pictures in a slide deck, which you can find here (the pictures of home made catapults were found on Google Images, they are not my own.):  Catapult Presentation Next we got to building. Everyone started with the same basic supplies that my co-Guider delivered in a supplies drop-off a few weeks earlier. They each got some wooden blocks, rubber bands, popsicle sticks, toothpicks, and some small pieces of foam packaging that we suggested they use as the project...

Hey everyone! After a bizarre back-to-school season, we're back to our weekly meetings. The first week was the usual getting to know all of the new Brownies, and also getting used to the new Covid precautions. Unfortunately I wasn't able to be there that week, but apparently everything went smoothly. This week the weather was cool and rainy so we decided to move our meeting online. We took this as an opportunity to introduce the Brownie Promise and Law. We used the promise and law mini books from owl-and-toadstool.blogspot.com , and discussed what we thought each line meant. And then we gave the girls some time to colour while we talked about how school has been for them so far. 

This week was our last meting for the 2019-2020 Guiding year, so we decided to do something special. A baking night seemed like a good way to end our year, as well as to learn a new skill or two. And, to my surprise, it was easier than I thought! Here are the steps to take to plan your own at-home baking night: Step 1: Find a recipe. We chose this cake mix cookie recipe from All Recipes because it was simple and each family could choose their own flavour:  Cake Mix Cookie Recipe . I made it with a chocolate cake mix and white chocolate chips and they were AMAZING. I'd recommend testing out the recipe first so that you know exactly how it will turn out, and so that during the meeting you can share any tips that you picked up. Step 2: Send out an email with the ingredients list and a link to the recipe. We did this a week before the meeting so that families could pick up the ingredients during their normal weekly shopping trip. In the email we also encouraged families to let ...

This week was a bit of a catch-up week. We started with the Advocacy Adventure activity from the Girls First platform. We had planned to do it last week, but we ran out of time. This activity illustrates nicely how making a difference in your community isn't always a huge task. Sometimes it's something small like writing a letter to the principle of your school to ask what is being done about bullying, or making posters to raise awareness about the lack of sports opportunities for girls. And if it does feel like it's too big to do on your own, you can always reach out to friends, teachers, Guiders, and other community members to share the load. Our second activity was making origami whales. We've given our second-year Brownies a chance to teach a skill, and one of them chose origami. She did a great job showing us the steps and answering questions.  We're taking a week off next week for Canada day, and then we are going to meet every other week going forward.

This week we had our advancement. We pretty much did what we would normally do during a regular ceremony, except that it was all online.   Time  Activity  Materials 7 pm Welcome, opening   7:10 pm The ceremony: Year pins: we did the year pins first. A Guider read the list of names and a family member pinned the pin on their Brownie's uniform. Brownie Advancement pins: A Guider read the names of the advancing Brownies, and a family member pinned the pin on their Brownies uniform. Pins/badges dropped off in advance, or printed versions as stand-ins. 7:20 pm   Campfire Google Slides/PowerPoint presentation with the lyrics. My co-Guider had dropped off packages with craft supplies and all of their badges and pins. She also included a paper headband cover, for each girl that said "Brownie" on it, and the advancing Brownies got Guide ones as well. Once they had received their advancement pins, they switched their Brownie headband for their Guide headban...

I've been searching for a while, and I've finally found some resources and activities to teach kids about race and racism, Most of these are resources for teachers, and so they are mostly reading, writing, and discussion based. But I'm sure that with some Girl Guide ingenuity you could adapt them to be a bit more interactive. You know what they say, use your resources wisely! Sesame Street Town Hall on Racism Spark/Brownie On Saturday June 6th at 10:00 am Eastern Time, CNN and Sesame Street are doing a town hall on racism and the protests that have been happening in the United States and other countries around the world. The streaming locations are listed in the article. RacismNoWay! All Branches This website includes lesson plans for all subjects that integrate anti-racism activities into the lesson. RacismNoWay is an Australian-based organization, but most of the lessons could be tailored to a Canadian perspective. Teaching and Learning About Race and Racism All Branches ...

Hi everyone, In light of recent events in the United States, I've decided to put together a meeting plan on diversity and standing up for others. I have been given a great opportunity through Guiding to teach my Brownies about the world around them, and sometimes that means having honest conversations, in an age-appropriate way, of course. Our meetings usually run for about an hour, but you can make it longer or shorter as needed. Time  Activity Supplies 7 pm Welcome, opening   7:05 pm Stand With Me Theme: Your Voice PA: Take Action This activity could be modified for a virtual meeting by having the Brownies raise their hand instead or stepping forwards. To make it a bit more meaningful, I would ask them to name something that they are worried about. This can show them that other Brownies are worried about the same thing, and they know how it feels to have someone on their side.  https://experience.girlguides.ca/node/76941   7: 15 pm Plate Portraits Theme: Different ...