Key to the Arts: Drama and Storytelling

I attended a Guider training in January and it got me looking for resources for storytelling and drama. Drama Warmups and Circle Games from Primary Resources.  You’ve got to get the girls into the right frame of mind for drama and these are perfect to “set the stage”.  I like “Fortunately, Unfortunately”. Icebreakers, Warmups, Energizers and [...]

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Key to I Can: Teaching Brownies to Knit

I will say from the beginning of this that I am a knitter and I’m on a bit of a crusade to get kids interested in knitting – or any needle art.  But I’m not crazy either.  From experience, most kids don’t have the motor skills and coordination for knitting until they’re eight or nine [...]

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Key to the Arts wrap up and parent night

Last night was Valentine’s Day and parent night at Brownies.  (We probably gummed up a few Valentine’s Day dinners by planning parent night, now that I think of it). Here’s what we did: 6:00 – Guider arrival for setup – and final craft prep.  We put up some chairs. 6:30 – Girl and Parent Arrival.  [...]

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Key to the Arts (Five Regions Challenge): Dance

Some days you have the resources and knowledge to lead program, and other days you just have to ask for help from an expert. Two years ago when we did Key to the Arts: Around the World in Song and Dance, we were really lucky to have a Guider who was also a student of Highland [...]

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Key to the Arts: Masks and Singing

The best laid plans sure can get messed up by the unpredictable. Last Tuesday we made the decision to cancel our meeting due to a storm that had schools closed. It turned out not to be as bad as they thought, but if the freezing rain had hit between 6 and 8:30, we would have been [...]

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Key to the Arts: Act it Out and No Talking

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope you had a lovely holiday.  Our first meeting of the year is here and, because we had a planning meeting in December (i.e. we’re not scrambling to figure out what we’re doing), I think we’ve got a neat one. We are combining Key to the Arts with Ontario Girl [...]

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Key to the Arts: Printmaking for all ages

This looks pretty cool.  The artist wraps yarn around wood blocks to make interesting patterns to stamp paint on paper.  Pretty cool.

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Key to the Arts: I wonder if Brownies could make this…?

I saw a tutorial for making a spider lace loom and I wonder if this would be too complicated for Brownies?  This particular pattern might be too much, but the concept should be 7-8 year old friendly.  Check out http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2011/09/how-to_spider_loom.html to see what I mean. Hm.

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Craft Ideas: Paper Flower Pop-up Card

Scroll down for paper flower craft mentioned in the title…  Time Suck Alert: I’ve found StumbleUpon.com.  It is a great service that really does find super neat and very appropriate things for me.  It is a huge time suck (such interesting stuff!) … you’ll sit down to Stumble and find yourself an hour later wondering where the [...]

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Craft Ideas: Craft Camp

I’m looking forward to seeing what the people at Skip to My Lou (Sept 18/11 updated with new link) come up with.  They’re promising 30 days of 30 crafts for kids.  The first one (by Zakka Life) looks like a sewing craft that Brownies could do (Key to I Can – Sewing Magic, or Key [...]

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