Key to Brownies: Easy Pipe Cleaner People

Guider Leah Holland just posted this neato idea on the Brownies Meet Facebook page.  Leah says that it would be a good welcome to Brownies craft.   So cute!

Easy Pipe Cleaner People

From http://www.redtedart.com

Resources you should pounce on!

Look what treasure my friend Mrs. Neal just dropped off!  Mr. Dressup’s 50 more things to make and do!  I loved Mr. Dressup.

 

Kid-Safe Palindrome List

I whittled down the fairly exhaustive (but not entirely kid-safe) list of Palindromes from www.palindromelist.net for our Backwards Day meeting tomorrow night.

Kid-Safe Palindromes

A but tuba.

A car, a man, a maraca.

A dog! A panic in a pagoda!

A man, a plan, a cat, a ham, a yak, a yam, a hat, a canal-Panama!

A nut for a jar of tuna.

A Toyota’s a Toyota.

Borrow or rob?

Civic

Did Hannah see bees? Hannah did.

Don’t nod.

Dr. Awkward

Emily’s sassy lime

Eve

Flee to me, remote elf.

Go dog.

Hanah

Hannah

I did, did I?

kayak

Lid off a daffodil.

Lion oil.

Llama mall.

Ma has a ham.

Ma is as selfless as I am.

Mad as Adam.

mom

Mr. Owl ate my metal worm.

My gym.

No lemon, no melon.

noon

Now I won.

Nurses run.

Pool loop.

Race fast, safe car!

racecar

radar

rotator

Rotor

Salt an atlas.

Senile felines.

Seven eves.

Stack cats.

Stressed desserts

Tangy gnat.

Tell a ballet.

Todd erases a red dot.

Too hot to hoot. =)

Tuna nut.

Tuna roll or a nut?

UFO tofu.

Was it a bat I saw?

Was it a car or a cat I saw?

We few.

We sew, ewe sew.

We sew.

Wet stew.

Yawn a more Roman way

Key to Fun: Backwards Day

A Backwards Day meeting may sound like a bit of a fluffy attempt to fill a meeting we didn’t plan for, but by turning the thing around, the girls get a chance to really take a look at the stuff we do every Tuesday – things they have become immune to or that they do as a matter of habit.

What we told families:  This Tuesday is Backwards Day.  Let your Brownie interpret that however she likes.  Girls are required to wear their full uniform…but how the pieces are worn is up to them.  We’ll greet you with Goodbye, and wave you home with Welcome.  It is weird, but the girls love it.

What we have planned (mostly a repeat of Backwards day from two years ago)

6:30 – Backwards name tags and a crossword: Greet Girls with Goodbye!  Have some scratch paper and markers on hand to practice your backwards name in advance, then give everyone a sticky label and get them to make a backwards name tag (we have a Brownie named Hannah so she’s got it easy).  I will be Nworb Lwo.  =) Then Opposites Crossword from ABC Teach.

6:40 Closing

6:45 Campfire (there are lots of options)

• White Socks
• Poem –Backward Bill by Shel Silverstein
• Toes, Knees, Shoulder, and Head (I’m thinking this will devolve into Toe Knee Chest Nut)
• Yogi Bear – Jellystone, Ranger, Cindy, Boo Boo, Yogi
• Story – Three Piddle Liggs or Rindercella and the Prandcome Hince (Spoonerism).  If you use these, practice a few (dozen) times in advance.  They’re really tough to read.
• Quartermaster Store
  My favourite lines: Llamas…wearing pink pyjamas; Beans… as big as submarines; Eggs…  that walk about on legs; Turtles…wearing rubber girdles; Mice…running through the rice; Owls…eating paper towels; Snakes … big as garden rakes; Spiders…swimming in the cider; Fleas…landing on the cheese; Foxes…sitting on the boxes; Bears… with curlers in their hair; Chairs…floating down the stairs; Ants…wearing rubber pants.
• Poem – The Folk Who Live in Backward Town by Mary Ann Hoberman
• Palindromes discussion with Kid-safe Palindromes (inspired by http://www.palindromelist.net/).  The Owls like “Too hot to Hoot”
• Backwards Day Fire’s Burning (thanks Kelly Ogilvie):
  Fires smoking fires smoking
  Move away now, move away now
  In the darkness, in the darkness
  Go home and be grumpy

7:10 Game – Reverse Captain’s Coming – (Captain’s Home)

• New Commands: Front Yard (Ship); Back Yard (Shore); Mop the floor (Swab the Deck); Postman’s Here (wave through the window); Mice in the Kitchen (Stomp like rats on board); Go to your room (go to your corners), Play with your sister (find a buddy).

7:15 Craft – Origami Jumping Frog craft, then - how far can your frog (or you!) jump?  Frog Race

7:30 Brownie Circle (Brownie Song, then Circle Songs)

7:40 Brownie inspections (good time to pack up coats)

7:50 Opening Game – Girls’ Choice – challenge them to make a normal game backwards OR Backwards Tag.  One person is NOT it and everyone else is it.  Everyone is trying to tag them.  Wild.

Fun!  (and a good meeting to have in your pocket to fill a gap in planning).

Hawk Owl snowshoeing at camp last year.  Her back is to me so it seemed appropriate for backwards day.  =)  And the post was boring without a photo.

Art by hand: Sheep

This project from PurlBee.com could probably be adapted for Brownie Key to the Arts: Art by Hand and/or Key to I Can: Sewing Magic.  Very cute – and felt holds up well to little hands who haven’t got a lot of coordination.  Might be tricky, but it could work.

http://www.purlbee.com/storage/sheep-finger-puppets-600-1-2.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1392930258647

Why every Brownie unit should have a rubber chicken (or two).

If you’ve been following Brownies Meet on Facebook or been reading this site in the last couple of weeks, you’ll know that we love our chickens (have you met Mr. and Mrs. Chicken?).

Here’s why we think you should have at least one chicken in your kit too:

1. Chicken Games are Awesome!  Thank you Becky’s Guiding Resource.
2. Chickens can often substitute for other equipment… they replace balls, flags, boundaries (“don’t go past the chicken!”) frisbees and beanbags in lots of other games. Try Capture the Chicken or Ultimate Chicken.
3. Chickens save time… they don’t roll like balls do and if someone misses a throw, it won’t take forever to get the ball back.
4. Chickens don’t hurt if they accidentally bop you in the nose.  They’re soft and less likely to cause injuries.
5. Chickens store easily … they can squish in around other stuff when you’re packing up.
6. Chickens are easy to get and not too expensive… look in the Dog Toy section at Walmart ($8) or the Dollar Store ($2).   (I suggest, for your sanity, that you perform an immediate noise maker-ectomy with some needle nose pliers )
7. Chickens give you an instant filler activity if you have a gap in programming.  Everyone wants to play a chicken game.
8. Chickens can help develop leadership skills … ask the girls to make up and lead their own chicken games.
9. and…Chickens cheer you up.  At camp, an unhappy Brownie may find comfort with a hug from a chicken (it works!!).

Have we convinced you?

Introduction to Thinking Day 2014

Last night we had a Thinking Day prep meeting – we used the “History of Guiding” Instant Meeting from e-patches and crests as the outline.  I love instant meetings – check out the e-Patches & Crests site for lots of other neat ideas.

6:30 – arrival game – Evolution.

6:40-6:55 – Brownie inspections and Opening Circle

7:00 – Program

• Read part 1 of the story from the e-Patches and crests History of Guiding Instant Meeting (We skipped the paper hats thing – our local schools have a lice problem and we’re doing our very best to stop the spread.  Blech).  Instead we suggested girls should imagine that they’re pretending to get dressed to join a Scout meeting.
• Game – Strega Comanda Color from the instant meeting.  Our review: it was a neat game.  The girls loved it.
• Part 2 of the story
• Game – Bowitgee (from the instant meeting) – we didn’t have a ball on hand so I used a rubber chicken instead.  The girls also loved this game (possibly more so because of the rubber chicken factor).  I liked it because of its positive message.
• Part 3 of the story.
• Discussion about the story … which is rather old fashioned and talks about girls not being able to do things that our girls think of as commonplace.  And about the World Friendship Fund collection… we distributed labeled water bottles as Coin Savers for Thinking Day.

7:30 – Leftover craft from Lunar New Year celebration.  Tissue Paper flowers.

7:55 – Closing.

At the end of every new game we’ve started to ask the girls for a review.  Did they like the game?  What did they like best?  What didn’t they like?  Were the instruction clear?  The questions give us a good idea of what they like (and don’t), and where our weak points are in the explanations of games.

Why there’s a photo of glue on this Thinking Day post.  We’ve known for a while that white glue turns into a gloppy mess if it freezes.  What I didn’t know is that clear glue seems to hold its consistency well if it freezes and defrosts.  Canadian Guiders should consider this if they need to leave glue in a car for any length of time in the winter.  Cool!