Key to the Arts: Origami Snail

This looks like fun.  From Zakka Life.

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Getting Started: First Night Crafts

Last year’s girls confirmed that crafts are one of the things that they come to Brownies for.   Honestly, it is one of the reasons I come to Brownies too.  But you’ve got to be able to pick your moment – and the first night is a tricky one to introduce crafts.

As I’ve said before, your first meeting  is all about crowd control and getting to know your girls.  And that’s a little tough to plan for as far as crafts go.  At your first meeting, you don’t know if your girls are really keen on them (it is a good bet, but you can’t be sure), you have no idea about their abilities (scissors!), or how fast they’re going to plow through it (“I’m done, what’s next?!”).     And you may not have a firm number of people you’re expecting (although, with online registration we’re pretty good with that too!).  Here are some crafts that we and other groups have done on their first night.

Name Tags – this is a necessary first night thing anyway, so why not make it fancy?  Some units  have name tags they hand out as girls arrive and then take them back as they head home  – and some pin it on the badge sash forever (that’s us!).

• Basic Indestructible Name tag: Fun foam cut up into shapes (or basic rectangles).  I suggest that a Guider writes the name.  Option 1:  Fancy – use puffy paint for the name.  Option 2: Basic – write the name with a sharpie.  Decorate: maybe stick some feathers or something on it.  Safety pin the name to the badge sash.  If you have sticky letters, maybe put the first initial in a fun foam letter.

Beaded Friendship Bracelet – (thanks to Guider Janice for this idea!).

• Supplies: Pipecleaners and Pony Beads.
• Opening Activity – make beaded friendship bracelet.    (25 different colours of pony beads on pipecleaners).   Each girl will receive a different bead on a pipecleaner and an empty pipecleaner.  The girls need to collect one of each of the different 25 beads and put them on her pipe cleaner.  When she asks for the bead she must introduce herself and find out what her new friend’s name is.
  

Make “IT” Sticks (another Guider Janice gem)

• Supplies: popsicle sticks, markers, it stick bag.
• Each girl gets one it stick to decorate with a marker.  Suggest that Guider write out girl’s name on one side and the girl can decorate the other.
• What’s an “It Stick”?  They are nifty no fighting, let’s be fair when we pick someone sticks.  If you need someone to be it, pull a name from the bag.  If you need someone to do something, pull the name from a bag.  Easy peasy.

Brownie Promise Door Hanger – the original wasn’t updated for the new promise so I did it myself. I prefer to do this on the second night when we talk about Promise and Law, but it would do for first night too.

Those are some ideas for now.  What have you used that worked well?

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Valentine’s Day

I’m not big on Valentine’s Day myself (lots of reasons…too commercial, we should say I love you all the time, and I’m single so it is a bit of a downer to see everyone all gushy about each other) but this year, I’m kind of excited about it.  V-Day falls on Brownie Night.

Here are some Brownie friendly crafts and ideas:

• Hand Stitched Valentine Card craft.  We did this one year –  during a meeting called “Backward Day”.  We found out that when you make valentine cards on backwards day you may get a few “I hate you” cards.  Whoops.  Fortunately, the parents laughed.  I’ve got plans to make kits up for next week too. 
• Cross Stitched Heart Card – probably better for older girls.  But equally cool. 
• The Idea Room has photo cards (mabye for Brown Owl to make in advance) and a great list of activites (scroll to the bottom) like Valentine’s Bingo and Heart Yatzee. 
• From Guider Joanne… How about a Heart Healthy Game (of course!  why didn’t I think of that?)?  Or Valentines for Vets (BEWARE – you need to do this in December or January, but a really nice idea).

What do you do with Brownies for Valentine’s Day?

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Key to STEM: Communications

We’re trucking along with STEM and tonight is all about communication (well, mostly).

6:30 arrival – Game is Quiet.  Update: the game sounded cool, but I misunderstood and wasnt’ able to communcate it clearly.  This devolved into Line Tag.

6:40 Inspection

6:50 Circle

7:00 Program.

Talk about different ways we communicate.  Technology – phone, computer, e-mail, texting; Talking – singing, speaking, shouting, language, sign language; Body language – frowning, smiling, standing confidently, vs being shy; Writing – newspapers, letters, mail; Ancient languages – things we don’t use anymore. Codes – have you ever had a secret code with your friends?

Because of the advancements in technology, sometimes something that was revolutionary in its day, is taken over by something that is newer and fresher.  Have you ever heard of Morse Code?   

Morse code is an alphabetic code of long and short sounds, originally transmitted by telegraph.  What is a telegraph you ask?  A telegraph was a communications system in which information was transmitted over a wire through a series of electrical current pulses.  These were used before telephones, almost 200 years ago.  Because the telegraph lines couldn’t carry voices, but could carry electrical pulses, morse code was possible. 

As I said, morse code is a code composed of long and short sounds.  The long sounds are called dashes, while the short sounds are dots.  Varying lengths of silence indicate spaces between words.   It was fairly simple, if you knew the code. 

Do you want to try it?

7:10 Morse Code Relay.  Snowy Owl made this up a couple of years ago. 
Supplies: Morse Code Key, Morse Code Words (this sample has 3, 7, & 8 letter words that you need to cut up into sections – be careful not to drop them, and keep each word separate.  You’ll have enough for three rounds); a pencil for each team.
Objective: Teamwork, deciphering a code
Instructions: Each girl gets a Morse Code Key.  Each group has a marker or pencil.

• Round 1 – Three letter words.  The words are placed across the gym from three teams.  A girl runs to get the peice of the word, she runs back and the group has to decipher the letter.  Repeat until all the letters are deciphered.  Then unscramble the word.
• Round 2 – Seven letter words – Repeat as round 1
• Round 3 – Eight letter words – that may be actually two words.  Repeat as round 1. 

REVIEW after actual play last night – Awesome!  The girls had a little trouble with unscrambling… but they worked together and got it.  We asked if they wanted to go to round 3 or do something else and they were very excited to keep going.  Only thing is to remember to tell girls which side is up on the little cards. 

7:25 Morse Code Bracelets. 

Supplies – beads (we like Pony beads for dots and Two Pearler Beads for dashes), Gimp (I had lots so I gave them almost a metre last night), markers/pencils and Morse Code Key. 
Note – when I use wooden beads, I usually spend some time in advance testing the holes with a thin knitting needle.  A good job when I’m watching TV.  I’ve used Pony beads for dots and two pearler beads together for dashes, if you can’t find appropriate sized beads.  I recommend using beads that will take gimp – it is a big pain to have to thread needles (20! yeesh!).  Not to mention the horror of seed beads. 

Girls will need to figure out their name using a morse code key.  Each circle has a plate of dots and a plate of dashes.  They can assemble their bracelets in circle or in individual groups. 
What to tell them: You will be stringing your name on gimp.  Tie a knot about a hands length in – something that will stop your first bead.  String the beads letter by letter – putting a knot between each letter – when you’re done, tie both ends together (I’d like to say a reef knot works, but it does not work well on Gimp.  Just tie the ends together in an overhand knot and cut off the long end).  Here’s mine with C-A-R-A in Morse Code.  =)

Campfire if there’s time… (and there wasn’t).

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Key to Brownies: First Night

Are you planning your meetings yet?  I’ve been avoiding it, but it is time to get my head back in the game.  I write this post to respond to those of you who searched for “Brownie Structure”, “Brownie First Meeting”, and anything that got you here by asking what the heck do we do on the first night?

The answer to that is mostly crowd control with a little bit of introduction to Brownies thrown in.  As your group gets to know each other, you’ll have a better idea of the group dynamics – who is shy, who is outgoing, who needs to be reined in, etc.  Every year we outline a grand plan of things to do – and we’ll likely get to an eighth of the activities.

Here’s what we usually do:

6PM – Guider arrival.  Set out Toadstool, name tags, markers, and papers for registrations.  Give Guiders their role for the evening.  Brown Owl and possibly Snowy Owl will typically handle parent questions.  You also need at least one (but better with two) Guiders who can handle the arrival game.  We like Tag for the first game – it is easy and the girls know it already.  Familiar makes them happy.  Easy makes us happy.

6:30PM – Girls are arriving.
Step 1 – meet Brown Owl and get your name tag
Step 2 – work on name tag with Snowy Owl
Step 3 – Girls join game – parents often hang back to watch or ask questions.  As the girls behave differently when their parents are not present, we try to get parents moving as quickly as possible.  Remind them though to pick up at 8PM.

6:50PM Brownie Circles (we don’t have circles assigned yet – we usually do that on the third meeting – after we know the girls).

Call girls to Brownie Ring – Owl: “Brownies, Brownies, Where are you?”  Girls: “here we are, here we are, how do you do?”
Teach “We’re the Brownies”, then teach Brownie Sign and say the promise.

Intro Game.  Key to Brownies: Getting To Know You.
There are loads of intro games.  We like: My name is ____ and I like ____ (something with the same letter as your name).  E.G. my name is Cara and I like Cows, Carrots, etc.  This starts with the girl closest to Brown Owl.  The girls need to remember each girl around the circle (or variation, just the girl next to them – and Brown Owl has to remember everyone – HINT – make sure name tags are ON!).

7:10 Explaining the Rules – Last year we used “Brown Owl Says” (a variation on Simon Says) to talk about the rules at Brownie.  But I think this year it should be more like a “Captain’s Coming” which has fewer instructions.

Our Rules:

1. Listen to and watch for signals:
• Guider has a hand up – this means be quiet.  Put your hand up too and wait until the first person puts her hand down.  Then Listen.
• Whistle – Only for emergencies (or if we get a really rambunctious groups – it is a bad meeting if we use whistles).
•  Clap, Clap, Clap-Clap-Clap: using the One-Two, One Two Three clap and asking the girls to repeat it it pulls them out of whatever they’re doing and makes them listen.
• Brownies Brownies Where are you?  (Here we are, here we are, how do you do)… This is supposed to only be used to call to Brownie Circle, but we’ve been using it to get the girls’ attention.
2. Ask to leave the room, and always travel with a buddy.
3. No running, unless it is part of a game.
4. No screaming, unless it is part of a game.  (The first scream usually has me dramatically running to “help” in a “panic”.  They learn about crying wolf, and how screaming is a sign that there is danger. ).
5. Girls must wear rubber soled shoes at Brownies.  Mostly as a result of the school we meet in, but also because if there is a fire, we need to have shoes on feet so girls don’t run outside barefoot in winter.
6. Wear full uniform (new – unenrolled Brownies may not wear their tie yet) and bring your Brownie book.

7:20 Then a craft.  I was thinking something like this Owl craft or  this Brownie Promise Door Hanger (we’ve used this often!) – not updated for new Promise, but easily done with a bit of glue and a printer.

7:40 Campfire.  Stick to Favourites – we always teach “Make New Friends”

7:55 Closing – New Brownie Squeeze, Now Run along Home, and Brownie Taps – do you do “Oh Lord Our God”, or “Oh Hear Us Now?”  I’m torn.

Key to Brownies: Owl Craft

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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 time went.  It is good stuff, but you’ve been warned.  Time.  Suck. 

What is Stumble? You sign up, give them a bit of info and it sends you to sites that it thinks you’ll like.  If you do “like” it, they’ll send you to more – they’re often right!  You can “dislike” things too – the more you like and dislike, it trains the system to find things you will like. 

Today’s Stumble find!  Take a look at this tutorial for a pop up flower card:  Make a flower pop-up card.  (Video Link).  Or a butterfly card.  I think these would be great fun with Brownies. 

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