Sparks, Sparks, Sparks!

When I first began my Girl Guide leader journey I joined up as "Glimmer” a leaders with the 401st Toronto Sparks. Joined by an amazing leader named Jasmin "Sparkle" we ran this unit for two amazing years. After year 2 we found out that our local Brownie unit was closing due to lack of leaders so we split up, I moved up to Brownies and she stayed with the Sparks.

Fast forward 3 years and I find myself leading Sparks again with my friend Alison. Now a member of the 78^th Toronto Sparks, “Glimmer” is back in action and having a ball with the youngest members of Girls Guides – the 5 & 6 year old Sparks.

We've had three meetings with the Sparks so far and boy have they been busy. First off the girls learned their opening and closing songs and most importantly, the Sparks Promise. The girls are working each week to commit to the promise of Sharing and Being a Friend.

To get the girls comfortable in the group we thought we’d start off with a name game. In this activity each girl got a pipe cleaner with one colour of bead on it. As the girls milled about the room they would introduce themselves to one another, switching coloured beads afterwards. At the end of the activity the girls had met a lot of new friends and were all sporting brand new rainbow friendship bracelets!

After bracelet making, the girls worked on a quick craft to help them remember their sparks promise. Using picture cards and popsicle sticks the girls put the promise in order and practiced reading it to their friends. They were very excited to take these home to share with their families.

The following week our Sparks continued to work on their Sparks memory books. We will be working on these books a little each week whether its doing a little colouring before the meeting starts or adding a paper craft we worked on in that meeting. These memory books are a great way to keep all of your daughters Sparks work in one place and from getting crumpled on the car ride home. We will be keeping the journals at our meeting space but please feel free to come and see your daughter’s book anytime. They will be sent home at the end of the year.

This week the girls were learning a bit more about the Sparks program badges and pins. They created paper sashes to see what badges they were going to earn this year as well as where the badges and pins go on their uniform sashes. The girls loved this craft!