This year our Sparks unit decided to try out one of the Girl Guide provided "Instant Meetings." We've never done one before - Im very much a Plan everything yourself-er but they had one for the International Day of the Girl so we thought why not.
Overall I was very pleased with the Instant meeting. We adapted a few of the activities but for the most part ran things as they were explained.
First up was a quick activity called "step to yes" which had the girls look at all the ways they use science, technology, engineering and math in their lives. We talked about turning on/off lights, building with blocks, baking with family, etc. It was a great way to get the girls thinking about the daily ways we interact with these subjects.
After the first activity I showed the girls a great Sesame Street video.
This one features First Lady Michelle Obama and her puppet friends Rosita and Zari talking about international day of the girl. It explains in a very kid friendly way that not all girls have the same opportunities, such as getting the chance to go to school. The Sparks really liked the video and it was a great way to help them understand why we celebrate international day of the girl.
For the next two activities we split the group and ran them in stations. I worked with the girls to make homemade calculators and guider Alison worked with the girls to create milk paintings.
The girls were So Confused when I told them we were going to make calculators with the craft supplies in front of them! Instead of pipe cleaners we used these thin wooden rods from the dollarstore. They worked really well. We also had the girls pick 2 colours of beads and put on 5 of each. It was really fun to try out different addition and subtraction challenges using our calculators. The girls were very proud of their math skills and were eager to share.
While my group was making calculators Alison's group was exploring the magic of colours by making magic milk paintings. The girls got to pick out all sorts of food colouring to add to their milk dishes and then use their magic soap wands to make the colours dance. After exploring the chemical reaction the girls used diffusing paper to capture the colours into a painting to take home.
It was a very busy meeting but we made sure to make some time to share the weekly journey of our crystal doll. This past week Emmeline got to take Crystal home and she had a wonderful adventure. Crystal got a beautiful new pink and blue dress and had a tea party at Emmeline's house. She sure had a great time!
We had so much fun with the Instant meeting to celebrate the International Day of the Girl. Thanks Girl Guides of Canada for the awesome activities!