Sparks Complete NSP Challenge - Action on Poverty

This year a new National Service Project was released by Girl Guides of Canada. This year the NSP is looking at the problem of Poverty. The aim of the project is to make our members (from Sparks - Leaders) aware of what poverty is, why it happens and what we can do to combat the problems that poverty causes.

This is a big topic to tackle with Sparks. At first we were skeptical as to how we could get the girls to understand the issue of poverty and connect the actions they do to helping eliminate the problem of poverty.

To teach the girls what poverty is we did an activity to talk abuot children's hunger. We discovered that in North America 1 in 5 children experience hunger, not getting enough to eat on a regular basis. We talked abuot what its like when your hungry at home or school. Its hard to concentrate, sometimes you get grumpy and its not very fun.

In our unit of 15 we counted off 1- 5 and realized that potentially 3 of our group members would be not getting enough to eat. To make this idea more concrete we did an activity featuring something Sparks really love. Snacks!

For this activity we gave each girl a number between 1 and 5. Then we showed them several bowls of snacks. There were two large bowls of cereal (cheerios and Shred

dies), two medium bowls (gummy snacks and pretzels and two small bowls of candy (smarties and rockets). We told them that the cereal represented breakfast, lunch and dinner - foods you need to have to grow up healthy and strong. The pretzels and gummys represented snacks - foods that are good but not essential. The candy were treats - extra special things we get sometimes. Each girl was given a dixie cup and then we called up numbers.

Girls with numbers 1 and 2 could take food from every bowl. They all had to take some cereal as it represented meals but could then fill freely from the other bowls.

Girls with numbers 3 and 4 could take what they wanted from the cereal and snacks bowls but couldn't take any treats.

Girls with number 5 could only take from the cereal bowl and they were only allowed to fill their cups 1/2 way full.

After all of the girls got their snacks we brought them back to the circle and talked about the experience. What was it like to get everything you wanted vs. only getting cereal. Was it fair? What would it be like if you never got to have treats?

The girls really seemed to understand the importance of food for all. They didn't like hunger was reality for many kids and they wanted to figure out some ways to help.

After our discussion girls who didn't get any treats or snacks got to go up and fill their cups. We then enjoyed our snacks and moved onto some games and songs.

Be You Challenge!

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a Badge Nut. I am the Guider who wants to get her girls earning as many challenges and badges as possible. I think its so fun to try new things and I love when I can explore a great challenge that will align with our Brownie Programming. Thats why I was SO excited that Girl Guides of Canada has released a new National Challenge that happened to coincide with the year we are doing out Key to Me in Brownies.

Introducing the Girl Guides of Canada Be You! Challenge!

This challenge, created by a partnership with NEDIC (National Eating Disorder Information Center) focuses on being yourself, boosting self esteem and breaking down gender stereotypes and bias.

The girls completed a variety of activities that helped them explore work/life balance, the power of words (both positive and negative) and looking at ways to boost other people's self esteem.

The girls favourite activity of this challenge was called self esteem trees. Each of the girls was given a cardboard tree and a stack of paper leaves. After they had written their name on their tree they went around the room and wrote a positive word, thought or memory about each of their Brownie friends and leaders. They wrote these positive words, one per leaf and then left the leaves on a pile next to that person's tree.

Once they were done writing their positive words the girls returned to their own tree and got to see the positive things the others in the group thought about them. They then got to glue these leaves to their tree.

During this activity you could hear a pin drop. My girls were so focused and did an amazing job making sure that everyone knew how important and special each member of our group is. After the trees were made we talked to the girls about how experiences at school or extra activities can sometimes leave us feeling bad about ourselves. We discussed how if/when you are feeling bad or thinking negatively about yourself that its important to shift your thinking by doing something positive, meeting up with friends or finding ways to combat the problem. We all decided that we could display our trees somewhere at home, like in their bedrooms where they could look at them each day and see how special they are. It was a great activity and a nice reminder to all the girls that Brownies is a safe place for all and everyone truly belongs.

Sparks - UK Doll Swap!

When I was looking for pen pals for my Brownie Unit I was approached by a UK guider who has a Rainbows Unit. In the UK, the Girl Guide level with girls aged 5 & 6 are called Rainbows. This guider was wondering if we were interested in doing a Doll Swap.

In Sparks we have a doll named Crystal who goes home with a girl each week. Crystal has a journal and each week the girl who takes the doll home is encouraged to write or draw about the adventures they had together. In the Rainbows unit they have a doll named Olivia who also gets to go on adventures with the girls. 

UK Guider Liz said that last year their doll Olivia went on an adventure to Australia and would love to check out Canada. We thought Crystal might like to check out the UK so we set a date, mailed off crystal and welcomed Olivia to our unit for two weeks.

When Olivia arrived the Sparks were so excited. We talked about Girl Guides in the UK and about Rainbows. Guider Liz included some information and pictures of their town and Unit that really helped the girls learn about their Rainbow Unit. The Sparks were very lucky that in addition to the photos and doll Guider Liz’s Rainbow unit sent them each a title tape and friendship badge. We also received a bunch of UK badges to go on a Badge Blanket for Crystal.

Olivia had a great time with us here in Canada. The girls took turns each week playing games with her, sitting with her during crafts and teaching Olivia new songs. Olivia even joined my Co-guider Alison and me on a trip up to Camp Ma-Kee-Wa to sort through some archives materials. She met some vintage Canadian Girl Guide Dolls as well as some guide dolls from other countries.

After three weeks we said goodbye  to Olivia sending her home with  photographs of her trip, badges for  the rainbow girls and a Canadian Toque and Scarf. While we are  sad to see Olivia go, we are eager  to have Crystal home once again.

We absolutely LOVED doing this doll swap and are so happy to show the girls the power of the sisterhood of guiding which stretches far and wide across land and sea.

Brownies Connect!

This year the girls decided that they wanted to complete the "Pen Pals" interest badge. With the help of a local Girl Guiding Facebook group we were able to find a Brownies group in Essex UK, the 1st Wickford Brownie Unit. 

We talked with the girls about the differences between Girl Guides in the UK vs. Canada. We looked at the differences in Uniforms, Guiding Levels and Activities.

In their fairy circle groups the girls came up with some questions they wanted to ask the girls in the UK Group. They each individually filled out an "All About Me" sheet. We asked that the girls in our pen pals unit filled out these sheets too so we could learn more about each girl.

After the girls finished their letters we did a few quick crafts. The Pen Pals badge asks the girls to colour a picture of the uniforms of girls in another country. We looked at the UK Brownies yellow and brown uniform. The girls coloured these in and added them to their memory books. 

In addition to our letters we wanted to send our pen pals a small gift. The girls created Canadian flag hat crafts for our Pen Pals. Each girl made 2 hat crafts, one to give and one to keep. That way if any of our girls meet their pen pals they will have the hat craft in common. 

We had such a fun time writing to our pen pals and can't wait to see what they send us! Have you ever give Pen Pals a try?

Sparks - Uniquely Me!

This fall my Sparks group is working toward their Being Me Keeper. So far we’ve talked a lot about being kind and how to be a good friend. We’ve paired up with a Rainbows unit in the UK and are learning about other countries and the customs other people have.

This week we wanted to look at what makes us special and unique. In order to explore this idea the girls made memory boxes and our Brownie helper Rebecca read the Sparks a story about being themselves. Rebecca is working on her "Helping Sparks" Interest Badge. She decided to read the girls the story The Princess and the Pony. The Sparks loved it!

After the story the girls decorated wooden boxes and we took photos of each girl to put on the front. Inside the girls have started to collect special treasures that we hope to bring in later in the year to share with the group.

One very special thing we did before this project was to discuss nice words we could use to describe ourselves. Along with the craft supplies we had the girls add positive trait word stickers to their memory boxes. We hope that they feel empowered and proud when they open their memory boxes and read all of the kind words that describe them!

Brownies Give Back - Birthday Boxes!

I am always on the look out for a good service project. I find that in today’s busy society the act of doing good deeds for others and giving back to your community can get lost. I know that many of our girls do something like 4-5 extra activities a week. It’s nice to have the girls take a step back and reflect on how fortunate they are and maybe look for ways they can help out people who may be less fortunate.

Service projects are great but with Brownies it can sometimes be a challenge to find something that really fits their skill level. Food and clothing drives are simple enough to do but often families are already being asked by schools to bring these items in. More complicated projects like knitting IZZY dolls or sewing pillowcase dresses are just too complicated for Brownies. They have the passion to do good but sometimes need something a bit more at their skill level.

I was telling my guider friend Cathy about my dilemma and she suggested that we make birthday boxes. This is the best service project I’ve ever seen for Brownie aged girls. Essentially they are a box with everything you need to throw a birthday party. They would include cake mix, icing, decorations, party favours, etc.  We explained to the girls that if you’re a family that is struggling to put food on the table that a birthday party is an extravaganza that many people would just not be able to afford.

We held this meeting at a local Dollarama. The lovely folks at our local store were really good about having some excited, silly Brownies in the store working on the service project. We asked the girls to ring a small donation ($1-$5) which the unit matched. We split the girls into groups of 3-4 and gave them $30, a clipboard for brainstorming ideas and a guider to help things along.  We told the girls that they had to include a cake mix, icing and cake pan in their Birthday Box. Everything else was up to them.

The girls in my unit LOVED this activity. They first worked together to brainstorm what they wanted to purchase and then scoured the store to find the best deals. We talked a lot about stretching their dollars (for example buying party favours that have 5 toys in a pack vs 1 in a pack) and how we can’t buy everything with $30, they had to make choices.

Overall the girls did very well. They all chose themes for their boxes and enjoyed not only picking out the items but checking out at the cash register and paying for everything. When we finished at the Dollarama we walked over to the grocery store to drop off the birthday boxes in the food bank collection bin. The smiles on their faces said it all, they were so proud of themselves!

The girls still talk about making birthday boxes and have already asked when we could go back and make some more. For this outing we awarded our first year girls with the Key to My Community – Special Interest Badge. The second year girls were awarded their Community Counts badge as they had already done one service project the year before with us.

Brownie Enrolment!

Brownie Enrolment is always a special celebration. The girls have a lot to prepare and do before enrolment. They need to be put in a fairy circle, establish leaders and routines. They have to learn their promise, motto, law, hand sign. We really try to get the girls to know that this is a very important and respected ceremony. The parents come, there is a reception afterwards. The girls are always super excited.

I never get good pictures of Enrolment because i'm usually the on talking to parents and calling up each girl for their promise, pins and badges. However, THIS YEAR my awesome new co-leader Alison was our photographer! Below are some pictures from our ceremony. We always do a joint enrolment with our Sparks group so the Brownies were able to be a supportive audience for our littlest Girl Guide members.

At our Brownie Enrolment we always try to emulate parts of the "Brownie Story" we have a magic pool (emergency blanket) and a wise old owl. The Brownies come up one at a time and they get twisted and turned around reciting the rhyme. "Twist me and turn me and show me an elf. I look in the water and there see" They fill in the word "Myself!" 

After visiting the Magic Pool the girl will recite her Brownie Promise and show her Brownie hand sign. Then she gets her enrolment certificate, badges and enrolment pin. We like doing it this way so every girl gets her special moment. 

Each of the girls got their badges on a special Owl card. They were made so they didn't lose their badges but doubled as a pretty keepsake. I coloured the cards and laminated them so once the girls took the badges off of them to add to their sashes they would still have a reminder of the night.

To conclude our Enrolment Ceremony the girls did the Grand Howl for their parents. Such a great event. Thanks to everyone who helped out!