How to make salt dough ornaments

The girls had a great time last year making salt dough ornaments. The recipe to make the dough is fairly simple and the greatest amount of fun comes from choosing the cookie cutters! 

We spent time over the course of four meetings to complete these ornaments as you see in the photo below. Not the entire meeting time was used each week, so you may be able to combine steps to make the process faster.

Meeting 1: Making the salt dough and cutting out the shapes.
*Dough baked later at Leader's house.
Meeting 2: Painting the ornaments.
Meeting 3: Glossing the ornaments with Modpodge.
Meeting 4: Attaching lengths of ribbon to ornaments ready for hanging. 

The ornaments are cooked on a low heat for over 2 hours so it was not possible for us to bake them during the meeting. Instead the Brownie Guides arranged the dough on baking trays so I was able to put them straight in the oven once I went home. The next week they were all ready to paint.

How to make salt dough ornaments

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup table salt
2/3 cup water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Method:
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. After a while it will be difficult to mix so begin to knead the ingredients using your hands. Add a little bit of water if it's still a bit dry, but not too much or it will get too sticky! Knead until the ingredients are well mixed - it will not be a completely smooth dough because of the salt, but get it as smooth as possible.

Roll out the dough using a rolling pin. Just under 1cm is a good depth. Cut out shapes using cookie cutters and place them on a baking tray. The dough doesn't spread so you don't have the space them out too much. 

NOTE: If you plan on hanging the ornaments don't forget to add a small hole at the top ! Do this by sticking a straw into the dough, and taking out the small circle produced.

Bake for 2.5 hours on 120 degrees Celsius. Keep an eye on dough after the two hour mark. Depending on size and thickness of dough, it may need more or less time in the oven.

Makes 15-20 ornaments depending on size.

Once the baked dough has cooled decorate with paint as you like. For a finishing touch gloss using Modpodge. Add a length of ribbon (approx 20cm) so that you can display your ornament.

Have fun!!

Let me know if you try out this recipe!

Girl led activity nights

Our past two meetings have been focused on girl-led activities. This was not part of the original plan for the end of term, however circumstances changed, which allowed time for last minute requests by the Brownie Guides to run longer activities. Usually I have to tell the girls that we'll schedule time in the following term, so it has been great to be able to say "Yes, tell me all about it, so we can make this happen next week!"

At each meeting, three stations (tables) were formed for the Brownie Guides to move between in rotation. The girls ran the activities by themselves and I monitored the movement between tables, so that there weren't too many girls at any one activity. Definitely two easy nights for me - a lovely bonus of girl led Guiding!

Here are the activities that the Brownie Guides organised and ran. Activity one was led for both weeks, which is why there are only five activities listed. 


1. Activity led by Miss 8 years - making origami ninja stars

Miss 8 came to me about a month ago and told me she had learned to make an origami ninja star and that she wanted to use it as a challenge on her Arts Create-a-Challenge badge. She's a new member and this is her first independent badge, so after discussing what a challenge meant and what would be a challenge for her, I suggested that she could take her new skills a step further and teach her Patrol to make the star. 

At this point, Miss 8 told me that she had only made the star once and did not remember all the steps. We decided that therefore it would be an appropriate challenge for her to learn to make a star and practice until she felt comfortable in teaching others. When she reached this stage we would then make time during a meeting for her to teach her Patrol.

Two weeks later we were at our unit camp, and during free time one afternoon, I happened upon Miss 8 teaching a small group of girls to make the stars! I was thrilled that she had taken my advice and practiced the origami until it was a learned skill and had then had the initiative to teach others when the opportunity arose. 

She has since gone on to teach this origami project to every girl in our unit over our two activity nights. I'm really proud of the effort Miss 8 put into this challenge and can't wait to see what she comes up with for the remainder of the challenges for her badge.

Origami star made by one of the 7 year old Brownie Guides

2. Activity led by Miss 10 years - making paper chatterboxes

It was surprising to see how many girls were not familiar with this activity! What is the world coming to?! I made these all the time when I was young. Miss 10 had brought an array of craft supplies and had the girls making animal faces as well as more traditional chatterboxes (also known as fortune tellers).

3. Activity led by Miss 9 years - finger knitting
Miss 9 years found leading her activity a little tricky as she had forgotten to bring her supplies. She was able to use the wool we had at the Guide hall but there was only one ball so unravelling it and cutting it up cut into her teaching time. It was a good learning experience in being prepared!

4. Activity led by Miss 10 years - making origami boxes

Miss 10 was excited to teach origami after having been taught to fold ninja stars the previous week. However, the other girls weren't as excited by boxes as they were ninja stars. Miss 10 was great though and persevered, adapting her activity by suggesting other designs in her origami book and allowing girls to try and recreate these themselves (a flower and crane was attempted) while she taught others to make the boxes. It's difficult to have an distracted group and she did a great job at bringing back their focus.

5. Activity led by Miss 9 years - felt flowers for a Junior BP challenge

Miss 9 created cardboard templates and then gave step-by-step instructions so that each girl could create her own flower. Aren't they lovely? These felt flowers are badges and are going to be worn by the girls on ANZAC Day in a few weeks time. I'll be making a more detailed post about this Junior BP challenge with further photos and templates (if I have Miss 9's permission!)

One of the other activities we did last week was a teamwork challenge that I haven't used for a few years. As a Patrol, the girls had to get from one side of the hall to the other, without falling into the "lava" (touching the floor). They were given a few sheets of newspaper to use to travel on and had to work as a team to figure out the best strategy to get the Patrol to safety. It was great seeing the different strategies the girls used. Stepping stones (as pictured below) seemed to prove the most successful.

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How does your unit give Guides the opportunity to take the lead?

Tall ship adventure on the low seas

Last year, the Guide unit had the amazing experience of staying overnight on the James Craig Tall Ship, a restored 19th century baroque ship which is docked in Sydney's Darling Harbour.

Photo credit: Fairlight Manly Scouts

We were participating in Sydney Heritage Fleet's education program which gives youth the experience of learning about history while living and working as a sailor.

Arriving late in the afternoon, after everybody rushed to get home from school and work, we were immediately set to work. The Guides were divided into three groups: main watch, starboard watch and port watch, which allowed them to rotate through different activities. Their very first task upon arrival was to haul the cargo (backpacks and sleeping bags) on board the ship, making sure it didn't fall into the water!

This was followed by a ship tour, which was filled with interesting and humorous stories of the history of the ship and life as a sailor in the 19th century.

A lovely view of the city from on board the James Craig.

Everybody then had to hang their own hammock which they would be sleeping in that night. A couple of the other Leaders chose to stay in the bunk beds rather than brave the hammocks, but the girls and I agreed that the hammocks were much more fun!

After all the hard work we were ready for our delicious dinner!

The night we stayed up chatting, being silly and enjoying the lights of the city (sadly there were no fireworks the night we were there).

The next morning, we were woken at 6.30am to begin our day. This involved taking down and folding up the hammocks, eating breakfast and then back to the watch groups for a rotation of activities.

Knotting - much more fun when you are on board a ship!

Hauling buckets of salt water onto the ship and then scrubbing the deck.

Working with simple machines. Can one girl beat 6 girls with the help of a pulley?

Hoisting the sails.

By 9am, our time onboard the James Craig was over and we said a sad farewell. There were a few hiccups along the way with organisation (mostly for dietary requirements for meals) but I felt that overall the girls (and Leaders) had a wonderful and unique experience. I definitely want to return to the James Craig, although i'll wait a few years so that I have a new group of girls. It was a little pricey at $65 for youth and $35 for adults.

Guide Promise SNAP!

I can't believe how quickly the year is flying by. Term one is almost over and in that time we have helped clean up Australia, learned knots and first aid, sung many songs, played a variety of games, held Promise ceremonies for new members and have even attended a two night indoor camp! 

Credit: Girl Guides QLD shop

All 19 Brownies from last year returned in 2015 which was fantastic! I always worry over the long summer holidays about how many girls we will retain, so it's a nice confidence boost when they all return. Two Brownies have since bridged up to the Guide unit and 2 more are currently linking with plans to bridge at the end of term. We have also had 2 new girls join the unit and they have both been wonderful additions. It has definitely been a great start to the year!

Last week, we played a game to review the Australian Guide Promise. It's a game that I have only ever played using numbers, but it can be easily adapted to use words instead. 


Guide Promise Snap

Everybody sits on the floor in a circle. All Guides put their left hand on their left knee - palm up. Now all Guides put their right hand (palm up) on top of the left hand of the player to their right. 

One player begins play by saying the first word of the Guide Promise. Working clockwise around the circle each player continues by saying one word each from the Guide Promise. As each player says their word, they move their right hand to lightly slap the right hand of the person sitting to the left of them (which is resting on top of their own left hand). Play continues moving through the entire verse of the Guide Promise.

On the very last word of the Guide Promise, "law", the player whose hand is going to be slapped must try and move their hand away before it gets slapped. If their hand gets slapped, they are out. If they move their hand quickly enough, then the person slapping is out. Play continues starting at the first word of the Guide Promise.

To keep girls entertained when they were 'out', I had them act as adjudicators, confirming that the words of the Promise were correct.