Wednesday 17 June 2015

Our way is clear as we march on

Learning the lyrics to The World Song is one of the optional challenges in the World Guiding achieve-a-challenge badge. After practicing the song for a term, last week I was happy to sign off that the Brownie Guides had successfully completed this challenge.

One of the girl's even surprised us all, by singing the song at a weekend event in front of Guides and Leader's from our local area! Our intense focus on World Guiding this term has definitely proved to be successful!





Monday 8 June 2015

Links around the World

Our third meeting for the World Guiding achieve-a-challenge badge focused on two of the required challenges:
  • Know what WAGGGS stands for and who can become a member.
  • Identify the 'Links of Unity'.

This meeting was held a month ago and i'm pleased to report that all the below methods of teaching have proved successful for long-term retention! Each girl can still define WAGGGS, give multiple examples of the links of unity and talk about the World Centres! I'll definitely be using the game/quiz/lap book method in the future!

One of the Guide Leader's visited our meeting last week and the girl's were THRILLED to tell her all they knew about WAGGGS and World Guiding. I'm so pleased that all the effort i've put into planning this term has paid off!

Program for meeting:



World Guiding lap book

As the girl's arrived, they decorated the covers for their World Guiding lap books. I have already posted photos of the covers of these lap books.


Game run by a Brownie Guide

This is one of my favourite parts of our meetings this term. The range of international games  the Brownie Guides have been teaching has been great and some I expect we'll be adding most of them into our regular game rotations!

During this meeting, a Miss 9 years taught a game from Sweden which the girl's loved. I don't recall the name or the rules, but it involved everybody sitting in a circle with somebody in the middle as 'it'. 'It' tapped someone's shoulder with a rolled up newspaper and they had to say someone's name quickly.... this was played over a month ago, so I don't actually remember more than that! I do remember that there was LOTS of laughter involved! Does anybody know this game based on my awful description?


WAGGGS game (fruit salad)

The aim of this game was simply have the Brownie Guides learn what WAGGGS stands for and familiarise themselves with the words. I first discussed with them that over the past couple of meetings we had learnt that there are Girl Guides and Scouts all around the world, and that WAGGGS was the overarching organisation.

Everybody sits in a circle (we sat on the floor, although this game is generally played using chairs), with one person standing in the centre. Going around the circle each girl is given a group name to remember.

Groups: World, Association, Girl Guides, Girl Scouts

Confirm that everybody knows what group they are in. The person that is 'it', also needs a group, as 'it' is continually changing.

The Leader calls out the name of a group, and everybody in the circle with that group name must swap places (sitting on either an empty chair or spot on the ground). Meanwhile, the girl that is 'it', in the middle of the circle, must also try to find a chair. The girl left standing is the new 'it'.

When 'WAGGGS' is called, everybody stands up and must find a new place to sit.

We also play with the rules that you cannot return to your own seat, nor the seat of the person either side of you.


WAGGGS Participation story

I usually use participation stories to remind the Brownie Guides of upcoming events (canoeing - what to bring, wear etc) or to teach the history of Guiding. This game was to further familiarise the girl's with key words relating to WAGGGS and the 'Links of Unity'.

We played this game in four Patrols standing in lines at the end of the Guide hall (similar to a relay race). I read the story aloud and when a key word was spoken, whoever was at the front of each Patrol at that moment ran to the end of the Guide hall to complete the action, and then back to the end of their Patrol line. This meant that everybody had the chance to complete the different actions and had to be constantly paying attention. We played this game twice through at the girl's request.


WAGGGS Quiz

After playing two running games in a row the girls were happy to sit on the floor and rest which was perfect for revision! We had a discussion/quiz talking about WAGGGS, it's meaning, members and the links of unity. 


World Guiding Lap Book Activities

There were two lap book activities to work on, which were completed on the inside cover of the file folder. The first was adding the 'Links of Unity'. Here are a few examples of the different versions the girl's created.


The World Centres pocket holds the mini booklet, made at the previous meetings. The world song folds out and contains the lyrics of the two verses. We are still working at learning the lyrics - but we'll get there eventually! The images of the World flag, left handshake, Guide sign and World Thinking Day were found on Google images. The World badge is a sticker that i've had of the World trefoil sitting around in the cupboard for years. 






The second lap book activity was completing the WAGGGS acronym. 



Campfire Songs

Not at all related to our badge, but we ended our night with some campfire songs. We hadn't practiced any for a while and will be having a campfire later in the term. A few of the girl's took turns leading songs - Cecil the Caterpillar, Cabin in the Wood and Funky Chicken. Then I took over for Edelweiss, which is one of my favourites. 

Another fun and productive meeting!

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