Eye Spy

One of my favourite meetings this term was a visit from a wildlife organisation. 

Bearded Dragon

The Brownie Guides (and adults) had an amazing time learning about and interacting with Australian wildlife, from the sweet sugar glider to the snapping crocodile (not really, it's jaw was taped).

Gecko

Green Tree Frog

Children's Python

We are definitely going to be asking for a return visit next year! There are so many animals we didn't get a chance to meet. I can't wait!

Looks aren't the only thing that matters

This is the session where everything went a little off the rails. Not that it was bad or unsuccessful by any means, just that everything took so much time to get through and we only completed half of the activities in the session. 

It's one of those situations that you look at afterwards and realise all the things you could have done differently. Ahhh, hindsight.

Personal Challenge Sharing: Fortune Teller

The girl's took their fortune tellers home at the end of session two, to write in the blank spaces, eight things they liked about themselves. 

Credit: Free Being Me, 7-10 year activity pack, page 47

Most of my girl's have been with the unit for well over a year and so i'm not exaggerating when I say that whenever we do a craft, I know that there will be very little time for anything else during the meeting. For some reason when planning my FBM sessions, I did not classify the fortune teller activity as a craft. And that was a mistake.

If I had, I would have requested that the girl's colour, cut AND fold their fortune tellers at home. Obviously this did not happen and so time was spent colouring in the picture (we had used black and white printing for the template), cutting it out and folding it (and let's not mention that I demonstrated folding it inside out, and then had to start again!). Then there was the girl that left hers at home and had to start from scratch, the girl that was making her first visit to the unit and the multiple fortune tellers I had to refold as they wouldn't work properly. (And again I ask myself, how did I not predict this happening?!)

Please understand that I am not saying anything against this activity (just my own preparation!). It did exactly what it was supposed to and once we finally got through the 'craft' aspect, the girl's had fun sharing positive things about themselves to as many other Brownie Guides as possible. My favourite positive message was "I like my awesome dance moves".

Note: As you can see in the image above, the star designs in the corners are all identical - whether you print the template in colour or in black and white. This means that when you are ready to play there is absolutely no way to differentiate between the first four squares on the fortune teller. Remember to colour each star in a different colour or add another distinctive feature in each box! Yes, this was something else that slowed us down. Learn from my mistakes!


Airbrushing: Spot the Difference

This activity was supposed to run for 10 minutes, however I knew that airbrushing would be a topic that my girl's would find interesting, so I decided to expand it. (Yes, even though we were already running 20 minutes behind schedule).

We began with a discussion about airbrushing and digitally altering images. All the girls were familiar with the concept, although they referred to it as photoshopping. So that required a slight side discussion about the program Adobe Photoshop and that it was one of many programs that could be used to digitally alter images.

Then we watched the Dove Evolution Youtube video by Tim Piper. I had planned on having a second viewing in slow motion, but scrapped that due to our time limits. After watching the video, we discussed the digital alterations we had observed, which gave the girls some things to look out for in the following activity.

This is the transformation that occurs in the video:

Credit: Dove Evolution

In Patrols, each group was then given an airbrushing sheet with a different set of images. I used the photos provided in the FBM 7-10 years activity pack and also photographs I found online, which depicted more extreme examples of airbrushing. 

Given 5 minutes, each Patrol made a list of differences they could spot in the before and after airbrushing examples. Then we came together as a unit and each Patrol presented their images and the differences they had spotted. All of them were really shocked about the huge list of things that had been altered, and it led to come great comments and discussion.

Can you figure out which list matches each image?

I know that other Leader's have used photos of celebrities during this activity. I tried to do this, but found it really difficult to find authentic before and after photos. Most of them seemed to have also been manipulated! Now having completed this activity, I am glad that I was not able to locate the celebrity photographs. I feel that these images would be distracting and that it is more meaningful using every day girls.

Girl Guides Australia has provided additional airbrushing images so make sure you download them for your meeting. Unfortunately, I didn't realise these existed until after our meeting or I would have used these instead.

Time-wise, this activity took about 40 minutes. I know that I added in the video and extra images, but the girl's had a LOT to talk about when we got to the discussion questions and wanted to share their own experiences. 

Change the Media

This activity is all about taking on the media and sending out a positive message to help others to be body confident. By the time we had completed our other activities (only two!), we only had 10 minutes remaining before going home. So the girl's spent those 10 minutes getting their instructions and then writing up drafts of their media piece to continue with the following week.

So that was session three.... part one. Since week three needed to be continued in another meeting, I will post those activities separately.

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Time is definitely my biggest challenge during meetings. What is yours?

And they're gone!

Market stalls held.

Money raised.

Profits spent.

Badges distributed.

At least, until next year.

Indian food

We learnt about many things in our half term studying India for the Other People badge, but the girls were most excited to learn about and experience the cuisine.   

During our meeting we:

• looked at photographs of different meals
• discussed food preparation and ingredients
• how to eat using only one hand
• learnt about tiffins (Indian lunch box)
• ate Indian food

Unfortunately, cooking during or before the meeting was not an option and so I had to resort to what I could pick up pre-made from the local supermarket. Not completely authentic, but great for a first taste of India. The Brownies devoured all the food and insisted that we eat Indian meals at our future camps!

Our menu consisted of:

• rice
• butter chicken
• chapattis (cut into quarters)
• mini papadams 
• vegetable dhal

We sat on the ground, chatting and eating the food using only our right hands. It was a lovely relaxing way to end the night. I'm especially grateful for paper plates so we could skip the washing up for once!

As usual, I forgot to take photographs until it was too late. Here is a plate with the scraps of leftover food.

Jamborella Explorer

I have just discovered the most adorable clipart on the Girl Guides Victoria state website. 

Image credit: Girl Guides Victoria

Games from India

Each week as we worked on the Other People create-a-challenge badge, we would play a game or learn some basic language from India. Sometimes both, as you will see in one of the games below! Every game was fun (and successful). It is always a lovely surprise when new games go over well! 

Image credit

Bulbul Volleyball

Source: World Sangam Day Activity Pack

Equipment: Balloons

How to play:

1. Players sit in two lines facing each other, feet out in front of them touching the feet of the person opposite. 
2. The leader stands at one end of the line and throws a balloon into play. 
3. The players have to bounce the balloon around, trying to keep it from going behind their own line while getting it to land behind the opposite line - and players must keep their behinds on the floor at all times! 
4. Teams score one point each time the balloon lands behind the opposing line.

Hindi Colour Game

Source: World Sangam Day Activity Pack

Equipment: 

• Hindi colours written on coloured paper. Eg. Lal (Red) written on red paper.
• Youtube video to assist with pronunciation.

How to play:

1. The Leader calls out a colour in Hindi.

2. The girls must all run to touch something that colour.

Elimination: The last girl to touch the colour or someone that touches as incorrect colour is out. Or alternatively, can lose a life.

Added difficulty: The Leader can call out two or three 
colours all at once and the girls have to find a way of touching all of the colours at once.

Hindi Colours

Lal = Red

Narangi = Orange

Pila = Yellow

Hara = Green

Nila = Blue

Gulabi = Pink

Zambla = Purple

Kala = Black

Safed = White

Elephant, Giraffe, Eagle

Source: "International Game for Brownies", Trefoil New - April 2006 

How to play:

1. Everyone stands in a 
circle with one person in the middle. This person points at one girl and says either ‘elephant, giraffe or eagle’.

2. The girl they are pointing at and the girls on either side must act out whichever animal was chose.

3. If any of these three girls gets their action incorrect (or do it too slowly) they sit down. 
4. The game continues skipping over the girl that is sitting down so the person being pointed at may have a new neighbour to work with.

5. The last person standing is the winner.

Actions:

Elephant – The middle girl holds arm out in front of face as trunk. The girls on each side, hold up their arms to the middle girl, creating a half circle. These are the ears. 

Giraffe – The middle girl holds her arms above her head to be the long neck and head. The girls on either side have their hands and arms pointing down to the ground away from centre person to be the legs.

Eagle – The middle girl makes a beak shape with her hands in front of her face. The girls on each side, use one arm (away from the centre girl) to make moving wing motions.