Monday 28 September 2015

Eyes

I received an email today about a fun new resource from BadgeFreaks - the Blindness Awareness Activity Pack. It would be perfect to use for the Eyes create-a-challenge badge!



The pack includes information about Braille, Guide dogs, colour blindness, health and preventention, group discussion questions and games to play with your unit.

Credit: BadgeFreaks

This is definitely a great starting point towards the eyes badge. I especially like the discussion questions that are included.

Excerpt from activity pack:

Credit: BadgeFreaks

Sunday 27 September 2015

A slightly different arrangement

Not quite the tune or lyrics that we sing at our campfires, but perhaps that makes it better. Enjoy!


Thoughts?

Friday 11 September 2015

Beauty comes from deep within

This is part two of Free Being Me, session three. If you've read my earlier posts, you know that this session was not completed in one night for a variety of reasons. If you missed session three - part one, I recommend that you read that post first. 


Change the Media

In our previous meeting, each Patrol had been given just under 10 minutes to begin preparations for 'taking over the media'. During this meeting, they were given another 15 minutes to get their ideas together before presenting their final product to the unit. The presentations were great - on topic and completely unique! Two of the groups even requested to use images from our airbrushing activity!

I have to admit that while watching these presentations, I definitely had my proud Leader moment of 'Wow, these girl's are really getting this!'

I managed to take some photographs of the draft outlines as seen below. 

A magazine article:


An original song:


A news report (with a very dramatic reading!):




An advert for television, including a catchy jingle and dance number:



For my drama-loving Junior Guides, this was a great activity for them to share everything that they had learnt over the past three meetings.


Personal Challenge: You're My Star

Each girl created a star with a positive message written inside, that challenged the idea that everyone should look a certain way. The personal challenge component, was to take these home at the end of the meeting to display where others would be able to read them.

Some of the stars (before they were cut out):






And my personal favourite:



You're My Star was the final activity to complete session three. We had additional time in the meeting, so ended with a great craft project I discovered through one of the GirlGuiding UK's GFI programs. (Thanks Snowflake, for helping me discover these!) Since this has already been such a photo heavy post, i'll post the about this separately.

Monday 7 September 2015

Back in the swim of things

Sangam World Centre's new pool is complete and ready for all future visitors to enjoy!

Donations are still being accepted for pool construction, so please consider helping out with the last bit of fundraising needed! Donate HERE.

Here is the new pool in all its glory. Don't worry, the surrounding landscape has also been finished, just keep scrolling.

Credit: Sangam World Centre

Screenshot: Sangam World Centre

Were you there for the virtual pool party hangout to celebrate the new pool? If not, you can watch it all on Youtube!





In Memoriam:

Sangam's former pool had been operational since 1974.



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Have you been fortunate enough to swim in either of Sangam's pools?



NOTE: After my last post, I discovered this cute Warli Art version of the Sangam logo that I had to share.

Credit: Sangam World Centre

Friday 4 September 2015

Indian traditions: Warli art


I love art projects, so choosing to teach the girl's about the Warli tribe and their traditional art wasn't even a question during our Indian term.



The Warli people are from the state of Maharashtra, mostly located on the northern outskirts of Mumbai. Rather than depicting deities, their art tells a story of moments in everyday life such as hunting, dancing and harvesting. Warli art was traditionally painted on the inside walls of mud huts, usually for a celebration such as a marriage.

Have a look at this Indian Warli Art website for more information.


Our meeting began as you may have guessed, with a discussion and photo slideshow. Why mess with something that is working well? It gives me a chance to share information with the girls and they love to see the real-life examples on the computer screen. It has worked wonders for imparting the "learning material" this term!

Here is some Warli art painted on the wall at Sangam's entrance.




After looking at examples of and discussing Warli art, we moved onto the practical portion of the meeting. 

I demonstrated to the girl's how to draw different people and objects in the Warli style. We began with the basic person standing and then worked our way through a variety of poses - walking, running and sitting to name a few.


My photo, not my drawings.

As I drew on the whiteboard, the Brownie's followed along, drawing on pieces of paper. Other objects we drew included: 
  • trees
  • sun, moon, clouds, stars
  • campfire
  • line of people dancing
  • musical instruments

Some Brownie drawings. It's merely a coincidence that I only took photos of drawings that used blue texta. The was a rainbow of colour used, I just didn't capture it.




Once everybody had learnt the basics, it was time to move onto the painting. Each girl had a 12x12 inch piece of calico on which to paint. I had purchased thin-tipped paint brushes to make painting the fine details easier.

While traditionally, the Warli tribe used white for their painting, calico was the easiest and cheapest material for us to paint on and so we painted with black paint. If I had more time at my disposal, I would have liked to paint the calico beforehand to imitate the red ochre walls of the Warli mud huts.



I asked the girl's to plan their paintings before touching the paint and to think about the story that they wanted to tell.

Here are some of the final designs:







This was a meeting where we could have easily kept going for another hour. The Brownies were completely enthralled the entire time, and I think they really enjoyed the simple tricks used to easily recreate the Warli designs. An A+ meeting!