The girls were in charge again last week with two Patrols running activities - rainbow loom bands and a taste-testing challenge. This meant that every single Brownie Guide brought in a loom (with many even owning MULTIPLE looms!) and bands.
Because the Patrols were in charge I didn't get a chance to show them my alternate methods of looming. This is something that I still would like to share with them, especially as they still love looming so much! Maybe an "alternate looming" night?
I've also added the fork to my repertoire of alternate looming. A little tricky to begin with but once you develop a rhythm, you quickly catch on! Cool, right?!
Patrol one: Rainbow Looms
The Patrol divided the unit into 3 groups - beginner, intermediate and advanced - and then each group focused on a different bracelet. The beginners group (6 girls with Miss8years in charge) created single band bracelets, fishtails and also learnt to attach charms to a bracelet. This group worked really well together and made some really cute bracelets.
The intermediate and advanced groups had a little more trouble as their bracelets were quite complicated and it took time making sure that each girl was following the steps correctly. This meant that no one in those groups completed their bracelets in the 30 minute time allowance they had to run their activity. The Brownies quickly realised that looming was definitely a whole night activity!
I wasn't sure exactly what level of involvement the girls required of me during the loom making and so in preparation for this activity I spent the night before the meeting creating bracelets by watching Youtube videos. I've discovered that I quite enjoy the process of making the bracelets as it is so similar to crocheting and I like understanding how the designs have been created.
Here are my creations - as you can see, i'm drawn to the rainbow color schemes!
Patrol two: taste test challenge
As I mentioned in my post a few weeks ago, the girls chose this activity as a part of the Food create-a-challenge badge. They were very excited and giggly when preparing this as they just wanted to see the reactions when everybody tried the more extreme food samples such as lemon juice and chilli.
This activity was the perfect example of organised chaos and did not run at all in the orderly fashion that had originally been explained to me. It was definitely a case of too many cooks with five girls each giving the rest of the unit conflicting instructions!
Everybody (Leaders excluded fortunately!) was seated at a table and then blind-folded. On a spoon they were given a small sample of food to try.
For the first round of tasting the girls were told to say their guess out loud. Very quickly the Patrol realised that those that were unsure of the correct answer just stayed silent until somebody else answered. From here they modified their instructions so that guesses were whispered and then noted down by own of the girls in the Patrol. I was impressed that they modified the activity when they realised it wasn't working as planned but it sure did slow things down!!
Foods tastes included: mustard, chili, popcorn, mayonnaise, lemon juice, dark chocolate, war heads and about five other things I can't remember.
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It was definitely an experience letting the Brownie Guides lead activities these past two weeks. There were successes and some dramas but that is all part of the experience. It very quickly became clear to me that I need to work on organisation methods with the girls - that some activities work better in small groups, where others can be done on a unit level.
Unfortunately we did not have time for more than a brief evaluation on either night due to time constraints and our next meetings won't allow for it either. Without properly evaluating and discussing their activities and leadership, the Patrol nights won't have as much impact on the girls as I would have liked. But still it was a learning experience for them and me!
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What are your experiences with girls taking over?
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