PJs, crazy hair and a fashion show!

The Patrol Seconders were in charge last week. These four girls haven't had much of chance to act in a leadership role so the girls were really in their element, excited to finally have their chance to finally lead the unit. I was really impressed with their leadership and positive way they responded to my advice when I offered them tips for adjusting an activity. In fact, it was one of the best displays of team leadership i've seen all term! They took turns leading the games and activities rather than all trying to hog the spotlight and even gave other girls the chance to be 'in'. 

The girls had time to plan their night over the past few meetings and they hadn't shared more than a vague outline of their plans with me. They told me they had it all under control, and they did! I had expected their program to follow in the footsteps of the Patrol Leaders who last term ran a World Guiding night, but instead they decided to do a variety of fun activities. 


Here is their program:

Instructions prior to meeting: wear pajamas and 'crazy' hair


1. Colours (skipping rope game)

Earlier in the term the girls were quite hyperactive and just could not settle down to focus on the plans for the night. I ended up scrapping my plans and instead we played an odd assortment of games to use up their excess energy. We were working our way through various skipping chants when I recalled a game from my pre-school day, 'colours'! Surprisingly, none of the Brownie Guides were familiar with it and i'm guessing since they chose to play it again they enjoyed it! They play at a much more advanced level than I ever did! Some of the colours they chose were ridiculously hard to guess. They didn't stick to the red, violet and aqua of my childhood, instead broadening the vocabularies of the younger Brownies and using colours such as mauve, burgundy, salmon and cyan. I was so close to whipping out my phone and resorting to Google for help in a few of the rounds!

In case you don't know it, the game is very simple. 

Before play begins the two girls that are 'in' select a colour, keeping it a secret from everybody else. The aim of the game is to guess this colour. The two girls each take an end of a skipping rope and stand apart so that the rope is in a straight line. They crouch down so that the rope touches the floor and begin to wiggle it gently, similar to a snake moving. The rest of the unit lines up and takes turns jumping over the rope and calling out a colour. If they guess incorrectly they are told, 'no' and move to the back of the line ready for their next guess. If they guess correctly, they swap with one of the girls holding the rope. A new colour is chosen and play resumes. 

This game can be extended using the names of countries, food, Links of Unity etc.



2. World Centres (Shapes)

I'm not sure if i've even written about this game before. It was my favourite game when I was in Brownies and I would have been happy to play it every single week.  

How to play: Draw a chalk shape drawn on the floor in each corner of the room. Girls divide evenly into four groups and stand inside each of the four shapes. An instruction is called, eg. "Square to star". The girls in both these shapes must make their way across the room and into the other shape. While they are moving another girl is 'it' and tries to tag them. If tagged they must sit in the spot they were tagged and then become 'bar' for other girls. When many girls are sitting it is very difficult to get them out, as they just walk from shape to shape touching the head (bar) of the girls sitting. If "All shapes" is called all players must move at the same time in a clock-wise direction to the next shape. 

When I introduced the game to my current unit I renamed it 'World Centres'. In each corner a chalk building was drawn and it was named after one of the four World Centres. A laminated card (see below) is placed into each to help differentiate the four locations. Play is the same as above except instead of shapes, landmarks are used. To have all players move at once, call "World Centres!"

As an extra challenge, I often quiz the girls when we play. They have to name the country their World Centre is located in before they can run outside of their shape. 

We haven't played this game in over a year, so it was a pleasant surprise to bring it back into the mix and introduce it to our newer members. I was not involved at all in the game. The P2s took charge with one being a tagger and the other a caller and throughout the game they would switch roles.

Below are the images we use in our game. I created them by putting photos of the four World Centres through a drawing filter. Click HERE to download a PDF file of these World Centre drawings.

 

3. Skip into Brownie Ring

I was surprised when the girls chose to keep this in their program! I often cut it out due to lack of time. 


4. Cat Walk

This was the reason the P2s asked everybody to wear pajamas and crazy hair. There were many side ponytails and animal themed onesies. It turned out that most of the girls didn't know what a cat walk was until one of the less-outgoing P2s surprised us all and started strutting around, doing ridiculous over-exaggerated poses! The girls thought it was hilarious and gained more confidence about participating themselves. Most did an individual walk and each Patrol also did a group walk and pose. 


5. Fruit Salad (Ladders)

It has been a long time since we played this so it was a nice change of pace, despite the cries of "somebody stepped on me!" every now and then.


It was a fun night bringing back some long forgotten games and i'm proud of the girls for taking the lead. Even better it meant that I could turn up on the night without having to do any planning! (well... except for the backup activities I planned just incase!)