There isn't just one way to look beautiful

Our journey through session one of Free Being Me using the 7-10years activity book.

Welcome and take part pledge

After introducing the badge and topic, everybody needs to say a pledge that they will participate, share their opinions and have fun. We decided to do this with somewhat of a tongue-twister of a pledge and clapping game. Each week since, it has become more and more simplistic!


Guidelines

To create our group guidelines, three scribes wrote down every suggestion the Brownie Guides had and then the unit decided on which were their top choices.

These are the group guidelines the girl's chose:

Pot of Gold

If you can believe it, we were already behind schedule at this point in the program, so I decided to skip this activity. I have it all prepared if there is time during another meeting - although this does not seem likely. 


The Princess List

From the activity book:

Image credit

In Patrols, the girl's began by drawing and labelling the physical features of popular fairytale princesses. There were two Cinderella's, a Tinkerbell and one other princess. Can you guess who it is?

Cinderella

Tink

Once the drawings were complete and labelled, we came together as a unit to create a list of the similarities between the features of the four princesses.

Examples:

Then we worked through the discussion questions. The question they had a lot of difficulty with was, what other places you can see this princess look? Not one girl thought of media/celebrities, even with much prompting from Leaders and the parent helpers! Answers were along the lines of Disney-on-Ice, the opera, school and Disney land!

Despite the princess-look in the media confusion, the girl's were really great with the other questions and coming to the understanding that there is no such thing as perfect and lots of way to look beautiful.

Beauty Around the World

Excerpt from Free Being Me 7-10 years. Image credit.

I really loved this activity. I would read one of the sentences from above, eg. Somewhere in the world is it considered that big women are beautiful. The Brownies then had to decide whether this was true or false. Knowing that my girl's as I do, I knew that a few of them would follow the crowd. I had them stand in the middle of the room with their eyes closed. Each end of the hall had been designated as 'true' or 'false'. Once I read the statement, with their eyes closed the girl's needed to either step forward of backwards indicating which answer they felt was correct. From there, they opened their eyes and ran completely to their indicated side of the room. This worked really well in obtaining honest answers - which were really just guesses anyway!

Image credit

We are simulateouly running FBM with the Guides, using the 7-10 year program, with plans to complete 11-14 year program next year. For this activity, each round we mixed up the actions. Sometimes running to the signs at end of the hall, other times just pointed in the direction and also putting hands on heads for true and hands on hips for false. Variety worked well in keeping them focused.

We had an interesting talk with both groups discussing which facts were the most surprising and how beauty is seen differently around the world. Many parents mentioned to me that the girl's shared these facts with them at home.

Free Being Me Gallery

Rather than doing another drawing activity, we created the 'living gallery'. Each Brownie Guide took turns to mime an action, doing something they love to do eg. swimming, reading, walking the dog. Once the unit had correctly guessed the mime, that girl would then say, "I am swimming. I love my arms and legs because they help me move quickly through the water." 

This activity was really successful and i'm glad the drama activity was listed as an alternate activity. Some girl's even did a second mime, they enjoyed this so much!


Personal Challenge: Role Models

This was a take home activity to share a picture and information about a real-life role model. I printed the paperwork necessary and gave each girl a hard copy to write on. Only half the girl's remembered to bring theirs back the following week - which was what I suspected would happen. Most of the girl's wrote about their parents, but some chose teachers, other family members and one even chose another Brownie Guide in the unit!

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What were your successes and challenges in FBM session one?