A puzzled penguin SWAP

I love SWAPS, but trading them isn't really an Australian Girl Guide tradition - at least not in our area! Instead we make them as a camp memory. The girl's wear their craft on their hat and can always remember back to the camp when they made it!

Our Madagascar themed camp a couple of years ago, was based around the story of the four penguins from the movies and their adventures. During the wide game, the Brownies had to complete challenges given to them by Skipper (the head penguin) so that they could follow him to Antarctica. Making the hat craft was the final challenge in the wide game, and their way of "finding" Skipper.

Each Skipper looked completely unique.

At each station of the wide game, the girl's collected one of the components needed for the craft. The supplies were in ziplock bags labelled with their Patrol name. Each bag had enough materials for their whole Patrol. The girls knew that they were collecting craft supplies but had no idea of the end result, so they were really excited when they realised they were making their own Skipper!

I found this craft at Danielle's Place, so go to her website for instructions to make this adorable craft!


Materials needed:

• puzzle - painted completely white
• black permanent marker
• goggly eyes
• orange paper or texta
• hot glue gun

The five materials below were the items in ziplock bags at each station. Everything else (markers, glue etc) was set up at station number six.

White puzzle pieces - body

I purchased a puzzle from Vinnie's (our local thrift store) for $1.00 and painted the entire thing white. Since the penguin needs to have a head, arms and legs you can only use pieces from the edge of the puzzle (and only every second piece). This is important to remember - other some penguins may be missing their limbs!

Strips of orange paper - feet and beak

Using this paper was optional. The younger girls had difficulty cutting the details of the beak and feet, so they drew them on with marker instead.

Googly eyes - penguin's eyes

Black felt - to attach safety pin

Rather than hot gluing the safety pin straight onto the puzzle piece, we attached a small piece of black felt and then threaded the pin through the space in the middle (see photos below).

Safety pins - to attach craft to hat

The wide game had a happy ending with all the penguins reunited with Skipper.

Other Madagascar camp links:

• Madagascar camp activity booklet

Madagascar camp: activity booklet

I always create activity books for the Brownies to use at camp. It's great for the girls to use during free time or if they just need a break from the excitement. Some barely get further than the first few pages, but many complete the whole thing from cover to cover and ask for a copy to give their siblings. I try to include a range of activities to appeal to the different interests and abilities of the girls. 

The back page is usually a challenge specifically about the campsite we are visiting. It's always funny to see when different girls reach the last page. You know because they are walking around the camp with a booklet in their hand studying old photographs to get dates and other random information.

Maybe this is something you can do at your next camp. If you don't know the campsite, that's alright, just keep the questions very general!

Example questions:

1. How many words can you make using the letters in the word (name of campsite)?
2. How many doors are in (name of campsite)?
3. How many people can sleep inside (name of campsite)?
4. What colour is the flagpole?
5. Draw a picture of your favourite thing at (name of campsite).
6. How many people can sleep in (name of campsite)?
7. Name the different wildlife you spotted outside.
8. How many lollipop steps does it take for you to walk around the cottage?
9. Count the trees on the property? (I used this at a campsite that had over 100 trees, it was pretty funny to watch the girls count them all)

If you actually have an opportunity to visit the campsite, make sure to ask more specific questions such as the dates on photographs, the colour of chairs etc.

In case you were wondering, the Brownies favorite pages in the book were the campfire song scramble (they delighted in pointing out errors I had made, so beware) and adding afro wigs to the Madagascar characters (final image)!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Do you have any quiet time activities you use at camp?