Patrol Activity Tubs or whatever you want to call them, are the wonderful idea of a Leader in our area. The Patrol System in her unit works magnificently, due to fantastic leadership and her Patrol time activities. Her Guides have fun working and learning as a team, which is just an amazing thing! I've been wanting to strengthen the relationships between the Brownies in their Patrols for a while, so of course I had to adopt her AMAZING idea with my girls.
Each activity is based around one or more of the seven fundamentals of Guiding which are: Guiding Traditions, Leadership Development, Outdoors, Patrol System, Promise and Law, Service and World Guiding. Some of the activities teach skills and information and some are simply about having the girls work together, which is a challenge in itself!
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| Source: GGA Victoria |
We have so many containers at the Guide hall that I am able to change the size of the tubs each week depending on the activity and the equipment needed. I just tape a picture of the Patrol emblems to the tub so that the Brownies can identify which is theirs each week. The tub includes a challenge card and any other resources necessary for their activity. I don't give the girls basic equipment such as stationary as they have Patrol boxes for those things, but if for example, they were doing knotting, I would include knotting cord in their tub.
The girls have about 5 minutes to chat and run around after they arrive at the Guide hall. Once about 10 girls have arrived (enough to start an activity) they break into Patrols and grab their tubs. Girls that arrive late go straight to their Patrol to join in the activity. As a Patrol the Brownies read through their challenge and decide if they will need to collect supplies and where they want to set up. Sometimes they get a table and chairs, at other times they sit on the floor and occasionally the activity dictates where they need to be.
The activities generally run for about 20 minutes but can be longer or shorter. There's no reason why it couldn't last an entire meeting if you wanted! Just make sure that each Patrol has a similar length activity so that they finish at the same time - some weeks one or more Patrols may even have the same activity simultaneously! After pack-up, my girls love to get into Brownie ring and report to the unit about their activity eg. showing a excerpt from the movie they created, performing a skit etc. It wasn't something I intended on happening, but they love it so it looks like it's part of our routine now!
Activities can be absolutely ANYTHING you like. Craft, a game, a discussion, cooking, Guiding skills or traditions. The Leader that created this idea has all her activities prepared and colour-coded aligning with each fundamental so the Patrols actually choose their activities ahead of time. I am not nearly at that stage of preparation so our activities so far are based around upcoming meetings or events in which I would like them to have basic foundations on a topic or simply a void I see in programing. However, having the girls work cohesively as a Patrol is my number one goal with these tubs. Everything else is just bonus!
Below I'm going to include a master list with links to all of the activities we have used in our Patrol Activity Tubs. Please let me know if you have any suggestions!
Patrol Activity Tubs - Master List (updated September 2, 2014)
Click the links below!
Guiding Traditions:
Leadership Development:
Outdoors:
Patrol System:
- Can you find the alphabet?
- Close-up photo challenge
- Crazy critters drawing activity
- Guide biscuit shop
- Patrol interviews
- Would You Rather?
Promise and Law:
Service:
- Australian Guide Promise in AUSLAN
World Guiding:
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Do you have any suggestions for Patrol activities?
