WAGGGS and World Centres

WAGGGS has updated their website! Information is still being added, so hopefully the program ideas that used to be on the individual World Centre websites will be added soon.

In the meantime, here are the current resources available.

Image credit: WAGGGS.org

And i'm sure that everybody has heard that our fifth World Centre has been named!

From the WAGGGS website:

The new name, Kusafiri translated from Swahili, means 'journey' was chosen to represent and embody the Girl Guiding and Scouting journey as we deliver trainings, workshops and sessions to our members throughout the Africa region.  

Learning about Sangam

While we were learning about India and its traditions, it would have been remiss not to learn about our amazing World Centre. We looked at photos, listened to music, learnt a little history and discussed the many reasons a Girl Guide can visit and stay at Sangam.

Some fun facts about Sangam World Centre:

• Sangam is celebrating its 50th birthday in 2016.
• It is located in the city of Pune.
• Sangam is currently building a new swimming pool. 

Here are some helpful links:

• Learn about the history of Sangam.
• Tune to 'Come into Sangam' song plus sheet music.
• Great activities and information.

Photos of Sangam - Entrance

Courtyard (before the pool make-over)

Pool (before the pool make-over)

Lady Ratan Hall - click here to see what it looked like many years ago!

Campsite

Related meeting ideas:

• World Guiding meeting #1: World Centres
• World Guiding meeting #2: WAGGGS regions
• World Guiding meeting #3: WAGGGS and the Links of Unity

Regions of the world meeting

Continuing with our World Guiding badge, our second meeting this term was based around the 5 world regions of WAGGGS. The main activities are straight from Guidey Laurie's blog, as reading her post was the reason I decided that we could complete two badge syllabus's this term rather than just the one! 

Program for meeting:

World Centres mini book

The Brownies all completed their mini books which they had started last week. I was thrilled at the amount of information they remembered from our games last week, thankfully moving beyond 'cat facts'!

While given the same resources and instructions, each book has it's own personal touch.

Game run by a Brownie Guide

One of the requirements for the World Guiding achieve-a-challenge badge is to learn and teach a game or song from another country. I'll need to confirm, but this possibly would also cross-credit with the Junior BP award.

We are working through all the badge requirements during our unit meetings, and this was the only challenge that I told girls they would need to go home to research, learn and then bring back to the unit. I made sure that they understood that girl's that don't complete this challenge will not have completed the badge requirements needed to earn their badge.

Image credit: Girl Guides QLD shop

Miss 7 years was the first volunteer to teach a game, which was a Canadian Aboriginal game called 'Dox-en Eye'. She did such an amazing job explaining the game to the girls as they sat down and then leading them through it. Afterwards, we held a brief discussion about completing the challenge - difficulties, things that would be changed, things that worked - and the rest of the unit voted unanimously that the game was wonderful and she had done a successful job completing the challenge requirements. 

WAGGGS Regions atlas game

As I mentioned, this activity is from Guidey Laurie's blog. The Brownie Guide's absolutely loved locating the region in the atlas and then calling out countries which may be possible members of WAGGGS. It was definitely a challenge as many had never used an atlas before! Instructions to play are on Guidey Laurie's blog - the only thing we didn't do was keep score. The atlas were all borrowed from the local library who had an amazing range of children's atlas available from which to choose.

Asia-Pacific matching card game

Another of Guidey Laurie's creations and a fun way to interact with the Guiding countries of the Asia-Pacific region. I created my cards just like she did, using images from the WAGGGS website and occasionally member country websites. I made two sets, so that two Patrols could play against each other at a time. As with most of my resources, the cards are laminated so that we can use them again and again. Definitely a great 'filler' activity for future meetings!

Another productive and fun night (don't you love when activities are successful!) although we didn't get to do two other activities I had planned about WAGGGS membership and the links of unity. We'll have to cover them in our next meeting. 



Downloads [COMING SOON! Keep reminding me so I don't forget]

• WAGGGS regions member list
• Asia-Pacific matching card game

Related posts:

• World Guiding meeting #1: World Centres

World Centres meeting

Our theme this term is 'World Guiding' and we'll be working on two badges - Achieve-a-Challenge World Guiding and Create-a-Challenge Other People. 

Last week our meeting was focused on the five World Centres.

Program for meeting:

Icelandic egg game (source unknown)

Equipment: a large, soft ball

Stand in a circle, feet apart and touching the feet of the people either side. The gap between your legs is a goal, and you protect it using your hands, both hands clasped together. Roll a ball back and forth, each person trying to get the ball through someone else's legs. If it goes through your legs, you put one hand behind your back, the second time, you turn round in your place, so you have your back to the circle, and the third time you are out. 

World Centres game

This game is an old favourite, although we rarely play it. Rules found here.

World Centres Quiz

The game and information for this quiz came from fellow Leader's on the Guiders forum. I put the quiz together using the facts shared in the forum as well as the WAGGGS website.

The activity was simple. I would read out a fact and the Brownies had to run to the picture of the World Centre that they believed matched that fact. The pictures were laminated cards of the World Centres, that were placed in the four corners of the Guide Hall.

World Centres mini book

This mini book was inspired by Owl and Toadstool's awesome World Centre's mini book. In fact, I planned on using her book, until an hour before our meeting I realised that I had forgotten to email her for the PDF! I decided that it would be faster for the girls create their own book, than me getting stressed over typing my own version.

Each girl folded and cut a sheet of white A4 paper to make their own mini book (instructions here). Then they cut and glued pictures of the four World Centres into the book - one image on every second page. (This book has no front cover, it just keeps turning). The country where the World Centre is located was written underneath.

Using their knowledge from our early discussion and quiz, the Brownies then wrote fun facts about each World Centre onto the opposite page. The World Centre cats were clear favourites in the fact department.

While not as aesthetically pleasing as Jen's book, I think the girl's did a great job. We'll be finishing the books off at our next meeting.

This page was written by our youngest Brownie.

We had a great night focusing on the World Centres. At our next meeting, we will be learning about WAGGGS. A rather dry topic (especially with the challenges necessary for the badge criteria), but luckily Guidey Laurie has been really helpful with activities to use! I'm excited to try them out!


Downloads:

World Centre quiz - download as a PDF

World Centre images for mini book - download as a PDF

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What is your favourite World Centre activity?

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!)

Adapting games

Many moons ago at a World Centres themed meeting, I decided to adapt one of my favourite games from when I was a Brownie, 'Shapes', to reinforce the names of each World Centre.

The game is played with four bases, each a different shape (eg. square, circle, star, octagon). So changing the game was as easy as relabelling each base after a World Centre. To my delight the game was a huge hit. The girls had fun and they were able to recall the names of the four World Centres and their location.

Last week I suggested that we play a game of Shapes and the Brownies all looked at me with blank expressions. Of course they had no idea what Shapes was, they have only ever played the game, World Centres!! (We did end up playing World Centres, I guess that the days of simple shapes are over).

It makes me wonder all the missed opportunities i've had. Fruit Salad would become "The Guide Laws" and Stuck in the Mud would involve saluting and reciting the Guide Promise to rescue someone.

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What games have you adapted to teach your Guides skills or information?