Online games

Even though we're on school holidays at the moment, the Brownies decided to continue with our meetings. I decided to keep things simple and hold a games night.

We started by playing bingo. Everybody drew a 5x5 grid on a piece of paper and then filled them with random numbers from 1-100. I pulled up a random number generator to chose our numbers, which I screen-shared with everyone. We played for one row and then a full board. It took forever to finish and I would definitely do it differently next time! (Luckily the girls still enjoyed the activity! I was ready to it finish it before we had even reached a bingo).

Things I would do differently next time:

• Not use a random number generator! It was fine at first, but then repeated numbers so many times it become really difficult to move on.
• Next time use an online bingo caller such as this one: https://letsplaybingo.io 
• I kept track of numbers as they came up, but next time I'd start with a list of all the numbers and cross them off as I went.

Some of the hand-drawn bingo boards:

 

Next up, we played Would You Rather? I asked the group random questions that I had found online, and they would raise their hand if they wanted to share their answer. They also had to share why they would choose one option over the other. It was a fun activity and it was a great hearing their responses.

The questions we used are below.

Would you rather:

• fly or be invisible?
• be a famous singer or a famous actor?
• be a fish or a bird?
• swim in a pool or jelly or a pool of custard?
• have a pet dinosaur or a pet robot?
• be a pilot or a pirate?
• read books or write stories?
• go to the moon or go to Disneyland?
• never shower again or never cut your nails again?

Our final activity was Pictionary. We used the whiteboard feature in Zoom, and the girls took turns to draw pictures with everyone else guessing. The only clue given was the topic. Our topics were: food, animals and movies.

Can you guess what these pictures are? 

A hamburger and a peacock!

A few regrets with my bingo choices, but other than than another fun-filled meeting! 

Edited to add:

What are the chances?! I was just reading about a virtual sleepover on The Guiding Life and they also played Pictionary and Bingo! This bingo caller is much more fun than the google number generator I used!

Wreath making meeting

Doing our best to keep to our program, we created Anzac Day wreaths during our final meeting of the term. This is one of my favourite activities of the year, as we don't usually make collaborative craft projects. Of course, this year we didn't create a wreath as a unit, but we did work simultaneously while making our own wreaths.

Most of the group made a cardboard base prior to the meeting, using cereal boxes. Then during the meeting, we looked at images of poppies, and I demonstrated methods to create your own leaves and flowers.

I just love the unique results!

Changes

During these difficult times, being able continue Guiding with my units has been a beacon of light. It's been a fun challenge and has kept me focused on something positive, for which I am so grateful.

I know that not everyone will feel this way, or have the time, means or even want to think about Guiding right now. But for me personally, this one act of normalcy each week helps and I can only hope that it is doing the same for at least some of my members.

We've been meeting online for about a month now and although it hasn't been easy, I've finished every meeting with renewed excitement.

I've kept it pretty simple and we're doing our best to keep working through our term programs, albeit with a completely different format.

During our first week, I held three different meetings for our units. Both the Brownies and the Guides had a lot of fun learning all the features of Zoom (the online platform we've been using), from changing backgrounds, taking control of the screen and sharing images. It was a fantastic and much needed lesson for me in learning how the security settings worked!

I hope that you and your families are safe and well.

Thinking Day scavenger hunt

One of the activities at our Thinking Day meeting was a scavenger hunt/quiz.

Each Patrol was given a series of questions. Some of the them were fairy easy to answer immediately (or with group discussion), while others required searching around the hall for possible answers.

The more difficult solutions were typed and printed on small bits of paper and then hidden around the Guide hall to find.

Our Junior Leader created the rule that nobody was allowed to start searching until their Patrol had answered at least three questions together. This was fantastic, as rather than everybody running around in chaos, it gave the Patrol time to read the questions together and actually work as a team (something we often struggle with!).

Some of the Guides were very surprised about some of the answers, mostly the celebrities that were once Girl Guides themselves. This was a great activity, and I'll definitely use the format again for more dense topics.

Questions & Answers:

1. When did Girl Guides start?
A: 1910
2. Who started Girl Guides?
A: Agnes Baden-Powell and Robert Baden-Powell
3. What were Brownie Guides originally called?
A: Rosebuds
4. What does WAGGGS stand for?
A: World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.
5. How old is our Guide unit?
6. There are 5 World Centres. Where are they located?
A: UK, Switzerland, India, Mexico and various countries in Africa.
7. What are Brownie Guides called in India?
A: Bulbuls (type of bird)
8. How many years have our Junior Leaders been in Guiding?
9. What was your Leader's first Patrol in Brownie Guides?
10. What is the highest award you can earn as a Guide?
A: Queen's Guide Award (Australia).
11. What are three things that link Girl Guides and Girl Scouts around the world (links of unity)? A: Examples include the Guide Promise, salute, World song
12. How many Girl Guides and Scouts are there around the world?
A: Over 10 million
13. Name some famous Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.
A: Queen Elizabeth, Taylor Swift
14. Name three different Patrol badges.

How do you teach your unit about Guiding history?