Brownie Gang Show

The Brownies love to perform so we decided to hold a Brownie Guide Gang Show. The girls shared a range of talents; singing, dancing,gymnastics, joke telling, skipping, poetry reading and playing musical instruments.

It was also the perfect opportunity for the girls that wanted to to complete a challenge for their peak achievement award - the Junior BP award.

Junior BP - World Guiding challenge: Prepare and perform an Australian concert item that would tell international visitors something about our country.

Credit: http://blog.twmg.com.au/australia-is-the-second-most-creative-country-in-the-world/

Two girls (7 years old) discovered the song, Cuddly Koalas, in my campfire song book and taught themselves the lyrics. They were not familiar with the tune of Frère Jacques, so two of the older Brownies who were rehearsing for a flute and violin duet taught them the tune and accompanied them during their performance. It was beautiful seeing the Patrol system in action.

Cuddly Koalas (tune: Frère Jacques)

Cuddly koalas, cuddly koalas

Possums too, Possums too

Wallabies and wombats

Wallabies and wombats

Kangaroo, kangaroo.

Other performances included:

• Song: Home among the Gum Trees (This song is actually really long! I had no idea.)
• Song: Under a Southern Sky
• Poetry reading (A sweet poem written by a 7 year old with the message: don't pollute our country. So sweet.)

I've never had any Brownies work on this particular challenge before as most prefer to teach games from other countries, so it was great to see the girls so enthusiastic about their Australian performances!

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What concert item would YOU prepare to tell international visitors about Australia?

Old Fashioned Party Games

Sometimes the best nights can be as simple as going back your childhood. And by that I mean MY childhood.

We decided to have a slumber party at the Guide hall with the simple agenda of party games and a movie. And it couldn't have been a more successful night. Don't you just love when things go according to plan?

Pass-the-parcel was a game I never really enjoyed. Sure, you were given lollies and prizes just for unwrapping a layer of paper but it never really interested me. And worse, when my mother planned the game for my birthday parties she would often skip lollies and put in cards that said "Do 5 star jumps". For someone that disliked being but in the spotlight it was not a game I enjoyed.

The girls were adamant about playing pass-the-parcel at the sleepover so I knew I had to think of something to make it more interesting. Inspired by my Mum's version of the game, I hunted for a long, long time for ideas. It's hard to find an answer when you don't really know what question you are asking!

I finally found my answer from the lovely ladies at www.guiders.co.uk

Pass-the-parcel forfeits.

None of the Guides had never played "forfeits" either (maybe it's not played in Australia...?) but they loved it! They worked together. Supported each other. Every person had a try. And most importantly, everybody had fun! 

The rules are simple.

Pass-the-Parcel: Forfeits

1. Everybody sits in a circle and when the music commences, passes around a package wrapped up with many layers of newspaper.
2. When the music stops, that person opens one layer of newspaper and reads the challenge inside.
3. The player can choose to either complete the challenge or forfeit it to another player. Whoever completes the challenge earns a treat, in our case, one m&m (which the girls were thrilled with!)
4. Play continues until all layers have been unwrapped.
5. Often the last layer has a larger prize, but we didn't feel that was necessary.

Here were the challenges we used:

This game was so successful, that it was the only other game they ended up playing was the chocolate game!

I haven't tried this out with the Brownies yet, but i'm sure that they'll love it as much as the Guides did!

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How do you adapt traditional party games to fit a Guiding meeting?

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?

How's Your Neighbour?

When I was in Guides we often played a game called, How's Your Neighbour? I haven't been able to find the rules online, so here's the basic rundown.

Game: How's Your Neighbour?
Everybody sits in chairs in a circle. One Guide is in and stands in the middle of the circle. That Guide walks up to somebody and asks, "How's your neighbour?". There are three ways to answer the question: sick, well or in hospital. If the girl replies "sick", everybody stands up and moves to sit in the seat on their left. If the reply is "well", everybody moves to the right. And "in hospital" has all the girls stand up and find a new seat, which cannot be the seat on either side of them. While all this is happening the Guide that is in is trying to obtain a seat in the circle. This is very difficult to do, unless "in hospital" is called. Whoever is left standing is then in and the game continues.

Credit: http://www.clipartlord.com/category/structures-clip-art/buildings-clip-art/hospital-clip-art/

The Brownies love to learn new words in Auslan (Australian Sign Language), so this seemed like the perfect game to adapt! My knowledge of Auslan comes solely from the internet, so I hope that I am not leading the girls astray with what I teach them!


Game: How are you in Auslan

I had to alter the phrases slightly with what I was able to locate online. The game is played exactly the same as How's Your Neighbour?, but without speaking and all phrases must be signed. The girls have learnt that they have to be paying attention all the time and to sign very clearly so that everybody can see or they won't know how to react! They really enjoy this one.

How are you?

Credit: http://www.signplanet.net/SubTools/SubSignSingle.asp?SignID=477

Sick

Credit: http://www.signplanet.net/SubTools/SubSignSingle.asp?SignID=628

                                                   Well

Credit: http://www.signplanet.net/SubTools/SubSignSingle.asp?SignID=1905

                                               Hospital

Credit: http://www.signplanet.net/SubTools/SubSignSingle.asp?SignID=129

All these images were obtained from www.signplanet.net. To see them in action go to www.auslan.org.au

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Have your Guides learnt to finger spell in Auslan?