New Girlguiding Programme - an index of skills builder cards and unit meeting activity cards

With the launch of the new programme comes a plethora of 'activity cards' for the prescribed Unit Meeting Activities that must be done, as well as for the prescribed Skills Biulder Activities.

With 12 UMA cards per pack (3 packs available), and 5 Skills Builder Activity Cards per level, per topic, per theme, we have a LOT of A4 cards to 'scan' through when planning.

Skills Builders:

There are 6 stages (levels) -
* Rainbows = 1,2
* Brownies = 2,3
* Guides = 3,4,5
* Rangers = 5,6

Each of the 6 themes has 2 topics at each level, and 5 activities to complete at each level

This means for Level 3, we have 6 themes x 2 topics x 5 activities = 60 cards at level 3, and the same at level 4, and level 5.

OR if you think if it in themes, we have
Express Myself theme, has 2 topics "Communicate" and "Innovate"
* Communicate stage 3 has 5 activities
* Innovate stage 3 has 5 activities
* Communicate stage 4 has 5 activities
* Innovate stage 4 has 5 activities

* Communicate stage 5 has 5 activities
* Innovate stage 5 has 5 activities

On top of that there are compulsory Unit Meeting Activities (a guide must do 5 hours of these per theme, in order to get the theme award, as well as the SB level and an interest badge).  

So, all in all, a LOT of different activities to try and fit in over a 2-3 year rolling programme. It feels like a planning nightmare, trying to ensure that 24 girls at 3 different stages, cover all elements required for the badge, as well as ensuring the programme is sufficiently girl-led (despite the prescriptive approach of the new activities), varied, and caters for the individual.

To try and help with this, i've collated key information from each activity card into a summary index spreadsheet which tells me what the activities at each level and topic are, the timing/duration, what resources are required, what space (indoor or outdoor) is needed, and any comments or concerns I have. 

If you want to have a look at my efforts, you can download the SB and UMA Index spreadsheet from here - be warned, it's not pretty and contains many typos.

Over the coming weeks and months, I will be adding information about the minimum number of girlrs required to run each activity, and whether a leader is required (many activities DO need leader input and DO need larger numbers, despite the blurb on the GG website telling us these are brilliant for small groups, and designed to be self-led.  

If you've got any suggestions or corrections, plesae do let me know!


DOWNLOAD LINK: SB and UMA Index spreadsheet 

New Girlguiding Programme - record sheets for girls older guides, and for those who lose their badge books

So, Girlguiding has launched a new programme For Every Girl, from Rainbows up to Rangers. Here is the official overview. 

Guides will now all have to buy  a new Badge Book which contains all of the clauses for the interest badges, and to record all of their progress.  However, I know that most of these will get lost/mislaid within the first couple of weeks of owning them, and at £8 a shot, I can't see parents replacing them very often.  

So with help and inspiration from another guider, i've put together a record sheets on which girls can record their progress on a single page. These will be left in our patrol boxes in the hall, so less chance of losing them. Also means i can take them all home a the end of term and update the GO records accordingly.






Guides who complete a Skills Builder level in all 6 themes, plus an interest badge in all 6 themes, plus 5 hours worth of unit meeting activities in all 6 themes, are eligible to start the Guides Gold Award Challenge. If they complete this, they are awarded the Gold Award.  

It is intended that with the new programme, it will take girls 2-3 years to achieve the Gold Award. With this in mind, girls who have achieved 2 Guide Challenge Badges (ie. been in guides for at least 2 years), and have less than 2 years left in guiding (i.e. aged 12 or above) have some alternative ways to achieve the Gold Award.

For girls who have completed 10 (or nearly 10) of their BP clauses by July 2019, they can then do the Gold Award Challenge instead of a BP Adventure, and be awarded the Gold Award (instead of the BP Award).








For girls who have not started the BP, or don't want to continue with BP clauses for the next year, they can do 2 skils builer stage badges (in different themes), plus new interest badges (1 in each of 3 themes), followed by the Guides Gold Award Challenge.  They will then be awarded the Gold Award.










DOWNLOAD LINK: Doc and PDF versions of these files are here, if you want them.

UM16 BP International Evening

Our four BP girls wanted to organise an International Evening for the unit. The Zone 2 (Global Awareness) clause says:

"With your Patrol, organise an international evening with games, crafts, food or music and dance."
Our BP Guides decided that they wanted a theme of 'International Food'. With a unit of 30, and having already done a cooperative games evening (and seen how difficult it was to get 40 lively guides to listen to them and follow instructions), they went off to plan a couple of weeks ago.

Last week they came back with their plan to have four stations, with each group visiting a station for 15 minutes, with one girl planning and running their own station. They had agreed as a group what stations (based on what they thought would be enjoyable, could fit into the time and facilities, would work with the number of girls, AND would fit well with the other stations). They did this independently away from the unit - online chat, i think - and came back with their shopping lists if need be.

We had found out during the weeks before that two local schools had school shows and parents evenings on, so we knew numbers would be down to around 22. But on the day itself, we got lots of texts from other parents saying girls were also unable to come due to parents evenings, school discos, and shows, etc....which meant we were left with only 11 girls. I will admit, I was a little disappointed at the last minute notifications (but i understand how it happens). I really don't mind that girls don't come every week, but almost all of the cancellations were down to things that were planned several weeks ago, so it would have been nice to know about these before we had done all the shopping (all edible stuff, mostly non-keepable). And i was also aware that our BP girls might be disappointed with the turnout, giving all the hard work they had put in.

On the night....well, yes, i think there was initially a bit of dismay from a two of our most 'leadery' BP girls ("where is everyone? why haven't they come?")...but that was soon forgotten once they realised that it was going to be a lot more fun and a lot less work than they had anticipated! We were able to have music on in the background, we didn't need to do any 'crowd control', and didn't once have to put our hands up to get people to listen!

We had a fantastic evening! The guides who were there had a fabulous time, and had the time (and resources available) to do extras of activities they enjoyed, and spend more time than they would otherwise have had. We were impressed the leadership and creativeness shown by our BP girls, and their ability to organise and plan. They all enjoyed running their activities, and agreed that actually, it was a lot easier with smaller numbers.

The activities they ran were

• Making and decorating (and eating!) cake-pops from America, along with an american themed quiz and colouring activity.
• Decorating German Gingerbread men
• An international blind food tasting (guess the food!)
• Mehndi from Asia, using chocolate writing icing tubes

Games - Virus Attack

Taken from the Facebook 'Guide Leader Support' Group and from here http://youthgroupgames.com.au/games/505/molecule/

Viral Attack!

From http://youthgroupgames.com.au/games/505/molecule/ & using tasks from various '20 things in 20 minutes' etc.

Premise:

There is an underground criminal organisation who are plotting a chemical attack to release a virus which will turn everyone into sheep and allow them to take over the world!  Our only chance of survival is to find and make the antidote.

The problem is the person who has made the antidote is the Mad Scientist, and she is hiding it. 
You may visit the Mad Scientist more than once but only one patrol member can see the antidote at a time, and only for 20 seconds at a time.

Your mission is to visit various scientists to get the various atoms which you will use to replicate the antidote exactly.  You get atoms by completing challenges with each scientist.

Each scientist will give you a task to complete before they can help you and you will have to visit them more than once.  Your patrol must stick together and the whole team must complete the task before your team receives their atom.


Be quick – you must assemble the antidote before the virus is released! 

Time: Roughly 2 hours including eating and clear up


Number: Any number of patrols

Roles

• Mad Scientist (holds the virus antidote)
• Other scientists (hold several challenges, each, and the 'prize' atom for each challenge)

Equipment: 

Tea bags, balloons, book, pens, paper, scissors, sellotape, satsumas, ball, sweets, cocktail sticks, names of all the Queens of Scotland, container for each patrol to put sweets collected in.


We used Sainsburys 3 for £1 sweets and bought a selection.  

• Midget Gems, 
• Jelly Beans, 
• White marshmallows, 
• cola bottles, 
• fizzy straws, 
• strawberry laces, 
• fizzy fang, 
• gummy lips, 
• gummy teeth, 
• ice cream cone, 
• dolly mixture, 
• pink marshmallow, 
• cola lace, 
• foam shrimp, 

How It Works

Leaders create the antidote by sticking sweets together using cocktail sticks to look like a chemical structure.   The Mad Scientist keeps the antidote hidden.

The rest of the sweets are for the patrols to earn while doing the challenges.  Leaders/Scientists keep these hidden.

There are 41 challenges divided between the leaders/scientists, each challenge earns a different sweet.

Girls visit leaders in turn to do the tasks and earn sweets towards their antidote.  They don't know what they earn until after they had completed the task so some patrols ended up with more/less of a type of sweet than was needed for the antidote.

Once the girls had gained what they thought were the right sweets then they had to put them together correctly – we did confiscate one phone from a clever guide who thought 'photographic memory' was take a photo of what it's meant to look like! We just gave out the cocktail sticks but you could make it harder and make them earn them too.

Girls may have to do some challenges multiple times based on what sweet are in the antidote.

Girls must finish 10 minutes before the end of the meeting – when the virus is released. If they have accurately made the antidote they are safe. If the antidote was only part assembled then the virus takes over, they are unable to speak and have to 'baa' for the rest of Guides.

Tasks:

1. Write down the 3rd clause of the 'craft' badge – to earn a fizzy straw **pen/paper** 
2. Make a plait – to earn a midget gem
3. Draw a corgi – to earn a jelly bean **pen/paper**
4. Find out who can do the best evil witch laugh in your patrol – to earn a coke bottle 
5. Sing a song to a different tune – to earn a white marshmallow 
6. Write down four World Guiding Centres – to earn a jelly bean **pen/paper**
7. Give someone a hug – to earn a coke bottle
8. Make a party hat – to earn a fizzy straw **pen/paper/scissors/sellotape**
9. Sing the first verse of your favourite campfire song – to earn an ice cream cone 
10. Draw a bike – to earn a jelly bean **pen/paper**
11. Draw a map of the building – to earn a milk bottle **pen/paper**
12. Write down an animal for each letter of the alphabet – to earn a midget gem **pen/paper**
13. Get out a table, put it up properly and put it away properly – to earn a jelly bean **table**
14. Write down the Guide promise – to earn a jelly bean **pen/paper**
15. Peel a satsuma without breaking the peel – to earn a fizzy fang **satsuma**
16. Get half your patrol upside down – to earn a fizzy fang
17. Make a table decoration – to earn a fizzy straw **pen/paper/scissors/sellotape** 
18. Balance a book on your head from one end of the room to the other – to earn a foam banana **book**
19. Make a pyramid at least 2x the heigh of a piece of A4 – to earn a coke lace **pen/paper/scissors/sellotape**
20. Write down the Guide Laws – to earn a flying saucer **pen/paper**
21. Find the sum of the current ages of everyone in the patrol – to earn a jelly bean
22. Put the Queens of Scotland in the correct order – to earn a foam shrimp
23. Stay still and silent for a minute – to earn a milk bottle
24. Do 10 star jumps – to earn an ice cream cone
25. Name 10 Guide interest badges – to earn a jelly bean
26. Sing the National Anthem – to earn a gummy lips
27. Say “Hello, I am ______ and I like ______” in French or Spanish – to earn a gummy teeth
28. Make a cup of tea – to earn a gummy lips **tea bags**
29. Draw a portrait of the Mad Scientist – to earn a gummy teeth **pen/paper**
30. Make me laugh – to earn a midget gem
31. Say the alphabet backwards – to earn a strawberry lace
32. Throw and catch a ball 10 times at least 4m apart – to earn a dolly mixture **ball** 
33. Tie 3 bows – to earn a dolly mixture
34. Quack like a duck for a minute – to earn a dolly mixture
35. Get your patrol to form a zoo-scape – to earn a dolly mixture
36. Human pyramid – to earn a pink marshmallow
37. Draw the Guide badge – to earn a dolly mixture **pen/paper**
38. Give someone a compliment – to earn a dolly mixture
39. Sing the Narwhal song – to earn a fizzy straw 
40. Get me a glass of water – to earn a strawberry lace
41. Blow up a balloon – to earn a midget gem **balloon**

Queens of Scotland

• Joan of England
• Euphemia de Ross 
• Mary of Guelders Margaret of Denmark Margaret Tudor 
• Mary, Queen of Scots Anne of Denmark Henrietta Maria Catherine of Braganza Anne Hyde
• Mary II
• Anne I
• Sophia Dorothea
• Caroline of Brandenburg Charlotte de Mecklenburg Caroline of Brunswick Adelaide
• Victoria I
• Alexandria of Denmark Mary of Teck
• Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon Elizabeth II 
• Margaret of Norway (not technically a Queen but a good place to start!!) Isabella de Warenne
• Anabella Drummond Joan Beaufort
• Mary of Guise

Games ideas - quick games

The Knot

Everyone stands in a tight circle, closes their eyes, and puts their arms up in front of them, then joins hands with TWO different people opposite them in the circle. Then they have to open their eyes and untangle themselves without breaking hands, to form a circle.  Sometimes people end up back-to-front, or sometimes with 2 separate circles - this is fine.

The Mummy

Each team of three has toilet rolls.  Two people have to wrap the third person in bandages to look like a mummy. The winning team is the best-wrapped mummy in a set time, e.g. 3 minutes.

Port and Starboard

Girls run around. Leader calls out actions – last ones out. Calls
  Port - run to the left hand side of the room
  Starboard - run to the right hand side of the room
  Climb up the rigging – pretend to climb up a rope
  Down in the hold - crouch down
  Scrub the decks - pretend to scrub the decks
  On the look out - look out through the telescope
  Captain’s coming – salute
  Dance the hornpipe - dance a hornpipe
  Ship's sinking - get into a straight line down the centre of the
room 

Beans

The leader calls out various types of beans and the girls perform the correct action.

•   Runner Beans - run around
•   Jumping Beans - jump
•   Baked Beans - lie out in the sun
•   Chilli beans - shiver
•   Frozen Beans - Stand still
•   Broad Beans - Stand with legs as far apart as possible
•   French Beans - say "Oh La La!"
  Last one doing the action is out 

Name that animal

Each girl has a sheet of paper and pen. Read out an instruction for them to draw, such as ‘has 4 large feet’ and each girl draws that, then passes her paper to the left.
They then draw the next instruction such as ‘has a long neck’ on the new sheet. Carry on passing until all clues are done.
Look at the finished pictures and identify the animal e,g, giraffe 

Sleeping Lions

All but one girl is a sleeping lion, and lies on the floor with their eyes closed.
The one who is on moves around the rest, trying to make them move or laugh. She is not allowed to touch them, but can tell jokes or try to trick them into moving.
Any that do move get up and join her, trying to get the others to move

Duster hockey
You will need: a duster, a piece of fabric or beanbag. Hockey sticks made from rolled up news paper. Something to mark 2 goals.
Split girls into 2 teams and have them line up on
either side of the 'field'. Number the girls in each
team. Place the duster in the middle. When their

number is called girls run forward and try to score a goal. The team with the most goals wins.

0. 
   

1. Fizz Buzz

 You were named after someone  You like to sing
 You prefer books to movies
 You play a musical instrument
 You like to play a sport  You prefer milk
chocolate to white Chocolate  You have travelled somewhere
on a train this year
 You want to join Guides when
you’re old enough  You like to dance

Players sit in a circle. The player to go first says the number "1", and each player after adds one number in

turn. However, any number divisible by three is replaced by the word fizz and any divisible by five by the

word buzz. Numbers divisible by both become fizz buzz. A player who hesitates or makes a mistake is out. A simpler alternative game is any number that contains 3 or 5.
For example, a typical round of fizz buzz would start as follows:
1, 2, Fizz, 4, Buzz, Fizz, 7, 8, Fizz, Buzz, 11, Fizz, 13, 14, Fizz Buzz,

16, 17, Fizz, 19, Buzz, Fizz, 22, 23, Fizz, Buzz, 26, Fizz, 28, 29, Fizz Buzz, 31, 32, Fizz, 34, Buzz, Fizz, ...

Sculptor

Girls line up in two rows facing each other.
Girls in one row are the sculptor. Girls in the other row are the marble.

The sculptor can change one part of the statue each time, and has six moves to make the marble into a funny statue. Girls then change roles.

All the same

Give each girl a sheet of A4 paper. Call out the following instructions. No one is allowed talk and all must do
the same thing.
1. FOLD YOUR PAPER IN HALF
2. FOLD THIS DIAGONALLY 3. RIP OFF A CORNER
4. FOLD IN HALF AGAIN
5. FOLD IT ONE THIRD
6. RIP OFF A CORNER

Ask everyone to unfold their sheet of paper - Isn’t it strange how everyone ended up with a different result? 

Programme planning and girl-led guiding

Last term (and last week again), we asked the girls for ideas on what they wanted to do:  Four A3 sheets pinned up around the hall, and a big stack of postit notes divided up between the patrols.  The four sheets were titled:

• Badges & GFIs
• Activities in the hall (crafts, cooking, skills)
• Visitors or Trips
• Games to play

The girls were allowed to write their ideas (individually) on post-it notes and stick them onto the appropriate sheet.  They were also allowed to write 'Not...' if there's something the didn't want to do.

We got equal numbers of 'More Craft' and 'Not Craft', and equal numbers of 'More sport' and 'not sport' - so we'll include one session of each in our term plan (and perhaps in the summer months, split the unit in two for some sessions where some can do craft, and some can do sporty things outside, if we have enough adults.

The overwhelming votes were for 'Chocolate' (appeared on all four boards, many many times), and visits to a trampolining centre.  So, we're doing the Chocolate GFI this term and will arrange a trip to one of the trampolining centres.  And, in the interests of a balanced and varied programme, (and because a very kind friend has offered to come and do a CPR and emergency first aid training session for free) we're working through the first aid badge.

As well as these our badge and GFI for the spring term, we've also got 4 BP girls who want to run various sessions as part of BP Clauses, so we've allowed time in the plan for these. They include

- an international evening

- a celebration of a festival from another culture (chinese new year)

- a 'peace and relaxation' session (good luck with that one, will be a challenge)

- a patrol cooking competition

With this lot, plus a trip out to the trampolining centre, I think we'll be covering all of our five areas:

• Healthy Lifestyles – develop your mind, body and soul. It’s all about keeping healthy and happy.
• Celebrating diversity - meet new people and get involved in things going on in your area.
• Global Awareness – make the world a better place.
• Discovery – have new experiences and adventures.
• Skills and Relationships – build on your personal and life skills.

And all of the sessions will be based upon the 5 essentials

1. Work together in small groups
2. Govern themselves and make their own decisions
3. Have a balanced & varied programme
4. Care for the individual
5. Share a commitment to a common standard

AKA

1. G - Groups - working in small groups
2. U - Uniformity in a common standard
3. I - Individual - care for the individual 
4. D - Decisions - Making their own!
5. E - Exciting - balanced and varied programme

AKA

1. M - Making Decisions (girl-led guiding)
2. A - Activities (balanced and varied programme)
3. G - Groups (working in a variety of groups)
4. I - Individual (care and choices)
5. C - Commitment to a common standard (promise, law, unit rules, etc)

Games Ideas - Large Teams

Skinning the snake

Everyone stands in a line, with legs apart. The right hand is passed between the legs and linked with the left hand of person behind. The person at the back starts to crawl through the legs of those in front, and the others follow, without letting go, until everyone is standing in a line.

Over and Under - ball passing
Girls get into lines of approx 10 girls, each line has a ball, e.g. a football or large foam ball.
Front person passes ball between legs to 2nd, 2nd passes over head behind to 3rd, third passes between legs to 4th, etc.   The last person in the line gets the ball and runs to the front, and they repeat. The winning team is the first to get their original 'leader' to the front again.

Poop the Potato.
Form two teams, with a potato for each player. 

Put a bucket or small trash can at the goal line. Each person places their potato between their thighs. The object is for each team member to hobble down to their bucket and drop the potato into it. They may not use their hands except to reposition the potato between their legs if it should fall too soon.
The first team to "poop" all their potatoes in their bucket wins.



Malteser Game

GET READY
- Buy some maltesers: you'll need a few packets becuase people eat loads of them!
- Put them in a bowl in the middle of the group
- Each person needs a straw and a cup
- You also need one dice.

PLAY
Someone starts by rolling the dice. It keeps going round until someone rolls a six.
When they do, they have to try and get as many maltesers into their cup using just the straw, by sucking the maltesers.
They keep doing this until another person rolls a six and starts sucking instead.

It's so much fun because as you are trying to suck the maltesers you keep laughing at your other mates who keep trying to get a six but can't. It makes it very difficult.