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)

UM 12: And we're off! A new year.

Our first week back after Christmas, and another new guide to join us, bringing our numbers up to 29 on the books.  A stark change from when my own daughter joined 3.5 years ago and there were only 9 girls in the unit!  It was lovely then, and is lovely now - just very different!

Our first week back is usually when we try and get the routine tasks out of the way and give the girls chance to catch up after their break from school. Our girls are split over 7 or 8 different schools, so it's futile to expect to not want to spend the whole time nattering on the first week back.  Tonight was no exception.

This evening, we spent time in the horseshoe remembering what our Unit Guidelines are (as set by the girls in September), we talked about what the Baden Powell Award involved for the older guides and introduced our newest guide to the unit.  There was much 'talking-over-the-top' going on...but again, that's par for the course on the first week back.  I've long since discovered when they're in this kind of mood, there's little point fighting it.  With reminders that if they carry on interrupting/talking that they won't get to play games (and following through on that), they generally get the idea after a few minutes.

We were also treated to a presentation by one of our BP girls who had done a fantastic poster and fact presentation sheet about Global Warming. The girls listened attentively to her, and the presentation was well-researched and well presented.  That's one more clause signed off!

Over the course of the evening, I asked the girls to give their suggestions on four topics - Trips Out, Games, Activites and Badges/GFIs.  Each patrol was given a stack of post-it notes, and four A3 sheets were pinned around the room (one for each topic).  They were to write their preferences/suggestions on the postit note and stick it on the appropriate posters.

Then it was on to some patrol time.  Nothing too difficult this week, and really an opportunity for the girls to chat and renew their friendships.  They all made a Guide Law Folding Thingy (thankyou to the wonderful 2nd Kingsbridge Guides) each patrol was asked to write down 4 or 5 important qualities of a good patrol leader or patrol second.  Mostly they chatted though.

After that, a quick tidyup, then time for a silly game. They got into pairs and we did the Body Parts game.  I shout out a number, and a body part, e.g. "3 feet" or "4 hands" or "two tummies" - and as a pair, they need to ensure that they ONLY have those body parts touching the floor.  So, two girls standing up would be "4 feet", or two girls lying with their feet in the air would be "2 backs".   There were some inventive approaches from some, and it was a good giggle game that required little or no preparation or organisation into teams etc. Everyone could join in, and it can last as long as you want.

At this point, our visitors arrived!  We had invited along our District Commissioner (who was also leader of this unit until a year ago), our Division Commissioner (who runs our feeder brownie unit), and our Division President (who runs a feeder Rainbow unit), so most of the girls knew them all.

The reason? We had a Baden Powell Award Presentation to do!  One of our older guides worked independently to complete her BP, and managed to get on her Adventure Weekend at the end of last year.    Our District commissioner made a fantastic cake (as well as some delicious chocolate maltezer tray bake), and our BP girl gave a short talk to the unit about what she had done as part of her BP award, and what the BP Adventure Weekend was like. She had had a wonderful time - she said the 'best weekend ever' and had made lots of new friends.   As leaders, we were thrilled with this achievement, she had worked independently and been self-directed throughout. And as a result of the Adventure Weekend she now wants to look for a Ranger Unit to join -  fantastic news!

UM5 Decoupage Notebooks

This week was a crafty week at Guides, with a little bit of admin thrown in.

We made these Decoupage Notebooks, and it worked brilliantly!  The really great thing about decopatch, according to two of our Guides, is that even those with a bit less dexterity, or a bit less creative, or not quite so handy with craft, can come out with something that looks just as brilliant as the arty girls.  And even the ones who don't enjoy craft so much liked these as they had something usable at the end of it.  Several of the girls made them as gifts for friends.

Supplies for 30 (ish) girls

• 30 x A5 notebooks from Home Bargains @ £0.89 each
• 2 pots of 186ml Decopatch Glue @ £5.99 per pot from Baker Ross - but about 1/3 of each pot left over
• 10 x Decopatch Paper packs (3 sheets per pack) @ £1.99 per pack from Baker Ross (a few sheets left over, but not many)
• 5 x Gold Alphabet Letter packs from Home Bargains @ £0.70 per pack (loads left over)

From the cupboard

• Glue spreaders or paintbrushes
• assorted bits of glitter, stickers, ribbon, other left-over craft/collage type items that the girls just used for decoration

Instructions

1. Decopatch - We allowed 40-ish minutes for this.
1. Open the book out flat (covers upwards) on the table.
2. Tear up the decopatch paper into squares around 1" x 1" (any smaller and it'll take too long!)
3. apply a very thin layer of glue to a small area of the book cover, and stick on the paper square. Repeat, overlapping the squares slightly so there is no gap.  
4. As you go along, paint a very thin layer of decopatch glue over the top of the papers you ahve stuck on, to make it shiny and 'seal' the layer.  
5. It is REALLY IMPORTANT that you ONLY USE A TINY AMOUNT OF GLUE otherwise it won't dry in the time of the meeting
2. Drying Time - 10-15 minutes - clear up all the decopatch paper & glue, tidy up, go and play some silly games, or have drinks, or whatever, for 15 minutes. We did a Fire Drill!
3. Decorations - 15-20 minutes
1. decorate the notebooks with lettering stickers, ribbons or pipecleaners tied around the ringlets, stickers, ribbons, or whatever else the girls want to personalise their books.
2. You could also stick an envelope inside the front and/or rear cover.

The notebooks were all touch-dry by the time we added the decorations, and properly dry by the time they took them home (after taps/announcements for 5 minutes at the end of the meeting). The girls seemed really proud of their creations.  

The whole craft cost less than £2.50 per girl.

UM1 New Term, New Guides and Patrols

Unit Meeting 1

Our first week back at Guides, and a new year for us all.  We have 4 new starters, taking us up to 28 girls in total - our largest unit size for some time.  The new girls all seemed to settle in really well.

Patrols and democratic republics
Tonight the girls re-arranged their patrols - with encouragement to keep the numbers fairly equal and an explanation of why this was to their benefit (equal time on equipment when shared equipment during patrol time, same amount of time per person to complete tasks during patrol time, etc).  They organised themselves, but I sensed that there may still be some who aren't happy with how their patrols have now changed.
The girls voted for, and chose, their new Patrol Leaders and Patrol Seconds, with Panda patrol voting to remain as the Democratic Republic of Panda.

Unit Guidelines
In their patrols, we asked the girls to come up with the unit guidelines they wanted to see, and at the end, each patrol read out their chosen guidelines.  Surprisingly, all patrols agreed on nearly all of the rules (even the ones that they aren't very good at following):

1. Listen to others; don't talk if others are speaking
2. Hands up, shut up
3. Always be fair and kind to others
4. Have biscuits and drinks everyone
5. No phones or ipods in the meeting
6. Be sensible (With the older ones adding the traditional 'No Blood on the Walls'!)
7. Have FUN and Join In!

Two patrols also added the five Cs

• Be: Caring, courteous, cooperative, considerate and commitment.

I was pretty impressed that they came up with this all themselves. Let's see if they follow them!

Feedback, self-management and choosing the programme
We used a new method of asking for the guides' suggestions for activities. Our young leader put 3 large A3 sheets around the room with the following titles:

• Badges I'd like to do
• Ideas for activities next term
• Ideas for camp activities or themes

Throughout the meeting, the guides could write their ideas for each category on post-it notes and stick them on the appropriate banner. This resulted in lots of suggestions and resolved a problem we had encountered when asking for feedback and ideas before.

Previously, guides were asked for feedback and suggestions in patrols. Several complained that only the loudest got their opinions written down, or the person holding the pen didn't write down the opinions of everyone, especially if some people in the patrol wanted 'more craft' and some wanted 'less craft' for example.  The girls wanted to each give their *own* suggestions, and not have them filtered by others in their patrol.

This seemed to work really well. We had LOADS of suggestions, all sorts of things, on all the boards.

Games

We played several silly games which both worked well

• Me too! Chairs in a circle facing in, one person in the middle. Person in the middle makes a statement about themselves. Anyone else who matches that statement shouts ME TOO! And runs to swap place with another person. The one in the middle must also try to get a chair.
• Moving Chairs - chairs in a circle facing outwards, one chair not enough, people move along chairs left or right and the one girl on the outside must try and run round to get an empty chair as everyone is moving around.