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 

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

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 - Full Unit Games

Zip Zap Boing!
People sit round in a circle.  One person begins by looking in a direction and saying 'zip' the next person then says zip and it continues round in a circle.

The next command is boing (difficult to type, as in the sound a spring makes.) This changes the direction of the zip and so it continues back round in the opposite direction.
Finally Zap. Zap throws the 'zip' across the circle. The person who says zap points to who they want to have the zip. The receiver then looks in the direction they wish to continue play and the zip moves on.
Here comes the fun part!You can't boing a boing, you can't zap a zap, you can't boing a zap or zap a boing you can only zip a zap and zip a boing! Simple right? 
Fantastically fun game once people have mastered it!

 Beans

Can be played with any number.

The Guider 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!”
• String Beans – stand still, arms straight up.
• Dwarf Beans – squat down
• Has Beans – fall on the floor 

Band aid Tag

Each girl has two Band-Aids (her 2 hands). When tagged by another girl she covers the tagged spot with a Band-Aid. If she is tagged and has no more Band-Aids, she sits down.

Set the game boundaries for the group. In this game all girls with a free hand (available Band-Aid) are IT. When game starts, all players try to tag the others. The objective is to be the last standing player. You can introduce other variations (ways to administer ‘first aid’ to those sitting so they can re-enter the game, such as tapping on head, perhaps also saying the girl’s name).

Duck-Duck-Goose

Sit the girls in a circle. One girl walks around the outside of the circle, tapping each girl on the head saying “duck, duck…” At some point she changes the name to “Goose!” The “goose” must get up and chase the caller around the circle. The first of the two of them to get back to the place where the “goose” was sitting gets to sit back down, and the other then must go around the circle again, tapping each girl on the head saying “duck, duck, GOOSE!”

Frogs and Ants

This is a large group tag game. In a group of 30 or so, assign 5 frogs to be “IT” and the rest of the players are ants. Designate the playing area, including a safe zone (the ant colony). Start the game by having the ants run around the playing area. The object of the game is for the frogs to touch the ants. Once an ant is touched, it must lay on its back with both arms and both legs in the air. This cry for help signals FOUR ants to rescue their fellow ant. A rescue is successful if four ants (all arriving at the same time) can carry their fellow ant to the safety of the colony where it is reborn to play again. The four rescue ants must arrive at the injured ant at the same time and start working or risk being touched by a frog and becoming injured ants themselves. If there are four ants attached and working at the same time, they cannot be touched by a frog. The working ants must transport the injured ant to the safe area (colony) where all can then rejoin the game in progress.

Penguin Tag

Girls must keep their knees together and elbows glued to the side of their bodies. Everyone is ‘it’ – you tag others by waddling over and tagging them lightly with your flippers. Fun to watch & fun to do!

	Pass it on!
Duration: five minutesSections: allWhat you need: a ball, balloon or beanbag

Try these quick throwing, catching and relay games to fill a spare five minutes and burn off some energy! They are also a great way to develop skills.
In a circle: Throw the ball as quickly as possible across the circle, saying the person's name as you throw the ball. Use a number of balls to make this more difficult, or challenge the participants to do an action before they catch the ball, perhaps spin around or kneel down.
As a relay: In teams stand in lines and pass the ball over head and under legs as a relay - the person at the front who receives the ball last runs to the back and the winners are the team that have the original person back in front first. Alternatively get the girls to pass the ball using your elbows, knees or feet. Use a water balloon or a plastic cup of water to add a bit of drama!
Target practice: Use a container like an empty bin or you could use a skipping rope to make a circle shape on the floor and set up a start line. Give each girl three turns and the challenge is to get all three into the target. If it gets too easy, move the target further away or use a smaller container.
Human croquet: Ask one girl per team to be a croquet hoop. The team's aim is to roll the ball through their team-mate's legs, once each, as quickly as possible in a relay. If a team member misses, they have to go and collect the ball and try again. Once one person has played, it's their turn to be the croquet hoop. 

	Human knot
Duration: up to ten minutesSections: Brownies, Guides, The Senior Section

This game is quick, but not so easy and helps the girls to practise working in a team. 

1. Ask girls to form a circle, all holding hands. 
2. Choose one patrol or six to step outside the circle and close their eyes. 
3. Give the rest of the group two minutes to make the biggest human knot that they can by moving around in the circle. They should hold hands all the time. 
4. Ask the patrol to open their eyes and try to untangle the human knot by directing the girls in the circle. It often proves difficult! 

	Sausage – who can keep a straight face?
Duration: five minutes Sections: all

This is another fun game to get the girls laughing!

1. Ask one girl to be the volunteer. 
2. She stands in the middle of the circle. 
3. The others take turns to ask her questions, to which she can only answer 'sausage' (or any other word you choose). 
4. If she laughs, she's out! Swap places and give everyone a chance to have a go! 

Pairs

Duration: five minutesSections: Brownies, Guides, The Senior SectionWhat you need: cards or slips of paper with matching pairs on them. The pairs should be separated and shuffled. 

The aim of this game is to find your matching partner.

1. Hand out one card to each girl. 
2. They must then find their matching partner. 
3. They should then sit down and wait for the rest of the group to get into pairs. 

Me too!

Duration: until they get bored or run out of questions! Sections: Brownies, GuidesWhat you need: one chair per person

Most getting-to-know-you games focus on what is different about everyone. This game will help your girls to realise that they are alike in many ways.

1. Ask each girl to get a chair and arrange them in a circle, facing inwards. One girl should be without a chair and standing in the middle of the circle. 
2. The girl in the middle shouts out a statement such as, ‘I have two sisters’. If that is true of someone sitting down, they should stand up and shout, ‘Me too!’ 
3. The girls who have stood up and shouted, and the girl who was standing in the middle, must then run around and find a different chair to sit on. 
4. The girls are not allowed to sit back on their original chair or the chairs on either side of it. 
5. The girl left without a chair must stand in the middle and ask a new question. 

Pairs

Duration: five minutesSections: Brownies, Guides, The Senior SectionWhat you need: cards or slips of paper with matching pairs on them. The pairs should be separated and shuffled.

Suggested pairs

• Ham and eggs 
• Salt and pepper 
• Punch and Judy 
• Romeo and Juliet 
• Needle and thread 
• Bangers and mash 
• Horse and cart 
  Cheese and biscuits􏰀  
• Apples and pears 

Yes or no game

Duration: 20 minutesSections: Brownies, Guides, The Senior Section
What you need: a list of questions (or you could make them up on the spot)

This game involves movement, questions and laughter.

1. The girls should get a chair, put them in a circle and sit down. 
2. The Leader then asks all the girls a question. It must be a question where the answer can only be yes or no. 
3. If the answer is yes, the girl must move one place to her left. 
4. If the answer is no, the girl must move one place to her right. 
5. This means that everyone will be moving at the same time, even if this means sitting on someone’s lap! 
6. You can keep going until you have used up all your questions or until someone has made a full circuit back to their original chair. 

Example questions

• 􏰀  Do you have a pet? 
• 􏰀  Are your eyes blue? 
• 􏰀  Do you like cornflakes? 
• 􏰀  Do you like watching football? 
• 􏰀  Did you go on camp last year? 
• 􏰀  Have you been to America? 
• 􏰀  Do you know how to spell necessary? 
• 􏰀  Do you still live in the town/country where you were born? 
• 􏰀  Can you remember the Promise? 

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!

UM11 - Carol Singing

So, our last week of term was a trip to the local care home to sing some carols for the residents.  Our attached Brownie unit also joined us, along with our young leaders, so we had around 45 girls, plus half a dozen adults and leaders. Our District President also joined us, which was lovely.

The care home made us feel very welcome, and we set up in the lounge near the entrance way. Chairs had been placed out for the 'audience', and lots of residents came in to listen.  One of our fantastic young leaders and her UH mum had organised a backing track which we played through a bluetooth speaker, and this really worked well. They had also printed out word sheets for all the brownies and guides.

As the music started up, it was quite moving to see the energy the brownies and guides put into their singing, and the evident enjoyment of the residents and staff.  One gentleman shed tears as he listened (surely our singing wasn't *that* bad?!).  After half an hour of singing, the guides handed a home made christmas card to each resident, and we spent time chatting to our audience.   There were may tales of their own experiences in brownies, guides, or scouts, and one lady told us that her mother, born in 1903, had met Lady Agnes Baden Powell!  It was an evening that I think all the leaders and adult helpers were very proud of our young brownies, guides and young leaders. They did a wonderful job.

At the end, the girls were treated to home-made decorated gingerbread biscuits, made by the staff at the home. It really was a magical start to christmas, and I hope the residents and staff of the home enjoyed it as much as we did.

UM8 Christmas Card Crafts

This week was run by our other leader, who is fabulous at crafts.   We decided to try and use up a lot of the paper and card stock from the cupboards, and make Christmas Cards.  We had plenty of black adn white card, metallic pens, shiny / metallic coloured card and paper, and ribbons.

The girls could make a card for themselves, plus a card each to take and give to the residents at the care home we are visiting in a few weeks for Carol Singing.

The cards made by the girls were amazing. H gave them some example designs for ideas, keeping it very simple - and the results were really effective for everyone, even the non-arty girls came out with a fantastic looking christmas card.

** Addendum: When we went carol singing, each of the girls gave a card to a resident - the residents seemed genuinely touched to receive a card and chat to a youngster.  It was well worth doing.

UM7 - BP Games Evening

This week, our little group of four BP girls organised an evening of Cooperative Games, as part of one of their BP challenge clauses.

I was impressed with how they got on - despite all being at different schools and not living close to each other, they managed to communicate and even arranged a meet-up over the holidays to organise themselves.  They each came to the table with several suggestions, discussed how to run each of those games, then made their final selection, and nominated a 'leader' and 'assistant' for each game.

The games they chose were great fun, and they were well prepared and we were all impressed with how they managed the evening.   They've all gone away to write up about their experience to put in their BP files, but this was the feedback we got, and some of our observations.

1. They were surprised (and a little frustrated) by how difficult it was to get the rest of the unit to listen to them for instructions, and to follow the instructions.
2. As observers, we were able to see how their 'leadership team' worked - one very definite 'manager', one 'communicator' and a couple of 'workers' . They worked really well together, and we certainly have some potential Young Leaders amongst them.
3. They realised that with nearly 30 girls, the large-group games need to be very simple, otherwise explaining the rules becomes difficult, especially with a very mixed ability group.

I'll update soon with the games that they chose...

UM6 Another GFI activities week

End of Term, GFI sessions and big patrols

The guides had another GFI evening tonight, where they had were supposed to have chosen activities to last most of the evening.

It was the last week of term - many of them in new high schools - and we found an interesting mix of over-tired, hyper, exhausted, stroppy and slightly-off-colour girls. So, probably not the easiest of nights, and also perhaps not the best for a GFI night when they are required to listen to each other, follow instructions for activities they have chosen, think for themselves, and work together.  

Note to self: Don't do GFI sessions at the end of a half term!

Our Young Leaders were tired and off-colour this evening too, and not up to their normal level of help, so spent much of their time just chatting. They were both tired and had come straight from school, so we didn't push them too much.  

By and large, the girls seemed to enjoy their activities, but these were some of the things that, as a leader, I thought didn't work quite so well.

• One patrol finished much earlier than any of the others. They then spent time wandering round the room distracting other girls.  They had other activities to do, but raced through them, and needed constant 'entertainment' to stop them  interrupting other patrol's activities.  
• One of the patrol chosen activities was to play Captain's Coming with the whole unit - but that required all the tables to be put away, and the whole unit available to play with them, when others were doing their own activities.  
• Our 'big' patrol of 8 were doing cooking, making cheese puffs. While this worked well as an activity and they were all very pleased with their results, it was hard work with 8 very lively girls in the kitchen.  In future, I'd try and ensure this patrol has at least 2 activities, then split the patrol in half, and swap over activities half way through.
• The 'cooking' group had failed to tell us that they needed flour, rolling pins.  We only got half the information on their planning sheet. They just assumed it would all be there.
• Without an extra parent helper, I struggled to keep track of what activities the girls were doing and whether they'd actually done what they had chosen (or whether they were just sitting nattering).
• We definitely had a problem with girls not listening to simple instructions, walking off/talking when leaders were speaking to them, not paying attention, and leaving other people to do the hard work (our newest guide ended up doing all of the washing up for her big-8 patrol when they did cooking. Despite us asking them, the other girls all just disappeared or messed around.  There was a lot of cleaning and tidying to do by the leaders afterwards.
• One patrol had to make a play up, which apparently consisted of them using the side room to screech at each other and roll around the floor...

That said, the Guides' view afterwards was that they had enjoyed the evening, and I do think they appreciated having a less structured evening where they could just chatter, lark around, and be kids.  It just felt harder work than normal for the leaders.

So, what to do to improve this?  I think there are some fairly simple solutions

1. Our Big-8 patrol - split in two for activities - this would make it easier to focus instructions to the individuals, hopefully reduce them shirking out of tidying up, and reduce the messing around....and give them all more access to the equipment/activities they are using. Win-Win.
2. Kitchen work - no more than 6 in the kitchen at once (see first point!)
3. At GFI Planning session:
1. check the chosen activities should last long enough to fill the time allocated
2. stress that the equipment and resources that they need leaders to provide MUST be written on the form - otherwise it won't be there!

Baden Powell Activities

Also tonight, our BP girls took themselves off to try and plan a collaborative games evening together. We talked briefly about what 'collaborative games' are and they bounced some ideas around.  Not quite sure what they are going to end up with, but i'm not absolutely convinced they really understood 'collaborative games' as i think they had football and netball on the list (30 girls in small church hall....ahem).  We will see!

That said, I am really impressed with their enthusiasm to organise the evening (and for the BP challenge clauses in general), and that they really got on and had a brainstorm about what kind of things they thought the other Guides would enjoy doing.

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.

Games Ideas - Patrols

Can you do this?

1. Split into patrols (at least 4 girls per group).
2. Let them know what equipment/timescale/space, etc is available and ask them to each write a challenge on a slip of paper. Point out that they may end up doing some of their own challenges.
3. Example Challenges - walk with a cup on your head, scream for 10 seconds, skip 50 times, juggle 3 beanbags, scare someone, do the chicken dance, act like a clown - so much noise and laughter and we've still got at least half the challenges left for another night...
4. All the challenges are folded up and go in a box. (Probably best if leaders check and veto anything unsuitable or not practical, but it doesn't matter if a challenge appears twice).
5. The girls number themselves within their group, e.g 1-6 (if there are unequal groups then the smaller groups need someone to have two numbers or they may take it in turns to be the extra number).
6. Number slips of paper, enough for the number of challenges, and put in in another box (so if there are 24 challenges and four groups of six girls, you need 4 slips with number 1, 4 with number 2 and so on - i.e. 24 slips in total).
7. To play, simply pull out a number and a challenge - everyone with that number (i..e on per patrol) attempts the challenge. You can have a scoring system of best/fastest/etc, but ours were having so much fun and asking if they could try the challenges when it wasn't their turn that we didn't bother!

Five Minute Fillers

The following games were downloaded from the Girlguidng Website, in their Five-Minute-fillers PDF

	Origami races – who’s the quickest?
Duration: five minutes Sections: Brownies, Guides, The Senior Section What you need: squares of paper of any colour, a few per person – can be cut out of an A4 sheet

1. Print out or watch these origami tutorials - everything from flowers to sea creatures.
   
2. Make sure everyone has practised making the shape decided on, then start racing! You could throw paper aeroplanes/birds and see whose can fly the longest distance or you could make paper boats and float them in a paddling pool/pond.
   
3. Once everyone is practised at making the shape, you can run these races with very little preparation whenever there are five minutes to fill. Why not start a leader board with the quickest times?
   

Encourage the girls to think of ways to use the origami once they've made it, perhaps as decorations. Always recycle the paper you've used when you've finished it. 

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Game Ideas - Patrol Challenges

A4 paper challenge

You have been given 20 sheets of A4 paper, 2 pairs of scissors and a roll of sellotape. There is nothing else. 

Your challenge is to create the following. You are free to choose how to use your time and your paper. Remember this is about TEAMWORK.

Every team must complete tasks 1-4

1. Create the longest paper chain

2. Stretch 1 whole sheet of paper as far as you can - you may need to tear or cut the paper but it must stay in 1 piece. No joins, no glue, no sellotape.

3. Fly the furthest paper aeroplane

4. Make the tallest structure that can stand on its own and will hold an egg

For each challenge

- 1st place - 100 points

- 2nd place - 50 points

- 3rd place - 20 points

- 4th place - 10 points

Bonus challenges (if you choose to do them) 20 points each

- Make a paper hat and wear it

- Make a fortune teller

- Make a Chinese paper lantern

- Make a patterned snowflake

Anyone caught cheating will have 20 points deducted!

Repeat offenders may have an unlimited number of points deducted!

20 Tasks in 20 minutes

Each patrol is given 20 tasks to do.  At least 3 members must complete every activity (you can change this bit). They have to complete as many of the 20 tasks as possible in the time.  Leader selects the tasks from this list:

	Task	Resources
	Draw the Guide badge
	make structures / models / sculptures from cocktail sticks and grapes	Grapes, cocktail sticks
	transport marbles from one end of the hall to the other using just toilet roll
	Throw and catch a bean bag 10 times at least 4m apart	Beanbags
	Make a cup of tea for a leader or young leader	Tea-making stuff
	Make a table decoration	Napkins
	Set a formal dinner table for 2	Table settings
	Draw a portrait of one of the leaders
	Get half your patrol upside down
	Find out the sum of the current ages of everyone in the patrol
	Make a pyramid at least 1 1/2 times the height of a piece of spaghetti	Spaghetti & Sticky tape
	Get a Young Leader a glass of water
	Write out the Guide promise	Paper, Pens
	Get out a table & chairs for your patrol
	Do 10 star jumps
	Plait the hair of someone in your patrol	Hair bobble
	Make up a limerick	Paper, pens
	Think of an animal for each letter of the alphabet	Paper, pens
	Give someone a hug
	Pay 3 people from a different patrol a compliment
	Draw a map of the building	Paper, pens
	Tie 3 bows	Ribbons
	Find out who can do the best evil witch laugh in your patrol, then go and demonstrate to a leader
	Make an origami animal	Origami paper
	2 people Hulahoop for 1 minute
	Walk round the room twice with a plastic cup on your head
	Group skip with 2 holding rope and 2 skipping at the same time  -  do at least 10 jumps with 2
	Group skip – how many people can you get jumping together?

20 Tasks in 20 minutes

Each patrol is given 20 tasks to do.  At least 3 members must complete every activity (you