A Brownie Leader's Life

Although we've had no Brownies this week due to half term, i'd just like to wish you all a very Happy World Thinking Day!

Wow, what a fun evening! We did an evening that we ran about four years ago, therefore all the girls who did it previously have left! We invited the Minister for the Church we meet in to run a session on puppetry. The Minister (Kim) loves puppets and runs a club at the church to get children telling stories with them - so she's used to working with children and puppets! First of all, in their Sixes, the girls picked a puppet each and then made up a short play with them. Some were... interesting... They included a story about a sick sheep and some others which I can't remember from the top of my head! After rehearsing for around 10 minutes, they performed the play to each other. We then had a quick break for a drink (And some white chocolate buttons that Ava brought in to share - which was very kind!)and got back on with the puppets! Kim played a piece of music and shared the words with the girls for them to 'sing' using their puppets. We had a 'lead singer...

Tonight was another busy one! We started off playing monkey football (The game where you have to try and get the ball through each other's legs) and we spent the rest of the evening doing Promise/Becoming a Brownie stuff. We had 6 new Brownies in January and a number in September (The majority of our Brownies have now started since Sept) so we decided to do a proper overview of all the new Brownie things! We read the Brownie story first and played a game where girls had to change places depending on their 'name' (They were all called Tommy/Betty/Owl and all moved on Brownies) and most of the old ones admitted they didn't remember it either! We then split into two groups: The first group were the pre-promise girls and we worked through the Becoming a Brownie book - so we covered the Promise, Uniform, Law, Brownie Sign and talked about what will happen at their Promise ceremony. Promises are going to be done on the 26th Feb - the week after half term! The older ...

This morning we hosted a Coffee Morning at the Church where we meet to raise money for our Brownie Unit and the Rainbow Unit who meet before us on a Monday. Brownies were invited to complete heir Hostess badge by making drinks/helping on stalls/washing up etc and Rainbows were invited along to enjoy themselves and help if they want. Both sections made things before the day (Rainbows made signs and Brownies made decorations for the table (See Photo below!)) It was a very busy morning and the hall was packed for the whole 1.5 hours. It was hard work for the leaders but all the irks were superstars and really helped out. We were supported by so many people, members of the Church, friends, family and lots of others!) We raised an amazing £461.10 which will be shared 50/50 between the two sections which made the planning and hard work worth it!

Tonight was our 'Pre Coffee Morning' preparations! On Saturday we're holding a coffee morning at the Church we meet at to raise money for our unit and the Rainbow Unit who meet before us - so tonight we did some preparation with the Brownies! We started the evening with a game of splat (Which the girls really enjoy!) and after Brownie circle the girls got settled around tables for the craft to start. We explained that those who are coming to the CM on Saturday will earn their hostess badge (Which reminds me, I need to order the badges!) but everyone was going to make table decorations which they will be able to take home next week! We made bouquets of flowers (In paper form) and decorated invitations to go home. Some of the girls were telling me that they had already invited friends, families and teachers so the invites were written to a lot of different people! The bouquets were really easy to make - you fold a piece of green paper in half lengthways and cut from t...

There isn't a lot to write about this week.... On 22nd January we had some very special visitors - our local PCSOs (Police Community Support Officers) Adele and Maria joined us to talk about Crime Prevention and Online Safety.  The girls learned about postcode schemes (And were all given a postcode scheme UV pen and some stickers) and talked about how to keep their belongings safe both at home and in the car.  We then talked about online safety and how girls should never arrange to meet someone they have met online and how they might not be who they say they are. It was interesting to see how many girls 'talk' to people on different online games, and I hope that they went home and thought about ways of keeping themselves safe. We finished the evening with a game of giants keys, and gave out badges to those who have moved Sixes since Christmas (And Adele and Maria were given badges for their adoptive Sixes too!) We did have a new leader start with us, she...

Phew! Another exhausting evening - and if we do this activity again, then we'd definitely make some changes! We started with a game (I can't remember which i'm afraid as I was collecting in forms and money for a Coffee Morning, Trip to Magna and Pack Holiday!) but my lovely Assistant Leaders and Young Leader are all super capable so I left them too it! After Brownie circle we played the bean game. I think in advance we need to decide as leaders the names of the beans and how people are out! It's been (No pun intended!) a long time since we played this last, and we kept forgetting different names of beans. We also have some girls who transferred from different groups and they kept telling us the beans from their own groups! In future, we're going to have a list for our group, and that's it! Tawny Owl led tonight's activity and we made bird feed holders: http://www.woohome.com/diy-2/12-fun-diy-spring-garden-crafts-and-activities-for-kids so we had thousa...