Secret Brownie Swap

Most people are familiar with the concept of a Secret Santa or Kris Kringle Exchange. It seems to be a fairly common tradition in most workplaces and some families - where you are randomly assigned a person to anonymously give a gift for Christmas.

I wanted my Brownies to participate in something similar, that was more inclusive and could be enjoyable even for those who did not celebrate Christmas. Thus the Secret Brownie Swap was formed.

The Brownies have participated in the Secret Brownie Swap for two years now and although it is not compulsory to do so, every girl has always joined in.

The idea is similar to Secret Santa and each Brownie creates a handmade gift to swap with another girl. They do not make their gift for any specific girl, instead the gifts are distributed randomly (usually a number drawn from a hat). This way if somebody doesn't turn up it doesn't make a difference - everybody that makes a gift receives a gift.

The girls have really impressed me with the various gifts they have made. There have been a huge range things include craft kits, decorated wooden jewelry boxes and woven bracelets. I have to admit though i'm a huge fan of the Christmas ornaments.

The swap is designed so the it can be all inclusive and not have to be Christmas related in anyway, it just happens that at the moment every Brownie in the unit does celebrate Christmas.

Here are a few sweet examples of the Christmas ornaments the Brownies made for the swap:

Painted cardboard angel tree topper 

Candy cane heart ornament

Perler bead star ornament

Painted baubles

Aren't they precious?!

The girls are so excited to receive their gifts and I think the handmade touch just adds that extra something special!

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Do you have any end of year traditions in your unit?

Oh, Christmas tree

Simple is usually best at the end of the year since Brownies and Guides finish only a few days before Christmas Day.

Last year the Guides had a Christmas party with food and water games. I think everybody's favourite part of the night when the Leader's locked the Guides outside the hall and then threw water bombs at them from the window!

Lamington tree made by one of the Guide Leaders

Knotted Christmas tree made by the Guides

Safari camp: placemats

Most of our Brownie camps run from Friday night to Sunday afternoon. Colouring in the placemats is a nice way to calm the girls down before bedtime on their first night at camp.

Each Brownie has the same picture on the front of her placemat (I omitted our unit name and the date - make sure to include these as they make a nice keepsake! I still have all the placemats from when I camped as a Brownie).

Front of placemat:

Once the placemats are laminated the girls choose a back page (pre-made), put the two sheets back-to-back in a laminating sleeve and with supervision, laminate their placemats all ready to use at breakfast the next morning!!

These are the four options the Brownies had for the backs of their placemats. 

Clearly none of these images are mine. Unfortunately I haven't been able to locate all the sources, but most are below as links. I clearly need to do a better job at saving this information!

• Elephant, giraffe, monkey
• Snake in a tree
• Elephant optical illusion
• Black dots and horizontal lines optical illusions
• Colour quiz optical illusion

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Do you make placemats at camp?

Australian fauna observation game

Looking for a quick observation activity? Just print up some pictures of animals, laminate them, punch a hole and then add string!

This observation game can be played anywhere, including the Guide hall, but is best experienced outdoors. Hidden amongst the trees and plants of dense bushland the animals can be quite difficult to spot (unlike in the photos above taken in front of a fence!)

We used this activity at a camp and while the girls were finishing up with breakfast, the animals were hidden in the bush area attached to the campsite. In Patrols, the Brownies were challenged to locate and create a list of the Australian fauna they encountered. Bonus points were awarded for providing an interesting fact about the animal or bird. eg. habitat, diet etc.

The area was large enough that the girls barely saw the other Patrols as they made their way around using their stalking skills so as not to 'spook' the animals. We were lucky that there was some real wildlife nearby, including many lorikeets and a huge blue-tongue lizard! 


Australian Animals:

1. Brushtail possum          
2. Sugar glider          
3. Fruit bat          
4. Ringtail possum            
5. Koala                             
6. Galah                    
7. Kookaburra     
8. Frilled neck lizard
9. Lyrebird                       
10. Cassowary          
11. Cockatoo       
12. Dingo
13. Turtle                           
14. Emu                    
15. Saltwater crocodile
16. Tasmanian devil
17. Echidna
18. Platypus
19. Black swan
20. Numbat
21. Bowerbird
22. Huntsman spider

Be sure to have a master list of all your animals. It is often very difficult to locate them at the end of the game, even with the assistance of the girls! 

Unfortunately I cannot locate the source of the images I used. I found them through Google images. Please let me know if you find their artist so I can give them credit!

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What observation games do you play in your unit?

Haunted Happenings

The majority of families in our area do not celebrate Halloween. I assume that this is similar all over Australia, but perhaps not. Nevertheless, we can't resist an excuse to dress up, so most years we host a bring-a-friend Halloween Party.

Each girl brings along a plate of food to share. It's great to see how creative everybody gets: eye ball cakes, spider cupcakes, orange and purple jelly and more.

Ghost lollipops

Tombstone cupcakes - not sure what website these were printed from. Any ideas?

The week before usually sees the Guides creating skeletons, spiderwebs and paper pumpkins to decorate the hall. Cardboard tombstones are a favourite of mine and they are simple to make with cardboard boxes being cut to shape, spray painted silver and then written on with a Sharpie. 

Their creativity really shows with the use of book characters (Voldemort, Leslie - Bridge to Terabithia), silly puns (I.N. Sane, Justin Pieces) and creating amusing backstories (Popstar - trampled by a mob of screaming girls who broke into his hotel).

Activities and games include:

• Wrap the mummy (race to cover a team mate in toilet paper)
• Halloween themed piñata
• Piece the skeleton together relay race (using laminated skeleton pieces)
• Craft - pipe cleaner skeletons
• Halloween hangman relay race (using words like pumpkin, witch, goblin)

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Do you celebrate Halloween in your unit? 

Welcome!

I am a Leader for Junior Guides (7-11 years) in Australia. Prior to 1996 this age group was referred to as Brownie Guides which explains my name! I often assist with our local Guide unit as well, where the girls are aged 10-14 years old.

Other Guiding and Scouting websites have helped me a lot when i'm desperate for meeting ideas, so hopefully this blog will be useful to someone out there so that I can pass on the favour.

Yours in Guiding,

                Brownie Guide Leader