Camping Adviser Workshop!

I spent the day out at Sandy Lake, an Edmonton Area campsite with other camping advisers from around the city to have a meeting, gain some skills, and have a lot of fun! We started off the day with a meeting where we talked about what we want to accomplish this year, we revamped our job description, and shared what we are doing in our districts to promote camping. One enormous project that is happening right now is a nature centre out at the waterfront. We got to see what has happened so far and what will happen in the future. I am excited to see how it comes along and what it will look like when it is finished! The rest of this post will be pictures and what they represent. Enjoy!

This is scat. Of course not real scat, rather cocoa powder, oats, and a little bit of water. This awesome hands on activity gives kids the chance to experiment with the different kinds of scat, what animals they come from, and how to identify them in nature.

 

 My mom thought it would be funny to pretend to eat the scat and that was just a bit too gross for me, hence the face. :)

 These are painted rocks for parts of track matching games. We did a white base coat on the rock first then we put a colour on top of the white. Then we used a track stamp and an ink pad on a piece of tissue paper to get the stamp. Next we cut out the tracks and glued them to the rocks and voila! 

We also started nature journals that would record what kinds of plants are out at the campsite. I was kind of in a zone when I was doing this. I guess I was really at peace with nature.

 

Here is my page in the nature journal.

 

We kept hearing meowing underneath the step of the building we were staying in. A little kitten popped out every so often and she was having a hard time standing up. We fed her a little bit of milk and mushed up chicken from lunch and she wolfed it down- she must have been starving! We waited for most of the day for the mother to return, but she didn't so I sat and watched her and eventually she came and let me pick her up. The people who stayed over also said that she cried all night outside so we knew that mom wasn't coming back.

 

 Look how tiny she is! We snuggled her and played with her for the rest of the day and mom and I took her home with us because as an abandoned kitten she would not survive alone.

 Double rainbow! We had quite a strong storm in the afternoon that started out with this beautiful sight over my favourite place at the campsite- the Gazebo.

 I love that it looks like the rainbow is coming out of the gazebo!

 And here is the best part of the day, my new kitten! My family has decided to call her Madeline (after the famous children's story character- also an orphan). We think she is about five weeks old and she is the tiniest, cutest little thing!



 



First Ever International Day of the Girl Child!

Yesterday was a very exciting day! I am so proud to have been a part of the first International Day of the Girl Child! I think it is so important to have a day like this to celebrate every year because girls do have such a key part in our society and in this day and age it is key for all people to realize their significance. Here are a couple of things I did to celebrate the day.

I am so excited about the WAGGGS initiative, The World We Want For Girls. I first heard about this program a few months ago and I thought it was fantastic. I was scrolling through some of the entries and I think they are absolutely spectacular! I am also very impressed by the video they created which I have put below. I would highly recommend checking out the tumblr blog and seeing the things Girl Guides and Girl Scouts want to have in the "perfect world." 

 

http://theworldwewantforgirls.tumblr.com/ 

 

Later in the evening I went down to the University of Alberta for a screening of the documentary "It's a Girl" put on by the Indo Canadian Women's Association at the University of Alberta. The film is all about a concept called gendercide which means the systematic killing of a specific gender- in this situation the destruction of girls in India and China. I had such a whirlwind of emotion while I was watching the film. First I was overwhelmed by the things I was hearing and seeing and then I was angry, than sad, angry, again, and then inspired to learn more and do something to make others aware of what is going on. There was quite a turn out for the film which was quite exciting. We also had an opportunity to Skype with the director of the film, Evan Grae Davis, and Jill McElya of the Invisible Girl Project. Dr. Amy Kaler of the Department of Sociology at the U of A also spoke. The three of them put together a discussion panel and then took questions from the audience. It was a really interesting evening and despite the incredibly challenging subject matter of the film I really enjoyed it. I also quite enjoyed the samosas and juice after the film and discussion. :)

Trailer for the documentary "It's a Girl"http://www.itsagirlmovie.com/ 

 

I think it is so cool how some of the world's most famous monuments were lit up pink. Here are a few of my favourites and the link to see some more.

Pyramids in Egypt

Little Mermaid Statue in Denmark

 

Niagara Falls in Canada :)

London Eye in United Kingdom

 

See more photos!

Adopt a District!

I have had the opportunity to be a part of a really cool project in Edmonton Area called “Adopt a District.” Basically it is an evening where all of the units in a district meet together in the same space. The girls all meet in one room and the leaders meet in another and do their Safe Guide training and branch specific trainings they need to be ready for the year. I am not a trainer, but I volunteered to help out with the girl portion of the event.

We decided that we would do a basic meeting plan that is adaptable for all age levels for all of the districts we go to. Because Canada has two countries as their “twins” this year we decided to have a Grenada and Curacao theme to the meeting. By participating in the meeting the girls will earn the Twinning challenge set out by National. I think the crests are pretty cool!

 

Some of the activities we did include making finger puppets of Canadian Girl Guides and Girl Guides from Grenada and Curacao to show the similarities and differences between the uniforms.

Girl Guides of Canada uniforms

 

Girl Guides of Grenada uniforms

Girls working on their finger puppets.

We also did a Grenada flag relay race where the girls had to put together the different parts of the flag together and learn what all of the symbols mean. It was a lot of fun to see the girls running back and forth with the pieces of the flag while their team was cheering them on. Great team spirit!

Flag of Grenada

We also learned the songs "Caimarusa" and "I let her go go," which was a lot of fun with the Sparks, Brownies and Guides. The actions for the two songs were a little challenging at first the girls definitely got the hang of it! 

 

 "I let her go go"

"Caimarusa"
 

Here is the link to hear Caimarusa and here is a video of I let her go go. The actions we use are a bit different, but it is the same general idea. 
 

  

Overall I think it is a really cool project idea and I am looking forward to going to all of the districts in Edmonton so the girls can learn about our twins and the leaders can get the training they need for a successful Guiding year.

For more information on the Girl Guides of Canada Twinning Project click here!

 

All photo credit of the evening goes to Nadine Beyersbergen Weiting. Thanks for letting me use your pictures!