Sparks and Sharing.
We made magnetic note holders by putting a
paper Spark uniform on a plastic spoon and adding hair and
features. We glued a spring clothespin to the back and a magnet
to the back of that. We introduced the hand signal for quiet by
playing a game. They run around and make noise and see how
quickly they can stop when they see the hand signal. We showed
the girls what we would be doing for our opening. We have one
girls get our flag and bring it into the circle. Then we say our
Promise and sing our opening song, "Sparks Join Hands
Together". We told the Spark story with our felt board and
named our new leaders from the story. Our leaders names are,
Rainbow, Star, Diamond, Jewel and Firefly. We had a juice break
this meeting because we were going to use the juice bottles for a
craft next week.
Money
We made piggy banks from last weeks juice containers. We used
those white plastic juice bottles that have a foil lid. We cut
out pink felt circles big enough to cover the opening of the
juice bottle with a elastic band. This becomes the piggy's nose
with a couple of nostrils drawn on in marker. I pre cut the
bottles with a slot in one side, this becomes the top of the
piggy. The girls put on the nose and glued on two pink felt
triangles for ears. We coiled a pink pipe cleaner for a tail and
attached to the back of the piggy (bottom of the bottle). You
could add goggle eyes, we used ovals cut from black construction
paper. We found that the best way to do a Spark craft is to let
them glue the stuff on themselves and then have someone stay
behind and use a glue gun to be sure things don't fall off. That
way the girls feel they have done it themselves and they don't
get upset when their craft falls apart. We talked about money,
did they get an allowance, do they go shopping with mom and dad
etc. We played a penny toss game and "There's a penny in my
hand" a song you sing while passing a penny around the
circle. It is in the center of circle with eyes closed, at the
end of the song, everyone looks guilty and It has three guesses
as to who has the penny. Another activity is to do coin rubbings.
Thanksgiving
We made a great craft. I wanted something that was not a turkey,
they make so many of them. I bought gourd (small funny shaped
squash) at the market. It cost me nine dollars for 15 girls. We
used googly eyes and scraps to make vegetable people. They were
great and very creative. Encourage the girls that less is more.
Also encourage the girls that glue isn't to be put on like paint.
They turned out really cute and the gourds should dry and be able
to be kept forever. We had a turkey hunt. I cut out a bunch of
paper turkeys and hid them around our meeting place. The girls
love to hunt for things. We also played a table setting relay
race. We drew the place setting on paper place mats and gave the
teams a plate, bowl, knife, fork, spoon and cup. They ran up in
relay fashion and put one piece at a time on the placemat. I had
to explain to this group the concept of a relay race, you don't
all go together. Had we more time we were also going to draw
Thanksgiving dinner on paper placemats and sing a few fall songs.
Magic
We are planning a magic theme. We will teach the girls tricks to
be performed during our Enrollment which is a magic theme. We are
going to make bunnies in a hat. Cut down a black film canister,
add a paper brim, put in a couple of white pom poms with felt
ears.
Halloween
We made Halloween pictures on black paper. They glued on a
popcicle fence and ghost and pumpkin shapes that they cut from
tracers. We had another quick practice of our magic tricks while
others played with skipping ropes and balls. We told the story of
the Orange House and sang some Halloween songs.
Halloween Party
Our Guide unit planed a party for our Sparks. It went very well.
The Guides greeted the Sparks and they played a game of Pass the Witches Broomstick. They decorated paper face masks that were attached to
straw sticks. They ate all kinds of goodies like cookies and
cupcakes and had punch served from hollowed out pumpkins with
faces painted on them. Everyone received a goodie bag from candy
supplied by all the girls and a ghost lollipops made by the
leaders. The Sparks left and the Guides continued the party with
dancing and more games. It was a great night.
Becoming a Spark
We colored big versions of the Spark pin to
be used during our Belonging ceremony. We played a game of jail
to help us learn our Promise. We practiced our ceremony.
Belonging Ceremony
Our theme for our ceremony was magic. We had a large box painted
black and covered with white stars. The girls were asked if they
were ready to become Sparks and then they entered the box, one at
a time. Our magician waved a large magic wand and said the magic
words. The girl came out of the box on the other side as a Spark.
To help with the illusion, she donned a large copy of the Spark
pin hung around her neck and a sparkler (silver icicles taped to
a straw). The new Guiders were enrolled much the same way. We
held up a blanket and the Guiders magically had a large copy of
the enrollment pin and a sparkler. After the ceremony the Sparks
performed magic trick for their parents.
Kwanzaa
We talked to the Sparks about the African winter holiday
of Kwanzaa. During Kwanzaa a table is set up with some special
symbols. These symbols are placed on a straw mat, so the Sparks
did weaving and made a paper mat. Another Kwanzaa symbol is a
seven position candle holder which we made from car seat beads
glued on a popcicle stick. We purchased red, green and black
birthday candles to make the "Kinara" look authentic.
They turned out real cute. We also played an African game that
the girls really liked, Cross the
River.
Christmas Craft Night
We planned to many crafts and could not finish them. We had five crafts, four would have been better. Also one of them was much longer than the others. Otherwise, it is a much loved event. We made wreaths with squared of tissue paper applied to a wreath shape cut from poster board. You wrap the eraser end of a pencil with a small square of green tissue paper and glue to poster board. Make it nice and bushy and you have a very nice wreath. Adorn with a bow and or red berries (we used red sequins). This craft takes a long time for the girls, I would suggest making them small. We made reindeer ornaments from flat clothespins. You glue two together with a ribbon loop sandwiched between, this is the reindeers body and legs. Glue a third one upside down on the top half of the sandwiched ones, this is the reindeers head and antlers. Finish with googly eyes and a red pom pom nose. We made gift bags by wrapping white paper like a present around a box. You only wrap one end, this produces a bag. The girls decorate the bag and add a pipecleaner handle. We also made boxes from old Christmas cards. You fold and tape the cards into boxes. They can be used to store a small gift or like we did as an ornament by adding a pipecleaner as a handle. The last craft was a pinecone decorated with glitter. We ran the crafts as a round robin, each leader doing one of the crafts with a small group of girls. The groups switch crafts. We have found that the Sparks love to do crafts and this gives them the opportunity to get a lot done in one night.
New Years
We let each girl bring in something they got for Christmas for show & tell. Our craft was a winter scene on blue paper sprinkled with snow (fake snow from craft store) which took too long to do.
Seasons
The girls talked about the different seasons and what the weather would be like in each season. The divided their paper into quarters and did something different in each square to represent each season. The cut out a paper snowflake for winter, made a sun from a sticky back foam circle for summer, cut out a leaf for fall and drew a spring picture with rain and flowers. We used our sheets from the game we played last year for new years. Each sheet has pictures depicting the month. We stuck the pictures on the four walls putting the months of a season together. We yelled out a season and had the girls run to the one they thought were correct. A nice active game.
Visits Animal Hospital
We had a very nice visit to a neighborhood animal clinic. We saw the examination rooms, the operation room and boarding cages. We saw x-rays of animals. We also saw a few animals.
Pets
We completed our pets theme by bringing in pictures of our pets or stuffed pets if we didn't have one. Everyone got to tell about their pet. We made pet masks from paper plates. We had dogs, cats and bunnies. We then ran around the room acting as our pet.
Visit Library
We had a very nice visit to our neighborhood library. The librarian showed us around and read us a story. We watched a video and looked at books. Some of us got a library card an got to take home a couple of books.
Valentines/Cookies
We made a valentine butterfly from a paper heart. We glued a popcicle stick down the middle of the heart and glued on pipe cleaner antenna, goggly eyes and a small pom pom nose. We decorated the wings (heart) and body (popcicle stick) with markers. We also talked about Girl Guide cookies. Everyone told what their favorite flavor of cookie was and we made camp hat cookies from fun foam.
Same & Different
We talked about what things were the same and different about all the Sparks. We paired up and looked at each other then turned our backs and one person changed something about themselves, took out a pony tail, took off a shoe, put a barrette on the other side........ Then they turned back around and had to guess what was different. We looked through magazines and cut out and pasted pictures onto paper, one was things that were the same and the second was things that were different. This was a nice self directed activity. We found a very nice picture book at the library to look at and talk about what was the same and different about the pictures.
Winter safety
We had a lot of fun learning what clothing to wear in the winter. We played "Dress the Leader" we had two teams and two leaders. We had two piles of clothing. Someone called out a weather condition and the Sparks dressed their leader they way they thought they should. For cold weather they dressed us in a coat, hat, scarf and mitts. For rain, they dressed us in a raincoat. They also thought we might get cold hands because they decided to put mitts on us too. The last weather condition was hot. The girls put us in shorts and a tank top and did not forget the hat. We talked about how to safely play in the snow and had a faux snowball fight with wadded up newspaper. The Sparks really liked to gang up on the leaders.
Bees
We learned about bees and made two crafts. A bees wax candle and a bee by covering a Styrofoam egg with yellow and black pipe cleaners.
Nutrition
We made pineapple faces using pineapple rings with shredded cheese for hair, raisins, carrots slices, cheese slices... for facial features. Learned about the food groups with a coloring sheet. Played a game with pictures of food. If it was a nutritious food they ran and stuck it on one wall. If it was not they stuck it on another wall.
Easter
We made bunny baskets by weaving yarn and ribbon through strawberry baskets. Then we colored in a paper bunny to attach to basket. Topped it off with a pipe cleaner handle. They played an egg and spoon relay with plastic eggs. We had goodies to share and they went home with a filled basket.
Fitness
Each leader came with an idea for our fitness night. One and probably the favorite of the girls was an obstacle course made with chairs, tables, skipping ropes, hula hoops, balls.... Another was a game of "What time is it Mr. Wolf" that we played outside. The third was moving to music.
Spring
We took a Spring walk around our neighborhood. It turned out to be an excellent activity. One we will repeat each year. It was great PR. We saw neighborhood kids, a Brownie getting ready to go to her meeting and a Guide. We made flowers out of egg cartons with pipe cleaner stems and paper leaves. We used film canisters as vases.
Brownie Visit
We took all the Sparks to visit the Brownies. We all had a great time playing games and planting seeds and making bookmarks. We joined in their circle at the end of the evening. I heard a few Sparks say they couldn't wait to go to Brownies.
May Day
We made a May pole out of a broom handle and danced around it. We made cute little May baskets from paper and filled them with dried flowers.
Families
The girls talked about their families, how many brothers and sisters. Weather they lived with Mom and Dad or just one or any combination. Then they made a portrait of their families on paper plates. They used scrap material and created each family member on the plate.
Advancement Ceremony
Our ceremony was a joint effort with the Brownies and the Guides. Each branch advanced in a hot air balloon with they made by decorating a large cardboard box. We then attached helium balloons to the boxes. Pink and Orange on the Spark one, Orange and Blue on the Brownies one and Blue and Green on the Guide one. The Spark who was advancing got to get in the Hot Air Balloon and ride to Brownies. Once there she received a Orange balloon and her certificate and crest. Every Spark then received a pink balloon. Next the Brownies went to Guides and the Guides to Pathfinders. We ended the evening with a sing song.
Party
Every year we ask the girls what they would like to do for our last meeting of the year. This year they wanted a party. We had pizza and cake and ice cream and played games outside. The girls recieved party favors and gifts. We had a very nice year.