All About Me
We started the meeting with a tour of our church. We let
the second year girls answer questions about the place. We made
our All about me booklets and asked the girls what their favorite
songs were. We didn't end up with a lot of time but had also
planned on playing their favorite games.
All About Sparks
The girls heard the Spark story told with a
flannel board. They made spark paperbag puppets by cutting up
pink paper to make clothes for the paperbag puppet and yarn for
hair. We played a getting to know you game and taught our
opening.
Thanksgiving
We read a book about Canadian Thanksgiving
we got from the library. We made a cute turkey paper craft. It
was pre-printed on colored paper and entailed cutting and gluing.
Therefor I'm afraid I can't reproduce it for you. We played the
table setting relay. I have children's toy dishes we use for this
game. I traced the place setting onto paper placemats to help the
girls put things in the correct place. They place the dishes on
the placemat in relay fashion. Another game we have had for a
long time and we use every time we have a Thanksgiving theme is
the "Turkey hunt". I cut out a lot of paper turkeys and
we just hid them around the meeting place for the Sparks to find.
We had hoped to play with outside but just as the last turkey was
hidden it started to rain and they had to be brought inside.
Becoming A Spark
We use this meeting to practice our Enrollment Ceremony.
So we practiced and made some paper jewels to decorate the floor.
We also talked about making a promise and used our Sharing bag.
We put lots of small objects in a cloth bag and pass it around
the circle. The Spark reaches in and takes something out of the
bag and tells how to share it. We put things in to spark
discussions, like a toothbrush or hairbrush.
Enrollment Ceremony
We used the Spark story and a child's slide
for our Enrollment. The new Sparks slide down the slide and were
met by Jewel, our Jr. leader who escorted them to the Spark
circle. Once there we all said our promise and got our pins. Then
we sang the Sparks song, "We run into a circle, we make a
great big ring. We all join hands together and then we start to
sing, We're Sparks, Sparks, Sparks, We're Sparks, Sparks,
Sparks". On the last word we all through a handful of stars
into the air like the gems in the Sparks story. This was great
fun but should have been the very last thing we did. We still had
two Jr. Leaders to enroll and the Sparks were busy scooping up
stars and putting them on their heads. We ended our evening like
we always do with the parents joining the girls for the Hokey
Pokey and the Chicken Dance and refreshments.
Halloween Party
Everyone dressed in costume, boy were they
cute! Our craft was a Hollowed scene. We painted craft sticks
white and glued them on black paper to look like a fence. Then
they cut out pumpkins and ghosts to add to the scene. This took a
while as we had to have 15 girls paint the crafts sticks. We had
a little fashion show of costumes and played duck, duck goose
while waiting for everyone to finish their craft. It took a long
time just to organize everyone to come up and get food and drink.
We are finding it difficult to get a lot done at meetings with
such a large group. I can't imagine those who have 20 odd Sparks.
Next year we want to forgo the costumes and maybe do face
painting instead.
Cookies
Fall cookies go home today so we planned a
meeting all about cookies. This would have been a perfect
opportunity to show the video we have, I think it's provincial.
We did not end up booking the video but it would have been a good
way to introduce the concept of selling cookies to parents new to
Guiding. We did talk to the Sparks about selling cookies. Why we
sell them, manners, what we do with the money. We ended the
discussion with everyone telling their favorite kind of cookie.
We did a great creative activity with the mint cookies. We made
hamburgers with them. The mint cookie is the patty. Use vanilla
wafers as buns, top and bottom. We got tubes of frosting in
yellow (mustard) and red (ketchup). Brush the top bun with a
little corn syrup and sprinkle on sesame seeds. They look just
like burgers. It was great. We played a game of "Hot
Cookie" (hot potato) We just happen to have a few bean bags
that look like cookies. Next year I'd like to run the meeting for
the girls and also show the video to the parents and have
separate leaders to deal with cookies.