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Extra-curricular activities

Find advice on the best extra curricular activities in secondary schools and primary schools here.

Original poster

Guiders' staff room - tea, wine, chat and optional dancing around the toadstool

991 replies

MadBadandDangerousToKnow · 03/03/2009 21:57

Thought it might be nice to have a place to swap ideas and experiences. Shall we do introductions first?

My name's MadBad and I've been a Brownie guider for about 5 years.

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pickledHAN · 05/03/2009 13:09

OOh centenary - now theres a topic!

Have already admitted I have too many Guiding hats (and hats in life in general!) and 2010 is no exception!

Within our county we are having a Guide event somewhere archiological, a Senior Section shopping challenge, and a finale at a local county house.

I am also involved in centenary camp, and am leading a pre centenary international thi ssummer.

Hmm - lookign forward to 2011 for a rest!

frasersmummy · 05/03/2009 07:54

snack time in our pack is diluting juice and biscuits

well its after tea dinner time and its only once a week

frasersmummy · 05/03/2009 07:52

skramble what about maiking great big easter eggs from balloons, paper mache and paint

I know its messy and takes time but thats what camp is all about

you could also just scatter loads of easter eggs made out of card around your campsite and send them to collect them

Of course some really wicked guiders lock one in the inside of their car and then disappear with the key!!!!!!

You can make spring lambs.. get a sheep template (size dependant how busy you want to keep them .. loads of white wool and just wrap the wool around and around till card is covered .. one of our young leaders then colourered hers black and declared she was black sheep!!

Original poster
MadBadandDangerousToKnow · 04/03/2009 23:37

Forgot to say, do you know Kick The Can? Very popular with our Brownies. I'm hazy about the rules but I'm sure they're online somewhere.

And yes, the shoebox thing is tricky. We always put out an APB, but there's always one parent who doesn't 'get' it (they get it but they don't 'get' it, IYSWIM) and sends their Brownie without one, saying something like ' but I always put ours in the recycling'. To which my bite-my-lip response - as I empty the cereal out of its packet to provide their Brownie with a box - is 'couldn't you have scrounged something from a neighbour/shoe shop then?'

Oh dear. I do sound grumpy. Must go to bed.

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Original poster
MadBadandDangerousToKnow · 04/03/2009 23:31

Ok. Was going to go to bed but very quickly

Potato hedgehogs

  1. Take a large (raw) potato
  2. Make holes over the top half of the potato with a skewer [job for adult helper]
  3. Into the holes insert twigs or any other natural material scavenged from outdoors. These are the prickles (or feathers for owls or chicks)
  4. Make two further holes at the front of the potato for eyes [adult helper again]
  5. Insert acorns, small pebbles etc for eyes
  6. Voila! A hedgehog.

The scavenging for materials is at least half the activity. If you can keep the potatoes upright, and adjust accordingly, you can make owls or chicks.

OP posts:
skramble · 04/03/2009 23:19

Treasure hunt is a good idea as I am trying to get more outdoor ideas, you never know it might be dry.

Potato Hedgehogs???

Like the idea of treasure boxes, but would need to put out an APB on shoe boxes, might not have enough before we go.

Original poster
MadBadandDangerousToKnow · 04/03/2009 23:12

Hi skramble.

At camp we always do a treasure hunt where the list spells out the camp theme. So how about something like

Egg
Something awful [could be a smelly sock!]
String etc etc

They don't need to find the actual object but can improvise - blade of grass for string etc.

Have you ever done potato hedgehogs/owls? For Easter you could adapt it to chicks.

We often do a decorated shoe box treasure chest to take home all the other crafts, but that's very much paper/sticking/painting.

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skramble · 04/03/2009 23:03

Oops sorry I should say with Brownies

Original poster
MadBadandDangerousToKnow · 04/03/2009 23:03

We have an hour and a half. We were finding that - particularly after an active game - so many were asking for drinks that it was simpler to build a quick drink and snack break into the programme. And it sometimes doubles as a pow-wow. We vote on what game to play next, etc.

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skramble · 04/03/2009 23:02

Thought I would say hello, I am a parent helper with special crafting duties .

Oh any ideas for easter activities. I have lots of colouring, and cut out and glue together ideas, but I need something a bit more substantial to make at camp (souviner), and any other non paper/gluing activities and games on the easter theme. TIA

MaureenMLove · 04/03/2009 22:56

I am a mean Guider! I don't let them have a drink! The little darlings all have to go to the toilet once whilst we're there as is it and we've only got an hour!

Original poster
MadBadandDangerousToKnow · 04/03/2009 22:51
Blush
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Original poster
MadBadandDangerousToKnow · 04/03/2009 22:50

Ah. We have an occasional splurge on Baker Ross! And we spend a fair bit over the course of the year on drinks and healthy snacks.

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Original poster
MadBadandDangerousToKnow · 04/03/2009 22:50

Ah. We have an occasional splurge on Baker Ross! And we spend a fair bit over the course of the year on drinks and healthy snacks.

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MaureenMLove · 04/03/2009 22:44

We charge £20 per school term. So, 3 times a year. This easily covers hall charges and census. Rainbows don't have a lot of other outlays tbh. At least, mine don't! I beg, borrow and steal most craft stuff. School is very good at giving me paper and the childminder in me, still can't help saving yogurt pots etc!

SlightlyMadScotland · 04/03/2009 22:23

MadBad

I have just kitted DTDs out from ebay (or am in teh process of) and so far I have paid £23 + about £6-7 P&P for the following (from various sellers) - all described as very good condition apart from some bobbling on tops hoodies

2 T shirts
2 trousers
1 skort
1 hoodie

So I think that seller is overpriced TBH. And mine seem to be in teh most populat sizes (24" trousers 30" tops) so they seemed to be more expensive that teh smaller/bigger sizes.
I think I just need to get another hoodie and I am sorted.

Original poster
MadBadandDangerousToKnow · 04/03/2009 22:21

Frasersmummy - Those are the lowest subs I've heard of. Another benefit, I imagine, of gift aid.

We spend nearly all our income too - I agree that it is wrong to have hundreds of pounds sitting in the bank.

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frasersmummy · 04/03/2009 22:12

£10 per half term??? whats half a term

we charge £25 twice a year, at the start of and then just after christmas so that £50 a year.

We provide their badge book and adventure(on) books, all the other usual stuff and we pay the census from this plus our gift aid

We never have much money come the end of the year but we have always run on the basis that the parents pay the money expecting it to be spent on the girls not squirreled away

Original poster
MadBadandDangerousToKnow · 04/03/2009 22:08

We charge by the term but it's the same - £20. We don't charge extra for census but we do charge £12 joining fee to cover the cost of the Brownie box, Adventure and Badge books, Becoming a Brownie booklet, first badges etc. We have a very mobile population and high turnover, so before we introduced the joining fee we found that the cost of equipping new Brownies was making a massive hole in our finances.

Our other gambit is that we copy the local ballet school in charging extra for late payment of subs. I am patient and understanding up to a point, but when we're trying to plan a budget we need to get the subs in, to be sure of where we stand. And we'll be better off once we get our gift aid going, of course.

And may I ask your opinion on something different? I was mooching around ebay tonight when I found a seller - who says she is a Guider - selling some slightly damaged Brownie uniform trousers, a very worn (she admitted) t-shirt and a gilet for £25. As they would be £33 new, that seemed an awful lot. Do you agree? We sell nearly-new uniform (when Brownies donate it) for pack funds for about £2 an item. Or am I being silly and charging too little?

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MrsWeasley · 04/03/2009 21:55

What I ask what Subs you charge your girls?

We charge £10 per half term.

Census comes out of subs.

Original poster
MadBadandDangerousToKnow · 04/03/2009 21:52

We pay out of subs (which are set with that in mind) but the second thing I've learnt tonight is that we ought to get our gift aid sorted out. It had slipped off my to do list.

Frasersmummy - at all our trainings we have to supply our own lunch.

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frasersmummy · 04/03/2009 21:38

we gift aid our subs and that usually more or less covers the census.

SlightlyMadScotland · 04/03/2009 21:37
MaureenMLove · 04/03/2009 21:34

Do you all pay for it out of subs? Or do you ask parents?

MrsWeasley · 04/03/2009 21:21

Hi
I'm a Brownie guider and have been for 6 years, I do sometimes help at a Rainbow unit too.

Census was £20 for us.

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