Rangers points for skills night

We had a gap in our plan, I'm not sure how it happened but I was left with a night to fill and I was stumped and time short so I went through the boxes under my bed to see what we had and decided on a 'points for skills' night.

I packaged up a number of tasks and gave each of them a points value of some where between 5 and 25 points














I split the girls into teams of 2s and 3s.  This is something I rarely do, but it is an important part of our leadership brief to vary the sizes of groups the girls work in,  so it was a good to do it for a change.

I read through the tasks and points with the girls. I  left the tasks out for them to pick and choose as they felt best to maximise their team's skills to get the most points overall, whether that be lots of quick low pointers of a few high pointers.

I put up some flip chart paper with the team names on to write the scores onto as they gained them so they could see the competition hotting up.



The challenges were varied:




square lash 4 poles - 20 points

make an egg supporting structure with only newspaper - 15 points  (there were chocolate eggs to be eaten inside the plastic eggs, there was no way I could risk the church carpet with real eggs!)

Make a frog fly catcher - 25 points

Sort out all the green hama beads - 20 points

post-it note face - 1 point a post-it - minimum 5

Sew on a button - 10 points


I also had:

Make bunch (minimum 3) fork flowers - 10 points

I cut up the guiding promise and laws in lines and had  'put them in order' - 10 points (not one group chose that.  I had put the answer in there for them to copy but because they didn't even open it they never found that out!)

2 cups and 2 ping-pong balls (simultaneously throw and catch across the room) - 5 points (they loved that one!)

wrap a present - 5 points

Join 2 pieces of rope together - 5 to 15 points depending on the knot used (knot instructions were available to them on the table - they didn't all notice that)

Make a hat out of newspaper - 5 to 15 points based on creativity

Complete a wordsearch - 10 points (I had created a guiding based one with an online tool)

Write a limerick - 15 points  (they really enjoyed that too)

Other things I also thought might be ideas were:

changing a quilt cover
putting a sleeping bag into its sack
make a bedding roll
put up a one man tent
peeling a carrot
putting a screw into a piece of wood


I think you could do this with just about anything that you can lay your hands on at the time to be honest.

They all stuck at this for 90 minutes without wanting to stop or any of them giving up.  At the end of the evening they added up their points and the winning team declared.  One of the losing teams seemed a little miffed and had a bit of a blame game going on so I wandered into the cross fire, gently put down a bag of chocolate eggs and wandered out again...that seemed enough to end the hostilities, maybe chocolate is the way to world peace!

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Fork Flowers

These come in useful for all different sorts of things but mostly I just like making them.  But I always forget how, so more for me than you is the making fork flowers photo parade:

Start with your flower stalk, half a pipe cleaner length is fine for this.

now weave in and out your petals.

fold over the stalk and twist back on itself (If you are using wool you tie it off)

Slide it all off the fork

Fiddle into the petal shapes






















Experiment with how tight you pull the weave for bigger petals.

Wool flowers work well too.

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Parkrun

I've not got a lot of confidence when it comes to running.  Despite the fact that I've been running for years, imposter syndrome oozes out of my sweaty pores.

I regularly search 'jogging or running' on the internet.  My run style is bad, I Pheobe flick my feet and don't lift my knees properly.

So I run in muddy fields alone,  on tow-paths out of the way of anyone else.

But someone I go to an exercise class with has been politely asking me to go to Parkrun with them for a while now,  every time they go they offer me a lift and ask me to come...everytime.  He was so right, it was exactly the gentle sort of nudging I need and finally I went with him.

I finished mid-field, a respectable 26:53 for a 5k.  It's not fast but it is the time of someone that is fairly fit.  I'm extra proud of myself.

What a great guy to take me along and show me the ropes. I did it, I got a place and a finish time.  That makes me a runner, right?!

I think a second time will be harder, the adrenaline won't be pumping with nervousness in the same way.  I wonder if I will go again?!

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Rangers out and about

We’ve had a busy spring term for outings

Starting at the snowdome, we had a great time. First the rangers went in swimming on the inflatables (not very snowy I know but it’s part of the day ticket)

Then we all went tobogganing, this was great fun. The girls loved it.   I loved it!

A short break and they were off ice-skating. They made the most of the full session time and honestly must have been shattered by the end of the day. As a leader it meant a long drive and a lot of waiting around but it was also a break from life. I like that part of leadership. It takes me away from the stress of work and home for a while.

Only a few days later we were off again, trampolining. A new ‘park’ had opened in a nearby town and we decided to give it a go. Again they had a great time.

We also went to an escape room. The rooms normally go up to 6 people, I had 7 wanting to go so I twisted the arm of the bookings team and they went in together - but without me!

I did check that there would be a member of staff in there all the time, that there was a permanent exit and that any individual girl could come out to me if she wanted to without it 'spoiling it for the others', so I was happy as they went in.  Their shouts and screams said they were having a good time and they came out fastest in the month and in the running to win a return visit.

So a successful run of outings.  I am a little bothered that a few rangers did not come on any of the trips and 2 were run on a normal meeting night, I need to get to the bottom of if this was due to money or transport or just not wanting to go but I need to be sure I'm not unintentionally excluding anyone but going out on meeting nights.

We will have a run of being inside for a while now so back to normal but it was good to get out for a bit and take the pressure off arranging activities.

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The National Memorial Arboretum

Over Easter we went to visit the National Memorial Arboretum

From their own website "The Arboretum is home to over 350 thought-provoking memorials, each with a story to be discovered. The memorials are diverse in nature, rich in symbolism and collectively represent a broad population of society from military associations, charitable organisations, emergency services, fraternity groups and individuals. Each year new memorials are added so there's always something new to see."

I had no idea it even existed until the day before we went.  They started planting it in 1997, the indoor exhibition was only opened last year.

The indoor part is the only part you pay to go in, you don't have to go in it and it is a tiny part of the whole, but I am so glad we did just to see this diary from the trenches and its very last entry:

"up the lines at night"

The owner died in battle.















I also didn't know that "They will not grow old as we grow old..." that is always read out at Remembrance is from a poem called For The Fallen that is actually quite long.

 Outside is a huge area, 150 acres with an impressive armed forces memorial at the centre, the type of which I thought only existed in other countries.

This was a clever design "Through this space a shaft of sunlight falls at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month"

16,000 names

















The grounds were very flooded when we were there and it was surrounded by water.





























Just for scale here is an aerial view picture

It really was very flooded and some memorials were completely inaccessible.

But there were still enough to occupy us for 4 hours

I looked at this thinking it was something they were just building but it is actually the National Ex-Prisoner of War Association Memorial, after looking for a while I understood.

There are a couple of children's playgrounds.  On the day we were there they also had an Easter trail and a petting zoo.  This is not a sombre walk around a cemetery, it really is a day out made to be thought provoking but enjoyable.

And there is lots of wildlife spotting to be done too.

There has been so much thought put into each memorial that has you turning to read and look all the while, like this kayak seat (groups of special forces left a submarine in kayaks to destroy boats)

The Christmas Day Truce memorial.

Because we bought tickets for the indoor exhibition it also included a hand held electronic guide that gave information about each piece.  We didn't use it much but sometimes it was really interesting to listen to.

The sad area of memorials to babies.

There was an indoor area with a lot of interesting information about the prisoners of war in the Far East and outside  were sections of the railway they died building.

The Naval area had a lovely large glass memorial (as well as hundreds of others of all shapes and sizes)















It's not all about the forces, there are many others for the fire personel, police, St Johns, dentists, showmen, vets.

Not Forgotten.

The Shot at Dawn Memorial was moving.  So many young boys.

And the 6 conifers representing the six shooters, possibly known by the convicted, who wore a target around his neck.  Only one of the rifles had live ammunition so they did not know who actually fired the lethal shot.










And so close by the Hand of Peace: the memorial to the sufferers of mental health illnesses like PTSD.  Today we would probably have recognised that many of those convicted of desertion were suffering illness.

From Wikipedia:  "Britain was one of the last countries to withhold pardons for men executed during World War I. In 1993, John Major emphasised to the House of Commons that pardoning the men would be an insult to those who died honourably on the battlefield and that everyone was tried fairly.However, in August 2006 the then Defence Secretary, Des Browne, reversed this decision. He stated that he did not want "to second guess the decisions made by commanders in the field, who were doing their best to apply the rules and standards of the time", but that "it is better to acknowledge that injustices were clearly done in some cases, even if we cannot say which - and to acknowledge that all these men were victims of war"

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Paper Frog Fly Catchers

These paper folding frog fly catchers are easy to make for a 'keep in the bag' unit night

You need:

Sheet of green paper

Red felts (the thicker nibbed the better - board markers are great)

Glue Stick

Button

Tissue paper

Thread (preferably clear)

Dark felt pen

Hole strengtheners (optional)

Sticky tape

 Start with your sheet of A4 green paper

 Square it off  (folding a corner up to find your square and cutting off the end is an easy way to do this)

Fold the square corner to corner both ways  (the picture only shows one fold you need one across the other way too)

Open the paper out and lay it with the folds like it will bend upwards to you.

Now fold each corner to the centre

(remember with all paper folding accuracy and pressing on the edges really helps a lot.)

So your paper now looks like this

TURN IT OVER

Fold each corner to the centre again

 Colour in two opposite sides red

 Take a length of thread (about 30cms), a button and a small twist of tissue paper

 Tie the tissue paper to the button.

I push the thread up a hole and down another to create a loop, push the tissue par in and tied a thumb knot in the thread to pull the loop tight.  It can be fiddly and having someone to hold it will help, (Brownies would struggle with this bit.)

 Use sticky tape to stick the free end of the thread to the lower green side.

Then cover both green sides in glue.

 Put your fingers in the gaps in the under folds and manipulate it up, push the green sections together and just hold a minute whilst they stick.

Draw some eyes on and stick the hole strengtheners on.

Round off the corners of the head with scissors
















 Using the hand that is holding the frog only, swing the fly and flick it up to catch it in the frog's mouth.






















Follow this link for a printable instruction available to download

(Thank you to the GirlGuiding trainer that created this resource, I have kept it for so long I nolonger remember who/where it came from)



Have fun.

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