1.6 Toadstool Adventures

Program Connections: 
  • Key to Brownies
    • 3. Enroling in Brownies
      • A - Make invitations for your enrolment ceremony.
      • B - Decide what food to have and who's going to bring it.
      • C - Practice your Brownie Promise.
    • 4. Being a Brownie
      • C - Learn to Tie the Brownie tie.
KeytoBrownies


    No, this meeting has nothing to do with toadstools... it is all about planning for enrolment!

    Gathering Activity (in their circles) {Key to Brownies 4C}

      • Put the following list in each circle box:
          1. Take attendance and dues.
          2. Put your meeting bead onto your bracelet.
          3. Practice how to tie your Brownie tie in a reef knot.  Right over left and left over right, Makes the knot neat and tidy and tight.
          4. Practice a reef knot using ropes
        • Inside the box are also bracelets (note, the nametags were not working, so now all of the beads are being collected on a pipecleaner bracelet), beads (red pony beads with white dots painted on - like toadstools!), dues book and bag, circle song pasted onto the outside of the box, the reef knot instructions, and two different coloured ropes (6 pieces of white and 6 pieces of green).
        • To teach the girls how to tie the knot, we found it helped to pretend that the ropes were worms.  They could choose one "worm" to be "in charge".  The worm who was in charge was the one who did all the work - he went over and through, over and through the other worm.  The "other" worm was "lazy" and just hung around waiting for the knot to be tied.
        • After the girls mastered the knot on their own, they then tied one of their ropes to the next girl's rope in the circle, so they had one big circle of rope in each group by the time we were ready for opening.

        Opening

          • Circle Songs
          • Brownie Song
          • Practice the promise, motto and sign circle {Key to Brownies 3C}
            • Girls say it all together then one word at a time (each girl says one word of the promise, moving around the circle like a continuation story)

            Game

                Craft

                Game

                  Enrolment ceremony discussion/practice

                  • We looked at all of the ideas that the Brownies came up with at a previous meeting and decided to incorporate as many as possible.  We decided to use a crayon theme, as then we can all be different colours with a “rainbow” of personalities.  Each girl will get to draw a picture using her colour, and she can draw whatever she wants that represents that colour, be it a Mario Brothers red, blue or green mushroom, a pink Princess Peach, yellow stars, green aliens, or whatever!
                  • Each new girl will wear a pointy party hat to represent her colour and will have a drawing that she has made using her colour.  Each 2nd year girl will wear a "band" hat of colour around her head to represent that she has lots of experience "colouring" at Brownies!
                  • Have the girls make a list of possible colours (red, blue, green, black, white, orange, yellow, pink, purple, brown, grey, peach, gold, violet, turquoise…)
                  • The leaders then read a poem that the girls can act out ("The Crayon Box that Talked" by Shane Derolf).
                  • While walking in a toy store
                    the day before today,
                    I overheard a crayon box
                    with many things to say.

                    "I don't like red!" said yellow.
                    And green said, "Nor do I!"
                    And no one here likes orange,
                    but no one knows quite why."

                    "We are a box of crayons
                    that really doesn't get along,"
                    said blue to all the others
                    "something here is wrong!"

                    Well, I bought that box of crayons            [gather girls all together]
                    and took it home with me                          [girls follow leader to a new spot]
                    and laid out all the crayons                        [have the girls line up in a row]
                    so the crayons could all see.

                    They watched me as I coloured
                    with red and blue and green               [each coloured girl comes forward and spins around]
                    and black and white and orange
                    and every color in between.

                    They watched as green                      [green girls bring up their pictures and tape them up]
                    became the grass
                    and blue became the sky.                   [blue girls]
                    The yellow sun was shining bright       [yellow girls]
                    on white clouds drifting by.

                    Colors changing as they touched,
                    becoming something new.                   [each of the remaining girls bring pictures up]
                    They watched me as I coloured.
                    They watched till I was through.

                    And when I'd finally finished,
                    I began to walk away.
                    And as I did the crayon box
                    had something more to say...

                    "I do like red!" said the yellow
                    and green said, "So do I!"
                    "And blue you are terrific
                    so high up in the sky."

                    "We are a box of crayons
                    each of us unique,
                    but when we get together
                    the picture is complete."
                  • When our picture is complete, we form a circle around the magic Brownie pond.  We are a rainbow of colours all coming together as a rainbow of personalities into one “crayon box” – our Brownie unit.
                  • Question for the girls: do you want to have each girl come up and have a leader “twist me and turn me and show me an elf, I look in the mirror and there see…. Myself” OR do you want to have ALL girls go around the mirror pond and have all of us go in a circle and say the same thing, except “We look in the mirror and there see OURSELVES”? 
                    • Girls decided to individually be spun around.
                  • Another decision for the girls – we can either each individually say our promise, or girls can come up in groups (maybe “colour” groups?), or all new girls can say the promise together. 
                    • Girls decided to say the promise as one big group.
                  • After the girls have said their promise and been spun around, they will receive their Brownie pin.
                  • We will have a snack after enrolment – we decided on cupcakes and the new girls will sign up to bring cupcakes iced with "their" colour (i.e. one to bring yellow, another to bring red, etc) {Key to Brownies 3B}
                  • Girls then signed up for colours - one 1st year and one 2nd year for each colour (red, green, blue, brown, pink, purple, black, yellow, orange, gold, silver, scarlet)

                    Brownie Closing