Wishing you and yours a joyful holiday season, whichever way you choose to celebrate it. May you find joy, happiness, and peace with family and friends. Guiding in Burnaby Mountain will pick up again in the new year.
Above are the girls from the University Highlands Guiding group showing off their crafty reindeer ornaments and a wreath made from all of their hand prints on which they wrote things that they love about the holidays and about Guiding.
See you in 2017!
Last week the 54th Brownies had an outing to Enchant in Vancouver!
Enchant is the world’s largest Christmas Light Maze, made up of over 55,000 sq. ft. of brilliantly illuminated sculptures. Enchant also includes a Christmas market and food trucks.
The experience involves a story and a scavenger hunt for participants to find 9 incredible light sculpture reindeer. In the story, Santa asks for the help of the children of the world to find his reindeer who got lost after a sudden blizzard at the North Pole. They wandered into the enchanted light forest and if they’re not found on time, Christmas would have to be cancelled! These Brownies were happy to help.
Girls had a great time exploring the beautiful lights. It was awfully cold out and some of them learned a good lesson about layering clothes when it’s chilly! It was also very busy, so girls had to be sure to practice their buddy system and stay together as a group.
Luckily the group got to enjoy a nice toasty hot chocolate at the end to help warm up. Even though they were bundled up under their warm jackets, hats, scarves, and gloves, girls were proudly wearing their Brownie scarves and sashes — it was great to be noticed out in the community.
Enchant was an awesome experience, and an enchanting way to end the year. We can’t wait to see what these girls get up to in 2017.
This week, for their last meeting before the winter break, the 54th Brownies had a great meeting where they got to take on the roles of restaurant owners and chefs. The girls worked together to make their menus, set tables, and do the prep work and cooking to share a great meal together.
The food was simple, but full of crowd favourites. The girls prepared veggies and dip for their appetizer, mini pizzas for the main course, and a creative dessert of cookies and grinch kebabs! Everyone took great care to use the kitchen equipment safely and because they were cooking for all of their friends, they took great attention and care to their jobs!
The Brownies showed lots of consideration for each other. Two girls took initiative and decided to write names on the drink cups so they didn’t get mixed up. Great idea girls! This was very helpful when they set the tables.
Cooking with Brownies is always an adventure and the leaders say this was a contender for their favorite meeting so far! As we know from camp, our girls love to eat! What fun 🙂
Last night the 1st Burnaby Mountain Sparks got to practice the part of their promise that tells them to “be a friend” — with awesome animals! The group welcomed a special guest, Mike (from Mike’s Critters), who brought with him lots of critters for the girls to touch, hold, and learn about.
The first animal was a chinchilla, which is the world’s softest animal. Her fur was soooo soft to touch! Everyone got the chance to touch her, and some even got to hold her. It was a very exciting start to the presentation.
Other animal guests included a chameleon, a turtle, a hedgehog, and a bunny. There were even some kind of scary animals: a tarantula and a snake! But every animal was very friendly and safe to be around. Mike did a great job of teaching the girls cool things about every single animal that he presented. They learned what kinds of food the animals eat, what kind of environment they live in, how they stay safe from predators, and other interesting facts.
The girls also showed great interest and critical thinking skills when they asked some really good questions. One girl asked why the chameleon has a big ridge on his head (answer: to collect morning dew so it can flow into his mouth) and another wanted to know why the chinchilla had whiskers (answer: so it it can tell if a hole in a cave or tree is big enough to climb into safely).
It was a really fun day and everyone — even the leaders! — learned a lot. Thank you, Mike, for bringing your awesome critters to our Sparks meeting.
In Burnaby Mountain District we are lucky enough to have access to lots of great guest speakers who are available to come in to speak to our girls about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). With close access to universities, museums, and other programs, we are fortunate enough to have lots of ways to expose our girls to these exciting subjects.
Recently the girls in the 24th Brownies applied to a Science World’s program where they send a professional scientist to your group. They had a chemist named Allyssa, who develops colours and formulas for gel nail polish for a living, volunteer to do a presentation on polymers for the girls.
She started off with a bang, lighting some powders on fire. Next she did a trick where she poured some water into one of three cups, moved them around and had the girls tell her which one the water was in. When they were sure, she dumped the cup over her head, and nothing came out – and tried this with all three. Of course, she hadn’t disclosed that there was a polymer in the cup with the water, which absorbed the water and turned into into a spongy substance. Then she made fake snow, and lastly gave the girls these squishy little balls called Orbeez. Of course she briefly explained the science behind her demonstrations. The girls really enjoyed her presentation.
And this week, in the University Highlands Guiding group, the unit got a presentation from Let’s Talk Science, the same group that organized our District Science Day last year. For this unit of mixed Brownies and Guides, the SFU scientists led the girls in an activity where they got to extract DNA from strawberries! The hands-on learning was a great way to show the girls the science that exists around us every single day.
An important part of our programming STEM is always a hit with our girls. Stay tuned throughout the year for more examples of how girls learn all about the world around them and how this knowledge and these skills can be applied in on-going passions and careers.
November was a big month for Rangers in Burnaby Mountain District. For this, our oldest age group of Guiding, ceremonies and celebrations have lots of meaning as many of these girls have been in Guiding for most of their lives.
The 12th Rangers were happy to welcome new members to their unit at their enrollment ceremony. The Guiders tried to make the day special, including nice gifts. Lots of red and white made the day extra festive.
Every November girls from West Coast Area gather to receive Guiding’s highest level girl awards at the annual Celebration of Achievement. At this event, two Burnaby Mountain girls who finished Rangers last year were awarded with their Chief Commissioner’s Gold Award. This award takes lots of hard work and includes a lengthy process of personal and skill development, community service, and dedication to Guiding. The celebration was a very special night and it was a pleasure to hear all the award recipients say a few words about what Guiding has meant to them.
Welcome, to all the new Rangers and may your coming years have lots of fun, friendship, and excitement. The unit has lots of great adventures planned, including an upcoming snowshoe outing to Mt. Seymour. Have a great time! And congratulations to the girls who completed their Ranger programming last year. Burnaby Mountain is thrilled that both of these young women are continuing to be involved in our district. They are proving to be excellent assets to our team.
Burnaby Mountain District 