Sparks See Frozen on Ice

Posted on December 2, 2015 by Carissa

Eight months ago when Disney on Ice announced their touring production of Frozen on Ice would be visiting Vancouver this November, one Spark Guider knew that this is something girls in her unit would love to see. She jumped on the opportunity to order tickets in the group sales pre-buy.

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This fall, girls in the 1st Sparks worked very hard to sell Girl Guide cookies — together they sold more than 70 cases! — to help subsidize the event.

Eager for the show to start

On November 28th, 16 girls and their Guiders went to Pacific Coliseum to see their favourite movie re-enacted by world class figure skaters. Girls were dazzled by the special effects, impressed by the skaters’ talents, and eager to sing along to their favourite Frozen tunes.

Mesmerized by the skating

The leaders were impressed by how well the girls followed instructions and kept together as a group. As you might imagine, there were a lot of little girls at the coliseum that day. The group navigated the busy chaos without any problems — even the super crowded bathroom at intermission!

Olaf singing about summertime

It was a fun day, enjoyed by all. The only thing more magical than seeing Frozen on Ice is seeing it with a big group of your closest Spark friends.

Brownies Build Birdhouses

Posted on November 25, 2015 by Carissa

This week the girls from the 54th Brownies went to Home Depot to try out some new skills with tools and construction!

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Each girl got to make her very own birdhouse. Leaders were impressed with how quickly some of the girls picked up on the skills, figuring out how to assemble their pieces and how to screw and nail them together almost before they even told how! It is great to see them all so proudly showing off their creations.

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The leaders were very impressed with the program offered to them by the staff at Home Depot. One leader said “Mark, Gary, and Penny at Home Depot on Henning Drive were fantastic! They were so helpful, went out of their way to accommodate us (Especially Gary who precut all the pieces at home on his day off!)” Wow! A huge thank you to Home Depot and its staff for supporting Girl Greatness in our community!

Sparks Do van Gogh

Posted on May 5, 2015 by Carissa

Last night the girls in the 1st Burnaby Mountain Sparks went to a 4 Cats art studio to participate in a painting workshop to recreate Vincent van Gogh’s famous masterpiece, Sunflowers.

A wonderful art facilitator gave tips on drawing and painting the vase full of flowers. Girls were encouraged to think about warm colours and cool colours and to group those together to emphasize mood.

The girls had a great time and produced some really awesome art. By the end of the night they had each made their very own acrylic painting with modeling paste on an 11″× 14″ pre-stretched canvas. The 1st Sparks love 4 Cats!

Brownies Experience the Orchestra

Posted on March 6, 2015 by Carissa

Last month the girls of the 54th Brownies enjoyed a concert at the Orpheum Theatre in downton Vancouver called Latin Beats Heroic Feats. The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra put the show on as a part of their Kids’ Koncerts series.

Especially exciting was the opportunity visit the VSO Instrument Fair in the hour before the show. The girls got some hands on exposure to a variety of instruments.

Performers were available with several different instruments to give kids personal demonstrations and a chance to try them themselves. The girls had a chance to try a cello, violin, flute, oboe, bass clarinet, and more!

There was even a craft station — always a bit hit with Brownies! — where the girls got to make their own carnival masks, which later became a part of the interactive show. The orchestra performed a number of musical pieces from across North and South America in an interactive show designed for kids aged four to eleven years old. Clowning and puppetry were also used to stage a story about a young boy’s travel through time and space, learning all about music and rhythm. Once again the girls impressed everybody with how well behaved and engaged they were through the whole experience. This unit visited the symphony last year as well and when Brown Owl asked what kinds of outings and activities they wanted to plan this year, there was an overwhelming desire to see the symphony again.

Way to go, 54th Brownies, helping these girls develop a love for live orchestral music!

Guides at the Biodiversity Museum

Posted on February 2, 2015 by Carissa

Recently the girls of the 22nd Burnaby Mountain Guides took a Saturday morning to visit the Beatty Biodiversity Museum at the University of British Columbia. The unit rode transit from Burnaby out to UBC and then enjoyed a hands-on tour of the museum.

The wonderful museum staff had prepared a session for them focussing on birds. It was very interesting. Girls got to handle actual biodiversity artefacts and and learn about birds in a variety of ways. The Feathered Friends module is described as follows: Are you bonkers for birds? Learn the basics of bird watching by discovering how body shape, colouration, behaviour and sound can be used to find out more about the birds around us.

The pictures shown are the girls posing with the museum’s impressive 26 meter long blue whale skeleton. Very cool!

It is always exciting to get our girls out in the community — especially onto university campuses! — to learn about things they didn’t know in ways that may not have occured to them. STEM Programing (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) is a wonderfully enriching part of our program and the girls love it!

Burnaby Village Museum Heritage Christmas Outing

Posted on January 6, 2015 by Carissa

Several units from Burnaby Mountain District visited the Burnaby Village Museum for its annual Heritage Christmas display at the end of 2014. The museum is known for putting on a great evening with live entertainment, lots of educational material from the 1920’s, and, of course, the carousel.

There was a really fun scavenger hunt themed as the 12 days of Christmas. The clues were the words from the song and the things that “my true love gave to me” were scattered throughout in creative ways. The “four calling birds” for example, was four crows making phone calls in a store window! Shown below are some of the “nine ladies dancing”.

There were lots of lights and amazing decorations. The eco-sculptures were dressed up too. There was lots to learn about how Christmas was celebrated almost 100 years ago.

One of the highlights of course was the ride on the beautiful traditional carousel. The girls loved riding with their friends. The horses move faster than you might think!

We hope you enjoy these photos of the 1st Sparks and the 54th Brownies from when they went together one night. Other units visited the museum on different nights as well.

Sparks Outing to the Theatre

Posted on December 5, 2014 by Carissa

The girls of the 1st Sparks recently enjoyed an outing to the Carousel Theatre for Young People’s presentation of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Eric Carle Favourites. The show presented some of our favourite stories: The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Mixed Chameleon, and Little Cloud. This production, designed for kids aged 3-7 years old, was perfectly suited to Sparks!

The show used puppets and black light to tell the stories in a way that seemed truly magical. As a special treat, the puppeteers came on stage at the end of the show to demonstrate to the audience how the puppets are used. Almost unanimously, the girls’ favourite part was when the caterpillar turned into a beautiful butterfly.

As part of regular weekly meetings, the girls prepared for the show by reading the stories and doing some Eric Carle inspired art. Check out some of their finger and fruit paintings of the Very Hungry Caterpillar.

It was such a treat to see story books come to life on stage. This outing not only introduced many of them to professional live theatre for the first time, it also prompted many of them to borrow Carle’s books from their school libraries. And who doesn’t want to see kids more interested in books?

The outing was heavily subsidized by the unit’s excellent cookie sales. Way to go girls!

Rangers at the Night Market

Posted on November 13, 2014 by Carissa

As one of their first events this year, back in September, girls in the 12th Rangers went to the Richmond Night Market. They enjoyed eating unusual treats and shopping at unique vendors. The theme at the night market this year was Magical Candyland — it was a fun night to be sure!

The market was busy, colourful, and exciting. The adorable duck mascot and fun candy decorations made for a few irresistible photo ops.

They were joined at the market by the 14th Pathfinders. Afterwards, the two units went back to Richmond Guide House where they tented in the backyard. Meanwhile, the 54th Brownies were having a sleepover in the house — all three units had breakfast together in the morning. It is always a pleasure to see units bridging for special events.

Gulf of Georgia Cannery/Richmond Guide House Sleepover

Posted on October 5, 2014 by Carissa

At the end of September the girls and leaders of the 54th Burnaby Mountain Brownies had an incredible overnight experience combining a tour of the Gulf of Georgia Cannery and a sleepover at Richmond Guide House.

Some of the leaders outside the Cannery as the girls gathered for the event

Everyone met at the cannery, which is a Parks’ Canada National Historic site. Two enthusiastic tour guides took everyone around the facility, showing how salmon was fished and canned and west coast.

The start of the tour, near a display about old time fishing techniques

It was fascinating to learn about what the conditions were like for the people working in the cannery, to see the machines, and understand some context about the west coast fishing industries.

The girls were a rapt and well behaved audience

The girls especially enjoyed some hands-on activities designed to give them an appreciation for the weight of the fish, how they moved fish around the cannery, and even learning how much a Brownie’s weight of salmon would have been worth (answer: about $20!)

One Brownie using a tool to move rubber fish from one bin to another. It was heavy, hard work!

After the tour the girls had a fish and chips dinner in the cannery’s ice house. A huge thank you to friend of Guiding, Dave’s Fish and Chips, who prepared our delicious meal for wonderful value. Everyone then rode the bus back to the Richmond Guide House where they settled in to the sleepover portion of the evening.

A koi fish wind sock — fish theme, get it?

The girls worked together to cook some stone soup for mug-up, made a craft of koi fish wind socks, sang campfire songs, and went to bed (at a very reasonable time, the leaders are pleased to add!).

Sparks become Nature Explorers

Posted on October 1, 2014 by Carissa

Last week the girls in the 1st Sparks went on an outing to Burnaby Lake where they were toured around the park by some Metro Vancouver park interpreters for a Nature Explorers field trip. The theme of the evening was nocturnal animals. image (3)

Stations and activities were set up along the trail designed for the girls to learn about bats, owls, spiders, frogs, slugs, beavers, and flying squirrels. Puppets, artefacts, and habitats were all involved in a hands-on experience, expertly tailored to our girls’ ages. One of the best recieved activities involved the Sparks climbing through a giant spider web without touching the strings… or else the giant fuzzy spider puppet would come turn them into supper!

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There was plenty of real nature to enjoy. Girls got to pet slugs, listen to frogs, and observe birds — some girls even spotted an owl!

It was a lot of fun to spend a meeting outside learning about nature. It was neat to learn that there was so much wildlife so close to where we all live. If other groups are interested in booking a park interpreter field trip, details are available here.

Burnaby Mountain District

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Tag Archives: Outing