Cookie Day Fall 2015

Posted on October 4, 2015 by Carissa

It’s that time of year again! Burnaby Mountain Girl Guides were out in full force today selling delicious Chocolatey Mint Girl Guide Cookies. Girls from our various units could been seen selling at Save On Foods, Independent Grocers, Nestor’s Market, WalMart, and the Dollar Tree.

It was a beautiful day to be out in the community. Girls sold lots of cookies to support their fun and engaging programming. Lots of boxes were bought to support the local food bank as well. Thank you to everyone out in the community who supported our sales!

Sparks Dr. Seuss Themed Camp

Posted on June 30, 2015 by Carissa

It wouldn’t be Girl Guides without camping!

Most of the units in Burnaby Mountain went camping one way or another in the month of June. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) most of them were too busy having fun to spend much time snapping pictures. We were lucky enough to get some shots of the fun-loving 1st Sparks from their awesome Dr. Seuss themed camp at Camp Olave.

The Sparks had a great time reading stories, doing crafts, eating Seuss-themed food (green eggs and ham, anyone?), and doing all the other awesome camp activities like swimming, nature walks, and s’mores. In one activity, girls learned the foundations of building a good campfire by using edible materials — this girl was so proud of hers we needed to take a picture of it before she could eat the pieces!

The girls hammed up for the camera at their Dr. Seuss seaside photo booth with fun props and Who Hair Dos.

Some of their favourite characters were Thing 1 and Thing 2 as well as The Lorax.

They also had a great time singing their campfire songs and making (and eating!) their s’mores.

At the end of the day, camp is mostly about the food, right?

For many of these Sparks it was their first time doing a two night camp. The girls were very resilient and dealt with some challenges including late ferries that added a little bit of stress to the beginning of camp. But none of that slowed them down. The girls had a great time at Camp Olave and look forward to going back next year!

District Space Centre Sleepover: Guiding Reaches for the Stars!

Posted on May 21, 2015 by Carissa

Last weekend Burnaby Mountain District took over the HR MacMillan Space Centre for an amazing sleepover! More than 100 participants got to learn all about space including astronauts, the universe, rockets, and more.

Girls were divided into groups to take part in different activities. One of the stations took place in the observatory where girls got to learn about the giant telescope and how astronomers study space. SC 2

Everyone got a chance to explore the cosmic courtyard, which featured lots of hands-on activities. Girls got to touch a moon rock, feel different spacecraft materials, design rovers out of lego, and consider the possibility of alien life forms.

Another station was a presentation by Space Centre staff about what it’s like to be an astronaut. Girls got answers to all kinds of interesting questions: How to astronauts wash their hair? What do they eat? Where do they sleep? How do they go to the bathroom?

Finally, everyone got to see a show in the planetarium theatre before bed, showing us just how small we really are in the universe. They learned about planets, stars, and galaxies, and got to spot constellations and find out why Pluto is no longer classed as a planet.

It was a really successful event and everybody had a great time. Space Centre staff were impressed with how well behaved the girls were and how organized the leaders were. They were also impressed that we knew more songs about space than just “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!” SC 7

In the morning, girls got to launch the bottle rockets that they constructed the night before. Everyone was impressed with how high the rockets actually flew.

This is another great example of how Guiding includes STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) into programming for girls of all ages. We learned a tonne, and had a great time doing it. A HUGE thank you goes out to the incredible Space Centre staff for leading such an exciting program as well as to all the Guiders who volunteered their time to make the night a success.

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!

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!

Sparks Tinkerbell Sleepover

Posted on October 22, 2014 by Carissa

Last week the girls of the 1st Sparks had a great time sleeping over at Richmond Guide House. They had a pizza pajama party with the theme of Tinkerbell! They enjoyed a tasty pizza supper and then did a craft of Tinkerbell tutus before settling in to a room made into a movie theatre with a projector showing the Tinkerbell Pirate Fairy movie on the wall. The movie looked and sounded great. So much fun!

A magical fairy checking out the party light

In the morning the girls had a fairy party. This involved wearing the tutus made the night before and putting on fairy wings. The “movie theatre” room was converted into a “dance party” room with music and disco lights. They danced to pop music and classics like the Chicken Dance and the Macarena.

The fairy party also included reading from a Tinkerbell picture book, eating cake pops, and colouring some Tink sheets.

At the end of the event, some of the girls didn’t even want to go home they were having so much fun. That’s a pretty impressive endorsement considering for many of these Sparks it was their very first sleepover ever!

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.

Sparks Go to Dance Studio

Posted on March 20, 2014 by Carissa

The girls of the 1st Sparks love going out into the community to try new things. One of their recent outings was to ArtSpace for Children where they participated in a Dance Expression workshop. The studio was turned into an imagination playground by a wonderful workshop leader who encouraged the girls to move creatively and to work together. Feb 2014 018

The workshop was meant to show fundamentals in contemporary dance technique while acquiring coordination, balance, strength and physical confidence. Girls go t to develop improvisation and creativity while exploring movement, self-expression, rhythm, body awareness and musicality. They were active for almost two hours. Feb 2014 026

Most importantly, they had a great time! It was so much fun to go somewhere special and take part in something like contemporary dance. Thank you to Artspace for Children for having us!

This outing was entirely funded by our unit’s cookie sales — way to go girls! This is just one example of where that cookie dough actually goes.

Sparks at Disney on Ice

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Carissa

The 1st Burnaby Mountain Sparks had an exciting night out at Pacfic Coliseum in Vancouver when they went to see Disney on Ice: Rockin’ Ever After.

The show featured the stories and music of The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Tangled, and Brave, all performed by talented skaters. Jan 2014 056

The girls were excited to be out at such a fun event with their friends from Sparks. The highlight of the show was definitely the sequence from Tangled, as the girls had watched that movie at their sleepover earlier in the year. Some of them even wore the Tangled Rapunzel hair we made as a group.

Shown here is part of the Tangled sequence when the coloured lanters floated through the air. Thank you to our Sparks who showed how well behaved a large group of girls can be, even in a coliseum with thousands of excited little girls.

Burnaby Mountain District

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