kids – Page 2 – CraftyGuider

Getting to Know You – Ice Breaker Activities

It’s the start of the new term at Guides and as usual we have some new starters. I do my Guiding in a fairly rural area, so most of the Guides know each other from the main school in the village, but it seems that there is a huge gulf between the lofty year 7’s and the new year 5’s.

Looking for some new ideas, I stumbled across icebreakers.ws which has a number of interesting games to get everyone talking and learning more about each other. Who knows, they may actually find out that the year 6’s aren’t an alien species and are quite interesting!

I’ve tried the Bingo style games before where you have a sheet of paper and have to go around finding someone who has an elder brother, someone who is left-handed and someone who can’t stand One Direction. This is good at making the Guides talk to people outside of their normal friend group because Nancy the new girl is the only one with a hamster, and if they want to get that signed off, they need to share the fact that they hate marmite.

Another suggestion on the website is the blanket game where you hide one person behind a blanket and everyone else tries to guess who it is. I find this works best when you know each other a bit first. Rainbows won’t peek while you are hiding someone, but Guides aren’t beyond a bit of cheating. Or is it just mine?

I think I’ll be trying the connecting stories game within the new patrols. One person starts off a story such as “I had jam on toast for breakfast this morning” and then the next person needs to provide an anecdote related to this such as “my mum made strawberry jam this summer” followed by someone else’s “I went to a pick your own farm and we picked 3 punnets of delicious strawberries”. The linked stories have to carry on as long as possible.

With my old unit, I played the “move to the left” game where everyone sits in a circle on their own chair. The person in the middle makes a statement such as “move to the left if you have an older brother”. Anyone this applies to has to move to the left and sit in the next chair. If a Guide doesn’t have an older brother, they stay put, which can mean they get someone sat on their lap. If there is a complete pile up, you can rescue the poor unfortunate Guide left sitting underneath 4 others by making a statement that you know applies to her alone.

Do you have any good ice breaker activities to share?

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Dear August…

Oh August. Our relationship started so well. You gave me time to start blogging again, I started creating, I got things done.
My nephew came to stay and then later on there was the celebration of his Christening.
Husband’s birthday came and went, and the Craftyguidelets’ vision of a sailing themed birthday cake was realised.
The Craftyguidelets and I found 38 Books About Town book benches in 3 different areas of London, did some sightseeing, fell in love with the impressionists in the National Gallery, and completed the summer reading challenge at the library. Oh August, you kept us busy.

But towards the end it went wrong. A trying extended-family holiday culminated in little Craftyguidelet breaking her arm and spending 2 nights in hospital. How could you let that happen August? My little girl looked so tiny on that big bed as they wheeled her away for surgery under general anaesthetic.
You brought me flowers – hydrangeas to remind me of our lovely holiday in Cornwall and roses from husband for our wedding anniversary.
But it’s too late August. The pain of the hospital stay and seeing my poor little girl’s deformed arm, and now the huge cast that she has to carry around is too much.

It’s over August. I’ve decided to give September a go. The Craftyguidelets will be back at school and my volunteering with Guiding, the WI and school starts up again. I’ll need to be busy preparing Craftyguider for Christmas, as well as starting my own preparations. I’m also joining the Trefoil Guild and hoping to start my Voyage Award.

So long, and perhaps I’ll see you around some time in the future.

Craftyguider x

Books About Town Trails

As a family, we love trails. Mr Craftyguider loves orienteering and the Craftyguidelets and I have done a couple of string courses. Going round a museum captures the interest of a child more if they have a series of exhibits to find. We are also geocachers and spend time lurking around trying to look nonchalant whilst one member of the party digs out a hidden tupperware box to log our find without being spotted.

This summer we are looking for brightly painted benches in the shape of books on the Books About Town trails in London.
There are 50 benches to find on 4 trails. We started with the Brick Lane bench near the Museum of London on the City Trail.
There is also a quiz to download so for some of the benches you need to look a bit harder at the detail to answer the questions.
The backs of some of the benches are as stunning as the fronts. This is from the Great Expectations bench on the Riverside trail.

The bench I really wanted to spot was the Dr Seuss bench which is near More London outside the London Assembly building.
The Craftyguidelets loved the Axel Scheffler and Julia Donaldson bench.
I love the bench, but we took ages to spot it. The list of benches says it’s in the Hay’s Galleria near London Bridge station. We walked round, underneath, around, through, and eventually found it a few metres down the riverbank and not in the Galleria at all.
The Mary Poppins bench was a bit damaged. It was the first bench of many where we had to ask an unsuspecting tourist to move so we could photograph it from all angles! Luckily everyone was OK about it, especially when two cute Craftyguidelets were looking hopefully at them.
We have now found all the benches on the Riverside trail and 5 on the City Trail.
New events are being added to the website all the time including a competition to design your own Shakespeare bench to win prizes.
The book trail runs until 15th September, after which the benches are being auctioned off in aid of the National Literacy Trust. Could someone get one for me please? With the exception of the Fever Pitch bench though. As a Spurs fan, I have to draw the line!
16 benches done over 2 trips to London. Can we do the other 34 by the closing date?

Museum of London – Review

With the Craftyguidelets learning about the Great Fire of London in KS1 and Stone Age to Bronze Age in KS2 next term, we planned a day trip to the Museum of London near St Paul’s Cathedral to do a bit of ‘research’.

The museum is right in the heart of the history it is curating. Parts of the London Wall are ‘displayed’ through windows on the upper level. I’ve no idea why the man in the picture appears to be taking a selfie lying down in the shade of the wall!

We were met at the door by a member of staff who asked us about our visit. She showed us to the various activity sheets for children which you can also download before you leave home. We picked up the War, Plague and Fire one for youngest Craftguidelet. As there was nothing for eldest to have, the staff member got her some leaflets with pictures from the gallery, and also lent her a clipboard and A4 paper to draw pictures and take notes on. She also met up with us later in the day and showed a genuine interest in what the Craftyguidelets had done. It’s great when someone goes above and beyond the call of duty.

Photography is permitted in the museum but flashes aren’t so forgive the dodgy pics!
The galleries inside take you on a chronological journey through the history of London, starting in the ‘London before London’ gallery. This took us from the Stone Age through to Bronze Age with displays of artefacts discovered in the London area.
This Bronze age helmet is supposed to demonstrate the ferocity and virility of the owner. Not your normal head gear for a night on the pull any more!
The Roman area had this mock up of a Roman house. I love the mosaic floor.

Moving on through Medieval London and past a 100 year old model of the old St Paul’s cathedral, we arrived in the War, Plague and Fire gallery. There was a quite disturbing film presentation of the spread of the Black Death which we moved on from, and then on to the Great Fire of London.
It was great to show 5 year old Craftyguidelet examples of houses and how people lived in 1666 when the fire happened, as a background to what she will be learning about in the classroom. The museum is also in the area where the fire took hold, which also gave her another perspective.
These fabulous dresses were in a recreation of the Pleasure Gardens. I was a bit confused by the film dramatisation that was projected as part of the experience though.

After travelling through the Victorian shop recreations, we carried on moving through history to modern London.
This is a bronze lift from Selfridges from 1928. I love the grandness of it.
The Suffragettes were also featured with a large display, including this embroidery from Holloway Prison.
This was from a display of equipment from a bakery demolished in 1966 to make way for a new development. Being a Master Baker and Confectioner’s daughter, I am drawn to bakery memorabilia.
Probably the most thrilling part for me was the story of the development of the Olympic cauldron from the 2012 London games. The actual petal for Great Britain was displayed. I didn’t realise there were 3 cauldrons made – one for the Olympics, one for the Paralympics and one for testing. The scale and the detail were staggering.

We really enjoyed our day out at the museum. It held everyone’s interest throughout our visit, and there are probably details we missed to go back and see another time. Entrance is free but we did leave a donation in the box.

This review is based on my own opinion of our family day out. I received no incentives to go or to write a review.

Summer School

Summer Reading Challenge 2014

This year, the Craftyguidelets have been given homework to do during the school holidays. School work for a 5yr old and her 7yr old sister in the holidays? Shouldn’t they be enjoying themselves?

It’s not boring study though. Their new teachers have given them a blank A4 book to fill in with whatever they want. There is a sheet glued in the front giving ideas, but it could be anything they want to do.

The Craftyguidelets like ticking things off so we are using some of the suggestions, and we have already worked on a diary for our holiday in Cornwall. I have started a new smashbook, and they are using this idea to illustrate their diary with photos, entry tickets, leaflets and owl feathers, as well as drawings.

Also on the list are ideas based on their topics when they go back. 5yr old Craftyguidelet has the Great Fire of London, which will mean a trip to the Monument and St Pauls, stopping off at the Museum of London to see their War, Plague and Fire gallery. While we are there, we’ll visit the London Before London gallery for 7yr old Craftyguidelet’s Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age topic. For me, we’ll have collected lots of Show and Tell material for next term to avoid the last minute scramble at 8.29am for something topic related.

From: Books About Town

Another activity we’ll be trying is the Books About Town trails. Each trail has around 15 book benches to find, and there are 4 trails to choose from. I’ll be searching for the Dr Seuss bench on the Riverside Trail.

Eldest will be learning about Claude Monet next term. This will give me the opportunity to share my favourite painting with her – La Gare St Lazare – at the National Gallery. I used to go to the Impressionist gallery a lot when I was younger and am looking forward to rediscovering it.

There are also suggestions for nature walks, creative writing and art projects, to go with our plans for the library’s Summer Reading Challenge, loom bands, gardening, lego, Minion Rush, Brownie badge work, Rainbows summer treasure box, music, drama workshops, play dates, fancy dress catwalk shows, baking, playing and craft days.

Less than a month to go until the holidays end. Best get a move on!