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I thought it would be great if people could share what they do around finishing / celebrating the end of the Guide year - while they are fresh in everyone's memory. Then we can tuck away the good ideas for consideration next year! Liz E
I am particularly motivated because despite having a great and active Support Group at present, we are reworking an old reliable (though maybe tired) end of year celebration. We are close to the beach so we have a Celebration in a park at at the beach to finish off the year.
Is held with the Junior Guides and Guides together, and is run by the Support Group. Have a sausage sizzle, drinks, and icecream cones. Activities include sand castle making & various team based games in the park. We often have a small formal part where final badges for the year are handed out, occasionaly we have girls make their promise, and significant performances during the year are acknowledged.
If it rains, we hold the event in the Guide hall....fortunately it rarely comes to that. We hold the event in the 2nd last week of the school term and this is the last Guide meeting for the year.
Liz E
The senior Guides created a widegame for the junior guides, families, leaders etc to play. The theme was the Amazing race. Instead of countries, the teams raced around the fundmentals of Guiding (this part was my idea but I can honestly say that is the only input I had). Each challenge fitted into the fundamentals and used a skill that the girls had learnt during the year (ie tracking signs for outdoors, making a stretcher for service etc). It gave the girls a chance to show off what they had learnt as well as giving parents an idea of what the girls having been doing all year. All the parents joined in with enthusiasm and I was very proud of my girls.
We followed up with a sausage sizzle, of course. What is a Guide celebration without food?
Krys E
We have our final badge presentation the week before our last meeting and acknowledge awards, those moving on to the next section and also present badges, certificates etc. Parents come to this.
We do not meet in the last week of school term - it is just too busy!
We try to do something different each year for our break up. Last year we took the girls out to a restaurant (one of our leaders works there and her partner is the head chef). The girls decided that because their parents go out to dinner for end of year celebrations, so could they. We bought each pairing of girls a Christmas activity book that they worked on while the food was being prepared. It worked really well and we even had other diners comment on the excellent behaviour of the guides. It was an easy night for us also. Would do it again.
This year, we advertised it as a 'mystery night' because we hadn't decided what we were going to do when the newsletter for the term went out. We decided to take them lawn bowling. Our local club has come and try nights and night competitions. My husband and I went along for a look and spoke to one of the organizers who was quite keen on having the girls come along. He then organized a number of people to come and coach the girls and their parents. We separated the girls from their parents. Each group then played 'ends' just like they do when they play bowls. The parents were quite competitive and enjoyed it as much as the girls. We were on the green for just over an hour, which considering the age of the girls was quite long enough. I think the coaches also had fun. I know the Guides did! The club then threw on a sausage sizzle and a can of drink for each person. All this for $6-00 per person. It is not something that we would do every year, but certainly we will do it again. The club suggested we could do it as a mum and leader night.
Angela R
Our District generally just has a fun night including parents and siblings. Last year, we went ten-pin bowling, this year they went to a swimming pool. I believe they had a great time!
Bibbi
Our District had a wonderful afternoon at the bowling ally. The girls all had a game of bowling and then exchanged their secret Santa presents. The best thing for the girls was that Santa and his elf (thank goodness for friends) came and visited and gave out some small gifts from the unit. Santa on the other had was slightly upset cause most of the girls were asking for laptops and Santa is worried its going to be a expensive christmas! The girls then got to pose with Santa for a photo. It was a fantastic night and cant wait to do something different next year... other things we have done are family BBQ, Sydney Aquarium and putt putt.
Melanie H
We are having our final night tonight with Christmas crafts and games at the hall but last week we did a special night for the 9 girls who are going onto Brownies.
We met at the beach with the two Brownie units we link into and started with birthday cake for our leader who had just had a birthday, then castle building in teams to create a castle for our Pippin doll to live in and finally we had a very special link up.
We used the playground equipment and the Pippins climbed up a ladder through a hoop of red crepe paper, crossed a bridge and then slid down to Brownies through a hoop of yellow crepe paper. The 7 girls left in the pippin circle looked very lonely without all the others.
Donna A
Well being Lones we do things a little differently and it is usually 1 of these 3:
We have met for an afternoon or evening and had an activity like swimming, bush walk etc followed by a picnic or BBQ. All the family is invited and we hand out badges, make promises and link girls in preparation for moving on at the start of the year.
Or we might have a regional event close to the end of year and we have a short meeting together before or after the event. Usually only 1/4-1/2 hour just long enough to do the badges, promises, links etc.
Or we don't meet at all - like this year - and I send out a special "End-of-year" letter. Usually Christmas related which I've done with themed letters "Christmas around the world", "Christmas Countdown" and this year "New Year".
Sheryl B
We had a wonderful evening as our final Guide night last night. We had father and daughter night and went fishing at a nearby wharf. It was one of our creative ways to meet ratios when my co-Leader who is also Assistant Regional Co-ordinator is off wearing her other hat. It also meant that I had 16 men who would cut up the bait and help their daughter to put it on the hook. We had 17 girls and we caught 15 fish (sprats) and humanely let them all go again after letting them swim around in a bucket for a while and all the photos were taken. The weather was perfect and a great time was had by all, especially me, cause I caught my very first fish!
Joanne R
This term I have lost all my older girls (gone to older unit) and I was left with 12 Grade 5 and 6 girls, some very new to Guiding. They have worked very hard and earned a number of badges as well as learned how to cook meals at camp etc (Have yet to learn that cleaning up is important!) I was keen to show the parents just how competent their girls are becoming so we planned a 'Presentation Night'. The girls cooked a BBQ for their parents, made salad and sweets and served the meal without one grump, grouch or cross word. Both leaders were really proud of them. Then we presented all the badges and four new girls renewed their Promise. While the parents had a cup of tea/coffee the girls cleaned up the hall and helped with the dishes. I certainly wouldn't do this as a 'break-up' every year but it was appropriate this year as we didn't have a Mother and Daughter night as we usually do.
Margaret L
We had a wet sponge fight (which I will be using again in Term 1 next year because it was very popular - we used the car washing sponges cut in half) and ice blocking in a local park with all the guides, brownies, brothers and sisters (& parents got to socialise with each other).
Merry Christmas!!
Nikki/Bilby
Our Scottish leader is going back to Scotland in January, so our girls decided to give her a farewell dinner. Everyone brought a dish, the girls set the table, crowned Kari (the leader), gave a
round-robin toast, washed up and then organised the giving of goodbye gifts to her, all without my help or input. It was SOOOO cool!
Gaye W
We are having a district sleepover. We are going down to the shops with all the girls and they buy a present to put under the wishing tree. The girls bring coins (maybe just 5c or something and usually their own money) to put in a money box each week and then they use that money as a unit to buy a present for the wishing tree. Then we are going back to the hall for a party with party food kareoke and other activities. Followed by movies and other sleepover stuff. we have the 5 year olds through to 17 yearolds attending. It is the first year we have done this so hopefully it will work out good
Jaydine M
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