August 15th 2015 - Day Camp

August 15th 2015 - Day camp

Today was the day of Badger Day Camp.  I've added the link to the whole board not just 1 pin as this has most of the ideas that helped me to organise and run the day camp.

Although we only had 3 out of 5 children turn up they all had lots of fun and were very tired at the end of a long and packed day of activities.

The above photo collage show our set up and the camping lanterns the kids made. 

We had 1 room set up as a campsite, with tents, Christmas trees, bears, bean bags as seats round the "fake" campfire and a small kitchen area with snacks and drinks.  We had another room for crafts, games and activities.  Some of the activities were done around the campfire.

During the day the Badgers made their own id badges, camp t-shirts, a noughts & crosses game from sticks and stones, they made camping lanterns from tubs, battery tea-lights and tissue paper flames and they made their own stick photo frame which a photo of them at the "camp site" was added to.  They covered many things in short subjects including camp fires and how to get help and where they should go, maps and compasses, things they can  and can't eat in the wild, the importance of hand washing especially outdoors and we used the units UV gel kit - they did really well at it.  They also talked about things you can find in nature - animals, birds, plants etc and did an A-Z of them, after this we went on a short walk to the church gardens where we looked for items that we had talked about and they had a spectrum colour chart and needed to find things in nature for each colour.

After tea the Badgers and some of the adults got into their pj's, brought their blankets and torches and lanterns to the campfire where we had a camping story and sang some campfire songs, they then got into their sleeping bags to await the arrival of parents to collect them.

Each Badger was given a certificate for handwashing, a certificate of attendance and 2 old SJA Badger badges for hobbies and games.  They will all be receiving their Adventure badge and certificate at our next presentation evening.  It was a great day the Badgers were well behaved and all had fun, but it couldn't have happened without the help of the adults from the unit as well.

August 13th 2015 - Making a badge sash

August 13th 2015 - Making a badge sash

As per previous posts I have had to take my badges off my camp blanket as I bought a new one.  I had a sash when I was in guides many years ago of which my guide badges are fixed on to.  I didn't have one when I was in brownies as my uniform was a brown dress and the badges were sewed to the sleeve.

I tried to buy a brownie sash off ebay but the prices of them were not cheap, even for used ones.  So I asked on the local selling pages, 1 lady said she had 1 I could have but she lives over 45mins drive from me so too far to go and we were not able to meet up as not available at the same time.  So this left me 1 option - to make a sash that I could sew my brownie badges onto.

When I went to £1 shop today I bought a beige under bed storage bag.  It had a dark brown trim round the edges.  When I got home I cut out the strip that ran round the bag making the depth of the storage bag and cut off the zip.  It was double the width of what I needed so I stitched it in half and made it slightly shorter as well.  From here I have pinned all my badges onto it ready to be sewed (or pinned with safety pins if I don't get them all finished in time).  This will be sewed to my new blanket as I think the guide ones look really nice on it.

August 9th 2015 - Camp Blanket

August 9th 2015 - Camp Blanket

For many years I have had a camp blanket, it was pale blue and a really old blanket and quite rough.  I helped my Dad make it when I was a brownie (i'm now in my 30's).  I remember "helping" to sew the blanket stitch around the sleeves and neckline.  I'm sure my Dad went and re-did most of it!!!

Well it was used a lot when I was involved with guides and the odd beaver cubs camp that I helped with.  But after leaving guiding and scouting and sticking with St John Ambulance it has been quite redundant as most of camps are in buildings not tents.

I got my blanket out the other day as I needed to sew some badges on to it before my SJA day camp at the weekend.  I was really saddened to find that it had marks on it (no idea what they were but seemed like oil) and some of the badges that had been loose in it were no longer recognisable as badges but disintegrated bits of material. :(   so I sat and unpicked all the badges (going right back to when I was a rainbow) and have been and bought a new purple fluffy blanket.

I spent yesterday stitching the sides together and cutting/stitching a neck hole. I now have the mammoth task of sewing my badges onto a new blanket before the weekend and plan to take it with me for round the campfire. I am waiting on badges in the post as I was able to work out which ones had been damaged.

May 6th 2015 - Polar Bear craft

May 6th 2015 - Polar Bear craft

Tonight with my St John Ambulance Badgers they are continuing their Wild badge and we are talking about wild animals, last week we talked about pet animals.

As well as a few written sheets to fill out we are going to make hedgehogs from cut triangle of paper and coconut polar bears.  I was very close to not being able to do it as I tried everywhere yesterday to get desicated/ground coconut with no luck.  There was only 1 shop we didn't try and hubby went there today and they had some.

Here is mine to show the kids what they are doing:

This is a very easy craft to do - print pictures of polar bears out, cover in glue and then cover the glue in coconut, shake the excess coconut back into the tub.

April 21st 2015 - St John Ambulance badges

April 21st 2015 - St John Ambulance badges

Tomorrow night is the presentation evening for St John Ambulance youth where I live.  This has been a few months in the planning and as far as I am aware everything is sorted.

There was one thing that needed doing and that was adding my county emblem to my dress jacket.  Not a problem, I know where it goes, however, the problem comes in that I have a different badge in that place as my old county didn't have an emblem!

So I hunted the net, didn't have much luck, messaged my officer and posted a request on facebook asking how/where it goes.  A nice lady replied with the 2015 dress regulations that show where all the badges go.  I added the picture to pinterest so that I could use it for today.  My Grand Prior that was where the emblem goes has had to be removed and the county emblem put in its place and the Grand Prior goes underneath.

All badges are now sewn back on my jacket, (but isn't straight!).  Fingers crossed no-one notices tomorrow evening.