Understand the Promise and Law Parts 1 & 2

Understanding the Promise and Law

We took two meetings to work on our Understand the Promise and Law badge. We completed all of the points except the Patrol elections and Enrollment (those will come later!).

Meeting 1:

We started the meeting by going over patrols, how to do dues, etc. and then we practiced our opening and march. We may have had to do it a couple of times because we all (including the Guiders) had to try it a few times to remember it!! haha

Promise relay race
We took the Promise and divided it up into 6 different parts, and put each part in a balloon. We made two sets so that we could do a relay race (different coloured balloons so we made sure each team had a full set!)

The girls lined up at one end of the gym and we put the pile of balloons at the other end of the gym. One at a time, the girls ran to the pile, picked one, and either sat or stepped on the balloon to pop it. Then they found the little strip of paper and ran back to their team. Once each girl had popped a balloon and the team had the full set of promise pieces, they had to arrange the pieces to put the promise together. First team to have the promise correct, won!

Be Prepared Bags

We talked about the motto and what it meant for our daily lives. We printed out cardstock pages with a tote bag image on them, each with a different location/event like “Guides”, “school”, “dance class”, “outside play”, “camping”, etc. We had enough for each pair of girls to have one. We asked them to think about 5 items that they would bring with them to be prepared, and then draw them in the bag. We kept the sheets in their patrol boxes so they could finish up the following week during patrol time.

“empty” Be Prepared bags ready to go!

Meeting 2:

During Patrol time, the girls finished up their Be Prepared bags and then we went through our opening a few times to help the girls get used to it.

Be Prepared Bags

We started the meeting with a few announcements and then each pair of girls presented what they would put in their Be Prepared bags. The other girls would then suggest additional items that would be good to bring. They found that some of the places (like camping and sleepovers) had a long list of things that would be good to have, while

Handshake Game

To practice the Girl Guide handshake, we played a game somewhat similar to musical chairs. All the girls (an odd number) mix and mingle around, and when the leader yells “Go” they have to find a partner, shake their hands, and say the motto. Since there’s an odd number, one girl won’t have a partner, so she is then “out” and gets to be the one to yell “Go” next. (Since every second round there would be an even number of players, a leader would step in and play. This also helped to shake up the girls who were just following each other around, haha)

Reef Knot tying

About half of the girls had their scarves with them so we went over how to tie the Reef Knot with the group and then had them pair up so that each pair had one scarf. Then they helped each other practice tying their reef knots, while we went around and helped them. Simple but effective 🙂

Law activity

We explained the difference between the motto, promise and law, and then read them the Law. We went through each part of the law and asked the girls what they thought it meant. We were really impressed with some of their answers and stories!

We certainly don’t expect the girls to memorize the law, but to help us remember/understand the law, we did a little “action” activity. For each law point we had an action to go along with it. The girls loved learning them, and even challenging ourselves to see how fast we could do them! Here are the actions we used:

The Guiding Law Challenges me to:
Be honest and trustworthy (hands up, palms out, as if to say “I have nothing to hide”)
Use my resources wisely (rub fingers together like money)
Respect myself and others (point thumb to self and then hand out, palm up, as though presenting something)
Recognize and use my talents and abilities (hands on hip, head held high, like the superhero/superman pose)
Protect our common environment (spread hands out in a circle indicating “this area”)
Live with courage and strength (show your muscles)
Share in the sisterhood of Guiding (put arms around shoulders of girls in circle)

The girls enjoyed it so much I think we might actually do it more often either as part of campfires or on nights we have some extra time, during our closing right before we sing taps.