Puzzle Themed Enrollment

Understanding the Promise and Law

 

For our Guide enrollment this year, we did a modified version of the puzzle one found here on the Girl Guides of Ontario website.  The puzzle in that enrollment was the Promise, Law and Motto, but we wanted to do something a little different. We wanted to show what a diverse and interesting unit we are,  and wanted to highlight that each girl brings her own unique strengths to our unit – and that we are not complete without all of our Guides.

Enrollment Prep

Advance Preparation: First we took two pieces of poster board and taped them together to make one large puzzle. On the other side, we drew a large Trefoil, a couple little ones, and wrote the name of our unit across the top. Then we cut the puzzle into 15 pieces – one for each girl and Guider. (tip: on the back, number the piece so you know where it goes, draw an arrow pointing up so the girls know which way to decorate it, and have the girls write their names) Each Guider took a piece of the unit name and then the rest were to be distributed to the girls to decorate. The trefoil was large enough that each girl would get a piece of the trefoil but it wouldn’t necessarily be obvious that it’s a giant trefoil from their piece alone.

We also got two extra pieces of poster board and made a “backing” for the puzzle, where we traced out all the pieces so that they could be placed in randomly and still be in the right place.

For our Enrollment prep meeting, we brought a random assortment of craft things – markers, crayons, leads, stickers, scrapbooking paper, sticky jewels, etc. We told each girl that their puzzle piece should represent them and that they could do whatever they want with their piece, as long as they didn’t cover up the black line that was already on it.

Maggie’s puzzle piece all decorated and ready to go!

Once the girls had all finished their pieces, we placed them on the backing, so that they could see what their completed puzzle looked like! As a bonus, many of the girls learned that “that clover shape” was called a trefoil, haha. We also wrote their names on the backing in their puzzle space so they would be able to put it in the right spot on Enrollment night.

Enrollment Night

When we arrived for the Enrollment, we put the puzzle backing up on the wall, and put pieces of double sided tape all over it so that it would hold the pieces when placed.

The Puzzle Backing ready to go!

We always have the girls arrive normal time, and then invite the parents to come for the enrollment about 30 min later, so that we have time to run through the enrollment, finish set up, give out their pieces (that we had collected so they wouldn’t get lost) and make any adjustments that we need to (for example, one of our 3rd year Guides was sick so we needed to get one of the other 3rd years to do double duty for presenting the new Guides to be enrolled).

Here’s how our enrollment ceremony went:

Guider 1: Hi Everyone, thank you for coming to the enrollment of our newest members of the 37th Guides. All of us here (Family, fellow Guides and Guiders) play a part in the Guiding days of each new Guide who will make her promise tonight and we are happy to have you all here to share the moment.

(Introduce Guiders)

Guider 1: Normally we would have our District Commissioners here to enroll the new Guides, however Sarah and I are actually the District Commissioners for our area, so we are wearing two hats tonight!

Guider 2: Each individual member of our unit brings her own unique personality, skills and passions to our group.

Guider 3: To represent this, each member has decorated a puzzle piece to represent their contribution to the unit.

Guider 1: As the girls are enrolled, they will place their piece in the puzzle.

Senior Guide: I present (insert name) to be enrolled as a Guide

(She says her promise, gets pinned, receives her badges and places her puzzle in her spot on the wall)

The girls received their Badges and pins on card stock puzzle pieces that were cut out using the Cricut.

Guider 1: As Guiders, we also play an important role in the unit. As we place the last pieces of the puzzle, we complete the picture and our unit. (present year pins to Guiders)

Guider 2: Now please help us welcome the now complete 37th Guides. (clap)

Guider 3: To symbolize the start of our new year, we would now like to do our horseshoe opening. This is the way we start every meeting.

Guider 1: Patrols fall in!

(Then we did our normal Opening/Horseshoe, which includes the promise said together at the end)

Guider 2: In our promise, we agree to respect the Guiding Law. To help us remember the Law, we have created a cheer that we would like to share with you tonight! A word of warning – this may get loud!!

(I found a similar thing for the Girl Scouts Law, but I can’t find it again for my life… I adapted it for the Canadian Guiding Law, and we do it as a yell – A leader yells each line, doing the action, and the girls respond as loud as they can, also doing the action. The girls love it because they get to be loud and silly AND they get more familiar with the Guiding Law!)

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 hips, 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)

Guider 1: Thank you everyone for coming! We would now like to invite everyone for some treats!

Of Course, what would an enrollment be without treats like cupcakes, cookies, fruit and juice!

The final puzzle! After the enrollment, the girls kept their puzzle pieces as a souvenir.