The activity has been modified for Girl Guides of Canada. It was originally posted on  Guider Snowflake’s blog.

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I can’t really claim the credit for this activity — it is a variation on an activity featured in Guiding UK magazine. However, every group is different, so adjusting things is almost always necessary.

For this activity you will need:

• Paper triangles (one per word in the Promise) for each team
• String
• Tape or staplers

We started by going through the words of the Promise with the girls. We went one line at a time while writing the words on our chalk board for everyone to see. Everyone read through it a few times.

We split the Brownies into two teams and gave out the paper triangles. Each team had to write out the Promise, one word per triangle. We didn’t give them any help in deciding which girl should write which word (with the exception of the girl who had sprained her wrist, who was given the really short words to write!), so we were all really impressed when both teams managed to write out the whole Promise with no arguments, no duplications, and no missing words!

After we had two complete sets, we took the piles to one end of the hall and shuffled them up.  We also wiped off the board so people had to use their memories. Now comes the excitement!

Photo courtesy Nicola H

Each team had to take turns running up to the piles, finding the next word in the Promise, and bringing it back to attach to the string. Words which were brought in the wrong order were sent back to try again. Cheering for your team was not only encouraged, it was compulsory, so it was pretty loud.

At the end of the game we had two long strings of bunting with the Promise written out along them, which of course we promptly decorated the hall with!

I’m always impressed with how well the girls can organise themselves if left to it, and this activity was no different. The winning team was the team who worked together to create their triangles, finished first, and instead of wandering around aimlessly spent the time helping each other learn the words. There’s a lesson in there somewhere, I’m sure.

By guest blogger 57th Snowflake, a Brownie Leader from Bristol, UK.  You can find her lurking on the internet on her blog and read her posts Community Spirit, and To be True to Myself.