When the air raid siren was heard everyone had to put blackouts on the windows and ... During the evening, sound the air
Hi I’m Trevor the Tortoise and I’ve been designed by 9th Hayes Guides and Senior Section. I have lots of fun challenges for you to do! In this challenge, you will learn all about what Remembrance day is and why we celebrate it every year. Pawprint badges are helping us to share our challenges with all of you. All the profits from Trevor’s challenges will be used to enable us to go on holidays and camps. How to complete the challenge: Rainbows: Complete 1 challenge from each of the 3 sections. Brownies: Complete 1 challenge from each of the 3 sections + 1 more of your choice. Guides: Complete 1 challenge from each of the 3 sections + 2 more of your choice. Senior Section: Complete 1 challenge from each of the 3 sections + 3 more of your choice. Leaders: Award yourself a badge for all your hard work. Once you’ve finished the challenges go to Paw Print badges to purchase Trevor.
Games • Have a water war
How to play: The aim of the game is to cross No Man’s Land. You will need: 3 alkasaltza tablets per girl (each one should be in a separate paper bag on separate pieces of string to be worn around the player’s neck) and water guns (one per leader). Each alkalsaltza is a life so each player has 3 lives. The girls are the soldiers trying to cross No Man’s Land and the leaders are the enemy shooting them with water as they try to cross. The girls start at one end of the field each wearing three lives and try to make it to the other side. However, there are obstacles in their way and the leaders are shooting from the side lines. If a leader hits the tablet and it fizzes then a life is lost. The winners are the girls who make it to the across with lives intact.
• On Christmas Day, the English and the Germans called a ‘Christmas Truce’ and played football on No Man’s Land. Play a game of football with the English troops playing the German troops. • When the air raid siren was heard everyone had to put blackouts on the windows and make their way to safety, which was usually a shelter or an underground station. During the evening, sound the air raid siren and switch out the lights. The girls have to find a safe place to wait (e.g. under a table), very quietly until the danger has passed. • Play a rationing game. • Play corners with a battlefield theme
Craft and Cooking • During the world wars, the Guides could earn their War Service Badge. One clause was to knit 15 items for the soldiers. Knit a scarf using wool and straws or finger knitting. • At the end of the wars, people started to have parties called VE Day celebrations. Create some Union Jack bunting to celebrate the war ending and hold a VE Day party. • Build a tank using recycled materials. • Make paper planes, decorate them so they look like Spitfires and race them. • Poppies are worn to remember those that died in the wars. Make and wear a red poppy of remembrance. • Create a human picture of a poppy. • Create a patchwork quilt or banner of war stories to remember what the soldiers did for us. • Create ID cards. • During the war, food was on ration so ingredients were limited. Many people grew their own vegetables or owned chickens for egg, so they had their own supply of food. Make a wartime broth. • Try spam. • List all your favourite foods and find out whether they were available during the war. Think about why they may or may not have been available. • At Christmas, the English troops were all given a box of chocolates as a gift from the government. Give someone chocolates as a gift to say thank you for helping you. • Plan your meals for a week based on rationing.
Activities • During the war, children did not get all the vitamins and minerals they needed due to rationing, so they were given a spoon of Cod Liver Oil every day. Try Cod Liver Oil. • Write a letter or poem as a soldier about your life as a soldier on the frontline. • Write a poem about remembrance. This could be a unit competition and you could make a display. • Learn some wartime songs sung by the soldiers in the trenches. For example; Dame Vera Lynn’s ‘We’ll Meet Again.’ • Hold an evacuees evening. All girls come dressed as evacuees and have a gas mask box and suitcase. When they arrive present them with a brown name tag and an address to wear around their necks. Give them a health check for nits! • Find out about the role of animals in the war. • Research your family in the war. What were their lives like? Were any of them soldiers? If they were what did they do? • Using tables create the trenches. Play games and activities in the trenches for an evening. • Find out about remembrance in other countries. For example; New Zealand ANZACS day. • Attend a Remembrance service. • Wear a poppy. • Sell poppies for the Royal British Legion. • Hold a Remembrance service at the end of your meeting by having two minutes silence and say the Ode of Remembrance.
