I have used this activity at all of our camps and my Brownies love it.

The Bead Challenge:

I do not know how long this has been going on, who started it, or if it was the sole idea of one of my former leaders, but it is a challenge that can be adapted to every theme and the girls love it!

Create a list of extra activities that follow the theme of your camp or just random activities girls can do on their own time.

Each activity has an assigned colour (pony) bead the girls receive from a leader after completing the activity.

These beads are collected on a necklace, a piece of string/shoelace pinned to their camp hat, or whatever else you can think of.

Be sure to post the list of which bead goes with which activity so the girls can look at it and the leaders know which bead to give for each activity. We often post several of these lists around the camp area so girls can see them wherever we are.

The leaders either have a bag full of multi-coloured beads or we pin bags of individual colours on a board somewhere.

Some activity examples include identifying three different trees, hearing a bird, finding animal tracks, doing a cartwheel, making a craft with three different craft supplies, being the quietest girl at meal time, saying grace at meal time, teaching something new to another girl, etc. The list is endless, but ensure each activity can be done in the girls free time at camp.

We usually have 15 to 20 activities on the list.

We have also made a variation of this where we listed activities that would earn different interest badges. When the girls had completed all the parts of the badge (and had all the corresponding beads) she would then receive her badge. Badges were presented to everyone at the end of camp.

This activity is a great way to get girls to keep busy in their free time.

Cheers, Jennifer D.

13th St. Albert Brownies