"Tour of London" Theme Day

This theme was designed for our District's Jubilee Celebrations : we're from the north of England and many of our girls have never been to London so we did a bit of background preparation work within the units first. All ages, from Rainbows to Senior Section, were involved The day was run in a local school, with each of the "sights" in a different classroom or area of the school; each girl was provided with a map of the underground, with the nearest station to each site marked on it, for her (or the appropriate adult organising the activity) to mark off when she'd been there.

The Tower of London - the Crown Jewels : different activities depending on age-group, all making jewellery and/or crowns. Rainbows made bracelets and necklaces by threading beads onto shirring elastic or embroidery thread; Brownies made decorated crowns - cut out basic crown shape from card then decorated them ad. lib. from a vast assortment of trimmings available. Guides and SS made bracelets or brooches using safety pins and beads - see this page for details.

Madame Tussaud's Waxworks - decorated candles : Plain white candles were decorated with confetti shapes: immerse candle (holding it by the wick) in a tall container of hot water (Rainbows may need help) to soften surface. Press shapes into softened wax - they don't need a lot of pressure - then candle re-dipped in water to seal surface. Some colours ran slightly, which gave a pleasant "softened" effect to the design. When wax has started to go firm again, polish surface gently to smooth out any irregularities.

The Science Museum - experiments : we had a mammoth bubble-blowing session : Rainbows just made bubble-mixture from ingredients they were given (equal parts warm water, glycerine and washing-up liquid) and had fun blowing bubbles; Brownies were given an assortment of ingredients and three different recipes to try and had to see which made the best bubbles, and Guides / SS were given free rein to invent the Best Bubble Mixture In The World!

Kew Gardens - paper flowers out of crepe and tissue paper, garden canes and florists' wire.

Buckingham Palace - flags : very simple craft : we had been given a large quantity of "giant" pencils and used them as the sticks for the flags : the girls had the choice of copying a real flag (we had pictures of the Royal Standard and the Union Flag) or designing their own.

Tower Bridge - bridge building and teamwork : the girls worked in small groups for this and had to build the strongest bridge they could, using only newspaper and sellotape.

London Zoo - animal quiz etc. - three versions (Rainbows, Brownies and Guides/SS) - right-click here to download (select Save Target As ...)

Wembley Stadium (yes, we know it's been demolished....) - outdoor games (fortunately the weather was good!)