To mark Valentine’s at Brownies, we wanted to do something a little different to celebrate our girls as individuals and for them to spend time with their friends. We decided to twist the theme to ‘Galentine’s’ – this is usually 13th February and a chance for women and girls to come together to celebrate their friendships – perfect for Brownies!
The Brief
We knew it needed to be about each girl as an individual and give them opportunities to work together with their friends. We also wanted to let them be a little grown up and enjoy some activities not normally suggested for children their age. So we decided to run an evening involving a series of stations the girls could visit at their own pace and with whoever they choose. The stations had themed signs to explain what they were. We also played chilled acoustic pop music in the background to set the atmosphere.
A further challenge for the evening was that it needed to be very low, or ideally, no cost. With subscriptions due very soon, we knew money would be tight, so if we could do this without spending anything, that would be a huge bonus!
The Activities
The stations were as follows:
Hand massage
We provided a table with two chairs on each side and a selection of different scented hand creams. The girls were invited to pair up and sit opposite each other to give each other a hand massage using the creams. They enjoyed choosing their scents and helping each other. It gave them a good opportunity for a good chat with their friends too.
We used:
- Hand creams donated by a leader
Foot spa
This station required a little extra adult help! We placed three washing up bowls of warm water in front of three chairs. The girls removed their shoes and socks and soaked their feet for a few minutes in the warm water. They brought their own towels to dry their feet and we provided some foot cream to apply afterwards. We changed the water after every girl and had extra towels to keep the floor relatively dry.
We used:
- Washing up bowls from the camp store
- Foot cream donated by a leader
- Girls’ own towels
Heart craft
Our Brownies love a craft activity, but we don’t do them very often. They also love a little free rein with the craft supplies, so this was perfect! I found a pretty heart shaped hanging decoration on Pinterest and we provided an example and all the supplies they would need. Helped by our Young Leader, the girls worked the craft out themselves, or made their own craft with what was on offer.
We used:
- Coloured paper from our craft stores
- Scissors, glue & sellotape from our craft stores
String donated by a leader
Colouring
A nice easy station. I provided plenty of different colouring sheets and a big box of felt tip pens. The girls could choose their sheet and colours and then find a quiet place to sit and do their colouring. They were happy to either do this on their own for a bit of quiet, or in small groups for a good chat!
We used:
- Felt tip pens from our craft stores
- Colouring sheets printed by a leader
Love Hearts game
One of our leaders had been given a huge bag of Love Heart sweets from a family wedding, so we had to find a use for these! We provided some chopsticks and made a scoresheet. The brownies enjoyed using the chopsticks to try stacking the sweets and wrote their score on the sheet for a little competition. The girls also took home a packet of sweets at the end.
We used:
- Love heart sweets donated by a leader
- Chopsticks belonging to a leader
Tea Shop
Not really a shop, but a fun name to make it feel more grown up! The girls were invited to bring their own mug and enjoy a cup of tea and a cupcake. They could come to this station at any point and take their tea back to another station. We also provided lots of blankets and cushions for the girls to sit comfortably on the floor with their drinks and cakes.
We used:
- Teas, milk and sugar donated by leaders
- I baked some Really Easy Vanilla Cupcakes
- Girls’ own mug
How Did it Go?
The evening was a great success! The girls had a fantastic time and the parents enjoyed seeing photos of their girls at the party. We also managed to not spend anything extra to put on the evening – everything that was donated by leaders was already owned by them, so even that didn’t cost us anything.
The Brownies asked us if we could do it again. We’ll likely include some of the ideas, or similar things in our upcoming pack holiday.
Hints & Tips
If you fancy running this night for your own unit, we’d say go for it! It was a little resource heavy, but very successful. If you have some budget you could spend a little more than we did. Or have just as much fun without spending anything.
Some tips for running the night:
- Make sure everyone brings a towel & you have some spares. The foot spa got quite wet!
- Check for allergies, remembering hand and foot creams as well as cakes and drinks.
- Maybe offer a cold drink too, but all our girls were happy to drink tea and not many wanted sugar in it.
- Clean up took much longer than anticipated!