Begonias earn water badge

The Begonia Girl Guides, aged 5 to 10 years, started 2023 by enjoying activities that allowed them to complete the Water badge.

During Terms 1 and 4, Girl Guides like to do as many outdoor activities as possible to take advantage of  the warmer months when the weather tends to be more pleasant.

As a Unit, the Begonia Guides brainstormed ideas of what they would like to do during Term 1. It was agreed that it would be awesome to incorporate the Water badge into the term program to utilise the warmer weather.

Bianca, one of the volunteer Leaders, was a qualified swimming instructor and put her hand up to organise the water activities for one of the weekly meetings. Unfortunately though, the night on which this was scheduled turned out to be particularly cold.  This meant postponing the outside activities that would have involved loads of water and getting wet. Instead, Bianca modified the activities so that the girls still learnt about Water Safety.

Visiting the Wetlands

On Tuesday March 14, the girls were able to complete the Water Badge. This time the weather was perfect. The girls met at ‘The Wetlands’ at Lake Wendouree with a parent who works at Central Highlands Water, an awesome resource with a wealth of knowledge and skills who imparted interesting facts about:

• water in general
• how much of the earth’s surface is taken up by water
• how much of the available water is used by people
• the percentage of water that is drinkable because it isn’t salty or polluted

Even the Leaders were amazed at some of the facts talked about.

The Unit ventured around ‘The Wetlands’ and learnt about wildlife, nature and its connection to water. Water samples were collected along the way and then closely studied, identifying lots of different species of life and organisms.

The Guides thoroughly enjoyed working on this badge and taking advantage of the lovely weather for outdoor activities.