Girl Guides Ontario - Girl Guides Ontario - Advancement Ceremony Ideas - Sparks

Advancement Ceremony Ideas - Sparks

Little Chicks Leaving the Nest

Materials needed

• Material to make a nest
• Construction paper for the bird mask
• String or ribbon to hold the mask in place
• Tablecloths

Send an invitation to the Unit Guider that the girls will be advancing to so she can attend the ceremony and accept the girls into the Unit. Some Leaders may wish to bring their Brownie Unit to the ceremony so all the girls can say welcome.

Before the meeting make a big “nest”; you can use comforters or any kind of bedding. You may wish to build a nest, use straw [check on the fire codes in your area – some places will not allow straw inside], or a small swimming pool. Make sure that the “nest” in large enough to hold the whole Unit. Also hand make a bird mask for each of the girls and a set of wings. You may only wish to put the wings on the girls that are advancing because the others are too young to leave the “nest.” If you wish to have all the girls to have wings, you may want to make them of two different colours; one for the girls advancing and one for the girls staying (orange/pink). You can make the wings out of tablecloths from the dollar store. You should get a few wings from a tablecloth. The Leaders can also dress up for the ceremony, maybe as the Mother Hen, if they wish.

Once this is in place you can start the ceremony. If you have only the girls advancing receiving the wings, you would call the girl’s name and when she comes to you, you place the wings on her back. You then give her the Spark Fun and Friendship crest, her second year Membership pin, and let her know that she will be missed but her fun will continue while in Brownies. The girl then flaps her wings to the Brownie Leader. If all the girls have wings, the only change is not placing the wings on the girls advancing.

Keep the ceremony short so you can have fun after and maybe some refreshments for the girls and their families.

Sparks Have Sparkle

Materials needed

• Star garland 
• Curling ribbon
• Sticks that glow
• Card stock or heavy paper to make an invitation
• Sparkles
• Glue
• Stick
• Yellow heavy paper for star

This theme requires a lot of sparkle and glitz. You have the option of making crowns and wands for just the girls that are advancing or for all in your Unit. You may want to start the invitations to the parents for the girls that have a challenge printing and the girls can add all the sparkle so it will go with the theme. This should be done at least one meeting before the advancement.

Send an invitation to the Unit Guider that the girls will be advancing to so she can attend the ceremony and accept the girls into the Unit. Some Leaders may wish to bring their Brownie Unit to the ceremony so all the girls can say welcome.

The crowns are made out of the garland and the girls can add on the curling ribbon to hand down. You may wish to start the wands and then the girls add the glitter and the ribbons to the wand.

You have a couple of options at this point for the ceremony; you can give the girls that are advancing to Brownies a glow stick so they can find their way or you can give one to every girl. If you give it to every girl, the first year Sparks can form a line holding the glow sticks and the second year Spark follows the path between them to Brownies.

You then call out the name of the Spark going to Brownies and give her the Spark Fun and Friendship crest, her second year Membership pin, and let her know that she will be missed but her fun will continue while in Brownies. The girl then lights up her glow stick and goes through the path to the Brownie Leader.

Keep the ceremony short so you can have fun after and maybe some refreshments for the girls and their families.

“Repeat After Me” Advancement Song (to the tune of “The Littlest Worm”)

Girls are seated by branch, facing the audience.  Leaders lead the repeat after me song, girls echo it back.  There are pauses in the song when girls are pinned and advanced to the next branch. 

All Sparks stand up