Lights, Camera, Action Theme Event

Our theme was "Lights Camera Action!" during which Brownies earned Let's Pretend and Juniors earned Theatre. Cadettes and Seniors were Program Aides for half the day, and could attend any session they chose for the other half. 225 girls and 80 adults registered for the event. Sadly, none of our Daisy troops registered.



We decorated our camp lodge in Hollywood style, with a red paper carpet, a big "Hollywood" sign, and the "Wall of Fame" for hand outlines and signatures. Each camp unit was assigned a movie theme (Star Wars, A Bug's Life, Lion King, Wizard of Oz, Knight's Tale, Grease, etc) and decorated their unit in that style.  Friday night was "Friday Night at the Movies", and we showed "The Princess Diaries" in the lodge, serving popcorn.

Saturday morning at 8am the cold front blew in, but fortunately - no rain! We had the day divided into 5 sessions. The Brownies had Silent Movies, Talkies, Backlot Tour, Creature Features, and Westerns. Silent Movies was pantomime skills and Talkies was voice skills. I found a terrific book called Theatre Games for Young Performers by Maria C. Novelly that provided all the information and exercises for these activities - I highly recommend this book. Backlot Tour took the Brownies on a hike through the camp visiting each decorated unit, where they received a shrinky-dink ticket on a safety pin to wear. When they came back to the lodge, they received a bag of popcorn. In Creature Features, they made bird masks, which were quite colorful. For Westerns, they got to love, hug and groom horses and learn the parts of a horse. 

Juniors also did Silent Movies and Talkies with the Brownies, but made different masks in Creature Features.  These were made from egg cartons (believe it or not, there is an www.eggcartons.com) which were separated and restapled. Styrofoam balls made the eyes, and they were also decorated with various items - they turned out looking like mutant Muppets. Juniors also did Animation (making flipbooks) and Robin Hood (archery). 

Of course, we had to have skit presentations, and there was quite a variety in content and quality. Each troop received an "Oscar" - an old bowling pin painted gold with googly eyes. During lunch, troops swapped, which was highly popular. The Brownie leaders had never really done swapping before, and were amazed how successful it was (in the confirmation letter I included the golden rule of swapping - never turn down a swap!).


Because of the hard freeze Saturday night, all but 4 troops left Saturday night (including mine) - we're in the Houston area and most troops are not prepared to camp in freezing temperatures. It was chilly, but a lot of fun.   Two girls in my troop used this for their Silver Award project. The younger girls got to see Cadettes and Seniors in action, and my service unit has a really outstanding group of teen scouts. My adult committee was great - each one did a perfect job with their assignment. I had to laugh whenever my husband would ask what was in a package that had arrived and I said with a straight face, "Feathers and safety pins". And when a large box of large and small Styrofoam balls came packed in Styrofoam peanuts.

Ideas from Dianne in Woodlands, Texas