ENE Coronation Challenge
To celebrate King Charles III’s Coronation, County have put together a selection of fun activities to mark this historical occasion. If you, your unit/district or division will be ordering badges please email office@girlguidingessexne.org.uk to register your interest.
About the challenge
To celebrate King Charles III’s Coronation, County have put together a selection of fun activities to mark this historical occasion.
All members can participate and earn a special edition badge.
There are four sections:
• Commonwealth
• Heritage
• Indoor/Outdoor
• Pomp and Pageantry
Rainbows should complete 1 challenge from each section, Brownies 2 challenges and Guides, Rangers, Leaders and Trefoil Guild 3 challenges.
Badges can be ordered from the office on completion at a cost of £1.00 each plus p&p.
Up to 25 badges postage and packaging = £2
26+ badges postage and packaging = £2.50
or free collection from County Office.
Cheques payable to Girlguiding Essex North East.
The badge is suitable for division, district and unit events.
Commonwealth
The Commonwealth is a symbol of nations coming together in friendship.
• Make a Friendship bracelet
• Decorate a pebble with a flag of the commonwealth (use acrylic paint, nail varnish etc to colour your designs and varnish with PVA glue or spray varnish to seal the pebble) Go for a walk with your unit and leave your pebbles for someone to find and treasure. (Act of Kindness)
• Rhinos live in the commonwealth country of Kenya. King Charles and the Queen Consort recently visited the City of Colchester and unveiled a photograph of the zoo’s new rhino calf with a special message which read ‘Welcome to the World Dara’. Dara means beautiful in Swahili. Decorate your own beautiful Dara using whichever medium you like – collage, paint etc. Template available below.
• Complete the commonwealth wordsearch below.
• Make fruit kebabs using a range of fruits from commonwealth countries. Mango- India, Blueberries-Canada, bananas-Jamaica, grapes-South Africa etc.
• Hold a mini Commonwealth Games
Heritage
In 1980 King Charles wrote a book called The Old Man of Lochnagar which was made into a short film by the BBC. It is based on a story he told his younger brothers when they were young.
• Read the story or watch the video of the book as a unit. Maybe you could complete the Rainbow storyteller or book lover badge?
• The old man uses bubbles to talk to someone underwater - Make your own bubble mixture and see how big you can make them. Ideas below.
• The old man searches for Loch haggis to eat – design your own Loch-haggises (they have 3 legs, 1 longer than the other 2). Turn the haggis collection into an outdoor trail or treasure hunt for your unit/six/patrol/unit to follow.
• The old man sneezes so violently that the force directed to the ground acts like a rocket. Make your own rockets, how can you make them take off?
• The little Gorm people live underground and make all the plants and flowers of Scotland – the King uses green liquid to shrink the plants to seeds. Decorate a small envelope and fill it with wild plant seeds, seal with a royal sticker and give to someone to plant in their garden. You could just plant seeds in a pot and give to someone special. Simple envelope template below.
• At the start of the 1950s, not many people in the UK had a television. The Queen's coronation, in 1953 changed all that: it was televised, live, and people rushed to rent a set (or arranged to visit friends who had done so). About 20 million people in the UK tuned in to watch - beating the figure for radio listeners, for the first time. By 1960, only one household in 4 did not have a television. Which "luxury item" from today do you think will be commonplace by 2030, and why? Discuss or draw and paint your choice.
Indoor/Outdoor
King Charles III loves nature, the environment and the outdoors.
• Make a nature crown. Cut a strip of card to fit around your head. Place double sided tape around the crown. Now go on a walk and stick your natural findings on the tape to decorate your crown.
• Royal Cress heads - Decorate a clean yoghurt pot to look like a king or the queen consort. You could use whatever you like to make them look fantastic! Scrunch up some kitchen paper and put it inside the pot. Add just enough water to make the paper wet all over. Sprinkle cress seeds over the top of the wet paper and leave in a sunny place indoors. Check your cress head every day or two to make sure the paper doesn’t dry out and get ready to watch your king or queen consort grow amazing cress hair. Enjoy with a chopped up egg!
• The Royal Mews is the working stables at Buckingham Palace and is home to the Windsor Greys and Cleveland Bay Horses which pull the royal carriages. King Charles enjoys polo on horseback so recreate a game of polo (hobby horses, pool noodles, rolled up newspaper, tubes)
• Using the Kirshner Body Alphabet below to spell out some Royal wording i.e king, coronation etc.
• Adapt a favourite unit game to reflect the coronation i.e Coronation corners – King of Hearts, King of Spades, King of Diamonds. Play some royal music. Every time the music stops, run to a corner of the room. Pull out a card from a pack -whichever the suite of cards – whoever is in that corner is out. Repeat until there’s a winner (who is rewarded with a crown). Adapt your unit's favourite game to include a royal theme.
• King Charles III and his wife own 2 Jack Russell terriers, Bluebell and Bess who were rescues from Battersea Dogs Home. Find out how you can help your local animal rescue centre– they may even arrange for someone to visit your unit.
Pomp and Pageantry
Pomp and pageantry is the use of a great deal of ceremony, fine clothes and decorations especially on a special royal occasion.
• The Sovereign's Throne is one of the most important items of furniture in the Palace of Westminster. Decorate a throne – younger sections could decorate a chair however older sections may decide to make their chair using lashing.
• Coronation Chicken was famously created by the Cordon Bleu Cookery School, to be eaten at the Queen's coronation banquet, in 1953. We would like you to create and decorate a coronation no bake cheesecake fit for a king.
• Heraldry will play a prominent part in the coronation, with flags and uniforms which identify the wearer and country of origin. A coat of arms is a shield with symbols and colours which represent a family, a person or a group. The Royal Coat of Arms represents the King – think about where you can find the Royal Coat of Arms. Design a Coat of Arms or Shield for your family. Template below.
• Queen Victoria kept a diary from the age of 13 with words and illustrations. A diary helps to keep memories alive. Send a Unit entry in the form of a digital collage of your celebrations and memories to be published on our website after the 31st July.
• Everyone wears special clothes on special occasions and celebrations. Discuss as a unit some celebrations you have had where you wore something special or different to your usual clothes. The Queen wore a special coronation robe, can you now design a coronation robe fit for a King using recycled materials. Show off your robes on the catwalk in your meeting hall.
• The Gold State Coach is used at state events and is 260 years old. Find out some historical facts about this spectacular coach and then create your own coach either as a unit, six or patrol or individually.
