20 Rainbows and 6 leaders from Clapham, Stockwell and Waterloo had their very first sleepover on Friday 22nd April 2016 at Icando in Victoria. We started the evening with a choice of activities from circus skills, puppet shows, challenging games and activities. The group were from 5 different units across the county, so we also spent some time getting to know each other and playing some familiar Rainbow games.
Dinner for the evening was Pizza! Lots of choice and different toppings for everyone (and not much left over!!)
We then started creating our bug jars for some exploration in the local park the next day. We had a mixture of ladybirds and bees to create. Everyone slept (for the majority of the night) with a pretty late evening and a welcome lie in the next morning. We had a short DVD before lights out to get everyone settled in their beds and arrange themselves across the mattresses on the floor.
The next day we headed to St James park to see Buckingham Palace and then spot lots of things to complete our Growing Up Wild Urban Area badge. We stopped in a wooded area to get our bug jars out and try to find some bugs! We had a range of worms, earwigs, beetles and other unidentified animals land in the jars. It was a chilly morning, so we then headed to a cafe to stock up on some hot chocolate and toilet breaks. We saw lots of guards and bands and horses walking around St James park and stopped to see what was going on.
Then we needed some chill time, so we headed to Jubilee gardens playground so that the Rainbows could run around, warm up and let off steam.
The sleepover was a great success and 3 of the leaders who do not currently have residential qualifications, were able to get involved with the hope of completing a unit sleepover in the near future themselves. There was so much fun and enthusiasm from all the Rainbows and leaders and Sophie, aged 5, made us all laugh when she screamed excitedly at her mum when getting picked up ‘I didn’t only get one badge, I got two badges’!