Download - Girlguiding Resource
Girlguiding Resource
Project aims
This project has been developed in association with Nottingham
Hospitals Charity.
The aim of this activity pack is to:
Promote empathy for young people in hospital
Increase knowledge about Nottingham Children’s Hospital
Learn about the different kinds of treatment and support
(complementary therapy, play) that are available to
children in hospital
Encourage members of Girlguiding Nottinghamshire to
support the Big Appeal for Nottingham Children’s Hospital
by taking part in the Charity Challenge
Have fun!
Nottingham Hospitals Charity (registered charity 1165397) is at the heart of Nottingham’s hospitals – we raise money to fund new facilities, specialist equipment,
staff development and medical research at Queen’s Medical Centre (including Nottingham Children’s Hospital), City Hospital, Hayward House and Ropewalk House.
Completing the badge
There are activity ideas throughout this pack.
These activities are divided into five areas:
Learning About Nottingham Children’s Hospital
What is a Play Specialist?
Complementary Therapy
Brightening up the Children’s Hospital
Charity Challenge
The activities are divided into types: Learning How To Help, Craft, Skill, Quiz and Game.
The most appropriate challenge for the age group and type of activity that members enjoy can
be chosen from each section. Members are to complete at least one activity from each topic
to complete the badge.
Planning the Project
The Nottingham Children’s Hospital Resource will earn Rainbows, Brownies,
Guides and the Senior Section a badge. To earn the badge, you must complete four
activities—at least one from each section of the resource. Members will then
complete the badge by organising an activity from the Charity Challenge page.
Each activity can be adapted to work for all ages. There are multiple suggestions for
activities and the one which is most appropriate for the age group can be chosen,
or groups can do all of them if they prefer.
Social Media (Nottingham Hospitals Charity):
Nottingham Hospitals Charity
@NUHCharity / @nottmchildrens
#HelloRobin
Social Media (Girlguiding Nottinghamshire):
Girlguiding Nottinghamshire
@GirlguidingNott
We encourage units to share their progress with us on social media with updates
throughout the challenge. If possible, we’d love to see photos of what you have
made and of your unit taking part in the activities!
Our Facebook page is Nottingham Hospitals Charity and our Twitter handle is
NUHCharity. Please encourage members to like and follow us to get the latest
updates from the charity and to see how other members of Girlguiding
Nottinghamshire are getting on!
Remember, if you decide to post your photos on Facebook and Twitter, make sure you have the correct photo permissions in place, as photos should not be posted on social media without these permissions.
Nottingham Children’s Hospital cares for more than 60,000 children
each year from all over the East Midlands.
It is based at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham and treats
children from newborn to 18 years of age.
There are many areas of the Children’s Hospital which support young
patients. For instance, the Youth Service runs activities and support
for 11 - 18 year olds who attend hospital with a chronic illness or
disability. The Youth Service holds a weekly youth club (a bit like your
unit meetings!) plus regular day trips and residential holidays for
members.
Some of the treatments provided at Nottingham Children’s Hospital...
Broken bones: Have you ever fallen and hurt your arm, wrist, or leg? You may have gone to hospital and had an x-ray and maybe even been put in a cast if
your bone was broken.
Intensive Care Unit: Very sick children are taken into the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, where they can receive the urgent treatment they need. Many of
these children come here from the Emergency Department, as well as lots of other departments of the hospitals.
Organ Transplants: Sometimes an organ doesn’t work properly. Children who need new organs are put on a waiting list and when one is available, they may
have their organ removed and replaced with a new one at Nottingham Children’s Hospital.
Cancer: Sadly cancer can affect people of all ages, including children. Young people suffering from cancer are treated on Ward E39 at Nottingham Children’s
Hospital.
Renal and Urology: Children with complex problems with their kidneys and bladder, including those needing dialysis and renal transplants, are treated here.
Learning About Nottingham
Children’s Hospital
Complementary Therapy services are offered to children and young people with
chronic and acute conditions, to help with pain relief, anxiety and wellbeing.
The Nottingham Children’s Hospital School and library provides high-quality
education to children and young people who are unable to attend conventional
school due to ill health, helping them to stay up to date with their learning.
Learning About Nottingham
Children’s Hospital: Activities
Activity One: Robin Collage
Use your craft skills to produce a collage of Robin.
Think about what materials you would like to use: tissue
paper, recycled materials, brightly coloured paints, scraps of
fabric.
Leaders: Photocopy the outline of Robin included with the
pack resources onto multiple sheets of paper for the whole
unit to get involved in one giant collage!
Meet Robin, he is the mascot for
Nottingham Children’s Hospital!
Activity Two: Storytime
As individuals or groups, create a story to entertain
children being treated in hospital who may have to stay
on a ward.
Think about the age of the children you are writing for:
are they under 5 or young teenagers? What books do you
find help you escape from reality? These could be the
kinds of stories that would cheer up a young person in
hospital.
Feel free to include illustrations and pictures to make it
more entertaining, or even to act it out!
Activity Three: Sneaky Robin
Age 7-10: Big Bad Sheriff and his Deputy have to chase all the Merrymen! If you are one of the Merrymen and get caught by the Sheriff or his Deputy, you have
to sit down in prison until Robin comes to rescue you. Assign one person as Robin who cannot get tagged, but can free others by giving them a high five!
Age 10+: Robin Wink - Assign one person as the Sheriff who has to go out of the room while the remaining Merrymen choose a Robin.
When the Sheriff comes back in, they have to stand in the middle of the circle and try to work out who Robin is. Robin must wink at all of his
Merrymen without the Sheriff seeing. If you get winked at by Robin, make the silliest noise you can to make the Sheriff confused, and
lie down - you are safe and hidden, Robin helped you get away!
Learning About Nottingham
Children’s Hospital: Activities Activity Four: Broken Bones
Only having one properly working arm for children who have had a break
can make simple daily tasks such as eating dinner (or chocolate!) very
tricky.
Use a scarf or piece of material to tie up one of your arms in a sling. Take
turns to roll a dice, and use a knife and fork to cut up as many pieces of
chocolate off a plate as you can. Each person is timed based on the number
that you roll on the dice. For example: if you roll a 3, you have 30 seconds,
if you roll a 4 you have 40 seconds.
Activity Five: Mobile
We quite often have young babies and toddlers in hospital who spend
a lot of time in bed. Decorating their bay and bed area can help to
provide distraction and make their stay in hospital feel a bit more
normal.
Think of a friendly and colourful theme such as forest friends, under
the sea, or the night sky and create a hanging mobile decoration. This
could be used above a baby’s cot, or as a wall decoration.
Activity Six: Have A Chat
Create a survey to ask your friends and family what they think would be the most
interesting and fun events or activities for the Youth Service and Play Specialist
Team to provide for poorly children in the hospital.
Have a think about the sort of things that can happen inside a hospital that could
allow the children to play with each other, go away on a residential, or activities
that might include their families.
Feedback to each other about what you came up with, and don’t forget to let us
know what your great ideas are!
Activity Seven: X-Ray Pictures
Paint your hands and feet white and then print them on to black paper.
This will look like the x-rays that many children have to get in hospital
so that doctors can have a look at what is making them poorly.
What is a Play Specialist?
Types of Play Therapy
Play preparation
Distraction
Post procedural play
Normal and developmental play
What do Play Specialists do?
Create a positive environment
Provide play and recreation as well as entertainment for
young people and children in all departments
Support children, young people, and their families through
the hospital experience (sometimes including home visits)
Prepare, support and distract young people for procedures
and treatments
Help children and young people to develop coping strategies
for things like taking medicine or having procedures done
Help children and young people to communicate their anxieties, fears and worries
Assess children and develop play programmes to help them develop skills lost
through long-term hospitalisation
Time in hospital is scary for people of all ages, and even
more so for children. At Nottingham Children’s
Hospital, Play Specialists provide play and recreation
for children and young people on wards, day surgery,
clinics, and in the community. This play provides a
distraction from unpleasant treatments and reduces
anxiety for our young patients.
What is a Play Specialist:
Activities
Activity One: Treehouse
Robin lives in the forest with his friends, can
you design him the perfect tree house home?
Go on a walk outside and find as many
interesting and special
natural resources to build
Robin’s home. You could
either build a giant house
outside, or bring resources
inside to create some
artwork on a large piece of paper.
You may need: glue, scissors, string and tape
to build your nature home.
See how many of these you can include:
feathers, sticks, conkers, different coloured
leaves, different sized leaves, flowers.
Activity Two: Learning How To Help
What makes you anxious? How do you take your mind
off things when you’re feeling hurt or unwell?
Play Specialists distract children and young people
when they have to have unpleasant medical
procedures. Can you think of any ways that they might
do this?
Ideas:
Think of five jokes and tell them to the rest of
your unit
Bring in a page of your favourite book and take
it in turns to read out loud to each other
Put on a short performance—perhaps of a
favourite nursery rhyme or fairy tale
Activity Three: Positivity Pictionary
You will need: pens, paper, a flip board with
paper or a white board and pens
Everyone writes down three ‘positive’ words and
puts them in a hat in the middle. These words
could be emotions, activities, places, or people—
anything that makes you happy.
Split into groups and take it in turns to pick a word
from the hat and draw it on the flip board for the
rest of the groups to guess.
It may be appropriate to have a small prize for the
winning group.
Complementary Therapy
Therapies offered:
Aromatherapy
Massage
Relaxation techniques
Indian head, neck and shoulder massage
Baby massage instruction for parents
The Complementary Therapy Unit is entirely funded by charitable donations,
through Nottingham Hospitals Charity and The Teenage Cancer Trust.
Nottingham Children’s Hospital is the only hospital in the country to be able
to offer complementary therapies to all its children and young people.
Referrals can be made by staff for all children and young people who are
being treated at Nottingham’s hospitals and are experiencing a variety of
acute or chronic conditions. The Complementary Therapy service is
increasingly being seen as part of a programme of care, and not just a luxury.
The aim of Complementary Therapy is to support children and young people
throughout their treatment. It gives them a little TLC, relief from pain or
symptoms, and attempts to improve their quality of life.
“The main benefit of seeing a
complementary therapist was that
I saw it as not only a little treat,
where I could have a lovely back
massage to relieve my muscle
fatigue and pain, but because it
was another person to talk to who
could reassure me and provide me
with the motivation so that I could
motivate myself to persevere.”
A 17 year-old patient
Complementary Therapy:
Activities Activity One: Massages
Organise a massage evening and learn to give hand massages.
Bring in a range of creams and oils to try, and set the room up with cloths
on the tables to create a warm atmosphere.
Using the instructions at the back of the pack, demonstrate how to give a
hand massage.
Members can then practice on each other.
Activity Two: Guess The Scent Quiz
Aromatherapy is one type of complementary therapy. It involves a range of
plant-based and aromatic plant oils, including essential oils, to alter mood,
cognitive, psychological and physical wellbeing.
Have a think about special smells that you could use, for example: lavender,
mint, lilies, vanilla, rosemary, orange peel, fresh cut grass, coffee beans etc.
Put a few examples of different scents on small dishes/cloths.
Blindfolded members can take it in turns to smell each one and guess what
scent it is.
To make the challenge easier for younger members, provide a list of the
scents. These could be in the form of a wordsearch or a crossword puzzle.
Activity Three: Chill Out
What relaxes you?
Meditation helps you to relax and become more focused. People who
practice meditation believe it helps to relieve stress, to turn negative
thoughts into positive, and to aid relaxation. Meditation can be used as a
form of complementary therapy to help you to calm down and distract
yourself from procedures or feelings that may be unpleasant.
Find some calming music to play in the background and sit or lie quietly. Feel
free to do some colouring or reading to help you to chill out. Does
meditating make you feel more calm and relaxed?
Leaders: make reference to Think Resilient, a Girlguiding Peer Education
Resource, in this session.
Brightening Up the Children’s Hospital
Thanks to our amazing supporters, we were able to provide £1.1million to Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust in 2015 towards the
Hospital’s £4.7million redevelopment of the Children’s Cancer Wards at Nottingham Children’s Hospital.
The wards treat children and young people from across the East Midlands and is the only unit in the East Midlands which provides neuro-diagnostics and neuro
surgery.
The wards feature colourful wall art, improved play-rooms, a quiet room, and a brand new air filtration system which will help to reduce infection. Many patients on
these wards spend a long time in hospital, or make repeat visits, so it is really important that the wards are as welcoming as possible.
Charity funds have also been used to transform the waiting area in the outpatients department at the Children’s Hospital, replacing tired décor and dull furniture to
make the area more colourful, child-friendly, and less daunting for young patients and their families.
Activity Two: Deep Sea Relay
(Tip – you should do this race outside because it gets a little wet…).
What you’ll need is two sets of over-sized flippers, goggles and beach buckets filled
to the top with water. You then divide into two teams, and have the first in line (of
each team) put on the flippers and goggles. Each person must run to a designated
line with the water-filled bucket and then run the same course back again giving
the next team member the goggles, flippers and water-filled beach pails. (You can
offer two prizes for this game. One for the winning team and one for the team with
the most water left in the bucket.)
Brightening Up the Children’s
Hospital: Activities
Activity One: Whale Talk
Everyone sits in a circle and one person comes up with a fun sentence and
whispers it to the person next to them. BUT you have to say the sentence
in Whale Talk! It’s fun to try Whale Talk (like Dory does in Finding Nemo
and Finding Dory) - just elongate each word to mimic whale sounds! At
the end of the circle, the last person has to say what they heard out loud
and see if anyone can guess the original sentence. How many games can
you play in Whale Talk?! Gooooooood luuuuuuccckkkkkkkkk!
Some of the areas
of the Children’s
Hospital are
decorated with an
‘Under the Sea’
theme!
Activity Three— Water Ripples
For this activity you will need marbles, paper, paint and a tray or box.
Place a piece of paper in a box and dip marbles into blue, green and
white paint. Place the marbles in the box and move them around to
create a pattern that looks like the wall art of the Children’s Wards.
Brightening up the Children’s Cancer Ward
The Children’s Cancer Ward E39 has a rainbow themed playroom and each bay is full of colour! The Children’s Cancer
Ward has had a lot of refurbishment, all funded by our wonderful donors and fundraisers. E39 is a really special place
where children who are really poorly from cancer and their chemotherapy treatment can relax and have fun
whenever possible. We hope to be able to make all of the wards at Nottingham Children’s Hospital as colourful as E39.
Brightening up the Children’s
Cancer Ward: Activities
Activity Two: Funky Headwear
One of the side affects of cancer treatment is hair loss. This can be devastating and
often it can make the person who is suffering with cancer very self conscious.
How would you feel if you lost your hair?
Ages 7-10: The ‘Make A Hat’ Challenge
You may choose your own design, or wish to theme it around the Children’s
Hospital logo by making Robin Hood Hats with paper, glue, and scissors.
Ages 10+: Tie-Dye Head Scarf/Bandana
Use plain pieces of material (e.g. a pillow case) and cut into the shape of a head
scarf or head band. Use elastic bands and dye to create a funky pattern.
Activity One: Wall Art
One of the things that the charity has funded for the Children’s Cancer
Wards is colourful and cheerful artwork for the walls.
Leaders: show photos of the artwork for reference.
How many positive images can you think of? How would you decorate
the walls if you were the designer?
Use the biggest piece of paper you can find, or maybe even an old bed
sheet, to design your own piece of wall art. What makes it positive?
Which colours would you choose, and why? Take it in turns to show
your artwork to the rest of the group and talk about why you have
chosen the images that you have.
Charity Challenge!
Host a party for Nottingham Children’s Hospital
Now that you’ve learned about Nottingham Children’s Hospital, invite
your friends and family along to teach them what you’ve learned!
You can use this as an opportunity to display the art you have created on
this project, to tell the jokes you have written, give hand massages, or
perform your plays. Why not auction off the artwork you have created
and raise funds for Nottingham Children’s Hospital at your party?
For posters, resources, fundraising packs and more party-planning
ideas, please get in touch with our fundraising team!
Challenge yourselves!
Whether you start small or think big, a fantastic way to raise awareness of
Nottingham Children’s Hospital is to hold a sponsored event in aid of the Hospital!
Ideas for sponsorship:
Hold a sponsored silence for one evening at your meeting. Think creatively—
how will you communicate with each other?
How about a sponsored walk or obstacle course? You could support
Nottingham Children’s Hospital on one of your existing events, or could
organise a walk or run specifically for your badge! You might even be able to
walk a route that heads past the Hospital.
Hold an event or activity
There are lots of events and activities that you could choose to organise in aid of
Nottingham Children’s Hospital.
Perhaps you have a team of star bakers who could make and sell cakes at a bake sale?
A teddy tombola is a great way to pass those old toys on to someone who will love and
appreciate them.
Or maybe you could hold a car wash* for your parents and friends?
Please get in touch with the fundraising team at Nottingham Hospitals Charity—we
have loads more ideas to make your event a success!
We can provide you with a fundraising pack to help with your Charity
Challenge. This contains helpful fundraising tips, sponsorship forms, and posters.
We can also provide you with collection tins and buckets, t-shirts, and balloons
for you to use at your event.
For a fundraising pack or any further information, please call us on 0115 962
7905 or email [email protected]
*If you plan to hold a car wash, please ensure you refer to Girlguiding UK's guidelines for
this activity. These can found at www.girlguiding.org.uk/what-we-do/our-programme-and-
activities/activity-finder/carwashing/
Information for Leaders
Contact
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 0115 962 7905
Address: Nottingham Hospitals Charity
Sherwood Building
City Hospital
NG5 1PB
Freepost: FREEPOST NUH CHARITY
Hospital Resources
Nottingham Hospitals Charity
Nottingham Children’s Hospital
What is a Play Specialist
What is Complementary Therapy
Children’s Cancer and Neurosciences Ward
Cheque: Made payable to Nottingham Hospitals Charity,
these can be delivered in person or by post using our
‘Freepost NUH Charity’ address.
Cash: Cash can be delivered to our finance team, based
in our offices at City Hospital.
Card: We accept donations by card, either in person or
over the phone.
Bank transfer: Please get in touch if you would like to
make a donation to the charity by bank transfer and we
can provide you with our bank details.
If you would like to arrange a cheque presentation so
that we can celebrate your fundraising efforts by
presenting a big cheque and taking a photo, please get
in touch!
If your unit decides to raise
money for Nottingham
Children’s Hospital as part
of this project, funds can be
paid in the following ways:
THANK YOU!
Activity Resources and Useful Links
Section 1: Activity 1—Robin Collage—See following sheet
Section 1: Activity 5—Mobile— http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Sea-Creature-Mobile
Section 2: Activity 1—Treehouse—http://www.letthechildrenplay.net/2010/10/messing-around-with-wood.html
http://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/outdoor-engineering-building-stick-forts-stem-projects/
Section 3: Activity 1—Massage— See following sheet
Section 3: Activity 2—Puzzles—To make a simple wordsearch or crossword online go to www.puzzle-maker.com
Section 3: Activity 3—Chill Out—calming music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_G1IQLz6ig
Section 4: Activity 1 & 2—Plus more games—http://www.coolest-kid-birthday-parties.com/birthday-games-for-kids/
Section 4: Activity 3— Water Ripples—https://artfulparent.com/2015/05/marble-painting-for-kids.html
Section 5: Activity 2—Funky Headwear— Hat = http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Paper-Robin-Hood-Hat
Tie Dye Scarf/Bandana = http://www.ehow.com/how_7235654_tie-dye-bandanas.html
Section 1: Activity 1—Robin Collage—
Step 1
Wash and dry your hands
Step 2
Put a few drops of massage lotion/oil in the palm of your hand. Rub your hands together.
Step 3
Spread the lotion over the person’s hand and wrist using gentle, flowing, upward motions. Slide your right hand
up from the fingers to the wrist and repeat. Apply light pressure as you glide your fingers over the palm, wrist
and back of the hand. This is called effleurage and relaxes and prepares the person for the massage. Do this 6
times.
Step 4
Slide both your hands underneath the hand. Rest your thumbs on the wrist. Push down gently, and move your
thumbs over the wrist in an outward, circular motion. Work your way down the wrist to the knuckles, then back
again. Repeat this six times.
Step 5
Rest the hand in yours. With your other hand, squeeze each finger between your thumb and forefinger. Use
small circular movements to massage each finger from the base to the tip. Repeat this twice for each finger.
Step 6
Hold the hand with the palm facing up. Lightly stroke the palm with you finger tips. Use the heel of your hand or
your knuckles to knead the palm with a circular motion. Repeat this six times.
Step 7
Squeeze the muscle below the thumb a few times, then squeeze the muscle below the pinkie finger.
Step 8
Flip the hand back over gently. Run your fingers down the wrist ad hand once or twice with very light pressure.
Step 9
Repeat this process on the other hand to complete the massage.
Section 3: Activity 1—Massage—