Patrol Activity, 9th Feb

Hi Guides!

On Monday, the Guides had Patrol Activity! Here is the breakdown of the different activities.

P1

Thoughts from a Year 3...

We 集合-ed at the field. We were given some time to gather the logistics needed for a kitchen shelter and kitchen table. For this PA, it was combined with P4. Our initial idea for the kitchen table was to have two tripods as main frame and mu tied across as benches. We brought duct tape, utters, canvas sheet, 1 麻布袋, 2 metal mallet, aluminium foil. For the 木, we selected 1 深蓝木, 12 红木, 4 青木, 6 白木 and 2 浅蓝木. We were given 1h to finish building the structure. Before we started, the seniors introduced us to the timber hitch, which will officially replace clove hitch during pioneering activities.

At the start, the PL and PS split up, with the PL guiding the building of the kitchen table and hence, the PS taking care of the kitchen shelter. We took quite a long time to build our tripod and it was very unstable, hence we had to redo quite a few times. Meanwhile, at the start, the kitchen shelter was very successful. We managed to 起 quite fast. However, after some time, the 麻绳 of our kitchen shelter kept snapping, hence we should have chosen 麻绳 of better quality. At the 1/2 hr mark, we were quite behind time for the kitchen table. We had to speed up a lot as we tied our lashes. After some time extensions, we managed to complete both structures. However, our lashes for the kitchen table were not very tight. Some of the guylines in our kitchen shelter were not taut and hence, the canvas sheet sagged a bit. We could have also cheered and 报时-ed more often.

Overall, this PA was very enriching as it allowed us to brush up on our pioneering skills. We also learnt the timber hitch. Also, many of us learnt the difference between excaliburs and arthurs.

P2

Thoughts from a Year 2...

For Monday’s 集合, we built a baggage rack and a flagpole. We managed to complete the baggage rack with a time extension. Our lashes were quite tight and we were rather pleased with our baggage rack. We learnt that to make a structure or gadget more stable, there should be more triangles for it to not be shaky. Hence, we tied a 木 diagonally across on one side of the gadget. The baggage rack became much more stable and significantly less shaky. After we placed back the gadget poles back to the 团部, we built a flagpole. We did not manage to complete the flagpole as the 麻绳 kept breaking as we 抽-ed. In the end, we 过时-ed and were punished. I felt that our movements were slow and we should have had a better sense of urgency. We would do even better the next time.

We had Physical Training after that. We ran 10 rounds around the General Science Lab nonstop. After running, the Year 4s showed us a picture of a plant and wanted us to find the plant in order to get an advantage for the next activity. The plant was a small dandelion. In the end, only one of the Year 3s could find the plant. The rest of us had to do forfeit as we did not find the plant. The next activity for us was catching. Once caught by the catcher, one had to go into pumping position and wait to get saved. The person that found the plant in the previous round will be a catcher, along with another person. The catching was very fun as we got to bond with each other as it had been a long time since the last Patrol Activity. We ended the day with patrol corner.

This PA was very enjoyable to me as I got to have fun together with my patrol. I also got to learn new things and polished my skills. I also got to train my stamina from running around the GSL. This patrol activity was truly beneficial.

Thoughts from a Year 3...

During today's PA, we did a baggage rack and a flagpole. As we were quite familiar with the building of a baggage rack, we did not have much queries about the steps to build a baggage rack. However, we asked for time extension as we were unable to complete the structure in time. We then learnt from the seniors how to make the baggage rack more stable. The main point was to have more triangles and we simply had to construct a diagonal across the baggage rack and it would stop shaking. Then, we built the flagpole. As the 马绳 was mouldy, it kept on snapping whenever we 抽-ed. We also learned from the senior how to 绕 the 蜡绳 around the flag by looping. However, we were punished as we did not have a strong sense of urgency.

Then, there was PT! We ran around the GSL but were not told how many rounds we were going to run. We just kept on running and cheering at the same time. We had fun during the run and it also provided us with a chance to exercise more. We plan to include this in the subsequent PAs! :) We ran 10 rounds in total. 

We were then shown pictures of 2 plants and we had to find them in a specific area. Those who failed to find had to do PT as forfeit along with those which guessed wrongly. In the end, only one patrol member managed to guess the plant correctly but we still did the PT as a patrol! ^^ 

Two patrol members them became the catchers of the next game. We were given a boundary and those who had been caught had to be in Girl's style pumping position until someone else saved her. In the end, all of us had to do PT according to the number of times we were caught. All of us had fun through the PT games! Looking forward to more of such! :D We ended off with patrol debrief!

P3

Thoughts from a Year 3...

For Monday’s PA, we built a baggage rack and an 8-men tent. Firstly, we had 5 minutes to gather all logistics from 团部.We had 55 minutes to build both structures.

Afterwards, we started building our baggage rack. The initial progress was slow. We took a little while to realise proper allocation of manpower was important, because we were building two structures concurrently. Hence, we split the Year 2s and Year 3s between the baggage rack and the 8-men tent. For this PA, for the most part, we only had four people working on the structures. Thus, our manpower was very limited.

We realised that we should always take note of the time, to be aware of our time limits and ask for time extensions if necessary. Things got rather hectic and sometimes the manpower allocation was not the best as well, because people got confused as to what to do.

In the end, we decided we did not have enough manpower to do the structures concurrently, so we focused on the 8-men tent first. Unfortunately, after we completed everything, our baggage rack was quite unstable. Hence, we really have to brush up on our skills more, by practising and remembering to 抽 after every round in a lash. 

P4

Thoughts from a Year 3...

For this PA, we combined with P1.

I feel that my lashes were quite tight but for my kitchen table tripod lash, the 麻绳 I picked was unexpectedly long, so I could have used it to make more rounds and middle 绕 for my tripod lash instead of wasting time 绕-ing the resulting length of 麻绳. I also feel that we needed more loud cheering, since our cheering was infrequent and most of the time we were unable to hear the other half of the combined patrol cheering. We also should have picked better 青木 and 麻绳 for the Kitchen Shelter, as our guylines snapped many times and the 青木 飞脚-ed a lot. I also learned the difference between an Excalibur and an Arthur. At the end of 集合, we realised that the few with black watches had been asked to 重计 time extensions or to time patrol mates tying lashes until the main timing had been lost. I think that it is very important to take note that at least one person has the overall timing to we can keep track of how fast or slow we are.

P5

Thoughts from a Year 3...

At the start of our PA, we did PT such as running around the track, doing circuits and also kallang wave pumpings. We ran 4 rounds around the track and after each round, we got a post- it from the seniors. At the end, the 4 post- its indicated that we would get a cold drink from the seniors. The circuit consisted of doing planking for 2 mins, leg raise for 2 mins and 站马 for 2 min 30 secs. For the running segment, we managed to finish 4 rounds within the given time limit. As such, we got two free bottles of cold sports drink from our seniors. However, we did not cheer much while running. I feel that we could have cheer more and louder as this will be able to boost our patrol's morale. As for the circuits and kallang wave pumpings, I feel that we did not reach the expectations of our seniors as our PT was not standard enough. I think that we should build up on our skills and also our stamina.

After PT, we proceeded to building a flagpole and clothes rack. For the flagpole, we spent quite a lot of time on it as our 银钉 keep coming out of the soil. As we are short of manpower in our patrol, we also had to ask for help from the seniors. From here, I feel that we could have chosen a place with soil which will not only allow us to be able to poke through the soil easily, but it can also prevent the 银钉 from coming out easily. Apart from that, our clothes rack was also unstable. This is because we tied the 定脚 of the A- 架 too high which thereafter affected the stability of the structure. Moreover, not all our lashes were standard and tight. From this, I feel that we should improve our lashes whenever we are free so that the lashes would not be loose when tying structures. We should also look at the big picture so that we can ensure that our structure would be stable.

P6

Thoughts from a Year 2...

On Monday, we had gadgeting for our Patrol Activity. We built two structures, one of them was a structure to hold the 配备 and other logistics and the other one was a creative gadget.

The proposals was done by the Year 3s. When we built the first structure, our lashes were not very tight so the structure was slightly unsteady and it took us less that 3 minutes to dismantle the structure as we could just pull the 木 out with much ease. This activity helped us reflect on our lashing and reminded us that we need to put in more effort/ strength in tying lashes. It also gave us the opportunity to practise a few lashes that we do not usually use such as rafting. Overall our structure could still support the 配备 which was quite satisfactory as we fulfilled our task but there are some areas of improvement that we will continue to work on. For the second structure, we did not realise that the structure was slanted and unsymmetrical which caused the structure to have stability problems. Progress was a bit slow as we were unsure of how to carbon-copy the main frames of the structure but nonetheless we finished within the time limit. I learnt that we should take note not to flip the main frame when carbon-copying. I also learnt that we should use a 木 that is not too long as there will be too much protrusion and the structure would not look as nice.

P7

Thoughts from a Year 2...

On Monday, we built a kitchen table. The main frame was a quadpod, and as it was the first time we were learning how to tie one, we had to practice before building the actual table. We were challenged in the process as there were only 3 people in our patrol, excluding the Year 4s. However, after much hard work and perseverance, we managed to complete it. After which, we brushed up on our first-aid, orienteering and Outdoor Cooking skills. it was indeed a fun and fulfilling PA.

P8

Thoughts from a Year 2...

Today,we practiced our basic lashes during PA (e.g. square lash, diagonal lash, tripod lash etc). We also had a mini race, which tested on our knowledge on some of the basic guides signs. It was really engaging. Following that, we had patrol corner, during which we were given time to reflect on our performance. Overall, we felt that we could have done better as we 过时-ed quite a few times. Nonetheless, 加油 P8!

Thoughts from a Year 3...

For the PA on Monday, we practised our basic lashes such as square lash, diagonal lash and tripod lash on spars. We were told to set a target on how long to tie the lashes and try to hit it. However, we 过时-ed for many of the targets that we had set. I feel that the tightness and time taken to tie the lashes needs to be improved so that we can set a better example for the new Year 1s.

P9

Thoughts from a Year 3...

For Monday's PA, we did 8 men tent, rope ladder and some short PT. For the first part, the seniors asked us how long we needed to build an 8 men tent, to which we said 20 minutes. As we did the tent, we encountered many difficulties such as there was no hole to poke the tent pole through, the ground where we build had rocks in which our tent pegs could not be hit into the ground. To solve the problems, it took a very long time and the seniors also helped us but the situation was hopeless. The tent that we took was old and only had one door which was very weird as P3 which also did 8 men tent had a new tents with two doors. In the end, the seniors told us to stop building the tent. The seniors then gave us a crossword puzzle on various stuffs like FA, trekking signs and general stuff. There were some stuff we were unsure of like certain trekking signs and we could improve in this area. Next, we did a rope ladder. We were quite unsure so we took longer time and we could take better measurements as our ladder steps were slanted. But in the end, some of us climbed the rope ladder. Next, the seniors gave us a sudoku puzzle to solve which left us super confused but we managed to solve our next venue which was GSL level 2. The seniors then asked us to caterpillar crawl around the whole corridor to find things for a simple water filter. We managed to complete within the time limit. We then had patrol corner.

P10

Thoughts from a Year 3...

We were supposed to build two types of kitchen tables (quadpods, tripods) within the duration of the PA. However we took really long to start the actual tying of the kitchen shelter (quadpod) as we had to move from the GSL to the area near MRL which wasted a lot of time. I think that I should have tried to stepped up more as a PS throughout this PA as it is indeed very hard for the PL to lead sometimes. There was a lack of sense of urgency and patrol morale which can be improved on. We only managed to finish the quadpod kitchen table by the end of PA which was really bad since the initial plan was to build two types. However the end product was kind of satisfying after all that shifting of heavy 木s. I really hope that all Year 2s and 3s would learn from this PA and be more serious about the time limits given by the seniors.