Under the Sea Challenge v.

2
This challenge badge was designed when our unit requested an ‘Under the
Sea’ theme pack holiday. We held a competition to design the badge and the
winning design was from Matilda. The Brownies also came up with most of the
ideas in this pack. We had a great time at our ‘Under the Sea’ pack holiday
and can’t wait to share the fun we had with you all! We will use any profits
we make towards future pack holidays.

All photos within the pack were taken by leaders of the unit of our Brownies
having fun doing the activities on our pack holiday.

Version 2 sees an update to the new branding, no further changes have been
made.

When printing this pack, print pages 1-6, page 7 onwards are the resources
section.

To award the badge:

Rainbows should complete at least 5 activities from at least 2 sectors

including one with a dashed line.
Brownies should complete at least 8 activities from at least 3 sectors
including one with a dashed line.
Guides should complete at least 10 activities from at least 4 sectors
including one with a dashed line.
Rangers, Leaders and Trefoil Guild should complete at least 12 activities
from at least 4 sectors including one with a dashed line.

Sectors:
• The Sea
• Sea Safety
• Sea Creatures
• Sea Food
• Sea Themed Wide Games
The Sea

• Learn the names of some of the different seas and play corners
• Make a sea in a box
• Learn about the different levels of the sea and what can live there
• Go swimming! Why not find a pool with treasure you can dive to
collect, or try open water swimming!
• Make a sea in a jar/bottle
• The sea is full of rubbish and pollution, make something new out of
items you would normally throw away such as a piece of clothing or
some art
• Learn how to upcycle fishing wire/string into a string bag
• Find out about the Great Barrier Reef, where it is, how old it is, what
animals live there, what is engendering the reef.
• Learn about coral bleaching and what can be done to slow
down/repair the coral
• Try seascape meditation
• Create art by painting sea salt
• Sea water Is salty, experiment by testing what floats in salt water
that wouldn’t float in tap water
• Emulate sea currents with a sea current experiment

Sea Safety

• Learn how to throw a rope or buoyancy aid to someone in trouble

• Know how to tie a reef knot and be able to explain how they can help
on the sea
• Learn how to call for help using morse code (lights) or semaphore
(flags)
• Visit the RNLI and learn more about what they do
• Learn about flags and buoys at beaches in the UK, create a poster to
show others how to keep safe on the beach
• Talk about the dangers of rip currents, how to spot them, what to do
if you get caught in one
• Discover what different types of materials float in the sea and how
this is different to a swimming pool

Sea Creatures

• Complete our sea creatures wordsearch

• Sew a turtle keyring
• Make a sock octopus
• Visit an aquarium and learn about a sea creature you’ve not seen
before
• Make your own blow fish lantern
• Make some origami crabs
 • Have a go at making some fish scratch art
• Read the rainbow fish story, make puppets and re-enact the story
• Make soda dough art with a water colour background and a sea
creature
• Make sea creature cookies
• Sew a mermaid tail for your favourite teddy bear/doll
• Make a mobile and hang different sea creatures at different levels to
depict the creatures that live at the different layers of the sea
• Make hama bead turtles and turn them into keyrings or badges

Sea Food

• Make or try squid ink pasta

• Make fish fingers
• Go to at least 3 different fish and chip shops, try the fish and rate
which one is the best
• Visit a fish market and see how many types of fish you can find
• Make ice cream in a bag and use it to fill a clam shell
• Learn about sustainable fishing and pick out sustainably sourced sea
food at a local supermarket
• Learn what edible things you can forage at the seaside such as
samphire, muscles, clams, periwinkles etc.

Sea Themed Games and Wide Games

• Find Atlantis wide game

• Hold an under the sea party with party games suggested in the
resources section
• Play the shark attach parachute game
• Water game relay races
• Fishy Fishy Fishy
• Golden River
• Captain’s coming
• Whale Watch
• Shark Sea
 Under the Sea Badge order form
To pay by Cheque:
Leader Name
Unit Name
Postal Address

Phone number
Email address

Number of badges @ £1 Please send completed order form to

each
12th Holgate Methodist Brownies
Postage
Under the Sea Challenge
1-9 badges +£1.50 12 Eastward Avenue
York
10-19 badges +£2.00
YO10 4LZ
20+ badges +£2.50
Cheques payable to ‘12th York (Holgate
International postage upon Methodist) Brownies’
request (please write unit name on back of cheque
Total and allow up to two weeks for delivery)

To pay by BACS:
Email your order details to TropicalChallengeBadge@gmail.com including:
• Leader Name
• Unit Name
• Postal Address
• Quantity of Badges
• Amount Paid (including postage!)
• Online payment reference and date

Payments to:
• Account Name: 12th York Holgate Methodist Brownies
• Sort Code: 30-96-26
• Account Number: 46239060
• Reference: Unit name (essential to identify payments)

Any enquiries can be made to TropicalChallengeBadge@gmail.com

Resources
The Sea

Make a sea in a jar/bottle

Equipment:
• 1 lidded jar per person
• Fimo modelling clay in bright ‘sea creature’ colours
• Measuring jug (1 per group)
• Blue food colouring
• Clear oil and water - these will be 50/50 in jars so calculate quantities
depending on group size
• Blue/silver glitter
• Fish tank stones
• Glue gun

Two stage Plan -

Shape some sea ‘creatures’ from coloured oven clay. Cook these in the oven as per
instructions and leave to cool.

To assemble
1. In a jug measure out 1.2 litres of water and add blue food colouring a drop at a
time until the desired blue colour is obtained
2. Cover the bottom of the jar with coloured stones
3. Add the dry (now hard) and cooked creatures made earlier
4. Add the blue water half way, if bubbles appear leave for a few minutes until
the bubbles have gone
5. Add a few teaspoons of blue glitter
6. Fill the rest of the jar with oil right to the top to avoid any air being left in the
jar
7. Seal the jars tightly and glue shut to avoid spillages

Simple Science -
The oil and water have different densities, they never mix together so the oil floats
on top of the water! If you compare equal amounts of water and oil, the oil will
always weigh less, this is why it floats! Why not test different items to see if they
are more or less dense than water. Hint, a pecan nut will float as it is less dense
than water but more dense than oil!
Make a sea in a box
Equipment:
• 1 cereal box per person
• Scissors
• Paint and brushes
• Fine thread
• Card
• Pencils/crayons/felt pens
• Tissue/crepe paper
• Glue gun

Instructions:
First cut the front off your cereal box. Paint inside the box blue to look like the
sea. Draw sea creatures on the card and cut these out. Hang from the top of the
cereal box using the fine thread. Use the tissue/crepe paper to make plants such
as seaweed or coral and stick to your box using a glue gun.

Take it a step further-

Draw stripes in your box and paint them in different blues, starting from pale at
the top to dark blue/black at the bottom and label them the different layers of the
sea. Draw the creatures you’d find at those layers and hang them at the correct
hight.

Create art by painting sea salt

Equipment
• PVA glue
• Salt
• Food colouring
• Water
• Pipettes
• White card or watercolour paper
• Pencil

Two stage Plan -

On your white card or watercolour paper, draw some shapes, why not draw sea
creatures or a sea scape? Put a thick layer of PVA glue around the outline of the
shapes. Cover the glue in salt, remove the excess and leave the glue and salt to
dry.

Once fully dry, mix the food colouring with water, the more food colouring you use
the darker your paint will be. Use a pipette to put drops of the food
colouring/water mix onto the salt. Be careful not to drown the salt, but notice how
the salt soaks up the water each time. Leave your salt paintings to dry.

Water density experiment

Items sink in water when they are more dense or heavier than water. Adding salt
into water makes it more dense. Take two jugs/large glasses of water, mix salt
into one to make it like the sea and guess what will float or sink in each. How many
did you get right? What happens if you try again with sugar water and bi-carb
water?

Learn how to upcycle fishing wire into a string bag

This is similar to macrame, you can find instructions on this website here:
https://www.instructables.com/Bind-Fishing-Nets/

Sea current experiment

Try the experiment on this website: https://lifeovercs.com/ocean-currents-
science-experiment/
Sea Safety

Learn how to throw a rope or buoyancy aid to someone in trouble

The RNLI has instructions and a video ont heir website here:
https://rnli.org/magazine/magazine-featured-list/2017/june/be-someones-
lifeline-know-how-to-use-a-throw-bag

Know how to tie a reef knot and be able to explain how they can help on
the sea
This yachting website explains how to tie a reef knot and 8 other knots used
at sea, try and tie a few more knots and see what they are used for:
https://www.yachting.com/en-gb/news/9-basic-knots-to-use-at-sea

Learn how to call for help using morse code (lights) or semaphore (flags)
There are lots of easily printable morse code and semaphore keys. In pairs,
try and send a message across your meeting place.

Visit the RNLI and learn more about what they do

The RNLI offer visits, you can book one here: https://rnli.org/youth-
education/educational-visits

Learn about flags and buoys at beaches in the UK, create a poster to
show others how to keep safe on the beach
The RNLI has resources to help you learn about flags on the beach, why not
play a game of corners to help you learn what the flags mean?
https://rnli.org/-
/media/rnli/youth_education_resources/activity_sheets_and_posters/activi
ty/flags_and_signage.pdf?rev=4feac5fb5a4b4c59b1473f37f32befd0&fd=true

Talk about the dangers of rip currents, how to spot them, what to do if
you get caught in one
This activity on the RNLI website is great for helping girls understand what a
RIP current is https://rnli.org/youth-education/education-resources/lower-
secondary/the-pull-of-a-rip
 Sea Creatures

Amphipod Dolphin Lobster Shark

Barracuda Eel Octopus Stingray
Blobfish Fangtooth Orca Turtle
Coelacanth Jellyfish Oyster
Crab Limpet Sealion
Sew a turtle keyring
Equipment:
• Felt
• Scissors
• Needle
• Thread
• Stuffing
• Keyrings
• Googly eyes
• Glue gun

Instructions:
Cut out the turtle shape in one colour of felt, cut out the shell in another colour of
felt. Using a running stitch, sew the shell onto the turtle around the edge, before
you close the shell, put some stuffing inside. Once you’ve finished off the shell,
glue on some googley eyes and attach a keyring.
Make a sock octopus
Equipment:
• 2 googly eyes
• 1 sock
• 1 rubber band or hair tie
• Toy stuffing (to fill toe)
• Scissors
• Craft/liquid glue

Instructions:
Stuff the top of the sock with toy stuffing.
Tie the rubber band around the top of the
sock. Cut the end of the sock into 8
lengths. Add googly eyes with glue to the
front of the head shape.

Make your own blow fish

lantern
Equipment:
• Balloon
• Tissue paper
• Paintbrushes
• PVA glue
• Water
• Paint pots
• Card
• Googly eyes
• Glue gun
• Tea lights

Instructions:
First blow up your balloon to the size and shape of the blower fish you’d like to
make. Make paper mache mix by mixing 4 parts pva glue to 1 part water. Paint this
mixture over the balloon. Once the balloon has been covered with 1 layer of paper
mache, start ripping up the tissue paper, put a piece on the balloon and then cover
it in glue. Keep going until you have at least 3 layers of tissue paper and glue on
your balloon. Hang this up to dry for at least 24 hours (we hung ours on a washing
line inside our pack holiday hall). Once the tissue paper is dry, cut out fish features
with the card and glue these to your fish. Once finished, remove the balloon and
cut a hole in the bottom to put the tea light.

Make some origami crabs

There are lots of different instructions available on the internet, our Brownies
managed this one: https://www.supercoloring.com/paper-crafts/how-to-make-an-
origami-crab-step-by-step-instructions?version=print

Have a go at some fish scratch art

Get creative with this set of scratch art from Baker Ross:
https://www.bakerross.co.uk/sealife-scratch-art-magnets
Make soda dough art
A great alternative to standard salt dough, try this baking soda dough recipe with
baking soda, cornflour and water. You can find the recipe here:
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/552746554259329916/ we love use of a light box
to display the creations painted white, against a water colour background!

Make sea creature cookies

This recipe is a batch suitable for six girls to make.
Sea creature themed biscuit cutters are easy to purchase, e.g. fish, star fish, turtle
shapes. Those used here were about 8cm long.
Using these there is enough dough to make at least 9 biscuits.

Ingredients:
• 100g unsalted butter – softened
• 50g caster sugar
• 175g plain flour
• few drops vanilla essence
• about 2 tbs milk (=20ml)
• Items to decorate biscuits - white icing, coloured
writing icing, sprinkles, strawberry laces etc

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 150deg C, gas mark 2.

Mix the butter and sugar together with a wooden

spoon until creamy. Add a few drops of vanilla
essence and mix well.

Sift flour to the bowl and mix well, then add a

little milk at a time until there is a good dough
(you may not need all the milk). You can use your
hands to finish mixing the dough in the bowl, into
a ball.

Lay a piece of greaseproof paper onto the table, to

use for rolling out, you will need to hold this still.
Sprinkle a little extra flour onto the paper, and rub
some flour onto the rolling
pin.
Roll the dough to about 5mm
thick (a little thicker than a £1
coin).
Cut out shapes and transfer
carefully to a lined baking tray.

Bake in the oven for 20-25mins, until golden in colour.

Once cooled, decorate with icing and sprinkles.
Sew a mermaid tail for your favourite teddy bear/doll
We like these mermaid tails here: https://thecraftyblogstalker.com/build-bear-
mermaid-costume/

Make a mobile and hang different sea creatures at different levels to

depict the creatures that live at the different layers of the sea
This Hobbycraft mobile is simple using toilet roll tubes:
https://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/ideas/how-to-make-a-diy-sea-creature-
mobile.html#howto

Or for older girls and trefoil, have a go at crocheting this mobile:

https://www.mooglyblog.com/sea-friends-mobile/

Or have a go at sewing your own creatures with felt, or cut out shapes with
card. There are so many ways to make a mobile!

Make hama bead turtles and turn them into keyrings or badges
There are some great patterns here:
https://perler.com/content/project_guides/perler-project-guide_sea-
creatures.pdf
Sea Food

Make or try squid ink pasta

If you choose to make squid ink pasta, you’ll need cuttlefish ink to add to your
pasta recipe, you can get this from Waitrose or Amazon. There are lots of recipes
online, or buy pre-made squid ink pasta from Waitrose.

Make Fish Fingers

We like this recipe from the Marine Stewardship Council website:
https://www.msc.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/education-
page/activity-sheets/make-fabulous-fish-nuggets.pdf

Go to at least 3 different fish and chip shops, try the fish and rate which
one is the best
There are lots of ways you could rate the fish, these are some ideas:
• Types of fish available (e.g. haddock, cod, fishcake)
• How crispy is the batter
• How flakey is the fish
• Price
• Portion size
• Waiting time
• Was the wrapping environmentally friendly
• How friendly were the staff that served you

Make ice cream in a bag and use it to fill a clam shell

There are lots of recipes for icecream in a bag online, here’s one we used:
https://therecipecritic.com/ice-cream-in-a-bag/. We recommend wearing gloves
as the bags get very cold!

We use this recipe for a vegan/dairy free alternative and it was yummy!
https://afewshortcuts.com/easy-ice-cream-in-a-bag-recipe/

Once you’ve made the ice cream, put them between two clam shells and decorate
with sauce or sweets or sprinkles and enjoy!
Learn about sustainable fishing and pick out sustainably sourced sea food
at a local supermarket
The marine stewardship council have some resources suitable for children here:
https://www.msc.org/uk/education

Learn what edible things you can forage at the seaside such as samphire,
muscles, clams, periwinkles etc.
There are lots of companies who offer sea foraging courses, why not try one?
Sea Themed Games and Wide Games

Find Atlantis wide game

We played this as a wide game on pack holiday. In groups, the girls had to do tasks
to win a clue to where to find Atlantis. Set the challenges and clues depending on
the age and ability of your girls but for our Brownies we had a riddle challenge, a
bubble wand challenge (blow a bubble and carry it on the wand across a field as a
relay race), fishing using home-made fishing rods and felt fishes with magnets. The
clues were directions such as start in A0, go two steps North, go one step West etc.
Once they have found all the clues, set out a grid for them to follow the clues and
find the coordinate for Atlantis and win their treasure!

Hold an under the sea party

We decorated our room with streamers and hanging fish and played these games:
• Flip the kipper: cut out a fish shape from newspaper and put it on the floor.
Give each team a piece of newspaper. When the game starts, they have to
waft the newspaper to try and flip the fist over to the other side of the
room. Play as a relay race
• Crab walk relay: a relay race where the girls have to walk sideways like a
crab.
• Fish food: Give each team a space hopper and a bucket. Mark a ‘safe area’
for each group using cones. Put some ball pit balls in the middle of the
room. Give the teams 3 minutes to jump into the middle of the room, pick
up one piece of fish food, and jump back and put it in the bucket. After 3
minutes, the team with the most fish food wins.
• Diving: blow up a number of balloons, draw animals on each balloon. If you
have 4 teams, draw 4 of each animal and number each one. Put all the
balloons under a parachute. Get each team to send one girl under the
parachute to fish for a specified animal. Once each team has found the
animal, give points based on the number on their balloon.

Shark attack
This is a parachute game, best played with shoes off!
• Girls sit on the floor in a circle with their legs under the parachute.
• Choose 1 shark and 2 life guards.
• The shark goes under the parachute and one by one pulls on the girls legs to
pull them under the parachute.
• When the girls feel themselves being pulled, they call for help and the life
guards come and pull them back.
• If a girl is not saved by the life guard, they become a shark too.
• Keep going on until all the girls have become sharks!

Water game relay races

There are lots of relay races you can do in a swimming pool, here are some ideas:
• Have 4 girls in each team, give each girl a swimming stroke, relay race
these across the pool
• Relay with any stroke, but the swimmer must have a float in their hands
and pass between the team members
 • Float a hoop in the middle of each lane, teams swim to the hoop, go
through the hoop and swim back
• Blow up a balloon (check for latex allergies), girls swim whilst pushing the
balloon across the pool with their nose. Anyone touching the balloon with
their hand must start again

Or you could do water games outside, these are our favorite water relay games:
• Egg and spoon – an egg and spoon race but using water balloons. Teams
must carry their ‘eggs’ and place them in a bucket without them popping.
The team with the most balloons in their bucket wins
• Pass the balloon – get the team to stand in a line with a gap between each
person, they must throw water balloons down the line between eachother
and collect all non-popped balloons in a bucket. The team with the most
balloons in their bucket wins
• Over your head – give each girl a cup and stand in a line front to back, the
girl at the front fills her cup up and without looking behind, pours it over
her head, the girl behind is waiting with her empty cup to catch the water.
The team with the most water still in their cup at the end wins
• Fill with a sponge – have 2 buckets per team and a big sponge, fill one
bucket of water and create an obstacle race between the two buckets.
Take it in turns to fill a sponge with water, race down the obstacle race and
squeeze the sponge into the bucket. After a set amount of time, see which
team has the most water in their bucket
• Leaky cup – have 2 buckets per team and a cup with holes in the bottom.
Fill one bucket with water and set an obstacle course between the two
buckets. Take it in turns to fill the cup with water and race through the
obstacle course, pouring whatever water is still in the cup into the bucket.
After a set amount of time, see which team has the most water in their
bucket

Fishy Fishy Fishy

• Line the girls up on one side of the room, choose one to be a shark.
• The shark stands in the middle of the room and shouts ‘fishy fishy fishy,
come swim in my sea!’
• The fishes shout back ‘sharky sharky sharky, you can’t catch me!’
• The fishes then run to the other side of the room and the shark tries to
catch them.
• Anyone who is ‘bitten’ by the shark becomes seaweed, their feet stuck to
the floor but their arms can move about.
• Another turn happens but this time the seaweed can try and catch the
fishes as they swim through.
• Keep going until only 1 fish is left, they become the shark in the next round.

Golden River
• The girls line up on either side of the room with one girl in the middle.
• The girl in the middle says ‘You may cross my golden river if…’ and states a
fact such as ‘you have blonde hair’ or ‘you are wearing brown shoes’ or
‘your favorite food is chocolate’
 • Every girl who has the fact runs across the room to the other side and the
girl in the middle has to try and catch someone. Whoever is caught goes in
the middle for the next round.

Captain’s coming
There are many versions of this game, but this is the version we play. All girls start
in the middle of the room. The leader shouts instructions which have actions. Girls
are out if they do their instruction wrong, hesitate too long, or are the last to do
the instruction. If you haven’t played this game before, start with a few
instructions and slowly add in more.
• Port – Run to the left side of the hall
• Starboard – Run to the right side of the hall
• Scrub the decks – Down on their knees and pretend to scrub the floor
• Admiral’s coming – Stand still and salute, stay still until the leader says
‘Admiral’s gone’.
• Captain’s Coming – Everyone shouts “aye aye captain”
• Captain’s Wife – Everyone curtsey
• Climb the riggings – Pretend to climb a ladder
• Yellow submarine – Lie on the floor on their back with one leg up and sing
‘we all live in a yellow submarine…’
• Lifeboats (number) – Get into groups of that number, anyone not in a group
is out
• Captain’s cat – Rub your fingers together on one hand and make a ‘pshwee
pshwee’ sound
• Land ahoy – Leader points in the direction of the land, girls pretend to look
through a telescope in the same direction

Whale Watch
This game can be played in a swimming pool or adapted for dry land.
• Pick one girl to be the whale in the idle and get the rest of the girls
to form a circle around her about a meter away.
• The whale stays in the middle until she decides to shout ‘There she
blows!’, after which the others have to swim to safety to the edge of
the swimming area while the whale chases them.
• The first girl to be caught becomes the new whale in the next round.

Shark Sea
This game can be played in a swimming pool or adapted for dry land
• Pick one of the girls to start as the shark in the middle and get the rest to
line up on one side of the swimming area.
• The object of the game is for the girls to make it across to the other side
without being caught by the shark. Each girl the shark catches then
becomes a shark as well.
• The girls who cross the water successfully have to go back to the other side
and try to cross again without being caught.
• The game goes on until only one girl is left in the sea od sharks and is the
winner. The game can re-start with the winner as the new shark.