CGE Welcomes our newest regular contributor, Chelley Thelen. In her first article, Chelley shares her experience working with younger (elementary and middle school) students. One of the best things you can do for your high school guard program is to start training your members at a young age. Successful football teams, for instance, often have [...]
To aid our girls in getting the drill/routine down I video the instructor doing the routine and upload it onto my computer. I then burn copies of the drills for each girl so when they are practicing at home if they get dazed and confused they can pop the disk in their pc and see [...]
Many groups add tape markings to their flag poles to assist with uniform hand placement throughout the ensemble. These tapes are so helpful in cleaning up routines that those new to the idea might exclaim in disbelief, “Hey! That must be cheating!” Not to worry! “Cheater tapes” are perfectly legal and just may be the [...]
“Way too often one of your members will get a sail with their flag during a performance. The eye is drawn to this performer. One thing that I find helpful is to discuss the pathway that your flag should take when reversing directions but it seems the main issue here may be that top tip. [...]
“Make your third/tab [cheater tape] markings the same color as the pole but with extra tape so students can feel where they are without having them visible to judges who can pick people off for a hand placement not quite on the same checkpoint as the rest of the guard.” – Guillaume Eek, Impact Independent [...]
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This has got to be the simplest Fun Friday craft project yet! It’ll only take you minutes (beyond gathering the supplies) but you’re sure to put smiles on the faces of your performers! ‘Flag’ Candy Canes Materials needed: Craft Felt Glue gun Sheet of paper Candy cane Instructions: Using the sheet of paper, cut a [...]
Remember in kindergarten everyone would gather around the teacher for story time? Everyone loves listening to stories, even high school kids! In our guard, we have ‘story time’ and it is connected to the development of our team core values. One of our values is to ‘Be good people’ and treat each other with respect. [...]
Materials needed: 20” x 50” fabric 2 x 80” pieces of cording Puffy paints, buttons, ribbon, bows, etc for decorating Cut 20” x 50” piece of fabric (you can alter the size to meet your needs). Fold in ½, right sides together. From top edge, mark 2” down. (Fig. 1) Using ½” seams, sew below [...]
This is a fun activity the entire band participates in! During marching season students create spirit bags for their own sections, for every performance. Spirit bags contain a few treats and some fun baubles from the dollar store (a glow stick, mardi gras beads, lip gloss, etc). Coaches and directors sometimes add a little note [...]
September is typically a tough month for kids since they have so many responsibilities, homework, the social scene of high school, and it can take some time to figure out the balance between life and marching band. It’s always the toughest time for my kids, even when they know the expectations of the guard. Once [...]
This has got to be the simplest Fun Friday craft project yet! It’ll only take you minutes (beyond gathering the supplies) but you’re sure to put smiles on the faces of your performers! ‘Flag’ Candy Canes Materials needed: Craft Felt Glue gun Sheet of paper Candy cane Instructions: Using the sheet of paper, cut a [...]
ON THE WEB: Band Saves Lives and Fundraises at the Same Time
We thought this was an interesting/unique approach to both service and fundraising – check out this New Jersey marching band that saves lives while also earning some money for their program. Win/Win!
ON THE WEB: Podcast about starting a brand new WG program
Episode 47 of the Marching Roundtable podcast series (posted December 12, 2011) is an interview with Tim LeBlanc – a guard instructor from TX who has also been a participant in the CGE community on Facebook – about his experience starting a brand new winter guard at a new school. Check it out! Episode 47: [...]
Remember in kindergarten everyone would gather around the teacher for story time? Everyone loves listening to stories, even high school kids! In our guard, we have ‘story time’ and it is connected to the development of our team core values. One of our values is to ‘Be good people’ and treat each other with respect. [...]
Budget-Conscious Costume Transformation
Being involved in the color guard world, we all know what it is like to be on a budget. Some of you are probably thinking, “What budget? I wish I had money to budget!” This year I needed to allocate more money for flag fabric since we purchased 2 shaded-silk swing flags for each member [...]
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