Jurassic Pack

I know, Jurassic Pack isn't until April, but I had to share the awesome stuff I found at the Dollar Tree today! I found this Dinosaur Fossil Kit, Dinosaur foam stickers and the Dinosaur scratch stickers. All for a $1 each.

Now if you are not familiar with the Fossil Kits, they are compressed sand with an item in the miidle and the tools are used to scrape away the material to reveal the artifact. These are a little different than the ones I have seen. They are dinosaur eggs with bones inside. You excavate the bones and then assemble them into the dinosaur. I think there are 6 - 8 pieces per dinosaur.

Sweet! You will need to have each boy supply a 9x12 inch shallow (like a cake) pan so that they have a controlled "excavation" area. Other wise it gets messy quick.

The other goor deal I found was the scratchable dinosaur stickers. Each pack came with 10 stickers and 1 scratching tool. You'll need more wooden tools for multiple boys. I can't wait for April!

Service Projects for Cub Scouts

Are you considering a service project for your Cub Scouts? Here are a few that are age approriate for Cubs.

• collecting food for a food bank or local family
• baking cookies for your local police and fire departments
• making cards for sick children or residents of a nursing home
• visiting a nursing home
• collecting toys or adopting a family at Christmas
• helping with Operation Christmas Child http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/
• serving food at a church sponsored event for those less fortunate this holiday season

These are just a few ideas for service projects. The holidays makes it easy to learn about serving and thinking about others first.

Food Pyramid Requirement 8A

Are you looking for a food pyramid for your den meetings? I found a great pyramid that the kids can color and the site has excellent material to help guide you through the Food Pyramid discussion. http://www.mypyramid.gov/KIDS/ There are 3 downloads for you. One is the black and white for the boys to color, one is the color one to help you help them, and then there is a discussion download. Easy material to help you get through this section of the Wolf Requirements.

Seeds of Kindness

This month we've been talking about seeds of kindness. It's the perfect theme for November because you can tie it into all kinds of service projects for your boys. Our Pack collected food for the local food pantry. Our Den made cookies and delivered them to our local police and fire fighters. We are working on making Christmas cards for a shut in child with cancer.

This month has so many possibilities! Thanksgiving brings opportunity to teach a grace song Elective 11E. We are learning the We Will Rock You grace (found at www.boyscouttrail.com). Also check out Requirements 8A-E all of the food and cooking requirements. There are also Citizenship Belt Loop requirements for participating in a service project.

We found Kindness Coins at www.orientaltrading.com and have had the boys give out kindness coins for the last couple of weeks to people who have been kind to them. Teachers, friends, people at the grocery store. They've had fun giving away their coins to those who have been helpful and kind to them.

In thinking about all the events that are going on this month, there are lots of ways to tie them into the Wolf den program.

Taking your boys to the polls

Today I took a couple of my wolf den boys to go vote with me. We were very fortunate, there were no lines and when the staff found out that we were Cub Scouts, they gave the boys sample voters registration cards to "fill out" for when they were old enough to vote : )

So we got to learn about voter registration and why we register to vote. Then they checked us in and showed us to a voting booth. The boys pushed all the buttons and we talked about who was running for the different positions. One boy asked me why I was voting the way I was voting, because he liked the other guy and my response was "it's my vote and I get to vote for who I like. When you're old enough to vote, you get to vote for who you like." Thank goodness that was good enough. I have a policy of not talking politics with 8 year olds.

We talked about privacy and one Wolf Cub asked why I was allowing him to see who I was voting for. Excellent question Wolf Cub! Because we are learning about voting and I wanted him to see exactly how you vote for someone. It's not this mystical process. You go in, you punch the buttons and you push the red VOTE button. And that is how you hire and fire your elected officials and let your voice be heard.

The boys thought it was pretty cool and we will be watching the returns for a little while (until bedtime) to see who the next president and representatives will be. What a great learning adventure for your Wolf Cubs!

Election Day Celebrations

Tuesday Nov 4th is Election Day. Here is a great opportunity to talk to your boys about citizenship and about how important voting for your elected officials is. One of the activities for the Citizenship Pin is taking your bosy to go vote. Most of the kids are out of school tomorrow, so take them to go vote and then take them for a tasty treat... Ben and Jerrys Ice Cream Stores are offering a free scoop of icecream from 5pm-8pm tomorrow to celebrate democracy.

Visit http://www.benjerry.com/features/i_voted/ for details and participating locations.