Invisible Ink Secret Messages

Wolf Elective 1B is to use a secret code using Invisible Ink. I tested the methods in the Wolf book prior to teaching them to the boys. The problem with using Milk or Lemon Juice as your invisible ink, is that you need a light bulb to "burn" the message. Many people are switching to florecent lightbulbs and they don't produce enough heat to burn the message. In fact, I even tried heating the message up over the stove, and didn't have much luck. Not to mention, I thought better about the boys using a heat source.

I found an alternate invisible ink source. You can use baking soda and water as your "ink". 1 part baking soda to 2 parts water. The baking soda and water don't mix well, so you will need to stir with each dip in your "ink". To make your message appear, use concentrated grape juice. The grape juice reacts with the baking soda to create a chemical reaction and turns the secret message a different color. This works great and you don't have to worry about your cubs accidentally burning the house down.

You can use Q tips to apply both the secret message and the grape juice.

Note: Don't let the boys get carried away with the grape juice. The wetter it gets, the more the message smears. But if they do a quick swipe with the juice, the message appears with no problems.

Boy's Life Say Yes to Reading Contest and Patch

Boy's Life is having it's annual Reading Contest. Details are below. This is a great way to incorporate the October theme of "Adventures in Books". You can also use this activity to work in the electives on Computers and also the Computer Belt Loop!

Wolf Elective 21B Write a Report

Computer Belt Loop:

• Explain these parts of a computer :CPU, Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, modem and printer. Satisfies Wolf Elective 21C Tell what a mouse is and discribe how a CD ROM is used.
• Demonstrate how to start up and shut down a computer properly.
• Use your computer to print a report.

Say Yes to Reading Contest:

• Write a one page report no more than 500 words on the best book you read this year
• Fiction or non fiction
• Select your age group: ages 8 and under, ages 9-10, 11 years or older

Everyone who enters gets a free patch! First place winners in each catagory get a $100 gift certificate for the Boy Scouts official retail catalog, 2nd place winners get a $75 gift certificate and 3rd place winners get a $50 gift certificate.

Include your name, age and grade in school on your report.

Mail your report along with a business sized SASE to:

Boys Life Reading Contest

S306

P.O. Box 152079

Irvine, TX 75015-2079

Den Flags

We created our own den flag this year. I found banners from Oriental Trading Company 56/9015. They come in several colors. We selected white and added a blue trim and Wolf Den 6" Patch. Our footprints represent and reinforce the Leave No Trace theme: Leave nothing but footprints. As we complete each monthly theme we will add the monthly theme patch along the bottom of the flag.

We added blue and gold feathers and our boys and parents have already started adding more embellishments to our flag and flag pole to make it their own! Our flag pole also carries our den doodle, so there are lots of strings and beads hanging off our flag! This was a super fun project and the kids love our flag.

On the back of our flag, we have a second flag with the Cub Scout Patch and foot prints of our Sprouts. We incorporate our Sprouts in all of our activities and they are thrilled to be included with thier own flag.

Buddy Racers

We tried Wolf Elective 7C this weekend (Buddy Racers) to reinforce our theme of buddies. Our Asst Den Leader made them and the boys had fun. Next week we will do the requirements in section 5 for "tools", have the boys disassemble and reassemble the buddy racers and therefore get the tools, and Elective 7C under their belts!

Buddy Racers took the boys a minute to figure out. They work best with bigger kids in the front and smaller kids in the back. Also, have your kids in the back hold the shoulders of the kids in front and have the kids in front say "left, right" until they get used to walking together.

Note: If you assemble them, you can have the boys unscrew them and then screw them back together again and add a few nails to satisfy Requirement 5C and 5D and then they have the completed Racers to play with.

Building Buddy Racers satisfies the following:

• Wolf Elective 7C make a pair of Buddy Racers
• Wolf Requirement 5C Screws and Screwdrivers
• Wolf Requirement 5D Hammer and Nails
  
  

Collecting Belt Loops and Requirements

I recently ran across a program that is perfect for the Collecting Belt Loop and the Wolf Den Collecting Requirements in section 6.

Topps, Upper Deck, Major League Baseball and others, have started an organization called Baseball Card Clubhouse. Participating stores will give your scouts a free Baseball Card Collectors kit with baseball cards and a baseball card collecting patch!

This fulfills:

• Wolf Requirement 6B Make a collection of 10 things and put them together in a neat way.
• If they show and explain their collection to someone else, that satisfies the Wolf Requirement 6C.

Collecting Belt Loop:

• Begin a collection of at least 10 items, title and label your collection.
• Display your collection at a den or pack meeting.
• Visit a show or museum that displays different collections.

For more information or to find a participating store near you, visit www.baseballcardclubhouse.com

2008 Year of the Volunteer

Scouting Magazine has a short survey online to help provide them with a focus group for the magazine. They have an awesome iron on that they are sending to anyone who completes the 5 minute survey. Unfortunately, I can not find a picture of it online! But it is a goodlooking Iron On for the Adult leaders.

Visit www.scouting.org/bsasurveycenter
Password is SCOUTING (in all capital letters)

Who doesn't love slime?

Are you working on the Science Belt Loop or the Science Pin? Here is a fun and easy experiment, and more importantly all around fun project. Making home made slime is quick, easy and you probably have everything you need at home. This "slime" is the same stuff that that is also known as "fart putty" if you are familiar with that.

Supplies needed to make Slime:

Bowl number 1:

• 4 oz of Elmer's Glue
• 4 oz of water
• food coloring of your choice

Bowl number 2:

• 1 cup of water
• 1 tsp of *Borax powder

Mix the Elmer's with the water. Then in a separate bowl mix the water and the Borax powder. When the Borax is dissolved, slowly add the Borax mixture to the glue mixture, stirring constantly. You will see the slime start to come together. Remove the slime from the remaining water and kneed the slime until it is firm and consistent. Throw away the remaining water.

Store your new slime in a tight container or zip lock bag. The fun of putting the slime in a container is that if the slime is the same size as the container, it will make farting sounds as you push it in with your fingers... what boy doesn't want that?

Be sure to refrigerate your slime when done. Do not eat of ingest your slime.

*Borax is a laundry booster. If you don't already have some at home, you'll find it in the laundry aisle at the supermarket.

Tent Care: Mildew Removal

I recently purchased a tent and the handy tent set up guide had this recipe for eliminating mildew. Now I haven't tried it myself, but it is worth a try.

Mix 1/2 cup of Lysol in 1 gallon of HOT water. Sponge the mixture on the tent and let it dry. After it has dried, mix 1 cup of salt and 1 cup of concentrated lemon juice in 1 gallon of HOT water. Sponge the mixture on the tent and let it dry.

Store your tent in a cool, dry place. Storing tents in hot areas will cause the water repellent to deteriorate. There is nothing worse than finding out that your tent isn't water repellent, than on a camping trip in the pouring down rain... can you tell I'm speaking from experience here?

Wildlife Conservation Belt Loop

One of my favorite belt loops to teach is the Wildlife Conservation Belt Loop. When I was researching the Food Chain, I remembered an activity that we did in high school many years ago and the activity was called the Web of Life. If you are looking for a way to teach Wildlife Conservation, check out this website http://www.kidsplanet.org/wol/index.html.

After drawing the food chain, we sat in a circle and had each boy be a "character" in the story. Some were plants and trees, bees, wolves, ticks etc. Then every time they mentioned a character, we strung string between the two connections. Such as bees pollinate the plants, so the bees get strung to the plants. Then the squirels and deer get strung to the plants and so on. Pretty soon you have a very nifty little web going on showing how everything is interconnected to another. Then when you are finished you can show how if one part of the web of life becomes endangered (such as bees for instance) everything else become endangered as well. Have the boy with the bees drop his string. Then everyone who is connected to the bees drop all of their strings and so on until no one is holding a string.

It is one of my favorite visuals to illustrate why conservation is important.

BSA Family Activity 8

This weeks BSA Family activity comes from the Developing Responsibility section of the Teaching Responsibility portion of the BSA Family Award. If you choose one of these activities and have completed one of the Being Prepared activities, you will have completed the 2 requirements for the Teaching Responsibility Section.

From the Book: The purpose of these activities is to help family members become responsible people by doing their part to help others.

Choose one of the following:

• Complete a family service chartlisting all chores and the family member assigned to each job. The family decides how often to rotate jobs on the chart. Wolf Requirement 4E


• Get a plant or pet and teach your child how to take care of the of it. Discuss with your child how the plant or pet depends on its owner. It takes a lor of work to be responsible for living things. Wolf Elective 15C (plants) Wolf Elective 14A (pets)


• Let children pick their favorite meals or snacks and help prepare them and clean up. Wolf Requirement 8B (plan the meals that your family should have for one day), Wolf Requirement 8C (help fix at least one meal for your family), Wolf Requirement 8D (fix your own breakfast) and Wolf Requirement 8E (with an adult, help to plan, prepare, and cook and outdoor meal).

Most of these are requirements that you'll be doing already, so go ahead and work them into your BSA Family Award!