What have your boys taught you?

As I wrapped up my year as a den leader, I reflected back on my year and thought about my boys. So in an open to letter to my boys... here is what I have learned from them. I urge you to think back about how each boy is special and let them know how much you have learned from them this year.

What my boys have taught me this year.

I have spent countless hours preparing for den meetings. Making lesson plans, researching activities, gathering supplies… and then there is entering all those advancements into scout track. But while I was busy thinking I was teaching these young men, they in fact, were actually teaching me.

Mr. Loreant and Mr. Gifford have taught me to be the best I can be. These two young men are my over achievers. They have pushed me to be more innovative, more creative and to always bring my A game.

Mr. Reid and Mr. Denson have taught me enthusiasm. They ask more questions and answer more questions than any other boys in my den and they do so with great enthusiasm.

Mr. Sheppard has taught me determination and attitude. He started the year with “I can’t” and “I won’t” and has ended the year with “I can” and “I’ll try.”

Mr. Baker has taught me confidence.

Mr. Morris has taught me humility.

Mr. Waldon has tried to teach me patience, although, I still don’t have any.

Mr. Childress has taught me unconditional love and acceptance.

Mr. Sandlin has taught me the value of friendship.

When we started our year, we made a den flag. Leave no Trace… leave nothing but footprints. I knew I would be awarding it to one of my scouts at the end of the year. I was going to give it to the young man who best embodied what Scouts means. And it was a tough decision. But a couple of weeks ago, while we were preparing to work on our softball belt loop, a couple of the boys were messing around, not listening to me as usual. And one of them fell off the bleachers and landed on his arm. While were waiting on his Mom to come pick him up and take him to the doctor, with tears streaming down his face, he said “But Ms. Jen, I just want to play softball with my scouts.” He hurt his arm, but all he wanted was to play with his scouts. So it my great privilege to present our den flag to Mr. Trey Sandlin.

Leave No Trace Banner

For our Leave No Trace Banner/Poster we decided to let the boys walk through paint with their bare feet. Let me say, the boys LOVED it! The concept behind our banner is that when you leave nothing but footprints, eventually your footprints will fade away, but what you leave behind (such as trash) will not.

The boys will be signing the poster and then we will be taking pictures on our service project tonight... a hike with a trash pick up on a frequented trail.

Also... for additional fun, be sure to check into Geocaching. It's on online "treasure hunt". I happen to know that there are "caches" on the trail, so we'll be introducing the boys to that fun activity as well!

Emergency Preparedness Awareness Award

With Spring weather being so unpredictable this year, I thought now would be a good time to work on the Emergency Preparedness Award.

The requirements are different for each cub scout level, however the guidelines for all scouts can be found at http://www.scouting.org/Media/Publications/EmergencyPreparedness/award.aspx

For Wolf Den:

1. Complete Wolf Cub Scout Achievement 9*—Be Safe at Home and on the Street. This is a check of your home to keep it safe.
2. Complete Wolf Cub Scout Elective 16*—Family Alert. This elective is about designing a plan for your home and family in case an emergency takes place.
3. With your parent or guardian's help, complete one of the following activities that you have not already completed for this award as a Tiger Cub:
   • Take American Red Cross Basic Aid Training (BAT) to learn emergency skills and care for choking, wounds, nose bleeds, falls, and animal bites. This course includes responses for fire safety, poisoning, water accidents, substance abuse, and more.
   • Make a presentation to your family on what you have learned about preparing for emergencies.
   • Join a Safe Kids program such as McGruff Child Identification program. Put on a training program for your family or den on stranger awareness, Internet safety, or safety at home.

I found great resources on the following websites to help with this program:
*
If you want to buy kits:
http://www.mcgruff-safe-kids.com/boyscouts/mcgruff-identification-kit.html
*
If you want to make your own:
Internet Safety, Stranger Abduction, Gun Safety
http://www.fbi.gov/kids/k5th/safety2.htm
*
Finger Print Kits
http://www.fbi.gov/kids/k5th/fingerprintcard.htm
*
Emergency Preparedness
http://www.ready.gov/kids/home.html

Web Rangers

I stumbled upon this fun website for kids while planning our upcoming family camping trip. It's a National Park Service site for kids. http://www.webrangers.us/index.cfm

Perfect for the upcoming May theme of Leave No Trace. The website is full of fun activities and a "virtual patch blanket". Activities range from easy to difficult and include lots of activities that Scouts do, such as recycling, be safe in the parks, artifacts, dinosaurs, maps, and all sorts of other fun things to do. When they complete all of the activities, the National Park Service will send them a patch! And we are all about the patches!

Definately worth checking into!

New BSA Family Program

There is a new BSA Family Program. They have taken the old program and revamped it into a 5 part program. You can earn patches and pins for completing 2 activities in each of the 5 sections.

• Shaping your Families Identity
• Developing Personal Skills
• Building a Family Team
• Connecting with your Community
• Facing Family Challenges

You can create a fun summer program while keeping your scouts engaged this Summer.

Tie it Right Elective 17

We are doing all of Elective Chapter 17 in one den meeting. We are setting up stations and having the boys move from one station to another upon successful completion of each activity.

Elective 17A~ Tie a knot
Elective 17B~ Tie your shoes
Elective 17C~ Wrap and tie a package
Elective 17D~ Tie a stack of newspapers
Elective 17E~ Tie two cords together
Elective 17F~ Tie a neck tie
Elective 17G~ Whip a rope

Dinosaur Footprints

We are making "dinosaur footprints" next week as part of Jurassic Pack theme. Concrete stepping stones are an easy and fun project for the boys.

What you'll need:

• Bag or box of dry concrete
• water
• decorative stones or mosaic tiles
• paint sticks
• small containers such as small trach bins (for mixing cement)
• WD40
• water catching plant trays (approx 10-12 inches)

You will mix the concrete and the water in the small containers with your paint sticks. Prep your plant trays with WD40 so that when the molds are dry, the stepping stone will pop out easily. Once you add your cement to your trays allow the boys to decorate with hand prints, foot prints, rocks, tiles, etc.

Instant fun activity! And it will keep forever!

Go Out and Play!

One of our parents is the Asst. Coach of a girls softball team. They arranged for our cubs to attend the practice, practice with the girls and then play a little scrimmage against them. It was so much fun. The weather is nice and you probably have some sports parents in your den or pack. Take advantage of this resource and earn some belt loops! It makes for a super fun den meeting and as a leader you actually get to sit back and play with the boys instead of leading them.

Softball Belt Loop Requirements:

• Expain the rules of the game to your leader/adult partner.
• Practice 30 minutes of softball skills
• Participate in a softball game

Geology Belt Loop

With this months theme of Jurassic Pack we worked on the Geology belt loop. There is a great resource to teach kids the rock cycle, the different types of rocks and minerals. http://library.thinkquest.org/J002289/cycle.html. It gives you every thing you need to know to walk through this belt loop.

I made this activity a game and it was meant to be more like final Jeoporday, but ended up more like poker... but the boys really loved it. I gave them all 5 dinosaur tattoos. I would then read to them something about rocks, minerals, rock cycle, etc and let them wager how many tattoos they wanted. If they got the answer right, I matched the tattoos and if they got it wrong, I took the tattoos. Wow, did those boys pay attention! They did great!

Geology Belt Loop Requirements:

• Define Geology
• Collect a sample of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks and explain how they are formed.
• Expain the difference between a rock and a mineral.

I went to the used book store and bought geology picture books since I didn't have access to actual rock samples. And you can find flash cards with sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks as well.

We wrapped up the activity by breaking geodes. That was so awesome! Some of them were solid crystal and others were hollow and had lots of individual crystals, but the boys had a blast! I highly recommend that activity!

I got the tattoos and the geodes from http://www.orientaltrading.com/

Language and Culture Belt Loop

The Landguage and Culture Belt Loop works great with this months American ABC's theme and you can work in Elective credit as well!

You can work in the following Electives:

• Elective 22A~ Say hello in a different language
• Elective 1C~ Write your name in sign language
• Elective 1D~ Indian Sign Language
  

For the Language and Culture Belt Loop:

• Talk to someone who grew up in a different country than you did
• Learn 10 words in a different language (Elective 22B~ Counting in a different language)
• Play 2 games that originated in another country (Mahjong, Mankala)