Pack 969 Holiday Party!

REQUIREMENT(S) MET: None tonight -- just to have a great time!

Tonight was a FUN night! We had our holiday party, and it was a blast! We started off in the gym with our gift exchange. Then we moved on to the snowman wrapping challenge. Our den chose to decorate Kaiden, and our den won the decorating contest -- way to go, boys! :) After that, we moved into the cafeteria for the cookie exchange. It turned into more of a cookie sampling, as everyone just took a plate of cookies and ate them on the spot -- there were some delicious cookies there! Finally, we finished up with the pie toss. For every $300 a scout sold in popcorn this fall, he got to smash one pie into a leader's face. Our Pack as a whole earned 37 pies to throw!!! I think everyone had fun with this event... :)

Look at this fun crew!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday break -- I can't wait to see you back again in January!

December 8, 2016 - Whittling Chip/Bear Claws, Day 2

REQUIREMENT(S) MET: Bear Claws Requirements 2, 3 (started)

Well, after a few weeks off from regular meetings, it was time to continue our Bear Claws required badge.

To start the meeting off, we had a couple Scouts who had created posters for the Critter Care elective belt loop. Ayden shared his poster that he made about his time with our den hamster, Scout, and Ansel made a poster to share about his toads that he has at home. They both did a great job!

After we had our sharing time, we did some review of knives and knife safety. Since we had earned our Whittling Chips back in November, it was good to go over the information again. The boys did a fantastic job of remembering everything! Then it was on to our first carving! We started on our Ivory soap carvings -- for these, the boys are using 3 popsicle stick tools they were given. This lets them practice the motions of carving without having to worry about cutting themselves. They traced their designs first, then started carving. It's fun to see the different shapes they decided to try their hands at! 

We didn't have enough time to finish these carvings in the meeting, so the boys are to finish them at home and then bring the carvings and the carving tools back with them to the first meeting after the New Year. I'm excited to see how they all turn out! To finish this adventure, at our next regular den meeting we will be carving a piece of balsa wood. This will finish requirement 2 and complete the required adventure!

December 1, 2016 - No meeting

~Meeting cancelled for Holiday Fair at Lukas Elementary~

November 24, 2016 - No meeting

No meeting this week -- Happy Thanksgiving! :)

November 17, 2016 - SPACE DERBY!

Oops! It's been awhile since I have posted...I will try to catch up here!

REQUIREMENT(S) MET: N/A - Just fun! :)

November 17th was our Space Derby! The boys each built their own space derby rocket, and then we took turns racing them on the fishing line track we had set up. The boys were so patient while we worked out all the kinks. It was fun to see all their different designs!

Kaiden got to take home Scout for the next 2-week run. Look at that excited smile! :)

Whittling Chip/Bear Claws, Day 1

Requirement(s) Met: Whittling Chip (earned), Requirements 1, 2, and 4, and Bear Claws, Requirement 1, 2

After much anticipation, we have started the Bear Claws adventure! We started this adventure off by earning our Whittling Chip tonight! Admittedly, there was a lot of talking tonight, but we were going over all the safety rules with knives and how to correctly hand a knife to/receive a knife from someone, learning about different types of knives, and learning how to sharpen knives. There was a lot of information, but the boys did GREAT! They asked lots of good questions, and proved themselves to be very responsible. We'll continue our Bear Claws with the boys whittling their first items when we return from Thanksgiving!

Practicing safely handing a knife to someone else

The boys taking their Whittling Chip Pledge

If your Scout would like to bring his own pocketknife to the meeting on 12/1, please make sure that it is a locking knife, meaning that the blade locks into place and they have to push a button of some sort to fold the knife back up again. I will try to have a couple extra knives, but I don't have enough for everyone. I actually found a locking pocketknife at Wal-Mart in the camping section for less than $2. It isn't the best knife out there, but it works perfectly for whittling!

Again -- thanks to all the boys (and their parents) for remembering to bring their handbooks this week!

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at the Space Derby next week -- don't forget to have your scout bring his completed Space Derby Rocket with him!

A few upcoming dates:

• This Saturday, 11/12 at 9 am: Pick up food for our Pack's Scouting for Food event (Meet at the Totem Pole park)
• Thursday, 11/17: Awards Ceremony (be sure to wear your Class-A uniform) and Space Derby!
• Thursday, 11/24: No meeting -- Happy Thanksgiving!
• Thursday, 12/1: Bear Claws meeting -- the boys are encouraged to bring their own pocketknife to the meeting (be sure to remind them they have to have their Whittling Chip in hand if they will be bringing/using a knife in the meeting).
  

Grin and Bear It and Critter Care!

Requirement(s) Met: Grin and Bear It, Requirement 4 and Critter Care Requirements 5 and 6

We had a busy week this week! We started off with a review of the Carnival last week. We talked about what worked, what didn't, and what changes we would recommend for next year's carnival. The boys had some really insightful ideas about the changes they would like to see made!

We then moved on to Critter Care! This is an elective adventure that the scouts can choose to participate in or not. We completed Requirements 5 and 6 together tonight in the meeting. Requirements 1 - 4 are to be completed at home either with a family pet or your Scout can (with adult approval) sign up to take home our den mascot, Scout, for a 2-week period. Requirement 7 is an outing that we will take to a local vet's office or animal shelter (TBD) later in the year.

We started out by playing a "What's My Animal?" game where the boys had a picture of an animal attached to their backs and they had to walk around and get clues about what their animal was. It was fun to watch the boys try to figure out their animals!

Then we talked about the ways animals help people (Requirement 5) and wrote down some ideas in our books. We also read about rabid animals in our handbooks (Requirement 6). Then we met Scout! He was being shy tonight, so we didn't really get to get him out and handle him, but it wasn't too surprising with all the excitement surrounding him! :) Benjamin has been taking care of Scout for the past 2 weeks, so he completed a poster to share with the den (Requirement 3). He did a great job! Ayden is our next scout to take him home, so we'll look forward to listening to him share his poster and experiences with Scout when he brings him back in 2 weeks!

On a side note, one of our scouts asked about how to earn additional patches/belt loops at home. I will put together some different things the boys can work on and put it into a separate blog post (hopefully sometime in the coming week). It's exciting to see the boys so anxious to earn awards!

Our next adventure that we will be working on will be the Whittling Chip and Bear Claws! This is always one of the most anticipated adventures for the Bears, as it is the first time they are allowed to use a pocketknife. I'll be sending out more information on this as I get prepared for the meeting.

Also, this Saturday at 10:00 is our Scouting for Food event! Please join us at the Totem Pole Park in countryside for this fun and rewarding event! Hope to see you there!

Halloween Carnival!

Requirement(s) Met: Grin and Bear It Requirement 1, 2, 3

This past week (on October 27th), Pack 969 held its annual Halloween Carnival, and the Bears had a lot to do with planning it! The boys helped create a game for the carnival, they helped younger Scouts learn how to play the games at the beginning of the carnival, and they also created gifts for the adult helpers from the carnival that we will be giving out at this week's meeting. We will also be talking at the beginning of our meeting about what went well, what didn't, and what we could do to improve it next year. I hope your boys had as much fun as mine did -- they both slept well that night! :)

The Rat Fling

The Rat Fling/Rat Basketball

Space Derby Ghost Race

Our game, the Ball Toss. Kids had fun with it!

 More play at the Ball Toss

Look at these hams -- we have a great group of Bears! I wish we had gotten a group shot earlier so that we could have had everyone in it!

Grin and Bear It, Day 2

Requirement(s) Met: Grin and Bear It Requirements 2, 5

We were busy this week! We had a flag ceremony (with 2 Bears representing our den carrying the flags!), awards, carnival announcements, and then a den meeting. Phew! That's a lot to fit in one hour!

We continued with Grin and Bear It tonight (we started this back in September). Tonight we had the boys work on making a game for next week's carnival. We will be doing a ball toss to knock down cans, so the boys got their creative juices flowing and each designed a can to contribute to the game.

After they finished that, they moved on to the awards table, where they each designed an award to give to the parents who have volunteered to help man a station.

Next week at the carnival, the boys will need to find me at the beginning of evening. Requirement 3 involves them helping a younger scout learn how to play a carnival game, so I will have a couple of our Bears go to each station for the first few minutes of the carnival to help our Tigers and Wolves get started. Then they will be free to check out the rest of the carnival on their own!

Next week, remember:

• All Scouts (and siblings and adults, if they choose) can wear costumes!
• Be sure to have your Scout bring a bag to collect prizes/candy in
• Bring a cake along to the carnival to contribute for a cake walk prize

It will be such a fun night -- I'm looking forward to seeing all the Scouts' costumes!

On another note, at the end of this meeting, I introduced the "Critter Care" belt loop to the boys. We have adopted a den mascot! "Scout" is a teddy-bear hamster that the boys will be able to take home for a 2-week period. I adopted him for our den so that boys who would like to work on their Critter Care elective belt loop will be able to do so, even if they don't have a pet at home. You can look in the handbook at the requirements for this belt loop, but be sure to let me know if you'd like to have your Scout care for him at some point during the year. He will come with food, clean bedding for cage cleanings, an informational pamphlet, and an exercise ball to run around in. I'll be bringing him to the meeting in 2 weeks so that the boys can meet him, learn a little bit about handling him, and talk about the requirements of the belt loop if they want to take him home. Remember -- this is an elective belt loop. Scouts are NOT required to do this one if they don't want to. You also can complete this belt loop with other animals if you already have a pet at home you'd rather do this with. I just wanted everyone to have the option if they wanted it.

"Scout" is already learning to love playing with people!

Have a great week everyone -- see you at the Carnival!

Make It Move, Day 3

Requirement(s) Met: Requirements 2, 3, 4A, 4B

This week we started by going over the Rube Goldberg designs our Scouts completed at home. It was fun to see the different ideas the boys came up with! One Scout even built his design at home!

After we talked about our different designs, the boys broke up into two groups to design and build their own Rube Goldberg machines. They used levers, pulleys, pendulums, and all kinds of combinations of simple machines to complete their task: knocking down a figurine at the end of the line.

The boys who completed all the activities from this adventure will be awarded their "Make It Move!" belt loop next week at our awards ceremony. If your Scout didn't complete his sketch at home for this week, please let me know ASAP if he will be bringing his completed design to the meeting this week so that I can make sure to get a belt loop for him, too!

Great job, Scouts!