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!

Make It Move, Day 2

THIS WEEK'S REQUIREMENT(S) MET: Make It Move, Requirements 2, 3, and started 4 (4 will be completed at home this week and discussed at the meeting next week).

Tonight we continued our Make It Move! requirement, and the boys had a great time working together to learn about pulleys, levers, and Rube Goldberg machines. It was fun to see how they all worked together!

We started by operating 1 pulley to lift a book. How does this thing work?

There we go...

Success!

Next we worked as a group to use 2 pulleys horizontally to pass a message from one end to another. I gave them the supplies, and they had to figure out how to construct their pulley system. They did a fantastic job working together!

Then we tried 3 pulleys together to see how much easier it makes it to lift objects!

Finally, we learned about levers and how we can use them to make it easier to lift heavier objects. The boys worked in pairs to build their own levers.

At the end of the meeting, we watched a short video example of a Rube Goldberg machine called "The Page Turner." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOMIBdM6N7Q. Be sure to ask your scout what he has learned about these types of machines -- they are so much fun to see! The boys will need to complete Requirement 4A at home this week and bring it completed to the meeting next Thursday (see page 216 in the handbook for more information). For this requirement, they just come up with a simple task (opening a door, dropping a ball in a cup, ringing a bell, etc.) and draw a design that would complete this task in AT LEAST 6 steps. They'll share their designs next week at the meeting. (They are NOT expected to build them -- just draw them).

Next week will be exciting -- we will be completing the adventure with requirement 4B, where the boys use materials from around the house to build a Rube Goldberg-type machine together! Please encourage your scout to bring some materials from home that we can use in our machine...things like paper towel rolls, marbles, cups, etc. The more they have to choose from, the more they can use their imaginations to create an amazing machine! :)

And a BIG thank you to all the scouts for remembering to bring their handbooks this week!!!

See you all next week!