Paws for Action, Day 1

REQUIREMENT(S) MET: Paws for Action, Req. 1 (started)

We had a small group tonight for our meeting! With the Tigers and the Webelos gone for an outing and several absent scouts, we ended up revising our plan for tonight.

We are starting our work on the required adventure, Paws for Action. One of these requirements is to learn about the United States flag. We decided to meet with the Wolves for our meeting, and we spent the first half of the meeting talking about the flag and then breaking into pairs to practice the proper way to fold a flag. The boys all did a great job!

Ansel and Cayden (a Wolf) work together to fold the flag.

Benjamin demonstrates how to properly carry a flag.

Travis and Dylan (a Wolf) did a great job folding their flag!

After the flag practice, we decided it was time to run off some energy, so we spent the last half hour playing a fun game of kickball with both dens!

    

Next week we will be having our Blue and Gold ceremony, celebrating the birthday of Scouting! We will be having a cake decorating ceremony, so if your scout would like to participate please have him decorate a Star Wars-themed cake. We'll have prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place!

As a reminder, one of the required adventures, Fellowship and Duty to God, will not be covered during regular den meetings. This is an adventure designed to be completed at home with the scout's family. I am hoping to do a service project at a local nursing home this spring, but nothing has been set in stone yet. If we are able to complete this service project then it would count toward Requirement 2A for this adventure. Each boy is certainly welcome to do another project if he'd rather.  Please let me know when your scout has completed this adventure so that I can record it in his Progress Towards Rank sheet and award it to him at the next Award Ceremony.

February 11 - PINEWOOD DERBY!!!

Pack 969's 2017 Pinewood Derby was held on Saturday, February 11th and it was an amazing day! The boys all did such a great job building their cars, and I was especially proud of how all of the scouts showed such good sportsmanship throughout the morning. They cheered on their fellow scouts, and were great sports, even if their cars didn't come in first. It was a day for the Pack to show what scouting is truly about, and the boys made us proud!

The certificates and awards on display waiting to be handed out

The cars looked impressive on display together for the "Best in Show" voting!

Getting ready for the race!

Everyone was excited to watch the cars race!

After the scouts' race, the family members who designed cars got to race, too!

Waiting to hear the names of all the winners...

Winner's Circle! We had three Bears represent our den as winners! Jackson took 3rd place for speed, Cooper took 2nd place for design, and Benjamin took 3rd place for design. Way to go, Den 6!

February 9 - Pinewood Derby Weigh-In!

Requirement(s) Met: Baloo the Builder Req. 3 and 4

Though there wasn't an official meeting tonight, the boys all came with their Pinewood Derby cars finished to get them weighed in for Saturday's big race! It was fun getting to see all the finished cars -- great job, boys! With the completion of the Pinewood Derby cars, scouts who have participated in all the meetings have officially completed the Baloo the Builder belt loop!

February 2 - Baloo the Builder, Day 2

REQUIREMENT(S) MET: Baloo the Builder Req. 1, Req. 2, and start Req. 3

We started off the meeting with our Award Ceremony where the boys were awarded the Bear Claws belt loop! We also passed our Denner award on to Travis, who was nominated by several of the boys in the Pack for being so responsible, helpful, and always demonstrating the Scout Law!

After the awards, we moved into the cafeteria where we started working on our tool boxes. The kits were very generously donated by Home Depot, and the boys were able to use them to complete several of the requirements for Baloo the Builder. It was a fun project!

To earn this belt loop, the final requirements are that a scout needs to complete one fun project, which the Pinewood Derby car would count towards. They are also to apply a finish to one of the two projects, either the tool box or the fun project, and since the Pinewood Derby cars were all painted that counts towards the requirement. This was a fun adventure!

January 26 - NO MEETING

The meeting for January 26th was cancelled due to school conferences at Lukas Elementary.

Baloo the Builder, Day 1

REQUIREMENT(S) MET: Baloo the Builder Req. 1, Bear Claws Req. 3

Tonight we finished up our Bear Claws required belt loop by having the boys share their soap and balsa wood carvings. It was so much fun to see all the different ideas that came from the same blank bars of soap and blocks of wood! Most importantly, it sounds like the boys had fun and were safe while practicing their whittling.

We then moved on to our next adventure, Baloo the Builder! This is a natural progression as we started with whittling wood, and now we we'll move to using tools to create projects with wood.

We started with a fun game of "Akela Says" as a way of emphasizing the importance of listening when working with tools. Those boys were tough to trick! :)

For our first requirement, we talked about some different hand tools that the boys might want to have in their toolbox (Cub Scouts aren't allowed to use power tools in meetings yet). Then the boys got to experiment with all the different tools on a board. We had safety goggles, a hammer, a mallet, phillips head and flat head screwdrivers, a hand saw, a measuring tape, a level, and nails and screws. The boys did a great job and recorded the 4 tools they tried in their handbooks.

To meet the requirements of this adventure, the Scouts are to build one useful project and one fun project out of wood. The pinewood derby car will be the fun project, and we will build the useful project next week after our awards ceremony. Please have your scout bring safety goggles if he has them, as well as a small hammer. Also, the boys will need to wear uniforms since we have an awards ceremony, but they can bring an old shirt to change into as we will be working on our projects after and it might get messy.

Have a great week!

January 12, 2017 - Bear Claws Day 3

REQUIREMENT(S) MET: Bear Claws Requirements 2 and 3

Last Thursday was our first day back from the break and our first meeting of the New Year! For our meeting, we reviewed some knife safety rules and the boys got to share their soap carvings that they completed at home. It was so fun to see how the soap had taken shape for everyone!

After we finished the soap carving, the boys got to try their hands at carving balsa wood! The scouts who brought their knives with them were kind enough to share with the boys who had not so that they could try what it felt like to carve on the wood. Some stuck with it, but a lot of the boys were happy to back to carving soap again. :) Requirement 3 is that the boys complete 2 carvings, but they are welcome to do one soap and one wood or both soap -- either is fine. If they are carving wood, we talked about the fact that their carving doesn't have to have a certain shape -- it's just an opportunity for them to try their hand at different whittling techniques, such as the stop cut illustrated in their handbooks.

The boys will need to bring their completed carving to tomorrow's meeting so that they can share them with the rest of the den. That will complete their Bear Claws required adventure and they will earn the belt loop for the next award ceremony!