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!