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!