Musical Instruments for Wolf and Bear Adventures

To complete an optional adventure, Wolves are to make a homemade wind instrument and Bears are to make a drum, sistrum (Egyptian rattle), mbira (African thumb piano), and rain stick. Here are instructions to make all of them.

The total price will depend on what you
already have on hand and what you need to
purchase. I have many of the purchase
prices listed with the materials needed for
each type of instrument. After the title of
each instrument I have put in parenthesis
the actual individual price for making that
instrument for one cub.

I am  not big into arts and crafts.  When I need to do them with cubs, I teach, guide, and assist as needed, but I would rather move on to the next project for them to earn more awards than give them time to decorate in our meeting.  However, in preparation for teaching this class to other cub scout leaders, I took different colored electrical tape and wrapped them around my paper towel tube rain stick then added a leather lacing with a feather hanging on the end.  Surprise!! I now see the value in decorating! My heart wasn’t into it … I didn’t even make sure it looked perfect, but I am so proud of it! Even more proud than the other instruments that I didn’t decorate. When I am finished with them, the other instruments will be no problem to disassemble, but I admit that I will have a difficult time letting go of my decorated cardboard tube with foil and beans, and I am a lot more likely to pick it up to play with it for fun or to show to somebody. The moral: Let them decorate! They’ll take ownership and are more likely to actually get use from it after they get home!

Easy Car Derby Slide

Go to AkelasCouncil.blogspot.com for instructions to this easy neckerchief slide that your cubs can make themselves.  Other neckerchief slide instructions available at the same blogspot, as well.

November - Citizenship Slide and Poem

This Uncle Sam Pin was found at familyfun.com.  Rather than a pin, glue a ring on the back for a neckerchief slide!         -thank you, GSLC District 28 RT for both of these ideas

Uncle Sam Pin (or Neckerchief Slide)

Total Time 1 Hour Ages All Ages
Pin on a patriotic face that's sure to stand out in any Fourth of July crowd.

What you'll need

• White craft foam
• Scissors
• Markers
• Wooden craft spoon
• Googly eyes
• Cotton balls
• Glue
• Self-adhesive pinback
  

How to make it

1. To make one, cut out a basic Uncle Sam-style hat (about 2 inches tall and 1 inch wide) from white craft foam.
   
2. Use markers to color the brim blue and to draw red stripes on the top.
   
3. Glue the hat to the handle of a wooden craft spoon (if necessary, first use scissors to trim the wooden handle so that it's shorter than the hat).
   
4. Glue on googly eyes and a cotton ball beard, then draw on a small L-shaped nose.
   
5. Attach a self-adhesive pinback (sold at many craft and bead stores), and your Uncle Sam pin is ready to wear.
   

Leader's Minute
One song can spark a moment,
one flower can wake the dream.
One tree can start a forest,
one bird can herald spring.
One vote can change a nation,
one sunbeam lights a room.
One candle wipes out darkness,
one laugh will conquer gloom.
One step must start each journey,
one word must start a prayer.
One hope will raise our spirits,
one touch can show we care.
One voice can speak with wisdom,
one heart can know what’s true.
One life can make a difference,
that difference starts with you.

Cub Visor Craft

I will be completely honest.  I found this picture on an internet image board.  I don't know where it came from, but I think it is a marvelous idea (probably because it's simple enough that even I could do this).  You could have the boys trace around a pattern onto craft foam, cut out, and glue onto a blue plastic or foam visor, which you can find online for 80 cents to $1.

I'm thinking to do this as a Pack activity just for fun and to kick off summer or before a water carnival or Scout Expo (Scout-A-Rama).

Wolf 9: Let's Have A Party! (as a party hat)
Wolf Arrowpoint 3: a. Make something useful for home

Bears:  In anticipation and preparation for a hike, neighborhood clean-up, family outdoor adventure, or gardening.  You could also have it be an invitation, if you tape meeting info under the visor.

Webelos Craftsman #4: Make four useful items using materials other than wood

Space-Themed Blue & Gold Banquet Ideas

I found a bunch of neat ideas and links regarding Space.  This is the collection of what I found.

If you live in Utah County or Salt Lake County, Dr. Aaron Orullian is a NASA affiliate representative and presents fantastic presentations!  He loves to talk to groups of any age, school-age to adult, and he doesn't charge!  What he teaches is classified as public information, but the public doesn't generally have access to his information.  Email Dr. Orullian and schedule him as your guest speaker.  You'll be delighted you did! "AARON ORULLIAN" <orupsyd2000@msn.com>,

Short film on keeping clean in space (watch this before clicking on TowTabs)
In place of napkins: TowTabs (Dehydrated towels in tab form) 120 individually wrapped for $24

Centerpieces:
Paper mache' balloons painted as planets

Saturn table decoration (pictured to the left)

Space napkin rings (pictured to the right)

Attire:  Wear black and tape stars cut out of aluminum foil on your shirt


  
Activities & Games:
Space station team running game
Make Gingerbread Robots
Paint donut holes into little planets with food coloring
Color and cut to make a mosaic robot puzzle
Star Finder by the month, a constellation-themed cootie catcher
Film Canister Rocket Must be done outside.  Quick assembly and exciting!

Food:
TANG, the powdered drink invented for the NASA Space program
Use Pop Rocks in/on something
Moon Balls (little cheese balls)
Crater Taters (potato bar)
Flying Saucer pizza
Little Dipper chicken nuggets
Blast-off Gelatine
Asteroid chips
Asteroid Potatoes  (Asteroids you can eat, made from mashed potatoes)
Ham Sandwich Rocket (second from the bottom on the page I'm linking you to)
Colored Star Cookies that can teach that stars have colors and what they mean



Song: Planets Go Spinning (tune: When Johnny Comes Marching Home)

Star Ceremonies: Opening (flag) Ceremony, Advancement Ceremony, and Cubmaster Minute

More ideas: from NASA for Cub Scouts, specifically for passing off rank achievements

Make a Nanorover

"Make a balloon-powered Nanorover!  NASA built a tiny rover just a couple of inches high to explore the surface of an asteroid and take pictures."

"You can build a nanorover too. Try this one, made from three styrofoam meat trays."
  
"This project is a little bit hard, so you might want to ask a grown-up or big brother or sister to do it with you."

Crafts demonstrated at January Roundtable

Hovercraft Time Capsules Spinners

Neckerchief slides

How can you go from this:

To this:

Wanna know? I’ll show you how.

Step one: drink a LOT of milk.

Step two: cut the handle off of the milk container.

Step three: cut the handle into smaller chunks.

Step four: find anything that looks like it would make a fun neckerchief slide.

Step five: GLUE!!! Hot glue will work in a pinch but tends to just snap off once it has hardened. I’ve had great success with E-6000. It’s a craft glue found in the craft section at most stores. I got mine at Walmart.

Step six: wear them. Look cool. Admire your huge collection. Have others jealous of how cool your slides are.

What to do with those Apple Spice Junction Lunch Boxes

Jumping Beans

One of the boys' favorite activities at Day Camp this year (2011) was making and playing with homemade jumping bean toys. It is easy and quick to make and funny to watch its eratic movements. Have fun with one rolling around your hand or race them down an incline. The secret is the ordinary marble you place on the inside of the paper or foil bean.

Neckerchief Slides

You can never have too many neckerchief slides! Anything can be a neckerchief slide in an emergancy: a metal washer, a wire twist tie, a rubber band, a large metal nut. However, it's fun to have fun neckerchief slides. A leader can give them out to only those who are on time, a door prize, to introduce a theme, an activity for the boys to do, a gift for a job well done or birthday, or as an award for earning 20 beads on the den doodle. Woggle World and The Slide Show are two very helpful sites about neckerchief slides in general. Woggle World has many pictures. The Slide Show has many ideas and tips, and even tells how to keep even heavy slides from falling off. imsuperbored tells how to shrink snack chip bags, but instead of making it into a keychain, attach a piece of flexible tubing to the back for a neckerchief slide.

Turk's Neck Woggle Slide (Webelos)

Known as both a Woggle and a Turk's Neck, this neckerchief slide is fascinating. It takes about a half-hour to learn for a group of adults, but once it's learned well it only takes about 5 minutes to make. Suitable for Webelos and older. Click HERE for instructions.

Pipe Cleaner Creature Craft

What a great idea. The boys will love making these and showing them off at home. Or, you could make a ring on the back with another piece of pipe cleaner for a cute neckerchief slide! Click HERE for instructions how to make these creatures out of pipe cleaners.

Cub Scout Religious Knot (LDS - Faith In God) Boondoggle

We learned at Roundtable about how one ward has incorporated Faith in God (or other religious awards) into their pack and how they are recognizing the boys so that they have more desire to work on it.

(The LDS Faith In God religious knot earned only while in cub scouts has only 7 requirements which are indicated in the Faith In God book with a tiny square knot next to the requirement, while Faith In God has many more and is earned up until their 12th birthday.)

This ward made an all white boondoggle (click here for instructions) with a loop on top big enough to fit over a scout shirt button, and 4 untied lengths at the end for stringing beads.

They picked up beads in 4 different colors to match the colors found in the Faith In God book: a purple/blue, teal/green, dark blue, and orange.

To keep the beads on, put the lace through the bottom bead, then wrap the lace back to the top of the bead and put it through the top again.

Each year, boys must complete 2 requirements in the purple, teal, and blue areas. So, whenever a boy completes a requirement, they get a colored bead to match that then goes on their boondoggle.

By the end of their first year (when they turn 9), they would ideally have all 6 beads - two of each color. By the end of their second year (when they turn 10), they would have 12 beads. By the end of their last year (when they turn 11), they would have 18 beads.

Then, when they are an 11-year old boy scout, they work on the orange requirements. There are 5 requirements total. You may want to give them one orange bead when they graduate to the 11-year old scouts so that they end up with 6 beads on each of the 4 strings.

When this is done, they earn their Faith In God award.

Please note that the Faith in God award is earned when the boy is 11. The religious square knot is earned whenever the boy completes all the requirements that have a knot after their description (there are 7 total requirements). Typically, this knot is earned when the boy is a Webelos scout.

For boys who are not LDS, you can do the same kind of thing by grouping the requirements into 4s and so forth. If you know of a faith's requirements, share them with us and we'll post them here for everyone to learn.

Secret Code Wheel

This Secret Code Wheel will help pass off: Wolf Elective 1a (It's A Secret: Use a secret code) and Webelos Communication Achievement 5. Instructions: Print wheels on white or colored paper, cut out, and connect using a paper brad. The smallest wheel and the medium wheel each have common alphabet letters, numbers, and symbols. This is so that one wheel can be turned then matched up with the other wheel for one code. For example, T can match up with K, setting all the other letters on the wheels up as a code itself. The largest wheel is for the boy to make up his own code; write new code symbols lining up with an upright letter on the right side of the wheel. The picture in color includes my son's made-up code on the largeset wheel as an example of a finished project. If a boy's friend has the same wheel, the first boy writing a note to his friend could put the code at the top of the note, for instance "T=K", so that his friend can line up those letters on the wheel and decipher the note from there. Of course, in order to write in his secret code, the friend will need to have the same code on his wheel. This alphabet wheel by itself makes several systems, since A can = A or B or C or L or K, etc. If H=5, then 4WW1 7WY means GOOD JOB

February 2011 Roundtable Demos

For the quick, easy, and funny Emergency Alert System skit, press skit. For instructions how to make this attractive wax paper lantern, click lantern.

April Roundtable Craft Idea- Fruit and Vegetable Prints

Use fruits and vegetables to create exciting prints on paper or fabric. Make fun random prints or combine them to create interesting images.

Go here for instructions.

Some more Roundtable Pics - April 2011

Here's a few more pics from Roundtable. Each shows an idea presented by highly creative and imaginative contributors!

In the "Olympics" theme, here are some "events." Roll a hoola-hoop and see if you can throw beanbags through it as it rolls. Create marshmallow "guns" and see who can shoot farther or more accurately. Race in a fun plunger kayak race! A great Mother's Day gift! A bouquet of strawberries on a skewer. One has a slice in the top with a marshmallow inside.

Eggheads & Strawberries

Great ideas for presenting awards and for treats.

Marshmallow Teeth instructions Thank you to everyone who shares their ideas at Roundtable!

March 2011 RT

These are pictures from Roundtable in March.

Sharing the Cubbies & Scrapbook pages.

The pages can be viewed in the album shared at every RT.

These are the items each Stake made during the Gathering Activity.

(Sorry, I can't remember which stake is which)

Stake Flags

Craft Time

Awesome CampFire Crafts

Click on the pictures to go to the link with instructions.