Friday, January 27, 2012

Race Car Blue and Gold

I came across this party idea that can be adapted to a Blue and Gold Race Car theme/Pinewood derby theme:
Invitations
casa della tires - leaning tower of tyres use mini chocolate dipped doughnuts to see who can stack the most tyres without it falling.
Ramone's Body Shop Face Painting or temporary tattoos. Piston Cup Bean Bag Toss
This is cute, use an child's race car track as your display for the cupcakes Cool Decoration Ideas: I love the black plastic race track and the white masking tape is an amazing touch. you can buy the pint sized cones from the local sports store they use them for football training.
go to your local car accessories shop and they will glad give you there empty packaging.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

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."

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Luau Blue & Gold Banquet

This year the Banquet responsibilities were assigned according to what could pass off rank requirements or electives:

WOLF:
A12f  Make a poster for a Cub Scout project or a pack meeting
E9a    Help with a party: Planning the party, scenery, decorate/setup the room, serve the food, and clean up.

BEAR: (details below)
9a,b,c Make cookies, snack, and a dinner side dish
15b,c  Play two organized games with your den and select a game that your den has never played. Explain the rules. Tell them how to play it, and then play it with them.
18d  Write an invitation to someone
24d   Tell two people they have done a good job (make a thank you note)

WEBELOS:
Craftsman - to make 4 useful things (non-wood) each out of different material: Centerpieces for the tables (*volcano centerpiece, *tiki hut centerpiece, *big feather palm tree centerpiece, *paper palm tree centerpiece, *totems by decorating cereal and oatmeal boxes with faces, *coconut boats by halving coconuts and make a sail by gluing a construction paper triangle to a bamboo skewer, *turn a pineapple into a candle holder, palm tree, or flower vase)  and to make paper leis that they can place around the necks as people arrive with an "aloha"... in other words our greeters.

As a SKIT: All cubs will perform the Haka. (Can be found under the "Songs" tag.)


BEARS, Continuted from above:

I was looking for an invitation for Polynesia that looked masculine for the boys to make.  What I came up with was a Tiki Totem (made with an empty toilet paper roll).

1. I drew out the size rectangle on a piece of paper that would be needed to wrap around an empty t.p. roll, 5 1/2 inches by about 4 1/4 inches.  Two fit on one 8 1/2 x 11 paper. Then I searched Tiki Totem patterns.  Once I found a pattern I liked, I clicked on the picture to make it big on my screen, then I traced it onto typing paper inside the designated rectangle and filled in the pattern to the ends of the rectangle.

2. I traced over my lines with a black sharpie to make the lines crisp and easily seen.  Then I photocopied onto tan paper, since the totems were made out of wood.  When the boys cut out the rectangles, they left a 1/2 inch to the side so that they could overlap the paper when they wrapped it around the t.p. roll to glue it.

3.  I made a 1 1/2 inch slit in the mouths for the tongue.  I typed all the invitation information onto paper to fit within the 1 1/2 inch wide tongue, and printed it on pink paper.  The boys glued the tongue into the mouth before wrapping the rectangle around the t.p. roll.

For the activities:

Surfing: a surf board with a dad on each end to hold while boys attempt "surfing" with dads moving the surf board around... mattress underneath of course.

Tititorea: Click Maori stick game and Tititoria (the game starts at 0:37) to watch - a rhythm game challenge with a partner from New Zealand. To keep the sticks light-ish, we will use lenths of PVC pipe.

'Ulumaika: Similar to bowling, this game (pictured above) used to be played with slices of green breadfruit called ulu or round disc rocks rolled between wooden stakes outdoors in the grass, but it can be played indoors by rolling a tennis ball between two 2-liter soda bottles full of water.

Limbo: We just happen to have 6-ft bamboo sticks at our house, so I'll use them, but you could use a length of wide ribbon or a broomstick or PVC pipe.

Your Hawaiian Name:  The Hawaiian alphabet has 13 letters: five vowels (long and short: A, E, I, O, U) and eight consonants: H, K, L, M, N, P, W, and one being a glottal stop shown as ' (called 'okina in Hawaiian).  All Hawaiian word end with a vowel.  Write your first name as close as you can with only these letters and ending with a vowel, then wear it on your name tag.

CookiesPolynesian Cookies  (one recipe suggested the nuts are optional)
 OR         Crispy Coconut-Oatmeal Cookies
SnacksPolynesian Snack Mix
 OR        Tiki Snack Mix
Side DishesHawaiian Baked Beans
 OR        Pineapple Fried Rice with Ham

CUBMASTER:   I will give each boy receiving any award a lei with the awards attached and say "Ho'omaika'i", which is "Congratulations" in Hawaiian. I'll have the mother's pin on a lei also, and have the boys put the lei on their mom.  Click Polynesian Cub Scout Rank Advancement Ceremonies for the ceremonies I actually plan on carrying out. Here are some more Hawaiian words if you'd like to find ways in your ceremonies or evening to use them.  This is My Aloha Ceremonies that I am actually going to use tonight at our Blue & Gold, if you want a peak and it can help you in some way.
     For ceremonial decorations:  I will use cardboard tubes from the middle of new carpet rolls (from Home Depot, Lowes, and Ogden Carpet or any carpet company) to make the posts for a hut, and I'll make big palm or banana leaves out of green butcher paper (or maybe I'll get light tan and cut it in strips for a grass hut) for the lean-to-type one-slant roof. [I ended up renting two green grass table skirts from Royal R Rentals in Lehi for $1 each, folded them, and laid them and taped them across the roofing, which was a cardboard frame and plastic covering.] Of course, the leaves or grass will need to have plastic or a frame structure for it to be tacked to. It's still a thought in process. I have a plastic bamboo-print table cloth.  I will put this on the ground, covering a folded blanket used for padding, and have the cub scouts kneel on it.
   
    



Monday, January 23, 2012

Worst Case Scenario Game


Clever game!  Found at strongarmor.blogspot.com.

This is based off the game from the store, but I made up cards that address the "Be Ready" requirements in the Bear Book for Achievement 11. The correct answers are in bold on the cards and there can be more than one right answer. We used the actual playing pieces, die and game board from the real "Worst Case Scenario Survival Game" but you could make your own simple board.

To play, before you read the card, have the person whose turn it is roll the die. Someone then reads that person the information on the card. If the person guesses the right answer(s) they get to move ahead however many spaces they rolled on the die. Take turns with however many players you have or you can make two team to make it simple.  Click GAME CARDS for the questions.

I could not print the cards large enough and clear enough to read, so I retyped Strong Armor's game questions, which you can download and print from HERE. Have the kids roll a die to determine how many spaces to move when they've answered the question (with hints and help, if necessary).  Use any game board and markers, or draw one up yourself.  Just read the questions in order.

Haka

There are several Hakas. Originates from the Maori in New Zealand.  Famous internationally because of the rugby team All Blacks.  Several USA rugby and football teams have adopted this tradition.  Meant to welcome, challenge, promise, intimidate, and honor.

There's a whole story behind the words, which you can listen to HERE.
THIS is a rugby team performing the Haka that is closest to what we learned at Roundtable Jan. 2012.( Start at the middle of the video.... 0:31.)
Here is a TUTORIAL, which brings the speed down quite a bit for learning.

The Haka is generally performed by men, but both women and children perform it as well, and they look just as intimidating, especially when they widen their eyes, jerk their movements, and lay out their tongue down to their chin!

To honor this ceremony, perform the Haka strong, fierce, intimidating.  This actually is a message that communicates, "We promise to respect you by playing our very best game!" Here are a couple boys who give tips how to DO IT WITHOUT A SMILE!

The words we learned, and their meaning:

Ka Mate! Ka Mate! Ka Ora! Ka Ora!
I die! I die! I live! I live!
Ka Mate! Ka Mate! Ka Ora! Ka Ora!
I die! I die! I live! I live!
Teneite tangata puru puhuru
This is the hairy man
Nana nei tiki mai
Who fetched the Sun
Whakawhiti te ra
And caused it to shine again
Aupane, Aupane
One upward step, One upward step,
Aupana K’aupane
An upward step, Another upward step
Whiti te ra
The Sun shines!
Hi

*It appears that the "wh" is pronounced like "ff"

Cake Contest Awards

Many packs have a tradition of a Cub w/Mom or Cub w/ Dad cake contest for the Blue & Gold Banquet in February, with the cakes being displayed, voted, judged, awarded, and then eaten for dessert.  It's hard, sometimes, to come up with awards for each cake.  Click HERE for a PDF with 32 prize ribbons to print and award. (Thank you burlapanddenim.com!)

Sunday, January 22, 2012

March - Compassion

Starting this month, at Roundtable we are previewing the Value of the Month 1 1/2 months ahead.  Therefore, being January, we previewed March's Value: Compassion.  Here are the handouts for Compassion Activities, Compassion Outings, Opening and Closing Ceremonies about walking in someone else's shoes, and Advancement Ceremonies to keep with the Shoe theme.