Tuesday, 30 April 2013

Badge Night

A fine spring evening tonight and a grand time to be outside in the fresh air. After finishing off some of the Fitness Challenge activities it was brisk game of Kick Ball. AFter that it was back to the Hall. While the hot dogs were cooking we played a few rounds of Statues.
After we ate and a completed a few more rounds of Statues, it was badge time.



All of our Cubs received their Navigators badge having completed those tasks in the past few weeks.
Most of them have also completed their Fitness Challenge. The good weather tonight let us achieve that outside. Two of the newer Cubs still have a few activities to complete before they can be awarded this one but they will have those completed in the next couple of weeks.




One of them even made the special effort of completing a badge at home and was awarded his Cycling badge.


It was also our last night for our 2 Sixers who both move up to Scouts.
Having now completed the Fitness Challenge they were both awarded their Chief Scouts Silver Award and their Moving On badges.

Tuesday, 12 February 2013

Code Readers

Had a quiet night in tonight.
We started with setting up the new sixes. Once the 2 oldest go up to scouts (tonight was their last night with us) we will have 10 in the pack so 2 sixes of 5 (if that makes sense).

We then had a little sit down and discussed the history of Lent, specifically as to how it applies to Pancake Tuesday.

Then it was a new game. 2 teams, 6 tennis balls, 4 chairs, 2 sponge balls. A cub kneels on the first chair and uses their tennis balls to try and knock the sponge ball off the other chair. They get to use their 3 balls and once they're done they replace the balls. First team to 5 wins.

After that it was off to the committee room for a spot of code breaking. We gave them a simple replacement code and had them decode a message.
Once they understood how it worked we talked about how codes can be used. We then had them encode a message. We then talked about how simple or hard a code would be. The then had to decode a message when they didn't know the cypher.

As it was pancake night we then broke for pancakes and juice.

We ended the night with badge awards. Most received their local knowledge badge. Most of the work for this was done as part of the Olympic camp, but additional tasks we done as part of Burns night.

Two new cubs were invested, along with Akela's burnt grass tradition.
In this tradition Akela takes a bunch of dried grass and lights it.


While it smoulders he has each cub being invested smell the burnt grass. He then tells them that what they smell is burnt grass and that every time from now on when they smell burnt grass they will remember their cub investure.

Tuesday, 29 January 2013

10 Pin Bowling

We had a great night bowling at the Garage in Kilmarnock.
With the leaders, we had 24 bowling which made a nice split of 4 teams.
With some excellent scores also.
After we all bowled our 10 frames we went into the adjoining Wimpy for a burger and some chips.
Fantastic fun for everyone.

Tuesday, 22 January 2013

Burns Night

We had our Burns Night tonight.
All the games were adjusted to commemorate the Bard.
We started out with the "Tam O'Shanter Terror race" which was a variation of Cub Tails followed by the "Gigantic Haggis Chase" which would normally be called Mice and Elephants tag.
We then had an alternative Burns supper. Not thinking the cubs would want haggis, neeps and tatties we had made up a sweeter version using chocolate rice krispies, vanilla ice cream and orange jelly. It went down quite well.
We then played "Escape from the Excise Man" This involves getting the team across a river to escape form the tax man, with only a single man boat and a length of rope.
We finished off with "Bucket Burns Ball"
Great night!

Tuesday, 15 January 2013

10 Pin Bowling Night

The Beavers and Cubs will be having  a 10 Pin Bowling Night on Tuesday 29th January. We have booked The Garage, Grange Street, Kilmarnock as the venue.

We would ask you to make your own way there and back.

Start time is 6:30pm and we should finish by 8.30pm.

Food and drink will be provided. There will be no charge.

If you have any transport problems, please contact:-
David (Cub Leader) 0753 030 7957
Dermot (Cub Leader) 0776 969 8225
Gillian (Beaver Leader) 0744 797 7738

New Year

Tonight was the first night back after new year and it started with 2 Beavers being welcomed into the Cub Pack.

In addition to the normal games we had a 'Thought Shower' where we had the Cubs suggest games and events for the coming session. There were some interesting ideas, some plausible, some adaptable  but I don't think we'll be bringing the pack to Spain any time soon.

We issued  a reminder to those Cubs that haven't returned their Christmas homework for the Fitness Badge that it has to be submitted soon or they won't get the badge.

Permission slips went home for our Bowling trip with the Beavers on 29 Jan. These need to be signed and returned by 22 Jan.

Tuesday, 27 November 2012

Fitness Challenge

Tonight we managed to resume the fitness challenge with the cubs.

This is a busy badge with a lot of work to be done at home as well:


  • Show how you have done your best in a sport or activity over a two-week period. This can be something new or a sport or activity you currently take part in.
  • Show how you have improved your physical fitness over a two-week period. This might include examining what you eat and improving your diet, how much exercise you take, how much sleep you get and how you might continue to improve your fitness in the future.
  • Try two new sports or physical activities at least once. For example, tennis, dance, basketball or tai chi.

We have measured their fitness level over a small number of tasks. After the Christmas break we will re-measure them and look at trends.
Exhausted after the fitness challenge
We also did some fire safety, specifically safety with matches and candles as Christmas is coming. This was done in a fun way. We had two teams running relays. The cub would approach the table and strike a match to light a candle. They would dispose of the match and then blow out the candle. Once they had the hang of lighting candles we upped the ante by having then move the candle to the other table and blowing it out there. Aspects such as the safe way to handle a box of matches, checking for hanging clothes, reaching over flames, leaving unattended flame were all addressed.