Akela's Cubs: February 2009

Saturday, February 28, 2009

The Wizz of the Weaver - 27th Feb 2009

We are THRILLED to have a new leader join us!

Raksha was invested on Friday - welcome to 9th Benoni - we know you will love being with us!

Our ADC investing Raksha.

Weavers are busy little birds with the male always building nests to his mate's specifications! So he is always on the lookout for nesting materials.
Here the cubs had pieces of wool stuck in belt loops and on the word 'go' ran around picking up whatever nesting material (wool from others) they could find. At the end the 'bird' with the most nesting material was the winner.

We brought up into our groups and here the Cheetahs are learning knotting.

While our Lions learnt time.

Raksha is using a fun way of teaching the 24 hour clock.

Our Revision Game was the simple reef knot.

In relay formation cubs ran up tied a reed knot with the piece of rope they had and after a specified time, the Six with the longest rope was the winner.

Raksha giving a helping hand.

Our Dad Helper showing how its done

Rikki giving some support

We did the Recycling Interest Badge and each cub had to bring 3 recycled items from home. Here one of the cubs have a bird feeder made from a cold drink box, a bullet shell that is being used to hold paint-brushed and a railway sleeper made into a key holder.

As part of the Recycling Badge, each cub had to make an item from material that would normally be thrown away. They had to make something useful.

Each cub made their own skipping rope from 500ml cold drink bottles.

For further details, take a look at

Crafts for Creative Hands

They also had to learn about a company that did recycling. Here Raksha is telling them about Mondi Paper Recyclers.

The facinating thing is that she is describing how paper is made 'in pictures' by starting with the chopping of the trees and ending with what all paper can be used for.

We said goodbye to 3 of our cubs today and had the 'going up' ceremony.

Here one of them is being invested into Scouts straight after they openened.

Getting ready to be a scout!

Good Luck to all 3 of the cubs - we know you will have lots of fun!

The 3rd cub will be invested within the next few weeks.

Till next Time

Keep Cubbing

Akela Joy

Monday, February 23, 2009

Pirate District Camp - 20th February 2008

What a lot of fun we had!

40 cubs and 11 leaders on the Pirate District Camp

at Arrowe Park in Benoni.

This is 4th Benoni in their Air Scouts uniform.

1st Benoni are Sea Scouts.

6th Benoni are land scouts

... and we had cubs from another district join us as well.

We arrived on Friday afternoon and after opening, it was time to get the tents up!

Cubs were then allocated their team mates and put into groups.

Their names were:

* Walker D Plank

* Black Beard

* Buccaneers

* Privateers

*Calico Jack

A bit of refreshment and sustenance was in order before they all got to work!

Each group was given a flag to decorate.

The final product

We actually had 5 bases.

At this table they were making their head gear and eye patches.

Very fashionable!

At this table they were making their sashes. These were pieces of material approximately 1.5 meters long by about 15 cm wide. At the end the material was cub into stips of approximately 1.5 cm thick. Onto these strips, gold painted pasta was threaded and finished off with a big brown bead. This was very striking.

Here they were making their weapons.

Another group finished their flag!

WIP

A real pirate - even with lose tooth!
This is a good photo to look at the painted pasta and bead at the end of the sash.

A weapon of choice!

Getting the gear ready!

Pirate in Action

Their very own pirate flag.

Cool Dude!

Kitted out...

Once the bases were completed it was time to decorate their pirate ships!

Each ship had port holes and we inserted cable ties as handles so that the ship could "sail the merry seas"

The cubs could not wait to have the pirate war that decorating the ships was forgotten!

At the end of the camp, a few of the cubs said this was the hi-light for them!

As you can see they had tremendous fun!

Ahoy - I see land!

Captain of the ship

????????

oh no - this was Gunpowder Gertie!

and this was the Captain!

Captain Kitty the Corruptable!

Rise and Shine

PT for Pirates

Delicous breakfast for all the hungry pirates

chilling out

Guarder of the Flag

Taking it easy

We again spit up into bases.

Here they made canons and had to shoot little paper cutouts.

Doing a bit of compass work!

Wow! treasure at last!

the distric flag

Making their very own pirate ship from polystyrene trays

The Pirate Games

Three legged race!

This was a great game!

Cubs in relay formation with a bucket of water and a cup. Opposite each cub stands another cub holding another bucket. The first cub scoops water, takes a step forward and throws it into the awaiting bucket. 2nd cub puts bucket down and runs to back of line. 1st cub now holds 'catching' bucket .... and continue until time is up.

Akela then measure who has the most water.

Akela measuring the water.

..... and then the Balloon Bust Bonanza!

As part of one of the bases, we made fishing rods from the bamboo that grows in Arrowe Park. This is s very simple activity and yet the cubs thoroughly enjoy it.