WEBELOS

Fitness
National Capital Area Council

Your body is a wonderful machine.  It is much more complicated than the fanciest car or fastest computer.  But your body needs the same kind of care that experts give to machines.  What does that mean?  It means that you must give your body the right fuels in a balanced diet.  You must avoid putting harmful substances into it.  Your body needs rest and exercise, just as a car needs maintenance.  As you earn the Fitness activity badge, you will learn how to take care of the world's most wonderful machine - your own body.

Den Activities:

Invite the grade school gym teacher to your meeting.  Get to know them on a personal basis.  Why did they become a teacher?  What kind of background do they have?  What sports are they currently active in?  What do they like about teaching kids?

Invite a nurse, doctor or dentist to your den to answer questions about health.  Have boys write the questions on cards so they are anonymous.

Have your den write a skit depicting ways to say  ‘NO’ to drugs & smoking.

Have the den make a poster designed to encourage people to say "NO" to drugs & Smoking.

Have a police officer involved with drug prevention attend a den meeting. 

Have the boys interview him and ask questions concerning drugs and alcohol.

Have the boys find out what the policies are in their school about drugs and what would happen to students with drugs in their lockers, etc.

Collect newspaper and magazine articles about accidents and crimes that are drug or alcohol related.

Find out what some organizations are doing to stop use and availability of drugs, especially to, children.

Check with the BSA council for a video, "Drugs: A Deadly Game."

Speakers -- YMCA director, heath class teacher, personal trainer. coach, CPR instructor, marathon director, little league coach, gym instructor

Field Trips:

Visit the local YMCA.

Visit a local fitness club.

Activities That Will Help The Boys Understand The Harmful Effects Of Cigarette Smoking

1.  Define "pollution".  ("Pol-lu-tion:  to make unclean, impure, or corrupt; desecrate; defile; contaminate; dirty."  Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language)

2.  Discuss pollutants in the air in the outside environment.  Use pictures from magazines or newspapers.  Include: factory smoke, car exhausts, rocket launches, smoke from someone else's burning cigarette & so on.

3.  Explain how all living things need air to breath.

a.  Put a plant under an airtight container.  What begins to happen?

b.  Put ants or other insects in an airtight jar.  Give them everything else they need to survive.  What happens?  Why?  (When the ants' activity begins to decrease, open the jar and set them free.)

4.  Talk about the fact that smoking cigarettes is harmful to our health and how it "pollutes" the internal environment of our body (the lungs).

a.  Blow smoke from a cigarette through a tissue.  What did you observe?  Wouldn't that also make your lungs "dirty?"

b.  Hold your breath and have someone check the time.  Did you have to breathe very soon after you started holding your breath?

c.  Demonstrate the effects of sick or injured lungs:

(1)  Light a candle.  Ask a boy to stand a reasonable distance from the candle.  Instruct the boy to take a deep breath, and then blow out the candle.

(2)  Relight the candle.  Ask the boy to stand at the same distance from the candle.  Instruct him to take a deep breath and blow out at least half of the breath before attempting to blow out the candle.  With the breath that is left, ask the boy to blow out the candle.  What happened?

Nutrition Connection

Nutrition and fitness go hand in hand.  Teach the boys the four basic food groups and what each does for the body.

Have the boys make a poster or collage showing foods that belong in each group.  Use magazines and advertisements from the Sunday papers for these.

Let each boy make up a menu for a meal and let the other den members check it for balance.  This would be good to do for a campout menu.  They need to be balanced also.

Milk Group Fruit-Vegetable Group

Milk and Milk Products  All kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables

Cheese-Builds energy and helps your body defend

Cottage Cheese   against disease.

Ice Cream-- Builds teeth and bones

Protein Group--Bread-Cereal Group

Beans, Rice

Meat, Cereal & Grits

Fish , Bread

Peanut Butter, Flour Products

Egg, Spaghetti

Builds muscles, bones and blood. Quick energy builders, helps to make your body work better.

Gathering Activity:

Your Body - A Wonderful Machine -- Treat Your Body Right!  (Circle T for True or F for False.)

T  F   1. Smoking or chewing tobacco makes you cool.

T  F   2. Smoking can cause lung cancer and heart disease.

T  F   3. Athletes who smoke always play as long and as hard as athletes who don't smoke.

T  F   4. Smoking will not affect your eyes at all.

T  F   5. Smoking stains teeth and fingers.

T  F   6. Chewing tobacco is OK because it doesn't get into your body's organs.

T  F   7. Alcohol doesn't slow down the brain and body.

T  F   8. Alcohol can make a person see double.

T  F   9. Alcohol can make people do bad things they would never consider doing when sober.

T  F   10. Drunk drivers kill thousands of people each year.

T  F   11. All drugs, even prescription drugs, are dangerous.

T  F   12. It's OK to take someone else's medicine if you're sure you have the same illness.

T  F   13. Sniffing glue is OK to do once in a while.

T  F   14. Toxins from certain sniffing substances can affect the liver, kidneys and muscles.

T  F   15. Marijuana is OK in small amounts, but cocaine, heroin, and LSD are not.

T  F   16. Eating a cheeseburger, French fries and a soda for every lunch would be a balanced diet.

T  F   17. You should have 2 or more servings from each food group every day.

T  F   18. Your body needs vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, fat and protein to operate smoothly.

T  F   19. Rushing meals or skipping meals can be harmful to your body.

Games  Remember that any fitness program will not be sustainable unless it is fun.  Below are a few ideas for games to incorporate into your meetings.  The How-to-book, Webelos activity book as well as your local library will also give you some ideas.

Jump the Bean Bag

A small bean bag is tied on the end of a rope or heavy cord.  The leader stands in the center of the circle made up of the players facing him.  The leader swings the bean bag around the circle at ankle height.  Once a player is hit he must leave the circle.  The last player left is the winner.

A. B. C.: Two players hold the end of a rope about 10 feet long.  With rope laying flat on the ground each player jumps over the rope.  The rope is then raised about four inches high which is 'B' and every body jumps over.  Continue raising the rope four inches with each letter of the alphabet until only one player is left.

Shuttle Run:

Area and Equipment - You'll need two blocks of wood, 2 inches by 2 inches by 4 inches and a stop watch.  Mark two parallel lines on the ground 30 feet apart.  Then put the blocks of wood behind one of these lines.  The child will start from behind the other line.

Procedure:

1. The time should raise his arm and say, "Get ready!"

2. Then the timer simultaneously says ‘Go!', lowers his arm, and starts the stopwatch.

3. The Webelos Scout runs from the starting line to the blocks, which have been placed just behind the second line, He picks up one of the blocks, runs back with it to the starting line, and places the block behind the line.  The block must be placed, not thrown, on the ground.

4. Then the Webelos Scout runs back to the other One, picks up the other block, and carries it back across the starting line.

5. As the Webelos Scout crosses the starting line with the second block, the timer should stop the stopwatch.  The child's time should be calculated to the nearest tenth of a second.

6. The child should then be given a chance to do the event again.  The better of the two times will become his time for the shuttle run.

Greater St. Louis Area Council

Nutrition Test

1)       List the four basic food groups.
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2)       Explain what a balanced diet is.
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3)       What would happen to a person who ate the following foods all the time?  Kool-Aid, Fried Foods, Potato Chips, Candy!!

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Balanced Diet
Greater St. Louis Area Council

Circle the meal or meals below that are balanced.

Fitness
Greater St. Louis Area Council

1.        How would your body feel without the proper nuitrition?

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2. If you smoked tobacco for several years, what could happen?

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3. Is it a good idea for athletes to smoke? _______ 

Why or why not?  _____________________________ 

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4. Is chewing tobacco harmful to you, if so why?

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5.        If someone smokes around you, could it harm you?

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6.        Even though alcohol is legal, can it harm people?

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7.        If you answered yes to #6, how does it harm people?

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8.        If a person is drunk, whaat are some of the actions they might do?

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9.        Is it okay to drive after a person has been drinking?

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10.     Are all drugs dangerous?

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11.     What is the proper thing to do if someone offers you a pill or something that looks strange to you?

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12.     What is an overdose?

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13.     What do drugs do your body?

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14.     Is it okay to take drugs that the doctor has given to someone else?

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