PRE-OPENING

 Astronaut Training
Viking Council

Have beanbags, jump ropes and rubber balls available for Cub astronauts to "train" as they gather.

Set up stations for the boys to use with short direction cards (such as jump rope five times, toss beanbag over head and catch etc.) OR have the denner or Den Chief supervise the events.

Moon Rock Toss
Viking Council

Each Cub will need five small stones, each with the same color marked on them. Use several colors of markers. It's all right to have duplications in the colors.

Distribute the moon rocks to Cubs as they arrive. Cubs challenge each other only if they have different colors on their stones. To play, they throw stones toward an empty can (moon craters).

The Cub who has the most stones landing in the carter now can challenge someone else.

Refueling
Viking Council

Buy a bottle of soft drink for each boy in your den. Open them and pour contents into a large metal pitcher. Rinse out the bottles and let dry.

Set up a "re-fueling" station in your kitchen, complete with goggles, plastic apron, rubber gloves, and other "scientific looking" things. Make warning signs about radiation etc.

As the boys arrive, outfit them up and instruct them to "refuel" one soft drink bottle by pouring the mystery fuel through a funnel.

Astronaut Eggs
Viking Council

Scientists spend a lot of time making an astronaut's journey safe. For the pre-opening activity have the Cubs pack an egg so that it can survive a ten foot drop onto a hard surface.

Materials needed; eggs, ziploc bags, tape, Styrofoam sandwich box, packing materials such as cotton, newspaper, peanuts, grass, leaves, etc.

Put the egg inside the ziploc bag, then pack it any way you want inside the box. Tape the box well and write name on it. Drop the boxes from a balcony, or high place, the check to see whose egg survived.

Outer Space Quiz
York Adams Council

Using the wonderful world of the Internet or old (but expendable!) magazines, cut out space photos, letter each one with a sequential letter, and hang them around the meeting room. As people arrive, hand them lists of the photo titles (in a mixed up order) and ask them to match the photos with the titles. Once the meeting gets under way, see how many people were able to get all, many, or some of the matches correct.

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Planets Quiz
Shirley Elliott, Montana

1. How many planets are there? (9)
2. Which planet is nearest the sun? (Mercury)
3. The largest planet is ... (Jupiter)
4. Name two planets with rings (Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, Jupiter )
5. Name the planets in order from the sun. (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto)
6. What two kinds of energy do we get from the sun? (heat, light)
7. Earth is nearer to the sun in ... (winter)
8. What galaxy is the sun in? (Milky Way)
9. Which constellation contains the North Star? (Little Dipper)
10. Earth's nearest neighbor in space is ... (moon)

What time of day would your shadow be longer, 9:00 am or 12:00 noon? (9:00) am