FOCUS

Cub Scout Roundtable Leaders’ Guide

Travel north or travel south – there you will find ice and snow.  Where are you??  The North Pole or the South Pole!!  Learn about the explorers who have braved these cold climates.  Can you guess which animals make their homes in these frozen lands??  Practice with a map and compass and learn about magnetics and polarity.  This is a great time to earn the Map and Compass belt loop and pin.

CORE VALUES

Cub Scout Roundtable Leaders’ Guide

Some of the purposes of Cub Scouting developed through this month’s theme are:

• Character Development, Boys learn to develop the quality of perseverance by learning about the explorers of the North and South Poles.
• Sportsmanship and Fitness, Cub Scouts and their families learn how to keep fit through the winter with great winter activities.
• Preparation for Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts prepare to be Boy Scouts as they practice map and compass skills and participate in outdoor activities.

The core value highlighted this month is:

• Perseverance, Cub Scouts will learn value of sticking to it to achieve goals.

Can you think of others??? Hint – look in your Cub Scout Program Helps.  It lists different ones!! All the items on both lists are applicable!!  You could probably list all twelve if you thought about it!!

COMMISSIONER’S CORNER

A great theme to work with and take many directions – Polar explorations, compasses and magnetism (The magnetic North Pole that directs our compasses is close to the real North Pole). Be sure to Google South Pole and Boy Scouts.  Every South Pole expedition since Admiral Byrd in 1928 has had a Boy Scout member.  The first was 19-year-old Paul Siple from Erie, Pennsylvania, who was selected from a pool of applicants by Chief Scout Executive James E. West.  See the story of the expedition and the Scout documents at http://library.osu.edu/sites/archives/polar/flightexhibit/checklist.php . To this day there is an annual competition for the “Antarctic Scout” who goes to the South Pole.  You could definitely build this into an inspirational talk for your Webelos.  Check it out under “Thoughtful Items” and  at http://www.scouting.org/boyscouts/resources/18-900/index.html .  An Antarctic Scout must be an Eagle Scout.  There are first hand reports from recent Antarctic Scouts telling about their experiences as well as details about  the expeditions and Antarctica. 

Be sure to read the Dog Sled Advancement  Ceremony Ideas for thoughts on creating a ceremony.  Even if you don’t plan on doing the ceremony.  The thoughts presented there on how to develop a ceremony are useful for all ceremonies.

Months with similar themes to
Poles Apart
Dave D. in Illinois

The regular sort of the Dave D’s Theme Spreadsheet did not give any usable results.  So I wrote Dave and he complied this list.  He included December themes that seemed to focus on winter rather than December Holidays.  The island theme was included because there may be info on Greenland or Iceland.  Part of Alaska does lie above the Arctic Circle, so months with Alaska themes were included.  No specific themes for compass or magnetism were identified. 

Month, Year       Theme

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March, 1958          Exploring Alaska

March, 1959          Canada, Land of the Mounties

March, 1962          Islands of the World  (kind of a stretch - Iceland & Greenland)

December, 1964     Winter Festival    (possibilities)

December, 1968     Winter Wonderland    (possibilities)

December, 1976     Winter Festival    (possibilities)

March, 1989          Exploring in Alaska

April, 1991           Canada, Our Neighbor

January, 1994        Exploring Alaska

National makes a patch for every Cub Scout Monthly theme.

Unfortunately the 2007 patches were not yet posted on www.scoutstuff.org when I was preparing this month’s issue.  At Scout Stuff, you can go to uniforms and insignia, them emblems, and look for 2007 Cub Scout Monthly Theme Emblems.