WEBELOS

A Word About Webelos Activity Badges
Russ, Timucua District

• Make it fun.
• Make sure there is a fun element to every outing. For example after the boys have worked on Aquanaut have free swim time. If you do a service project make sure you play a game afterwards.
• Make up games for dry topics.
• Use outside community resources and your parents rather than you leading all the meetings.
• Make sure the boys are doing rather than listening.
• Get the boys involved in deciding which items they want to do for the Activity Badge.
• Have the boys plan and present to the den some of the items from the Activity Badges.
• The boys should read the complete text in their Webelos books for each Activity Badge they earn. There is a lot of good information in the book.
• Fitness and Citizen are required for the Webelos Badge.  Readyman and Outdoorsman are required for the Arrow of Light.
• Webelos is an OUTDOOR PROGRAM!!
• Take Outdoor Webelos Leader (OWL) Training to learn how to put the outdoor in your program. It will give you lots of great ideas!!!!

FAMILY MEMBER -- COMMUNITY GROUP

• Invite a Mom to talk to the boys about clothes washing. Announce that next week’s meeting will be at the local Laundromat. Each Webelos Scout is to bring a load of wash, soap, and change for the washer and dryer. Better bring a Mom along, too.
• Invite a professional housecleaner to tell the Webelos Scout about his/her job and short cuts for cleaning. Use this information in a cleanup project for the chartering organization.
• Have a den car wash.
• Do a craft project that includes hand or machine sewing and sewing on buttons. How about learning to sew on uniform patches?
• Invite a dietician to a den meeting to talk about the food groups and menu planning. Plan menus for your next campout. This may also apply to the Physical Fitness Activity Badge.
• Cook breakfast as a den. Meet at a forest preserve and cook pancakes on the grill.
• Inspect your den site for safety hazards. How can they be corrected?
• Plan some fun den-family outings. Invite the families and do them!
• Plan a family game night. Each family brings a game and takes part in sharing the game with another family. The boys could invent games for the families to play.
• Have a contest folding the laundry.

Family

• Love is caught and not taught. Before a child can love and care for others, he or she must have experienced love. The purpose of love is to help family members learn the importance of giving and demonstrating love and to learn specific ways to show love for one another.
• Family Talks is when the family talks about all the things that happen at home and while the family is together. Such as when they work together, play together, learn together and worship together. Family talks are just the beginning of learning about relationships. Make sure that you save any pictures of the family as they are doing things together.
• Developing Responsibility is to help a family member become a responsible person by learning and doing his or her part to help other family members feel order and control in their lives. Delegating and teaching responsibility can be a rewarding or devastating experience. We as adults must remember that children like adults grow on praise not on criticism.
• Sharing is to help families understand that haring in the home and the community will enrich our lives and the lives of others.
• Caring is the helping of each family member to accept and appreciate and care for the people who are different. Whether it is looks, temperament, values or other things that make that person different.
• Planning and Organizing is to help family members learn the skills of setting goals, scheduling prioritizing and evaluating. This is how you set personal goals and work together to set family goals.
• Coping is to learn how to identify sources of problems and difficulties and to learn ways handle those problems that you have control of and those that you don’t have control of how to deal with them.
• Trusting is to help the parents and children understand the importance of others being able to trust them, and to discover the ways to develop trustworthiness. Saying that you will do something or be somewhere at a certain time and the doing it or being there on time helps to build the trust. If you are not able to make it on time then calling to let the person know that you are going to be late.
• Giving is to help the family members understand the importance of giving and to encourage experiences in giving that will strengthen the giver and increase understanding and love within the home. Giving doesn’t always mean money.
• Communicating means that family members learn and practice the skills of communication with each other in an attentive, appreciative way to enrich their family relationships.
• Believing is to help family members realize that a belief in self, family, God and country contributes to the secure and happy family.
• Developing Talents is to encourage the gifts and talents of each family member.

Games

Feeding the Baby - Divide the group into teams. Each team is either the “feeder” or the “baby”. Neither team knows before hand what the activity will be. The “babies” are seated in a row, facing the “feeders” who stand in front of the “babies”. Each boy taking part is given a small cup or bowl of applesauce, a plastic spoon, and is blindfolded. At the signal, the “feeders” try to feed the applesauce to the “babies”. “Babies” may not use their hands to guide the spoon to their mouths, but may give the “feeders” all kinds of advice and direction as to how to reach their mouths. First pair to finish the applesauce wins points for their team. They switch positions.

Shopping - This is a variation of Kim’s game. Fill a grocery bag with items from your cabinet before the Den Meeting. Close to the activity time, add cold items from the refrigerator. To play the game, take one item at a time from the bag and place it on the table. When the bag is empty put everything back in quickly. Give boys a paper and pencil and ask them to write down what items were in your shopping bag.

Churning Butter - Put a small amount of half and half or cream into a jar and screw the lid on tightly. Boys shake jars, until butter is formed. (Try this in advance to determine just how long it will take.) Boy who finished first is the winner. (You may want to add just a pinch of salt to the cream.)

Shopping - This is a variation of Kim’s game. Fill a grocery bag with items from your cabinet before the Den Meeting. Close to the activity time, add cold items from the refrigerator. To play the game, take one item at a time from the bag and place it on the table. When the bag is empty put everything back in quickly. Give boys a paper and pencil and ask them to write down what items were in your shopping bag.

Newspaper Hammock - Instead of recycling old newspapers, why not turn them into a hammock? Here’s how.

Materials: LOTS of newspaper, Tape, An old bed sheet, Rope or strong clothesline cord, Scissors

DIRECTIONS:

Make a stack of 30 sheets of newspaper. Roll up the stack the long way to form a tight, narrow tube. Tape the tube closed.

Repeat step 1 until you have about 20 tubes.

Cut three lengths of rope or clothesline, each at least 12 feet long. Lay the ropes parallel to one another.

Now tie each tube, one by one, to the ropes. Tie over and under knots, leaving 2” to 3” between each tube (A). Remember to leave at least 3 feet at the end of each rope so you can hang up the hammock.

When the hammock is long enough for you to lie in, tie the ropes together at each end (B). Hang your hammock between two trees in your back yard, or ask your mom or dad to help you hang it from your patio roof. Throw an old bed sheet over the hammock so you won’t get newsprint on your clothes.

One step further: Try making a hammock out of brown shopping bags. Cut the bottom off each, then cut along a side seam and spread open the bag. Stack several bags, then roll them up.

Be Safe at Home - We can help keep our family from being hurt or injured in home accidents. With an adult, become your “Home Inspector.” Be sure to have an adult help you. NEVER do it alone. After completing the inspection, list any corrections you and your adult family member made.

Home Inspector Test - First, you and a family adult locate unsafe conditions and eliminate all hazards promptly. These questions will help with your home inspection. Answer each question “yes” or “no”. When done, talk with the family about how you can correct the problems with a “no” written beside it.

• Does you family have a strong, safe stepladder for reaching heights?
• Are halls and stairways safe and well lighted?
• Are precautions taken to prevent rugs from slipping, particularly on polished floors?
• Is a rubber mat provided for the bathtub to prevent slipping?
• Are metal boxes provided for storing matches out of reach of children?
• Does your family have a screen in front of any open fireplaces?
• Are your furnace and stovepipe clean?
• Are all gas pipes and fixtures tight, to prevent leaks?
• Is there a locking cabinet for storing poisons and medicines out of reach of children?
• Are emergency numbers for police, fire and poison control handy by the telephone?

Next, discover and correct unsafe habits, which you or your family may have.

• Are toys, brooms, soap, and other articles kept off stairs and walks?
• Is ice, snow, grease, or other slippery substances removed from stairs and walks promptly?
• Do you go out of doors to use flammable cleaning fluids?
• Have the children in your home been taught the danger of playing with knives, scissors, bottles, and matches or near stoves and open fires?
• Do you always check twice to be sure appliances are off before leaving the house?
• Are there proper containers in the home for cigarettes? If anyone smokes in the home encourage them to quit, for their own and the family’s health.
• Is the dryer lint filter cleaned after each load?
• Do you know how to use tools safely, and are they stored properly?
• Are firearms kept unloaded in a locked box? Is ammunition stored in a separate locked box?
• Are plastic bags and plastic materials kept out of reach of young children?

• Does you family have a strong, safe stepladder for reaching heights?
• Are halls and stairways safe and well lighted?
• Are precautions taken to prevent rugs from slipping, particularly on polished floors?
• Is a rubber mat provided for the bathtub to prevent slipping?
• Are metal boxes provided for storing matches out of reach of children?
• Does your family have a screen in front of any open fireplaces?
• Are your furnace and stovepipe clean?
• Are all gas pipes and fixtures tight, to prevent leaks?
• Is there a locking cabinet for storing poisons and medicines out of reach of children?
• Are emergency numbers for police, fire and poison control handy by the telephone?

Next, discover and correct unsafe habits, which you or your family may have.

• Are toys, brooms, soap, and other articles kept off stairs and walks?
• Is ice, snow, grease, or other slippery substances removed from stairs and walks promptly?
• Do you go out of doors to use flammable cleaning fluids?
• Have the children in your home been taught the danger of playing with knives, scissors, bottles, and matches or near stoves and open fires?
• Do you always check twice to be sure appliances are off before leaving the house?
• Are there proper containers in the home for cigarettes? If anyone smokes in the home encourage them to quit, for their own and the family’s health.
• Is the dryer lint filter cleaned after each load?
• Do you know how to use tools safely, and are they stored properly?
• Are firearms kept unloaded in a locked box? Is ammunition stored in a separate locked box?
• Are plastic bags and plastic materials kept out of reach of young children?

Home Energy Quiz

• What is your thermostat setting?
• If your thermostat setting is 65 or lower during daytime in winter, score 6 points, 5 points for 66, 4 points for 67. If your thermostat setting is higher than 67 than score is 0. _______
• If your house has central air-conditioning and you keep the temperature at 78 in the summer score 5 points, 4 points for 77, 3 points for 76. If your house is not air-conditioned score 7 points. If your thermostat setting is lower that 76 score 0.________
• In winter, if you set your thermostat at 55 or lower at night, score 10 points, 9 points for 56, 8 points for 57, 7 points for 58, 6 points for 59, 5 points for 60. If your thermostat is set higher than 60 at night than score 0. ________
• Is your house drafty?
• To check for drafts, hold a flame (candle or match) about an inch from areas where windows and doors meet the frames around them. If the flame doesn’t move, there is no draft around your windows and doors and you score 10 points. If the flame moves 0. _____
• If there is no draft around your doors, score 5 points. If there is a draft score 0. ________
• If you have a fireplace and keep the damper closed or block the airflow when it is not in use, score 4 points.________
• If you do not have a fireplace add 4 points.________
• How well is your attic insulated? In our area, you should have 8” to 11” of insulation.
• If you already have the recommended thickness of insulation, score 30 point. _________
• If you have 2” less than the recommended insulation, you may score 25 points. _________
• If you have 4” less than the recommended insulation, you may score 15 points. _________
• If you have 6” less than the recommended insulation, you may score 5 points. ________
• If you have less than 2” of insulation in your attic, score 0. ________
• Is your floor insulated?
• If you have unheated space under your house such as a crawl space and if there is insulation under your floor score 10 points. If there is no insulation score 0. ______
• Does your house have storm windows?
• If you live in an area where the temperature frequently falls below 30 degrees in the winter and you use storm windows, score 20 points. If you do not have storm windows, score 0. _________
• Do you clean or change furnace filters regularly, score 4 points. _______
• If your furnace was cleaned and inspected recently, you may score 4 points. _________

Total Score ________

Your energy quotient is the total number of points scored. If your score is less than 90 points, you probably can save fuel and money on the heating and cooling of you home, by doing some simply home repairs.

• Is trash lying around outside the home or in the garage?
• Are insecticides stored in a safe place out of reach of small children?
• Are flammable substances such as paint thinner, gasoline or charcoal lighter fluids stored in marked containers and kept in a cool well ventilated area away from any flame?
• Are sharp tools in a locked cabinet?
• Are power tool cords unplugged and out of the reach of small children?
• Are roller skates, skateboards and bicycles kept out of the driveway and sidewalks?
• Are oily rags lying about?
• Is the door of an unused freezer or refrigerator removed?
• Are all outside lights in working order?
• Are garbage cans kept covered?
• Is your sidewalk free of uneven areas or broken cement?
• Are curtains and furniture away from air conditioners and heating elements?
• Does the fireplace have a screen?
• Do large glass doors have a decal as a safety reminder?
• Are electrical cords in good repair?
• Are electrical wires on the floor where people can walk or trip on them?
• Are poisonous substances in childproof containers?
• Are all prescription drugs in childproof containers?
• Are non- prescription drugs kept in the medicine chest?
• Are matches stored in rodent proof and childproof containers?
• Are smoke alarm batteries checked on a regular basis?
• Are fire extinguishers operable?
• Are the telephone numbers of the police, fire and paramedics displayed on or beside each phone?

DEN ACTIVITIES

• Invite a policeman, fireman or security guard to a den meeting to talk about home safety.
• Keep a personal budget for a month.
• Have the boys plan a days worth of meals and cook at least one of them.
• Have a grandparent come talk about life when he was their age.
• Have the boys make a family tree which covers their family back to their grandparents. Let each boy show his tree after completion.
• Make a chore chart that the boys can use at home for 2 months.
• Teach the boys how to clean house.

FIELD TRIP SUGGESTIONS

• Visit a waste treatment facility.
• Visit a bank or savings and loan.
• Tour a fire or police station.

Dirty Clothes

Announce that the next week the den will be meeting at the local Laundromat.  Each boy should bring a load of wash and coins for the washer and dryer.  Leader can bring a box of detergent and measuring cup.  Meet and wash clothes.  Look around at the kinds of washers and the safety instructions.  Time how long you are there.
Bills!

Ask your parents to help you set up a chart of the electric and gas use in your home. 

Write down all the ways you can think of which your family uses electricity or gas.

Look at the bills for the last few months and write down the actual usage and the cost.  Is the usage up or down? 

For a one month time, practice turning out lights and conserving in other ways.  See how much difference you can make on your next bill.  The utility companies can provide you with a list of appliance usage/hour.  Figure out how much it costs to dry a load of laundry, or to run your hair dryer or toaster.

If you are going to check electric usage – you need to be able to do the following:

How to Read Your Electric Meter

For requirement 7. Prepare a family energy-savings plan. Tell things you did to carry it out.

Electric meters are precision measuring devices that record, in units called ‘kilowatt-hours,’ how much electricity you use.  One kilowatt-hour (Kwh) is 1000 watts of electricity consumed for one hour. Or the power required by a 100-watt light bulb for 10 hours.

The meter reading is made up of one number from each dial. When the pointer is between two numbers, you read the lower number – the number it has just passed.  The first reading below is 5,964 Kwh.

Try reading this meter yourself. Then check your answer against the one below.

• A parent who works at _____________
• Has a great grandparent still living
• Has two sisters
• Has the same favorite color
• Lives in a five-bedroom house
• Has his Arrow of Light
• Has lived in another state
• Has a grandparent/aunt/uncle living with his family.
• Has a relative living in outside the United States.
• Has had a foreign exchange student living with them.

What Does Your Family Spend Money On?

Here is a list of things families may spend money on. In the blank in front of each item, guess and write down how much money you think is spent (per month). Then take this list home and ask a parent to fill in more accurate amounts. Which items did you get right? Which items really surprised you?

________ 1. House payment or rent
________ 2. Car payment
________ 3. Gas, oil, tires, etc.
________ 4. Food
________ 5. Clothing and shoes
________ 6. Insurance: Life, Health, Auto, Home
________ 7. Medical and dental bills
________ 8. Schooling
________ 9. Church and charity donations
________ 10. Utilities: electric, gas, telephone, cable TV
________ 11. Savings
________ 12. Vacations
________ 13. Retirement funds
________ 14. Hair cuts
________ 15. Health and beauty supplies
________ 16. Cleaning supplies
________ 17. Repairs
________ 18. Family funds
________ 19. Hobbies
________ 20. Fun and recreation

Driving Record

Here is a sample chart showing a family’s driving record.  Make a similar chart for each driver in your family and keep a record of every trip for a week.

Record the purpose and mileage for each trip.

When the week is over, study the number of trips, their purpose and the total miles driven.

Develop a plan with your family that will reduce the number of trips and the miles driven.

Repeat the process for another week. Total the number of trips and miles driven.

Compare the two weeks' data. How many miles and trips are saved?

If your car averages 23 mpg, how much gas did your plan save in a week? How much money was saved? How much would be saved in one year?

SPORTSMAN -- PHYSICAL SKILLS GROUP

Code of Sportsmanship
The Sportsmanship Brotherhood.
http://www.wtsmith.com

Keep the rules.
Keep faith with your comrade.
Keep your temper.
Keep yourself physically fit.
Keep a stout heart in defeat.
Keep your pride under control in victory.
Keep a sound soul, a clean mind and a healthy body.
Play the game.

Russ, Timucua District

• A real sportsman follows the rules not only in each game, but also in his life.
• Good sportsmanship is part of good citizenship.  For example, losing a class election gracefully.
• The "Spirit of Good Sportsmanship" means being modest in victory as well as accepting defeat gracefully after trying your best.

Den Ideas

• Make it easy on yourself and use the ready-made Cub Scout Sports Program.  The guides explain the rules, principles, and equipment for each sport, and the boys learn earning the belt loops and sports pin.
• Have Webelos figure out a football play or a basketball play and diagram it.  Local high school or little league coaches are sources of assistance.
• Give Webelos a list of famous sports figures and have them name the sport involved.
• Visit a sports shop and talk with the owner about selecting equipment.
• Play some backyard games such as horseshoes, croquet, volleyball or badminton.
• Visit a racquet club or tennis court.

• As a den, attend a professional or amateur sports event.
• Go roller skating or ice skating.
• Visit an archery range and receive instruction on safety and procedures.
• Invite a referee or official to your den meeting to teach signals and talk about teamwork, fair play, and sportsmanship.
• Hold a parent/ son sports tournament, such as bowling, tennis, volleyball, archery, etc.
• Have a den board game marathon. Provide treats and boys bring their favorite board games to play. Allow time for rotation to different games.
• Teach a card game to the boys and set up a couple of stations for playing.
• Learn and practice one or more of the sports in the Cub Scout Academics and Sports program.
• Practice the officials’ signals of the five sports shown in the Webelos Scout Book.
• Play some of the ball games found in the “Games” chapter of the Cub Scout Leader How- To book.
• Let boy’s practice casting with a fishing rod.

Sports of All Kinds

Sports are high on the list of favorites of Webelos Scout-aged boys. Chances are that they spend much of their leisure time in organized sports and loosely organized neighborhood games. Some of them probably know enough already about rules, scoring, and techniques for several sports so that they could pass those requirements immediately. But that’s not really enough! One of the prime purposes of Cub Scouting is “encouraging good sportsmanship and pride in growing strong in mind and body!” If your boys learn all the skills and rules involved in every sport this month, but don ‘t get an inkling of what good sportsmanship means, then the den, and you wasted your time. Agree on the importance of learning sportsmanship. What does it mean in practice? It means that the least skilled get just as much instruction and encouragement as the best athlete. It means that the better athletes learn not just to tolerate the awkward boy, but also to help him. It means that all boys can win and lose with grace and good sportsmanship. Your own example will help to achieve these goals. Put stress on the fun of the game, not on winning. When you have intra-den competition, make up the teams so that the strength is about even. If you let boys choose teammates, there is a good chance that most of the best players will wind up on one team. Encourage the less skillful players. Discourage others from belittling them. Sports in a Webelos den should be fun for all.

Be a Good Sport - You hear a lot of talk about being a “good sport”, but just what does it mean? A “good sport” learns the roles so he will not break them. He competes with all his heart, striving to outclass his competitors. If he wins, he doesn’t act smug, but instead compliments the losers for the fine job they did. If he loses, he should accept that fact and find out why. Maybe he can win the next time. A good sport takes pleasure in the game right to the end, even if he is not winning, for the purpose of the game is not merely to win but to find joy and strength in trying.

Games

Sidewalk Volleyball - All that is needed for this game is a volleyball, basketball, or a tennis ball and a section of sidewalk. Use four squares, each five feet long. To play, server stands behind his back line, bounces ball behind line, and hits it with palm of his hand so that it bounces in opposing serve square. Opponent hits it back and the game continues until someone misses the ball or hits it outside. After serve, ball may be played in air or on first bounce.

Marble Golf - Set up this game and practice playing it for a future den or pack marbles tournament. For holes, bury baby food cans to the brim in the earth. Flags are paper triangles glued to craft sticks. Add water hazards and sand traps as you wish. Shots are taken in the approved knuckles down way for regular marbles. Winner is the Webelos who takes the fewest shots to get all the way around.

Bucketball - Two-bushel baskets or other containers are placed on the ground at opposite ends of the playing field. Divide the den into two teams and play basketball rules, except that no goal is scored unless the ball stays in the basket and does not turn it over.

Bowling on the Green - Use old bowling balls and old pins and bowl on a smooth section of grass or lawn.

Foul Score - Divide the den into two teams. The leader gives the signal for a foul or violation on any of the three sports-baseball, football or basketball and calls on a boy to name the sport and the foul. If he gets both right, he scores four points for his team. If one of his two answers is right, he scores two. Any other member of his own team can try to correct the wrong answer and earn one point. If no one on his team can answer, the opponents can earn one point for a correct answer.

Officials’ Test - Split the den into teams. Have the boy being tested be umpire or referee. The teams run a play with fouls and violations. The official then must call the foul, give the proper signal and explain the penalty.

Potato Golf - Draw circles on the floor. From a distance of six feet, player putts a potato with a cane or stick with a curved handle. Score is recorded according to number in circles. No score is made if the potato stops on a line. Each boy gets ten tries.

Dribble the Circle - Divide the den into two teams. Mark two circles of about 18- foot diameter on the ground. Players scatter on the perimeter of their team’s circle. On signal, the first player on each team dribbles a basketball all around the circle. When he gets back to his starting place, the next player repeats the action, and so on until all have run the circle. First team to finish wins.

SIDEWALK TENNIS
Russ, Timucua District

• Ping Pong ball
• Plaster
• Pop top ring or small ½” pvc pipe ring
• Black acrylic paint
• Cut a ping-pong ball in half.
• Fill the half of ball with plaster and insert pop top or PVC ring for slide.
• Decorate with black paint.
• The same idea can be used to make a Basketball, etc.

• For a pair of shorty skis, remove top and bottom of two gallon plastic bottles.
• Cut down seams and flatten into strips, curved at the ends.
• Stand on center of the plastic and mark width of shoe at the widest point.
• Mark small tabs on each side of foot and a second pair of tabs near ankles.
• Cut plastic to the width of foot with tabs attached.
• Trim skis to a point at the front.
• To fasten skis to shoes, punch holes in tabs.
• Bend tabs up and lace with ribbon or cord, lacing over tops of shoes and around ankles.

Sports Quiz

See if you can match the term on the left to the appropriate game on the right.

Answers:

d  1. Spare                 s  2. Shell      n  3. Shuttlecock

q  4. Fairway             f  5. Slalom   m  6. Double fault

o  7. Eight ball         e  8. Chukker   b  9. Clay pigeon

c  10. Tech. KO      g  11. Jump shot         a  12. Puck

k  13. Double play    l  14. Figure 8    j  15. Field goal

p  16. Headlock        t  17. Casting         h  18. Quiver

r  19. Jack-knife           i  20. Oar