TIGERS

Thanks to Michael Babinsky of the Great Salt Lake Council for the following.

The year is over and it’s a great time to reflect on your accomplishments.  Reviewing the requirements for the National Den Award would be a good thing to do during the summer so you can improve on your program if it was not achieved.  Learning new games and activities for the upcoming year would be helpful if the ones you typically use did not hold their interest.

Photo Album

For Requirement 1D – Making my Family Special – Den Activity, it states:  Make a family scrapbook. 

Take this opportunity to make something so grand that they will not want to complete the assignment and store it in a box where it will only get looked at a couple times during their lifetime, but a project that they will want to decorate the walls of their room with and make one year after year to show the family progression; and do it with a scouting theme.

Have you ever heard of the Folding Photo Album?  This little album could also make a lovely gift. You can change the dimensions to make it larger.  Inside, you can include quotes, poetry, photos, rubberstamping, collage... the possibilities are endless!  (It’s also a gift you can make yourself by taking pictures of your Tigers and having them sign the album.)

Materials:

• 2 sheets of 6”x6” colored paper (front & back cover)
• 3 sheets of 8”x8”cardstock (for inside background)
• 2x 5”x5” squares of heavy board
• 1 meter of ribbon
• Glue or double-sided tape
• Photos of the boys and their families

Instructions:

• Fold a piece of cardstock in half lengthwise.
• Open it up and fold it the other way, lengthwise again, so that you have creases going both ways. You are creating smaller squares within the big square.
• Turn the piece of cardstock over so that the creased edges are pointing up, forming a "mountain."
• Fold it in half diagonally, one time, taking one corner up to meet the other corner. (This time, just do one fold.)

•  Do the same folding technique with the other two pieces of cardstock.
• Once all three pieces are folded, lay them out in front of you so that the first and third form "valleys" while the middle one forms a "mountain." 
• Glue the three pieces of cardstock together.

• For the covers, Center and adhere the 5 x 5 pieces of heavy board on the back side of the 6 x 6 pattern paper. 
• Wrap edges inward and glue. 
• Adhere the ribbon to the bottom cover. Ribbon will be sandwiched between the bottom cover and the inside pages.

• Decorate with pictures and anything else you can think of. 
• Then fold together and tie a bow with the ribbon.

For other instructions see the Scrapbbooking web sites listed at the end of Baloo.

Sport Stacking

Have you heard of one of the newest sports – Sport Stacking.  Founded in 1995 and formally known as cup stacking, this sport can be completed by individuals or as teams.  Current world records are set by 13 and 14 year olds.

Participants of sport stacking upstack and downstack cups in pre-determined sequences, competing against the clock or another player. Sequences are usually pyramids of three, six, or ten cups. Proponents of the sport say participants learn teamwork, cooperation, ambidexterity, and hand-eye coordination.

There are four main types of stacks in competition. All stacks can be made from left-to-right or right-to-left (individual preference), but the same direction must be maintained for both "up stacking" (setting the cups into pyramids) and "down stacking" (unstacking the pyramids and returning them to their nested position).

3 - 3 – 3
Uses 9 cups. Cups start in three nested stacks of 3. The stacker must create three pyramids of 3 cups each and then down stack the cups back into nested stacks of 3 in the order that they were upstacked.

3 - 6 – 3
Uses 12 cups. The stacker must create three pyramids made up of three cups on the left, six cups in the center, and three cups on the right (3-6-3), then down stack the cups in the order that they were upstacked into their original position. Also used as the first transition of the Cycle Stack.

6 – 6
Uses 12 cups. The stacker must create pyramids of 6 cups on the left and 6 on the right and then down stack both of them to create one pile of cups. This stack is only used competitively as the second transition in the Cycle Stack.

1 - 10 – 1
Uses 12 cups. The stacker begins with a single downstacked pile. He/she must take two cups off the top, turn one upside-down (stacker's choice), then upstack the remaining ten. The stacker must then tap the opposite sides of the single cups and take down the ten stack into a downstacked 3-6-3. This stack is only used competitively as the third transition of the Cycle Stack

The Cycle Stack
The most complicated stack is called the Cycle Stack. It involves a sequence which includes, in order: a 3-6-3 stack, a 6-6 stack, and a 1-10-1 stack, finishing in a down stacked 3-6-3.

Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport_stacking

or http://www.worldsportstackingassociation.org/

to learn more about the sport and to watch world record holders compete.  You’ll be amazed!

Tiger Games

Cup and Plate Stacking Game –

The object of the games it to alternate a cup and plate and make the largest structure possible.  You could set a time limit or give them each a certain number of plates and cups and the first one the uses them all wins.  A variation that you could consider is having them work as a team there one Tiger holds and balances the first plate/cup while the other stacks the pieces.  Towers will fall but remind them to “do your best”!

Licorice Knots Activity

Materials: long shoestring licorice

Use licorice for practicing knot tying in a fun way.
Make a contest between patrols - first scout pulls the name of a knot out of a bag and has to tie it, tell judge what it is used for, and get acceptance. Then, next scout repeats. Allow scouts within a patrol to advise and demonstrate to each other to build teamwork, but the scout has to actually tie the knot he picks out. [Use only the basic knots of Scouting for Tiger Cubs.  After they tie the knot, they get to eat it. SJ

Balloon Artists Activity

Materials: Large round 9” or 10”  balloons for Scouts, markers that will write on balloons.

Have each Scout draw a self-portrait on his balloon.
Put all balloons in a pile and then have Scouts guess who it is for each balloon you hold up.
Have Scouts draw a map of the world on their balloons