Wolf/Bear Year 2


Wolf and Bear Combined Year 2


Theme
Bear
Wolf
June or August
Great Outdoors
Bear Necessities
Call of the Wild
September
Legends
Beat of the Drum
Howling at the Moon
October
Sherlock Holmes vs. the Professor Moriarity
Baloo the Builder
Code of the Wolf
November-December
Pledge Allegiance
Council Fire
Paws for Action
January
Healthy, Happy, Helping Hands
Bear Claws
Germs Alive
February
Scientist
Super Science
Air of the Wolf
March
Duty to God
Fellowship
Footsteps
April
Games, Games, Games
Grin and Bear it
Running witht the Pack
May
Hiking
Fur, Feathers, Ferns
Paws on the Path
June/July
 Summer Fun
Electivie of choice or shooting sports
Elective of choice

Great Oudoors (camping)
Meeting #1 Day Camp, any boys who don’t go to day camp must do a family outdoor activity.

Meeting #2 Teddy Bear Picnic or Mock Camp
Go over a:
Packing list for den
Packing list for individual boys
Set up a tent
bonus: if you have a fire pit make smores or marshmallows eat them on a picnic blanket with favorite stuffed animals
Discuss what clothes to wear for the weather at day camp.
Discuss outdoor code, safety for fire or earthquake, and how to prevent spreading germs
bonus: if you can't go outside, you could have the boys make a blanket fort inside and "play camping", very messy, but very fun.

Legends (communication)
Meeting #1
Make a talking stick
2 types of communication (include info on how white settlers could communicate with native americans and how native americans could communicate their history.  Smoke Signals

Importance of the campfire to native americans.  Discuss the Legend of the Howling Wolf and the six parts of a campfire program in the Wolf Book.
Make plans to make a skit for the next “campfire program” (pack night)

Meeting #2
Create a legend skit
Learn Native American dance steps, you could put them in the skit
Create an original legend skit
bonus: share one or two legends

Meeting #3
Learn more native American history
Practice skit again if needed, make props or costumes, or do a native American craft like a drum or dream catcher.  (Tip- Have some native american music to play as part of the boys legend skit for dramatic effect)
bonus: share another legend

(a great resource go read the whole page!)
excerpt
A curious use for fire among some Indians was in giving signals. A place visible from a great distance was selected. Upon it a little fire was built with fuel which gave a dense smoke. Sometimes the signal depended upon the number of fires kindled side by side. Thus when Pima Indians returned from a war-party against Apaches, they gave smoke signals if they had been successful. A single fire was built first; its one smoke column meant success. Then a number of little fires, kindled in a line side by side, indicated the number of scalps taken. Sometimes messages were given by puffs of smoke. When the fire had been kindled, a blanket was so held as to prevent the smoke rising. When a lot of smoke had been imprisoned beneath it, the blanket was suddenly raised so as to let it escape. It was then lowered, held, and raised so as to cause a new puff. These puffs of smoke rose regularly in long, egg-shaped masses, and according to their number the message to be sent varied. Such signaling by smoke puffs was common among Plains tribes.

Campfire legends are a special type of story that are often based on Native American lore, urban legend tales, or historical events.

A legend is presumed to have some basis in historical fact and tends to mention real people or events. Historical fact morphs into a legend when the truth has been exaggerated to the point that real people or events have taken on a romanticized, "larger than life" quality.  Think of a story about your den and then make it completely exaggerated for your skit, the bigger and sillier the better.  Instead of eating 1 cupcake eat 20, instead of rain have food coming down, instead of a stroll around the lake, have a hike straight uphill into the heavens, instead of laughing, laugh all day and night until the earth shakes.  You can have your den leader narrate while the scouts act it out.


Sherlock Holmes vs. The Evil Math Professor (math)
Meeting #1 methods of Sherlock Holmes: Observation
Bonus: Introduce Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarity.  Explain how Sherlock Holmes’s power of observation solved crimes.  His great nemesis was Professor Moriarity who made a code…
Look for hidden shapes in nature, observe like Sherlock homes taught, perhaps have clues and try to make it more of a detective game.

Find a treasure using coded clues:
code option number three is the easiest to decode, I’ve found pig pen confuses quite a few 8 year olds, but with the third code they just write the word and then to decode they wrap the paper, less chance for confusion in younger boys.  My second choice would be a number to alphabet code, but this would take longer to decode.  Let each boy hide a treat for another scout and write what it is hidden under in code.

Open the treasures: bags of skittles, m&m’s, or fruitsnacks
Tally how many of each color/shape for all the bags and try to guess the ratio of colors if one more bag is opened.



Meeting #2 Professor Moriarity Math Basket
Practice using 4+ wood working tools
1)measuring tape, measure dowels for week #3 (math skill #1)
2) hammer (count how many hits it takes divide up the nails for the boys for math skill #2)
3) cut w/ a saw (could cut dowels for week #3)
Safely use a knife to divide a candy bar, banana, string cheese, or apple into enough pieces for each scout, or divide up fruit snacks of a box of chocolates (math skill #3)
4) use a level or sand paper (will be sanding on week #3, so can skip this one to make more time)

Make a book basket with yardstick pieces for part of the basket.  Perfect for an evil math genius to store his evil plans in.
Find 5 activities that use math in daily life
Tell time (math skill #4)
Add up a few coins (math skill #5)



Meeting #3 Math Game
Make a game/toy out of wood, paint it or finish it.

Make wooden tops out of pencil sharpend dowels and wooden craftstore wheels, spin them on a target with different point values and keep score, then paint them before taking home.
Make a simple game that uses math to keep score.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/dont-just-see-observe-what-sherlock-holmes-can-teach-us-about-mindful-decisions/
Holmes instructs Watson on the difference between seeing and observing:
"When I hear you give your reasons," I remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each successive instance of your reasoning, I am baffled until you explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good as yours."
"Quite so," he answered... "You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen the steps which lead up from the hall to this room."
"Frequently."
"How often?"

"Well, some hundreds of times."
"Then how many are there?"
"How many? I don't know."
"Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, because I have both seen and observed."
Sherlock Holmes had taught himself to observe on a regular, almost superhuman basis. For him, taking note of the myriad inputs from his surroundings was a matter of course. He was never not observing, never not in touch with his environment. He had mindfulness down to an art. Most of us aren't as careful…
Most of us are lucky to have eyes that, like Watson's, are every bit as good as Holmes's…But so often, we squander them. We block ourselves off from the world, armed with headphones, dark glasses, eyes that look straight ahead and hurry on to their destination as quickly as possible, angry at the slightest interruption. How much do we miss that would actually make a difference, that continues to affect us even though we don't realize it's doing so?
shapes in nature hunt:
We started our hunt in the backyard.  Aiden found a dandelion with seeds ready to be blown away.  I asked him what shape it was.  He said, “a circle!”  He held the dandelion up to the paper to confirm his thoughts.  We were off to a great start.  Hunting around the yard, we found lots of different shapes.  Then, we took a walk around the neighborhood and found even more.  Below is just a sample of the shapes we found.
Shapes are all around us in nature.  Here are some suggestions for finding them.
·       Look for shapes in leaves.  We found oval-shaped leaves, heart-shaped leaves, diamond-shaped leaves, and arrow-shaped leaves.
·       Examine flowers and their parts.  We saw circles and hearts in the flowers.
·       Grab some rocks and talk about their shapes.  We found a wide variety of rock shapes.  Most common were round, oval, or square shapes.
·       Search for shapes within things.  We discovered holes in leaves that were various shapes.  We found fallen sticks and branches that were crossed into different shapes.
·       Hunt for shapes in the clouds, in the grass, in the trees, or in the dirt.
Depending on the age of your children, you might want to start by pointing out the shapes you see in nature.  “Oh, look the leaf is in the shape of an oval.”  “What shape is this rock?”  Compare the printed shapes with the nature objects to help determine their shapes.  If you see a shape nearby, ask “Can you find something that is a heart shape?”  Lead them in the right direction until they find it.  “The heart shape I see is green.”  “It is near the ground.”
Enjoy your time exploring and finding shapes in nature.
Recipe holder, (math is used in cooking )
Professor Moriarity Basket $4-6 each

To make this basket you will need six 12 inch rulers. (Lowes yardsticks cut in thirds is the cheapest)
One 1x4 that is 12 inches long.
Two 1x4s that are 6 inches long.
Wood glue
Nails

Adults pre-drill all the nail holes.


attach the two 6 inch pieces to the 12 inch piece with wood glue and two nails. Make sure you do it like the photo shows. If you try to attach them on the sides of the board the width will not be right to attach the rulers.
  
Then space out 3 rulers on each side, where you want them and attach them by pre-drilling a hole, adding some wood glue and nailing them into place.

I pre-drilled the holes and helped her by holding things but she did all the hammering herself. Well.. except in the one spot where a stubborn knot in the wood was keeping the nail from going in. That is where I took over and bent the nail, so yes the bent nail is my fault.
  
I hope that it works well to hold all the classroom take home folders.
Although I am sure there are many things a teacher could use a basket like this for. 

Scytale

Believed to be an ancient Roman transposition cipher, a Scytale involves transposing the letters in a message by writing it on a long piece of paper wrapped around a cylinder. With the paper wrapped you would write your message across the cylinder across the paper. When unwrapped the paper has random letters on it and the recipient can only read the code if they wrap the paper around the same size cylinder used to create the original code.

The kids can create their own code using a paper towel roll, a long string of paper, tape and a pencil. Can you believe we didn’t have a paper towel roll? That’s usually a staple in our recycle bin but instead we used one of our rolling pins. If you don’t have a long sheet of paper you can just create one but cutting strips and taping them together. Classic Play shares a great step-by-step tutorial.

(You can have the long strips already prepared to make this activity go more smoothly.)


We made these simple wooden tops at the preschool earlier this month. 
With wooden wheels, wooden dowels, a pencil sharpener, paint and sandpaper this sweet toy can be made in less than ten minutes. 
·   pre-cut the wooden dowels into about three-inch sticks (make sure the dowel fits snugly in the hole on the wheel!) Boys can measure and cut these during Meeting #1
·   give the wheel an acrylic paint wash (water down the paint to just lightly stain the wood the color of choice)
·   while the wheel is drying, use a pencil sharpener to sharpen one of the ends of the dowel into a point 
·   use sandpaper to smooth out any rough spots
·   lightly hammer the dowel into the wheel-no glue necessary
·   then spin, spin, spin
I loved all the little hands busy with the sandpaper.  Learning how to spin the top can be quite a challenge for some, but with practice they had the tops going well into the afternoon.

Instructions
·       Open up the envelope and punch some holes in it. Turn it and tape the color paper over the holes.
·       Mark the starting point in the middle. Test the board with a spinning top and mark the holes from 1-5.
·       Rules
·       Start in the middle. Twirling the stem with your fingers, try to get your top into the field with the highest points.
Board #1

Board #2 is made for a battle. Whoever reaches the other side first wins.  (not a math game sadly, but okay for Bears)
This one didn’t work the first time because spinning tops make spirals. My son found a way to play it: Begin in the
Board #3
start circle and then blow carefully in the direction you what the spinning top to go.
WHAT YOU NEED
·       Paper in different colors
·       Circle cutter
·       Glue Stick
·       Marker black and white
INSTRUCTIONS
·       Cut 3 circles in different sizes and glue them together. Mark the start in the middle and points.
·       Make at least two for a contest.

Rules
·       Start in the middle and twirl your top. Wherever your top stops determines the number of points you get.
·       This game works best with the toothpick tops.

Board #4 (not a match game)
WHAT YOU NEED
·       Lid from a box (shoebox works fine)
·       Paper, fitting the inside from the lid
·       3 lids
·       4 craft foam circles, small
·       5 paper circles, 2-3 inches in different colors
·       Glue
·       Black and white markers
INSTRUCTIONS
·       Glue the circles and lid on the paper and let it dry. Mark the start in the middle and the surrounding points.
Rules
  • Start in the middle. Twirl the stem of your top and try to get it to the field with the highest points.
  • Tip: Use the boarders for ricocheting advantage.
  • Every spinning top has its own qualities. Try them all and find the best for each game.
·       
These easy upcycled crafts are guaranteed to bring smiles!
*********another toy woodworking idea***********

Another Idea: Ever-changing Wood, Nail, and Rubber Band Maze 

My son is a maze savant. Yes, I’m his mom and I’ll brag about him even if nobody is listening, but at not quite 5 years old, he totally rocks mazes. And he loves doing them. We’ve gotten him maze books, which he loves, but I wanted to do one better. I wanted a maze that could be fully customized, changed, and never get boring. So I came up with the idea to make a maze board out of wood and nails. Now he has a maze that can be changed in a nearly infinite number of ways! And, it was super simple and easy to make. It took us less than an hour. Totally my kind of craft!

Pledge Allegiance 

Meeting #1
Learn about Flags, make one to display for a month, bonus make an edible flag snack.
Fold flag, flag ceremony (pack night)
write a short thankyou note for police officers next week.

Meeting #2

Visit a local sherriff's office or police station or talk with a law enforcement officer, make an emergency numbers list
 Talk to a Law Enforcement Officer about his service to community 

Meeting #3
Service-neighborhood or school grounds trash pick-up 
Service-neighborhood or school grounds trash pick-up


Happy, Healthy, Helpful Hands (cool things our hands can do)
Meeting #1 Happy Hands
Knife Safety, whittling chip
Cut banana, bread, cheese
Carve a germ (blob with face) or a mitten (handprint)
Prepare the Mold Experiment


Meeting #2 Healthy Hands: Soap
Cut a rope
Open a sealed box (packing tape)
Open a can
Loosen/tighten screw
Open a letter

Learn handwashing song
Germ demonstration
Sneeze demonstration

Meeting #3 Helpful Hands

5 ways to help keep house/room clean, make a job chart (Faith in God activity: helping parents)

Make slime and do mucus demonstration


Duty To God 
Meeting #1
discuss duty to God in Daily Life
Go to a place of reverence like a temple, take pictures of the boys, discuss duty to God in Daily Life

Meeting #2
Make a list of things to practice in daily life learned from the stories of people seeking religious freedom (pray, scriptures, honor parents, forgive, be kind, etc) go home and do for 2 weeks.
Make a picture frame for the temple picture
Discuss 2 groups that came to America for religious freedom (Jaredites, Nephites, Quakers, Jewish and other refugees, etc)

Meeting #3
Spring Break
Spring Break

Scientist
Meeting #1Balloon experiments
Make static with balloon and another demonstration of static with a balloon
Power a boat with a balloon, vary the size of the balloon.

Meeting #2 Change One Experiments
Sink or Float
Airplanes and or
Changing the speed affects sound experiment (make a jumbo popsicle stick into a Bullroar—this is the tube experiement, but works better.)

Meeting #3 Amazing Result Experiements
Color experiments
Make a kazoo wind instruments with jumbo popsical sticks and then play some songs together as a den.
Optional go outside and record sounds (a voice record app could be fun for this)


Games, Games, Games
Meeting #1 Goods Sportsmanship and Planning
Play blanket ball or forehead squeeze (in the book), do a reflections

PLAN
1)     Ask the boys to each think of a friend to bring to the carnival next week. Write it down.  Invite as many moms as are willing to help as well.
2)     Ask how they would like to invite: call, email, text, paper invitation.  Write it down.
3)     Each boy can choose a carnival game to make at home (very simple no painting and coloring required) and a treat idea.  Write it down, give them writteninstructions for the game they chose to take home.  (Also the bears will help the younger boys by running the first three games which take no preparation and are required for Wolf)
For example :
Flexibility=popcorn treat
Balance=taffy
Animal walks=dum dums
Also have simple instructions for a handful of EASY games that each boy can take home and bring next week, if they forget, there are still the three required games above and the leader can prepare one or two if desired.
Others:
Bean bag toss=a few jelly beans
Ping pong toss =a few m&m’s
Cereal boxes with holes in the side for Target golf with ping pong bolls and homemade golf club=marshmallows
Dartless Balloon pop=bite size candy bars
Fishing Pond= for candy (no booth necessary, just use a couch, yarn and a clothespin)
Ring toss with dollar store bracelets (glow in the dark rings)
3 cup switch.  This should not be time consuming to throw together, in theory the boy could do it with no more than a dollar store trip or a visit to his toybox.
Can Knock Over or TP roll knock over=stack cups, cans, or TP and knock it down with a ball.

Good Sportsmanship game
-pass the apple game have the boys pass an apple and discuss wrong things and right things you could say when losing a game, throw the apple each time on the ground that a wrong thing is said and then pass it.  Cut open the apple and see the bruises caused by bad sportsmanship.

Or play a short game like connect four, go fish, old maid, memory, hungry hippos, jenga, tag, etc. and discuss how to be good sports if you win or lose.
Follow up with parents that invitations are given to friends and that treats and games are brought to the carnival next week.
Follow up with parents that invitations are given to friends and that treats and games are brought to the carnival next week.

Play a simple, yet effective, game of showing how words hurt each other when you show poor sportsmanship in Pass the Apple. Instruct everyone to sit in a circle and talk about how negative comments and begrudging others a good win hurts themselves and others. Take the apple in your hand and make a negative comment you hear after someone else beats you a competition, such as, "They didn't deserve to win." After making the statement, throw the apple on the ground and then pass it on to the next person who repeats the activity. After you've gone around the circle, cut the apple in half and show everyone how it is bruised on the inside. Relate that the same happens to us and others when we are bad sports.

Balance Game

To earn a treat, move forward, backwards, and sideways on a balance beam.

Flexibility

To earn a treat, Do a frog stand, a front roll, and or a back roll.

Animal Walks
Do at least two animal walks to earn a treat/prize
Frog Leap, Inchworm Walk, Kangaroo Leap, Crab Walk

 Water Coin Drop
The concept of the water coin drop is simple. Place a glass into the bottom of an empty aquarium. The glass is usually the size of a shot glass or use a larger glass if you want to increase the chances of winning. Fill the glass with water and a few coins to anchor it and then fill the aquarium with water.

The idea of this carnival game is for kids to place a coin at the top of the water and let it go. If the coin lands inside the glass, they win.

Have enough coins on hand to last you throughout the event. Provide the same type of coin to make it fair to everyone who plays.
For more advanced players, try the Minute to Win It version.

Dartless Balloon Pop

You'll need bean bags or balls, balloons, pins, tip of a meat thermometer, or something to pop the balloons with and a poster board.  Kids will throw the bags or balls at the balloons if they hit a balloon they use the balloon popper to pop balloon, then they receive the prize that is written under that balloon.

Alternately you could glue tacks to the poster board and set it behind balloons that are on the floor or a shelf over index cards with prizes written on them, so that when the bean bag is thrown it pops the balloons.

Fishing Game
For this game, you'll need to make a fishing pole with a binder clip/clothespin find at the dollar store).attached at the end instead of a hook.

The object of the game is very simple, which makes it an instant hit with younger children. The player will cast a line over a wall, or couch, or sheet-covered table where an adult is hiding on the other side. Watch your head!

You clip a piece of candy or a small toy to the clip and give the fishing line a pull as if the kids have caught a fish. The player pulls out the line and takes his prize.

Bean Bag Toss
Make your own bean bag toss game. A bean bag in the hole means kids win a prize.

Sew simple bean bags out of cloth squares.  Sew 3 sides, Fill with beans or rice and sew closed.  Cut a hole or holes in a cardboard box that can be propped up against a wall.  You can have different prizes or scores for different holes if you like.

Find the Ball Cup Switch

You only need three plastic cups and a small ball to play.

Show the ball to your player, put it under a cup and switch the cups around. The player tries to follow the cup that has the ball underneath. When you're done moving the cups around, the player taps the top of the cup he thinks the ball is in. You lift the cup and if the ball is there, he wins a prize.

Another option is to use a piece of cardboard to hide all of the cups from your player. Place the ball under any cup and then remove the cardboard. Instead of moving the cups around, the player will simply guess which cup is hiding the ball.
Ball Toss
Label baskets with different point values and toss balls
Ping Pong Toss
A boy made this ping pong ball toss game. He took an empty box and cut squares into the bottom. Then we covered it with white gift wrap and used different colors of duct tape to mark the holes. Each color represented a different type of prize. Note: leave the bottom of your game open so that you can retrieve the ping pong balls that go through the holes.

Balloon Pop Game

Cut some small pieces of paper, labeling some “Prize” and some “Try Again”. Roll up your papers and drop each into a small balloon. Blow up the balloon and tie it. Tape all the balloons to a large piece of cardboard or foam board. Use masking tape to mark the floor where the kids will stand to throw darts at the balloons. Then let them see if they can pop a balloon and win a prize!
A boy made these darts, and I was very impressed by his creativity! I told him that we needed darts, and these are what he came up with. He rolled an index card around a push pin and secured it with some tape. Just for fun, I added some feathers from our craft supplies.


Meeting #2 Den Carnival
Carnival should have a friend or maybe two sibling guests for each cub scout.  Hold at the regular den meeting time and place.  Ask some moms to come help.  Do each prepared carnival game, but start with flexibility, balance, and animal walks.
Do all the activities making sure Bears help the younger kids do one activity. 
Flexibility
Balance
Animal walks

Could play catch or practice throwing time permitting or if it is one of the games.

Could have a Catch the Teddy Bear carnival game
or a Water Bomb throw (made of strips of sponges rubber banded together or water balloons)

Meeting #3 Game of Catch, Menu Planning Game
Discuss carnival-- what went well and what would have made it better

Make a thankyou cheer to do at next pack night to thank parents and leaders and boys for helping!

Play catch
Make a meal plan and the shopping list.  This could be made a game by having cards to pick with food selections for each food group of the meal plan.  The boys could make up the cards in a brainstorming session and the leaders could write down their ideas, or to save time the cards could be premade and the boys could draw for a secret menu surprise.
Bonus: actually prepare a simple meal like adding mayo or barbeque sauce to canned chicken and making sandwiches on rolls or bread, serving baby carrots, etc.  Washing grapes or cutting bananas in halves. 
You could make something healthy like a green smoothie.
Or make some fun snack food such as apple boats.

Hiking
Meeting #1 Prepare to Hike

6 essentials hide them and egg hunt for them.
Buddies, play a buddy game
Clothing, do a relay or make a game of determining what clothing is completely wrong and what is right.
Outdoor code, leave no trace, discuss and recite
bonus: make a trail mix for next week, perhaps have samples:)

Meeting #2 Hiking and observing nature
1-miler
6 signs of animal life
Observe with magnifying glass or binoculars
1-miler

Meeting #3 Gardening
Composting
Plant a vegetable or herb garden




No comments: