Howling at the Moon/Roaring Laughter

Cub Scout Comedy Den Meetings!

Wolf Adventure: Howling at the Moon requirements Complete each of the following Requirements.  1  Show you can communicate in at least two different ways. 2  Work with your den or family to create an original skit. 3  Work together with your den or family to plan, prepare, and rehearse a campfire program to present at a den meeting or pack program. 4  Perform your role for a den meeting or pack program. Faith in God Developing Talents #3 (LDS religious emblem) write a poem, story, or short play that teaches a principle of the gospel or is about Heavenly Fathe's creations.

Bear Elective Adventure: Roaring Laughter requirements Complete at least four of the following. 1.      Think about what makes you laugh. Write down three things that make you laugh.       2. Practice reading tongue twisters.       3. Create your own short story. Remove some nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs from the story, leaving blanks. Without telling the story, have a friend insert his or her own nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in the story you created.       4. With a partner, play a game that makes you laugh.       5. Share at least two jokes with members of your den to make them laugh.           6. Practice at least two run-ons with your den, and perform them at a pack meeting or campfire program.

Meeting 1: Comedy Activity -1 (also LDS religious emblem)

Wolf	Bear
Howling at the Moon #1, #2, #4 (also LDS Serving Others #6)	Developing Talents #3 (LDS religious emblem) Roaring Laughter #1, #2 (also LDS Serving Others #6)

Discuss communication, laughter is a kind of body language, speaking is another way we communicate.

Practice tongue twisters

Make up a short skit, poem, or story on a gospel topic
(serving others #6 learn about and practice good manners and courtesy)

 Gathering Activity: We had the boys read tongue twisters as they arrived.  There are great ones in the book or you can read pages out of Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss.  They got pretzel twists for participating.  Then we watched a couple studio C sketches including "Prop Switch".

Talk Time: discussed different types of communication verbal, non-verbal, written, and visual, etc.  We learned the scout motto in sign language as a demonstration.  We also had the boys in the circle send a message with body language to the group either "I am happy" or "I am mad" or "I am confused".  

"Communication is important for education as well as enjoyment.  We are going to be learning about a fun kind of communication in this adventure badge: comedy."  We discussed what made the boys laugh, I had the bears specifically list three things (they could duplicate each other).

Activity:

Then we talked about how they got to make their own comedy sketch or skit with props today.  

Prop Basket

I had a laundry basket filled with various props: an artificial flower, tray of play food, pillow, blanket, pool floatie, watering can, a wrapped present, a broom, a wig, etc  

I told them our skit needed to teach a gospel principle and the principle for our pack this month is courtesy.  Good manners are part of treating others the way Jesus would treat them.  So I challenged them to use their props twice in the skit, once to teach what courtesy is and once to teach what it isn't.  I told them we would be performing this skit at pack night for families.  The boys came up with the situation and chose their props, the leaders helped direct a bit, but the boys were able to improv with their props pretty well and we had a cute skit for pack night.

Den Meeting 2 Comedy Activity -2

Wolf	Bear
Howling at the Moon  #2, #3, #4	Roaring Laughter #4, #5, #6

Share jokes such as those on Laffy Taffy.  Play games that make you laugh such as the minute to win it “face the cookie”.  Work on skits/poems/stories. 

Homework: Howling at the Moon #4 or else perform for parents in a den meeting.

Gathering Activity: We did several Mad Labs using a Mad Libs app.

Talk Time: discuss the Howling at the Moon Legend in the book and the 6 parts of a campfire program.  We don't go camping in our pack, but we use most of the principles in our pack night and this is approximately how we plan to do it at our next pack night: 
Opening: prayer and flag ceremony
Songs: we choose not to sing at most pack nights, but this is fun around a fire- have any of the boys done this?  What song did they sing?
Cheers: We love cheers we did the "bobcat cheer" and "the wave" this month for boys getting awards.
Skits: We will have our courtesy skit and hopefully some run-ons from the Bears.
Story: Our cubmaster is a great storyteller, he always has captivating stories to help us remember the gospel principle of the month.  Stories are also great around a campfire.
Closing: We will have a drawing at the end of our program (entries for everyone who was on time, wore their uniform, or came to support their cub scout brother) then we will end with a prayer.

The 6 stones and 6 pieces of paper for fire represent the six parts of the campfire program.  The seventh  part should be S'mores!

Activity:
Joke Circle:  We had a joke circle where we went around and each boy got to share at least two jokes.  Each boy started with two Laffy Taffy's they could eat while we shared.  They could share the joke on the candy or share a favorite joke they already knew.  There are also great ideas in the book, or library's have fun joke books.

Rehearse Campfire Program:  This was essentially a run-through of our skit from last week and a practice of some run-ons for the Bears.

Play a game that makes you laugh:  You could play the soldier game in the handbook (try to make someone with a serious face laugh) or any other game you know that results in laughter, we did a blindfold game where the blindfolded person had to first find a person in the room and then that person had to say "peep" in a silly voice and the blindfolded person guessed who it was.  If time is short you could do Minute to Win It, Face the Cookie where you try to move an oreo from your forehead to your mouth by scrunching your face muscles.  Our boys didn't have much luck, but they laughed and enjoyed eating the cookies anyway.

Note: we finished this this badge in two den meetings, for the third week, you could do makeup activities, or do more of the above activities such as making a rock and paper campfire, having another silly games activity or watching some comedy sketches and discussing, or reading a joke book from the library would be a simple and fun den meeting.  

Air of the Wolf

This is a great summertime adventure!  

Den Meeting #1
We started with choosing 2 Air Experiments- (Comparing variations in the shape of wings through the air, and Variations in the Volume of Air)

A. Make a paper airplane and fly it five times. Try to make it fly farther by altering its shape. Fly it at least five more times to see if your changes were effective.  This makes a great gathering activity.  We had fun comparing completely different shapes of airplanes.  I would recommend having airplanes all folded that the boys can color and write their names on.  Then they can really focus on the adjusting the shape of the plane rather than getting burnt out on the folding part.  Finally, hope a windstorm doesn't kick up at exactly the time you want to test the planes like happened to us!  If it does, you'll have to fly the planes indoors and that is a bit chaotic!

B. Make a balloon-powered sled- I bought balloons for sleds, but then realized with my special needs den they wouldn't be able to blow up the balloons, so we improvised and used stomp rockets to accomplish the same experiment.  Instead of varying the size of the balloon, we varied the size of the bottle on the stomp rocket.  I'm not sure this variation counts so we did C as well just to be sure.  The rockets took too long to make.  A den leader in another pack told me she always has the rockets/sleds pre-made and the boys just decorate.  I think that is a good idea since the focus here is experimenting with air volume.

My boys building the launcher with pipe found in our garage and bottles from the recycling bin

we used 16oz, 2 liter, and 3 liter bottle attachments

the rocket is just over the roof in this picture, with the 3-liter bottle
the rockets might go so high you lose them, so do that one last.

pretty good air for just a little bottle!

C. Bounce a basketball that doesn’t have enough air in it. Then bounce one that has the right amount of air in it. Do each one 10 times. Describe how the ball bounces differently when the amount of air changes.  I had the balls sitting inside my house as the boys arrived and they just automatically started bouncing them when they walked in.  This experiement is easy to do with boys.  I had one flat one and one filled up, so the boys didn't lose interest while I took time to let air out.  

Bonus: For treats we made popcorn using a hot air popper.

Den Meeting #2
1 More Air Experiment and Races Using Air Power

For the gathering we launched rockets leftover from last week a few more times and  bounced balls.  Repeating requirements is good in the summer because someone is gone every den meeting and it helps more boys earn the badge.

C. With an adult, conduct an investigation on how speed can affect sound.

I made a simple bull roars with string taped to a wide craft stick and then let the boys swing them.  Adult supervision is needed for safety. 


E. With your den, participate in a rain gutter regatta. Explain how air helps the vehicle move.

Tin Foil Rain Gutter

We made boats with pool noodles, shish kabob sticks, and foam sails.  At first we tried using straws for the mast instead of shish kabob sticks and that did not work well.  We did our boat races fairly quickly and then played in the water the rest of the den meeting.  I warned the boys before den meeting that there would be water and they might get wet.  You can tape two rain gutters made with tin foil on a table outside for the races or on flat ground.  Since you have foil and water out, you can also put a tin foil river on a hill and let the boys play with floating small objects down stream.  You can also fill a plastic bin with water and let the boys try sinking things.  

Wolf Running With The Pack

For several of the boys in my den, physical activities are a challenge.  Therefore, I wanted to disguise the activities in such a way that they wouldn't realize they were doing the fitness badge.  However, by contrast, when I taught this badge last year, the boys asked me why none of the requirements for the "Running" badge were running!  Good question, eh?  I had them run some foot races and they loved it.  What a great lesson in adapting to the den you have.

Requirement #1

Play catch with someone in your den or family who is standing 10 steps away from you. Play until you can throw and catch successfully at this distance. Take a step back, and see if you can improve your throwing and catching ability.

For this one we did a teddy bear toss as a gathering activity to work on the catching ability.  One of my boys who had never really caught anything in his life was very successful, I told him to catch the bear in a hug and he never missed a catch for the whole time we played, it was awesome!

The next week for gathering we did water bombing.  I let the boys throw these water bombs three times each and see if they could get farther each time.  The boys that would normally go hide when it was time to play catch were begging for more turns!  It was really a personal challenge because the water bombs left wet splotches marking how far they had thrown and it encouraged them to try again and see if they could beat themselves.  The ability levels varied so much that the boys focused on beating themselves.

bucket of water and homemade sponge water bombs

the Yoga ball made an irrestible "balance" activity and the red circle in the sky is a water bomb sailing across the street.

Most of the boys and I could only throw to the end of the driveway.

Requirement #2

Practice balancing as you walk forward, backward, and sideways.

Requirement #3

Practice flexibility and balance by doing a front roll, a back roll, and a frog stand.

Requirement #4

Play a sport or game with your den or family, and show good sportsmanship.

One of the boys in our den hosted a whole den meeting where we played ping pong.  It worked well, we started just trying to hit the ball and work up to trying to return the ball and then to taking turns with a partner.  

I don't have any pictures, but this one from Croation Martyrs Parish Youth Group looks a lot like us:)

A few of our boys missed the ping pong activity, but they had a great activity to show good sportsmanship with this jousting game at day camp!  

  Requirement #5
Do at least two of the following: frog leap, inchworm walk, kangaroo hop, or crab walk.

This activity was several days before Mother's Day, so we played "Mother May I".  I made this game with two paper plates and an improvised brad made out of a twist tie.  You secretly spin it each turn so the boys don't know how many steps each animal will earn.  I divided the boys into two teams and each team's turn the boys would say, "Mother May I... crab walk, (or inchworm walk, frog leap,or kangaroo hop)?"  Then I would reveal how many steps they got.  

The week we did this badge I did my own bit of "Running with the Pack": Ragnar Cape Cod (12 person, 200 mile relay, funnest thing ever!)  This is the finish line at the Cape Cod Ragnar.  I didn't even think of them as being related until I downloaded the pictures and they were all labeled as one event by my computer.  

Requirement #6

Demonstrate what it means to eat a balanced diet by helping to plan a healthy menu for a meal for your family. Make a shopping list of the food used to prepare the meal.

I take exception to the MyPlate.gov meal planning guide, since it seems to be designed by lobbyists.  Also since the government of each country has a different plan--how can you say which country is right?  So, I just came up with a basic meal planner based on scriptures, which seems pretty safe and untrendy.

Fruit and Veggies: I explained that the reason the vegetable part of the plate was the biggest is that vegetables take a lot of room (think a dinner salad, a pile of broccoli, or corn on the cob).  We usually don't have fruit with dinner at my house, but if you had a slice of watermelon with dinner, that also takes up a lot of space on the plate.

Water: I explained that all healthy eating should include plenty of water and NOT fruit juice and soda.  I explained that if they like to have milk with their dinner that is a protein and to put that in the protein section of their meal plan.  Fruit juice is fine to have, but since it is all sugar, it really goes in the dessert category!  

Protein:  The boys got to learn this word as they were unfamiliar.  I talked about how dinner doesn't always have to be meat, for example cheese, beans, seeds, and nuts can all count for the protein.  For example, Cheese pizza, bean burritoes, chilli with beans, hummus, or peanutbutter all have some protein.  

Grains:  The boys also didn't know what this was, but it was great to learn.  I am gluten free, so I use a huge variety of grains in my diet and I think potatoes fit well on this part of the plate even though obviously not a grain.

Instructions: Draw or write your Healthy Meal Plan on this plate!

The boys did a great job on this.  Then we planned and made another healthy meal of sorts.  They got to choose the fruit assortment to go in three smoothies.  I put a handful of spinach and carrots in one to make it a super healthy green smoothie meal! One had a lot of bananas and blueberries and turned out purple it was our brain food smoothie.  The last one had a lot of pineapple and strawberry and mango and it turned out orange, great for vitamins!  We served up all-you-can-eat samples in dixie cups.  Most of the boys tried the green smoothie and were surprised to find that it was nearly as sweet and yummy as the fruit smoothies.  We had tons of smoothie left over, so smoothie is what my family actually did get for dinner that night!  No pictures, but here is one from my archives.  Kid's love smoothies, even green ones.