Cranham Scout Group

Don’t forget that next meeting is the Activity Hike.

Make sure your Cubs are dressed for some time outdoors.

And please stay to help if you can - outdoor activities need lots of adults to ensure safety. If we don’t have enough adults, we can’t do the activity!

Finally, please remember that the Activity Hike will take two hours - so we’ll start at the usual time, but will not finish for two hours!

Don’t forget that we’re going out to look at the pond this evening.

It’s not been too wet lately, but still, shoes that can get muddy are a must!

Also, we’ll need as many adults as we can get, for safety reasons, as we’re leaving the immediate environs of the hall. Please stay on if you can!

Sorry for the delay in preparing this, as we had to wait for the activity hike to be organised to build everything else around it.

Click here for the 2009 Summer Programme

We have the first rehearsal for the Cubs Talent Show next week!

So please encourage your Cubs to think of a skill they’d like to show off on stage - and bring any equipment they’ll need.

If they can’t think of anything, or are paralysed with stagefright, don’t worry - we’ll either organise some together into a group to do something together, find things they can help with in others’ acts, or get them handling other duties at the show itself.

Here’s our programme for the first half of the Summer Term:

On the 11th of March (the next meeting), Cubs and Scouts will visit Stroud Fire Station for a tour of the facilities!

This should be great fun - but it means a change of meeting time and place:

Please come straight to Stroud Fire Station in Paganhill lane - and here is a map.

Since Cubs and Scouts will all come in together, we’re meeting half an hour after Cubs normally starts (to give people time to get there), which is three quarters of an hour before Scouts normally starts. I can’t write the actual times here, since best practice recommends against publishing precise meeting times and places together. Plan to arrive 5-10 minutes early, of course, to make sure we get everyone together in good time to start and make the best of the visit!

Our tour will last two hours. The fire station have suggested that you can park if you drive around the left hand side of the station - obviously, don’t block the road outside!

Gosh, with all the snow Cranham had, we had to cancel two meetings - and then there was half term. We’ll have to see if we can catch up on the programme…

Anyway, on the first meeting back after all that, we talked about the snow and the related issue of climate change, and started discussing ideas for our talent show, which we hope to have on the First of April (the last meeting of the term) if we can catch up in time!

Today’s theme with the Cubs was working as a team.

So we used the tried and tested technique of setting a challenge that a cub can’t do alone - that even two would struggle with. In teams of four, they would have to work together to get it done.

The challenge was simple: part of the hall was marked out and declared to be a river of shark-infested custard (with a shark fin added for effect). A few sheets of newspaper were arranged in a few spots to be slippery, muddy, islands. Each team of four was issued with two heavy aluminium planks, about five feet long (with the ends covered in carpet lest they scrape the floor), and a bottle containing twenty litres of water - which was actually medical supplies that had to be taken across the river along with the entire team. Needless to say, if anybody touched the custard, they’d be carried away by sharks; and even if the end of a plank dipped into it, the plank would be snatched away by the fast current.

So they had to cooperate as a team to extend an aluminium plank out to reach the nearest island, then manoeuvre themselves, the medical supplies, and the second plank around the small island to get the second plank reaching to the next island, then go back and retrieve the first plank so it can be used to get from the second island to the third - then repeat this process to get from the third island to the far shore.

The trick was to have two members of the tream crouching down and holding the plank, acting as a fulcrum, while the other two stand behind them and hold the rear of the plank to take the weight, then feed it forwards, holding it up until it reaches the next island or shore; but the important thing was that they’d manage to organise this between themselves. Of course, to begin with, we would have one person picking up the water, one person picking up a plank and trying to position it themselves, and the other two arguing about what should be done - but with a little hinting, they quickly cottoned on to the idea of discussing what to do as a group then deciding who would do what part of it. So each team started off slow, but after the first island or two, had worked out a process that they then followed to get the rest of the way efficiently. This made me very proud!

Today we looked into the Chinese new year with the cubs. Last year we talked about the traditions and legends behind it; this year, we continued the astronomy theme by discussing the nature of the lunisolar calendar, then proceeded to cook spring rolls.

We split the pack into three groups. Each group, with a Responsible Adult, then took turns to stir-fry pre-cut vegetables in a wok, then placed them onto a sheet of pastry and folded them into a spring roll, which they then took to another Responsible Adult who was manning the deep-fat fryer.

This was very popular with the Cubs, as they could eat the results!

All of this was only possible thanks to the hard work of Paul, who spent hours the night before preparing everything!

Well, the plan was to have a nice walk out onto the common to look at the clear skies and spot some constellations…

…but it was overcast. However, we were all ready to go out, so we went for a walk in the woods instead, and talked about astronomy in general. The lack of good sky took the thrill out of it, but we still got the job done.