Cranham Scout Group

Today, as the rain looked a bit depressing for the planned activity of outdoor cooking, the cubs instead learnt a bit about the history and practice of communication using secret codes (which, after all, is a local industry with [GCHQ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GCHQ) just up the road in Cheltenham!)

Then the Scouts were down at the county scout HQ for archery.

This Sunday is the [Cranham Village Paper Boat Race](http://cranham-feast.org.uk/2007/boat-race/)!

In particular, members of the Cranham Group are welcome. If you can come, we’d like you to come in your uniforms, because we are having a small recruitment drive to see if we can find some assistant leaders, and would therefore like the Group to make a good impression upon the village!

We have [a letter about the event](http://www.cranham-scouts.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/cranham-paper-boat-race-leaflet.pdf) and [instructions on how to make a traditional paper boat](http://www.cranham-scouts.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/paper-boat-instructions.pdf)
.

Today, the plan had been for the Cubs to bring in any collections they’d like a Collector’s Badge for, and for anybody who would like to do the My Faith badge to meet the requirements by telling us about their faith – but nobody had remembered [two weeks ago](http://www.cranham-scouts.org.uk/2007/06/13/badges-and-paper-boats/)! I’ll have to organise another badge meeting, but keep reminding them about it weeks in advance, I think…

So we finished off the Road Safety badge; if I can get to Scout Shop, we’ll have the badges for that next time we meet, and filled the time out a bit with some games.

Then the Scouts worked on their final boats for the race this Sunday.

Well, the plan for the Cubs today *was* to go out on the Common for a navigation exercise, but in the afternoon, it rained and rained, so we decided to do something else instead…

Since the Cubs all seemed rather lively (an experienced Leader who was there to assist suggested that on rainy afternoons, they will have missed out on playtime at School and so on, so will often be rather energetic), we played a few popular games to burn energy off, then we talked about the upcoming [Boat Race](http://cranham-feast.org.uk/2007/boat-race/) and demonstrated the traditional [Origami paper boat](http://www.dltk-bible.com/crafts/mboat.htm) (which also makes a good hat when half-made!). Although they were at first skeptical about how interesting making paper boats could be, at the end of the meeting, they groaned in disappointment that we had to stop them!

Then the Scouts worked towards their [Naturalist badge](http://www.scoutbase.org.uk/library/hqdocs/badges/scout-activity-natu.htm) by researching native British animal species and producing posters about them, and posters about humanity’s influence upon the local environment. Then the day was finished off with an investiture and the creation of a new Patrol, the Cobras.

Today, the Cubs’ focus was badges. At the start of the term, we’d read out the descriptions of the available [activity badges](http://www.scoutbase.org.uk/library/hqdocs/badges/cub-activity-index.htm), and taken votes on which ones were popular.

So today we went over the most popular badge that had a chance of getting done in a day – [Road Safety](http://www.scoutbase.org.uk/library/hqdocs/badges/cub-activity-rosa.htm) – and we handed out worksheets for badges that mainly had to be done at home (the [Collector](http://www.scoutbase.org.uk/library/hqdocs/badges/cub-activity-coll.htm), [Animal Carer](http://www.scoutbase.org.uk/library/hqdocs/badges/cub-activity-anca.htm), and [My Faith](http://www.scoutbase.org.uk/library/hqdocs/badges/cub-activity-myfa.htm) badges). On the next day we have for badge work (the 20th of June), those with collections or who wish to do My Faith can fulfill the requirements for them by showing us their collections, telling us about their faiths, and so on.

For the interested, the sheets I made can be downloaded: [Animal Carer](http://www.cranham-scouts.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/animal-carer.pdf), [Collector](http://www.cranham-scouts.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/collector.pdf), and [My Faith](http://www.cranham-scouts.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/my-faith.pdf).

We nearly finished the Road Safety – just one more point remains to be covered; we’ll get that out of the way on the 20th, if all goes well.

Then the Scouts had a crafty meeting. They made Father’s Day cards and experimented with more boat designs for the upcoming [Boat Race](http://cranham-feast.org.uk/2007/boat-race/); and finished the final part of their [Emergency Aid 1](http://www.scoutbase.org.uk/library/hqdocs/badges/staged-emai.htm) badges.