Combining Adventures

With the old program, we had a file called "double takes," that told you which activity badge requirements could count for more than one thing. The new program is better and doesn't have as much duplication! However, to save time, you can combine adventures and still get the full experience of both while saving time.

Combining Adventures

Webelos Walkabout and Into the Woods

You might as well do Webelos Walkabout with the Into the Woods Adventure and knock two out at once. You can also do it along with the Scouting Adventure.

We did this one in two weeks—prep for the hike one week, and then the hike the next week. The first week, we planned our hike, prepared our first aid kit, talked about poisonous plants and animals, and planned leadership roles.

Before leaving on our hike, we recited the Outdoor Code and Leave No Trace and discussed how to follow them. We picked up trash in the parking area and also as we hiked the trail for the conservation project. We also passed off the Into the Woods Adventure as we went on our hike.

Stronger, Faster, Higher

Be aware as you plan that this adventure will take more than just a month to pass off (requirement #3 requires 30 days). I was worried about finding a sport that people haven’t tried before, but I think we found one. It’s an old Danish sport called kubb. You can find information (including instructions on how to make your own set and how to play) online. It’s a pretty good bet that none of our Webelos will have played it before.

Scouting Adventure

This one was a lot of fun. It does have a few challenges, but you can still make it work. One challenge is coordinating with the troop for two activities. Also, our troop is not necessarily functioning perfectly as far as what they are supposed to learn/report after the first troop meeting. Because of that, I gave our den chief a copy of the pages from the handbook so he could review that information with our Webelos (like leadership, how advancement works, etc.).

Also be aware that this one will really take more than one month if you do it correctly. You should be practicing the patrol method for a month. In my mind, choosing the patrol leadership and having them start the next week, then having one or two more activities before Pack Meeting isn’t quite enough.

I combined this with the Webelos Walkabout and Into the Woods adventures. (You could potentially do the hike as the outdoor activity with the troop if you can make that work—otherwise go on your own hike.)

Another potential difficulty with the Scouting Adventure is that they have to memorize the Scout Oath, Law, motto, slogan, sign, salute, handshake, First Class Scout Badge, and Outdoor Code. We are practicing these EVERY week (we do First Class Scout Badge puzzle as a gathering activity regularly). 

Also, see our Gathering Activities for more suggestions.

Gathering Activities

As the Scouts arrive, have them start playing games to review skills you’ve been learning, or to practice things like the Scout Oath and Law that they will have to memorize. We try to do at least one of these each week so they are constantly practicing. These activities are also good for throwing in at the end of a den meeting if you have a few minutes before parents come.

First Class Scout Badge puzzle: print the puzzle and have them put it together. They need to know what each piece means, as well as how it fits together. (This is a good one to do in pairs.)

Scout Law Flashcard: Each Scout gets his own set of flashcards. He puts the points of the Scout Law in order (using pictures or words) as fast as he can. I haven’t ever gotten around to it, but you could also make a similar game for the Oath, Outdoor Code, and Leave No Trace.

Charades: My Webelos have liked this one a lot more than I thought they would! The Scout who is “it” looks at the Oath, Law, Motto, Slogan, Outdoor Code, and LNT cards hanging on the board and chooses one. (He chooses one word strip, like “Loyal,” “Be careful with fire,” etc.) He then tries to act it out so that everyone else can guess. This has also been a good activity to help them understand what each part means.

Knot tying contest: You can have them review the knots you have learned for the Scouting Adventure by seeing who can tie each knot correctly, and fastest!

In general, we have found that anything we can turn in to a game, the more fun it is. This age of boy does not like to have worksheets or to be lectured at. We do games as much as we possibly can! Most requirements that have us talk about something can be turned into a game, whether it is a board game, a relay race, or whatever. Even when they have to explain something, when they do it in a game format, they’re more willing to do it. At least that’s what we’ve found!

Looking Back, Looking Forward

This one turned out a lot differently than I originally thought it would, but it was still pretty good. We did this one in February so we'd have a special display and presentation for the Blue and Gold Banquet.

We started by talking about the history of Scouting. As part of that, we watched the first segment of the Century of Honor. (THIS segment) I'm not sure that link worked. If you're interested, click on the "Century of Honor" link above and click on the "The Start of a Movement" link. You can download or view it from there. We also watched the "A Brief History of Cub Scouting."

We talked about all the things that are mentioned in the book--what's the same, what's changed, etc.

They did a page about their own Scouting Story, and of course the Scouting in the future.

For the timeline requirement, we did this all together, instead of each of them choosing their own two topics. We did food and toys. It worked out pretty well! I did some research ahead of time so everything was ready. I found the food and toys for 100, 50, 20, and 5 years ago. We had samples for all possible (so they could taste the food and see/try the toys, when possible), but the funnest part was we found original commercials for as many of them as possible on YouTube to show them. Talk about a journey to the past! It was a blast. They decided themselves what they wanted for the "Now" category, and then brainstormed the future.

Moviemaking

We loved this one! It was so much fun.

We used www.storyboardthat.com to create the storyboard. It was easy. It has a lot of different backgrounds, props, and posed people you can put into scenes. We just did one picture for each scene to represent what was happening in the story. We decided the easiest way to do this was to have a silent film, so we didn’t have to worry about dialogue. That made it so much simpler! We used PowerPoint for the text boxes in the film. We filmed at a quiet, semi-wild park near our meeting place. We put it together in Windows MovieMaker, which is really simple. I changed all the video files to black and white/sepia in Windows MovieMaker, and we sped up the video to 1.5 speed, so it was a little fast and jerky like old silent films. It really turned out great. And, it was a HUGE hit when we shared it at Pack Meeting! Of course then we also burned it onto a DVD so our Scouts could keep a copy. :)

You can do a google search for "silent film music" to get the background music. You can also watch a few silent films on YouTube as an example before you start--just be sure you pre-screen them so you don't have any inappropriate surprises when you are showing your Scouts!

First Responder

We used the first two weeks of this month to learn all the skills. One way to do this is to play a matching game. (The file I’m including is an old one from the old Readyman Activity Badge, but the information is still good. We used it this time. The only thing I did differently this time was to take out the “hurry cases” and talk about them separately from the game.) The third week, we went to the ambulance station to meet a first responder. It was awesome. If I had known it was going to be so great, I would have done the whole month differently. I think next time we will go there first, and then review during the other weeks. The Webelos Den Leader Guide has a great setup for practicing.

Last year we bought some CPR mannequins for practicing. These ones are inflatable (easy to store!) and fairly inexpensive. We have a baby and one that represents a child or an adult. We got them from CPR Anytime (www.shopcpranytime.org). Each kit was around $40 when we bought them, and they include the inflatable mannequin and an instructional DVD. We also used the video on the child/adult for teaching the Heimlich Maneuver. It explains it better than in the book. (They did also teach us that at the ambulance station.)

Engineer

I want to do this one the month before the Pinewood Derby, so we can do a demonstration at Pack Meeting. This is for part of requirement #4—Pinewood Derby Experiments (see p. 383 in handbook). We are going to do this to see what makes the best Pinewood Derby car. We’ll have a number of different cars ready to test where the best place is to put weight, shape, graphite on the wheels, etc. After determining the best options, we’ll give a demonstration at Pack Meeting, with the hopes that it will help everyone get ideas of how they want to build their own cars.

You could do parts of requirements #3 and #4 in conjunction with a space derby (see notes on Build My Own Hero).

Duty to God and You and Duty to God in Action

The original idea behind the Duty to God adventures for each year program (Tiger, Wolf, Bear, Webelos, Arrow of Light) when the new program was created, was that this adventure be done at home with the family. Therefore, you can send these home and have the Scouts complete them with their families. The problem we’ve had is that when we send things home, it’s like pulling teeth to get anything back! Also, the Webelos program is moving towards Boy Scouts, with a little more distance from a home-centered program. The Webelos/Arrow of Light Duty to God Duty to God adventures are designed so that they can be done at home or in the den.

For either adventure, you can count the religious award for your faith, or the requirements in the Webelos handbook.

When we did these adventures, we did both at once. I have it scheduled from now on for December, because this is typically a low-attendance month. If they come, they can do as much as possible with the den and finish at home. If they don’t come, they can do the whole thing at home.

Week One: The first week, we played the Duty to God game. I created this originally to help us earn a special award available in our council several years ago. Since you probably won’t be doing that, you can replace some of the questions to fit the needs of your Webelos. (Just be sure you check the requirements you need to fulfill and catch them somewhere—in the game or out.) You can easily take out or replace some of the questions. This game is played similarly to the Who Me game at Wood Badge. You roll a dice (or use a spinner) to see how many spaces to move. If you land on a blue square, you draw a blue card from the pile and answer the question. If you land on a yellow square, you draw a yellow card and everyone answers the question. 

Game Files:

Game Board

Yellow Cards

Blue Cards

This week, we also showed them the Duty to God video made by our church. They each should also choose three things that will draw them closer to God and help them do their Duty to God. These things should be written down, with a plan for how they will do it. (i.e. I am going to read my scriptures and pray every day. I will remember by doing it first thing in the morning. I’ll have a note next to my bed to remind me. I will also go to church every week. I’ll ask my parents to help me remember to get ready.) Also, we had everyone decide on something special they were going to do at home to serve a family member (read to my brother every day this week, set the table and do dishes, etc.).

Week Two: The second week, we had everyone report on how they’re doing on their goals, and how the service went. (Reporting on goals was not to be nosy or intrusive on whether they’re doing those things, but mostly as a reminder so they don’t forget to keep doing it.) When they report their service, they need to also tell about how that relates to doing their duty to God and how it made them feel.

We also worked on the religious square knot requirements this week. This is hard because for ours, most of the requirements have to be done at home. But we went over what they needed to do and explained everything.

If you have an available third week: Finish up anything you didn’t get done before, or arrange a service project. This could be visiting a lonely ward member, going to the care center, washing windows for someone, raking leaves or shoveling snow, etc.

Build My Own Hero Adventure--And Hero Space Derby

Build Your Own Hero

We loved this one!

Week 1: Discuss #1-2, 4-6

We had a local police officer come talk to us. He explained some of what he does and then let the Webelos see inside his car. They got to see how to turn on the lights, sirens, etc. You could also couple this one with the First Responder Adventure (one First Responder visit/field trip for both adventures), although I think the Webelos really enjoy getting to experience both.

For learning about a hero in another part of the world, I brought some little simple biographies. Everyone chose one to read on his own and then share with the group. (We gave them 5 minutes or so to read it before sharing.) We did the same thing for the Scout hero, but we used “Scouts in Action” from the Boy’s Life magazine. (They publish “Scouts in Action” every month, or you can find low-quality files on their website. We wanted to use some of these for a special Pack Meeting one time, so I wrote and requested some specific ones as high-quality files.)

These are the people we used for our world hero biographies:
Winston Churchill
Mother Theresa
Corrie Ten Boom
Louis Pasteur 

Week 2: Hero Game

We created this game before we were using the new program, but it really lent itself well to this adventure, so we kept it! It is like a board game, but life-size. (The Webelos Scouts are the playing pieces.) To prepare the game, print the game spaces. I printed each space on its own color of paper. I printed two copies of the “Switch” spaces, and 3-4 copies of all the others. You’ll also need to print the question cards. I made up the questions based on the needs we had in our den at that time, so you can do whatever you want or need. At your den meeting place, you’ll need a big space. Tape the game spaces to the floor spaced out a little (so they are not crowded as they move around and so the Scouts don’t have too many problems keeping their hands to themselves). Just be careful not to spread them out too far because you want everyone to hear, and you don’t want to lose anyone! Like a board game, intersperse the different spaces fairly evenly. For moving, we made a big box out of foamboard (from the dollar store). Each side of the box had one of the pictures from the game spaces on it, like a dice, or a number (1-3).

To play: Each Webelos Scout gets to choose a hero they will represent for the game (a real person or a fictional character—i.e. my dad, Superman, etc.). We wrote the hero names on an index card and tied it on a string around their necks so they could remember. Each Webelos Scout also got to wear a hero cape (from the dollar store). To start, each Webelos Scout stood on a different “Heros in Training” space on the game board floor. (We did this just to keep everyone spaced out a little to start.) The first person rolls the box/dice and has to answer a question that relates to that space. If they answer correctly, they can move to the space with that picture. If someone is already on that space, they go to the next spot (whether it matches the picture or not). Here is the trick—on Test of a True Hero spaces, they are not answering the question as themselves, but as their hero. So they have to decide how Superman (or grandpa, or whoever) would handle the situation. Everyone decides together if it is the “right” answer or not based on the Scout Oath and Scout Law. The Good Deed spaces are just for fun, where everyone gets to move without having to do anything. If someone lands on a Switch space (the arrows), he can decide to keep their hero or trade for a new hero. This was so that if your hero is Skeletor who never answers the questions correctly, you have a chance to change for someone else. Or if someone has a hard time deciding on one hero, they have a chance to trade partway through.  One time we played, we gave out little candies for correct answers. The second time I forgot about that until we were partway through, but it still worked out okay. The last time we played, I didn’t bother with the candy at all.

After the game, we had a little reflection, where we talked about what it means to be a good hero, and whether the heroes they chose for the game were good heroes or not. We also talked about what kinds of things we can be doing so that we can also be good heroes to someone else. If you have enough time, this could also be a good opportunity to talk about the hero awards they are giving out. Each Scout should choose his own hero he would like to recognize. We had one Scout who wanted to give an award to three different people, which was also great! We also sent home the Hero poster this week, with the Scout Oath and Law on it. (I printed them on cardstock and laminated them, then encouraged them to take it home and hang it up.)

Files for hero game:
Game Spaces
Sample Questions

Hero Certificate
Hero poster to send home

Week 3: Finish up anything you haven’t finished before OR do a Hero Space Derby

We have done a Hero Space Derby for three years in our den, and it’s one of the highlights of the year! The first two years we did the BSA space derby kits. It worked okay, but it was kind of a pain. The kits are harder for families to do (at least that’s the feedback I got—I suspect this is mostly because it’s different from the pinewood derby kits they’re used to). We also had a lot of downtime during the derby because it takes a long time to wind the rockets in between each race. This year, we tried a stomp rocket instead. It was really fun, and we didn’t have the problem with downtime. (In addition, the stomp rockets can count towards the Engineer Adventure if you are working on that.) They decorated their rockets that day, so parents didn’t have to worry about doing anything at home ahead of time. We have done this several ways—having just our den or allowing families to come. It worked well both ways.

We had the foyer set up as “Astronaut Registration.” When they came in, each Scout received a name badge and a Space Derby patch. When doing the space derby kits, they were given a straw rocket kit to play with at this point because it takes a little time to get set up.

The next step was to have everyone move to the “Astronaut Orientation and Training” area. Here, we played a video of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldren placing the flag on the moon for our flag ceremony. We discussed some of the products that were developed for the space program (such as Velcro and juice boxes), as well as some astronauts that have been Cub Scouts (I found a list by searching online). We had a display set up nearby of NASA heroes (pictures of prominent astronauts, like the first American in space, the first to leave Earth’s orbit, first on the moon, etc. as well as later ones like the crew of Challenger, etc.). We talked about how they were heroes, but that they were just doing their jobs. Even Cub Scouts can be heroes by doing their job and by dreaming and working for bigger things. We originally planned this around the anniversary of the Moon landing (July 20), so we spent some time talking about what that was like and showed a video.

When doing the stomp rockets, the next step was to have them decorate their rockets. We just used lengths of the pool noodles from the dollar store or Walmart. We glued a piece of foam plate over the top to cover up the hole. They decorated their rockets with stickers, markers, etc. If you are doing this as part of the Engineer Adventure, it would be good to have them experiment with different lengths, cone vs. no cone, shape of cone, fins, etc.

After this, we moved on to the derby.  We had the track set up at the “Launch Site.”  (We blocked off the track/stomp area with chairs and signs that said “Authorized Personnel Only.”)  For the derby, we had several races for speed and for distance.  We also set up balloons partway down the track with a pin in a card right before it, to see which rocket(s) could pop the balloons.  One thing we learned was that it took a long time to set up the rockets between each race.  It was nice to have the straw rockets for them to play with, but it would have been better to have more games and activities.  We also decided that we needed to have a winding mechanism to help make the process faster.  You can find the instructions for using a drill to wind the rockets several places online.  We also found that we needed extra rubber bands because several broke right away.  We found some the same size as those in the kits at Staples. For the stomp rockets, we mostly just had fun, but we did see who could go the highest. If you were working on the Engineer, you could do a lot more things, like testing different styles of rockets.

After the races, we gave out awards to the Scouts for completing their “missions.” They each received a package of astronaut ice cream.

We also had a “Refueling Station” of snacks for everyone.  We had juice boxes, Tang, and Moon Pies.

With the stomp rockets this year, we added in a few games on the side. We had a “geologist” game where they had to collect “moon rocks.” I had a small round inflatable swimming pool that represented a moon crater. It was filled with little balls (like jumping house balls) and a mix of individually wrapped candies underneath the balls. They had a minute or so to find as many different kinds of “moon rocks” as possible—get as many candies as you can without getting two of the same kind.

To download the files we used for the signs and things for the Space Derby, see the original post here.

New Webelos Adventures

I am going to post a bunch of new ideas for the new Webelos Adventures. We've tried quite a few adventures now, and we have some good ideas for some that we haven't tried yet!

Since we are part of an LDS-chartered pack, we came up with a plan to complete the 14 adventures (to earn the Webelos Rank and Arrow of Light) in one year. I think it's possible! It is a pretty tight schedule, but I think (hope!) it can be done.

Here is our proposed yearly schedule:

January--Build My Own Hero
February--Looking Back, Looking Forward (with display for the Blue and Gold Banquet)
March--Engineer (with demonstration of what makes the best Pinewood Derby car at Pack Meeting--one month before PWD)
April--Stronger, Faster, Higher
May--Into the Wild; Moviemaking (Into the Wild can be done in one long outing--in May we have a local event that works well--our wildlife refuge has an annual open house with activities)
June--Cast Iron Chef
July--Camper
August--Scouting Adventure
September--Scouting Adventure; Webelos Walkabout; Into the Woods (complete Into the Woods while on the hike)
October--Building a Better World
November--First Responder
December--Duty to God and You; Duty to God in Action