Next Meeting: BOOOoooo!

On Wednesday the 29th of October, we will celebrate Halloween at Beavers.

.  The kids are encouraged to wear their current favourite costumes to the meeting to show and share.  Our plans are to enjoy a treat, play a little Halloween themed game and watch an age appropriate Halloween film.

Looking forward to seeing lots of scary faces!

Ringtail

Ringtails Crafty Musings: Beaver Masks

On Wednesday, October 22nd, the Beavers will be making a craft to get them in the mood for Halloween.

If the Beavers own their own craft scissors we please ask that they bring them...to cut out of the ears, nose and teeth.

This is not a complicated craft, and could be done in so many ways.

Basically, supplies are:

Paper plate
Construction Paper (any colour wanted)
Crayons or Paints (we are going with crayons)
Toothpicks for whiskers
Glue
Elastic bands or popsicle stick
Sticky stars for decorations

Basically, creativity is key...the Beavers can do anything they want!

Looking forward to seeing what they can do.

Ringtail

Uniform Placement

1st Alcona Beavers had its investiture night on Wednesday.  For those in attendance, we had a wonderful evening and are now standing at 7 Brown Tails, 7 Blue Tails and 9 White Tails.  What a great mix!

 

I have modified the official document to show where to place the badges that your Beaver received.  Hope this helps!  You can sew them on, iron them on (where applicable), or you can pick up a special adhesive from craft stores or Walmart that works with badges.  I'm still not 100% certain how the latter item will hold up to the multiple washes that most Beaver vests will require (they do play hard, don't they?) but it does work for the most part.  Apparently helping it along with an iron on the uniform before placement helps with the adhesive.

 

Next week we will be doing a craft...a little mask work to get the kids in the mood for Halloween.

Ringtail

Up Next - Investiture Night

On Wednesday, October 15th, our youngest Beavers (currently known as "Kits") will partake in a very important ceremony.  They will officially become "Eager Beavers".  The investiture ceremony officially welcomes the Beaver into the Scouting programme and during this ceremony the Beaver receives a tail, neckerchief and badges for his uniform.
We will certainly help our young Beavers through the ceremony, but it's always nice if they already have a good memory of our Law, Promise and Motto - which I have posted here. 

We do welcome family to stay for the ceremony and take plenty of pics!

Ringtail

October 8th Meeting - Thanksgiving

 

Seeing as how the weather outside is getting rather wet and cool, I'm pleased that we were able to get our hiking in prior to this.   

 

This coming Wednesday we are back at St. Francis of Assisi, doing some crafts, playing some games and talking a bit about a typical Canadian Thanksgiving and why we celebrate it.

 

Encourage your Beaver to think about what Thanksgiving must have been like back in the days before electricity, supermarkets, refrigerators and television.  Wow, most kids these days struggle to think of the world before smartphones...this will really encourage them to stretch their minds a bit.

 

Here's some background on why we celebrate on a different date than our neighbours to the south, in case you were curious.

 

From Kidzworld:

 

The origins of Canadian Thanksgiving are more closely connected to the traditions of Europe than of the United States. Long before Europeans settled in North America, festivals of thanks and celebrations of harvest took place in Europe in the month of October. The very first Thanksgiving celebration in North America took place in Canada when Martin Frobisher, an explorer from England, arrived in Newfoundland in 1578. He wanted to give thanks for his safe arrival to the New World. That means the first Thanksgiving in Canada was celebrated 43 years before the pilgrims landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts!

For a few hundred years, Thanksgiving was celebrated in either late October or early November, before it was declared a national holiday in 1879. It was then, that November 6^th was set aside as the official Thanksgiving holiday. But then on January 31^st, 1957, Canadian Parliament announced that on the second Monday in October, Thanksgiving would be "a day of general thanksgiving to almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed." Thanksgiving was moved to the second Monday in October because after the World Wars, Remembrance Day (November 11th) and Thanksgiving kept falling in the same week. This year Canadian Thanksgiving is October 13^th!

Another reason for Canadian Thanksgiving arriving earlier than its American counterpart is that Canada is geographically further north than the United States, causing the Canadian harvest season to arrive earlier than the American harvest season. And since Thanksgiving for Canadians is more about giving thanks for the harvest season than the arrival of pilgrims, it makes sense to celebrate the holiday in October. So what are the differences between Canadian and American Thanksgiving, other than the date? Not much! Both Canadians and Americans celebrate Thanksgiving with parades, family gatherings, pumpkin pie and a whole lot of turkey!

Ringtail

 

Shining Waters Popcorn Sales

Only 1 month left in the 2014 Scout Popcorn Campaign!

Scout Popcorn is Scouts Canada's biggest and most successful fundraiser, giving almost 60% back to local groups. Raise all the money your Group needs to fund its ENTIRE Program.

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Hurry your sales orders are due by October 31st!
Popcorn is ready for pick up November 20 and 21st.
Bring a post-dated cheque dated December 5th.  

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• Never participated before? Its easy and we have lots of suggestions to get you started. 
• Prizes! We have another great line up of rewards for 2014. 
• Selling can be even be an investment in youth's future. From learning how to sell, to earning enough sales to participate in the Trails End Scholarship Program.

 

If you need any suggestions from within the group please feel free to talk to me, and we could setup some test scenarios on methods to help you and your Beaver sell.

Ringtail

Geocaching Meeting Wrap Up

On Wednesday the 1st day of October, the 1st Alcona Beavers converged at Centennial Park in Innisfil to learn about Geocaching.  Led by Tic Tac, all of the attendees learned how to use a GPS to find special treasure.

First we found an actual cache left by somebody within the wide expanse of a  tree, which gave us an opportunity to quiz the youngsters about the tree itself and some of its properties.  The youngsters learned about how some geocache's only contain a logbook, which we happily signed our groups names to.  1st Alcona Beavers has found their first geocache...and I'm certain it will not be its last.

As we were losing light fast, our next activity was a quick scavenger with a prize using distance and direction.  Tic Tac would announce North 5 paces, West 10 paces, etc; until all the boys found themselves in the area where a treasure could be found.  And what was it?  Well, what would any young boy be happy to find...a treat!  Potato Chips for everyone!

By the time this was finished we were in complete darkness, and as Centennial Park does not have much lighting we decided to wrap things up.  We performed our closing, and off the boys went to dreams of finding their own cache's on further days.

As section leader of 1st Alcona Beavers, my goal this year is to inspire the youth to pursue more and more activities that they would not normally get a chance to do, and I think Tic Tac did an amazing job of inspiring everyone about geocaching.  Even a lot of parents approached me and said how they look forward to doing more of this with their families.  Well done sir!

Good night and busy building tomorrow Beavers!

 

Ringtail