Cub Scout Den Meeting: October 9, 2013

    DATE: October 9, 2013    

Theme:    Rock Hounds                                                                 

TIME	ACTIVITY	EQUIPMENT NEEDED	BADGE REQUIRMENTS MET
3:45	Gathering Activity:  Rock Jokes
4:00	Opening Ceremony      - Opening Prayer: _____________      - Grand Howl      -Attendance: ________________	Attendance Book Stamp and Ink
4:05	GAME:  Mini Olympics	Skipping Long Jump etc	Athletic Badge #4
4:15	BADGEWORK: Insect Habits: An introduction to insects		First Aider #2i WSEA Natural Habitat 1c
4:20	THEME ACTIVITY: Discovering Insects in our Backyard	Magnifying glass Observation worksheets Pencils and clipboards	Observer badge #5
4:40	GAME:  Rock Slide Cruise
5:00	THEME ACTIVITY: How Trees Grow Discuss why trees are important.	Yarn Cardstock Glue	Black Star 5A
5:10	BADGE WORK:  Identify 6 trees or shrubs	Identification Worksheets Leaves to identify	Observer Badge #6
5:15	SPIRITUAL FELLOWSHIP      -Spiritual Thought: ____________	Assignment: Story from the Friend
5:20	Closing Ceremony      -Cub Promise (review line 2)      -Closing Prayer      -Badge worksheets or other information
5:30	Dismiss and Go Home

GATHERING ACTIVITY:  Rock Jokes

Have boys tell each other jokes about rocks.

1. What does a rock want to be when it grows up? 
2. What do you call a dog who collects rocks? 
3. What do you do to a baby rock? 
4. What is a rock's favorite kind of music? 
5. Where do rocks sleep? 
6. How do rocks wash their clothes? 
7. What is a rock's favorite transportation? 
8. What is a rock's favorite cereal? 

Answers

1.       A Rock Star 

2.       A Rockhound 

3.       Rock it 

4.       Rock 'N Roll 

5.       Bedrock 

6.       On the rock cycle 

7.       A rocket 

8.       Cocoa Pebbles 

GAMES: Mini Olympics

Have the boys continue with last week’s activities

GAMES: Rockslide Cruise

This game is played like red light – green light. Instead when the word cruise is said the boys can run. When the word rockslide is said the boys have to stop. Anyone moving after the word rockslide hast to go back to the beginning.

VARIATION: To make this game a little more interesting, create a circuitous path that they must follow rather than running straight for the end of the play area.

THEME ACTIVITY: Insects in our Backyard

Materials Needed:

•          Insect identification chart

•          Insect Observation Worksheet

•          Plastic spoon

•          2 Plastic cups (Petri dishes, lidded plastic containers, sample bottles, etc.)

•          Magnifier box, or hand lens

•          Digital Camera if desired

OVERVIEW

Have each Cub Scout search out as many different insects as he can. Have him identify each insect he finds and write it down.

PREPARATION

Before doing this activity, we recommend you make sure the boys understand basic insect anatomy to help them recognize and differentiate insects from other organisms, and to help them appreciate some of the major groups of common insects.

Your location could be outside the door in the building you meet in, or it could be a nearby municipal park, or it could be a more remote natural area. In any case, pick out and mark several different spots where Cubs  will be able to find insects

Here are some suggestions for different locations:

 • Under a log

 • Near or under rocks or gravel

 • In a grassy spot in full sunlight

 • At the base of a tree

 • In the leaf litter on the forest floor

 • In the leaves an blossoms of a flowering plant

 • On the trunk and branches of a tree

 • Near the wall of a building

 • On or near a sidewalk

PROCEDURE

Step 1: Equip your pack with simple insect capture and observation tools, a clipboard, a pencil, and a worksheet, as listed above.

Step 2: Assign each pair of boys to two locations where they will hunt for and observe insects. Instruct them to handle the insects very carefully, and if the insects are too fast or vigorous, to leave them alone.

Step 3: Be sure the boys are recording their findings on their observation worksheet. Gather the pack after 6 insects have been identified and observed.

Fun Facts About Insects and Bugs

•          Night butterflies have ears on their wings so they can avoid bats.

•          Monarch caterpillars shed their skin four times before they become a chrysalis, growing over 2700 times their original size.

•          There may be as many as 3,000 different kinds of insects — more than all the other animal and plant species combined.

•          Of the huge numbers of insects, only a tiny amount, one percent, are harmful to humans. Most insects are harmless or actually beneficial. For example, without bees to pollinate flowers, plants would not have a way of reproducing and we wouldn’t have anything to eat!

•          Locusts can eat their own weight in food in a day. A person eats his own body weight in about half a year.

•          The earliest fossil cockroach is about 280 million years old ~ 80 million years older than the first dinosaurs!

•          The desert locust is the world’s most destructive insect. It can eat its own weight in food every day. Large swarms can gobble up to 20,000 tons of grain and plants in a day.

•          The honeybee has to travel an average of 43,000 miles to collect enough nectar to make a pound of honey!

•          Out of every 1,000 Mosquitos, one female carries a disease that could be fatal to humans.

•          Honeybees have hair on their eyes.

•          The average housefly lives for one month.

•          There is only one insect that can turn its head — the praying mantis.

•          A slug has four noses.

•          Some male spiders pluck their cobwebs like a guitar, to attract female spiders.

•          A mosquito flaps its wings 500 times a second.

•          Only male crickets can chirp.

•          Baby robins eat 14 feet of earthworms every day!

•          About 80% of the Earth’s animals are insects!

•          The common garden worm has five pairs of hearts.

•          Dragonflies can fly up to 50 miles per hour.

•          The earliest fossil cockroach is about 280 million years old – 80 million years older than the first dinosaurs!

•          The praying mantis is the only insect that can look behind its shoulders.

•          One kind of insect called a spittlebug, lays its eggs in a big nest of saliva bubbles. I guess no predator would look for a meal in there!

•          A snail can sleep for 3 years straight!

•          The heaviest insect in the world weighs 2.5 ounces.

•          A cockroach can live for up to 3 weeks without its head!

•          A butterfly has its taste receptors in its feet!

•          The mayfly only lives for 8 hours!

•          The female black widow’s poison is 15 times deadlier than a rattlesnake’s!

•          There are worms in Australia that are over 4 Feet Long!

•          The weight of all the termites in the world outweigh the weight of all humans 10 to 1!

THEME ACTIVITY: How Trees Grow Craft

Materials Needed:

q  Green yarn

q  Brown yarn

q  White yarn

q  Red yarn

q  White glue

q  Cardstock

Give each Cub a piece of cardstock divided into 6 sections. Have them label each section respectively: Seeds, Sprouts, Seedling, Tree, Blossoms, Apples

Use the worksheet below to help conduct a discussion about why trees are important in nature.

BADGEWORK: Identifying Trees/Shrubs

Materials Needed:

·         Leaves gathered from various varieties of trees.

·         ‘A Key to Trees’ Worksheet

·         Pencils