It must be one of the oldest Scout activities. Marshmallow toasting. The weather may have prevented us from being able to toast outside, but we still got to practice striking matches to light candles and safely roasting our marshmallows. Some of which were squeezed between biscuits to make smores.
Whilst we prefer to complete our badge requirements together as a Colony, we do sometimes have #Badges@Home activities.
And here's one of our latest, James's gardening robot. Designed to do the gardening so parents can have more leisure time. A super idea.
We began our Faith Activity badge. Talking about prayers and reflections, with each Beaver then making their own link in our chain by decorating with words and pictures that reflected people, places etc. important to them.
We had pictures of world, family, pets, Christmas trees. A great variety, and our chain is now added to our board.
This week we took the Beavers on an Urban Night Hike. Super support from our regular team of Young Leaders and for our outdoor activity we also had additional adult volunteers for the evening. Siobhan and Dave.
We took the opportunity to visit some of the houses with lots of external Christmas lights. Some wonderful houses the Beavers loved. And at least one street, that'll remain nameless, that one of our Beavers described as "...home of the Grinch..."!
This week, we talked about how although for many of us Christmas is one of the best times of year, with the opportunity to catch up with family and friends, and yes presents. For some it can be a difficult time.
And doing our little bit for some of those who might find Christmas more challenging, we made some Christmas cards that'll be sent to one of the care homes in the Rugby area.
This week, as part of our Skills Challenge Award the Beavers had a go at using their imaginations to decorate biscuits. Lots of biscuits.
It was also an opportunity to remind ourselves of the importance of washing our hands before preparing food.
We continued working towards our Experiement Activity Badge with our bread experiment. We split the Beavers into three groups. The first group cleaned their hands and then took their slice of bread and placed into their plastic bag and sealed it. The second group didn't clean their hands before placing their piece of bread into their bag. And the third group went outside and touched a tree with their hands before handling their bread. The pictures below show three of our results, and the impact of "Tree Hands" is clear!
We began our Experiment Activity Badge with our water filter. An activity that enable us to talk about the importance of clean water, and also demonstrate how trees transport water from the ground to the highest part of the tree.
One of our Beavers was so interested in the experiment, that he repeated it at home and sent us a photo. Well done Jonah.
For #GamesNight three of our older Beavers led games for small groups of our younger Beavers. Great to see the leadership, and the great behaviours of our young Beavers with little oversight from our Young Leaders or Leaders.
We also had a swimming up, Ronith's time as a Beaver ending, with a Cub investiture to follow.
Ronith just emerging from the river having changed into his Cub jumper.
Another #YouShape activity, tower building. A great use for out of date marshmallows (I know, how do marshmallow packets go uneaten) and spaghetti. Fortunately there were some in date marshmallows for eating!