HELLO BEAVER COLONIES!

Greetings All,

My name is Kathleen Rae and I am a new Beaver Leader for 3rd Edmonton. I'm looking for program ideas and I don't see a Topic that would fit this, so I am starting one! Please post your ideas or activites of what you have done and worked well, and activities of what you have done and didn't work so well. Or at least tell me where to find them on the forum boards. I would love to hear from all Beaver Leaders.

Sincerely,

Kathleen

Former beaver leader here, I just moved to Cubs this year (but still have a Beaver in the family).
What we always did and worked well for us is to choose a theme for the year. Last year our theme was sports (Olympics), this year they are doing "Animals", the year before it was "Outer Space". After we pick the theme, we brainstorm activities that have to do with the theme. We still do seasonal activities and area activities in between that don't have anything to do with the theme, but we have found this much easier than trying to come up with random activities to fill the "gaps". We try and take the beavers outside into the community as much as we can. A trip to the zoo or animal shelter is easy to organize and the kids love going out, and it's a lot less work than organizing crafts or games to fill the hour.

Hi ALL !

My name is Lea, and I'm a leader with 28th Oshawa.

I'm fairly new at this, and always looking for program ideas, as well as ways to ramp up visibility within our community and membership !

Welcome to the board.

Attached is the schedule for 3rd Orleans. To prepare for camp, this past Monday we had three stations (indoors). The first to learn to fish (how to cast lines), the second for songs / skits, and the third to learn how to light a fire. It took us ~40 minutes. Each Beaver had to bring in their fishing rod (we shared for those who didn't) and I brought in wood for the "fire". (We didn't light it).

Tom

The thing is that the Beaver programme is scheduled to change. They tell us that the new programme will be released in September. I'm having a hard time with this because they also want us to have next year's programme ready now to show at Spring registration.

The new Beaver program may arrive by September but nothing says you need to implement it immediately. Why not plan your program now for September through Christmas (sorry - winter solstice non-denominational seasonal holiday) and give yourself some time to get familiar with the new program. You can spend the fall figuring what you’ll do from January onwards. I’d hate to launch a new program without the time to do some serious preparation.

John

We had great success taking them geocaching a few weeks ago. Bike rodeos are also loads of fun. We split the group into those on training wheels and those without.

Funny you mention those. We did our bike rodeo last night. We had an off-roading course (including sand trap), speed trials, and the intersection (chalk on the playground). It went well. Next week, we go for a ride (in two groups, fast and slow) around the neighbourhood.

Ever see the TV show Man Tracker? Last weekend, we played Scouter Stan Tracker. It was a one hour hike done at group camp. The Beavers had to follow clues (like foot prints, broken twigs, garbage, his voice) to find Scouter Stan. Good times and good fun.

I've only seen that show once, but I think that Scouter Stan Tracker is a fantastic idea. That's in the book for next year.

I've generally used monthly themes in the colonies I've worked with, often these tie into a field trip. Ie. Dinosaur month with a trip to Drumheller, Beaver first aid/Home safety with a trip to a fire station, etc. The last colony I worked with also geocached quite a bit.

My favorite thing I've ever done with beavers (that I plan to do again in the future) Is a beaver time capsule. We took pictures of all the beavers and filled out an "about me" sheet (with assistance) in September. The sheet had things like height, favorite movie, how old they were, favorite color, etc. We had a meeting outdoors in Sunshine's (me!) backyard and buried our time capsule all together and did our beaver opening in hopes that big brown might have some magic for our time capsule.

At the end of the year we had another party in sunshine's backyard to dig it up and compare with our new "about me" sheets. This works better with beavers than other sections because more tends to change over the course of the year, and it's exciting because they also tend to forget about it. Thanks to a little Beaver magic, Big brown was also able to get a surprise in the time capsule for us to find when it was dug up. This was a really fun activity that the Beavers really enjoyed. My favorite quote from a beaver that night was "I can't believe I said my favorite color was red. I must be more grown up now because I know Blue is way better."

We have never done the annual theme, but rather planned themes for each night for which there wasn't an obvious one (i.e. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hallowe'en, Valentines Day, St. Patricks Day are all ready-made themes for the taking, depending on faith issues). This year, we have drafted a three-year theme plan, so that we spin out the themes with different ideas for the three years, so that nothing gets repeated during a Beaver's time from Brown to White tail.

I heartily recommend the Jumpstarts for things like emergency preparedness and code of conduct. Also, the idea about preparing for camp is a great one. We did a slightly different version, with a tent station (showing the Beavers how to go in and out of tents, how to store their gear in the tent, etc.), plus the other things noted above. Also, don't forget to incorporate lots of linking activities for the whole Colony, and especially for your White Tails. Linking is the single most important activity that bolsters section-to-section retention, plus, the older Beavers like it a lot. It should be starting as early as November for the White Tails, and at any time for the whole section (an early-year campfire is a perfect initial linking activity).

Don't count on any program changes until they are announced, and even then, until you have received training on the new program.

Most important of all: make sure all of your leaders are trained, as this makes the planning process the best it can be. The live Wood Badge I is the best, as people just learn better that way, but at least have everyone complete the on-line course. You tend to have more rookie leaders in Beavers than in any other section, and a live course really helps the new leader become a Scouter. Vital to have at least one Wood Badge II trained leader as well (though the more there are, the better), as that really assists with the advanced planning aspects, and really takes the program to the next level, with more camping and outdoor activities. In Voyageur Council, the Council is refusing to register any returning leaders who have not completed their Orientation and WB I. Council has decided that with the on-line courses (although, that only amounts to reading your handbook), there is no excuse for not having these done in short order, so every leader in our Council must be trained by September. I wouldn't be surprised to see this kind of resolution spreading across the country. Training is the backbone of the delivery of the Scouting program.

YISF

Scouter Angus
Malak
6th Brockville Colony

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/chines ... _cards.htm

has pictures of the 12 Zodiac animals. Print, glue to heavy card and play memory matching game.

Also note Canada Post has attractive stamps, first day covers etc.

We are coming into the Year of the Dragon. Lots of ideas online for dragon puppets.

Bob

25th Dunbar Heights
Vancouver

I was a colony leader for 5 years. In that time there were 5 colonies in our scout group. I collected the best ideas that the leaders thought were fun and compiled them on a CDROM and also on the web.

Check out this location: http://www.stittsvillescouts.org/scoutt ... m.php?f=30

Download the programs and use as you see fit. These are for sharing.

I have been in Pack for 5 years and Troop for 4 years. I have have similar program activities published to the web as well.

Scouter Paul