Engineering Badge (Part Two) & Box Oven Cookies!

We finished our first year of Webelos by completing our Engineering Badge at our last Den Meeting of the school year this past Friday.  I honestly think that this was one of the boys favorite meetings.  Not that any of the boys actually told me that.  I'm strictly basing that statement on the fact that I heard a lot of laughter!  A big thank you to Eric's dad, Sean, for leading the meeting!

One of the requirements was that the boys had to make durable popsicle stick bridges. 
Eric and Connor made amazing suspension bridges and a most of the other boys made trestle bridges.

Then we decided to see how much weight each bridge could take.

I was really impressed with how the majority of the bridges held up to the weight of a
couple of bricks and two ten-pound weights!

For the gathering activity I had the boys break up into two teams of five to engineer a structure
made from dried spaghetti noodles and marshmallows.  I got the idea of of Pinterest.  The goal was to see
which team of scouts could build the taller tower.  I thought the boys would totally get into this activity,
but one team had more fun throwing the marshmallows at the opposing team!

Sean gave a Boeing Engineering Power Point to the boys.  Here he is discussing the
foundation of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. 

Jane brought her Box Oven and we made chocolate chip cookies in the garage.

Here's a close-up of the almost-done-cookies.  This was so fun for the boys to see this process!

May Den Meeting: Engineering Badge

It was a beautiful day for our den meeting, so I decided to hold it outside. We worked a little on the Athlete Badge, but mostly focused on the Engineering Badge. This badge is probably going to take two or three meetings for us to finish!   

The boys started off the meeting making flower pots for Mother's Day.



They each picked out the flower they wanted and put them in these cute pots that I picked up for .25 each!



Den Chief Benjamin assisting Liam and Eric.



The boys had a huge case of the wiggles, so we squeezed in time for a 1/4 mile run which is part of the Athlete Badge.



Then we started in on our Engineering Badge. We discussed four types of bridges and what makes them strong.



The boys each chose a different type of bridge to build: Suspension, Arch, Truss, & Beam.



I thought that we would have time to just about complete these bridges, but we got no where near to finishing. So, they went home as homework for the June meeting!



These crazy boys love their moms!

February Den Meeting: Readyman Badge

This meeting was all about starting on our Readyman Badge.  I knew it was going to be a lot of discussion which can tend to be a bit boring, so I asked Nick & Hunter's Grandpa, John McClure to come and be a guest speaker.  He is a retired firefighter with a lot of knowlege on first aid.  He did a great job of keeping all of the scout's engaged and we thank him so much!  The boys did a great job of being respectful scouts while listening to him speak.

Discussing our Know, Commit, & Practice... The biggest thing I wanted the boys to get out of the meeting today was to:  'Be Strong, Be Calm, Be Clear, and Be Careful' in emergency situations.

John practicing the Heimlich Maneuver on Luke.

John practicing the Heimlich Maneuver on Mathew.

John brought three different kinds of First Aid Kits to show the scouts.  He explained what each item was used for.

We used the computer to look up photos of different emergency situations (i.e. tick bites, frostbite, sunburns, nosebleeds, choking, blisters, etc.) and then John explained a bit about each of them.

Readyman Scouts posing with John.

January Den Meeting: Outdoorsman Badge

We focused on finishing our Outdoorsman requirements at our January Den Meeting.  Once again, it was an activity/information packed meeting.  We had a lot to accomplish and I'm happy to say that everyone who was able to make the meeting completed the badge! 

Benjamin, our Den Chief, started off the meeting by instructing the boys on how to whip the end of a frayed rope.  He also brought all of his camping/backpacking items and he explained what the purpose of each item was and demonstrated how everything fit into a pack.  There was a lot of stuff! 

Each of the boys had the opportunity to try on the pack.

The pack was surprisingly heavy... 29 lbs. with the sleeping bag.

After the backpack demonstration we had a group discussion about fire safety, how to build a fire pit or fire ring, how to get a fire going and how to properly distinguish a fire.  Then we went outside and put that knowledge to use by building our own fire.  Once the boys had the fire underway they came inside (because it was c-o-l-d!) and broke up into two teams of four.  With help from Mr. McClure each team learned how to put up a two-man tent.  The boys had a great time doing this.

Team Two waiting for their turn... just thought this was a cute picture!

We finished up the evening by making a sweet treat (banana boats and/or s'mores) for the campfire.  We slit the unpeeled banana down the center and the boys added chocolate chips and marshmallows.  They then wrapped them in foil and set them in the embers of the fire to heat up.  They loved them!

December Den Meeting

Our December Den Meeting was basically one big Christmas Party!  The boys had so much fun rotating from station to station.  We decorated cookies, made birdfeeders, made wood signs and wood ornaments and made gumdrop ornaments.  I put all of the Dad's to work helping out too... thank you to them!  We ended the evening singing carols and looking at Christmas lights.  It was a crazy, loud, and fun evening!

Skyler decorating his Christmas Cookies

The boys decorated supercute snowman gift bags.  All were very individual.

Mathew and Noah painting their wood tree ornaments.

Luke and Connor creating their gumdrop snowflakes!

The boys decided to vote on their favorite cookies... the categories (chosen by Luke) were Grossest Cookie
& Most Awesome Cookie!

This was an added activity that proved rather difficult for most of the boys.  Thanks to Mike McClure, most of the boys were able to go home with a completed sign.

Eric posing with the bird feeder that we made.

The boys had a blast playing a Minute-to-Win-It game.  They had to suction up an M&M and race to drop as many of them in a bowl within a minute. 

After all of the elimination rounds, Hayyan ended up winning!

We all bundled up and grabbed our hot cocoas and hopped in the back of Wes' truck to go see the Christmas lights at the Laws' house.  The boys sang all the way there and back!

Group shot of Den One Webelos with our Den Chief Benjamin and our mascot, Poppy!