H-E-L-L-O Beavers! This week is our last online Beavers video call, 7 July 2020!
We are going to meet up next Tuesday 14 July at the Scout Hut from 6.30pm to 7.30pm (this might expand, but that's what I can do, smile). We'll all be staying outside, observing out distancing, but you can come collect the badges you have earned while we have been unable to week, and we can wish you a good summer. We don't know what we will be doing in Autumn, but we are so proud of how you have kept up with your Beaver work at home and we hope you have enjoyed it. Well done!
Here are the things we got up to this Spring:
First, the summer is coming! Our last online meeting will be 7 July 2020, next week. Then we plan to have a night where you can come collect your hard-earned badges at the Scout Hut - we'll let you know if we can sort this safely!
This week the third City of Manchester Scouts challenge is now online! It's cooking, which I know you have been great at doing under lockdown, helping your families, so this should be a cinch!
Get cooking, send in your work, and get a special badge! What's not to like?
Midsummer (23 June 2020)It is Midsummer! The shortest day was last Saturday 20 June, the Summer Solstice, and Midsummer is traditionally celebrated on 24 June, tomorrow. This marks the start of summer. It is celebrated with bonfires and parties.
You can celebrate Midsummer, and get your Activity part of your World badge, by doing something for Midsummer this week:
Puppet Show Theatre (16 June 2020)A second challenge from the City of Manchester Scouts! Complete to get an actual badge posted to you. This time it's the Craft badge, for which you have to create a puppet show theatre:
Rainbow Badge (9 June 2020)You can now get a special lockdown rainbow badge posted to them from the City of Manchester Scouts! Details here:
And here is a Beaver leader in a pool explaining what to do:
Basically, make a rainbow, give it to someone, fill in the form linked from the Manchester Scouts website, and you get a badge posted out! How cool is that?
Outdoors and Indoors (2 June 2020)Great news! The Scouts UK have devised a fun badge for us to get while in lockdown. Knots, henna, and sleeping in the back garden - take your pick.
Meanwhile the City of Manchester Scouts have come up with some Badges at Home, and you can do the first challenge now:
Here in Didsbury I can see that getting the Outdoors badge is going to be a challenge for lots of us, even with lockdown easing. But the weather is good and there are things that you can do if you have space, maybe in a garden, or even in your house if that's what you can manage.
You have to do two of these, but feel free to do more! Meanwhile, if you think you can manage to sleep out or in the house you can count that as your night away for your Outdoors badge.
You could also fashion a bivouac or shelter out of materials at hand - we made one out of a groundsheet and a slide. You don't have to pitch it outside!
Definitely needs grown-up supervision! Maybe use a chimenea or barbeque.
Grab a good stick and do a frankfurter or try for some toast.
The classic is "Campfire's Burning".
I know you have all been helping your grown-ups in the house, so this should be easy!
Blankets? Blow-up mattress? Sleeping mat? Camp-bed? Make yourself comfortable and warm!
Photographer (26 May 2020)Your grown-ups probably have a phone with a camera, or maybe an actual camera kicking around somewhere - or maybe you do! The light is great at the moment as we head towards Midsummer. Grab your photographic device and have a go at your photographer badge! Send anything you want to show to Malak for next Tuesday's meeting and get your badge!
Learn to use a camera! Don't point into the light, think about framing the shot so you can get into the picture what you want to be there.
This might be tricky if you don't have a computer or printer, but you can always write about your photos and send that in if you are stuck! If you can, you can make a card or poster or slideshow and show it to the other Beavers next Tuesday!
Gardening, Bug Hunts, and Happy Eid! (19 May 2020)It's National Children's Gardening Week this week, and the weather is fine, so everyone who has a garden is encouraged to go out and help your grown-ups in it!
Even if you don't have a garden, why not go for a walk on Didsbury's Poppy Path and look for bugs? Find five different animals for your Outdoors badge!
Finally, it's Eid, the end of Ramadan, on Saturday, so all our Muslim Beavers and Scouts will be celebrating. Most Scouts in the world are Muslim, so this is an important holiday and festival for Scouts especially. If you are doing anything for Eid do let us know for your World badge. Happy Eid to you all!
Builder Badge(12 May 2020)Only one of us has done his Builder Badge and he did a great job and his tank looked awesome, so I thought the rest of us might have a go at Builder this week!
First you need to design something, on paper or even on a computer. What will it look like? What will you make it out of? A robot, a unicorn, a car, a ship, an aeroplane, a food dispenser, a space fridge, a coronavirus detector?
Now work out what you will need to build your awesome creation.
Go for it! Lego, cardboard, tape, wood, string, glue, plastic tubs, tacks, nuts and bolts, cloth, sticks, leaves... get it done!
Like Hawkeye says, it's great to reflect on what you've done. How did your build go? How long did it take? What could you do better next time?
VE Day (5 May 2020)75 years ago this week the Second World War ended in Europe. It was a terrible time, but Scouts then did their best to be kind and helpful as they do now. Some were stretcher bearers and messengers for the emergency services during bombing, some used their Scout skills to work in forestry cutting trees. Some Scouts even had to meet in secret because Scouting was banned in some countries at war! More about Scouts in WWII.
The Queen was only nineteen, so on VE Day she sneaked out of Buckingham Palace with her naughty sister Margaret and had fun partying with everyone else in London! Princess Elizabeth and the VE Day celebrations.
A few people from the Second World War are still alive, so to say thank-you as much as anything else we are celebrating: of course, we can't go out and have parties because of the coronavirus. But here are some things we can do:
Send us a picture of anything you and your family make or do, we would love to see them!
Disability Awareness (28 April 2020)People with disabilities find it harder to do some things, so as Beavers we have to take responsibility for helping them to do all they can with their lives.
Your grown-up's computers and phones can talk so you can use them without looking. Find out how to turn on the speech and control - it's called a screenreader:
Can you use the phone or tablet now without looking at it? Try to get to this webpage!
OR some people use physical helps like wheelchairs: some are powered, or even attach to big robot arms so they can go into trees(!) Design and draw a picture of a cool wheelchair: it might be super-fast, for Paralympic racing, or it might have special features like many wheels so that it can go up and down stairs, or it might be a wheelchair of the future and fly, or have only one wheel but balance! You could make a model!
People who cannot hear but can see sometimes use sign language to speak. Learn to do your Beaver Promise in Sign Language and show the other Beavers next week!
People who cannot see well find it hard to move around. Lead someone blindfolded around your house: you can make it harder with some obstacles. Is it easy, or do you bump them into something? Or you can play a blindfolded game: push the furniture out of the way and try to play football!
Do a poster or find out about a Paralympian by watching their competition online, write about what disability is, or do a design for our Beaver hut with how it can be improved for people with disabilities. Maybe we could have a sensory garden with cool sounds and playthings?
St. George's Day (21 April 2020)This Thursday is St. George's Day, so as an English Beaver colony St. George is the Patron Saint of our country.
He is also the Patron Saint of Scouting! Baden-Powell, our founder, liked the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and St George was the patron of the Knights.
Celebrate St. George's day by:
Counts towards your World Challenge Badge.
Hill Climbing At Home (14 April 2020)Some people have been climbing the stairs at home enough times that it makes the height of Everest Basecamp! Trekking to Everest base camp – by climbing the stairs at home.
This is great because it helps us stay healthy and strong while staying at home. Of course, you need to have stairs. But if you do, then why not try doing some Hill Climbing At Home? Measure the height of your stairs, then work out how many times you have to climb the stairs to get to the highest hill in Greater Manchester (Black Chew Head, 542m) or in Lancashire (Scafell Pike, 978m, also the highest hill in England) or maybe just manage to do what is a good personal challenge for you?
You should also pack a lunch and other things to take with you: water bottle, a backpack, maybe even a compass and a map. And your comfortable or walking shoes! And a raincoat in case it rains!
Send us a photo of your scaling the peaks of Didsbury, we'd love to see you!
Digital MakerComputers are everywhere nowadays: phones and tablets and television boxes are all computers! You will grow up in a world of computers, and it is good to understand how to use them well.
If your grownups can lend you a device, you can do this on a computer or phone. Look for Paint 3D (Windows) or Concepts on iPhone or Android. Or you can use an online sprite editor like Pixilart.
You need to write out step-by-step instructions for SOMETHING. Maybe a grown-up making your favourite sandwich! Maybe your baby brother or sister getting you a book to read! But computers work with step-by-step instructions, called "programs", so this helps you think about how you can break something down into little steps.
Easter (7 April 2020)Welcome to Easter Week! For Christians this is an important religious time, and for almost everyone it's a time of chocolate eggs, and for everyone in our country it's SPRING and the flowers and leaves are appearing as the days get longer!
For this week's badge work you can do one of these fun Easter activities:
Send in what you get done, we'd love to see it and it can count towards your badges!
SkillsSkills helps you to learn to do new things that make you more grown-up and independent and helpful. Here are three things you can do at home this week:
Learn a song and sing it! You might already know one. Or there might be one you like but kind of only know the chorus - most grown-ups are like that! Get a hold of it - maybe online, or on a CD or a tape even - and learn the chorus (the repeated bit) and one of the verses. Shotgun? Everything Is Awesome? Old Town Road? If it hasn't got any naughty words in it (maybe check your grown-up) you can sing it at our Beaver meeting, if you want. One day you can learn campfire songs and sing with your fellow Scouts: for now enjoy being able to sing a song yourself.
Teeth! You probably have them. If so, you want to keep them! You might not be brushing your own teeth yet, which is totally fine (and you have very patient grown-ups) but you still need to know the basics of tooth care.
There is a good NHS webpage here: How to keep your teeth clean. (Of course, it's important to use good sites on the Internet, and the NHS a good one.)
For next week, then draw or create or design a poster with how to look after your teeth, or send in a picture of you cleaning your teeth properly, or even be prepared to tell the other Beavers how to look after your teeth. Or, if that's too tricky, then twice a day for the next week, brush your teeth or, if you don't do it yourself, time two minutes for your grown-up to brush them. I want to see lots of great clean teeth next week!
Normally we can just go to the supermarket day or night and get anything we like from anywhere in the world! We are very lucky. Now we're doing our best to not go out, so we need to be more careful to think about what we can eat and how to stay healthy: we're not doing our best if we get sick and need busy doctors and nurses to look after us.
That means we need to think about what are good and bad foods. Now, it always depends: cake on your birthday is never wrong! Unless you don't like cake. But what foods should we try to eat most, which should we try to eat least as treats? Which foods should we go get more of when we run out, and which don't need a trip out to stock up because they aren't so good for us? With a grown-up go through your kitchen - cupboards, fridge, freezer - and see what you have and whether it is healthy good food to keep us going, or unhealthy food that it's nice to have but won't be a problem if we have to go without it for a while. Report back via a picture, list, or report at the next Beaver meeting!
PersonalIt's really important to stay fit and healthy by exercising, to help doctors and nurses look after other people, and we promise to help other people. But it can be hard if we are stuck at home.
One way to exercise is to follow a video. Lots of people have made free videos to help you stay healthy while we cannot go out, which is great! For your Personal challenge, we want you to follow one of these online fitness videos for the next week. You can try to get your grown-ups involved!
CookYou're at home, your grown-ups are too, so help out with the cooking! You need to help cook or prepare three things, one of which must be savory (like pasta or a cheese sandwich) and one must be sweet (like a cake or fruit with yoghurt).
While are you doing this, ask your grown-up about healthy eating, why you need to keep your kitchen clean, and safety in the kitchen.
OutdoorsThis is a challenge with the restrictions just announced, so probably you need a garden. You might not have one, so I'll post another option before the 6.30pm call.
Sunshine has done a super handout for you: Outdoors (PDF)
For anyone without a printer, you have three things you can do:
Do something using natural things like leaves, bark, twigs, sand or rocks that you can get from the garden or gather if you go out for exercise with your family:
Find out five different animals, insects, birds or fish that you might find near where you live. Find out about the food they eat and the places they might live. Ideas: spiders, all diferent birds, a local fox, cats and dogs and other pets, slugs and snails.
Make something to help animals in the wild. It could be a bird box/feeder or a bug hotel. You can see Sunshines's instructions, or here is a short video showing you how to make a bug hotel!
Good luck!
