Pirates In The Park

Well we whave discovered that a fun run will be held at the same park and time as our event. So we are looking to Saturday for the event. This is still to be confirmed. Will advise shortly.

Best plans of mice and men!

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Navigation and extra bits

This weeks focus was again on Navigation. We continued on wth compass work from last week, only this week we had the cubs set coordinates and and find items around the grounds.

Cubs were taught that once you have set your compass and have turned the direction you want to go, they then need to lift their heads and tell me the first thing they saw in that direction. Allowing that some cubs were two or three steps left and right of the set point they got the idea. Basically when a coordinate is set, the person setting it will focus on a static object in the distance and walk towards it. This way they dont need to check compass bearing all the time. Plus if you are slightly off course and need to recheck constantly, it could see you heading off on a different direction.

The next base was trail signs. This was about showing the standard signs for home, left, right, danger, and river ahead. It is all about safety in the bush and what you might need to do if you get lost or in a difficult to navigate location. The cubs enjoyed this challenge.

The final base for the night was to get the cubs to roll their scraves properly, and to learn how to roll the flags at the end of night. Most of our cubs are new and it was important to teach them to roll scarf as it is an important part of our uniform and as most have been showing little care in dressing for parade, we felt it was time to address the matter.

Folding the flag is an important duty each, and if it is not done correctly, when time comes to open the flag it does not always open. Can be a little embarrassing when we have guests on parade ;-)

There was one more session but that is another quick update .....

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Navigation night

This week the focus was on compass skills. Compass skills is one of the core boomerang award items.

The night started off with 2 cubs being promoted to Seconds - Gavin and Daniel. These boys are the quiet ones in our pack, but they have done enough to be noticed and be rewarded for their efforts and team work. Well done both of you.

Two of our seconds were promoted on camp and returned their promise forms and completed the promotion process by reconfirming their Cub Scout Promise. Well done Ashley and Kaleb.

Our first activity was a N.E.W.S game, where cubs have to run in the direction called. Get's them going.

Activity two was to learn about the points on a compass. They were also given a question on what long TV show is named after a compass? And it is not ' Compass' or 'The Great South East', it is much simplier. Can you figure it out?

We then progressed onto grid work. He cubs are given a piece of paper with a grid 20 x 20 and from a designated point have to navigate the squares based on the directions provided - 2 x NE, 1 x N. The goal is to create a picture at the end. However, it doesn't help when Bagheera gets the coordijares a fraction wrong. :0). The object is to reinforce directions and to make sure they are listening attentively. Well we got close!

Then came the toughest test. How to use a compass. In the end most of our cubs had never used a compass and it proved to be a big challenge to simplify the use. To start I had the cubs tell me which way North was based on the compass needle. We did this 3 times facing different positions.

Stage 2 was to explain the pointers on the compass, the large red or blue arrow on the base of the dial and the arrow on the base at the top of compass. This proved the real challenge. We had the cubs move the dial to 80° and then they had to place the compass on their stomach to provide a steady compass, and to force them to turn their bodies to point in right direction. So the key was to explain to line up the needle and the red arrow, which always shows North, and then the way they were facing would be 80° from North.

In the end we decided to make next week navigation Part 2 to help them understand. This skill will be needed for our day in the park next term and for Region camp in October.

They did well, but next week we will split into smaller groups to help with the teaching.

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