Reminders & key information:

This edition’s reminders:

Beavers

All colonies – will be out in the local area geocaching this week. Please send your Beaver in warm clothes with a coat and torch please.
Night in the Museum sleepover – We are holding a ‘Night in the Museum’ sleepover at Weston Park Museum for all three Beaver colonies, plus the Beaver colony at Silkstone Scouts. For more information and full event details please see the dedicated event page. To book your child’s place, please answer Yes to the My.Scout invitation which you should have received a couple of weeks ago. Places are considered firm after clicking yes with the full balance payable (even if your young person drops out). This is because the group has to make a financial commitment. If you have any questions about the sleepover, please contact Amy, regardless of which section your child is in.

Cubs

Bella Vista – will be making Valentine biscuits and learning about random acts of kindness. You may want your young person to wear an old t-shirt under their jumper if you don’t want them covered in flour!

Raptors – to celebrate the annual Valentine event, we will be discussing how acts of kindness for all is essential as a member of the scouting movement.

Alegre – please look out for an email confirming your section’s plans for this week.

Back in time Sleepover – For those booked on the Back in Time Sleepover, balances are now due.  A final letter, consent and kit list will be following later this week.  All places are now considered firm and full payment is required even if your cub drops out as the group have now made a financial commitment based on these numbers.

Scouts

All scout troops – This week sensible footwear and a coat is a must as the scouts will be undertaking a mystery challenge.

Wibbles additional – the rest of the troop will get to show off their skills and interests and all will gain their well earned hobbies badges.

Monopoly Run – The event briefing letters will be making their way to participant email boxes in the very near future. The second payment is now overdue, so if you’ve not yet brought your young person’s balance up to £75, please arrange to do so with your section leader this week.

British Heart Foundation – a small number of scouts from the three troops have been invited to man water stations for a BHF event in the coming weeks. We urgently need to know if your young person can attend; those invited will have an email from the My.Scout system to click Yes/No within.

SCUBA taster session – the last of the 12+ year olds who have signed up for the SCUBA taster session at Stocksbridge Leisure Centre for Friday 22nd February will receive an email with the final details including the required consent form.

Explorers

Next weeks plans are still fluid at the moment so look out for an email if there are any special instructions.
With the reminders out-of-the-way, let’s recap the week.

This week:

Beavers learn about keeping healthy

This week, all three Beaver colonies finished off their Health and Fitness and Cook’s activity badges.

Tuesday and Wednesday Beavers learned about how to keep your teeth clean and healthy and the importance of doing so. We then used the rest of the evening to cook pizza wraps. Millstones also added rice krispy buns into their cooking (not literally!).

Boomers 
Castors 
Millstones

Night at the Museum Sleepover

Amy, Brian, Laura and Shauna went on a recce this week to find out more about the programme and where we would be sleeping. We met the Museum staff who would be hosting the sleepover and had a good look around.

We hope your Beavers are as excited about the sleepover as Brian is!

International activities

This week the Bella Vista cubs successfully completed their International activity badges by learning all about Chinese New Year including the story behind it.  We also enjoyed Chinese delicacies such as noodles, salt and pepper prawns, spring rolls and oyster sauce.  The cubs also tried their hand at writing traditional proverbs in Chinese.

Year of the pig

Raptor Cubs had night of Chinese activities to bring in the new year of the pig. Push pig and the chop stick challenge were big hits with the Cubs.

Team building games

This week, Enigma Scouts tried a variety of new team building games. Including one with a banana that ended up quite messy and one involving M&Ms and chopsticks.

Hobbies badges

Some of our Wibbles scouts earned their hobbies badges this week. We have some very talented scouts who showed off their collections, art work, sports interests and musical talents. We also had a treat of some delicious cookies made by Isabella.

Homeless issues

Explorers looked at homeless issues this week and planned menus on a budget of £2 per person for 3 days.
There was a mix of thoughts of how money should be spent with some choosing budget options to ensure treats could be bought too whereas others might possibly go hungry after day one.
We are hoping that we can put this into practice later in the year to test their resilience. In addition, our Explorers made pizzas.

Taskmaster

Viernes Scouts reshuffled their patrols and appointed some new Patrol Leaders, Assistant Patrol Leaders and, for the first time in a while, some Senior Patrol Leaders!

Once the shuffle was complete, the scouts, in their patrols, took part in a scout version of the popular TV show, “Taskmaster”. Whilst Shauna didn’t have Greg Davies’ throne, and Rob lacked Alex Horne’s wit, the variety of solo and team challenges really impressed upon us. Especially when the scouts created poetry the leader team only game them the first line to, “Sausages are great…”

And finally

Waterproof wardrobe & Boot bank

Last week we reminded you of the group’s hardship fund. This week, we’d like to remind you of the group’s waterproof wardrobe and boot bank.

We say remind you because this isn’t a new initiative, but one that’s served our group well since it’s inception. In the main entrance hall, you’ll find a rail containing various pre-loved sets of waterproofs. In addition, a rack with some hiking boots upon it.

The young people grow quickly, so before you know it, they’ve grown out of those expensive boots or clothes. Please, if there’s something in your young person’s size and they’ll make use of it – take it. All we ask is that if you’ve boots or waterproofs that still have life in them, and are no longer of use to you, that you please hang or put them in the relevant areas of the entrance hall for others to make use of.

Thank you!