Pinewood Derby 3

Garrett's Pinewood Derby

Today was Pack 55's Pinewood Derby. This is the first year with the new aluminum 4 lane track. The cars were fast and there were 38 Scouts that worked on cars to enter.  Garrett had a light blue mustang which finished in 7th place. Congrats Garrett we are proud of you!

Cars entered today

Garrett's car is the light blue #24

Garrett with his 7th place car
 

This video, if you watch closely at the end you will see that Garrett's car wrecks and flip end for end.

 

Pinewood Derby

Today was the day that Garrett had been waiting for- Pinewood Derby race. This year his car was a "Hotdog Car".  He learned how to use the Dremel tool for carving and sanding plus the wood chisels. There were 58 racers this morning, Garrett made it to the elimination rounds, but about 3 or 4 rounds into elimination he had been beaten 6 times and was out.  The other cars were fast, but Garrett did very well! So proud of his creativeness and skills that he is learning!

Garrett and his Hot dog Car!

Cub Scout Bears Game for Citizenship and Respect

As we are looking at the Character Connection of Citizenship and Respect, Gary and I were trying to make this discussion more active. When we just have the boys sit and discuss it doesn't seem to sink in as well as when we have them doing something with the information. So tonight , we will be planning a game-
 Citizenship/ Respect True/False
 The boys will need to be in s straight line side by side. This is a true/false game. If the answer is true the boys will step forward. If the answer is false then they will step backwards. I made up 13 situations dealing with making decisions about being a good citizen or being respectful or both. The leader will pull a paper out of a hat or bag, and read it to the boys. The boys will then have to decide if the correct answer is true or false and move in the correct direction. Once the boys have moved from their straight line, we will discuss briefly each situation and what would have corrected the situation in order to be a good citizen or to show respect.
Attached is the situations that I made up, that you can print out, cut apart and use or come up with your own situations for the boys to determine. Have fun!

Citizenship/ Respect True-False Game Situations

I should sit still and wear my hat when the National Anthem is played.

 An Elderly woman is coming out of the Mall; I should open and hold the door for her.

 When my teacher is giving directions, I should talk to my neighbor.

 While watching a parade, I should stand when the United States Flag is presented.

 As part of a colorguard in a flag ceremony, it doesn’t matter if the Flag touches the ground.

 When I am out hiking, I should pick up any litter that I see along the trail.

 When my uncle starts telling his stories about the War that he served in, I should roll my eyes and put in my earbuds.

 Learning about the history of my family and my country should be important to me.

 I should start a fight when my basketball team doesn’t win the championship game.

 When my parents discipline me, I should throw a fit and argue with them.

 When my friend is being bullied, I should walk away and pretend that I didn’t see it happen.

 My parents want to go to a Historical Site for vacation, but I know that I will be bored out of my mind.

My neighbor asks for my help raking leaves and I happily go over and help without being paid.

Summer wrap up part 1

Apparently our summer got out of control this year and blogging was not a top priority, but I will at least try to sum up our summer a bit. We started with Weird Animals VBS at our church. Robert was old enough to be a helper for the first time and Garrett and Haylee(my niece) both got to attend. We had about 87 youth attending throughout the week and had a great time. Garrett and McKenna sang a duet for the closing program- I was so proud!

Haylee working on her Weird animal

 

Garrett and McKenna singing a duet

 

Part way through that week, Robert and Andrew (nephew) packed up and was off to 4-H Camp. Sounds like they had a good time with 4-H'ers from around the Region.

 Everyone was home for a few days and then off to Livestock Camp. I was a chaperone so Garrett got to attend camp too. He was very excited about that!

Garrett being the demonstrator

Farm Tour

Part of  Livestock Camp

At the end of June, we said goodbye to Leroy(Andrew and Haylee's great grandpa). This was difficult for all as he influenced the kids and picked on all of them. This happened while Robert was at Boy Scout Camp, but we made arrangements.  Robert was "tapped" for the Order of the Arrow at camp. We were able to attend that ceremony- it was pretty cool!

Robert being called up for intro

 

Scouts that were tapped leaving

Garrett turned 8 at the end of June which seems hard to believe that he is now old enough to officially be in 4-H(he can hardly wait!) The following weekend we had a party for Haylee's birthday, to which she feel asleep to her private fireworks this year.

Garrett's 8th with the General Lee

Using his new chair and blanket

Haylee opening gifts for her 4th birthday

We spent the 4th of July weekend painting the barn at Gary's folks place to prepare for their move this fall.

Barn painting crew

Then off to Cub Scout Day Camp for a week and yes I was a chaperone there too! We had a good group of scouts with us and they did very well with BB's and archery, crafts and nature.

Cub Scouts from Pack 55 that went to Day Camp

 

 

Garrett at Archery

Robert was back to Custaloga Town in July for his Order of the Arrow Ordeal. He passed and was brought into the Langundowi Lodge #46.

Robert achieved Order of the Arrow

And that brought us to fair preparations and the Venango County Fair Which will receive it's own post or two

Pop Bottle Piggy Bank

Tonight as Cub Scouts we discussed how to use your money. To save, spend, donate and invest. Well after discussing with the parent providing that part of the activity, we thought that a divided bank would be really neat for the boys, but they were a little pricey to just give away. So I came up with this divided bank from a 2 liter pop bottle.

Take a 2 liter and wash it out. Then mark 2 1/2" down the side. You will cut with a craft knife about 1/2 way around and the width of the thickness of cardboard that you are using, at those 3 2 1/2" marks.  Between those marks going with the length of the bottle, you will cut small splits where the coins will be dropped in. You will need 4 of those slits. You will also need to drill a small hole in the bottle of the bottle for the tail

supplies needed

You also need:
 2 googly eyes (we used the peel and stick eyes);
 a small circle of adhesive pink fun foam (cut to the size of the bottle cap)
a black marker
1 piece of pink construction paper (cut into triangles)
3 circle discs, cut slightly bigger than the diameter of the bottle
1 pink pipe cleaner, cut in half
hot glue gun



You add the eyes to the neck of the bottle making sure that they are toward the top of the bottle where the coins would be dropped in. The take the marker and add the nostrils to the pink nose. Peel the paper backing and place on bottle cap. Take the pipe cleaner 1/2 and wrap around your finger to make it curly. The place the end of the pipe cleaner into the drilled hole in the bottom of the bottle.
Take your construction paper triangles, fold a tab across one side, and using a glue gun place the ears slightly above the eyes on the neck part of the bottle. The add the cardboard discs to the large slits in the side of the bottle.

You now have a piggy bank that is divided to divide your money or to sort your money. Just a simple activity to help reinforce money management to children.

1st Pinewood Derby

This weekend was an exciting one here. This was the first time that Garrett got to participate in the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. He has been working on his car for a couple of weeks. He learned how to use a coping saw, a wood file, and a wood chisel. He found out that he really likes 800 grit sandpaper and that painting details can be tricky (he had more details than there was space on the car). Saturday morning he was up early and he isn't a morning person, but he was ready to go. With his car in hand and Dad by his side they went to the weigh-ins. He was 5.1oz so they had to drill out a little bit more wood. Then he patiently waited and checked out the competition. 54 cars were entered in the race this year. When his car was up to race he stood at the end of the track. If he won you could hear "YES" and if he lost he quietly took his car back to the table to await the next race. He won 6 races and lost 4. His car ran well, but there were a LOT of fast cars this year. Twice he had to rerace it because the lights didn't go off and the judges couldn't tell who won - so some very close calls.

First Cub Scout Meeting

In his uniform and ready for his first Cub Scout Meeting

This week, Garrett got to start the path into Scouting. He attended his first Cub Scout meeting. He had been counting down for 5 days until he got to go to the meeting and wear his uniform- just a little excited! His den has 25 boys, hopefully they all stay involved and have a great time. The Pack has about 50 boys, so we are off to a great year.