Den 4 gathered for a delicious meeting at the BUMC scout compound this past weekend! Our scouts completed the following three requirements for the Cast Iron Chef adventure:

1. Plan a menu for a balanced meal for your den or family.
2. Prepare a balanced meal for your den or family.
3. Use tinder, kindling, and fuel wood to demonstrate how to build a fire in an appropriate outdoor location.

Each scout planned and brought their own foil packet to cook (we had a big variety: hamburgers, chicken, potatoes, popcorn, apples, and cookies!) over an open camp fire.

The scouts also brought examples of tinder and kindling from home that they used to learn how to build a small fire of their own.

If you missed this adventure, then be creative and follow along at home with your own meal planning and let Jason and Phil know about your progress! See page 32 of the Webelo handbook.

Our December 6 den meeting was held as a break out during the December pack meeting (see https://www.pack3k.org/december-2020-pack-meeting/). Our scouts learned a little bit about paracord and made their own paracord candy cane for the holidays. They also took home kits to make snowman and reindeer out of pipe cleaners.

HOMEWORK: Please work at home with your scout to complete the “Duty to God and You” adventure, page 42 of the Webelo Handbook. Let Jason and Phil know when you have completed it; we will not be working on this adventure during den meetings. The holiday break is a great time to get this done. We encourage you to look at it soon, because one component asks you to practice a new habit for a month.

Our normal den meeting schedule calls for a meeting on December 20th, but we are going to skip this one for the holidays and pick back up in January.

Den 4 met at the White Columns tennis courts to finish up the Stronger Faster Higher by trying a new sport: pickleball!

Our scouts were also awarded their very first Webelo adventure pins! This is a great time to get your uniform, if you haven’t already, now that you have pins to display on the Webelo colors. We are also tentatively planning to have outdoor pack meetings soon (first one on December 6).

Homework: please remember to continue working on your 30 exercise plan and recording your progress! See requirement 3 on page 83 of your handbook.

At the den meeting we completed the following requirements:

• 1) Understand and explain why you should warm up before exercising and cool down afterward. Demonstrate the proper way to warm up and cool down.
  • (we did this at the last meeting too, but we made sure to stretch again before trying a new sport)
• 4) Try a new sport that you have never tried before.
  • The scouts played pickleball! We learned the basic rules and how to serve, and then set up on 2 courts to play doubles.

If you missed the meeting, you can follow along at home by trying any new sport, or have a look at the Webelo handbook for alternative ways to complete the adventure.

Den 4 met at Bell Memorial Park on Sunday to enjoy beautiful fall weather and work on the Stronger, Faster, Higher adventure. Some of our scouts were definitely worn out after this one 🙂

Homework: please remember to continue working on your 30 exercise plan and recording your progress! See requirement 3 on page 83 of your handbook.

At the den meeting we completed the following requirements:

• 1) Understand and explain why you should warm up before exercising and cool down afterward. Demonstrate the proper way to warm up and cool down.
  • We jogged for a few minutes, did a wide variety of stretching exercises, then stretched again at the end of our meeting to help keep from getting sore or injured. We also learn how to check our own pulse rate.
• 2) Do these activities and record your results: 20-yard dash, vertical jump, lifting a 5 pound weight, pushups, curls, and jumping rope.
  • We timed and/or counted all of these things! For the vertical jump we took turns jumping as high as we could to put name tag stickers on a 2×4 board. “Curls” were done as crunches or sit ups. Since we were on a football field, several of the scouts decided to have a full 100 yard race at the end of the meeting!

Remember to do requirement 3 at home. We are planning to do requirement 4 (try a new sport that you have never tried before) at our next meeting.

Den 4 met at the Charleston Park Trail on Lake Lanier Sunday to complete the “Webelo Walkabout” adventure and a 3 mile hike. Thank you to Christina Carns (Thomas’s mom!) for finding an excellent hike location. The scouts did a great job with it, and we actually completed 3.25 miles.

We completed the following adventure components before and during the hike (you can follow the links for documents for some of the activities).

1. Plan a hike or outdoor activity
   • We studied the trail map, came up with a hiking plan, and made sure everyone was prepared for the day.
2. Assemble a first aid kit suitable for your hike or activity.
   • The scouts brought appropriate supplies from the kits they assembled in the “First Responder” adventure.
3. Recite the Outdoor Code and the Leave No Trace Principles for Kids from memory. Talk about how you can demonstrate them on your Webelos adventures.
   • We reviewed these (last page of the Webelo handbook) and talked about what we were going to do on the hike to observe those principles. We brought trash bags and picked up litter on the way to help “trash our trash”.
4. With your Webelos den or with a family member, hike 3 miles. Before your hike, plan and prepare a nutritious lunch or snack. Enjoy it on your hike, and clean up afterward.
   • We hiked 3.25 miles (access trail, orange trail, and a portion of the purple trail) and stopped at the picnic area by the lake for a snack.
5. Describe and identify from photos any poisonous plants and dangerous animals and insects you might encounter on your hike or activity.
   • We learned about how to identify poison ivy.
   • We learned about how to be safe with wildlife, and how to identify copperhead snakes.

Thank you to Mrs. Stephanie Parrott (Austin’s Aunt) for joining our meeting! Mrs. Parrott is a registered nurse and CPR instructor who generously shared her time and first aid knowledge with us!

We completed the requirements for the First Responder adventure during this meeting. We are very proud of our scouts for doing a great job with all of their first aid assignments!

We specifically did the following this week:

• Requirement #2: Show what to do for hurry cases of first aid. Mrs. Parrott walked us through each of these and answered questions.
• Requirement #3: Show how to help a choking victim. Mrs. Parrott demonstrated how and when to perform the Heimlich maneuver.
• Requirement #5: Demonstrate how to treat at least 5 of the following (list found in handbook). Each or our scouts took turns teaching the den about how to treat a particular first aid problem.
• Requirement #8: Visit with a first responder or health care professional.

Den 4 started on the “First Responder” adventure in their September 27 meeting. We completed the following requirements:

• #1 Explain what first aid is and tell what you should do after an accident: some specific things that we learned about were the “4 Cs” (Check, Calm, Call, and Care) and how to make 911 calls. We acted out some 911 calls to see what kinds of questions the 911 dispatcher might ask and think about how to answer them.
• #6 Put together a simple home first-aid kit: each scout prepared their own kit at home (see homework assignment). We took turns explaining what was in our kits and why.
• #7 Create a home emergency plan: each scout prepared their own plan at home (see homework assignment). We took turns explaining what was interesting or challenging about each plan.

We also assigned homework for the next meeting. Each scout chose a first aid scenario to research until the next meeting so they can tell the den how to treat it:

James: nose bleed

Austin: burn

Sean: heat exhaustion

Thomas: sprain

Clayton: allergic reaction

Patrick: frostbite

Carter: bee sting

Zachary: splinter

Ethan: blister

Anderson: tick bite

Wynn: cuts and scrapes

We look forward to learning about these things and continuing our First Responder adventure in 2 weeks!

Den 4 takes to the Internet for it’s first meeting of the 2020-2021 program year! Thank you everyone for joining and for welcoming the newest member of our den (James!).

We did not work on an adventure requirement in our kickoff meeting, but we successfully translated our den meeting traditions to an online format, made sure everyone was able to talk and participate, and discussed what elective adventures we would like to do this year.

For our next meeting (September 27) we’ll be starting the “First Responder” adventure. Please be ready with the following:

HOMEWORK due at the upcoming (September 27) meeting for scouts (be prepared to show and/or talk about these things in the meeting):
1) put together a home first aid kit (requirement 6, page 74)
2) create an emergency readiness plan (requirement 7, page 76)

HOMEWORK for parents:
1) Do you know a first responder who would be willing to visit one of our virtual meetings and tell the scouts about what they do? Let Jason and Phil know! It would be really interesting for the scouts and would them fulfill a requirement.

Congratulations to Den 4 for completing their Bear requirements and moving on to become Webelos! Our graduation ceremony was held on August 30 2020.

For our March Den Meeting, Den 4 learned about different kinds of robots (including Mr. Phil’s favorite: the Mars Curiosity Rover!) and then tried their hands at building their very on tiny “bristlebots”. These activities were part of the robotics elective (#1 identify 6 tasks performed by robots and #4 build your own robot). We will probably continue the robot them in the April meeting.

The February Den meeting for Den 4 featured the “Baloo the Builder” adventure, with our scouts learning about tools, tool safety, and planning projects. The featured project was a Cub Scout train!

Den 4 built some great cars and had a great time at the Pack 3000 Pinewood Derby! Congratulations to our den race winners: Anderson Kimball (1st place), Zachary Hamil (2nd place), and Carter Maciel (3rd place). We had 100% participation and some really creative cars!