Category: Cubs

With parents and cubs welcomed by our resident piper, Burns Supper was underway.

Cubs celebrated the Scottish bard, Robert Burns, in style with a fantastically led ceilidh and a taster of Haggis, Neeps and Tatties – all accompanied by kilt-wearing leaders and guests.

The evening started with a piped welcome to cubs and parents from one of our Dads – Many thanks to Vance for your lending us your musicianship. In the covid-ventilated cold hall, some warming up was required. A mini-ceilidh was taught and called by our Glaswegian friend, Martin, and his Explorer Young Leader daughter – cheers tae yous two.

Feast your eyes on your cubs enjoying their northern neighbour’s custom:

After the dancing, there was a short break either making Scottish Bunting or decorating and colouring the Selkirk Grace, a traditional prayer of blessing over the Scottish fare to be eaten later. In time, the haggis arrives, escorted by the pipes, presented at table and then ‘cut up’ in the reading of the Burns poem Address to the Haggis.

Haggis, neeps and tatties were served, with a vegetarian alternative haggis for comparison. The cubs received their Scottish fayre with mixed acclaim!

Just a few little photos from the last three weeks!

Thank you to Colonel Hathi for designing the many-times-postponed Number Hunt! The Cubs followed compass bearings around the area looking for clues that would lead them to a number. Lots of fun.

Thank you to Bagheera for leading our Hike the Bridge. We made it about three quarters of the way across in the time we had available. Some cubs had to overcome a fear of heights. All cubs seemed to enjoy themselves even though they got soaked!

Thank you to the whole team and a parent for helping with this week. Raksha engineered an amazing It’s a Knockout competition which was thoroughly enjoyed. Chil and Baloo provided the victuals for a delicious BBQ! Meat from Lower Failand Organic Farm and Molesworths Butchers. Veggies from Lloyds.

The pack enjoyed a lovely sunny evening cycle ride through Ashton Court and along Festival Way.

A large group of the pack formed a fast moving peloton reaching in to the heart of Long Ashton while a more cautious team built their confidence greatly whilst overcoming hills, nettles and various bicycle malfunctions!

Many thanks to our cycle expert, Bagheera, for planning and leading the evening and to the Parent Helpers that joined us to help with supervision.

Our last of 3 sessions at Woodhouse Park in mixed weather – lots of lovely sunshine and views, but it did rain our our parade (investiture) at the end!

The cubs learnt about contours using the models that the sixers had created. And the sixers led discussions on a the last few parts of the Fire Safety badge.

Map Bingo for a massive bar of chocolate was probably my highlight – even though I didn’t win!

We had a lovely session out at Woodhouse Park last night – and we didn’t get too wet! Over these 3 weeks we will complete the first 3 levels of the Navigator Badge

The cubs started by running around the field to North, South, East and West then to NW, SW, SE and NE! Solidifying their knowledge of 8 points of the compass. We had a go at pinpointing ourselves on the Woodhouse Park map and working out how to identify features using the Legend.

Imagination and creativity engaged gears as the cubs created their own map of an island – sometimes trying to use the official Ordinance Survey symbols to represent items. Here’s the activity on OSM. Here are some of the results:

We finished with a mad map relay game using a Woodhouse Park map overlaid with a grid. If you want to have a go yourself – here is the map and the instructions. The right hand column contains answers – hide it from your cubs!