Numbers
Seven new Beavers joined us this term along with one new Young Leader (Sloth). Three Beavers have achieved the Chief Scout Bronze award since the last update and we have many working towards their personal challenge badge. Three Beavers will swim up to Cubs at the end of term.
Programme
It has been a fun packed spring term! We learnt about the history of scouting and attempted another world record challenge. We began our Millions Hands: protecting the environment project by making bird feeders from recycled materials and continued the theme through our Woodland Creatures sleepover. We plan to take part in a huge community project, planting trees in St Neots at the end of March.
We had a lot of creative fun making scenery and props for our Stop Motion projects. The Beavers showed awesome teamwork, imagination and creativity skills when working on their film projects using the donated ipads. The Beavers chose their own themes – which ranged from promoting the environment through to promoting sporting activities. We then invited families to attend a film premier evening, where we all got dressed up and the Beavers walked on a red carpet as true stars!
At our sleepover, the Beavers sewed hand puppets, made masks, watched a film, ate together and played some games. It was fun to visit a new sleepover venue together and eight of our Beavers earned their first nights away badge!
After half term, we took part in Fare Trade Fortnight. It was interesting to see the amount of fairtrade products which are now available that weren’t when we took part in the event 2 years ago. We played games which made us think about how unequal the world we live in can be. We also ran a very successful and fun evening at the Courtyard Café for Pancake Day. The Beavers played all the possible roles that you could think of when running a café and looked the part in their new rainbow coloured pinnies. We raised £143 in just an hour. We will be discussing with the Beavers how the money should be spent.
During skills night it was all about practising knots. A key skill for any young person to have as they go through their scouting journey. We also finished our Gardener activity badge by looking at what had happened to the plants in our terrariums.
Before the end of term, the digital maker fun will continue with our newly purchased micro:bits. We will leaf identifiers and campfire music gaining us the Stage 2 badge. The Beavers will also complete their Animal Friend Activity badge and do a litter pick around the village. We are also looking forward to celebrating 20 years of Houghton Colony with a planned District event.
Next Term
The summer term promises to be as exciting as ever! We will revisit Graffham Water for the third time to participate in raft building and the Graffham Challenge. Two days later we will tackle an outdoor obstacle course at Fortitude Fitness. A day at Herrings Green Activity Farm is planned to hold and fly owls, meet small furry creatures and have fun playing together. There is also a County trip to Colchester Zoo to look forward to.
Then we have the All Sections District Camp and Group Family Camp. In preparation for this we will be sewing badges on camp blankets, practising putting up tents, learning to make fires and some knife skills. Of course we will get our bikes out, spend time in the village woods, learn some first aid skills, and think about keeping ourselves safe and healthy as we break up for the summer holidays.
Plans are already afoot for the Autumn term with a New Year sleepover and a huge project based around hedgehogs.