cubs

eaders ub Scout Lly C r fo e 2009 in z a u June/J The mag

WINTER

YOUR POS N DISPLAYED I PUBLIC

Everybody out

Games for the great outdoors

Starry, starry night

Crafts to count constellations

. . .

P M A C T S R I F Y nvas a M c r e d n u s ead er h d a e l w e n A

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Editors: Graeme Hamilton, UK Adviser for Cub Scouts Nicola Ashby, Programme and Development Adviser for Cub Scouts programme@scout.org.uk

Intro

Published by: The Scout Association, Gilwell House, Gilwell Park, Chingford, London E4 7QW

In the news

Contributions to: scouting.magazine@scout.org.uk This issue’s contributors: Nicola Ashby Charlie Dale Graeme Hamilton Dave Wood ADVERTISING Tom Fountain tom@thinkpublishing.co.uk Tel: 020 8962 1258

Top tips for Here’s some more of your top tips : Pack ul a successf Be organised – write ever ything down and don’t forget to order and kly. present any badges Cubs earn quic as Attend a training course as soon and rs othe t mee to possible gain ideas.

Don’t try to do ever ything, take it step by step and don’t be rushed into ared taking on more than you are prep . to cope with Share yours at programme@scout.org.uk

Graeme Hamilton rounds up the latest news from the Cub Scout Working Group

The national Cub Scout Support team has been out and about at regional and country events, meeting your own immediate local support colleagues, such as Assistant County Commissioners and Assistant District Commissioners.

I’ve been particularly heartened by feedback at these events and through the ‘Your Programme, Your Voice’ surveys there is now a growing recognition that these support roles need to change. People who hold the roles are increasingly aware that what they did last year is not necessarily what is needed this year. We, along with the Beaver and Scout teams, will be working on toolkits for these support managers and, with them and others, developing a new role profile.

Section support It is also quite clear that Cub Scout Leaders need more support with programme planning, running camps and sleepovers, ongoing development and training, wiping out waiting lists and finding adult helpers.

As we prepare for these changes, write in with your ideas on how we can and should develop the roles so that they add more value to the wonderful work you do each week in your community.

Are you taking part in the Big Adventure?

We’re entering camping season, our favourite time of year. If your camp is being turned into a Big Adventure event, tell us how it goes. You can share your stories at www.scouts.org.uk/bigadventure There’s still some free resources and invitations to help you organise a Big Adventure event. Order these from the website.

PS Great news on the census growth (we have 3,000 more Cubs than last year!)

– I’ll share some highlights in the next issue.

Contents 4 Countrywide games Challenges and activities for your Cubs

8 In the spotlight Graeme Hamilton shares three weeks of his life as UK Adviser for Cub Scouts

10 POP

12 My first camp...

Sarah Cruickshank tells her story

15 Research project You share your experiences of the Scientist Activity Badge

Making sense of senses

7 Competition Design a railway safety poster

16 Stars in their eyes Constellations to craft

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Countrywide games A seasonal collection of outdoor activities to keep your Cubs challenged and entertained, courtesy of Dave Wood

Build a trebuchet Provide lots of bamboo canes, string and elastic bands, and pictures of a range of catapults and trebuchets (search ‘trebuchet’ at www. wikipedia.org). Challenge the Cub Scouts to spend 45 minutes or so building a machine capable of firing a potato to a given target some distance away (approx. 20-30m). They will need to work as a team to design and build it, and test it out. Liven up the testing by having a Guy Fawkes-style dummy representing Akela for them to fire their potatoes at!

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Make a movie you will need • a video camera.

1. Cubs work in their Sixes to plan, rehearse and film a short movie to show to the rest of the Pack. Allow 45 minutes or so.

This is a great activity for camp. Show the premiere after the evening meal using a video projector if possible. Possible themes: • The day the aliens came to camp • The day the adults disappeared • When the Cubs turned into robots

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Programme ideas Intro

Glow sticks Glow sticks can liven up a huge range of activities in your Pack, from wide games and treasure hunts to campfires and story times.

Bought individually they are pricey, but you can easily get wholesale packs of 500 multicoloured glow sticks/bracelets for around £20 from auction websites – that’s just 4p each! You could also sell them for 25p each at events such as firework parties or Halloween.

• Lives in wide games: Instead of wool strands, players have a coloured bracelet to denote their team and ‘life’. When caught in whatever game you are playing, the player surrenders their bracelet and must go and get a replacement.

• Follow a trail: Set up a night-time trail by suspending the glow sticks at intervals along a route through woodland. Cubs follow the route – can they remember the correct order of coloured glow sticks they came across?

•N ight ball: Play some simple catching games at night time, using a ball with glow sticks taped securely to it. Rounders or cricket work well.

Cooking competition Run a weekly cooking competition at Pack night, with one Six per week undertaking their turn. Or run this at camp one afternoon/evening.

You will need to provide a selection of food items (plus cooking equipment). Cubs have to look at the ingredients and, with adult supervision, create as tempting a meal as they can. They can divide themselves up to have pairs responsible for each of the three courses.

Perhaps your GSL could be invited to judge each entry.

Keep it simple by providing packet cheesecake mix or ingredients to make tomato soup and spaghetti bolognaise. If you’re adventurous, you could simply provide a selection of random ingredients and see what they come up with!

Miniature gardens you will need (per pair)

• a plastic or sturdy paper plate • foil dish or clean food tray.

1. Give each pair a sturdy paper or plastic plate, foil dish or clean food tray.

2. Challenge them to build a miniature garden in 30 minutes.

3. They can use whatever they find outdoors – soil, sand, twigs, pebbles, lichen, and so on.

4. Which pair can make the most realistic miniature garden?

Descriptive hike Before the meeting, walk along a route and jot down simple descriptions of places you come across, such as: tree stump on right; clump of five silver birches on left; wooden fence ahead.

Type these up and issue them to Sixes. They must then follow the numbered descriptions as best they can. They may need a leader with them who knows the route to ensure they don’t go too far off course.

Direction finding you will need (per Six) • blindfolds • whistle.

1. Members of a Six are blindfolded and stand at one end of an open playing area.

2. The Sixer stands somewhere at the other end. This person has a whistle and is allowed to blow it just ten times. Their job is to try and attract the members of their Six to them by blowing the whistle.

3. Their turn ends either when all have made it close enough to touch their Sixer, or when all ten blasts have been made.

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Wet heads you will need (per Six)

• bucket • plastic cup • empty two-litre soft drinks bottle • lots of water!

1. Sixes stand in relay form at one end of an outdoor area, with a bucket of water and a plastic cup per Six. 2. The Sixer sits cross-legged on the floor, holding the drinks bottle on their head.

3. On the word ‘go’, player one in each team runs up with a cup of water and pours it into their bottle.

4. They then return to pass the cup to player two who repeats the process.

5. Which Six has collected the most water (and has the driest Sixer!) after eight minutes or so?

Number drenching

Blanket ball

you will need

you will need

1. Players stand in a close circle around one player, who has a bucket of water and a plastic cup.

2. This player chooses a card from the bag.

3. They give it to a leader to hold.

4. Players in the circle then take it in turns to call out any number between one and 30 (they can’t repeat a number).

5. As soon as a player in the circle calls out the number on the middle player’s card the player in the middle throws the cup of water at them!

6. Repeat until everyone in the circle has had a turn.

1. Place a blanket at either end of a large playing area – these are the goals.

2. Players divide into two teams and stand in the playing area – teams will need to be obviously marked so use coloured T-shirts or vests.

3. Three footballs are thrown into play and players grab a ball and must try to get it to touch their team’s blanket.

4. They can run, handle and kick the ball.

5. If they are tagged, they must give the ball up to whoever tagged them.

6. A leader will be needed at each blanket to log goals scored.

• bag containing cards, numbered 1-30 • bucket of water • plastic cup.

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• blankets • three footballs.

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Competition

Playing safe your Pack’s Design a railway safety poster and n by thousands creation could become a pin-up see

F

ollowing the successful take-up of the Serco Personal Safety Badge Railway Safety activity pack, Serco Integrated Transport would like to invite all Cub Scouts to design an attentiongrabbing poster to promote the rail safety message throughout their community.

Five winning posters will then be chosen by the British Transport Police, Network Rail and Serco Integrated Transport.

The winning posters will be uploaded on to both the Serco Teaching Zone (www.teachingzone.org/serco) and the British Transport Police Teaching Zone (www. teachingzone.org/btp) websites, which can be accessed by teachers throughout the UK. They could also be used at railway stations and public areas in British Transport Police and Serco Integrated Transport offices.

To apply Entries should contain a written message and a colourful picture or design. The poster must be submitted on A4 paper and accompanied with a clear photo of your Cub Scout Pack.

Send to: Serco Poster c/o Graphic Ad Unit 1 Moorfield Business Park Moorfield Road, Yeadon Leeds LS19 7BN.

Alternatively, digital copies of the posters and photos can be sent by email to serco@teachingzone.org Please include the name of your Pack and the name and contact details of the Cub Scout Leader (telephone number, postal or email address).

The closing date for entries is Friday 17 July 2009.

Winners will be notified by the end of July 2009

ss of the Serco -Scout Following the unprecedented succe a special award was ent, gem enga Partnership in community n at the Divisional Pulse presented to The Scout Associatio nt Garden, London. The Serco Award Ceremony held in Cove award from Nick Brown, Chief and Scout team received their rated Transport Division.

Executive Officer of Serco Integ

Terms and conditions: • Serco retains the right to digitally enhance any of the winning poster designs and to include photos of the Cub Scout Pack that created them in the finished artwork.

• Participating Cub Scouts must have parental consent for their photos to be used in the way stated above. Individuals will not be identified but the Cub Scout Pack will be.

• Entries cannot be returned back to the sender.

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In the spotlight

er for Cub Scouts gets up to vis Ad UK ur yo at wh d ere nd wo Ever on shares a few weeks of his life on a daily basis? Graeme Hamilt

W

hen I’m out and about people always ask me ‘What’s it like working for Scout Headquarters?’ I thought therefore I would share with you a typical three-week period in March.

The UK Adviser is a volunteer role, and I approach it much as I did all my previous Scouting roles – with anticipation, good planning and the support of a great team.

Every Tuesday I have a telephone chat with Nic, the Programme and Development Adviser at Gilwell Park who looks after the Cub section. We discuss the previous week and plan ahead, perhaps looking at the supplement articles, or the proposed questions for the next online survey ‘Your Programme, Your Voice’.

The first weekend of March saw me travelling to Bristol, where I joined with the Southwest District Commissioners’ (DC) conference. They had kindly offered me a half hour slot to discuss the role of District Commissioners in sustaining the growth and development of our section. Since the national DC conference was cancelled last September, I’ve been making my way round these regional events to ensure as many DCs as possible knew our goal and were committed to supporting it over the next few years.

We’ve also recently issued the support booklet for DCs that matches these workshop sessions. Just a couple more still to do...

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From there I travelled up to Gilwell Park for the quarterly meeting. This group consists of the lead volunteers and staff in the Programme and Activities teams. This time, we approved the 2009-11 work plan for all sections and activities, which we’ll share as we visit the regional meetings.

On the move Seven days later and I’m preparing to attend the joint Beaver and Cub Scout leader conference in Northern Ireland, along with Karen Jameson, the UK Adviser for Beaver Scouts. Friday evening, I rush straight from work (I am a Service Development Manager by day) to catch the evening flight to Belfast, where I wait for Karen to arrive too. Ian Stewart, Northern Ireland Commissioner for Cub Scouts picks us both up at the airport. After a quick meal, we check out the conference venue. These events often prove both exciting and challenging.

Imagine my shock when the next morning, as I was about to present ‘The Challenges of Moving on’, to an audience of 100 enthusiastic leaders and commissioners, the projector fails. The show must go on…

Listening up It’s great to meet so many leaders and to hear their ideas, issues and concerns. Interestingly, many of these are mirrored all across the UK: not enough adult support, challenging behaviour, older Cub Scouts not staying on to

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Profile

Phone a friend: Graeme and Nic catch up on a weekly basis.

‘Imagine my shock when, in front of an audience of 100 enthusiastic leaders and commissioners, the projector fails.’ the Troop, fantastic programmes, great camps and outdoor activities, appreciation of the recent amendments to the Programme and the fantastic new resources.

We’re occasionally allowed to relax too and Karen and I joined in the quiz evening with many of the leaders after the conference before heading for home. I won’t tell you how we did!

On the move…again The following weekend saw me on a whistle stop tour of the south. Firstly, a Friday night flight to London for the London Region District Commissioners’ conference and then a drive to Suffolk. I spent the morning at their County Cub Leaders’ workshop on a District campsite.

What a pleasant Sunday morning and it was great to see everyone there – the training team, the County Commissioner – and even some young members too.

There was then a quick drive across country to join the East of England regional event at Wyboston Lakes, where Nic had already completed a session. I arrived to help finish a session on communication and then together we looked at growth, development and waiting lists – the key focus of this role over the past two years. Regional workshops are a great opportunity for Nic and I to meet at least annually with all the Assistant County Commissioners or their equivalents

and to progress issues. It is a Headquarters-run event now, unlike the former format, and I’m delighted that a number of Assistant District Commissioners now join in too, giving us a wider perspective on issues covered.

Mixing it up These three weeks are typical of the role. Add in to the mix emails and phone calls every evening, preparation of speeches and presentations, support to the Cub Scout Team in their different projects, writing articles for the supplement and working with the UK Advisers for the other sections and you can see how energising the role is.

The role is very much one of supporting adults.

However, it’s a huge motivator also to be invited to events to see Cubs in action – I have a few camps and day activities lined up in my diary already for the summer and I’m looking forward to them all.

more info If you would like Graeme, Nic or any other member of the Cub Scout Support team to attend your event, send an invite to cub.scout@scout.org.uk

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Top 5 Programmes on POL (April)

Ref

Activity name

29217

The Story of St George

41026

St George’s Day

43860

I went to the moon

27575

Dragon’s mask

43738

Hire a mobile planetarium

Activity/Game

POL ID

Time

Zo

Opening ceremony

24640

10 mins

Bel Att

Does it make sense?

41601

65 mins

Bel Att Glo

5 mins

Bel Att

Making sense of senses.

Compiled by Nicola Ashby

POP Programmes on a plate

Test it out

what We would love you to let us know . If plate a on me ram you think of this prog mins ten e spar se plea out, you are trying it your to email us your thoughts. Provide s Cub of ber num and p Grou name, role, hing anyt and of course what worked and if uk org. didn’t. Email cub.scout@scout.

Closing ceremony

24641

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Zone

Method

Instructions

Beliefs and Attitudes

Themes

Discuss the theme for the meeting.

Beliefs and Attitudes; Global

Team challenges; Try new things; Activities with others

You will need: • blindfolds for all participants .

• a cd/MP3 of household noises, such as flicking a light switch or opening a drawer.

• a set of ten or more strong smelling liquids in containers (orange juice, cold tea or spices dissolved in water work well).

• a set of ten watertight bags, each containing something interesting to feel. A range of touch sensations should be represented from flour and tea and solid objects like hairbrushes and cotton wool, and also cold baked beans and a raw egg.

• a washing bowl full of warm water and a towel.

• a set of ten or more edible foods, crisps of different flavours, icing sugar and others (check for allergies).

What you do: 1. Set up four bases and divide the group into four equal groups. Four supervisors should be at each base.

2. Rotate the groups around the four bases; each base should last 15 minutes.

The bases: • Hearing. Play a tape of sounds to the Cubs. Each Cub writes down what they think the noise is. Replay the tape and reveal the answers.

• Smell. Blindfold all the Cubs. Give each liquid to the group and ask them to determine what it is by smell only. Once they have decided, tell them the correct answer and move on.

• Touch. Blindfold all the Cubs. Pass the bags out one by one to the group and have them feel what is inside. NO SMELLING. The group decides what each bag contains, then tell them the correct answer. Pass out the messier bags (baked beans etc) last and remember to have a wash bowl and towel handy. Variation – a range of material samples could be used eg fine sandpaper and velvet.

• Taste. Blindfold all the Cubs. Give all the group members a taste of each food and have them decide what they are. Then reveal the correct answer. For the ultimate test, ask them to differentiate between plain and self-raising flour.

Variation – rather than blindfold, choose ten edible substances and put them through a food processor, adding different food colourings. Discuss the reaction to the appearance of the food and the impact of the colour.

3. Gather everyone together and discuss: How did it feel to concentrate on senses other than sight? Were some senses more/less developed than others? How would they cope if they only had the use one of these senses and not sight?

Variations – this activity can be run as a team or individual competition with points being awarded for correctly identifying each item.

Other ways of testing the senses are: • tasting liquids • identifying people’s voices from a recording.

• in a smaller room, with a smaller group, you may wish to reveal all the answers when the group has finished the activity.

Beliefs and Attitudes

Themes; Prayer, worship and reflection

Ask the Cubs what they have learned.

Activity taken from the Global Awareness Partnership Project Pack. For further information please contact the International team at international@scout.org.uk

For more great ideas visit www.scouts.org.uk/pol scouts.org.uk/pol 11

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15/5/09 12:17:40

My first camp…

relives New leader Sarah Cruickshank her first experience of Cub camps

I

’ve been involved in Scouting for a couple of years as a parent helper and recently I decided to become an Assistant Cub Scout Leader.

And so, I found myself at the end of April, facing the prospect of meeting the Appointments Committee on Monday night and going on the Pack holiday on the Friday.

Having gone through the appointment process and meeting with the Training Manager, I thought I’d better think about the very long camp kit (my son is also in my Pack). As with every camp, the kit list prepared them for the worst, with four changes of clothes. The weather was mostly dry, so we didn’t need half of what we’d taken, but always best to ‘be prepared.’

Our theme was ‘Camelot’, so we’d already had a couple of meetings to decide on what activities we were doing and what each leader (there were seven of us), needed to bring.

I talked to the Cubs on our last Pack night before camp about coats of arms and they’d all created their own arms on cardboard shields.

Arriving at camp By not long after 7pm on the Friday night, all the Cubs were at the Littledale Activity Centre, and had settled into their rooms and new Sixes, which we’d changed from the regular Pack Night Sixes. We chose our Duty Sixer for the weekend and had out first flag break.

We set our basic rules for the weekend and then got 12 Cubs June/July 2009

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Feature Intro

s packed with The weekend wa ing a lively pillow activities, includ t. fight in dayligh

down to making helmets and swords and finishing the shields. There was a great deal of ingenuity and silver foil as the children created swords and daggers to hide about their persons and attack their evil enemies.

‘Sword in the Stone’ story Each Six had the same basic story, but they all worked really well together to present it in three very different ways.

By the time that was done, it was nice and dark outside, so we went for a torch lit explore of the site, before playing a wide game. The Cubs worked in pairs, and even those who professed to be not too keen on the dark enthusiastically joined in.

After a burger supper, the Cubs got ready for bed.

No, they didn’t go to sleep straight away. We didn’t have to check on them too often, and after a coffee and a discussion of Saturday’s programme and a final decision about where we were hiking, the leaders were in bed by 1am.

Would you believe me if I said that we didn’t have to get up at all during the night? Well, it’s true!

Early risers Breakfast and room inspections were over by 9am on Saturday morning and we were out playing rounders.

In keeping with our knightly theme, we’d organised an archery session and ran this as a base activity alongside wire wrapping beach glass to create pendants and making ‘Merlin’s Magic Dream Catchers’ from found twigs and natural objects held together with elastic bands.

As the walk to and from the archery location took scouts.org.uk/pol 13

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around 15 minutes, juice and cake was waiting at the camp house when the groups arrived back to do the jewellery making.

After two hours of bases in Sixes, we brought the whole group together to make fruit kebabs. Then we had a simple lunch of chunks of bread and butter and cheese, followed by small cakes (each Cub is asked to bring six small cakes with them).

The early afternoon weather was perfect for the circular walk we’d planned – half the Pack set off in one direction, half in the opposite direction and we met in the middle.

After tea, I took the whole Pack out with one of the other leaders for a run around and then – for me – disaster struck.

Sarah’s tips for new campers/leaders  Take plenty of clothes – just in case  Take a blanket to keep warm around the campfire and in bed  Take some headache pills – it is stressful  Take spare kit for the Cubs – they WILL forget things  Have a go at everything, but don’t be afraid to ask for help if your skills need brushing up  Make sure you have a good store of games in your head so that the Cubs have plenty to do

A mounting migraine I’d had the beginnings of a migraine for a bit of the day, but it hadn’t been bad. Suddenly though, the headache surged and I was sick. I shouldn’t have been surprised, because enjoyable as camp is, it’s still pretty stressful. You don’t really relax or rest as a leader, even when it seems all the Cubs have settled at night. As a consequence of the migraine, I had to go to bed and miss the campfire and the medieval banquet.

Sunday morning dawned and I was much better for a good sleep. We marked St George’s Day with our Cub Scouts’ Own led by Tess, then enjoyed some knightly sports and trails.

The whole weekend was rounded off with a beautiful Sunday lunch and a tug o’ war (which the leaders managed to lose).

As a first experience of camp with perfect weather and well-behaved Cubs, I’m really looking forward to my next trip in September.

December2009 2008/January 2009 14 Cubs June/July

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Intro Scientist Badge

Research project nsor Rolls-Royce Cub Scout Scientist Activity Badge spo to help you run fun has developed a range of resources e our word for it activities for Cubs. And don’t just tak Your feedback

Fun day out

Cub Scout Leader Mark Colvin, with the 5th/80th Coventry Cubs, completed the Scientist Badge over six weeks, with a new activity at every meeting. On week two they started the broad bean investigation, and Cubs brought their beans in every week to compare them with the others and discuss what was happening.

Joyce Hoyle and Lynn Lees, leaders with 1st Wickford Unicorn Cub Pack, organised a Cub District Scientist Badge Day for Billericay and Wickford. They ran two half-day sessions for 48 Cubs and were delighted to ask ADC Kay Baker to present all 96 badges and certificates at the end of the day.

Clair Daniel, a leader at Sandy Scout Group, took Viking Cubs on an indoor camp in January and did lots of science activities over the weekend. They were lucky with the weather and got a really cold, clear night to explore the constellations. The Cubs were really excited to see UFOs as well as stars (thanks to the flight path to Luton airport!) Everyone had a great weekend and all the Cubs were rewarded with their Scientist Badge.

If you are bringing your Cubs to the Fundays at Gilwell Park on 20 and 21 June, Rolls-Royce will be there with some activities to get Cubs started on their Scientist Badge. Look out for more information when you arrive.

Resources galore Resources to help Cubs complete the Scientist Activity Badge now include: • The Scientist Badge Activity Pack, including a certificate – visit www.scouts.org.uk/rollsroyce to order your copies.

• Seven 30-minute activities, with worksheets for Cubs and instructions for leaders – download from www.scouts.org.uk/rollsroyce • Step-by-step instructions for all 19 Scientist Badge activities on Programmes Online – log on at www.scouts.org.uk/pol and search ‘scientist’.

• Rolls-Royce would welcome your feedback on these resources and to hear about the activities your Cubs completed. Email gill.fennell@rolls-royce.com

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Stars in their eyes things to Charlie Dale rustles up some crafty itable for do with stars and the night sky, su both Pack night or while on camp

T

here are 88 groups of stars visible from our planet. Called constellations, they are named and based on ancient mythology – some in the northern hemisphere and some in the southern hemisphere.

So, before going out it’s worth doing a little study to make sure you know what you are looking for.

The constellations are made by drawing imaginary lines between stars to make a picture – give it a go.

There are plenty of examples of the constellations (with lines to show the shapes) on the internet or in books from the library. Just trace the star points from there. Have one of the sheets for each constellation with the lines drawn in to

show the Cubs when they’re done. Why not find out a little more about the different names, where they came from and the stories, myths and legends behind them?

Constellation star sheets Two of the most well known (and easily recognised) constellations are Orion the Hunter and The Big Dipper, which is part of a larger constellation called Ursa Major or The Great Bear. The Big Dipper looks like a saucepan with a slightly wonky handle. The easiest parts of Orion to spot is the three stars in a row that make up his belt, from there you can work out the rest of him, his shield, club and sword.

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Make and do

Here’s a simple activity to get the Cubs looking for the right shapes: • Draw the different points of the constellations on to a piece of paper, but don’t join them up.

• Black paper and a silver pen will make it look more like the night sky, but black ink on white paper will do just as well.

• Make enough copies of your star sheets for everyone and ask them to join the dots to make the constellation shapes, and see who does best.

• To make it more difficult, you could include additional stars that don’t form part of the constellation.

• Collect enough of these shapes together in a folder and you’ll have your very own constellation reference book!

See the real thing

Starry POL activities International Year of Astronomy in 2009 is a year-long celebration of everything space science. It marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei and Thomas Harriot taking the first look through a telescope at the night sky.

There are a whole host of space related activities on Programmes Online. Simply search ‘astronomy’ in the search box. www.scouts.org.uk/pol

With most people now living in towns or cities the stars can be difficult to see at night with all the street lights. So, the best way to stand a chance of seeing stars is to go out into the countryside, as far away from houses and street lighting as you can!

Take your constellation reference book and see how many you can spot – this will vary throughout the year as the earth orbits the sun, the position of the many stars in the night sky will also change. If you get really clear conditions the first thing you should notice is just how many other stars there are, not just the ones in the constellations. Another thing you will notice is just how large the constellations are. In fact, sometimes you can miss them because you’re looking for something much smaller.

Stars aren’t the only thing to see The brightest and most obvious object is, of course, the moon. Even a small pair of binoculars, a telescope or a camera with a good zoom lens will let you see the different patterns, which you can then draw. And while you’re at it do different versions to show what can be seen at different phases of the moon. You’ll be able to see the whole cycle in a little over four weeks.

The moon is also (so far) the only other celestial body humans have set foot on. And did you know that all but one of the men who have set foot on its surface had been Scouts, including the first two Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin?

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A night sky show indoors A planetarium shows you the stars in the sky by projecting them up onto a domed ceiling.

You can see pin pricks of light indoors with just paper and a torch.

you will need

• dark coloured paper • a pin or small nail • modelling clay • a battery powered torch.

1. The paper you use needs to be thick enough to block out the light effectively, but thin enough that you can make a small hole in it without too much effort.

2. You also need to make sure that the torch can shine light onto nearly the whole sheet of paper without any light escaping to the sides.

N

S

3. Use your star reference guides as templates and make a hole with the pin into the modelling clay at each star.

4. If you want you can make slightly larger holes for the brighter stars and smaller ones for the dimmer stars – just be careful not to make too large a hole otherwise the effect will be ruined.

5. Once you have made all your constellations put them in front of your torch, turn the torch on and the lights in your hall off.

You should see the light pin-pricks of light in the shapes of the constellations. Try arranging the constellations in the same order and pattern you see them in the real night sky.

As an alternative you can attach all the star sheets together to make one large star map, then shine a desk lamp or a more powerful torch from behind them to get the same effect.

SCOUT SHOPS

Gelert Orbit 25 Litre Daysack Item code: 1026366

RRP £19.99

EQUIPPED FOR ADVENTURE

scouts.org.uk/shop 01903 766 921

Our price

Really Big Oball Item code: 1026847

£12.50 Cub Baseball Cap Item code: 1025890

£5 100% sun protection cotton navy baseball cap in youth size with the Cub logo embroidered on the front and the paw prints around the cap.

Kick it, Stomp it, Crush it, and the Really Big Oball bounces right back to a perfectly formed sphere; it is amazingly fun and durable.

Easy to grab or catch and in vibrant colours, Wipe to keep clean.

£14

Dimensions: 29cm(W) x 11cm(D) x 41cm(H) Weight: 890g Colour: Azure Blue/ Grey The Orbit 25 litre daysack offers a combination of contemporary styling with essential features for camps and the outdoors.

It can be used in a hut or gym as well as in the garden or on a campsite or the beach. Anywhere you want to play, take the Oball with you.

Scouts Be Prepared Towel Item code: 1024948

£13 This purple, green and white Scout towel can be used at camp, on the beach or for your home.

Made from 100% cotton.

All profits go back into Scouting. The Scout Association Registered Charity Numbers 306101 (England and Wales) and SC038437 (Scotland).

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