Cub Scout Camping Activities

[ianthesurveyer]

I am organizing a Tiger, Wolf and Bear campout while the Webelos are at Webelos Woods, and i would like to get some suggestions on activities, songs, skits and cheers to do. Any suggestions?

[Eagle92]

Have you been through BALOO training yet? It's a day long training that #1 is required for at least one person in each pack to have in order to go camping, and #2 does give you lots of great ideas for campouts.

[ScoutNut]

Tiger, Wolf and Bear Cub Scouts are only allowed to participate in Pack Overnighters (no den camping). That means that your campout must include the entire Pack, including any Webelos not attending Webelos Woods.

 

Also, as Eagle92 mentioned, in order for a Pack to be able to take it's Scouts on a Pack campout, the person in charge of said campout MUST have taken Basic Adult Leader Outdoor Orientation (BALOO) training. Without a BALOO trained leader in charge of the campout your council will NOT approve a Local Tour Permit.

 

The materials you will receive at your BALOO training cover activites to do on your campout, including how to do a campfire. You will also get planning helps, sample agendas, a packing list, and lots more.

 

 

 

 

[Novice_Cubmaster]

Hi Ian,

 

I'm going to do something novel - I'm going to assume that you've taken BALOO and would actually like an answer to your question.

 

Take a look at this link (here under Scouter):

http://www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=179594

The 2 liter bottle rockets are a big hit - if it's warm enough.

 

If your District/Council does PowWow or "University of Scouting", that's a good place to get info on campfire activities, cheers, skits, etc.. I'd also suggest going to Roundtable & talking to some Tiger/Wolf/Bear den leaders about what their scouts like do on campouts.

 

By the way, I can see some advantages to having a Pack Campout the same weekend as Webelos Woods. It would really depend on the balance of ages you have in the pack.

 

Fellow Scouters - please keep in mind - The content, quality, and duration of BALOO training can vary from District to District (or even presenter to presenter). If your BALOO training included activities and fun things to do at a campout, you were luckier than I was. Most of our 4 1/2 hours of class time was spent on how to fill out Tour Permits.

 

NC

[John-in-KC]

Welcome to the campfire, Ian

 

All have made good points here.

 

The concurrent camp for Tigers, Wolves, and Bears is family camping. You'll need to plan activities not only for youth members, but also for sibs. They're authorized and encouraged to come. Mom and Dad, of course, are an essential. Cub family camping is a highly supervised (parents participating) activity.

 

Now, as to program:

 

- Ask your District Activity Chair who the previous day camp program director is. He/she should have some history files, including activities which have been done in years past. A simple compass route, some plaster cast stuff, camp cooking, heck, maybe even a bike rodeo all will work.

 

- Google out for "cub scout day camp" leaders guide, or achievement list, or... There's a lot of resources out there.

[ntrog8r]

Hope this helps:

 

Simple nature hikes.

Tree/plant ID.

Games.

Songs.

Fishing.

"Cool cooking" - Solar, in a can, in a bag, in an orange, etc.

Bring materials to make a den flag.

Drawing - plants, animals, campsite, each other.

Leaf prints.

Bug ID.

Stories.

[JoeBob]

Don't worry about filling every minute with planned activities. The cubs make up plenty of activities on their own. Their favorite seems to be running and screaming around the campsite looking for holes to fall in...

 

JoeBob

[Sephrina]

At our pack fall campout/outdoor skills clinic we did the following with a late Saturday afternoon arrival at the site

 

Saturday night

 

family potluck bbq

fishing belt loop - requirements 1 and 2, (did not complete 3 as the lake was too low)

campfire - dens, families, leaders and individual boys participated in the program with songs, jokes, and skits. Everyone is asked to prepare ahead of time and find something on their own. This was followed by a flag retirement ceremony

 

Sunday

 

breakfast on your own as we waited for the 10am start time for the families that did not participate in the campout to arrive for the outdoor clinic

divided the boys into groups assigning a Webelos as leader of each group. The boys came up with a group name and yell, and went over the bobcat requirements until we were officially ready to start

knife training for all but Tigers - basically covered the Bear achievement for all eligble boys to earn their whittling chip (our pack allows the wolves to participate but not earn their whittling chip) We had four stations and each group rotated through the stations for the activity

Hike to geocache as one group

Lunch on your own

Map and Compass belt loop and pin - again four stations to cover the requirements,

Knots - four stations covered square knot, coiling rope, and two other knots that I did not master or now remember, but again I believe they were listed in at least one handbook

Fire Building 101 - we were going to do this in stations, but were running short on time, so it was covered as a group, followed by a fire building contest for each group (with adult supervision)

 

To fully cover the activities we did, we probably needed two days as some of the stations were rushed. I would be more inclined to run each activity concurrently instead of dividing them into four different sections and rotate groups through the activities.

 

The boys kept themselves busy making up games, playing capture the flag, and light wars during any free time without too many issues.

 

Suggestions for next year included adding a religious ceremony for Sunday morning, outdoor cooking, and first aid.

 

This was the first year it was done as a campout and the event was very successful.

 

[JerseyScout]

Don't worry about filling every minute with planned activities. The cubs make up plenty of activities on their own. Their favorite seems to be running and screaming around the campsite looking for holes to fall in...

 

Joebob, you must have been on my Pack campouts almost two decades ago.

 

Other popular activities:

Finding weird bugs

Poking things with sticks

Tag (especially near the tents)

Yelling that I definately wasn't tagged

Digging small holes with sticks

[IM_Kathy]

one of the activities my son's pack did that all the boys enjoyed was painting with mud... we used some really cheap fabric, then made mud in 5 gallon buckets (take dirt, add water, and mix well), and the boys went out and found things to use as brushes (sticks, leaves, pine cones, anything nature)

 

we also always put in a group-cooperation activity - taking wood pieces to get everyone from point a to point b type things

[Basementdweller]

Based on the post.

 

We all know that the poster has not been Baloo trained or the training was of poor quality. Asking what to do on a camp out????? That was pretty telling. It was covered in the training and hand outs.

 

Cub Camping is Family camping.

 

Baloo is required for the Tour permit, Other wise your permit will be not get signed.

 

Do you understand the tour permit?

 

Is your camp site a Council approved Campsite?

 

 

 

[ScoutNut]

Even if your BALOO training took 4.5 hours simply to go over Tour Permits (totally amazing), the other 3.5 hours should have been more productive.

 

If not, the required materials that are given to BALOO participants cover most of the questions of the opening poster, which is why he was referred (back) to (his) the training.

 

 

 

 

[Sephrina]

It is possible an adult other than the Baloo trained adult attending the camp is the one organizing it. Our pack asks for the families to step up to plan events including our spring campout.(granted it was pretty laid back and unscheduled) We had a number of Baloo trained leaders attend, but they were not the ones to put all the plans together.

 

Karen

[Twocubdad]

I'm a big proponent of not over programming things. Half the fun is just running around in the woods with your buddies.

 

We tried to plan a morning activity and an afternoon activity. Look at the belt loops for ideas. Do stuff you can't do at regular meetings, like orienteering, fishing, and astronomy. A good kick ball game with everyone participating is always fun.

 

About dark, you HAVE TO have a campfire. Think of it as a pack meeting without the announcements and advancements. Every den does a skit or song. Flag retirement ceremonies are a cool way to end the campfire. The rule for planning campfires is that the program follows the fire. In the beginning, while the fire is blazing, have all the silly skits and songs. As the fire begins to die down, have the more quiet, reflective stuff before sending everyone off to bed. You don't want all the boys all wound up then try to get them to sleep. A big Dutch oven cobbler or even smores are fun.

[ianthesurveyer]

I have taken the BALOO Training and have had multiple campouts. Thank you for all of you that had great ideas. I got great ideas from BALOO, but wanted to see if I could get some different ideas of some neat things people have done with their Pack other than reading the BALOO manual all the time. The kids get tired of the same old stuff. If you have any constructive ideas, I would be greatful to hear them. This is a Pack Campout so it needs to be activities for all ages.