New and Learning as I go!

[mskohl]

Hey all. Well, I'm a brad new Tiger Cub Den Leader, and I really don't have a clue about what's going on. I was a girl scout in my younger days and that just doesn't translate well to tiger cubs. Plus, I'm having a hard time remembering the weekly meetings. So, the only tiger cub meetings I've been to were our first which was a get together/outdoor social, and the second consisted of the kids and adults sitting around looking at each other, until the cubmaster lead us on a walk.

 

So, I get my book and my son gets all his stuff this week, I think. So, in the meantime, I've just done a lot of internet searching. I've found the Helps, but our pack has something else planned for this month and all the dens are kinda doing their own thing.

 

Tell me what you think of this and I'll follow it with a couple of questions. Please forgive me if it's already answered in the handbook, I wouldn't know since I don't get mine for another day or two.

 

The Pack decided to take a trip this month (it will be our 4th time meeting together) to the Air and Space Museum in a city about an hour away. It is mostly geared toward older visitors, but my 6 year old went last year and thought it was cool even though he didn't understand everything. So, I thought for our next meeting (my first for being the leader) we'd talk about stars and the solar system. We can talk about what a star is and that a group of them are a constellation. That a long time ago people imagined them as dot-to-dots and made them into pictures. Then, for a craft, they'll take cookie cutters and dip them in glue and stamp them on paper, then we'll glitter it up for a constellation.

 

Another thing I'm thinking of is, teaching them a few facts about the planets and then letting them decorate headbands that are labeled with each of the planets and their pictures then taking the boys outside and letting them line up in order from the sun and let them run their orbits.

 

What do you think?

 

Q: The 5 themes for the Tiger Cub patch (Making my family special, where I live, how I tell it, keeping myself healthy and safe, and Let's go Outdoors)do these have to be followed to a T?, In order?

 

Q: Do the Tigers get to earn belt loops or patches too or do we only get the achievement and elective beads?

 

 

Thanks in advance.

[ScoutNut]

Welcome!

 

Each of the 5 Tiger requirement areas is divided into 3 different parts - Family (done at home with the family), Den (done in den mettings), and Go-See-Its (outings). These can be done in any order, but the requirement should be done as written. The tiger requirements are left a bit more open than other levels however, so there is some flexability in what you do to complete them.

 

All 15 of these requirements must be completed in order for the boys to earn his Tiger Rank Award.

 

Before the boys can receive their Tiger Rank Award, they must complete, and receive, their Bobcat Rank Award. So, while you are working on Tiger requirements, you should be also focusing on the Bobcat requirements.

 

For my first Tiger meeting of the year last week, I started with a simple flag ceremony where I showed and told them about the Cub Scout Sign and Cub Scout Salute. After that I had the Tiger Teams (Tiger and Adult Partner who do EVERYTHING TOGETHER) decorate a Tiger Tales Scrapbook. As the first thing to put in the scrapbook I gave everyone (Tiger & Partner) a worksheet from Crayola.com where they colored the body to look like them and added a picture of their favorite hobby or activity. We then went around the table and everyone showed their picture, introduced themselves, and told a bit about themselves and their favorite activity/hobby. While they were decorating their scrapbook I told them a bit about Cub Scouts, the Tiger program, our Pack and some upcoming activities (popcorn sale, fishing derby). They then helped clean up while I explained the Cub Scout Motto. We ended with a Living Circle, the Cub Scout Motto, and our Tiger Yell.

 

Before they left I had them get out their Tiger Handbooks and sign off on the Bobcat requirements for the Cub Scout Sign, Salute, and Motto, the Tiger requirement #1D, and Elective #16. They had also earned their Tiger Totem.

 

Go to BSA National Web site and take the online Cub Scout Fast Start Training and Youth Protection Training -

 

http://olc.scouting.org/

 

Also check out the info for new leaders -

 

http://scouting.org/CubScouts/Leaders.aspx

 

To see the different requirements for Bobcat and Tiger check out this site -

 

http://meritbadge.org/wiki/index.php/Tiger_Cub_Scout

 

 

 

[Docrwm]

Welcome aboard. I was a new Tiger DL last year - wheww.

 

The issue of the 5 Areas and 15 activities divided into 3 types of activities has been dealt with well already.

 

You asked: "Q: Do the Tigers get to earn belt loops or patches too or do we only get the achievement and elective beads? "

 

There are Belt Loop awards that can add spice to the boys time in Tigers and which can give you a tangible Den distributed award for their involvement in something like the activities you planned for the upcoming A&S Museum trip. Good information on these programs can be found at:

 

http://www.usscouts.org/advance/cubscout/a-sindex.asp

 

http://www.usscouts.org/advance/cubscout/sports.asp

 

http://www.boyscouttrail.com/cub-scouts/acad-sports.asp

 

http://www.geocities.com/~pack215/academics-sports.html

 

and information on the Astronomy Belt Loop can be found at:

 

http://www.geocities.com/~pack215/aands-astronomy.html

http://www.usscouts.org/advance/cubscout/academics/astronomy.asp

[mskohl]

thanks for the replies. Things are getting a little clearer.

 

How does this sound for October. I decided that since October is fire safty/prevention month and our F.D. does a big deal, that I'd try and line up the Keeping Myself Healthy and Safe Achievement. We have 3 meetings and our Pack meeting.

Week 1 meeting - make a fire extinguisher (pringles can and baking soda), try on a helmet, talk about different types of fire, how to get out, and practice 911.

 

Family - Practice Fire Drill/Escape Plan, check smoke detectors

 

Week 2 Go See It- Tour the Fire Station (all the kids get to see the smoke trailer and other educational aspects in the previous weeks through the schools.)so the firemen said they'd get a little more hands on and expand a little more.

 

Week 3 Make our own helmets and practice skit - a song about fireman and at the end, they get to squirt a little water at the audience.

 

Electives: #27 Emergency!, #28 Smoke Detectors

 

Is this okay, or do I need to have the dental and food pyramid stuff?

 

Also, last week the cubmaster gave us a handout with the requirements for the bobcat. I hope the others have been working on it too. All our dens meet at the same place, so we open the meetings as a pack and say the Pledge of Allegience and the Cub Scout Promise. Hopefully the boys are getting it - they seem to pick it up faster than the adults. I anticipate everyone will earn the totem if not the bobcat by our pack meeting at the end of the month. Is this a reasonable expectation?

 

thanks again and I appreciate those links.

[Docrwm]

Sounds good to me. The boys ought to be able to earn the Bobcat with the number of meetings and the plan you outline. Remember that for Tigers it is not performance but effort that is what is measured.

[ScoutNut]

Your plans sound pretty good. If you go over the Bobcat requirements with the boys at every den meeting they should have no problem earning their Totem by Sept Pack meeting and their Bobcat by October's.

 

One reminder - Tiger dens are run using SHARED LEADERSHIP. That means that YOU should not be doing all of the planning of the den's activities. One of the first things you should do is sign up each Tiger Team for a month (depends on how many Teams you have) when they will be in charge of putting together, and leading the meetings and outing. You can help out the Team in charge, but it is their job to plan and run things. This is why it is not a bad idea for all of the parents to take the Tiger Den Fast Start online training.

 

Also, you should not be doing the Family activities in Den meetings. The Family Achievements are supposed to be done at home, by each Tiger and his family. Once all of the other requirements are done, if there is a Family Requirement that your Teams have not finished, you might consider doing it in the Den meeting to finish it up, but that should be done only rarely.

[insanescouter]

Welcome aboard the Scouting Express, for an annual pass of only $10 you get a life time of adventure...

 

It sounds to me that you have a good grip on what needs to happen. I found asking around and surfing the web helped me the most as a Webelos den leader.

 

Here a few other things that may be helpful...

 

I also suggest you check out ptcmedia.net and listen to Leaders Campfire. Coming soon there should be shows on "I am a new _____ now what?", "Training" and "Paperwork"... plus all the past shows are treasure troves of information.

 

Also, don't forget about my site InsaneScouter.org it has thousands of resources to help you including games, songs, skits, stories, ceremonies and so much more. Also the monthly newsletter (just register as a free member) is based on a theme and is loaded with even more resources to help you.

 

Scott Robertson

http://insanescouter.org

 

Helping leaders one resource at a time....

[Rythos]

I would also recommend the podcast from national as well was the podcast for scout leaders over on www.cubmasterchris.com titled An hour a week. Talking and listening to other leaders will help give you a good idea of things that work and things that don't.

 

Good luck!

 

[mskohl]

Well, my first time to run the meeting is done. I think it went pretty well. We only had about 30 min of Den time after the popcorn and field trip talk for the whole pack. Here's basically what we did:

We had 2 new boys and 3 absent - total of 7 at the meeting:

 

We introduced the new boys (they all know each other from school, but I'm still working on names)

Showed and talked about the cub scout sign, salute, and motto.

Said the promise again and talked about what WEBELOS means.

A few boys initiated the handshake and taught the others (I was proud).

 

Then, I started my little lesson on space. We talked about the Universe, Galaxy and our's being the Milky Way, The Sun is a star, what a star is, that an old star is a Red Giant and then becomes a white dwarf. Then I had them each try and name a planet. Some could and some couldn't. I gave them each a headband with the name of the planet and it's picture. They got to decorate it for a few minutes with space and star stickers, markers, crayons, etc. When they were done, I taped the ends together around their heads. I talked to them about the order of the planets and told them the sentence "My Very Excited Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas" (even though Pluto isn't considered a planet anymore, they all thought it was). I took them outside (with the buddy system) to the playground where my husband had helped me by drawing the solar system. We had a big circle in the center for the sun, then each planet had it's ring. We had the asteroid belt, and my little 2 year old running in circles was a comet (yeah, didn't plan that, but it worked out lol). The boys found their planet and stood on their ring. We talked about how long a year was on earth (The whole time they were in Kindergarten and from one Christmas to the next). Then they got to run!

 

I sent home a couple of puzzle pages and a sketch of the solar system.

My goals were to introduce them to these terms and get the families talking about space so that for the field trip, they will have a little background knowledge.

 

I will provide opportunity and tools to help them understand these concepts. And, as long as they 'do their best' and participate, I think we'll get the astronomy belt loop. Maybe we'll build a model of the solar system and knock out an elective too.

 

I had a couple of seconds to talk to the parents (I think I'll start an email newsletter because it's really hard to get time at a meeting) and found out that one dad is an Eagle Scout, but he just has too much on his plate right now to be the leader. He volunteered to organize the 'Let's Go Outdoors' achievement. Another mom offered to do the 'Where I live', and I'll do the 'Keeping myself healthy and Safe' with the Eagle dad and my husband helping since they're both firemen. That just leaves 'How I tell it' and 'Making my family Special'. I think I'll approach parent individually. With 7 othe boys, surely 2 parents will give that time.

 

[ScoutNut]

Sounds pretty good.

 

What did the parents think? Did they have fun working on the headbands with their Scout? Did they have their own headbands and planets too? How did they like the solar system? Did they get to find their own planet, or at least help their Tiger to find his? Did you have a game for the Teams to play together at the end? My Tigers always like doing relay races against the Partners. Especially if the Partners have a handicap to even things up a bit!

 

Sign up a Team (remind the parents that their son is part of the leadership for their meeting) for as many meetings as possible. With 10 Tiger Teams they can't really take a whole month, but 2 meetings each should cover most of the year.