Newsletter - 2002 - September

InsaneScouter News

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What's New at InsaneScouter.com

I am proud to announce many of the new features and content now available at InsaneScouter. Below you will find a list of what these updates are and where to find them.

• Cub Scout Powwow Books
• Pre-Opening Ideas
• Space Related Ceremonies
• Space Related Songs
• Space Related Stunts and Skits

Scout Mock Space Camp / Shuttle Mission

An idea I have been working on is a Mock Space Camp that includes all these months themes, Blast Off, Communication, Citizenship, and Sports. Below is a list of ideas I have come up with that may be useful for putting on a mock mission.

Areas

• Mission Control
• Astronaut Training
• Ground Crew

Mission Ideas

• NASA found a planet it wants to colonize

Mission Control

• Mission Control Plans the mission
• Maybe have some kind of problem occur during the mission
• Communication
• Pre / During / Post mission speeches, etc
• Launch and Landing announcements
• TV/Radio News stories

Ground Crew

• Have the Scouts build a spacecraft may be out of boxes, or wood or something
• Responsible for repairs and maintenance of spacecraft

Astronaut Training

• Astronomy MB
• Space Exploration MB
• Fitness / Sports
• Create some kind of obstacle course
• Include Tenderfoot physical fitness requirements
• Wilderness Survival (in case of crash landing)
• Develop Teamwork and Better Communications

Mock Mission

• Hold on say a Sat with a family picnic
• Have some kind of obstacle course that the Scouts go through that provides challenges etc that the Scouts complete darning the mission
• Build and Lunch model rockets

Citizenship

• Rights and duties as a citizen
• Something that relates to racism - using aliens as the examples
• Maybe NASA found a planet it wants to colonize and wants the Scouts to set up the government and prepare the planet for the new residents

Misc. Thoughts

• Have space-related games, skits, and ceremonies
• Instead of Space Camp work around a Mock Shuttle Mission

Fun Activities - Space

The Astronaut's Test
Divide the boys and parents into two teams. Each team is given a dowel three to four feet long. Line up each team relay fashion.

The first player in each line has the dowel. On signal, he runs to a line about 15 feet away, sets the dowel upright with one end touching the ground, the other end touching his forehead. Supporting the stick with his hands, he walks around it five times. Then he drops the stick and runs back to touch off the next player on his team. And so on, until all have had a turn.

Moon Treasure
For the Cub Scouts and other children. Scatter unshelled peanuts or wrapped candy over a wide area. On signal, the kids go for it. Be sure that each child gets at least one piece.

Space Pilot Relay
All family members compete for their den. Let the smallest children shoot from near the target. Make two saucers by stapling two paper or plastic plates together top to top. For the target, cut a large hole in a big piece of cardboard or suspend an automobile tire from a tree. Divide players into two teams. In turn, the members of each team try to sail their flying saucer through the target from a line about 15 feet away. (Both teams may fire at the same time.) If a player misses, he must retrieve his saucer and try again. First team with all members having scored a hit wins.

S-A-T-E-L-L-I-T-E
The word SATELLITE contains many smaller words. SAT and LET are two that are easy to find. There are at least twenty-five other words of three letters or more orbiting around here. How many words can you find in SATELLITE?

Starship Captain
All the cubs sit in a circle but one who leaves the room. The remaining cubs choose their Starship Captain. The other cub returns to the room and stands in the middle of the circle. The Captain initiates a series of movements such as claps, stomps, facial expressions, and so forth. Everyone copies the Captain without giving away who it is they are copying. The person in the middle tries to figure out who is the Starship Captain. He gets three tries and then the cubs switch places while someone else goes out and a new Captain is chosen.

Astronaut Training
This is a good physical fitness relay. Two beanbags, two jump ropes, and two rubber balls are needed. Divide the players into two teams. They stand behind the starting line. At a turning line, 15 feet away are a jump rope, bean bag, and ball. On signal, the first player runs to turning line, takes jump rope, jumps 10 times, tosses bean bag in air 10 times and bounces the ball on floor 10 times. He runs back to his team, touches the next player who repeats the action. The first team to
finish is the winner.

Space Crafts

Flying Saucers

Make two saucers by stapling two paper or plastic plates together top to top. For the target, cut a large hole in a big piece of cardboard or suspend an automobile tire from a tree. Divide players into two teams. In turn, the members of each team try to sail their flying saucer through the target from a line about 15 feet away. (Both teams may fire at the same time.) Ifa player misses, he must retrieve his saucer and try again. First team with all members having scored a hit wins.

Place 2nd paper plate underneath and staple the 2 plates together. Decorate

Balloon Rocket

1. Roll a 4” x 5” piece of stiff paper into a shape like an ice cream cone. Use tape to hold in place. This is the rocket engine. Cut larger end to fit tightly inside the balloon neck.
2. Tape balloon and engine together. Wrap tape around the engine to close up air leaks.
3. Blow up the balloon. Let it go straight up. Trim off the top of the engine a little at a time until the balloon rises straight and steady.
4. Tape paper fins in place to help the balloon fly steadily.

Space Sculptures
Start each boy with a block of wood (about 4” x 4”) which has a nail in the center. Provide other materials such as tacks, nails, screws of various types,  cardboard, etc. Create space models - figures, buildings, appliances, or anything else the imagination inspires. Sculptures can be sprayed silver or gold. You may even wish to add some glitter. This could be a pack competitive event - similar to the  Genius Kit -with each boy being provided the same materials in a sack and judged on his creation.

Moon Station Or Space City
The den could make a moon station or space city for display at the pack meeting. Start with a wood, cardboard or plaster base. Make buildings from matchboxes, wood cubes or other materials. Your space city could have a solar energy collector for power, housing, rocket ports, etc. You could add a large plastic or glass dome (such as a round bowl turned upside down) to control the air circulation.

Space Cooking

Alien Meltdown
Snip one marshmallow into a triangular head and another into a torso with arms. Insert mini chocolate chip eyes.
then assemble the Alien on a cookie for his “flying saucer”. Place him in the microwave for about ten seconds on
high and you’ve got alien meltdown!! Cool, eat and enjoy.

Fried Saturn Rings
Tart Apples Butter/Margarine Brown sugar
Core the apples, peel only if the skin is tough. Slice into 1/2 inch thick rings. Sauté in butter until barely tender.
Turn over and cook until tender. Sprinkle brown sugar and cover until sugar melts.

Asteroids
1 Cub sugar
1/4 cup margarine
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cups quick oatmeal
1/4 cup chopped nuts
2 1/2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Combine sugar, margarine, and milk in a saucepan, boil 1 minute. Pour hot mixture over oatmeal and peanut butter.
add nuts and vanilla. Mix, drop by teaspoon onto wax paper. Let cool until firm.

Outta This World Fruit Salad (makes enough for company)
1 can peaches
1 can fruit cocktail
1 can mandarin oranges
1 can pineapple tidbits
1-pint sour cream
2 cups marshmallows
2 cups coconut

Mix together and let sit overnight in the refrigerator. Very good.

InsaneScouter Monthly Tip

A den bulletin doodle board can be made from a 2-foot section of pegboard, decorated with colorful paint. The board can be used to inform Cub Scouts and Den Leaders of their duties and coming activities. Notes, clippings, or reminders of the various jobs and activities are clipped to the board each week. Nameplates for each Cub Scout in the den are attached to the bottom of the doodle board. Colorful pop-it beads can be snapped into the board and to one another to show rank advancement for each boy.

InsaneScouter Moment - Reach For The Stars

There used to be a saying that if a man had great ambition, he was "reaching for the stars". The idea was that he was so eager to succeed he was willing to try the impossible, to reach for the stars.

That doesn't seem so impossible anymore. Men have walked on the moon, a feat that was only dreamed of not so many years ago. And by the way, did you know that the first astronauts who walked on the moon were Scouts? One of them, Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon, is an Eagle Scout. That tells you something about the kind of man he is.

The scientists and astronauts in our space program brought the impossible dream of reaching for the stars much closer to reality. Men will never really walk on the stars. If they tried, they would get a terrible hotfoot. But the stars do not seem so far away as they used to be.

Still, the idea expressed in the phrase, "reaching for the stars," is still valid. It tells us that to enjoy life to the fullest, we must stretch our abilities to the limit. A Scout who does his best in everything he tries will become the kind of man who reaches for the stars.

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