Cub Scout Family Campout

Camping is unanimously our favorite part of scouting. This campout is different from a council or district camporee. This is just our pack and it's completely parent/den leader run. We tailor all of the activities to the needs of the scout majority. In the spring there aren't usually an requirements needed towards rank, so we work together on various achievements.

This weekend we are working on the Fishing and Weather beltloops and pins, the kickball beltloop, along with the Outdoor Activity Award and Leave No Trace Award.

Friday night is spent setting up tents, our camp kitchen, and ends with time around the campfire. We usually set a time of 10:00pm quiet time, but we usually end up staying up really late enjoying ourselves.

Some things on our schedule are set in stone. Like flag raising. We do that every morning at camp. Then there's breakfast and clean up.





Here the boys are working on some of the written requirements for the Fishing Pin.



Both Jeremiah and Joshua caught their first fish ever.





Jeremiah even learned how to grab a fish by the bottom lip to release him. We have some great leaders who really take their time teaching the boys.



After fishing the boys settled in for lunch and some play time. Then we got them busy working on their Weather Beltloops and Pins. They defined some terms, made weather vanes and rain gages, and also started their charts to track the weather for one week.





After "so much school work" we took the boys out to the field to earn their Kickball Beltloops. They ended up playing for over an hour. They had a BLAST!



They also went on a 30 minute hike just before dinner to work towards their 100 Years of Scouting Ribbons.

After a dinner of hot dogs and hamburgers the boys settled around the campfire to perform skits and sing songs.







They also worked together to respectfully retire an American Flag.





Finally the moment came that they've been waiting all weekend for. S'MORES!!



Some decided the campfire was too hot (marshmallows melted right off their sticks)and they used the hot coals left over from dinner instead.

Kelsea is our Pack Story Teller. When we don't have the boys busy with a task or game, you can find several gathered around her listening to one of her many great stories. These scouts swarmed around her at 7:00 am when they were waiting for breakfast.





Once breakfast is over and Tent City has been broken down we gather around the fire pit for our Sunday Service. This usually includes a moment of prayer and a story with a good moral lesson.





The very last thing we do with our boys is to instill our Leave No Trace policy. We line up side by side on one end of camp and march in line through to the other, looking for trash or any other debris that may have fallen on the ground. We also rake over our tent beds to make sure we truly leave behind nothing but our footprints.

Joshua's Photography Beltloop and Pin

Belt Loop

Complete these three requirements:

1. Point out the major features of a camera to your den or family and explain the function of each part.

Parts of the camera: lens, shutter, menu, red eye light, flash, screen, memory card, lens cover, case, and batter house.

2. Discuss with your den leader or adult partner, the benefits and contributions photography makes to modern life. Report what you learned to your den or family.

You take a picture of something important that someone else might want to look at. It might be important for the world to look at.

3. Using a camera, take at least 10 pictures of your family, pet, or scenery; show these to your den.






For the Pin I can choose 5 of the other requirements.

2. Look at a book of published photos about a subject that interests you. Find out what makes these photos remarkable and why people want to look at these pictures. Learn whether the photographer used light or angles to make the photos interesting. Discuss what you learned with an adult.

The National Geographic Book of Mammals is cool. The pictures are great. The animals are cool. There are some really close pictures. It looks like the people taking the pictures were in danger but mom says they used zoom. I like the underwater pictures.

3. Explain to an adult what “red eye” is and why it can happen in a picture. Show examples.

Red eye is when the flash shines off of the blood vessels in your eye.

4. Make a short video of a friend, family member, or pet, and show it to your den or family.

This is my dad making his prize winning chili for the superbowl party.
[URL=http://s291.photobucket.com/albums/ll296/mandystreasure/Cub%20Scouts/?action=view&current=JoshuaPhotography002-1.flv][IMG]http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll296/mandystreasure/Cub%20Scouts/th_JoshuaPhotography002-1.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

5. With an adult’s help, use a photo-editing software feature to crop, lighten or darken, and change a photo.

Day to Night

6. Make a creative project using at least one photo.

Photography Beltloop and Pin

"Photography: the process, activity and art of creating still or moving pictures by recording radiation on a sensitive medium, such as a film, or an electronic sensor."

Belt Loop

Complete these three requirements:

1. Point out the major features of a camera to your den or family and explain the function of each part. Parts could include film, lens, shutter, power on and off, zoom, battery, flash, display panel, case, settings, etc.

Parts of the camera: screen, lens, flash, battery house, memory card house, function buttons, body, tripod thread, lens cap, usb port

2. Discuss with your den leader or adult partner, the benefits and contributions photography makes to modern life. Report what you learned to your den or family.

Photography is important because it helps us remember stuff and leaves a history.

3. Using a camera, take at least 10 pictures of your family, pet, or scenery; show these to your den.

For the Pin I can choose 5 of the other requirements.

2. Look at a book of published photos about a subject that interests you. Find out what makes these photos remarkable and why people want to look at these pictures. Learn whether the photographer used light or angles to make the photos interesting. Discuss what you learned with an adult.

My mom and I looked at a National Geographic book. I showed her the picture of the rhinoceros. It was cool because was the focus was great and we could see detail. The subject was not right in the center. The background was blurry so you only notice what is important.

3. Explain to an adult what “red eye” is and why it can happen in a picture. Show examples.

"Red Eye: The effect in a photograph taken with flash of a subject's eyes appearing red due to the reflection of light from the blood vessels in the retina."

Mom and I found this website that explains it.  You should check it out.
www.colorpilot.com/redeye_effect.html

4. Make a short video of a friend, family member, or pet, and show it to your den or family.

WATCH VIDEO HERE

5. With an adult’s help, use a photo-editing software feature to crop, lighten or darken, and change a photo.

I change the darkness and the lightness of this picture by changing the color curves in Gimp(a free computer program).

6. Make a creative project using at least one photo.