The Litter Bug -- Stories of People Protecting Our World

This is a fun story that you can do with the boys or a larger group. I feel like picking up litter is a way that boys of this age can begin to take care of our world. You can find this story and a lot of other participation stories at: http://www.scoutingbear.com/audience/audpart.htm

THE LITTERBUG

Divide the group into four smaller groups and assign each group one of the words listed below. Read the story. After each of the words is read pause for the group to make the appropriate response.

PAPER "Crackle, Crackle"

CAN(S) "Clatter, Clatter"

TRASH "To the dump!"

LITTERBUG "Toss and throw"

God put bugs in this world for many a reason.
He made them to live in every kind of season.
But the pesky LITTERBUG___, with his PAPER___ and CANS___
Was made through neglected TRASH___, by the foolish man.

To keep America beautiful, get rid of the LITTERBUG___,
So beach goers can, again, lunge on a clean, sandy rug.
because of this pest, we must wallow around
In PAPER___ and CANS___ and TRASH___ all over the ground.

Do you ever really see them toss that PAPER___ or CAN___?
Quite often the LITTERBUG___ is a sneaky guy.
And at dumping his TRASH___, he's oh, so sly.
So most of the time, it just appears everywhere.


As if it had dropped right out of thin air.
could it be we are so used to throwing things here and there
That we dump that PAPER___ and CAN___ without being aware?
Without even thinking, we toss TRASH___ and waste.


We could be an unconscious LITTERBUG___ in all of our haste.
So when you unwrap that piece of candy or gum,
Before tossing that CAN___, thing of this, chum:
If every single person would take note of his habit,
That pesky LITTERBUG___, we could certainly nab it!


Then that terrible bug we would surely stamp out,
With no more PAPER___ or CANS___ or TRASH___ all about.
To keep America beautiful, we must all do our part.
By taking care of our TRASH___ properly from the start.

Checklist for Home Safety

Wolf Achievements 9c and 9d were a little overwhelming to me as a mother.  I had to do all those things????

The important thing to remember is that these achievements are not asking for perfection.  They are just raising awareness as to how you can make your home safer for you and your family.  I found a great checklist that was easy to follow.  I printed it out and gave it to my son.  He ran around the house putting checks were we passed and nothing were we needed work.  Afterwards it was a great time to talk together about the changes we could make in our home.

Follow this link for the Home Safety Checklist.  By the way, her website is amazing.  Check it out!  ScouterMom

Hands-On Recycling

It feels like too many of the things we want boys to do today involve sitting and talking.  Boys learn so much better when they move.  That is the approach we took to Wolf Achievement 7c, learning about recycling.  

I took a large pile of aluminum soda cans just waiting to be recycled.  After talking (briefly) about recycling, we went outside with the cans.  Oohh! It was cold! But the boys didn’t mind; they were busy running around and keeping their bodies warm with our activity.  Each boy grabbed a can and stomped it flat.  Then they grabbed a second and stomped it flat.  Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!  Soon we have a great pile of flat cans to put in our recycle bin.