Hard to believe that it’s halfway through the month of August, as the summer begins to wind down and the count down to fall begins, we have five weeks out from the beginning of the 2019-2020 Scouting year for the 36th Halifax Beaver Colony. It feels like the right moment to reflect on the adventures from the past year.
September 2018
The year started off big with following our first meeting we headed to OnTree, and outdoor tree climbing. Where beavers climbed in the trees, through obstacle courses, zipping down zip lines and completing their vertical skills 2 badge!
We also started working on our first personal achievement badge of the year; Leader Beaver. Where Beavers learned about leadership, who are leaders in their life, and how they can become a leader in our colony.
October
This month was filled with lots of fun STEM activities, (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) we went on a field trip to the Apple Store, were they learned the basics of coding and had fun coding a little robot to dance and speak French. Chemistry night was next where the beavers learned about experiments and chemical reactions which resulted in making their own slime. We also learned about ecology and duck science, about how their fathers help keep them dry and many other important duck related things. All these activities helped the beavers work towards their Scientific Beaver personal achievement badge.
Our weekend activity this month was coming on an adventure to a neighboring areas Beaveree, which was Halloween themed. Beaver played lots of game, raced cars, played mini stick hockey and tried their hand at spooky activities. Keeping with the Halloween theme the following week we had our own Beaver Halloween bash.
November
Started off learning about compasses and maps! The beavers played different games to help them master all the different directions, plus created their own maps of a local pocket park by our meeting hall.
We also participated and organized our local groups Apple Day, we had great weather, so the Beavers spent the weekend out in downtown to thank everyone for supporting Scouting and spreading joy. The community service continued the following week with participation in our local Remembrance Day ceremony and laying of a reef.
Middle of November brought pirates to the colony! And engineering, have you ever crafted your own boat, the Beavers did with tinfoil! The follow week the Beavers went on an adventure to our local museum to continue learning about pirates, boats, and the sea.
Even though November was super busy, we also squeezed in our first sleepover, where everyone slept in tents, and began learning basic camping skills! Working on their camping skills 1 badge, like putting up a tent, tying knots, washing their own dishes, and caring for their gear.
November ended with investiture where we welcomed twenty Beavers into our colony and the scouting movement.
December
Was a calmer month, with a family swim at the local pool. Where beavers worked on their Aquatics skill 1 and 2 badges. And ended peacefully with a Winter Holiday Party, where the beaver all brought in and shared something, they celebrate in the winter.
January 2019
Started off by making our own cardboard box cars and a pajama wearing drive in movie night. Lots of fun for all the Beavers.
Following that the Beavers participated in a service project titled Valentines for Veterans, where they put their crafting skills to good use to create valentines for veterans to thank them for their service and to spread some cheer during the darkest and coldest time of year.
In January we also started our Chef Beaver Badge where the Beavers took a cooking class! Making their own pizzas and smoothies.
We ended of January by making our own woggles, learning how to roll our scarfs properly and talking about winter safety.
February
Even though it was a short month it was month full of lots of celebrations. The Beavers learned about the Lunar New Year and Chinese culture from other beavers in the colony. Together they made crafts, learned some language and tried new food.
Following that celebration, we then celebrated valentine’s day, with A LOT of chocolate. We learned about where chocolate comes from, what it means to buy fair trade chocolate, tested our chocolate bar knowledge, painted with chocolate, and finally ate chocolate!
In February we also got out into our community by visiting a local museum to learn all about dinosaurs and to show hometown spirit at a local hockey game.
February closed out by learning out international scouting, how scouting was founded, and sharing some scouting history from our families.
March
Was a month with not a lot of weekly Beaver meetings but still a lot of adventures in it! The Beavers had their second sleepover of the year, this time centered around forensic science. Everyone worked together to break codes, making it through some tricky mazes, write with invisible ink, take their own fingerprints, and in the end rescue our two lost beaver stuffies. We connected all this fun science back into our Scientific Beaver Badge.
We then continued on with our Chef Beaver badge by having a healthy challenge night. Where the Beavers learned about nutrition though some fun games and made their own smoothies.
Then, every Beavers, most favourite, the best, time of year: Beaver buggy Building!
And we ended off March with a second cooking classes for the Beaver who did not get to attend the first class; this time on the menu mac and cheese, and muffins.
April
The weather had finally started to be less damp and icy so we where able to get back outside. Playground adventures paired with picking up garbage at a local park, and an outdoor sports night filled with soccer. This was the start if our Olympic Beaver badge which continued on in April with our silly Olympics. Filled with lots of fun games that should be Olympic sports but sadly are not, yet.
We also raced our Beaver buggies, started preparing for our spring hikes by learning all about leave not trace. Getting all the meeting prep work in for our trail skills badge.
And we ended of the month by writing back to our pen pals in England, creating our own postcards, learning about the globe and its continents, which connected into our Beavers of the World Badge.
May
Was the month where we had the best weather and spent most of our time outside. We had a fun day camp where the Beavers went hiking, learned how to fish, tie dyed, and planted their own flowers to help the bees.
It was also the month where we take our traditional hike around the frog pond to look for baby frogs and ducks, plus we took some time to clean up the trails as we went.
This was also the month of our urban adventure where the beavers explored the downtown waterfront, taking the ferry across the harbour, playing on every playground along the way. It was a rainy day but they where all happy to play on anyway,
We then ended off our year with our own little colony celebration before the big group banquet, by having a skate and bike night at our local park. The beavers learned all about helmet safety, hand signals and traffic safety while biking. Raced with their friends and had freezies to end it all off.
June
Regular meetings had ended but still had two fun adventures left! Our big spring tent camp at our local scout camp. Where the Beavers hiked, played in the foods, built shelters, soap carved, and planted trees. They also cooked in tinfoil over the fire for the first time making their own desert and completed the requirements for their Scout Craft 1-2 badges, and Camping skills.
Later on in the month we went on a climbing adventure to our local climbing gym. Where the beavers learned the ropes, practiced trying different knots, and worked towards various vertical skills badges. The best part of this adventure was seeing everyone cheer and celebrate each other when they made it to the top of the climbing wall.
July
Marked the end of our scouting season with a simple walk along the water trail at our local park. The beavers had great time collecting rocks to make sculptures and watching the boats in the harbour.
Looking back on the year it was our busiest year as a colony, but it was a great year. Program wise we worked very hard as a scouting team to create a well-rounded program for our Beavers, that challenge them but also excited them. It took everyone on new adventures and trying new things for the first time, supporting each other through them, and having fun together. From crafts, to hiking, camping, cooking over fires, to taking action to protect the environment, being physically active and testing ourselves through climbing to new heights.
This year was also a year where we had sixteen of our white tails complete their North Star Award, the highest award a Beaver Scout can earn in Scouts Canada. We also saw our white tails take the lead in the colony helping us plan, running games, but most importantly helping their fellow beaver scouts’ weather they fell on the playground or was struggling to tie a reef knot for the first time. A white tail was there to help and set a good example.
Our first meeting of the new year is still weeks away, and we haven’t met half of our new kiddos yet. But I am excited and ready for another year (maybe not as packed as this one) of fun and adventure with them on the Canadian Path.