Gallagher Premiership Rugby - WASPS v Newcastle Falcons

Two of our Cubs went to the match last Saturday which was free of charge to all Cubs (and Beavers) and heavily discounted to all other Scouts, Leaders & Friends. Both Sebastian and Oscar had a great time, even if WASPS did lose by one point in an exciting finish. And ... Oscar won the pre-match Lego Challenge and was presented with a shirt and goody bag by the County Commissioner.

West Warwickshire District Cub Quiz

Thank you to Rhys, Libby, Edie, Elke, Tom and Peter for taking part in the District Cub Quiz last night. They did very well, finishing joint second in the nine team competition. The questions were on a variety of different topics and some of them even had the attending parents scratching their heads. Except the crisp tasting round - they were welcome to that one!

February's badge work - a quick summary

Other than celebrating Chinese New Year (World Challenge Award) and the half-term Hike (Hike badge {various stages}, Adventure Challenge Award, Navigator badge {stage 1}, Personal Safety badge), we spent one meeting looking at the history of Scouting - and Lord Robert Baden-Powell in particular - and another when we discussed what badges the Cubs would like to do during 2019. Its important that Cubs shape what we do - its a key skill and their influence & opinion matters.

Half-Term Hike

Instead of an evening meeting, during half-term week we took advantage of the dry weather by getting outside for just over a couple of hours in the afternoon. The Cubs were joined by Beavers and some Mums (and two enthusiastic dogs) and did a circular walk around the west side fields of Wilmcote. This ticked-off quite a bit of badge work, got us some great fresh air and even allowed for a discussion about safe crossing at designated railway points, as we crossed the mainline twice.

"The Year of the Pig" - Chinese New Year

We celebrated the start of the Chinese New Year ("Year of the Pig") on 5th February. The Cubs' had a particularly busy meeting, during which they cooked a stir fry (to their own recipe), made cookies, decorated a Card to send someone and put together a red envelope in which they placed some "money" as a gift for someone. Red is the luckiest colour in China.
One or two Cubs were doubtful about doing a stir fry, but in the end (apart from William), each plate was quickly eaten up. The cookies didn't last long either!

January's badge work - a quick summary

We started the month off with a night of tin-can cooking, which is possibly the Cubs' favourite activity. They all cooked lots of pancakes on their tins. This was towards the Skills Challenge Award:

Following that, we worked on modules from the Teamwork Challenge Award, which included working out different types of roles within a team:

Finally - as well as the odd module from the Skills Challenge Award, we completed the Air Activities (stage 1) badge, so that the Cubs can look at completing stage 2 in the summer. This involved a number of requirements, including making paper planes and building model aircraft:

January - Plough Sunday 2019

Background

The observance of Plough Sunday on the First Sunday of Epiphany goes back to Victorian times, but behind it there is a much older observance, associated with the first working day after the twelve days of Christmas (hence ‘Plough Monday’ in some places). In medieval times, many ploughs were kept in the parish church, and some churches kept a ‘plough-light’. In days when work was scarce in winter, the observance looked forward to the time of sowing with the promise of a harvest to come. The blessing of the plough was very important, as the village was primarily dependent on a good harvest later that year.

In Wilmcote, Plough Sunday is celebrated on the third Sunday in January and again this year, our Cubs (and Beavers) went along to Mary Arden's Farm in Wilmcote and paraded behind the plough as it was carried aloft by the farm hands.