In January 2017 just ahead of You Shape month we held our first log chew of the year. We used the talking stick activity so that the Beaver holding the stick had control of the meeting so they could put their opinions forward without others interrupting them.
The suggestions that the Beavers offered were as follows:-
Flip Out
Climbing Wall
Swimming
Alton Towers
Sports Day
Cinema
Football
Beach
Play factory
Flag Hunt
Theatre
Conker Hunt
Play new Games
Eating Challenge
Painting
Collecting Rocks
Easter Egg Hunt
On 12th January we recapped on the suggestions and made paper chains with all the suggestions on and displayed them in HQ.
We signed the You shape pledge and pinned on our notice boar at HQ. We took photos and posted them on the Youshape Facebook page.
On 2nd February we played lots of new games as the beavers had suggested they were ‘What’s in the bag?’, ‘Fishes in the net’, ‘Leader of the band’, ‘Snake tag’, ‘What comes next?’, ‘Rainstorm’ and ‘Bum push’. The Beavers favourite was bum push. Some were not so good like rainstorm, but the favourites will be incorporated into our future programming.
Charlotte was quite a shy child so for her leader’s Personal challenge she was asked if she wanted to be in charge for the night and do Wear Their Necker to build up her confidence. On 22nd February, she wore my necker and became the Beaver leader when we made pancakes. Charlotte brought her recipe for the batter and some toppings for the pancakes and took charge. It all went very well and everyone enjoyed it.
In April we awarded our Beavers their Youshape badges. Here are some of them proudly wearing them on their uniforms.
On 13th April we held an Easter egg hunt, as the Beavers had suggested earlier in the year.
In May we appointed lodge leaders and awarded them with badges after explaining what the role was. We also made our You said We did board and discussed how it works. When we have done an activity that the Beavers have suggested we put a string across the board to a picture of them doing that activity.
At District camp we were awarded our Certificate of achievement which we proudly display on our You Said We Did board.
On 13th July we held our sports day. Everyone got an award for taking part. Races were bean bag, sprint, hoop, skipping, sack and egg and spoon.
In August we had a bear hunt and ended with a teddy bears picnic.
We also got all the paints out and did some painting like the Beavers had suggested we painted what life would be like in 100 years’ time, this was toward the creative activity badge.
In September we had an International evening where we ate food from 5 countries and learnt greetings and a took part in a flag hunt around HQ to incorporate this idea into the programme.
Finally, in October we were presented with both our Silver and Gold YouShape certficates by Josh (County Youth Commissioner) and Imogen (District Youth Commissioner). This was the first Gold certificate presented in Staffordshire and shows our commitment to running a youth shaped programme for our Beavers.
Alison Gidman
Beaver Leader
Goldenhill and Tunstall Scout Group