Magic by Moonlight

This evening's Beaver Hike through The Coombes woods, near Bearwood, was fantastic fun. Supported by plenty of parent helpers, our Beavers made their way through the dark forest by torchlight, climbing over fallen trees, crossing wooden bridges and splashing through puddles.

Turning all the torches off to see what we could see in the darkness was an enchanting experience. The Beavers spotted lots of stars through the delicate tracery of branches overhead, as well as a passing aircraft on its way to Heathrow.

When we reached our finishing point in the field, each group made their way to a handy log to sit on as they studied the night sky to see how many of the constellations on their sky map they could spot. Warmed by hot chocolate (which miraculously stayed hot for two hours!!), it was the perfect end to our adventure.

Water fights - what Summer evenings were made for!

Yesterday's Beavers session was mostly spent outdoors, squirting water pistols at our 'skittles' in a game of 'water pistol bowling', and at each other, in a game of 'every Beaver for him/herself!'

Most wonderful fun. We also managed to make some fab paper boats, which floated beautifully - once I'd figured out how to follow the instructions, with some help from Joseph, Jack and Ed.

Here we are in all our watery glory...

Wild in the Woods!

What a glorious afternoon! Thanks so much to all of the parents who came with us on our hike this afternoon, and who participated in the lift-share. We couldn't have done it without you!

The Beavers had a great time, walking through the woods, identifying wild flowers and plants and spotting the 'clues' that showed them which path to take. All of the groups missed the lower-key clues towards the end, and had to trot back to the place we'd arranged for our break, but otherwise they found all the clues beautifully.

Re-energised with a biscuit and a drink, the Beavers had a great game in the woods before heading home. A few suffered war-wounds, thanks to the chestnut-cases buried among the dead leaves - tweezers were the only items missing from my first-aid kit, and would have been really handy to pull out the tiny spikes! Hopefully we found them all.

Then a short walk back to the cars, livened up with a peek at the steam-tractor at the Wysipig farm, and a quick splash in the stream, and the first Beavers Hike of 2009 was officially over.

Nettle Soup

This evening the project was nettle soup making. Surprisingly few Beavers got stung collecting the nettles thanks to a large supply of Marigolds and of course a pile of dock leaves to hand. All the Beavers joined in enthusiastically and when it was time to go in we had more than enough nettles to go around. After chopping some potato and onion, the nettles were boiled up and mixed with the other ingredients before being handed out to the boys and girls. We were suprised at how many actually tasted the results of their labours. Nice to see some extra vitamins being absorbed the Beaver colony! See you all next week.

Easter Eggs

It was great to get outside this evening at Beavers, in our first meeting since the clocks have gone back and Spring has officially sprung! Our improvised game, comprising a cross between football (because you had to score goals, and it was played on the footie pitch!) and netball (because you couldn't run with the ball, and had to throw it to other team members to move it closer to the goal) was great fun. Somehow, despite the no-tackling rules, we still managed a few collisions - hence the 'Easter Eggs'. I think the Beavers will sleep well tonight!

Our more peaceful activity this evening was making Easter cards - or Spring cards for those Beavers who had had their fill of Easter activities or did not celebrate Christian festivals. The Beavers were very creative, with some excellent pop-up cards, woolly lambs and feathery chicks.

It was also my pleasure this evening to distribute a number of badges that had been earned by the Beavers during the last term. These included their Fitness Challenge badge, and their Healthy Eating badge. Well done all! The Beavers who joined half-way through the term, and only completed some of these activities, missed out on the badges this time - but there will be plenty of opportunity to earn more badges next term.

Have a great Easter holiday all. We'll be back again on Monday 20th April.

Sandwich Fun

This evening was a celebration of healthy eating and Beaver creativity! As part of our work towards the Healthy Eating badge, the Beavers discussed what sort of things they like to eat in their sandwiches, and which fillings were healthy and unhealthy. They then each buttered their own bread, and chose a selection of fillings.

The sandwiches varied from simple (ham) to massive (ham, chicken, cheese, cucumber, tomato and lettuce!). Some were eaten on the spot, while others were saved to take home and displayed with pride.

Unfortunately I missed last week's session during which we were visited by some local cheesemakers. The feedback from the Beavers was that they really enjoyed the tasting! Surprisingly, the blue cheese received a thumbs-up from many Beavers. As it was Barkham Blue, the award-winning blue from the Two Hoots dairy, I was most envious of the Beavers for their free taster.

Next week we'll be making animal dens - so please remember to bring newspaper, cardboard boxes, twigs, straw and any other things that could be used to make dens or nests! Thanks.

Lost a jacket?

At the last Beavers meeting on Monday 26th January a jacket was left behind - if it's yours, call Tiffany or Simon on 0118 9885050 :)