Creepy Crawlies

A portion of this week's session took place outside, in the dark. The children arrived well wrapped up, armed with torches and jam jars, ready for their much-anticipated Bug Hunt!

Many thanks to our extra parent helpers, who accompanied small groups in their quest for bugs, searching the undergrowth and woodland behind the village hall for anything wriggling, crawling or walking on many legs. It was freezing cold, so while the Beavers were hunting for wildlife Becca and Tasha, our teenage helpers, set to work making hot chocolate for their return.

Having divested themselves of their (very!) muddy shoes and boots at the door, the children had great fun investigating the contents of their jam jars. We found lots of ants and woodlice, surprisingly few worms and spiders, a couple of earwigs and even some millipedes and centipedes! Once the hot chocolate was drunk and the insects thoroughly examined, you'll be relieved to hear that the insects were released back into the wild. And the Beavers were released back to their parents...

A new leaf

Last week, after their sterling behaviour on Remembrance Sunday, our Beavers had a rather disastrous session. As a consequence, we postponed today's planned bug hunt to next week, to give us the chance to work on better behaviour.

Part of our 'new leaf' involved a '1st Swallowfield Pledge', in which each child made a commitment to good behaviour during our sessions. We established some ground rules through which the Beavers learned that good behaviour would result in gold or silver stars, while bad behaviour resulted in yellow, and ultimately red, cards - with the sanction of missing the next session following a red card.

I was relieved that the Beavers seemed to respond well to this tighter structure, and we were able to agree to letting the bug hunt go ahead next week. Hopefully this will be a long-term positive change.

Beavers on Parade

Yesterday's Remembrance Sunday parade and services were extremely moving, and I was so proud of 1st Swallowfield Beavers. They stood quietly and solemnly during the service at the War Memorial as we listened to the Last Post beautifully played by a young lady.

The march to Swallowfield Church was quiet and well-behaved, and the Beavers were patient listening to the service all over again. They had a good go at joining in with the new hymns, and sang along word-perfect to God Save the Queen.

Well done, Beavers.

Welcome to our new Beavers!

This evening we welcomed Edward, George, Alex, Joseph and Ben to Beavers for the first time. They were all very well behaved and a delight - their fireworks were beautiful, and I hope their parents are all duly proud! I was particularly impressed because we had our last run through of God Save the Queen, in preparation for the Remembrance Sunday parade next weekend. Although none of our new boys had practiced with us before, they all had a really good go at joining in. Well done, boys!

I look forward to seeing a good turnout at the War Memorial on Sunday. The church will certainly know we're there, if our Beavers sing as beautifully as they did today.