Squirrels made the most of some dry weather this week to get outside and play some international themed games in the park, including Greek statues, French skipping, and hopscotch. We finished up with some biscuits and juice before home time.
Author: Lynsey Dobbin-Charker
Squirrels had some very special guests tonight, with the fire brigade from Ballymoney Fire Station coming along to help us with our Local Superhero badge work. Squirrels learned about fire safety, testing smoke alarms, the equipment used by the fire fighters, and even got to try out the fire hose!
Thanks so much to the team from Ballymoney Fire Station for such a memorable session.
Squirrels spent last week making special Mother’s Day mug cake pots and tea cards. This week, we worked on our All Around Us badge, learning about other Scout groups and Squirrel Dreys in the UK. Inspired by the Flat Stanley novel, we made Flat Squirrels to post to some of our Squirrel friends in England, Wales and Scotland, and have asked them send back something about their drey and the area they live in. Squirrels filled the envelopes and added stamps, then we located the dreys on a map and marked their locations.
Squirrels have spent time over the past few weeks working on their Brilliant Builder and Local Superhero badges. We coloured a river the width of the Scout hall and then built bridges and boats to help the billy goats gruff cross over. Then we learned about our local superheroes – people who help us like police, doctors and the fire brigade. We talked about what superhero powers we would like to have, designed superhero capes, and struck some superhero poses to show off our special powers.
We celebrated Squirrel Appreciation Day with some squirrel themed activities. We made paper jumping squirrels, chocolate squirrel nests, and finished up with a fun squirrel themed four corners game.
Squirrels turned scientists for the night, working on their Exciting Experiments badge. We discovered our senses by using our hands to guess the contents of 5 mystery boxes while blindfolded (boxes contained cotton balls, flour, popcorn, jelly and baked beans). Then we did the Skittles experiment, mixed up some cloud slime, and created and played with oobleck!
Squirrels held their last session of 2023 this evening with a Christmas party, where they played lots of different games such as Christmas ring toss, reindeer hands, marshmallow straw fishing and knocking down snowballs with party horns! We hope everyone enjoys the Christmas break and can’t wait to see them all back in 2024.
Squirrels spent time this evening learning how to put up tents in the hall. They played some games in the tents, then had an indoor campfire with songs, smores and hot chocolate, followed by a lesson in how to pack away the tents properly.
Squirrels worked on their All About Adventure badge tonight by taking part in some bouldering wall activities with our Young Leaders. They also worked on their hand eye coordination by making beaded keyrings, and finished up with some delicious armpit fudge!
Squirrels worked on their Let’s Celebrate badge tonight by learning all about Diwali. We read a story together to learn about the meaning of Diwali, tested our dancing abilities by learning a Bollywood dance routine, made Diwali lanterns and chocolate sparklers and lit some real sparklers to finish up.
Squirrels had a mini soccer training session this evening led by Coach Lee from TW Sports. They had great fun playing sneak tag, Toy Story and Superhero themed games, before having a halftime snack and finishing up with Wacky Races. Thanks to Coach Lee and TW Sports for a brilliant night!
Squirrels enjoyed a Halloween party this evening, with face painting, smores, a game of Pass the Squirrel, and turning leaders (and themselves) into mummies!
Squirrels completed more work on their Go Wild badge by taking a trip to a local dairy farm. We got to see the milking machines in action, feed the calves, make our very own Scout scarecrow and finished the evening off with fresh hot chocolate and biscuits in the yard. Huge thanks to the farm for hosting us!
Squirrels have had a busy few weeks working on their initial badges, making sure our new Squirrels were ready for their investiture and making bird feeders to hang in their gardens. Parents were welcomed to our last session to see the investiture and hear about our planned farm visit next week.
We welcomed Squirrels back after the summer break and it was great to see so many returning faces, and plenty of new ones. We had a fun evening learning our Squirrel promise, learning about the badges we will be covering over the coming months, and decorating campfire biscuits.
Squirrels spent time in the hall this evening working on their All About Me and Feel Good badges. We built a den out of chairs, blankets and mats and sat inside to have a special snack pack, before learning how to roll our neckers properly. We then got to spend some time on the hall’s new bouldering wall, which proved a bit tricky but very popular!
Tonight, Squirrels headed to Riverside Park again to work on their Explore Outdoors badge. We played games and then split into teams to take on a treasure hunt where they worked together to find minibeasts hidden in the trees. We ended the evening with some time in the playpark as a reward for working so well together.
Squirrels spent the night at Riverside Park and Rodden Foot Wood to work on their Explore Outdoors and Feel Good badges. They learnt some compass skills and then spent time collecting materials to build a den for our Drey mascot.
Tonight Squirrels worked on their All About Me and Let It Grow badges, decorating flowerpots and then planting sunflower seeds to take home and look after. We will spend the next few weeks completing a plant diary, to track how tall our sunflowers grow. We also measured ourselves against a huge sunflower height chart and were given special giant sunflower seeds to plant at home. Squirrels have been challenged to grow a sunflower as big as the height chart!
Tonight, Squirrels worked on their All Together badge, learning about teamwork and communication. We tested our concentration skills while listening to a story, then paired up to try a blindfolded obstacle course, with Squirrels taking turns to guide each other around the course.
Squirrels spent this week making Wonder Y Sticks out of the materials they collected in Riverside Park last week. We used wool to create a net in the Y sticks, and then went outside to see what flowers and leaves we could pick and add to our sticks.
We also held the investiture ceremony for one of our Squirrels, with all the other children reciting their Squirrel promise along with the newly invested Squirrel.
In late March, Ballymoney Scout Group held the investiture ceremony for our youngest (and newest) section, Squirrels. All our Squirrels did a wonderful job of reciting their Squirrel promise, and received their neckers, woggles, and the badges which they have worked hard to complete since the Squirrel Drey started in February. Well done Squirrels, and welcome to the Scouting family!
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Squirrels ‘Feel Good’ badge work
Tonight our Squirrel Drey members were working on their Feel Good badge by learning all about feelings. We played a Guess the Feelings game to show how we feel in different situations, and then pulled our best happy/sad/angry faces! We also made bunting to go around our noticeboard and played parachute games to finish our night.
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Squirrels celebrate World Book Day
Our Squirrels all made a fantastic effort tonight to dress up for World Book Day, including our leaders! We learned the words and actions to a nursery rhyme, told each other all about our costumes, and made monster bookmarks with googly eyes. The Squirrels also practised their Squirrel Scout promise in preparation for their investiture.
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Squirrels food passports
Squirrels went on a food tasting adventure tonight, trying different treats from all around the world as part of their Super Chef Activity badge. They tried interesting foods such as biltong from South Africa, jelly pudding from Malaysia, turrón from Spain, and seaweed crisps from South Korea. French croissants were a firm favourite, but the Greek olives caused a few funny faces! Squirrels filled out their very own food passports, showing which foods they liked and disliked. We also made a start on our Tree of Life, with all the Squirrels and Leaders making painted handprints on a tree trunk canvas as part of our All Together Challenge badge.
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Welcome to our new Squirrels!
Ballymoney Scout Group opened its first Squirrel Drey in early February, and our Squirrels have been busy settling in and are already getting started on some badge work. We’ve had lots of fun over the past few weeks making mini campfires, creating amazing artwork, taking part in a crazy Fruit Salad game and a pasta relay race, and decorating fruit kebabs. Well done to all our new Squirrels!
