3rd Gidea Park Scout Group Main PAGE

WELCOME TO THE 3rd GIDEA PARK SCOUT GROUP WEB SITE

	Try our scary Ghost Story Generator		Play the on-line Run Outs Simulator		How well do you know your knots?		Where do all the badges go?
				Check our web site policy.

WHAT'S HAPPENING AT 3GP

Some time during Saturday July 25th - Wednesday August 5th
Scout Summer Camp.

NEWS

HATS OFF

Friday June 19th

For Friday's Beaver meeting we all had to wear hats. It was good to see the Beavers getting together and learning about the French name for variouse colours.

OH FUDGE!

This week, the Scouts attempted to make Armpit Fudge together with varying degrees of success. This is where the ingredients are put in a sandwich bag and kneading in the armpit to gently warm the ingredients. Some of the Scouts seemed to be surprisingly adept at sticking a hand in an armpit and vigorously needing it, so much so that the bag split resulting in runny fudge mix getting smeared down their torso!

We also checked up on gardening progress.

GARDENING

Well you know an activity is doing well when you get sent mid week updates. The gardening seems to have captured the imagination a bit with Scouts planting in pots, trugs and flower beds. This should give us plenty to talk about in our Zoom meetings over the next few weeks.

But its not just the Scouts that have been gardening. One of our Beavers has been helping in a community garden for his World Challenge Badge.

FACY DRESS

June 12th

This Friday's Beaver Zoom meeting was a fancy dress meeting the Beavers dressing up in their favourite costumes.

FARMERS BADGE

JUNE 11th

At the end of last week's Scout meeting the Leaders asked the Scouts for meeting ideas. Once chipped in with "Lets do something outside in our gardens. Lets do some gardening."

As with all good Scout ideas, the leaders initially dismissed it as the ravings of a mad man.

But then we discovered the Farmers Badge and found out that a good number of the leaders and a few Scouts are avid gardeners. A straw pole of the Scouts that had clung on to the bitter end of the Zoom meeting showed that they were either quietly supportive or silently indifferent to the idea which is a ringing endorsement as far as the 3GP Scouts are concerned.

A quick email to parents showed that twenty or so Scouts were up for a vegetable growing contest. While one leader set about making up 20 identical packs of assorted seeds, another separated out twenty seedlings in small pots. The scouts or their parents picked them up from outside the Scout Hall Thursday afternoon and we were set for our first green fingered zoom meeting.

SOLAR OVENS

May 28th

this week the Scouts decided to take advantage of the good weather forecast for the weekend and attempt to make and use Solar Ovens.

The simple Scout Backwoods meal of baked banana and chocolate was a good place to start but the more adventurous managed to bake cookies in a shoe box all by the power of the sun!

Below is a video of the highlights from our online meetings in the month of May. We used to say there was no such thing as a "normal" Scout meeting. Hopefully this shows that there is now no such thing as a "new normal" Scout meeting.

MUG CAKES

May 21st

For this weeks meeting, the Scouts all made microwave mug cakes together from the comfort of their own homes. Once cakes were made it was one of our quietest on-line meetings so far as 23 Scouts tucked into piping hot chocolate cakes.

ZOOM ON THE MOOVE

May 14th

Bored with sitting in front of computers, two of the Scout leaders decided to make this weeks meeting more interactive by cycling around the neighbourhood delivering badges to Scouts while we were all taking part in a Zoom meeting.

VE DAY

May 7th

During our last meeting before the VE Day bank holiday the Scouts were learning about what it was like to be a Scout in 3rd Gidea Park during the 2nd World War, where we met and why VE day was so important.

This picture on the right is of our summer camp in Scotland just months before the war. On camp we were joined by French and one Hungarian Scout. That kind of international exchange wouldn't be possible again until after the war.

The leaders read from one of our wartime news letters written in the style of a radio news report. The Scouts were then given a patrol challenge to write a similar Lock down News describing what they had done in the last few weeks of Lock down.

THE COMMUNICATORS BADGE

April 30th

This week the Scouts have been learning about communications for the communicator badge.

ST GEORGES DAY 2020

APRIL 23rd.

St George's day fell on a Thursday this year so the Scouts got the opportunity to renew our promises together on Zoom. The Beavers have also been renewing promises and sharing videos with each other.

4th ONLINE MEETING

THURSDAY APRIL 16th

Another week in lock down and another online meeting. This week we were joined by an Italian Scout who like us is having to meet online. We learnt how to tie Friendship Knots in our Neckerchiefs and finished practicing our lashing skills.

3rd ONLINE MEETING

THURSDAY APRIL 9th

This week Scouts and Leaders were playing musical instruments for the Musicians Staged Activity Badge.

2nd ONLINE MEETING

THURSDAY APRIL 2nd

The Scouts have held their second on-line meeting and once again 22 Scouts attended. Over the weekend the Scouts have been working on Skills for the Skills Challenge Badge and some have been taking part in Jamboree on the Internet.

Jambo
Clean

ONLINE MEETING

THURSDAY MARCH 26th

Since we can't meet face to face the Scouts decided to have an online get together. 2 Scouts plus five leaders attended and we attempted some creative Origami together. This is a new way of working for all of us and it will take a bit of playing to get the most out of the technology but it was great to get everyone together.

Scouts

Coronavirus (COVID-19)

MONDAY MARCH 16th

We received a communication from our UK Chief Commissioner this evening in response to today's statement from the Prime Minister. In short all face to face Beaver, Cub and Scout activities are to stop until further notice. This includes weekly meetings and weekend camps and activities.

It's too soon to say how long this will last and how it will impact camps and activities we have planned for the future but we will update parents as and when the situation changes.

Coronavirus has already had an impact on our Scouting A Month ago it was a topic of discussion amongst the Scouts with tongue in cheek accusations being thrown at anyone who coughed. By last Thursday things had changed and there was barely a comment when we asked them to all to wash their hands thoroughly before entering the Scout Hall.

We are sure the Scouts in particular will look forward to the UK Chief Commissioner delivering on his threat to provide "activities for young people to do at home with their parents if families are faced with self-isolation" Structured Scout Homework! If Parents are looking for something different to Occupy the Scouts, then I am sure we can provide some ideas. Which Scout will be first to email the leaders a picture of them having tied a man-o'war sheepshank

ORIENTEERING COMPETITION

SUNDAY MARCH 8th

Since January we have been focusing on Navigation Skills for the Scouts so they would be fully prepared for the district Orienteering Competition. We entered two teams this year and out of the 14 teams that entered we came 9th and 6th. For the Scouts that took part this counted towards the Orienteering Badge, the Teamwork Challenge and the Adventure Challenge.

Scouts

SNAKES

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 14th

This week the Friday Beavers were visited by snakes.

LAYING DOWN ON THE JOB?

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 13th

A quiet evening, Scouts laying down for a bit? No, this was back to basics with grid references. The Scouts playing human battleships!

Divide the Hall and the troop in two, make each lay five members down (no wriggling!) two covering three squares, three covering two squares. Except we didn't have any squares, only circles but that didn't seem to confuse anyone. Each team had a war table to plan the bombing raids from. It entertained the troop for three rounds!

War Room