Out-of-this-world half term fun
The last Saturday of a very wet February half-term saw Caythorpe Beavers and Cubs meet up at the Village Hall for an activity day that built off the recent announcement by NASA of a revised timeline for sending astronauts further from the earth than any human has yet achieved.
With that world news, we started our Space Activity Day by each taking a part of the Solar System, finding out more, representing our celestial object as a model and then presenting to everyone else.
Now that we knew about the Solar System, it was time to deal with our own systems and so we moved to the back room and made lunch from the bread, spreads, sandwich fillings and other foodstuffs carefully laid out by Tic Tac. After we'd each washed up our own crockery, had the obligatory safety wee and dressed in suitable coats and shoes, we walked down to Caythorpe Playing Fields. Tim gave us all a chance to launch rockets using water, air pressure and some pop bottles, with some scientific discussion about the impact of changing bottles, water levels and other parameters. The weather was much nicer than expected, so we also took the chance to enjoy the playground in sunshine.
We then walked back to the Village Hall for a quick drink and a snack before splitting into three activity teams to go round various bases. The two younger groups were supported by a designated Young Leader, whilst the eldest group was managed by the two Sixers.
The Activity bases started with astronaut training with a memory movement challenge, a toothbrushing challenge and the difficulties of construction in space. We then looked at the International Space Station, how the movements of the earth, moon and sun cause eclipses and the future of space travel. Our final activity looked at flying bags using a hairdryer to talk about the mechanisms of flight, before we demonstrated these with some parachute games.
After a very tasty evening meal we settled into our pyjamas and chose to either watch a film or play some board games before being picked up by parents at 8pm.
Thank you to all of our volunteer leaders and Young Leaders for making this day so brilliant for our Beavers and Cubs!
