Banstead Beaver Scouts’ Story Craft Challenge
On a rainy November afternoon, 35 Beavers escaped the hurly burly of Saturday football (and shopping!) to exercise their creative muscles.
Lots of the Beavers are keen readers and many of them could name books that they love to read or to have read to them. The book we chose for our Story craft competition was “Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book”. Some of the Beavers already knew the book, but all of them listened carefully to tales of a comfy armchair, a pirate, three bears, a dragon, a crocodile, a knight, some birds, a frog and some aliens. In small teams, the Beavers then decided on a character from the book that they would re-create from recyclables, glue, pipe cleaners and lots and lots of paint (note to leaders: even more paint needed next time!).
We had 9 teams in total, representing 3rd Banstead, 7th Banstead, 1st Tattenhams, 1st Woodmansterne and 1st Walton-on-the-Hill.
The Beavers worked really hard all afternoon and there were some fantastically creative ideas. The models they produced included the crocodile, the knight, the pirate ship, a tree full of birds, the dragon, a treasure chest, a castle and even a library full of books.
The tricky task of choosing the winners was bravely undertaken by Vernon Tucker, our District Treasurer. As we’d expect from a retired numbers man, he approached the task methodically and carefully! All the teams were questioned about what they’d made; who had done what and who had helped keep their tables (fairly) clean and tidy. After totting up all the scores and re-reading his notes, it was the crocodile produced by Woodmansterne that was declared as the winning model. Second place went to 7th’s pirate ship and third place went to Tattenhams’ dragon and knight.
All the Beavers had a lovely afternoon and we’re planning to make this an annual event. Congratulation to all the leaders and helpers who washed an endless supply of paintbrushes and mopped up a surprisingly small number of spillages. We’re already looking forward to next year!