How to Earn Cub Scout Achievements by Celebrating Earth Day with Your Wolf Scout

Getting involved in Cub Scouts is a wonderful way for children to learn responsibility, respect for others, get exercise, have fun and go on an the occasional adventure. Before becoming a Boy Scout, young boys have to first complete many achievements as Cubs. The International Celebration of Earth Day on April 22nd and month of April is a great way for your Wolf Cub Scout to get together as a Den, Pack or even just with family to earn certain achievements.

Wolf Cubs have a few achievements that they can do in April to help celebrate Earth Day.

Achievement number 7 is “Your Living World”. This is a great way to review all the things your Wolf Scout learned as a Tiger Cub when they did their “Let’s Go Outside” achievement last year.

Requirement 7a, “Complete the Character Connection for Respect“. This step is all about respecting your environment and discussing how your Scout feels about litter and others who disrespect their neighborhood and environment.

Requirement 7b, “Land, air and water can get dirty. Discuss with your family ways this can happen”. A fun way to do this could be to have your Scout make a chart and write a few things that pollute or to have him make a Pie Chart and draw pictures of ways that the land, air and water gets dirty. Ask him where he wants to hang up the chart.

Requirement 7c is learning all about recycling. If you don’t already have a recycling system set up in your home, now is the perfect time to set one up and take a trip to your local recycling center. Go though your cupboards and look at the bottom of bottles and jars to see the recycling code on the bottom, then search the internet to see what those codes mean. While you are setting up your recycling system or sorting out your recycling, you can talk to your Scout about how landfills can cause land and water pollution.

Requirement 7d is a great way to help teach your Scout about respecting the environment. Grab a pair of gloves and a trash bag or two, walk around your neighborhood or Local Park with your Wolf Scout, and pick up trash.

Requirement 7e is “With an adult, find three stories that tell how people are protecting our world. Read and discuss them together“. There are many stories about just this that are published every year in newspapers, magazines and on the internet. The month of April is full of inspiration for this requirement. A few ideas include looking into what different corporations are doing this year to change their company to be more eco-friendly, local organizations that are gathering for park clean-up days, or looking into the Cub Scout and Boy Scout organization to see what other Scouts have done to help the planet.

Requirement 7f, “Besides recycling, there are other ways to save energy. List three ways you can save energy, and do them”. Discuss this with your Scout and then walk around your home and ask him if he can think of anything you could do as a family to help save energy. You can give hints too, like in the laundry room about hanging clothes outside to dry, adjusting the thermostat in the winter or summer to save energy with your heating and cooling, remind him not to linger in the fridge and keep the door closed. As you walk around your home, you will come up with even more great ideas.

Achievement 5 “Tools for Fixing and Building” is another great way to celebrate Earth Day. After you have gone over the Requirements 5a through 5d, your Scout will be ready to build a bird house with you.

Achievement 6 “Start a Collection” is a fun way to get out and discuss the environment while completing another achievement. Your Wolf Scout can collect rocks, leaves or shells. A collection of flower petals to press and dry in a small handmade scrapbook would also make a beautiful surprise gift for Mother’s Day coming up in May.

Your Wolf Scout can complete electives following the Arrow Point Trail. There are some great electives in the Wolf Scout Handbook to help him earn Gold and Silver Arrow Points. A few of them can be used in combination with Achievement 7 to earn the Cub Scout World Conservation Award (they are 13, 15 and 19).

Elective13: Birds. To complete this elective, you and your Scout will need to do 6 different activities that include feeding the birds, setting out nest material, reading about and learning to identify birds and at the very end, setting out a birdhouse. Achievement 5 is a great way to combine these two activities.

Elective 15: Grow Something. This is a great activity to start out the month of April with. Planting seeds and planning a vegetable and flower garden for both indoors and outdoors is a wonderful way to teach your Scout about how important a clean environment is. The final step in this elective, which is to visit a botanical garden or other agricultural exhibit, would make a fun Den Activity!

Elective19: Fishing. Spend the weekend with your Wolf Scout learning how to identify different fish, along with learning all about the fishing pole, local fishing laws and rules for safe fishing. Now this sounds like a fun elective!

Elective 23: Let’s Go Camping. If you live in an area that is warm enough for some Springtime camping, you could plan this as a Den activity. This would be tons of fun and a great way to complete some Achievements or Electives such as Starting a Collection, Fishing, Cleaning up Litter, Bird Watching, or learning how to use tools to set up camp.

I hope you have fun spending time outside with your Cub Scout talking about the environment and cleaning up your neighborhood or Local Park. Have a great Earth Day!